Passiflora Incarnata

There are numerous reasons for why we homeschool.  What happened today is just icing on the cake.  God is moving me (us) to live more simply.  I could go into a whole blog post about that one, but I'll save it for another time.  But, I am also approaching our homeschool more "simply".  "Gentle schooling" is really the best word to describe it.

When I first started a few weeks ago, I thought school had to be... well, school.  Everyone sit down, pencils ready, raise your hand, reading from 9:00-9:28, math from 9:29-10:03... Yada, yada, yada.  OK, maybe I wasn't that meticulous, but you get the point. Well, as you can imagine, that worked for all of about 3 seconds.

God opened my eyes to the fact that our schooling didn't have to mirror institutionalized schooling... Or look anything like it, for that matter.  Life is learning.  We want our kids to have learning spirits and, well, the way I started wasn't accomplishing that goal.  If fact, it was giving me opposite results.

So here we are.  Three weeks later and moving in the direction of doing school the way that works for us.  I won't take this post to go into all of what that is, but here is a little glimpse.

Thanks to my sweet friend, Lia, the girls had some fun friend time with her 3 little girls ages 5, 3, and 1.  Because Lia is a homeschooling momma, she also has the desire to develop a learning spirit in her girls.  Instead of staying cooped up on a beautiful day, she took all 5 girls on a walk.  Not just any walk, mind you, an exploration in the simplest of places: her neighborhood.  The girls came back with a bag full of fun finds.  This was the treasure of them all:

 The Purple Passionflower

Passiflora Incarnata

So, this became the central learning of our day!  When the girls came home we journaled their find in a nature notebook.  Lia sent me information on the flower and we talked about some really cool facts on it.  Bet ya didn't know this is the state flower of Tennessee.  Also, Spanish missionaries used it as a beautiful illustration of Christ's sacrifice on the cross.  The 3 stigmata, they said, represented three nails used in Christ's hands and feet, and the five anthers were the 5 wounds he received in his flesh.  How neat to find a flower with such unique beauty and history! AND it's named of all things, the Passionflower. 

Hannah's Illustration

Ella's Illustration

I can't helped but feel incredibly blessed to be doing what I'm doing after a day like today!
(If you are at all interested, you can start following our school blog here.)