Picture Yourself on a Boat on a River
It's always odd, what you think people will find interesting versus what people will find interesting. For example, I'm always surprised that some people find my being a former child actor interesting; I'm here to tell you it was a highly pleasant thing to do but, in the aggregate, is slightly less interesting and revealing than picking out bathroom tile colors.
(When looking to buy a house, I saw a bathroom tiled in shades of burnt orange and lime green. Now THERE'S a mind which deserved close scrutiny, but possibly only by a trained professional.)
When it comes to homeschooling, one of the questions I've been getting a lot lately is "What does the classroom look like?" I can only imagine this is because people who don't homeschool assume the homeschool classroom is either alarmingly organized, with a flag in the corner and those cardboard cutouts of Pilgrims, or consists of a table and chair which are actually stacked bags of cat-litter. Honestly, most days I could point to her bed, where Daughter sat and read and wrote for the better part of the morning, or the car, where just yesterday we had a lively discussion about the Renaissance which devolved into talking about the Black Death.
The conversation frequently trends towards the Black Death, if I'm involved. Or Ebola. Sometimes Typhus, if I'm feeling lighthearted. These are the sorts of topics I find more interesting than most other people. Come to think of it, this might be why people ask me about being a Former Child Actor, to get me off the words Exsanguination and Mass Graves.
In any case, I'm offering a glimpse into my world, but it works better if you participate. Over at Pinterest, I've put up a picture of the kid's desk and some of her bookshelves. For those of you who have been playing along at home for a while, this is the wall-unit Consort created for her; I'm pleased to say it's aging better than I am. Bask in the clutter. Note the books. Consider how the bookshelf stretches across the rest of the wall. Ponder where my retirement money has gone.
And now, YOU! I want to see where your family learns. It can be full time homeschoolers or it can be where the kids do their homework after getting home from school. It could be where you are slaving away at your degree, and because you are an adult and still managing to learn new things, I will gape at you in polite wonder. The point of Pinterest is to be inspired; who knows? Maybe something you're doing-- some little creative bolt from the blue--will make someone else's homeschooling space better. Don't leave me out there alone; show me how your family learns. If you send me your email, I'll accept you as a contributor to the page. If it starts getting unsightly, I reserve the right to shut it off, but I don't think it will come to that.
And after you put up your education picture, reward yourself by searching "Bathroom tiles." Now THAT'S interesting.
(When looking to buy a house, I saw a bathroom tiled in shades of burnt orange and lime green. Now THERE'S a mind which deserved close scrutiny, but possibly only by a trained professional.)
When it comes to homeschooling, one of the questions I've been getting a lot lately is "What does the classroom look like?" I can only imagine this is because people who don't homeschool assume the homeschool classroom is either alarmingly organized, with a flag in the corner and those cardboard cutouts of Pilgrims, or consists of a table and chair which are actually stacked bags of cat-litter. Honestly, most days I could point to her bed, where Daughter sat and read and wrote for the better part of the morning, or the car, where just yesterday we had a lively discussion about the Renaissance which devolved into talking about the Black Death.
The conversation frequently trends towards the Black Death, if I'm involved. Or Ebola. Sometimes Typhus, if I'm feeling lighthearted. These are the sorts of topics I find more interesting than most other people. Come to think of it, this might be why people ask me about being a Former Child Actor, to get me off the words Exsanguination and Mass Graves.
In any case, I'm offering a glimpse into my world, but it works better if you participate. Over at Pinterest, I've put up a picture of the kid's desk and some of her bookshelves. For those of you who have been playing along at home for a while, this is the wall-unit Consort created for her; I'm pleased to say it's aging better than I am. Bask in the clutter. Note the books. Consider how the bookshelf stretches across the rest of the wall. Ponder where my retirement money has gone.
And now, YOU! I want to see where your family learns. It can be full time homeschoolers or it can be where the kids do their homework after getting home from school. It could be where you are slaving away at your degree, and because you are an adult and still managing to learn new things, I will gape at you in polite wonder. The point of Pinterest is to be inspired; who knows? Maybe something you're doing-- some little creative bolt from the blue--will make someone else's homeschooling space better. Don't leave me out there alone; show me how your family learns. If you send me your email, I'll accept you as a contributor to the page. If it starts getting unsightly, I reserve the right to shut it off, but I don't think it will come to that.
And after you put up your education picture, reward yourself by searching "Bathroom tiles." Now THAT'S interesting.
posted by Unknown at 1:52 PM
6 Comments:
Fun! I posted it to our homeschooler group list so hopefully you'll see some interesting learning spaces! :-)
When I googled myself (not for vanity, trying to find a past article I wrote for a job application haha), I have commented so much in your blog that your blog entries show up first. hehe So here I go again. :)
This is a really fun idea! I don't have kids and don't homeschool, but I was inspired by your photo. My ideal home has bookshelves EVERYWHERE, and I really like the way that space is designed.
does picking up someone else's bookshelf from the side of the road & then driving around with it in the back of your vehicle for over a week, with the highest intentions of spray painting count? I could e-mail you a picture of that.
We actually did have a space for home schooling. It was a desk in the dining room. First I would work at setting up the day's lessons, etc., and then later he would do the work. We just took turns like that.
It did seem that I would spend more times getting his lessons ready than he did working them out.
He's now 28. It stills seems I spend more time on things than he does...
Not possible to represent in one photo: our "classroom" was our entire house and beyond (the only "sacred space" was 'Mom and Dad's room'). Which could explain why my house has been a perpetual landslide of papers, books, folders, writing implements, theater programs, field trip memorabilia, seashells, rocks, leaf samples, etc. for the past 13 years. However, we have just reached GRADUATION!!! (Take heart, homeschool moms: there is light at the end of the tunnel! LOL) I am recovering the house little by little... and slowly starting to empty out and remove or repurpose bookshelves. Strange feeling - but almost entirely good. We will miss this life - but daughter has grown into an amazing young woman bound for a wonderful local college with some amazing scholarships to her credit, so we have "finished the race well." We have been richly blessed all these years with opportunities and resources - but mostly with each other. Enjoy the chaos while it lasts, folks - savor every moment!!
Alas whilst my younger sisters were homeschooled through Primary education I went to the local CofE village school and now - some 25 years later - have no children so no relevant photos to share.
However I would love to see lime and orange tiles in the bathroom - sounds delightfully kitsch.
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