Detours and Distractions
This morning started with a long pause as I scrawled arrows in the lesson book. My children were sick last week, so plans stalled. Copying a lesson from one day to the next used to frustrate me.
Why take time to write out what will become scribbles?
I thought it would be a good idea to capture the serendipity of whatever came next in our curriculum by simply writing down what we did each day. That way detours would be recognized as school, because learning really does happen when conversations turn and questions appear.
I quickly realized that didn’t work for us. We needed a general direction, a goal, a starting place.
Now I prepare for each week as it comes. If lessons aren’t sketched out by Monday, nocturnal me gets up before dawn to make it happen.
My plans aren’t elaborate: an idea with a resource or a page numbers from curriculum. Library day tucked in here. Activities listed on the side. Observations splattered here and there.
As we travel down the grid, record the distractions and detours. Because sometimes those are the things we remember the longest, the things that put life into perspective:
1/14/10 Prayed for Haiti. Looked at pictures of Faith Orphanage before and after the earthquake. Kids overwhelmed by compassion. They want to send their toys.
The plan isn’t the destination. It is a map of scratches and arrows attempting to reveal the One whose breath flung the Heavens and whose Spirit whispers to souls.
I wrote about just this thing yesterday…not as directly maybe,but it was just the thought I had in mind.Come and take a look…Phyllis
http://bergspot.blogspot.com/2010/03/monday-march-1.html
Phyllis,
I’m so glad you left a link to your blog. I always enjoy visiting those who stop by here. :)
And I will be getting to my small house living post now that I have a real computer again. It’s so nice to have my pictures back!
This is one of the things I wished I knew when I started down this road. Glad I know now!
Jenn
Jenn´s last blog ..It is finished!
I never plan any lesson LOL I just make basic goals and we just go through our lessons tell we are done. If we are sick we start where we left off. I don’t know how you do it girl you sound organized.
This was a great post! Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
April Mitchell´s last blog ..Spiritual Sundays: Christ in Art
Yes! It’s all about “the One whose breath flung the Heavens and whose Spirit whispers to souls.” I loved those words.
Jennifer in OR´s last blog ..Dear March – Come in!
I loved your post, and felt comforted as my own day has started a bit off. Plan. Must have a plan of SOME sort. I was just pondering going back to a simple spiral bound notebook and writing out my plan for the day. A lot to pray about ! Thanks for the inspiration!