What Root Beer Taught Me About Homeschooling

I just discovered a new root beer love. My tastes have always leaned toward the two letters with an ampersand between draft root beer brand persuasion. But recently, I was introduced to a root beer with a name similar to that of a beloved snowman I grew up with.

In fact, I was on my front porch sipping my first Frostie when I drafted this post. I am a retired homeschool mom, having educated my children from cradle to graduation. On the homeschooling journey, root beer taught me a few things.

New Loves are Seasonable

We may enjoy the same brand of root beer for decades until we develop an interest in a new taste. It’s like that with homeschooling.

As moms of home education, life may start to taste the same day in and day out —laundry, dishes, teaching, laundry, dishes, teaching. But we can develop new edu-tastes.

If you are content with your favorite brand, stick with it!  But if you are looking for something new, something different, something to liven up your homeschooling adventure, look into a different way of learning.

Remember: Homeschooling is One of Your Passions

I remember feeling that resources—like grocery budgets—limited my freedom to dig into my own passions, my own interests, my own tastes. But then I discovered something about myself; I imagine you may be able to relate.

Homeschooling is one of your passions, or you wouldn’t be doing it.

Do people drink root beer because they have to? No, they do it because they enjoy root beer. You do enjoy homeschooling, or you wouldn’t be setting aside so much of your life to do it.  Sometimes, we just need to get a different taste in our mouths from a fresh recipe to see how much we enjoy it.

Invest in Your Homeschooling Passions

Like all worthwhile aspirations, homeschooling takes time. And a lot of energy. And some money. If we homeschool out of a passion for learning, a passion allowing our children to discover life, shucking the edu-oyster side by side, then we are investing in our passions.

Other interests may need to sit on the refrigerator shelf, waiting for the day you can pop that puppy open on a hot day. But it will wait for you. Your children won’t. Even a rose bush follows seasonal rhythms knowing its beauty will diminish if it attempts all its tasks simultaneously.

Appetizing Lessons

The biggest challenge to our taste buds—whether of root beer or education materials—is avoiding the bland, the tasteless, the sipping for sipping sake, the generic text if our edu-tastes aren’t sparked by generic.

It’s easy to forget we want to do what we’re doing when some of the tasks are less than appetizing. Bright Ideas Press curriculum has a way of turning interesting subjects into powerful, hands-on, hearts-in time with our families.

Even the subjects less interesting to us—maybe because we’ve only tasted the generic brand—come alive with creativity, sparking interest in cells, vacuoles, Julius Caesar, and Leonardo da Vinci.

Generic curriculum, no more! We have tasted life! Learning becomes a gourmet experience, inviting all of our senses to engage.

Back to the Root Beer Story

I may have sipped one of my last bottles of root beer with my son for a long time to come. He is now interning in DC, hoping for full-time employment as a journalist. We’ve shared a lot of life together and a LOT of root beer.

We’ve created cookie systems of cardiology, we’ve picked through owl pellets (ok, the kids did that, while I held the anti-ick spray), we’ve talked history into the wee hours of the night, travelled the globe in our living room, and so much more.

Now, it’s time to share life apart. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, there’s plenty right about it. While he digs into his world of interest, I have time to explore more of my own.

Change Your Tastes Forever

Pop the top off the good stuff, friends. Explore all that Bright Ideas Press has to offer your family.  It’ll change your tastes forever.