Pinterest Academy: or, The Year of Living Pinterestingly

I have a Pinterest problem. No, really. We're talking 120 boards with 4,779 pins...mostly unique, although I do have a tendency to repin things that I've forgotten I already pinned sometimes. (I hear it happens a lot to us addicts.)

And they're pretty well organized, if I do say so myself. Sometimes I'll find myself with a board that has just too many pins and feel compelled to sort it out into separate boards so I can find things more easily. That's how I started out with one board called Home Sweet Homeschool, and ended up with separate homeschooling boards for Bible, geography, health, math, reading, and science. Plus the original homeschooling board, of course, which you know I can further break down into even more subjects.

It was while I was repinning awesome homeschooling ideas late last night that it occurred to me - Pinterest can be either a blessing or a curse for a homeschooling mama. It can be a blessing in that you can find ideas for teaching very nearly anything...but then, it can be hugely frustrating in that there are so many wonderful ideas, and just not enough time to do even a very small fraction of them.

In fact, one would very nearly have to pull her entire homeschool curriculum from Pinterest in order to make good use of aaaaaaall those wonderful pins.

...her entire homeschool curriculum...

...from Pinterest.

It was a crazy idea. Curriculum = books, and lesson plans, and grades. Worksheets. We do Latin, for Pete's sake. And I've already mailed a letter to the county school superintendent informing him of the books that we'll be using for school this year.

Of course, I always include the following escape clause in that letter: "I value highly the freedom to make changes when a program of study or textbook is not proving effective, and will not hesitate to do so should the need arise."

So, even though he "approved my request" *snort* to homeschool this year, he was warned that I could change it up if I felt like it. I'm not sure he would be amused if I told him that I was thinking of a Pinterest-based curriculum. But it sure beats the things she would learn from other sites, like Facebook.

In fact, given everything that I currently have pinned (and the plethora of amazing ideas still waiting to be discovered), I dare say that my girls would have a very well-rounded education if I did rely primarily on Pinterest for subject matter this year. And do you know what else they would have? FUN. Something that's sometimes altogether too lacking in even a home school environment.

It would mean more work for me. I'd have to dig through aaaaaall those pins and plan ahead...times two, since Milly is starting kindergarten this fall. (Not that kindergarten is particularly curriculum-intensive anyway.) There would be crafty stuff involved, which would mean materials to be gathered and time taken to make whatever-it-is we were making.

Gene is a fan of the idea because to him, it would mean less money spent on books...but I'm sure money would be spent on other materials instead. Probably still on books, just not textbooks.

What it would really come down to, in the end, is me. It would work if I did my job. But then, couldn't the same be said about any one of our years of homeschooling?

Stipulations would have to exist. Some existing materials would have to be used. End-of-year test scores would still be submitted. But no new curriculum would have to be purchased. All I would need is Pinterest and a little time to plan.

And wouldn't we have so much fun?

Wouldn't this be a school year that Rachael would remember - if not for the sheer novelty of it all, but for all the unique activities?

Wouldn't this be a very cool first ("real") year of school of Milly?

Isn't it cool to explore uncharted territory?

And really...WHAT harm could it do?

So. School starts on Monday. I am unofficially dubbing this school year: Pinterest Academy.

I am going to do my best to blog it, because I know a few people that would kick me if I didn't. There's not much there yet, just a copy of this blog post, but you can click on the link if you want to. And if you don't want to, then I suggest you head on over to Pinterest instead...start pinning your own education-related pins and tagging me in them, because I'm going to need them. LOTS of them.  :)