Why This Blog?

So, we're on homeschool year #4.  I might be the only one who finds that amazing.  Still, it represents a lot of little revolutions in our homeschool paradigm.  This blog is the latest shift.  Here's why:

I always plan our homeschool year during the summer, print the plan, and keep it in my binder, organized  smartly week-by-week.  In the past, I would check off lessons or activities as we did them.  This filled my desire for checklists, but it sometimes left me disappointed.  Any activities we didn't have time for sat unchecked on the page, forlorn reminders of missed learning opportunities.  (Sigh!)

In the meantime, we were at the library, baking, on field trips, visiting teaching, or taking care of Noah.  We were learning about something that my printed schedule didn't give us permission to learn.   This blog is going to change that, by reminding us about what we do, not what we've left undone. 

At some point, I realized that a blog would also be a happy way of sharing with our family and regularly-schooled friends what exactly we're doing all day around here.  Hope you'll like some of our ideas.

Have I kept the written plan?  Yes.  I like the planning.  And how much do you think I can keep in my head all at one time, anyway?

Why the cutesy title?

I have a good friend who says she's "an atheist who believes in the divine." One night when her family was over for dinner, our kids began the typical kid-banter about how much they dislike school. One particular child's comment caught our ears: "In Heaven, there's no school!"  My friend was quick to reply, "I hope that Heaven is a school. I would take a lot of botany classes."

Of course, her comment is in line with my religious beliefs--that this life is part of an essential process of discovering everything and becoming perfect.  But, even without those beliefs, the ideas of progress and learning are inside all of us. As a homeschooler and a parent, I couldn't send a better message to my kids: Anyone can believe that Heaven is a School.