Having just finished the school year, I’m not QUITE ready to jump into planning for next fall – for our family or our homeschool group. However, I am starting to throw random ideas into a miscellaneous pile somewhere in my brain.
It’s a messy pile of notes to myself and includes half-formed thoughts, website links, book titles, and more. I imagine it’s very similar to the pile of papers next to my laptop. It’s located somewhere in my brain. Possibly behind my left ear. No matter the exact location, it’s there. Waiting for me to add to it, glance through it, and think through each of the items more.
Right now, I’m doing that pondering in a leisurely manner. Later in the summer I’ll actually write things down and start coming up with A Plan. Some ideas will be forgotten, too unmemorable to save. Some will sit there for another 6 months to a year, ripening. And some will make the final cut for next fall.
Here’s the first and most fun list of things that have made the pile in my brain so far:
- A request from my kids to cover China in history again. It’s been several years since we did any intensive study in that region of the world. Consequently, I’ve been looking with particular interest at the recent developments in Hong Kong and its historical background.
- Logistical considerations. Does my middle son need a better place to do his schoolwork in our (small) house? His learning style has evolved into more deeply focused work and his current setup is in the middle of our household traffic pattern.
- Something about food history. I was looking up Earl Grey flavor descriptions for my tea scone blog post and read a little history behind the tea. It made me consider covering food from a world history standpoint.
- Video Editing. I’m looking into some more sophisticated software for my fitness videos. Maybe we can do a few editing projects for art, science, etc.
- And lots more thoughts, too nebulous to articulate at this point. Okay, and perhaps too ridiculous-sounding at this point to share as well.
That first list is the fun one. My second list of thoughts is much less enjoyable, but a great challenge, and centers around the unpredictability of life with respect to coronavirus. Most pressing are:
- Ways to make online meetings work best for our students. We have some medically vulnerable group members and I’m looking at keeping some online interaction going regardless of what the generally healthy population is able to do in the fall. Currently, online meetings have worked okay. But I think there’s a lot of room for improvement.
- Ideas to keep a sense of homeschool community within our group when in-person meetings will undoubtedly be ‘different’, although none of us are sure how different.
- And – this is a biggie – how to best replicate all the community interaction and learning that normally takes place with our field trips, volunteering, and other activities when many of those opportunities may not be available.
When I consider the first list, my brain is happy and in its element. This is where I’m at my creative best.
I’m gradually trying to wrap my brain around seeing the second list as a good challenge. An opportunity to grow and adapt and become stronger. I don’t need to fully embrace that mindset now, but I’ll need to get there in the next month or two.
For now, it’s enough to throw things in the pile and sporadically ponder all the possibilities for next year. In the meantime, we’re planning a long bike ride for tomorrow and an upcoming camping trip next week. And that’s the type of thing I’m going to fully focus on as we start our summer.
