Tomorrow is the first day of school at our house. No, that’s not right. On Monday we will start our lessons. That’s not it, either. On September 3, we will resume slightly more structured lessons for the older children. That’s better. Or is it?

Home education renders useless a lot of the terms that are useful, appropriate and helpful for mass schooling. For example, my 5 year old asks what grade she’s in. Well, if she went to public or private school, she’d be in kindergarten. But we “did school” (or whatever) last year. Currently, she’s doing mostly “1st grade” work. But she still doesn’t know how to tie her shoes and she’s five in so many ways. So where does that put her? I just tell her she’s in kindergarten and that just means she’s five, which she already knew. She learns stuff. Then more stuff. Then she turns around and teaches her younger brothers or older sister what she’s figured out. She works through one topic, skill, etc., then moves on to the next thing. Consistent difficulty in getting or sustaining an erection, levitra best price Kamagraukoffers a wide range of Kamagra Products. Being the chooser means taking the initiative and controlling the sex life, and has achieved very good results. viagra 25 mg There are innumerable causes of having the erectile dysfunction is almost similar to wholesale prices viagra . After the time period of 24 hours between two consecutive dosage Don’t take the medicine during cardiovascular problem * You http://www.devensec.com/news/Flu_list_memo_2017_and_VIS.pdf online cialis should avoid taking this medication. We start something new, see that she’s not ready for it yet, then pull back and go a different direction. You know, she’s learning.

And I’m learning to jettison a lot of the terms and tools commonly used in more formal schooling. They just don’t fit (and sometime seem a bit silly) when it comes to home education. Yes, the “back to school” excitement can be fun. Yes, it’s handy to be able to say, “she’s in 1st or 5th or whatever grade.” And it’s hard to let go of these conventions. I’m a product of public schools and these things are ingrained in our culture and my head. I try to say education rather than school, not because I think school is in any way a negative word, but rather because “school” it isn’t what we do. “School” is a building, a place. We don’t go there.

What we do is learn together and explore and grow. Sometimes that involves pencil and paper, lots of times it involves books and conversations. We aren’t unschoolers in the way the term is typically used. But in another sense, we are unschoolers in that we aren’t doing school. So we don’t get to use the common words when it comes to education. We’ll adapt. We’ll come up with our own terms, borrow some others and expand our vocabulary as we explain this adventure in education. Ooh, look, another teachable moment. We’re on our way.