Our Lifestlyle

Curious Captain D

There comes a point in every new relationship when the inevitable question arises: "So, where do your kids go to school?" I always cringe, and my answer comes out in a mutter. "We, um, homeschool."

It's not that I'm discontented homeschooling. Not at all. It's not that I'm ashamed. Not one bit. It's that the phrase "homeschooling" is such a misnomer for what our family does. No, our kids don't get on a big yellow bus every morning, but nor do we sit around the house.

V-Man, 4, contemplating the great beyond (or thinking about dinner)

Miss Manners (MM), 6, embarking on a river voyage

Ours is a lifestyle of learning. Learning takes place hand-in-hand with fun. Learning takes place in our house, sure, but also in our yard, in our neighbor's yard, at the park down the street and the lake up the road, at the museum and the grocery store and the doctor's office and the butterfly garden and everywhere else our children venture in their ever-expanding world.

And at the end of every adventurous day, learning takes place in Daddy's arms as he reads them Bible stories before bed.

If, by chance, I meet someone whose eyebrows don't shoot skyward at the mention of homeschooling -- a fellow homeschooler, and there are lots of them! -- the next question is usually about curriculum. Curriculum? Yeah, we've got one. We made it up, based on the story of Creation. What better order is there to study our world? So we focus throughout the year on everything God made, adding in science experiments and art projects and country studies. The kids take nature classes, art classes, music classes, science classes. We go to museums to see historical exhibits of airplanes and fashions, we re-enact the Boston Tea Party in our wading pool, we build rockets to shoot them off, and we spend lots of time outdoors collecting bugs and watching birds. That's our curriculum. Forgive me for not having a nice neat name for it.

I would just call it, if I must, a lifestyle of learning.