What is education?

Really, what qualifies as education? Ask three different people and get three different answers. I'm thinking of this topic this week because this is one of our crazy weeks. We have three days filled with co-ops and clubs. There was a time when I was in full workbook mode that these type of weeks would drive me crazy. I mean, let's face it, workbooks are designed into nice 36 week, day 1, day 2 formats. Throw in a club day or a co-op day (or worse yet, more than one in a week), and now that nice little organizational scheme is out the window. I mean who can be doing day 1 on a Wednesday? Aren't day 1s for Monday? Fortunately I've chilled out a bit since then. What was once viewed as an intrusion is now looked upon as a wonderful opportunity of learning. Really, a lot of the events that intrude upon our perfect homeschool week, if looked at hard enough, can be seen in an educational light. So, don't get discouraged when the week you planned turns into the week you didn't plan. A lot of learning is still taking place. Try to think on the fly, too. If an unplanned event pops up, take a quick look at how you can throw some learning into it. If nothing else, add a few laps around the parking lot and consider it a good gym class.

One homeschooling mom I know employs the three week on, one week off schedule. This way she plans all of her activities or appointments for that one week off and can use the other three weeks to focus on book learning. We tried this one year and it really worked well for us; and it saved me from a lot of frustration.

Another thing I have to remember is not to get involved in too many things so that there is no opportunity for scheduled learning and downtime. I find that there are so many good, fun, wholesome, holy, inviting things to be involved in that we could literally be running every day of the week. It is hard to say no to a lot of these, but I found that our family operates much smoother when we aren't out there burning rubber day after day. Well, I've digressed enough for one day. Hope your day is going well.
God Bless!