I’ve been thinking lately how homeschooling doesn’t happen during set hours, and I’m learning that I shouldn’t ever expect it to. Many times, soooo many times, I have worked up a new schedule for us to follow – sometimes my schedule is loose, just telling how many days per week I want to accomplish each subject. (Math four times, spelling two times, and a science experiment once, for example.) Other times, I’ve written up a schedule that structures our time in 30 minute blocks (and, no, I have never managed to stay exactly on such a strict schedule for even a day).

For so long, I’ve thought that we need some kind of schedule to make our schooling “real” or “legitimate.” I have thought that days when we were completely “off the schedule” were basically failures. We “did some stuff,” as I would say later, but we didn’t meet my vision of what is acceptable.

Even though I’ve never tried to create public schooling at home, I still measured myself beside a checklist.

In the last week, a couple things have happened that have made me realize I must stop doing this, for my own good and for the good of my sons.

First, James asked me if divers can go to the bottom of the ocean. I found a map in our atlas that shows the ocean’s depths all around the world. I explained that islands are like mountains in the water with tops that stick out above the water.

This discussion led us into watching videos about deep sea creatures, and both Nick and James have latched onto their new knowledge about the strange creatures at the bottom of the sea. Everyday, they talk about giant isopods, anglerfish, frilled sharks, and colossal squid. They’ve had questions about which ones eat others, what it’s like at the bottom of the ocean, how scientists have discovered those creatures and how they can video record them if divers can’t go that deep.

One simple question has turned into over a week of learning about the oceans’ ecology, with the discussions and questions occurring any time of day, at home, in the car, in a store. *gasp!* Not when my schedule says we should have science lessons. We’ve packed more science into the last two weeks than we’ve had in the last two months.

It has become so apparent to me that missing a topic my schedule says we should do today, even missing it all week, is okay because the opportunity will arise again. That very subject may become the primary focus next week. It’s freeing to rest in that “whole lifestyle of learning” mentality and not think that education takes place only between 9am and 3pm. I’ve always espoused that in theory, but I’m developing a new outlook and trying to make it my reality.