Wild and Free
Once a year or so I choose an audiobook to listen to that is NOT for my children. I have an auditory processing disorder, which makes listening hard; but as a firm believer in working brain muscles, building skills, and asking for as few accommodations in life as possible, I work on my listening through audiobooks. It takes me months to listen to a book that I could otherwise read in an hour or two. (I read, according to my husband, extraordinarily fast.)
My audiobook choice the last few months has been Ainsley Arment’s The Call of the Wild and Free: Reclaiming Wonder in Your Child’s Education. I chose this one, frankly, because it was available on Spotify and as a homeschool mom for the last decade (and a homeschool aunt for the last two), I have tried to read anything and everything published on and within the homeschool community since my early twenties. It’s important to me to understand a lot of ideas to really feel comfortable choosing direction for our family. Although I firmly land in the Classical /Charlotte Mason corner of the homeschool realm, I have read a great deal on all the corners. I like that Ainsley Arment has as well. She has done her research, she has put in the hours, she is a fantastic source of information.
I needed the affirmation this week as I was recommending groups to new homeschool moms and realized I had been blocked from the one I was trying to recommend! I also, apparently, had accidentally been complicit to stirring a pot in another, by sharing it with people. You see, I classically educate my kids via the Charlotte Mason method, but I don’t limit myself to one particular curriculum or another. I refer to Ambleside Online, I look for ideas on The Charlotte Mason Cottage Curriculum, I utilize the free resources on the Well Educated Heart/Libraries of Hope website. I meet my kids where they are with resources I can afford. Many times I choose my own living books altogether, ones not mentioned on anyone’s published curriculum. For this, I’m not a part of any group. For this, I’m often evicted from certain communities for not doing the same thing the others are doing. If you don’t use Ambleside Online exactly as listed, I feel you are shunned by the AO purists. When I was using Classical Conversations resources as I saw fit, I was constantly admonished for not “trusting the process.” Veering my own direction as I meet the needs of my children is not leaving the path of God’s design, as I’m quite certain God does not have a hard rule on studying a specific topic in September verses February, or a requirement to do school for 8 months rather than year round, or that everyone has to been on the same exact topic at the same time in order to be part of a community. For this, I found Arment’s book a life giving relief after being a maverick black sheep in most homeschool communities. I show up for my kids to have people, I’m in the online groups for the exchange of ideas. I determined this week, I should probably just stay off the internet unless I’m blogging because my ideas are too fluid for those who write their own curricula.
The humor in this mentality amongst homeschool groups is that: aren’t we all bucking the system already? Why would those staying out of a system that doesn’t work for them choose to be a lemming in another system. Sharing ideas and curricula you’ve made is wonderful. I have some I’ve made as well; but when I share it, I share it knowing that it will (and should) be tweaked by the family using it. Why? Because each family unit is unique, each student is unique. I’m sharing what worked for me in case it works for you. I love reading through what works for others to see if it will work for me. The idea that our homes must all be identical is insane to me.
So without realizing it, I have embodied what Arment describes as “wild and free” for years, despite being methodical and extremely diligent. Being wild doesn’t mean abandoning guidelines, rules, or structure. It often comes with embracing rhythms rather than strict schedules. It comes with studying high school level Chemistry as an 8th grader, outside sprawled in the grass, but regularly sitting at the table for Algebra I. It means knowing that STEM can absolutely be prepped for through nature study. I actually had to defend that online earlier this week… the idea that a student can be fully prepped to engage in college level science due to their extensive nature studies was something I thought was common sense. Look at Isaac Newton, for example. People actually think you cannot study fractals and Fibonacci swirls, chemistry, physics, trigonometry, and calculus, without sitting in a classroom at a desk. I find this baffling. Nature philosophy is how every scientist from the beginning of time got their start, why does modern society discredit it so quickly?
If you are a parent doubting your ability to walk the homeschool path through graduation with you child, I urge you to read Arment’s book. Also try Julie Bogart’s The Brave Learner, Charlotte Mason’s Home Education series, and Law’s and Lygren’s How to Teach Nature Journaling or Anna Comstock’s Handbook of Nature Study. If you’ve been on the homeschool path awhile and don’t seem to “fit” anywhere, read The Call of the Wild and Free and know that it is ok. Your kids are learning, you probably do have friends, it just doesn’t feel like it sometimes when people get pigeon-holed into “you must do it this way or the highway” mentalities.
To anyone reading this, I do not subscribe to the practice of gatekeeping knowledge. My toxic trait is: the second someone tries to do so, I absolutely think less of them. After reading Arment’s book, I think quite highly of her.
Anakalian Whims 