Au Natural

Well, I’m just now starting to get into Homeschool Convention mode. It won’t be long before we have a different convention each weekend. We’ll load up the Familyman RV and hit the road.

I love homeschool conventions. I love all the curriculum vendors…walking up and down the aisles, eating their free candy, and listening to their spiels. There’s some good stuff out there and it can benefit you greatly…but sometimes…I admit, it tends to feel a little ‘artificial.’

Not that that’s always bad, but if you think about it for just a moment, walking around your yard, your house, and your world is like walking down an all-natural homeschool vendor hall.

Not only is everything free, but it is often more effective at teaching and training our children in what’s most important.

For example, years ago my wife had been pondering the usefulness of a writing program for my oldest daughter Katherine (12 at the time). The truth was that Kat was already writing just about every spare moment she had. She emailed cousins and friends, wrote letters to grandparents, kept a journal when we traveled, and wrote stories about horses and girls named, Kirsten…all because she liked to.

One method was natural and one method was artificial. One was already working but the other method, whether it worked or not, would make us feel safe and secure, satisfying the need to ‘check it off the list.’

So…one day while I was talking to my wife I said, “Why are we having Kat use this writing program when she writes ALL the time?”

My wife started to give me all the ‘right’ reasons for using a writing program and then stopped.

We decided then to forget artificial writing programs with her and go all-natural in writing. For our other kids, we might not do that. But there are natural ways of learning everywhere. It might include playing board games or cards, gathering bugs, building projects, researching their interests, or going to visit interesting places.

One is easy to check off and gives us a false sense of security…but the other works.

It’s easy to smile when you go Au Natural!