The Need to Simplify

I am a self-proclaimed curriculum junkie. I love looking things up and researching various resources, approaches, and philosophies in education. Thankfully, I do not have the budget to allow me to purchase all of the wonderful things out there. But that does not stop me from reading up on it. Consequentially, I have made a sort of name for myself as someone to go to for questions regarding curricula. I must talk to much. I tend to do so when I am excited about something and education and homeschooling excite me.

Anyway, A few weeks ago I was asked what my bare bones curriculum selections would be. What would I use if I was homeschooling on the road, (or in a sailboat sailing around the world) or what I would like to have in an emergency type situation without any outside resources. I had not really considered this idea before and being the nerd that I am, I had to come up with an answer; it was a new challenge. I finally compiled a list and added it here. I really enjoyed the process.

I really am a want to be minimalist. I love the idea of getting rid of stuff and having an empty house. My brain would then be free from having to care for all that stuff that I only use on occasion if at all. So why do I have so much stuff? Yes all the extra is fun, but I don't need it. With education, it is that "school I want to have someday." I tell myself that "even if my children do not use it, someone will. I should keep it for then." Whatever!!! So my problem is that I am also a collector. I also love self-reliance and collect items that would be helpful in an emergency or back-to-basics type lifestyle. All this extra just-in-case just gets in the way of my purging.

But going through the process of analyzing my options, deciding what I would really need, I realized how little it was. I now feel free to let more of that stuff go. I do not need to complicate my life so much. Now I just need the time to de-clutter my junk.

So recently I have become a recovering curriculum junkie. On to recovery and the end of the eternal search for the "perfect curriculum".