Stick in The Sand
“Make things as simple as possible but no simpler. ”
I am so blessed to have found a homeschool curriculum that works for all of my kids and myself! It is called Classical Conversations. I am not advertising, but bring this up because their teaching “motto” is….. “Stick in the Sand”
“Stick in the Sand”
I am in love with this saying in so many ways! The idea is that, if you were stranded on a desert island, you would be able to teach your children well with nothing but a stick and some sand! In other words, no fancy technology, no brilliant visuals, no creative games and worksheets. Literally, if you had a stick and the sand (and I suppose something to teach), you would be able to successfully teach them everything they need to know.
Now, I definitely go beyond a stick and some sand. I use lots of creative worksheets that I find online, I try to come up with interesting visuals for my kids, songs are a family favorite…. In so many settings in our lives, we are bombarded with amazingly cool ways to do things. Better ways to do things. More economical ways to do things. I know I fall prey to this mentality often. In fact, for the first several years that I was homeschooling, I had a ridiculous number of worksheets, checklists, workbooks, games to play, books to read, teaching guides and the like. It was an organizational nightmare. I had so much, that I would forget most of it and it wouldn’t even get used! Our curriculum has a file sharing website where parents can create documents or songs and share them with other parents using the same curriculum. It is amazing and full of useful resources. The problem is, I would obsess and get an unreasonable number of these resources and never use them – but I would worry about using them!
In the past year, I have realized that this mentality is drowning me and my children. I have purged literally 100’s of books and resources and chosen only those that I will use and only one per subject (unless more are necessary). If I need a worksheet, I print one, not 5 because they are all so good. I have winnowed down my kids daily work to the basic math, writing, and reading (beyond what Classical Conversations gives us). The huge closet that I used to walk into looking for a resource that was packed full a year ago, is now very spacious and organized and I can usually find just what I need quickly.
This “Stick in the Sand” mentality has given me so much peace in both planning and teaching. And, I know that my kids have 5 books on their shelf rather than 12 (7 of which we almost never had time to look at), is much less stressful for them. I am so grateful to have learned this concept. I do giggle about how long it took me to realize that implementing it would be so freeing!
Next:
Start thinking about where you can be more “stick in the sand” in your life. If it feels lighter to lessen your load, do it! If it feels stressful to do so, don’t. It is that easy!
More:
https://www.classicalconversations.com/