Holiday Reflections: Family Time

Holiday Reflections: Family Time

by | Dec 19, 2011 | Inspiration Mondays | 5 comments

My second in a series on how we can  use the holidays to step back, refocus and remind ourselves of the reasons we chose to homeschool in the first place.  This week’s topic: family time. Over the past four months, I have been interviewing home learning families every week, and the one theme that keeps re-occuring over everything else is that of family time.  Regardless of their other reasons, which are many and varied, every family seems to want more of the one thing that is finite: time.  Specifically, time together. In today’s hurried, fast-paced society, many of us have agreed that something is out of balance.  And we feel the need to strike a new balance.  A balance between friends, activities, work and family.  Feeling the lack of time allocated to the former, we have chosen to homeschool.  Making a conscious decision to spend more time together.  Making the value choice that this is important to us.  Over various other element that compete with our time. In the fall, we start out with guns blazing.  Running out of the starting gate with plans, ideas, and activities.  Even if we don’t officially recognize the school year, many of us begin formal learning in September.  And, perhaps it’s the change of season, or perhaps its the years of schooling life that many of us come from, but September seems to harken something new.  A fresh start, and an exciting one, at that. By the time winter arrives, we are deep in the trenches, busy, active and bustling.  Enter, the holiday season.  Again, although our children may not attend public school,...
Nature Connections: Inside & Out

Nature Connections: Inside & Out

by | Nov 28, 2011 | Inspiration Mondays | 8 comments

Nature is one of my favourite topics and, enjoying it is one of our favourite activities.  I’ve always appreciated the beauty of the natural world, but it wasn’t until I became a mother that I really started to appreciate my role in the natural world.  I started realizing how disconnected I had become (had always been?) with the ecosystem, with my role in it, and with the real world, growing all around me.  It wasn’t until I read Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods, that it all started to really hit home.  And, as I joke with my husband, I went back to my hippie roots (he claims that I have no hippie roots).  From there, it has been one continual journey towards reconnection, appreciation and stewardship. As my family works on reducing our ecological footprint, I am working on increasing nature’s footprint on my children’s hearts.  Showing them, and sharing with them, the glory and splendour that is our earth.  And the funny thing (or perhaps not so surprising), is that both my children and nature have ended up teaching me so much more than I am teaching them.  The more time I spend outdoors, the more I love it, and the more I want to learn about the living world around me.  The more I see the world through my children’s eyes, experiencing everything for the first time, the more in awe I am, in turn. There are days, like today, when it all bubbles up, and threatens to spill over.  On those days, my greatest hope is that I can live in communion with the...