A Little Way of Homeschooling

I think a big part of my spiritual journey, and the ongoing journey of raising children has been beautifully summarized in , St. Therese' Liseiux- "Little Way"

Now it has come back to me, gently, with love and friendships in a new book, just published

A Little Way of Homeschooling:
Thirteen Families Discover Catholic Unschooling

I wish you could see what went on the the background of the creation of this book. I only have a small glimpse of it, the glimpse of being one of the homeschool moms Suzie Andres approached to see if we could 'write a chapter'. I have known Suzie through email lists and forums for years and we *almost* met a few times, :)

The other 11 moms and I have known each other for years and years as well. Some I know just as fellow posters on various lists, others I have become very dear friends with and met in person. We all have one thing in common. We are in love with our faith, in love with our vocation and struggling mightily each day to raise our children, understand them and help them be who the are called to be.

Well, in addition to that, in one way or another we were drawn to unschooling. My chapter ended up being an autobiography of sorts. I had all these great ideas to really make this incredible insightful, power-packed chapter. But, St. Terese stepped in. Little. Be little. That is what homeschooling for 15 years has finally impressed upon me... I am so little. Life is little. Little is sweet and where the most humongous sweetness is. Bigger love than mighty things can ever bring.

This was hard for me because I was raised in the ME generation of the 70s and 80s and went to business school to learn how to be a VP of something one day.

Big big big.

I am continuing to learn that God does expect big things of us, but we have to be little to let him determine how we are to be big.

Big-little-big-little.. this explains a recurring dream since childhood I have had- almost like an Alice in Wonderland thing.. feeling very tiny, then growing big, then feeling tiny.

Back to the book- Suzie asked, we each wrote a chapter, some of us with more trepidation than others. I had grand ideas, ended up with a rather simple account then I wondered 'who would buy this book'? But, when I read the whole thing, I saw the stories, some simple as mine, were powerful in their simplicity and honesty.

Then, we have the beautiful insights from Suzie and her husband Tony who is a professor at St. Thomas Aquinas Academy in California. I wish he had explained unschooling to me, as he has done in the chapter he contributed, years ago as I struggled with the entire concept, wondering if I was truly loving my kids or ruining them... but then, I think it is all about the journey.

Oh.. good blog title!

I have loved this journey.

I invite you all to read our little book. I will post more about the behind the scenes of how it came together in another post.

But for now, please read, enjoy, share. Your stories are part of this, too.