How to Succeed at Home Education: Principle #3

 "Principles are concentrated truth, packaged for application to a wide variety of circumstances."
-- Richard G. Scott

Today I want to emphasize something important: I am figuring out the majority of this as I go along. I am a beginner homeschooler, though I do have the advantage of having been homeschooled myself. This means that my principles are works in progress. They may contradict each other at times, or I might have to go back and adjust something I said earlier. I am certainly not perfect at any of this. In fact, I am primarily writing this blog for myself to help me to remember the things that I am learning throughout this process. I hope you'll forgive me when I will undoubtedly have to repeat or clarify myself.

Additionally, I wanted to make it clear that I am trying to find and share true principles. Principles are the bridge between Truth and Application. Truth is universal, but not always clearly applicable. Applications are personal and flexible but worse than useless unless based upon truth. Principles are the building blocks I desire to share because, once understood, they can be adjusted and applied broadly. I really hope I don't come across as either a know-it-all (because I don't) or a believer that one-size-fits-all, (because it doesn't!)

Today I want to elaborate further on a principle which I only touched on briefly in the last post.

Principle #3:  Embrace the chaos and mess.

This doesn't mean there has to be constant chaos or unmanageable mess.  What it means is that you shouldn't let the possibility of a mess or a certain degree of chaos keep you from doing things (or allowing your children to do things) which will cultivate their minds or spark their imagination.

I had this principle emphasized in my mind as I watched a children's science show with my daughters. The kids on the screen were playing with water in a swimming pool in their backyard. At one point they push down the side of the pool and water flows out and floods a piece of the lawn. My reaction: "Stop them! They're wasting water and making a muddy spot and killing the lawn!" And then I remembered how much they were probably learning from that experience. I committed myself at that moment to being a little more flexible and open to the messes that teach lessons.

Sometimes we fail to give our children the learning experiences that would benefit them most because of a desire to not waste the resources we have collected. Almost inevitably, this attitude will have an ironic result.

For example, I have a whole shelf of school supplies in the back room that I continually procrastinate pulling out because of the anxiety and work it would produce. But resources locked away for a rainy day don't do anyone any good.

That being said, another important principle is BALANCE. I tell my kids I can only handle one big thing per day, (or per week depending on my energy level.) And though my house gets pretty crazy throughout the day, it's amazing what five to fifteen minutes here or there can do for order and cleanliness. Plus, I believe that learning to clean is an important part of my children's education, so I try to include them whenever I can.