Recently I saw an episode of Oprah where a family had decided to take a year off of life and travel the world. They were not doing so because they were rich and extravagant, but instead they wanted to show their kids the world and do it with heart of missions.They wanted to live like the locals, learn from them and help them out.
I thought to myself...How wonderful to do that!! What an experience it would be to truly dig in to the cultures around the globe and make a difference to those communities! How humbling it would be for your children to see for themselves what Godly service means and to see how rich we really are in our safe country.
To me that would be a year of rich homeschooling. The kids would be immersed in Geography, History,Culture, Politics, Cuisine, Social Studies, Environmental Studies and Science. I'm sure I could add in a TON of other subjects such as Engineering as they see first hand how to erect a building with their own hands.
I found it funny how the main question to the family was ... ''what about school?''
So what about it? Are their travels not FULL of ''school?'' Of course they are also learning reading, writing, and math as they read about the next country, write letters home and learn the different currency's and budget their way through.
It made me sad that there was a sigh of relief from Oprah when the mother replied...well I homeschool them on the road of course. I felt as most of us homeschoolers feel...that we need to apease the general misconception about homeschooling. That we need to conform to the curiculum imposed by the local school board in order for our children to grow into proper human beings. I guess I was just sad that Oprah as well as most of the audience could not see past what is normal and what they are used to and step outside the box for a moment.
Kudos for that family for taking such an interest in the planet and the growing minds of their little ones. Kudos for the guts to do it and ignore what everyone else says.
Our homeshooling adventure consisted of why the worms were on the sidewalk today. I can only imagine the learning we could do around the globe!!!
That's it. That is my rant for the day.
And no.....no contractions yet. Hrmph
2 comments:
I am a teacher and am constantly amazed at how little learning actually happens in the classroom as there is so much wasted time. Taking your kids around the world, that is NOT a waste of time. What awesome adventure.
hoping for contractions soon!
Cherylyn
Hang in there Alyson! Thinking of you, and sending you labour dust!
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