This week the ladies over at the iHomeschoolNetwork are asking for bloggers to link-up their posts showing their school rooms. They want us to show them where we school.
Which got me thinking . . . where do we school?
Like most homeschoolers I do have dedicated bookshelves and drawers, cabinets, and closet space devoted to curriculum and resources. In our new home we took over one of the larger bedrooms and converted it into a play/school room:
Who am I kidding?!? A more accurate depiction of what you would find any given day is this:
That couch the girls are sitting on has been affectionately dubbed “the chocolate couch” and is where we do pretty much all of our daytime read alouds and reading lessons. This couch has been an integral member of our Ordinary Parents Guide To Teaching Reading sessions.
The closet of this room is where I’m currently storing the majority of my homeschool supplies and resources. Due to our recent move it’s still rather unorganized and thrown together. Not exactly blog-worthy but it is what it is:
Most written schoolwork- like math, writing, and spelling takes place at our extra-wide kitchen island. (Schooling was a large reason why I chose to remodel the kitchen this particular way.) I can easily fit all three girls on the counter (along with my coffee) and still have plenty of room to walk around and help guide them as needed.
I’d also probably have to count the girls’ Triple Bunk Beds as a regular “learning zone” because it’s where we read our nightly read alouds; and thus, have lots of stimulating conversation.
But in order to truthfully answer the question “where do we school?” I would need to show you so much more than a few rooms in our home. Yes, our home is where the fire is initially ignited, but the world is where our learning explodes.
As homeschooler’s, we take our learning outside of the “classroom” and into the world.
Since I know exactly what my girls have learned, are learning, and what they will learn about in any subject at any given time, I can interject and make connections between those things to the world around us. Education suddenly comes alive; it’s personal, not stuffy and tedious. It IS.
When I see their interest piqued by something new I can find a way to tie it into their education.
Likewise, I can read cues off my kids and know when their interest in waning and instead of following a strict lesson plan we can sally forth into the world on a quest to find the next topic that gets their brains hungry.
Our classroom has no boundaries.
In our homeschool learning and dreaming have become synonymous. We learn so we can grow. . .
. . .and we grow so we can go. Oh! the places we’ll go!
Go wherever and whenever the urge takes us! We’re on our own timetable. We can stop and smell the roses {or weeds} when the fancy strikes us.
So where do we school?
Anywhere a dream captures our imagination.
Why, on some days we dream as many as six impossible things before breakfast!
Check out the other creative posts at the iHN’s massive link up for their Annual Not-Back-to-School Blog Hop!
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