Mom-School is one of the most important elements of successful Fun-Schooling! It’s the example of BEING a passionate “learner” that SHOWS my kids what it means pursue “self motivated education” in a positive way.
I spend a lot more time enjoying my passions, studying my interests, and doing projects than I do trying to compel my kids to do their school work.
I do my own thing, sometimes they jump in, always they observe.
I just model a love for learning, a passion for projects and show them what it looks like to live life to the fullest.
I am fully alive and totally focused on pursuing things that I am excited about. I invite them in to be part of my interest, and they invite me to be part of their learning. Anything I want to encourage them to do more of, I do myself in relation to my own interests.
I have a life, and I have adventures, and I enjoy projects and activities that have nothing to do with my kids, but everything to do with being an example to them. They see that I am a very passionate learner and I am living dreams right in the middle of raising a family. I share my accomplishments and struggles and they share theirs.
I am curious about their learning and pursuits and they are just as interested in mine. Because I am enjoying life as a learner, they do too. I have done so many things in my life that my kids can learn from. I entered an election and became vice president of the town council. I wrote for newspapers and magazines. I made new kinds of foods and put on parties. I read books and listened to audio books.
I also show them what fun it is to be a wife and mom. I teach them that it’s okay to eat chocolate in the morning and fill up journals with poems. I make tea for myself and some for them, and they make tea for me. I plant trees and research strange animals. I travel.
My husband makes music, sails, fixes computers and plays Pac-Man… We do a lot of things that we love, and we have fun. We climb mountains together, and go camping!
The children can join us, copy us, learn from us, or ignore us… and when they are grown we will still have each other and our hobbies and interests! I call the pursuit of my own learning “Mom-School”, and in the middle of homeschooling my children is life, my life, my marriage, my adventures! You can’t see where learning stops and life begins, they always blend!
There are a lot of things I don’t do to make time for what I love, and what I love the most… family. I am not willing to spend all my precious days fussing over math books and spelling words, when we can spend our days in awe of all the magic, wonder, mystery and truth and makes life amazing.
Since I am preparing my kids for the careers and calling that they dream of I have very little work to do to motivate them to work hard and get serious in their fields. It was much harder when I was giving into pressure to teach things they resisted.
I create an environment and give them the tools. I really feel like true education happens when parents and kids collaborate to do real things. But, since I have so many more children than most people, it is a lot easier for me to live out many of my own dreams, than it might be for parents with just a few kids, because the kids create a big amazing team to run this house and to do important projects and go on adventures..
SHOW THEM what it looks like to live a dream. Then, with very little effort on my part they dream their dreams, they build businesses, they live their calling they become producers, artists and they bring their dreams to life!