I Should Have Just Read This First

I'm reading a really old book this week. It was written in the 80's and as much as I hate to admit it, that was a really long time ago. I think it was written when I was in high school.

When I first began thinking about homeschooling, I researched a lot. I read a lot of books. I read a lot online. I studied scripture. I took notes. I'm a nerd.

I came to a lot of conclusions and the book I'm reading this week is like a big 'ol summary of everything I decided back then. I could have saved time had I read this book!

The book is The Christian Home School by Gregg Harris. Father of Josh Harris. Father of Alex and Brett Harris.

One thing I liked was his thoughts on John Holt's philosophy of unschooling. I read Learning All the Time back then and something just didn't sit right with me while I was reading. I mean, I kind of agreed with some of it.....and yet. What what is? I finally decided that a Christian homeschool would be orderly and disciplined because those are godly characteristics. Unschooling doesn't seem like either one of those things to me. Feel free to disagree with me. Mr. Harris had some thoughts that really put into words what bugged me about that book. He said it very well.

He also had the best definition of "delight directed learning" I have ever heard. Now THIS I agree with. He said that all the necessary things in life were also made pleasurable by God. For example, we need to eat--God made food taste good. We need to see--God made us see in colors. Procreation? You get the idea.

Learning is also necessary and God made it to be pleasurable. Our children should enjoy learning. We should try to make things fun and delightful for them. Of course, they won't love everything they have to do...but neither do we need to operate under a "learning takes pain" philosophy. He also talks about how much our children will learn when they are delighted with something and how we can plan accordingly. The difference is the parents are still in control. He said it really well.

I'm not quite through reading, but I can't believe how much of what I'm reading was exactly what I was thinking about when I first started this journey. What other homeschooling books are must-reads out there? I think going back to thinking about all this is a good thing to do on summer break. It's helping me set my mind on next year and remember the reasons we are doing this.

So, any book suggestions for me?