Teaching From Rest

If you have talked to me at all in the last year I have probably mentioned Read Aloud Revival or Sarah MacKenzie.  I started listening to her podcast a while ago and just loved it.  I didn't read her book Teaching From Rest until after I heard her speak at The Great Homeschool Convention.   Her book is a short read but full of great information.   I enjoyed it so much I lead an online book club this summer for our  homeschooling group.  Our book club is checking in with each other throughout the school year to see how we are teaching from rest.

My biggest take away from the book was the curriculum is a tool not my master.   I LOVE curriculum.  I have told multiple people that after I'm done homeschooling working for Cathy Duffy is my dream job.  Here's the problem - I'm a  list checker!    So if the curriculum lesson plan says I need to finish this many lessons this week - I have to finish that check list.  To fellow list makes that sounds right.   What it means is I focus on checking off the list rather than making sure my kids are learning.   I've always done a great job of resting while teaching math.  We don't move onto the next skill until you master the current one.  All other subjects we push through to finish the list.  This year we are not doing that.  I've taken the biggest step back from the list with history.   We are still doing history every week but we are using our curriculum as our guide.  So what does that look like?   We've spent more time studying subjects than the text book tells us to.  We've done less projects and read more living books.   We are not doing a time line this year.   Guess what?  It's going great!  Everyone is learning things, including me! 

I really do recommend this book to everyone, not just homeschoolers.  There is lots of great parenting advice.  If you've read it I would love to talk with you about it.