It Counts

It has become my general rule of thumb that unless the kids spend a large part of the day watching TV or playing on the Wii, the day "counts" as a school day. Of course there are things we want to get done throughout the year. Of course there are subjects we are required to cover, but often those can still be done without much direction from me. Did the boys spend all afternoon outside building forts, digging in the dirt, and re-enacting historical battles? History and science. Done. Did they spend the morning listening to books on CD and building with Legos? Math, science, language arts. Done. Did a child come to me with a drawing of a Lord of the Rings battle, complete with a caption that says "Lord of the Rings?" Art and spelling - done. So often seeing them live out what they are learning, or what they've already learned is worth far more than checking a subject off a list. If a child knows all about a certain subject, knows how to spell (for instance) at least according to his or her age level, and is actively participating in the learning process...IT COUNTS.

This isn't all that easy, actually, because it means constantly adjusting my expectations and plans. It means I have to take some deep breaths and not use the words "we're behind" about a subject just because the (spelling, science, history) book has been sitting in the corner gathering dust. I confess, in fact, that I spent most of last week feeling  overwhelmed with a sense of failure. It wasn't that the week wasn't productive, but the days flew by, and (yet another) week passed in which I didn't accomplish the "formal" schoolwork I had intended with the kids. I had frequent panic moments - "we're not doing enough writing!" "we need to memorize something!" "It's been ages since we did any Latin!" Ack! Behind, behind, behind.

Then we went camping over the weekend, and the kids spend hours in the woods, collecting leaves, and observing wildlife (even a snake!). Some of them worked hard to tend the fire. They hiked, ran, and played with a friend. They played with each other and talked with the adults who were there. Aimee took great pictures of the scenery, developing her photographer's eye, read, and wrote short stories (the one I read was very good!). And I remembered that this is why I never worry about counting days or hours. They might have to catalog the time like that in schools, but we don't. There is no checking in and out. There is no value system for the learning process - or, rather, if there is, it's probably that the real, organic, unhurried, and unprompted version is better than the scheduled, pencil and paper variety. (Duh, as the kids would say.). More on that later. The point is that IT COUNTS. Almost all of it COUNTS. I think this is what our parents (those of us who were homeschooled) were realizing when they drove us crazy (wink, wink, Mom - I'm just teasing) by turning everything into "school." My homeschool friends and I used to commiserate over the way our mothers would so often say things like, "Oh, this can be our history for the day!" I think instead of just realizing how many things could apply to school, they were realizing that everything counts, and not in an inferior way to "real" thing. They textbooks, let's remind ourselves, our guidebooks - ways of packaging the information that's just out there everywhere. They can be helpful, but they're quite artificial in comparison with real life, the ultimate real deal. 

I don't want to get too philosophical, though. And I don't feel prompted to abandon all my plans and thoughts about our formal school year. But there's time enough to catch up on the spelling books, if necessary. Time enough to read through the science books, only to discover that they know most of what's in there already (and I don't even know how!). In the meantime, I'll (try to) stop feeling that the library trip this morning and the cooperative play outside this afternoon are somehow inferior, and remind myself once again that IT COUNTS! 

PS Of course, I know. Someone is sure to point out that things like Latin and Algebra won't happen by themselves. Are you sure? Well, okay, not in every child, certainly. That someone is right, and of course, we make room for those things. Those things do have to be planned and do require some prompting - that's life. The point, if I need to make it again, is that they aren't any more valuable than the things that seem like failures.