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i am off list right now, but thought this was worth sending to you guys. do
any of you know who to credit it to? it is an encouragement you can pass on
to any homeschoolers you know. maybe mix a little unschooling into their
lives... if i find out the credits, i will let you know. if you know who
wrote it, or YOU wrote it (!) pls email me privately so i can know. ty, erin



Dear Homeschoolers,

If you are a new homeschooler and your life is running
on schedule you may have felt the first tendrils of flame
licking around your feet.  In February it could burst into
full blaze and you will recognize that you are in the midst
of a BURN-OUT!  I thought today might be a good day to hear
my sure-fire burn-out avoidance theory.  Just like the
seasons we have in nature, a homeschooler has seasons.
If you recognize the natural pitfalls, maybe you can prolong
the welcome seasons and minimize the uncomfortable ones.

The first season of the year usually comes in the fall.
Since most of us are somewhat institutionalized, we believe
school should start September 5, or so.  Remember that
schools originally started in the fall to allow for students
to help with the farm work and harvest.  When summer was
over most students couldn't wait to get into the classroom
where the hard work was over.  It passed down to the rest of
us and even K-Mart is into the swing of it.  I love
back-to-school sales and take full advantage.  There is
something so promising about a full packet of clean paper
and 20 sharpened pencils.  The exciting new lunch boxes,
pencil boxes and notebook designs always inspire me.  My
kids and I pour over the left-overs in late September when
they are even cheaper.  The smell and feel of school
supplies are actually inspirational.  We have some of our
best work enshrined in my kids "baby boxes" on My Pretty
Little Pony and Strawberry Shortcake notebooks with only
5 or 6 pages used.  This fall season is when you should make
hay while the sun shines!  Go for it!  Those wonderful plans
to make a timeline, or study world geography by making your
own map and having penpals over the e-mail...YES!  Start
those unit studies, or do 10 pages a day in your workbooks.
Let yourselves go, because winter is around the bend and
winter sometimes brings burn-out.

Here is where my Burn-Out Avoidance Theory (or BOAT) takes
shape.  Some people use plain old endurance to get through
burn-out, but I get in my BOAT and take a ride.  I love kids
and usually have a few extras around.  One thing I've noticed
is how they love to catch a ride on my passions.  I garden,
draw a little, write, quilt, read, collect things, re-work
old junk, junk store shop, talk to old people, crochet, watch
baseball, arrange flowers, and  home decorate to name a few
interests.  Each is very educational.  Gardening alone covers
Latin, botany, writing, art, science, P.E., math, history,
and geology.  Whatever passion I am currently indulging in,
becomes our curriculum.  Not that I take it and turn it into
a unit study.  That would be great, but would only increase
the burn-out.  Do that in a building season, not a rest
season like winter.  Just take your passion and indulge
in it.

DO NOT LET YOUR KIDS WATCH TV WHILE YOU ARE INDULGING.  And
if your passion is TV, (excuse me while I am a little blunt)
get a life.  From the time you were a little kid there were
things you liked more than other things.  What are they?  If
you are a type A parent you probably have forgotten them in
the passion of parenting.  Try giving that a rest for a few
minutes and think about something that you like to do.  If
you are really stuck, go to the library and walk up and down
the non-fiction aisles and pull out titles that interest you
just a little.  Take them home and put them in a convenient
location.  If you feel you must, assign your children their
work while you look at the pictures.  When you see something
that gives you that little thrill of passion, do something
about it.  Go to the craft store and buy a birdhouse kit, for
example, anything to start the motion.  You will see that the
energy of the project will carry you along.  And your kid's
interest will also excite you.  Double impetus.

And what are your kids learning during this time?  That life
is an exciting place with vast possibilities.  That learning
is something that starts at birth and goes on for a lifetime
if you stay interested.  That gaining new knowledge is fun
and only takes place in a text book in a very small part of
life.  That information gained from life experiences can be
supplemented by study, which is the real basis for learning.
We institutionalized people think that we should give
children a whole bunch of information with no place to store
it and hope that if they ever need it they may be able to
find the place they put it.  Outside of school, learning
takes place with experience and we go to a resource to find
the information that we are lacking.  School can be a cart
before the horse sort of thing.  Your interests and passions
are God-given and keep you on the learning edge.  If you give
them up to homeschool your children, you may be doing them a
dis-service.  So, for Burn-Out avoidance, I recommend you
start thinking about what interests you.

My classic example of passion leading to usefulness is the
wonderful story of George Washington Carver.  His adopted
parents, previously his owners, allowed him to follow his
interests outdoors with plant life when he was done with his
kitchen chores.  George went on to be a world famous botanist
and scientist.  He told everyone who came to him, black or
white, "If I can do it, you can do it."

Another fascinating illustration is Winston Churchill, the
great leader of England during the Second World War.  Winston
was raised to be a peer in pre-war England.  He was part of
the royal family.  He was taught at home and then sent to
prestigious schools.  He had a passion for military history,
in fact, his only good grades as a student came from
memorizing military poetry and fencing.  His father
completely washed his hands of Winston the last time he was
kicked out of school and the boy spent most of his time
playing soldier games with the servants' children.  He would
organize the staff children against the village children
using his cousins for generals of the village.  In one
extravagant game he was surrounded by his "enemies" on a
20 foot high bridge.  He jumped to avoid capture and nearly
killed himself.  The next months he was completely bedridden
and "found himself" academically.  He was 17.  Not only is
Winston credited with coming from behind and saving
Great Britain from the German war machine, he was an officer,
journalist, artist, novelist, and devoted husband.

I recently watched portraits being done of my husband and my
youngest son.  Watching the hands of the 17 year-old girl so
deftly capturing my loved-ones faces, I asked her, "Where do
you go to school?"  "Oh, I don't take art lessons.  I never
have.  My father's an artist.  I've just watched him all my
life."  "Oh," I said, "a homeschooler, huh?"  She laughed and
said, "I guess I am.  I never thought of it that way before.
But I graduate from real school this year.  I'm a senior.
"Real school?  I guess it's a perspective thing.

Love, Mary