Wondering, Wandering, and Writing

I can hear the grandsons chanting now, “More! More! More!”  Usually they’re asking for frozen yogurt or any chocolate candy.  Rarely pizza, because we let them eat that until they’re full.  Rarely for green beans.  Never for Brussels sprouts or squash.  Silly boys.  They’ll learn someday what foods are good.

Don’t we all want more?  Of something?  Money, vacation days, sleep,books, storage space, time, toys, friends, chocolate, something?

I intend to have more during the 2021-2022 school year.  Maybe sharing this is a way of creating some accountability to stick with the plan.  I’ve wanted more for our grandsons, but there is only so much time in a day and often not enough to energy to accomplish my heart’s desires.  But this school year I have a more structured plan than I have had the past few years.

First, a little background.

We have home educated our grandsons from kindergarten to the present, they are in grades K5 and 4.  (Yes, it’s legal because we have custody.  Laws vary from state to state.) In January, 2020 (yes, that year), after encouragement from a new friend, we joined a Classical Conversations community.  As it turned out, 2020 held very few community activities for anyone, but we’ve stuck with it.  2020-21 was a better school year, but we still didn’t get nearly as much out of the program as we could have.  CC is a base for home school studies, or a supplement, not a replacement, and I simply did not utilize the materials and opportunities as much as I would have liked.  Classical education is a method of learning that involves a lot of memorization in the early years  Do you know a child ages four to ten that doesn’t like learning new songs and facts?  Maybe not the facts and songs we would like, but they are memorizing something all the time.  It’s the way the brain is wired at that age. I am not, I repeat I am NOT a memorizer by choice. I would much rather be able to figure stuff out from a rough outline and piece it together.   Yes, I prefer math and science over literature and history. However, facts are important.  Facts are part of the tool set we use to piece together information. 

My plan is to follow the CC model and be a lead learner in our home.  Although I don’t like to memorize and it will be more difficult for me than the boys, I will try.   I hope to encourage them to be more diligent by doing so myself.  By learning more of the material, all of us will have a better foundation for learning in the future. It’s a simple plan.  Check back near the end of 2021 and the end of the school year to see if I’ve done well enough to share how I’ve done. 😊   After all, one key to having more is to have a plan to get there.  We’re after more knowledge, which is necessary for more wisdom, and we can certainly use more wisdom.   

#bgwww21