The KONOS Learning Home…

Inquisitiveness: Searching For The Truth

We are into week 5 of our KONOS studies for the new year. Our unit has had many exciting things in store for us and as I look over what has seems to have been a very disturbed time, { a house move and the general unsettled vibe that goes along with that}, we have done enough to satisfy that small voice that exists inside every homeschooling mama.

Our Explorer Map is looking quite full at the moment, and this week are going to be adding a whole lot more to it as we finish up explorers. English explorers fall into this week which is great as I can tackle a bit of English history with the girls.

Our bright Explorer cards are a great ‘at-a-glance’ reminder of how many explorers lives we have covered. Again – it picks me up when I begin to feel panicky at the thought of perhaps not having done the amount of work we would have ordinarily done during more settled times.

We have had plenty of time to chat over the character trait of Inquisitiveness though and have had some great talks about the importance of being inquisitive pursuers of Gods Word. Our Bible program that we use in the morning, has us learning Exodus 20 at the moment. In verses 4-6 the LORD makes it very clear that we are not to idol worship, ‘to make an idol in the form of ANYTHING in the Heavens above, the earth beneath or the waters below’ and that we are not to bow down to any idol. We have experienced this very thing in mainstream Christian churches – it falls under the guise of tradition and religion. These verses lead to long discussions along the lines of how important it is to be inquisitive as Christians, inquisitive about what Gods Word had to say about such things. It is free for all of us as Christ followers to find. God’s Word is not hidden. These, I feel, are issues that are important, far more important than whether we have done all the activities in the curriculum. These are the conversations I need to remember!

Our row of explorer cards have grown, as I mentioned before, and the explorer train is set to grow quite a bit this week before they all come down and we begin the review activities.

What I wanted to share with fellow KONOS families – well, this could be relevant for all home educators really, was a tidbit on books and resources. KONOS always has a long list of lovely books with each topic withing each unit. Now we have been using KONOS long enough to know that those suggested books are just that – suggested. I usually look for the most highly recommended ones, the ones that you really do need for a unit or which will be needed for a few units and purchase those. I then just fill in the gaps with anything on the topic that I can find on the library shelves at the time.

But sometimes – and this week is one of those times for me – I have not been able to get to the library to find books on the explorers that we are going to be looking at. In fact I have struggled to be fully prepared for this weeks unit period!

 First thought – PANIC! What am I going to do??? Next thought – after a cup of coffee :o) – ‘Mainlesson‘! Aaahhh. Yes, I remember that this website has oodles of wonderful living books, free for the reading, on just about anyone or any historical event that you could want to cover. Better yet, it’s all in fantastic story form, and children – and this adult for one – learns history best from stories. History comes alive with stories, they explain connections between people and events, and they give the big picture.

I just typed in the names of the people that we needed to read about this week, copied and pasted the stories into a word document and hit the print button. Point is – that there is a wonderful free resource out there at a the touch of a button. I tend to forget that as I go on my merry way and it is something that I want to – need to remember. I think I need to write a post-it note to myself and stick it on the front of my weekly planning sheets. It could read something like, ‘Check out own bookshelves first, then favourite websites’ ;o)

Anyhoo, I’ll wrap up my meandering pondering on planning and so on there. Hope to see you all here soon :o)

Blessings…