Getting Busy

“My philosophy was that if I could keep you busy, you’d stay out of trouble.” -- my mom.


This morning I look around the large dining room table. All five of us are sitting with books in front of us studying and scribbling. (I say “us” because I am usually learning just as much as the kids are.) Most of us are doing Math and I am helping our “adopted son”, Ricky, do his Geometry. Deanna is studying her Psychology book for her dual credit class.

A few moments go by and suddenly Deanna gets a light in her eye. “Hey, guys! Who wants to take a Psych quiz?” We can hear the zing in her voice. The rest of us look up and I hear around the table, “Sure!” (Anything to get a reprieve from math!). She starts with the first True or False question and that sparks a mini-discussion on the inner workings of the human brain. After the quiz and debate, we all go back to our scribbling and math.

Over the years, my approach to home schooling has changed. I remember when we started our first year. My oldest son was beginning 9th grade and the youngest was still digging in the dirt with mom’s spoons from the utensil drawer. That first home school day we gathered around the dining room table and said the Pledge of Allegiance and read our devotions. Then we started on the curriculum that I had purchased from the home school convention that we had attended over the summer. I was determined to do school the “right” way!

Three months later, the curriculum (for History) was pretty much tossed out and we were sprawled on the living room couches and floor reading aloud and playing Legos. Even the 9th grader was reading and doing an art project (instead of the research paper that the curriculum had called for). A few months later the kids could all recite Romans Chapter 8 from memory, but didn’t have a clue when the Revolutionary War had begun. We belonged to a Co-op and were memorizing our lines for the Shakespeare play instead of doing that Spelling book I’d purchased. We were all busy doing stuff and playing it by ear.

Because I started home schooling in the state of Maine, we had to have our children’s progress evaluated by a “certified teacher” every year (this was before we helped to change the law). So, at the end of that year, I was trying to write down everything that we had learned. If it weren’t for my veteran home school buddy, I would have been pulling out my hair. I knew we had all been busy doing things, but did they learn? I was sure I hadn’t taught anything!! We hadn’t finished ANY text book (except my oldest son had finished his Algebra 1 book, but not every page), we hadn’t done “school” they way I knew school, and I was positive that we were going to fail our “evaluation”.

My patient, practical, sweet friend came to my rescue. She pointed out to me that home schooling wasn’t “school at home” and that there were many more ways to learn than textbooks. She helped me put together a list of all of the books we had read together, reminded me about the “field trips” we had taken, showed me how to list all of the “projects” we had done (which I had thought were just playing and having fun), informed me that our watching the News coverage of 9/11 and subsequent discussion and prayer were, in fact, Current Events, and reminded me that my little girls could now read. Imagine that!! We had all learned lots of things that year.

The second year was totally different from the first. We used the same History Unit Study, but approached it a little differently. The older ones had desks that they never used. The hallway had a big white board hanging on one of the walls that we used sometimes. Our Co-op classes were our “core” classes and we did a lot of reading and more projects at home. The kids worked in their math books (mainly because we had met the author during the summer at the Convention), did “copy work” in their journals, memorized more Shakespeare and played in the back yard with their friends. We went on hikes, did some camping, took pictures, and watched some historical films. Basically, we just kept everyone busy.

Since then, I have realized that every year is going to be different. Not only do the children get older, learn more stuff, and have more responsibility; but so do I. The third year we invented some of our own curriculum, did Music Appreciation and attempted a time line (Time Lines never seemed to work for us). We added Latin to the list and decided that it was kinda fun. Each year after that has always changed.

I remember one year we did some of our “classes” on the front porch with a few extra kids thrown in the mix. One year we all had desks set up in the living room (which meant there was no room for couches). Another year, we all had “stations” in the den, but did most of our studying in the kitchen, on the living room floor or on the beds in our rooms. There was one year that I woke up at 7, went into the girl’s room and read aloud to them for 2 hours before we even started the day. Yet, everyone learned; everyone grew; and everyone did well.

Today, we just got rid of almost all of the desks that had been set up in our large front entry-way. The girls and I decided that we liked sitting around the dining room table and just keeping the books on the buffet table. (We easily find alternate uses for most of our furniture and living space.) I hung a medium-sized white board on one of the walls for our Greek and Grammar lessons and plugged in a “boom box” for our World History on CDs. I’m pretty sure that our “school-room” doesn’t look anything like a public school classroom; nor do our methods look anything like public school methods. But, for us, the dining room table, white board and “boom box” do the trick – this year.

“Mom, I need your help.” Mikayla was looking at her Math page. I went around the table and we both looked at the problem together. “Read it aloud to me.” I ordered. She did. Then the light went on in her eyes. “Never mind, mom, I get it.” And she started scribbling in her notebook. “Great! Glad I could help!” whispering as I walk back around the table to complete their lists for today.

A few minutes later, Deanna gets up from the table and stacks her books into a pile. “I’m going to check on the puppies,” she announces and goes out the back door. Leilani stacks her books and heads for the living room couch. “I’m going to read my book!” she informs us as she plops down with her feet up. Mik starts to stack her books, too. “Wait a minute!” I give her one of my I-know-you’re-trying-to-get-away looks. “Did you finish two pages?” She sighs deeply and opens her book again. “I hate Math!” she mutters. My response as I put the list on the center of the table: “Too bad, so sad! Get busy!”

“I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” ~ Albert Einstein

“You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.“ ~Clay P. Bedford

“In doing we learn.”~ George Herbert