As I write this, vcialis 40mg everyone is posting about starting school. Blog posts abound during the month of August about the first day of school—planning for it, sales making it memorable, and just doing it. But I’m not there.
Generally, we don’t plan to “start school” until after Labor Day. I’ve never been able to see the sense in having a week of school lessons and then taking a day off for a holiday. Our family has two birthdays that usually fall around Labor Day weekend and we don’t “do school” on birthdays, either. Add to that, our public schools do not start until after Labor Day, so what’s the hurry?
However, as a homesteader, as one who gardens, preserves, tends animals, butchers, etc.; our schooling always requires a different schedule than most. After all, when an animal is ready to give birth, biology takes place in the barn yard.
The beauty of homeschooling is that we can tailor it to fit the needs of our own family.
And as homesteaders we must take advantage of that option. It is the family that tries to adhere to the August through June, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. schedule—and get all the farm chores done at the same time—that crashes and burns.
So why am I not in the melee of back-to-schoolers right now? I’m canning tomatoes. I’m freezing corn. I’m canning soup. I’m planting my winter greens. I’m canning stock. I’m planning a chicken butchering day. I’m swimming upstream of the school-by-society’s-calendar crowd because putting up food for the winter is our first priority.
But does this diversion from the norm mean that my kids are not learning? Absolutely not! We use lessons from the homestead on a regular basis. Planting corn becomes a math lesson. Butchering becomes an anatomy lesson. The honeybee on the sunflower brings about a story or poem idea. Our schooling comes more from living our life on the homestead than from a textbook. And this lifestyle assists the boys in having something to link their lessons to. It provides a connection that quells the oft-heard question, “When am I ever going to use this in real life?” because they are using it. They are living it. And they are linking the two together on a daily basis.
The priority for our family is not a classical education complete with Latin, debate, and logic; it is not spending our week shuffling from music lessons to sports practices; it is not even to complete our Saxon math books in 180 days. Our first priority is to raise up Godly followers of Christ and then to show them that learning comes from living, and to integrate our homeschooling with our homesteading brings about a completeness that no textbook can ever provide.
Blessings on your journey,
Good post! I’d hoped to be doing a lot of canning now too…but there’s a long ugly story with the garden this year. So glad yours is producing well. Can’t wait to have some down time to read more about your homesteading!
Thanks, Joesette. Believe me, there are years my garden suffers ill fate. Last year I didn’t can a single tomato!
Living on a homestead I think that we have an unique way of teaching our children about Christ and life. Many of the parables of Jesus are about rural life.
Great post! We too do not start with most others. I try to follow a three months on one month off schedule which doesn’t follow the traditional back to school time. However, sometimes we don’t even follow that. It all depends on how everyone is doing. Sometimes you just need a break to deal with other things that come up. I love being able to be flexible. God comes first so if we need to take time to slow down and refocus, we do so with no guilt.