Tim Hawkins admits he doesn't know. In one of his routines, he says, "The kid knows Greek, but he still eats bugs. What grade is that?"

Henry Cate

Ignore the health benefits of eating bugs for the moment.

Children develop skills at a variety of rates. This fact is far more important to their education than student's "date of manufacture." The practice of grouping students into "grades" is about crowd control, organization and labeling. Saying that a student is in Fifth Grade tells us nothing more than an age span.

This past Sunday, one of the teachers was away. We were given another grade level to teach in our class. Not a problem. A few more children weren't able to read yet, but that wasn't a big deal. We pressed on anyway. I teach Sunday School in such a way that the age of the kids doesn't matter much.

Literature-based curriculum has a similar benefit. Good books don't have a specific age attached to them. In fact, I personally enjoy books in every single one of Sonlight's homeschool curriculum programs. And we get comments every year from well educated parents who tell us that they learned a ton from the year of Sonlight.

Your child isn't best served by focusing on the grade he or she is "in." Far better to choose an appropriate program that covers the topics you want your student to study next. That's why we recommend several of Sonlight's Core programs for a particular age or grade.

What's more, without a specific grade, you can teach students of multiple ages with the same homeschooling curriculum. That saves you time and money. Both of which are good things.

So next time you're asked what grade your child is in, consider quoting Tim Hawkins: "The kid knows Greek, but he still eats bugs. What grade is that?"

If that does not satisfy your interrogator, you could always add: I use a Sonlight program. It's fantastic.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Empty Nester

"Wait. Glass isn't a slowly moving liquid?"

I blinked at the comic on my screen.

Before long I was researching "amorphous solids" and trying to get my head around molecular structures and the general lack of agreement as to what, precisely, glass is.

Then I'm jamming out to a French Revolution history lesson set to a Lady Gaga tune. (Seriously, check that out.)

A few minutes later I'm reading about homeschoolers using their free time to work on a stop motion video. It takes me back to my early days of creativity.

Web comics, "Bad Romance," filmmaking. What's this? Schools closed during the Great Depression?

This is compelling stuff. It makes me want to learn. I'm jumping into the subjects of history, economics, physics, art. And I'm doing it because something grabbed my attention. I feel compelled to learn. What's more: It's a natural part of my day. I love that homeschooling gives us the flexibility to study something we find intriguing.

And yet, I agree with Henry Cate: These things can entice students and pique their interest, but it can't replace focused learning through instruction.

Sonlight is a fantastic homeschool option because the natural compulsion to learn is built into the engaging books of Sonlight's homeschooling curriculum. Sonlight fosters a desire to learn because the books draw you in. The demand for compulsory education is drowned out by the chant that we read more.

Sonlight takes the great parts of homeschooling--such as the flexibility to enjoy life-long learning whenever/however it comes up--and adds to these the wonder and joy of a literature-based home education.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Empty Nester

Post after post today contained pictures of homeschoolers doing their homeschooling thing. Children sitting at their desks with their math textbooks. Kids filling out worksheets. A family spread around a table, pencils in hand.

Conspicuously missing from these pictures of homeschool life is the one thing I remember from my own. Absent were the kinds of photos that pepper the Sonlight Catalog every year. I didn't see a single image reflecting the Sonlight ideal of how we learn together.

This omission reminded me of a proposed marketing theme from years back. The idea capitalized on the way Sonlight is such a radical shift from the norm. I couldn't find a mockup of the concept, so I tossed one together:

Welcome to Your New School

When I think of homeschooling, I picture myself near the couch. The sofa = school. Whether we were crammed onto it during an exciting story, or playing near it while my mom read about far off lands, or draped across it while lost in another world, the couch is the central image of my homeschooling experience.

There's something friendly, inviting, family-oriented, and literature-focused about my memory of the family room couch. And reading--together, alone, or out loud--is my image of homeschooling.

When you think of homeschooling, what image pops into your head?

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Empty Nester

P.S. I couldn't find a picture of the "Welcome to Your New School" image, but I did find an old snapshot of myself. It seemed blog worthy to me:

Worksheets? This is Homeschool!
(said in my best Spartan voice)

As my dad recently blogged: The new year is a time for considering the future. But it needs to be more than just figuring out what new things we are going to do.

We also need to figure out what we're going to stop doing. With a limited amount of time each day, we have to "pick our battles." We can't do it all. So along with resolutions like reading more, exercising more, praying more, or whatever other things we will do more of... what are we going to do proportionally less of?

Put another way: What are we going to stop, quit, cease and desist?

If you've been following this blog long enough, you may recall the start of our adoption story and then our surrogate parenting gig. But now, just as the days of being surrogates came to a close, our adoption story is over as well.

I left a message with the agency. I hate leaving messages.

That text message, from my wife, was the conclusion of this crazy journey. The impact of this change is vague and muted. We've been living as if the adoption were over for a long while now. We just finally, with the new year, made it official. We pulled the plug.

Unplugged

Will it free us up to do other things? I don't know. I guess. Perhaps.

Any changes at the start of this year for you?

If you're looking for a tool that will help you with your homeschool planning, don't forget to make use of your Sonlight Instructor's Guide.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Empty Nester

P.S. Brittany blogged yesterday after she called the agency.
P.P.S. The fact that I'm not using Sonlight with my own kids does cause me to question the future of what I have to offer here on Sonlight Blog. I felt I had a certain amount of blog cred from being on the adoption journey. I feel I've lost that now. That loss stings as well.