Politics and Homeschool

Our kids have been very interested in the political events of late. I bet yours are, too. We spend so much time talking about the debates and issues in the mornings, in the car, before bed, that I decided to switch gears in our school curriculum for the next few weeks.

Normally we use the Build Your Library curriculum as our core and supplement science with group classes. Build Your Library (BYL) is a literature-based, history rich curriculum which uses Story of the World as its spine and much historical fiction for the literature. It’s Charlotte Mason inspired, so mostly learning through experience. I add in map work and documentaries to make it work for our kids. But as our interest is moving towards American politics, I am planning to skip most of our BYL work except the Story of the World readings and our timeline, to make room for a cool Presidential Elections Unit Study I found on Oklahoma Homeschool.

The first week of the study has the kids do research on voting rights around the world on the CIA website. It’s a really cool idea but there was no direction to the research. When my kids are given an assignment like that they mostly just look at me and say, “What am I supposed to be doing?” So, I made them this CIA Voting Rights Factbook Scavenger Hunt to get them going. They loved it so much that I’d like to share it with you. Feel free to download it, and even share the link to this page. Let me know if your kids use it and what you think. I’m planning on making more of these scavenger hunts, so look for more later.

CIA Voting Rights Factsheet Scavenger Hunt

More Than a List

Every morning 9am comes. It rounds the globe with the sun perched just above the roof on your eastern neighbors’ house. You can count on this daily event. But sometimes 9am comes as a surprise as you suddenly remember that you are supposed to be at a classroom thirty minutes away with three dressed humans in your company. This discovery will be a frantic experience if you are currently sitting on the couch eating an apple in your pajamas with your three humans still in bed.

If you value emotional balance the sudden discovery that you are late is about as stabilizing as an earthquake.

Sit down with your journal in the morning. Learn to love the list. Don’t be tempted to believe that list making is something that Type A people do to maintain control.

See my list below which lists theList things a list is:

    • a meditation on your day.
    • a creative expression of your expected future.
    • a prayer for gratitude for everything that happens which you are able to acknowledge with a simple check mark.
    • a prayer of supplication for the energy to do the things you haven’t yet check-marked.

There is no guilt in an unfinished list. Life happened to you today and your plan said, “I’m right here on this list. You’ll get back to me as soon as you have a moment’s peace.”

Bond with your list. Give it a doodle, a sketch or a poem to keep it company. Let it know that you don’t find it mundane. It is the sacred documentation of your most valued tasks– this work of yours. The glorious minutes of the names of your friends, your valuable meetings, your unique vocation and place on this Earth. Sit with it. Meditate on it. Let it live on paper and outside of your brain so that your brain can be free to engage with this singular moment. To give every happening its due time.