A New Name For Notebooking

We've been "notebooking" almost as long as we've been homeschooling, yet it was only a couple of years ago that I realized it had a name. But I've got to be honest with you: I really don't like the name. While "notebooking" is technically a good description for what we do, it's only a good description if you already know what you are doing. You can't just walk up to someone and say "Yes, we use notebooking in our home education" without expecting a few questions. Which is why I've been trying to find something better. I haven't come up with anything stellar, but I think that the term "journaling" might be pretty good. After all, education happens during the daily adventures of life (some that happen naturally and some that are created by the "teacher") and a journal is a great place to write about adventures!

If something exciting happens, you naturally want to share it with someone else. And learning is a very exciting thing. Writing a short summary of things that have been read, stories that have been listened to, or field trips and activities that have been experienced is a great way to "review" learning and make sure those memories don't get lost. It's also makes it easier to share those memories with others. Maps and illustrations can also be drawn or copied and pasted into your journal. "Lapbooking" can be time and money intensive, but an occasional mini-book is a great addition to an educational journal and adds an interactive element to it. Photographs and small keepsakes from projects and field trips are also nice additions to a journal. Hands-on activities are a great way to make learning personal to your child and like other important events, they should be well documented. Just like any other journal, the contents of an educational journal will vary according to the personality of the writer- your creativity is the only limit.

So, there you have it: Educational Journaling. You heard it here first! ;o)

A Mother's Education

Even though homeschooling has become somewhat "normal" these days, it still receives more than a normal share of attention. Questions about legality and socialization have been replaced with questions about ability. "How will you teach them when they get to highschool?" "You must be really smart. I don't think I'm smart enough to teach my children." "You must have a lot of patience." I hear these comments often and they make me smile. In the eyes of the world, I may look like SUPER WOMAN, but I'm really quite ordinary.

It doesn't take a high IQ or a college degree to home educate. In fact, my own mother never went any farther than high school. She didn't know how to do chemistry and algebra was never her strong point. But if she wanted to learn something, she knew how to look it up. My mother was a researcher; and in the days before Google, she was the one to go to when you needed an answer. That is the true secret of home education: parents who love learning passing that love on to their children.

When people look at home education, they mostly focus on the children. Of course, the children are important and I believe that children do benefit from home education. But I think the education the mothers receive is just as beneficial. I'm not simply taking about academics, although there is that aspect. It amazes me how much I learn along with my children; and because I am learning too, it doesn't matter whether I "know it all." I am simply a facilitator, not a teacher. But I am learning other lessons as well.

I am learning to be patient. No, I wouldn't consider myself a patient person, but I hope I'm improving. Trust me, listening while a child sounds out the words of Green Eggs and Ham requires a LOT of patience. (Come on! I could say it from memory!) Explaining how to carry in addition for the seventeenth time (and knowing there are four others who still need to learn this concept) takes a lot of patience. And forcing yourself to ignore how long it took your five year old to fold the towels into that crooked heap (it would be so much easier to do it myself!) takes a lot of patience and continual self reminders these are important life skills he needs to learn. Throw in a three year old who suddenly developed a stutter and "Oh, Lord, did I REALLY ask you to help me learn patience!????" Yes, I am learning to be patient.

I am learning humility. People haven't just started telling me I'm smart since I started homeschooling my children. I was a very precocious child, so I've been hearing it most of my life. But trying to teach children, especially when they are your own children, has a way of taking you down a notch or twelve. I love writing, It should be easy for me to teach writing.  I had a second grade teacher (pre-homeschooling) who taught me to love writing and she made it seem so easy. But my children hate to write and I can't seem to change their minds. The one subject that should be the easiest for me is my greatest failure. I also learn humility when that fun project I planned becomes the worst idea Mama's ever had. I'm also humbled by the total lack of control I have over the lives of my children, by the reflection of my sins in their own lives, and by the realization of just how much my sins hurt them. I know I would probably see this even if I didn't homeschool, but being their primary role model certainly makes it harder to place the blame somewhere else.

I am learning to pray. I pray for patience. "Oh, Lord, did I REALLY ask you to help me learn patience!????" I pray for forgiveness. I pray for wisdom in how to train and shape these lives into lives that would glorify Him. I pray for the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of myself and my children, without whom we can do nothing. Oh, did I mention patience? Home education is a process that continually drives me to my knees, and what better thing to do on you knees than pray?

So, can you teach your children? Are you smart enough? Probably not. Are you patient enough? I doubt it. But if you love your children and have a desire to learn, those really are two very good reasons why you should. You never know what you will learn.

It's Not About The Test Scores

Our time has come, the pressure is on. We look back and remember how many times our mothers told us that we needed to do a little bit better, try a little bit harder and behave ourselves in public because we were home schoolers and we had to prove ourselves to the world. And we have! Home schooled children have consistently done better on achievement tests and have excelled in all areas, including the infamous area of "socialization". But now it's our turn to be the teachers, and here we are still trying to prove ourselves. If our parents could do such a great job when they had absolutely no idea what they were doing then we, as veteran homeschoolers, should be able to do so much better!

And so we do all those things we think our parents should have done. We avoid all those mistakes we think they made and we make our own mistakes. No one is perfect, after all. But no matter how many mistakes we make we know that there is no one who can teach our children better than we can. So we keep on. We are the second generation and we are here to show that it can be done . . . again.

But with all the pressure and with all our determination to do things right is there something we have forgotten? Are we here for the sole purpose of educating our children or is there something more? We have certainly impressed the world with our academics, with our well behaved and well adjusted children. And though we still hear the "socialization" issue being raised, we who were home schooled in the early years know that it is no longer as great an issue as it once was. We have gained our converts and the number of homeschoolers has increased, but this new crowd doesn't seem to be quite the same. We have dazzled them with our education and they have missed the whole point.

But what is the is the point if it's not education? It's why our parents began home schooling in the first place: because they understood that they were responsible before God for the training and upbringing of their own children. It isn't about excellence in education, except as it relates to Colossians 3:23-24. It isn't education for the sake of education (knowledge which puffs up). This education is a means to an end: to bring the hearts and minds of the children in line with those of the parents. Discipleship! We are not simply teaching our children, we are sharing our lives with them.

And it is no wonder the newcomers don't "get it". It is no wonder the world can't see it, when we for so long have been caught up in trying to impress them and have forgotten it ourselves. We have won the respect of the crowd and have lost the hearts and souls of our children. What a great loss!

Finally, it dawns on us what a great task our parents have taken on and suddenly we feel inadequate. We quaver at the possibility of ruining our children's lives. But as hard as we shake we know that we cannot give this task to someone else. This is our duty and we must prove faithful.