Educational Planning and a Caution about Boxes

People often try to put homeschooling in a box. It doesn't work. Homeschooling is a lot like parenting, each family has a different take. Even the same actions can look different from family to family. I imagine anyone that sat in our schooling for the day expecting to fully understand what homeschooling is about would be sorely disappointed. We don't fit into boxes very well.

However, a recent (and continuing) conversation with other homeschooling parents has shown me how precariously close I have come to placing my son's education into my own version of a box. We have followed a Latin-Centered Curriculum for the last two years. It has made classical doable for this non-classically educated teacher. Recently I've found myself thinking more about high school, college admissions standards, and how in the world I am going to put this unique child into a mold for the "perfect" student resume. Wait! Stop the presses!! Our intent with homeschooling has never been to mold my child to anything! It has been about developing his education, his person to fulfill his own potential, not have him fit into a mold.

I love what The Latin-Centered Curriculum has allowed me to do. I love the multum non multa approach and it is my hope (perhaps my requirement) that Latin be at the center of our curriculum for the few remaining years of homeschooling. I absolutely see the benefits in keeping Latin at our core, with writing and math not far behind. But as for the rest, there has been a haze around each subject because I am not a fortune teller. I do not know who my son will be as he grows. His interests and passions are circling, but there is not a clear picture yet and that is okay.

I feel blessed because I don't know many soon to be teens (I think teenager is Latin for hungry) that have the opportunity in a traditional school setting to study Latin, Japanese, and Asian History all in the same year. The last two were his request, the first my requirement. I don't know how his education will all turn out. In the end it might look a little bit like this year, some of his requests, some of my requirements.

Someone very wise compared our unique children to a cloud during the course of conversation. "These cloud children are like clouds - hard to pin down, hard to define, growing all over at the same time, or shrinking, but never staying the same." I let out a resounding yes and a sigh of relief when I read that. They are fluid, beautiful, sometimes clear, sometimes grey (as the storm clouds literally roll by outside at the present time), and always changing. That is the beauty I see in my child, that is the goodness in him that would never work well in a box.

As a planner by nature I have notebooks filled with ideas of what his future years of schooling might look like. In the past I created a binder and filled with ideas by grade levels. *snort* That is so not going to work anymore, that is where I have a tendency to want to create the box...we must X during grade Y, because that's what "they" said. So I have created a new way to organize my "educational planning" binder. I was thrilled because it also gave me a use for the A-Z set of dividers that have been sitting around unused for two years. They were a freebie and who passes up free school/office supplies? Not me.

This new system of organization will allow me to keep an eye on requirements for high school and college AND provide the fluidity to allow my child to be the cloud. We've pushed back our school start date (for several reasons) and this will give me time to stare at the sky, contemplate the clouds, and enjoy the changes as they take place.

Here's my new table of contents for my binder. The few blank spots are for those areas I may have forgotten:

A. Encouragement
B. On Education (general)
C. On Education (classical)
D. Open
E. Latin
F. Writing/Rhetoric
G. Logic/Philosophy
H. Grammar/Mechanics
I. Great Books
J. Literature (non Great Books)
K. History (non Great Books)
L. Mathematics
M. Science
N. Computer
O. Japanese language
P. Religion
Q. Fine Arts
S. Community opportunities
T. Misc electives
U. Study skills
V. Volunteer
W. Grade level notes
X. College Prep (testing etc)
Y. Transcripts/Graduation
Z. College