Education is about more than......

I was involved in a conversation about education on a friend's Facebook status last week and one of the comments was "education is about more than building dens out of boxes" or words to that effect. It's really got me thinking about what education means to me as an educator. 

I'm going to complete that sentence again using just a few of the things we have been doing this week so far. 

Education is about more than.......

 -Learning that Mozart wrote the tune Twinkle Twinkle and then learning to play it on the piano

 -Learning how to make white sauce

 -Building a den

 -Playing on Minecraft and learning to code, make friends with home educators all around the world     and creating amazing things using team work

 -Dictation of sacred hymns

 -Playing with friends who normally attend school as it's half term

 -Making a vegan lasagna from scratch and without using a recipe

 -Creating wooden spears at Longleat

 -Reading books

 -Learning about maps

 -Making pictures

 -Blowing eggs and then decorating the shells

 

Education is about so much more than all of those things individually, education is about all of those things collectively. It's about broadening horizons, trying something new, learning a concept because it's interesting at that moment. It's about more than school, more than home, more than books and museums and being with other people. It's about living. 

"There is no difference between living and learning.... It is impossible and misleading and harmful to think of them as being separate" - John Holt

Home education is hard work. In no way is it the easy option. My house is noisy and messy and I'm exhausted all of the time. It's frustrating when it goes wrong and my plans don't work. It's a trial when for whatever reason, family relationships are not as harmonious as they should be. But, home education is about living, about education and about so much more!