"Anywhere but Home" School

As homeschoolers there are a few subjects required by the state we live in. We've added a few of our own as well, and I'm sure we'll add things as P gets older. The fun is in how we can creatively cover these subjects. Sometimes homeschool is really "Anywhere but home" school.

We try to show P that learning is everywhere, and our latest was combining school and a family trip to Disney World.

Animal Kingdom is Florida's largest biology class, with a splash of geography thrown in for fun. There was the classification of animals, along with the games and music of countries around the world. We learned about the bar-headed goose that's reportedly been seen flying over Mount Everest (and I don't mean the roller coaster).

Epcot is another lesson in geography (with a great deal of fun for mom and dad) but also included science and technology, and even art as we explored colors in the Innoventions section. Figment guided us through using our senses, and the games after the ride double as small experiments to better understand your senses and stretch your imagination. Test Track fostered a discussion on engineering as we designed our own vehicle, advertising and marketing as we helped create a commercial, and was also a great thrill ride!

Hollywood Studios has a great exhibit on animation, showing examples of early animation techniques. Even Magic Kingdom, the most fantastical park, gave us introductions to literature through Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse and Tom Sawyer Island.

Walt Disney saw his park as one that would entertain and educate, and decades later it's doing just that. While we don't expect to be back to Disney for years, we know we'll continue learning anywhere we go.

Our Black Hole Moment

There is always a part of my mind, sometimes large, sometimes small, ever present, that makes me question myself. Often this can be a bad thing, making me second guess myself, but I see it also as a very good thing, making me a little less impulsive than I'm naturally called to be. A few weeks ago my questioning self was in full blown power mode.

Kindergarten registration was upon us. So many of P's friends (or their parents) we're gearing up for school registration. Checking schedules, visiting schools, gathering immunization records, finding mortgage statements, looking for birth certificates that were neatly filed, oh who knows where?!  I was feeling swept away by this storm as it flooded everyone around me. Doing none of these things made me feel like I was clearly missing something. Like P would be missing out.

We considered homeschooling P from the start, but we always evaluated the multitude of education options available to us. We like spreadsheets, and we had spreadsheets to compare schools on all kinds of variables. And then we threw it all the wayside and said we can do this ourselves.

The day of registration arrived, and my self doubt was having a party. Then there was a black hole moment. Kind of a lightbulb moment, but better.

P started telling me about the size of our planet. Then about the size of stars. Then he proceeded to tell me about how stars get bigger and bigger until they explode and make a black hole that sucks everything around into it and we never see those things again. Not being an expert in black hole formation, I confirmed the details with P's dad, and realized that the information he shared was not only correct, but was something he remembered from several days previously without any reminders.

This black hole moment was timed perfectly to kill that self doubt. It was no longer a matter of "Can we do this?" because it became clear "We ARE doing this."

In our afternoon of errands we took a detour and picked up a slip n slide. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing, me connecting with my inner kid and P joyously expressing his.

I think all parents want to give their kids the best. The best schools, the best opportunities, the best life lessons. And that path looks different for every family. Finding your own path is filled with bumps, scary as hell, and easy to get lost. It's tempting to ride the path paved by others before you. But in our adventure we're hacking through, stepping foot on new ground, and I know we're right where we need to be.