I have always loved education. I have a Bachelors degree in English and Psychology as well as a Masters degree in Education. However, I have learned more from the world of homeschooling and my own personal pursuits than I ever did from my formal education.
It was in my 30's as I was in graduate school that I began to really understand the value of "questioning." In my own life, I have learned the most and discovered more about my own personal interests during those times when I allowed myself to take the side path. To hop down that rabbit trail.
In homeschooling my children, I do have structure. We do have math books and grammar books and even spelling books. We follow a plan for the most part and we have a routine. I even make my children (gasp!) diagram sentences!
Yet I know for myself that all the structure and routines and textbooks will never light the fire within their hearts that a rabbit trail can when someone is allowed to follow it through. Often times you will hear or see or read something. It will suddenly spark a question in your mind that might seem completely off target. If allowed to pursue that, you will often learn something you never had intended to learn. In following that interest, it might take you on yet another side path. We often ask ourselves, "How did I get off on this subject?" and it is because our minds have taken us there in their own natural pursuits.
While structure and routines and a general plan are the core of our homeschool, we find the rabbit trails of life to be just as important. If we must take off a day or two to pursue a rabbit trail, then we do.
It is only through pursuing the rabbit trails of life, that I have come to truly find my own interests.
In my faith, I have found God leading me down rabbit trails that have taught me more than I ever set out to learn.
This blog will discuss not only our homeschooling life but also the rabbit trails we pursue as they come up.
The most beautiful part of a rabbit trail is that it never is planned. You never know what it will be. Life is a truly a mystery and adventure. My children each have their own questions and by asking those questions and pursuing the answers, we learn as a family about the wonders of the world we never could have found simply from a textbook.
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