Homeschool Mami's World

My eldest daughter and I have just finished reading the From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg. It was one of my favorite books as a child, and I haven't read it since elementary school, I think. Claudia runs away to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art with her younger brother, and along the way she tries to solve a mystery about a statue that might have been sculpted by Michelangelo. In order to find the answer to the mystery she meets a wealthy recluse, Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

One of the biggest perks of re-reading great kids' literature is that you see things you didn't see the first time. In fact, I have found another reason to homeschool from the philosophy of Mrs. Frankweiler!

Claudia said, "But, Mrs. Frankweiler, you should want to learn one new thing every day. We did even at the museum."

"No," I answered, "I don't agree with that. I think you should learn, of course, and some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything. And you can feel it inside you. If you never take time out to let that happen, then you just accumulate facts and they begin to rattle around iside of you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them. It's hollow."

And it is indeed hollow just to fill yourself up with knowledge and not give it a chance to become a part of you. In our homeschool, it is my goal that we will have the time and leisure some days just to ponder and play and think about what we are learning, and not always to be doing, doing, doing. I want my children to be filled with wisdom, not rattling around with disconnected facts and trivia. I want them to be thinkers not just consumers of information.

Homeschool Mami