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“The sole end of education is simply this: to teach [humans] how to learn for themselves; whatever instruction fails to do this is effort spent in vain.”
Dorothy Sayers
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What are you teaching?
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Handmade Homeschool 
today, reading books to each other, how to make popovers, tea party, treasure hunts, lego building, back yard meteorite hunting, animal tending and planning and shopping for taco tuesday.
Sarah, I love this quote – hadn’t seen it before. I think it is crucial that kids know how to figure things out – how to use logic and reason, where to go for reliable information, how to teach themselves new things. How to be independent.
this quote has been the goal of my homeschooling. So far so good–my 16 yo is an incredible self-learner. My 10 year old is too, though he still needs guidance and encouragement, but he’s getting it.
We have a lot of reading going on here. My 13 year old is loving J.R.R. Tolkien and I am reading a complete range of books from fiction to cookbooks. For school fossils have been the front runner along with ancient Rome.
I had a total disconnect with a schooling friend of mine and At the time I knew that the fundamental problem was that each of us would answer this question so differently. She was nagging about a mutual friend who had not yet enrolled her two year old son in any programmes on and on about school readiness, isn’t that kindergarten?, and I kept trying to push the importance of down time.
My older two (5 and 8) are reading, ebbing then flowing through math programmes and participating in music, karate and swim classes but when I think about their education and that of my son, I think mostly of their relationship as siblings, the strength that gives each of them to grow and thrive and the long stretches of down time, together, that are so crucial in building those bonds. It is when I am otherwise occupied that they read to each other, play games in teams so the two year old can join in and prove their proficiency at any number of skills based activities.
They are strong as a team and individually, they fight, they make up, they move on together. That’s what home learning is for us. I can’t say I’m teaching it exactly but I’ll take credit for recognizing it’s importance and giving it time to thrive.
PS – how does 8 display as an emoticon? Who knows.