We Quit School

It's summer in this house. Not because we finished our curriculum. Not because our unit studies are over. Not because it's almost Memorial Day. Simply because...life is short and school is boring :)

Bottom line is this, my kids are young. They have a lifetime of learning left ahead of them, and right now, my daughter's obsession with all things bird or horse far surpasses her interest in math lesson 96, because yeah, we are only at 96 out of 160. Will we finish this summer? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I just don't care. Because maybe while we are at the beach this summer she will suddenly take interest in where sand comes from, and maybe we will spend our summer learning about that, and maybe math can wait until the fall. 

I have learned more as an adult than in all of my years of formal education combined. I am just as proud of one of my best friends who is working on a second masters at Northwestern following UCLA and BU, as I am of a friend who pulled his life together and is now excelling in the brewing industry. Both are equally as happy, and equally as successful in my eyes.

 That being said, it is important to learn to read, write, calculate, etc. But right now, we are six and we will only check out horse books at the library and we want to be a ballerina vet when we grow up, and Mommy thinks those priorities are perfect, because they are God inspired. And I could take a school break or two to watch my babies closely and see what's really important in life.

When my Momo passed away in February we took a school break and we never really returned. Since then life has tossed our family a few curveballs and I never got around to "finishing" much school other than that which was required of us (co-op, piano lessons, etc.), but you know what? My kids have learned more in the past 3 months than they did all year. Instead of shaping them around our curriculum, I really started to LISTEN, and shape our studies around their pesonalities. My daughter is not ready to continue in her current math studies, she's overwhelmed. My son is ready to go go go. They are total opposites. Will they know every bit of American history by the time they graduate fifth grade? Probably not. Heck, I have only recently taken interest in it after years of dreading the school bell. I actually still have nightmares about high school history class, isn't that funny? I'm pretty sure, however, that God will use our day-to-day to shape my kids into the loves of His life that He designed them to be. 

So we have quit school for the year. Yes, come the first week of September we will pick up and try a schedule and all that nonsense, but with the mindset that we are doing life without an agenda. My job is not to teach x,y, and z by the time that they are eighteen, but rather to love Jesus and allow Him to love my kids through me. Not by use of a teacher's manual, but rather by "doing life" day by day, as He leads us.

And just a couple more because I can't help myself:

Happy summer, from our silly family to yours!