INTO THE "UN"KNOWN || PURPOSE DRIVEN UNSCHOOL ADVENTURE VLOGS...
‘fairy tales aren’t true. fairytales are more than true. not because they tell us that dragons exist but because they tell us that dragons can be defeated… the magic of stories, that’s the magic of fiction. it’s giving you something big, and true, and important that you might not otherwise get and you can carry it in your heart, and you can carry it to your children and to your children’s’ children.” ~Neil Gaiman
i’ve been taking neil gaiman’s masterclass on”the art of storytelling “. it’s helping me to use storytelling as a way of teaching them lessons I want them to learn above all else. its helping me to focus on the why of this current transition into more unschooling ways. a focus that I need when i’ve asked myself far too many times “what in the world are you doing?!?” I am learning to observe. how to practice letting my observations couple with creativity and produce more fruit than i could have produced on my own.
i can teach them to add, to divide, to subtract. I can teach them to write essays and memorize dates in history but there is a root of wisdom and knowledge that will produce fruit (jeremiah 17:8), of which I had no idea I even planted, that will lead them into all they will ever need to fulfill their purpose in this life. i am learning to tell homeschool stories of how we live and what we learn. i am learning how to tell stories where “ dragons exist and can be defeated.” learning to tell stories of things that are “big, and true and important that i can carry in my heart, and i can carry it to my children and to my children’s’ children.” this is the purpose of our unschooling adventures of faith and love.
oh, hey… i’m syreena!
i have three incredibly brilliant children of whose education I am responsible for and yet we did “NOTHING” but “PLAY” all last week!!! sure, there were plenty of lessons and learning going on but what do I have to show for??? what test scores, what essay, biography or personal narrative did they produce as a result of last weeks “lessons” so I can feel better about my job?!? i wrestle with all of this even though i know that these thoughts produce no fruit.
this post has everything to do with our transition into unschooling even if it may seem as though it does not. there is an unknown substance. a substance of which we believe to be FAITH. a substance that is our evidence of what we may not see just yet. as others move from grade level to grade level we are looking for GROWTH here. observing them grow in grace as my years of direct influence become fewer. i pray that they view my sacrifices as the way to life… abundant life, not based on works but on FAITH & LOVE.
when I started this part of our journey several weeks ago i set all my “plans” aside in order to give myself the space to observe. to see more of what they choose to engage in throughout the day without my directing them in one way or another. there has been a decent amount of “what do I do now’s” and i’ve had my fair share of “what in the world am I doing here’s”. but, i’ve felt so strongly about the path that we are on and I know that there is always a lesson here.
ultimately, after far too many times running into my room in order to “collect my thoughts” i realized that I don’t have to push my plans completely aside. planning is still such a big part of ME. a big part of how i teach and how i gather and organize the thoughts and ideas that i’m given. I realized that I can still lead with the plans that have been placed in my heart and simply allow the kids the opportunity to choose thought their days. i realized that “i like to unschool but I plan a lot!”…. Lollllllllll!!
my part in this deal is to gather “all the things”, pray, lead and follow their lead, to document and document some more. to document their thoughts, their feelings, answer their questions and lead them along the path to find more answers to their questions. that is my purpose and my plan as we enter even further into the “un”known! I also plan on uploading these “plans” to our patreon space to share with our patronfam 🌱 once we open it back up to members really soon!
^^ that time my soul was set on fire when i gave myself the freedom to grab all my planner mama things and plan a few ideas for unschooling adventures to come ^^
MONDAY-
i updated the sliding glass doors in our school room. there is usually a bit of space for a few scriptures and our history timeline but we hadn’t been using them much. I refreshed the history timeline adding enough lines to cover time periods from creation to current day, rewrote the scripture we have been standing on for the last few months ( Colossians 3:23-25), added a monthly calendar to keep up with our projects along with a daily checklist so that I will have a visual way to keep track of what they are working on throughout their day. the focus of their work today is on THE ART OF JOURNALISM aka language arts.
TUESDAY-
they asked if we could have pop quizzes. they asked if it was unschool or not, lol. kendall would like to construct a zipline, learn to make pickles and is constantly showing signs of readiness for higher math. the weeks before held many attitudes and I think these frustrations have made me feel like there is a call to deeper love on my part. more patience, more kindness and what feels like LONG-SUFFERING (my gawd!!!)
we visited daddy in his “home office” more times than I think he would like, but we LOVED it!!!
i bought a new workbook for cam that I thought would help switch things up a bit. i let him look over it and “approve” before we ordered it and it came in this week. order of operations is what he started out with… and as every math endeavor always begins with this kid… it was met with immediate attitude and frustrations while ending with praise and a little “I really enjoyed doing that with you” EVERY. SINGLE. TIME!!! i was reminded of the order of things. the order of operations when discipline is concerned. ” no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (hebrews 12:11) so, ill be here… loving on him, right beside him as we work through these roadblocks together.
Wednesday-
our journalist board is finished and there has been a huge focus on the pockets of time we spend reading and discussing all that we’ve read. they have alps been spending a lot of their time with research and development of their characters for a game they have been coding together and I love it. their ideas are so creative and its becoming quite the collaborative effort. now, its my job to make sure we see things all the way through and make it to the finish line.
Thursday-
crossword puzzles, word searches and more reading. the day has been full of working outside in our backyard. in the garden, helping to install a new fence, listening to more questions as they grow in number and complexity. this day began our chats about understanding mortgages. we talked about our house, how much we pay for it and our plan and progress toward paying it off.
Friday-
I wrote these rough notes from my next lesson in neil gaiman’s masterclass “the art of storytelling”, and they are ideas that have been sticking with me!!!
a freelance journalist specializing in the world of… this gives me license to ask questions. to go out into that world and meet everybody find out who everybody is what they do …
in order to write (to tell these stories in my heart) I need to be honest… if your going to be a successful writer you have to be willing to show too much of yourself, just a little more honest than you are comfortable with if people judge you, if they feel they know who you are…
show more than is comfortable of your heart and your mind.
“ loving on an old house isn’t easy. it takes a lot of faith, patience and focusing your attentions on one small thing at a time... as not to get too overwhelmed. from fixing one pipe here, new sheet rock there and installing a new fence after watching each panel rot and break off with each passing storm, the list always feels like its a mile longer than it was the day before. it’s a faith builder for sure. i’ve enjoyed it, this house that our faith is building one word, and one work at a time. grateful for the hands that are always there to help us and the hearts that make this house HOME.”
we also started adding a bit of storyboarding to one of our reading times during the day. I read, they draw and write. its been kinda perfect if perfection were an actual thing. it’s not something they are made to do but rather a simple suggestion to keep their minds engaged and I am loving the way things are panning out.
i will be slowly adding our “printables” to our shop as I know that there have been many request that I share. and while our printables have always been available to those who have joined our patreonfam🌱, i also wanted to provide ways to share aside from joining the fam.
last, but certainly not least, we’ve been bringing back “watch parties” like they never left us. popcorn, and a list of documentaries, shows and movies have been our jam and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
the unknown is a scaring space to walk ins sometimes but its a place that we have grown to love. excited about the days ahead and all the lessons we will learn here.
with all the love,
syreena