I never read homeschooling blogs, ever, except under two circumstances.
- I am connected to the author, through real-life friendship or longtime virtual friendship.
- I am actively searching for information, inspiration, ideas, or tips.
One reason I never read homeschooling blogs (except for that) is that there are too many success stories. It's a sort of Conspiracy of Wholesome Family Learning. (You know the names of some of the ringleaders.)
Okay, it's not a conspiracy -- probably -- but likely a natural phenomenon. Everybody wants to post about their best ideas and their best days. Which is fine when you're looking for ideas, but poisonous for daily consumption, because my real life looks pretty sorry next to other people's best projections of themselves.
The other reason is that there are too many good ideas. More good ideas than any parent can possibly try, let alone establish in a homeschool. I have to limit my exposure to other people's good ideas, because I don't want my imagination to be occupied with all the great curriculum and books and activities I'll never have time to do. Schooling would become a long, long list of what I don't do instead of a short, focused list of what I do do. I need my imagination to bring my real work to life.
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All this is a confession: Sometimes I want to write about my best ideas, too. I certainly do it from time to time. I write a lot about co-schooling, for example, because that was one of my best ideas ever (not that I came up with it entirely on my own, of course), and it continues to generate new good ideas, and I think it's an idea that hasn't spread and developed among homeschoolers as much as it should. But maybe I should be fair and write about bad ones as well.
So I was thinking about sparking a little series or challenge -- maybe some of you would be interested in participating -- called "Good ideas, bad ideas" (or something like that).
Even though it was homeschooling blogs that made me think of it, please take note:
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A HOMESCHOOLER
There are good ideas and bad ideas all over the place. General parenting, marriage, family life, car repair, financial decisions, entertaining, etc.
The idea of the challenge is to write a balanced post containing two stories on the same theme (e.g., homeschooling ideas, car repair, home decorating): one good idea, one bad idea. The best "bad ideas" are the ones that "seemed like a good idea at the time," of course, because they have a setup and a punchline. In fact, maybe a better challenge is "good idea that turned out even better than I expected/seemed like a good idea at the time"
Now I'm really setting myself up -- perhaps this post itself will turn out to be a bad idea -- because I don't have anything in particular in mind today. Actually, the truth is that I was going to write about one of my good ideas, but it turned into this post instead, and I decided to go with it. Now all I need is a bad idea to go with it.
I'm about to head out on a family outdoorsy outing, not to come back until late, so maybe I'll generate one in my head while I'm gone, and post tomorrow. But I'll leave you to think of one, and maybe make a post on your own blog if you have one. If you do, paste a link in the comments.
I think the other category of "bad idea" might simply be the good idea that I wrote about when I was all full of excitement about its novelty and then what really happened is I stopped doing as soon as I hit post on the blog entry but I never wrote about that part of it. I think my blog is most guilty of that. I write about a new scheme when it's just occurred to me and then my follow-through just isn't there. But I sometimes imagine this blog reader who sees those posts and imagines my life as this perfect continuation of all the plans I ever had that never made it out the starting gate. I think it's perhaps hardest to write about those bits though because there is no real punch line and frankly because I tend to mentally shove them under the rug.
Posted by: MelanieB | 09 June 2012 at 03:19 PM
Okay, I'm in. Took me 24 hours and two cups of coffee, but I think you've got something here. Want to pick a day of the week and make a festival of it? [Um, which might then turn out to be a bad idea? See, two cups of coffee. Dangerous.]
BTW I'm with Melanie -- I just get SO excited about new ideas and plans, and have to tell the world. My brain is kinda out of control.
And I think your co-schooling blogging is awesome. It makes me jealous, but not very very jealous in a sinful way. It's an excellent model that ought to be more widely used.
Posted by: Jennifer Fitz | 10 June 2012 at 07:40 AM
Love the idea!
Posted by: Sarah Reinhard | 10 June 2012 at 08:47 AM
I am a little afraid to try another "festival." Right now I am leafing through my huge mental stash of Bad Ideas trying to think of one that I can write about at longer length than "IT DIDN'T WORK SO I QUIT."
Posted by: Bearing | 10 June 2012 at 09:00 AM
My bad idea is to write something before you give us an example.
My good idea is to wait until you give us an example.
Posted by: Christian | 10 June 2012 at 05:58 PM
Yeah, okay. I agree. Festival is a bad idea, sort of. But what about a monthly one? Or how about this: What about some place that people could link, or comment with a link, their good ideas / bad ideas?
Jen <-- admits she is full of bad ideas, and this could well be one of them.
Posted by: Jennifer Fitz | 11 June 2012 at 06:11 AM
How about you just put your link in the comments and I promise to round it up?
EDITED TO ADD: I mean, this time around. If we get some enthusiasm, then we'll see about making it a recurring thing. One challenge at a time.
Posted by: bearing | 11 June 2012 at 06:39 AM