It’s Monday again and, for the first time in several weeks, instead of squeezing school lessons haphazardly into our day, I spent a large portion of the weekend planning and writing out plans for each third grade lesson that we would finish during the first part of this week. My intention at the beginning the current school year was to plan more effectively than last year so that my daughter, who tends to be much more interested in her own projects than schoolwork (so say we all), can have more visual/list-based cues that could help her stay on task. My plan was working brilliantly until our family became so busy with Fall activities that I lost my planning momentum.

This week would be different. With my planning, I would get us back on track and regain our far gone momentum. During breakfast, we read a Social Studies lesson about Elissa (Dido) of Carthage that would be the starting point to a day’s worth of Social Studies lessons. Afterwards, we went on a walk in our neighborhood to diffuse the grumpy, snippy mood in which we all awoke. My daughter and I were trying to figure out what kind of daily rhythm would be most conducive to both the completion of school work and to time for her numerous personal projects. But, that short stroll changed all my fruitful planning without intending to do so.

We noticed that some native wildflowers had started blooming and this lead to the collection and plant identification of 7 different species of wildflowers in our neighborhood. The tiny blossoms and their gentle existence changed the course of our week. We spent the entire day looking through regional plant guides and making field notes and sketches of our native plants. This seemingly small segue is actually a huge part of homeschooling. This is ultimately the ability to roam; it is one of the greatest benefits of homeschooling.

I am forever thankful for the freedom that we have to change the course of our day in a way that is more productive at that particular moment. Some days, math is working, some days it’s not; some days we can go down a Social Studies rabbit hole and do a week’s worth of lessons in a day; some days, we can go for a walk, and be so mesmerized by tiny flowers, that nothing else that we planned will happen and that’s absolutely okay. Plans can be shifted and they will be. The Phoenicians will wait for us. But being able to grab a hold of a moment when everyone is fully interested and utilize it to its full capacity – that can’t really be shifted or easily replicated. That’s simply the benefit of our freedom to roam.     

I think that my botanist grandmother would approve of this tangent.