{"id":749,"date":"2014-12-04T14:33:58","date_gmt":"2014-12-04T21:33:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/?page_id=749"},"modified":"2015-07-03T12:40:29","modified_gmt":"2015-07-03T18:40:29","slug":"jump-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/jump-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Jump In"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ammon_cornstocks2010\"My son is making goals. It gives him a lot of satisfaction to think and plan about the goals he wants to set. It almost<\/em> makes one feel the satisfaction of accomplishing something, doesn’t it?\u2014just to dream and plan about it.<\/p>\n

But planning to do something is not<\/em> doing it! It is just thinking<\/em> about doing it!<\/strong><\/p>\n

So often, this can be the case with homeschool. A malady can set in for homeschool mothers\u2014the “I-Need-to-Plan-First” sickness. Now, I don’t think there is a thing wrong with planning. Things go very well when there is pre-planning. But if the need for planning is delaying actually getting started doing something, then I would advise you to just “jump in”!<\/p>\n

Jumping right in and doing something is somehow magic<\/strong>. Just taking action has power. And when we jump in and do something, the desire to do it well sets in and replaces inertia and procrastination.<\/p>\n

I wanted to teach Louisa real art. She loves art and I thought that ceramics, sculpting, watercolor painting and working with other media would be exciting to her. I bought some clay and mentally planned to do a unit on ceramics. I could see the outline and lesson plans in my mind. First, we’ll learn about the origin of clay. Then we’ll do a simple pinch pot. Then a coil pot, then slabwork, then sculpture. . . . As usual, it can get pretty grandiose in my plans!<\/p>\n

\"jumpin1\"Well, as it turned out, I was still in my nightgown when Louisa got the clay out and showed a lot of interest in opening it and making something. I wanted to say (and probably did), “No, no, no! Not now. I haven’t got it planned out yet!”<\/em> She was eager and what ended up happening was that the clay got opened, and we ended up making slab pots (still in my nightgown). This was not how I wanted it to happen, but it was really fun. And doing the more advanced slab work first helped me to be realistic, simplify and mentally organize. Spontaneity is a good thing. Procrastination and inertia are our enemies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Don’t let the desire to “do it right” keep you from acting. Weeks and months fly by and looking at it now, a slab pot made without any planning is a lot better than no pot at all! Besides, we got hooked and made pinch pots soon after. Now we are planning to paint octopi on them, like the Minoans did. Louisa carefully looks at our history book photos of artifacts and sighs with new-found understanding, “How did they make those pots so big and good?” <\/em><\/p>\n

Glad inertia didn’t stop us!
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

\"jumpin2\"<\/p>\n

Ancient Minoan ceramic pot<\/em><\/p>\n

Jump in!<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

May I recommend:<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

\"homeschooling_louisa
\nTomorrow
\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

\"kidslaughingart\"
\nAn Educational Approach
\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

\"shipadrift\"
\nAdrift on a Sea of “To Do’s”?
\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My son is making goals. It gives him a lot of satisfaction to think and plan about the goals he wants to set. It almost makes one feel the satisfaction of accomplishing something, doesn’t it?\u2014just to dream and plan about it. But planning to do something is not doing it! It is just thinking about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[29,47],"class_list":["post-749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to-homeschool","category-homeschooling-method","tag-advice","tag-dedication","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/ammon_cornstocks2010.jpg?fit=280%2C374&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6IrRN-c5","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1531,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/homeschooling-you-can-do-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":749,"position":0},"title":"Homeschooling: You Can Do It!","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"Are you feeling a bit overwhelmed with the thought of homeschooling? Are you considering this lifestyle change? Have you just made the decision to homeschool and wonder how to jump in to this adventure? I think we all struggle to juggle all our duties\u00a0as\u00a0mom, wife, homeschool teacher, good neighbor,church member,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New to Homeschooling"","block_context":{"text":"New to Homeschooling","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/new-to-homeschooling\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Getting eaten by a dinosaur, my daughters Emily and Louisa at a science museum field trip.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/LouisaEmilydinosaur2-300x288.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1114,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/having-a-bad-homeschool-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":749,"position":1},"title":"Having a Bad (Homeschool) Day?","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"There is an eternal law decreed that for every X number of good homeschool days, you will have to endure 1 bad homeschool day. Calculating the frequency of bad homeschool days is an easy matter. Simply multiply the number of children you have under 5 by the number of children\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "How to Homeschool"","block_context":{"text":"How to Homeschool","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/how-to-homeschool\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"tornado-311711_1280","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/tornado-311711_1280-300x268.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1171,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/not-organized-not-perfect\/","url_meta":{"origin":749,"position":2},"title":"Not Organized, Not Perfect","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Help! I'm not too good at this! \u00a0I am not very organized, and I am not doing everything in homeschool that my children need and it worries me. Should I wait until next year when I can get more prepared and organized to homeschool?\u00a0I'm afraid that my kids will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Concerns"","block_context":{"text":"Concerns","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/how-to-homeschool\/homeschooling-concerns\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/skydiving-658405_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/skydiving-658405_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/skydiving-658405_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/skydiving-658405_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/skydiving-658405_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":655,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/an-educational-approach\/","url_meta":{"origin":749,"position":3},"title":"An Educational Approach","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 How does one come up with their own educational approach? 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When homeschooling mothers ask me these questions, I always suggest that they just jump in and do something\u2014don't try to decide on an approach or a curricula at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "How to Homeschool"","block_context":{"text":"How to Homeschool","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/how-to-homeschool\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"kidslaughingart","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/kidslaughingart.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6790,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/plan-b-difficult-pregnancy\/","url_meta":{"origin":749,"position":4},"title":"Plan B: Difficult Pregnancy","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am going through a difficult pregnancy and cannot manage all the subjects, preparing lesson plans, trying to get them to do their schoolwork\u2014I\u2019m just so tired. Any help? Answer: Pregnancy and birth: can there be any more pertinent lessons that these?! There is some real life educating going\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "How to Homeschool"","block_context":{"text":"How to Homeschool","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/how-to-homeschool\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/hands-105455_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C870&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/hands-105455_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C870&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/hands-105455_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C870&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/hands-105455_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C870&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/hands-105455_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C870&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1158,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/public-school-and-resistant\/","url_meta":{"origin":749,"position":5},"title":"Newly Out of Public School and Resistant","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I need some suggestions on how to motivate my 9-year-old to do any school work. I took Derek out of public school about a month ago after a lot of prayers and heart ache. He was in the third grade and we spent more time at night doing his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "How to Homeschool"","block_context":{"text":"How to Homeschool","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/how-to-homeschool\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"family7","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/family7-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7386,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749\/revisions\/7386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}