Kortney Garrison

Homeschooling With Ease

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Homeschool: a Beginning (Part 2)

21 September 2010 by Kortney

This is Part 2 of a 3 part series…you can also read Part 1 and Part 3.  Maybe you thought about what schools are supposed to teach and how well they say they’re doing.  Maybe the thought crossed your mind that anyone might do a better job.  Maybe you might do a better job.

Homeschooling: A BeginningA few weeks ago, my friend Susan at Home Hum posted a lovely quote by John Holt that gives us lots to think about just now.  listen:

First of all, parents have to like their children, enjoy their company, their physical presence, their energy, foolishness, and passion. They have to enjoy all their talk and questions, and enjoy equally trying to answer those questions. They have to think of their children as friends, indeed very close friends, have to feel happier when they are near and miss them when they are away.

They have to trust them as people, respect their fragile dignity, treat them with courtesy, take them seriously. They have to feel in their own hearts some of their children’s wonder, curiosity and excitement about the world.

And they have to have enough confidence in themselves, skepticism about experts, and willingness to be different from most people, to take on themselves the responsibility for their children’s learning.

Maybe these few things are falling into place: you enjoy your children, you have time and space carved out.  But how would you ever begin?  Lori from Project Based Homeschooling has thoughtfully entertained what it might mean to begin.  She is an excellent writer and thinker, a woman dedicated to thoughtfully engaging with her sons as they do the work that is important to them.  At the Camp Creep Blog, she often hosts open threads where she offers a compelling quote and then readers are free to ask questions and ponder and muse.  And the best part is that Lori brings all of her creativity and experience (her wisdom, really) to answer questions, to tell how it’s worked in her life.  She’s a treasure.

So that’s a beginning for our hearts and heads, the thinking work.  Tomorrow i’ll post some beginning steps that we have taken for our hands, the doing work.

Filed Under: teaching our own

Comments

  1. Lori says

    22 September 2010 at 1:12 pm

    i was sitting in a parking lot waiting for jack to finish his piano lesson, catching up on reading blogs on my phone, when i came across this post. what a wonderful surprise. thank you so much — it really warmed my heart! 🙂

    i love this series!

  2. kort says

    22 September 2010 at 1:30 pm

    ah, Lori!

    so glad you found it.

    *i* was just rocking a baby back to sleep and reading all of the “art lesson” posts over at CCB. such a treasure.

    Jack on piano? i’d love to hear!

    and have you seen the new OK Go video? we love these dogs almost as much as we love Rocky!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHlJODYBLKs

  3. kort says

    22 September 2010 at 1:31 pm

    yikes!

    i had no idea the whole video would show up in the comment.

  4. Lori says

    23 September 2010 at 9:20 am

    hahaha, isn’t technology grand?! i can’t wait to show jack this video!

    oh, you are so sweet about the ccb art lessons. i am working on something to do with those – i can’t wait to show you!!!

    i should video a bit of jack playing piano and put it on flickr. 🙂

    in the meantime, check out this stop-motion that jack made on youtube! 😀

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsZy97ucYNY

  5. Lori says

    23 September 2010 at 9:21 am

    oh. my. GOSH. now i know what you mean by shocking that the video appear. l o l o l o l

  6. kort says

    28 September 2010 at 2:29 pm

    thanks, Lori and Jack!

    the kids have never heard the Star wars theme. they were transfixed!

    what a sense of humor that boy has.

  7. Lori says

    29 September 2010 at 2:07 pm

    all he is doing lately is making movies. 🙂

    and yes, he is funny ALL the time. 😉

    glad you enjoyed!

    xoxoxo

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