Home : Getting Started : Setting Up Your Home School : What?  Daydream?  I Have Planning to Do!

What? Daydream?

I Have Planning To Do!
by Sue Ellen Haning

Texas Home School Coalition Association REVIEW © May 2003

 

The word “plan” comes from the French and Latin roots for the word “plane.” According to Chambers Dictionary of Etymology, the roots for “plan” mean “to soar,” and the example given is: “Eagles open their wings to form a plane when they fly.” So our plan is a plane. Interesting, is it not? In our planning for the next school year, we are to soar like eagles. Now that is a challenge! Why not try it?

Recalling the 17 years I homeschooled my two children, I remember enjoying the planning as much as – if not more than – the teaching. This is odd, considering how I detested mandatory lesson plans when I taught in public and private schools. To me lesson plans were stifling to the creative side of teaching, and one could easily become a slave to them. I have since learned that planning does not destroy spontaneity; it creates opportunity.

Planning to teach my own children took a very different path from the old lesson plans. My planning consisted of: tossing ideas around in my head, jotting down the more popular ones, and daydreaming, daydreaming, daydreaming. It was not until my home school experience that I realized the value of daydreaming. Somewhere along the path of my upbringing, I came to believe that daydreaming was a waste of time. It is not. I highly recommend doing it on a regular basis. Of course a certain amount of discipline must be exercised concerning this immensely profitable endeavor. I am convinced the more daydreaming one engages in, the more creative, constructive, and even productive he is. I wish I had daydreamed more in my youth.

My two children were “bent” in two different directions.  From experience, I knew that children learned best when they were interested in the material to be learned, so early in my home schooling, I asked my children what they were interested in learning. When one gives a child this freedom, the doors in his mind fly open, and learning becomes very interesting and fun. This strategy instilled the love of learning in both of my children, and to this day my adult children welcome – even look for – opportunities to learn new things. Of course the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic were prescribed by me, but I tried to include their individual interests in teaching these subjects.

With my children’s suggestions in mind, I would think and dream about the possibilities their ideas presented. During my periods of daydreaming, I would envision certain activities and opportunities to learn that were out of the ordinary.  Many seemed impossible or far-fetched; but that is what daydreaming is, and it is definitely what made the planning fun. My daydreaming interrupted my dinner preparation, housecleaning, weed pulling, laundry chores, walks with my children, family times, dentist visits, field trips, waiting at piano lessons and baseball practice, and even Sunday morning sermons. My desire was to provide genuine learning experiences for my children. I spent weeks in this dreaming and thinking mode. I tried to be aware of opportunities, people, and other resources that might help our studies and would jot them down as I saw them.

Prayer was a big part, too. When you have the Almighty on your side, the opportunities that present themselves are phenomenal. Of course in my asking, I fully expected to receive. Often, those far-fetched ideas and opportunities came to fruition through an outside resource, even someone I had not previously known, which crossed my path at just the right time. I never purchased a “graded curriculum.” Yes, I bought textbooks – but very few and only those that directly aided my plans. When you are open to other resources, textbooks usually end up on the bottom of the list of necessities.

Planning is easy when you give it time. In September I was thinking and daydreaming about our studies for January. In January I was thinking and daydreaming about the summer session. Giving plenty of time to your planning takes the pressure off of the process.

You may be saying that such a strategy might work well with two children, but what about four students, a toddler, and a baby? Since I cannot speak from experience in that situation, I can only encourage you to give it a try to any degree you can. Giving your children the opportunity to choose their own paths of study will motivate them.  You will welcome the next school year, for your planning will have been well thought out over a period of weeks or months.  Your children will be interested and excited about their upcoming studies. As you see the rewards of this strategy, you can implement it more each semester or each year. Now, go do your daydreaming.

 

Sue Ellen Haning and her husband, Jack, live in Lubbock.  They have three adult children, two of whom were homeschooled. Sue Ellen has tutored and taught classes for the local home school support group. 

To begin receiving the Texas Home School Coalition REVIEW, simply send us your mailing information via email, phone, or mail, and mention that you would like to be added to the REVIEW subscription list.

Back to Home Schooling Setting Up Your Home School

Back to E-Newsletter

TOP