Isn't this supposed to be a homeschooling blog?

I figured it was time for an update on that thing we do around here called schoolwork. (do you call it that? I sometimes call it "lessons" but schoolwork is the term that I use the most)

Hmmm....


Ummm.....


*crickets*


Oh. Yeah. I guess that's my cue, huh? To update you on any things of educational value that we have been doing?

It's so hard to sort out the "school" from the "life" sometimes. The two things are so often intertwined. Circumstances have recently been such that most of our learning has not taken place between the pages of a book. But I can guarantee that the children are learning. They are learning how to be a good friend. They are learning how to comfort those who are grieving. They have learned about drinking and driving. They have learned how to be extremely sad and yet continue to function on a daily basis. They have learned to always wear their helmets. They have learned to pray for those who have suffered a loss. Oh, wait a minute. These are the things I have learned this past week! ;)

Official schoolwork came to a screeching halt last week as I tried desperately to sort out my emotions. It's amazing to me how this stuff works, though. On a random trip to the library at the beginning of last week, Jeremy pulled a movie off the shelf and asked if we could check it out. It was called The Sign of the Beaver and I am sure he was attracted to the picture of the log cabin and the boy dressed like a frontiersman on the front of the movie case.

It sounded like a good story and then I saw that it was based on a book by the same title. I have a rule that, whenever possible, we must read the book before watching the movie, so I looked the book up, found it in the young adult fiction section and checked it out too. We started reading immediately, only because the boys were anxious to watch the movie.

I cannot believe I have never heard of this book!! It quickly became one of those that we could not stop reading, which doesn't happen often with my active boys. The basic plot line is about Matt, a 12 year old boy, who is left behind on the frontier in Maine while his father goes back to Massachusetts to collect his mother, sister, and new baby. He becomes acquainted with a neighboring Indian boy and their relationship really deepens through the book. I won't give any more than that away, except to say that if you have kids who love old fashioned adventure, this book is perfect. I will be buying my own copy to have on our library shelves.

We read a little bit of it every day last week until we finished it on Thursday. We had some great discussions along the lines of "what would you do if...?" My boys really got sucked into the fact that Matt was only 12 and yet he was totally alone and responsible for "holding down the fort" while his family was gone. Good, good stuff.

So, yes, there has been some learning going on around here. It wasn't exactly what I had written on my schedule. It wasn't getting Jeremy any closer to independent reading, or Joshua any closer to telling time, or Samantha any closer to mastery of long division. But it did bring them closer to my heart. I will forever be grateful that this book came into our lives in the manner it did, at the time it did. It couldn't have been more perfect.