Raise Them Up – How Can You Find The Best Way?
How can your best “raise them up”? That is a question that all homeschooling parents struggle with daily.
We have been homeschooling for a long time. Our journey is a bit unique because even though we have two children, they are twins and mostly travel through schooling adventures at the same time. And so every course and each activity I plan or create is only used once. I need to be learning and growing at the same pace as my kids to prepare new materials and fill in the gaps in my own education so that I can help them with theirs.
So you might not be surprised when I say that “unhurried” is not really a word I cross paths with very often. The closest to “unhurried” I have ever come was the months of bed-rest my doctor ordered when my twins were on the way. Even then I really had a hard time understanding “unhurried”.
I Recently Discovered The Concept of “Unhurried” Homeschooling
And then I discovered a book: “The Unhurried Homeschooler: A Simple, Mercifully Short Book on Homeschooling” by Durenda Wilson. It instantly drew me in and I couldn’t put it down. It was like sitting down for a chat with the author. Her basic premise is probably not unique: slow down that set of plans you have designed for your children and allow them to find their way.
She also discusses the benefits of delaying formal education and enabling your children to become self-driven. These are ideas I have heard from various homeschooling legends like Laurie Bluedorn and Lee Binz and others, but the way that the author explains her own experiences and how those relate to all homeschooling families really helped me.
Applying “Unhurried” To Our Homeschool Led To Fantastic Results!
I sit down with my children every day for about two hours and read to them. This is something we have done all their lives, although when they were younger we sat down with them a number of times each day for shorter periods. As my kids grew and developed, these reading times developed as well. Now that my kids are teenagers, these reading times are really discussion times. I pick the texts and read and then they stop me to make a point or ask a question. It works well and they learn a lot this way, but there always seemed to be something missing.
After reading “The Unhurried Homeschooler” and working through all the questions that the author asks you to think over at the end of each chapter, I made one simple change to our reading time: I let my kids each pick a book for me to read aloud. It was magical! Reading time instantly shifted to a boisterous discussion/reading time. The most important part was now my kids don’t just enjoy their schooling day, they love it!
Yesterday we were reading Macbeth (a review on the literature guide from Progeny Press coming soon), as a dramatic reading with each of us reading a character. We had more characters in the scene than people to read aloud, so my son took a few characters, played them in voices, and one part he decided to sing his part in his beautiful baritone voice – in a Scottish accent! Our reading time is now an opportunity for me to witness joy and abandon in my teens, while they learn.
And the only change I made was letting them chose the books. To make that shift, I had to decide to be “unhurried”. It does not matter if my kids make it through my massive book list before they graduate. It does not matter if they never read all the journals of George Washington or the writings of Churchill. What matters is that they love to learn, they know how to learn, and that these years are filled with joy.
Read The Book For Yourself
I really recommend you check out the book, “The Unhurried Homeschooler: A Simple, Mercifully Short Book on Homeschooling” by Durenda Wilson. If you have an Amazon Prime membership, you can read the book at no cost through their Kindle Unlimited program, but it is a book that is well worth spending the money to purchase it.
That is how my husband and I will finish raising our children up – as an unhurried homeschool with joy and praise.
