I often joke that we homeschool but its not my whole personality. Although my degree is in education, I had no intention of homeschooling my kiddo. My philosophy of education has changed drastically since I wrote my official “Philosophy of Education” my senior year of college. To be frank, my philosophy of almost everything has changed. I’m not a full-blown hippy mom by any means, I do, however, consider myself a holistic mom. Gardening as inspiration for our homeschool philosophy has really given me the visual, I needed to carry out our homeschool well.
When I say holistic, I don’t mean granola and no meds.
I mean holistic as in, taking into account the whole person.
- The Oxford definition of holistic is “characterized by the belief that the parts of something are interconnected and can be explained only by reference to the whole.
- Medically, Oxford defines holistic as “characterized by the treatment of the whole person, taking into account mental and social factors, rather than just the symptoms of an illness”.
We did not initially intend to homeschool. It came about rather organically because he was entering kindergarten while we were traveling extensively for our mission work. There was no way traditional school was going to work with our travel schedule. We kept our mornings short and were able to explore wherever we traveled. Eventually it gave us a lifestyle that I didn’t want to give up even when we could have put him in school.
We have had our home school ups and downs. Days where it feels so magical. And others where both he and I are ready to pull our hair out. But through it all, Ive tried to let the fact that we were created as whole people who are created for connection, be my guide.
In a nutshell: good books, good music, good food and lots of play have been the guideposts. More on the how another day.
Gardening an education.
When you think about gardening what do you see? Sunlight, warmth and growth come to mind. Beautiful, lush plants, producing lots of flowers, fruit and vegetables. But it didn’t just materialize. Hard work, sweat, and some bug bites along the way are also reflective of gardening.
Gardening takes a lot of time and care.
- Seedlings: We start a lot of our plants indoors while snow is still falling. We mix up our own soil for those little seeds. Good nutrition, lots of watering. The little seeds take the utmost care. We put them in a big bay window with an addition of grow lights. Next year we will probably add heat mats because this 110 year old house is drafty. They take daily water, lots of attention, lots of care.
- Greenhouse: The plants grow here for the next 8 weeks. Maybe longer depending on the plant. Lots of warmth, sun and water keep everything growing. The weather outside might be cold, but they can withstand a little chill. The light can get in, but the snow, frost, or storms are kept mostly at bay.
- Hardening off: Here the plants start making their way outdoors through the day. First for several hours, then a little more each day until they can be transplanted. More responsibility, more experiences without mom and dad but they can always come back in the warm greenhouse at night. (Obviously this is figurative–my kid can come back indoors whenever he wants 🙂
- Garden time: Time to plant those little seed starts! Maybe some trellis to support the new plants at first. Still keeping a close eye, weeding, pest control, fertilizing and amending soil. Then they start to grow like crazy when that first soaking of rain followed by a warm sunny day hits.
- Harvest time: All that hard work starts paying off. Beautiful blooms, fruits and vegetables. And maybe some misses, you see where you need to do better next time.
I first started thinking of this gardening analogy along an age continuum. Little kids are the seeds, elementary as the green house and so on. But the longer I’ve been in the game the more I realized we are kind of all those places at once. Because our kids are multifaceted. Perhaps some academic skills are really growing well, but some are still in the seedling phase. Some character growth is going well, and some still needs the help of a tomato cage. Perhaps we’ve gotten a bit off track and the family culture just needs a good weeding.
You get the idea.
In a green house, not under a rock.
As a mom, I love the greenhouse. Safe and warm. We can see the storm outside, but it’s not walloping us, ya know? My kid though? He would much prefer just blazing his own trial through the garden and then running his dirt bike all over the place. Even when I don’t think we are quite ready, he’s always willing to give it a try and I love that.
I am not a fan of sheltering your kids too much. There is a profound difference between the idea of raising your kids in a garden, or greenhouse versus raising kids under a rock. There are simply things kids will need to be aware of in this world and to not know might put them even more at risk. But I feel strongly that kids don’t need to carry so much so soon. Our society asks a lot of children, some might even argue we ask their childhood of them.
One day, much too soon for my liking, he will carry the heavy that this life inevitably brings, and I want to have prepared him as best I can. He will have his own garden to tend to, and my hope, is to prepare him with a love of learning and hard work. An ability to see the beauty through the weeds and to buckle down and do some pruning when necessary.
Special thanks to my boy for the photos in this blog. They were plants he grew and photographed for a 4H project last year.
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