Keeping it SIMPLE

How is it that someone blogging about their family ‘Come, Follow Me’ and homeschool journey has any credibility saying ‘Keep it simple’?  I know.  Forgive me. Please read on.

It’s just that we’ve tried learning at home, homeschooling, in SO MANY WAYS that proved over time to be unsustainable, or took much effort to plan, produce, and execute – but lacked the desired effect, despite diligent effort.  Years and years of doing things that might be effective for others, and looked good, but weren’t for us.  It didn’t matter if it was Gospel learning, academic learning, character development, developing talents.  Doesn’t matter still, now that we are within a couple of years of finishing our homeschool journey.

At the beginning of each year, I see a HUGE explosion of ideas published online for printable resources, home decor bulletin boards, worksheets, specialized journals – all about doing things, including Gospel study better – some for free, some for a fee.  Most involved incredible amounts of effort and talent for those preparing them, and may possibly involve effort and resources for those intending to use them too.

I’ve also seen (on social media) the response from less crafty or creative people, or people busy and overburdened by other concerns, who are completely overwhelmed by it all, but still hopeful that doing this will make a real difference in their life, and the lives of the people they love.

Come, Follow Me – learning truth at home – can make that difference.  More simply put, the Savior and His Gospel, simply taught, can make that difference.  When we learned this and incorporated it into our efforts to learn and educate at home, it made ALL the difference.  Here’s the key, as taught by the the fullness of the restored Gospel in the Book of Mormon.

King Benjamin instructed his people as recorded in Mosiah 4:27:

27 And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.

And this one, from the book of Jacob, verse 14.  Jacob was prophesying of the blindness of the Jewish people toward seeing Christ for who He is, seeking an over-complication of things, and thereby rejecting the very Messiah they were trying to find.

14 … Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall; for God hath taken away his plainness from them, and delivered unto them many things which they cannot understand, because they desired it. And because they desired it God hath done it, that they may stumble.

It is human nature to seek one thing to replace another, to follow a pattern we know, even if it is less effective that a recommended simple, but less familiar approach.  To ‘do school’ or ‘do church’ at home. To entertain media savvy millenials or keep little ones busy.  I know.  We’ve done it too.  Too many times.  There is another way.

A couple of years ago, we did a hard reset.  Upended most of our familiar family patterns, and moved from the Intermountain west to the Midwest onto a rural property with a barn and a 120 year old house in need of some love, a big garden, and two acres of grass to mow.  Moved from a large, well-established congregation at church to a very small branch where every single member was known and needed, many traveling a great distance to gather together.  People thought we were crazy to make this move, but we felt deeply impressed that we needed to, and so we did.  We’ve come to understand that our family had lessons to learn that we would not have learned any other way.

We had previously homeschooled for 7 of the 10 years our children had been involved in formal education with widely varying approaches and levels of success (then ages 15, 14, and 13).  The 3 years that our children were in the public education sphere early on set up an expected pattern for how learning was to be done, and then the variety of curriculum options we tried at home were all what I would call ‘doing school at home’.  It included:

• A conveyor belt of homeschool activities (including many printables, flashcards, bulletin boards, and checklists) that, if embraced over a sustained period of time, should produce an educated human on the other end.
• Going through the motions (same thing, similar ‘homework’, different setting, expecting an improved outcome).

We went back to basics in most everything in 2016.  We worked together on home projects that needed doing, we did some traveling together, we tried to serve other people whenever we had the opportunity.  After a period of time elapsed and we had reset, and after some soul-searching and wisdom-seeking as parents, we were led to people and resources aligned with our core beliefs and values, but willing to challenge our patterns and preferences regarding how to learn at home, and how to teach our children.  We kept it very simple and still do – mornings are for learning, afternoons for family and individual projects, evenings for inspiration and wholesome recreation.  No checklists, no worksheets or quizzes, no elaborate color artwork or crafty displays.  Five people, most often sitting around together in the living room or at the dining room table – reading together out loud (out of the best books, talking and making connections between Gospel principles and everything else), eventually loving learning again and seeking insights in areas of interest independently and together.

Yes, we eliminated more outside distractions and activities than we had previously (and we had previously eliminated a lot), and yes, the grass outside often grew longer than perhaps it should and the house didn’t sparkle, except occasionally.  We struggled some, and still do sometimes, but we’ve learned where to go for answers, and how we each learn best.  For our family, and perhaps for yours, we learned that simple is best.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf taught the following in October 2015 General Conference (read or listen to the whole talk, it is amazing):

This beautiful gospel is so simple a child can grasp it, yet so profound and complex that it will take a lifetime—even an eternity—of study and discovery to fully understand it.

But sometimes we take the beautiful lily of God’s truth and gild it with layer upon layer of man-made good ideas, programs, and expectations. Each one, by itself, might be helpful and appropriate for a certain time and circumstance, but when they are laid on top of each other, they can create a mountain of sediment that becomes so thick and heavy that we risk losing sight of that precious flower we once loved so dearly.

Simplify.  You know your family members and how they best learn, and if you don’t know them as well as you want to, you can come to know and love them better as you navigate learning at home together.

• If they are little ones, they learn through play and storytelling.
• If they are a little older, they crave attachment and independence (contradictions if craved at the same time), so quiet moments, simple discussions as teaching moments present themselves, and sincere interest in their interests can translate into opportunities to integrate the learning of Gospel principles into life.
• After a sometimes awkward but brief transition, teenagers long to be treated like the young adults they are, and appreciate when their parents act with integrity (modeling and inspiring rather than requiring obedience or participation), and ask for their opinions, questions, and insights.

Men and women often have very different learning styles and needs, and generational differences further differentiate the best approach for effective adult learning.  Some people learn by seeing, others by hearing, others by doing, and yet others by thinking.  Most of us need a combination of approaches. We can be so easily distracted from the simply beautiful by the ‘shiny object’.

The content of the Gospel is at the same time incredibly simple, and infinitely complex. It’s lessons will enrich us and are found in every day life.  A customized curriculum has already been prepared for each of us by God whose work and glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

YOUR immortality and eternal life (and mine).

He loves you that much, and stands ready to answer our sincere prayers, especially as we ask Him for the guidance we need.  All we need to do is seek to be on the path – the covenant path, and by His grace and the help of the Spirit, we are promised by One who cannot lie that He will answer.

That’s as simple as it gets.

Try Him.

Ask.  Seek. Receive.