Learning All the Time ~

I've just finished reading the first chapter of  Learning All the Time by John Holt.  I sure wish I would have read this book a lot sooner!  It would have been a great baby shower gift.  This book is so insightful.  Mr. Holt explains so much of what I have been unable to explain to others about what I have seen happening with my children.  So many times I've been asked what I used to teach my children to read.  Sure, I have tons of phonics programs, but have yet to complete any of them.  However, my children can read.  I really started thinking about this when Buck was younger.  My older two girls were reading well and had been for some time.  Friends wanted to know how I taught them and well, I had a hard time answering the question.  I would say, "I really don't know..  I didn't really teach them."  I just read to them.  You know, that was some wonderful advice I got when I first had "the call" to homeschool.  "Just read to them," was the advice I was given.  So read we did.  We enjoyed life and lived and learned.
Over time I felt the need to add more and more "curriculum" to my older girls days.  After reading A Little Way of Homeschooling, I realized that I had fallen into the trap of  'filling their buckets and not necessarily lighting a fire' in their education.  This post tells more about that...

It's good to take time to re-evaluate the reason why you are doing what you are doing.  Write a Family Mission Statement - updating it from time to time as you grow along your journey. Our latest version ~

To live our faith through the gift of God's Holy Church and the Sacraments, staying focused on the reason we are here.  To live a life of charity and service, seeing the image of God in all His creatures and letting His light shine through us in all we do.

It's so easy to get caught up in what the world is telling you is important. But, how is God calling you???  We are focused on Heaven, not Harvard!  God has great plans for each of us, as he tells us through the prophet Jeremiah.

For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for woe!  plans to give you a future full of hope.  Jeremiah 29:11

Spend time in front of The Blessed Sacrament and He WILL tell you where He needs your family and what it will take to get you there!