I've Been Busy

So busy, in fact, that I don't actually have time to be writing this post. I should be folding laundry or cleaning the house, or maybe I should be packing lunch for today's park day support group. I should wash my face, brush my teeth, and put on real clothes and not just the clothes that I threw on early this morning to run out the door to meet the co-op truck. I should put away the extra pancakes from this morning's Pancake Day feast.

But I'm also excited. I have been working for a couple of weeks on a new Enki project, one that brings small group grade specific discussion to our online Enki community. It's an idea that I was initially against last summer, but as the main community has grown I have seen the need for the smaller groups. I am working as part of a team that has brought all of the pieces together to form a unified whole that will nourish the entire online community, rather than fracture it, as I first feared.

I've been writing and editing tirelessly, and coordinating with other volunteers to get the grade groups up and running. We've put the word out, and will be sending invitations soon.

Smaller groups means that people will have a chance to really get into the materials and to figure out how Enki works for them. Enki started as a small private school movement, and it still works well in that environment, but in the hands of homeschoolers it is brilliant. Enki is a new educational model, being birthed right now; an educational model that stands on its own. It isn't Waldorf-lite or even a Waldorf derivative, any more than it is a Montessori derivative.

Enki Education is the most community-minded, environmentally aware, family-centered educational model I have ever encountered. It addresses the whole child in a way that I haven't seen before. Most importantly, Enki is about families.

Because of this, Enki fits all styles of home learning. Those who want to do school-at-home can put together that type of schedule. Those who prefer unschooling can read the Foundation Guides, get the underpinnings of the philosophy and child development, and go from there, strewing the path with the Enki philosophy guiding them. Tidal schoolers can go in and out, keeping an overall rhythm and moving back and forth between relaxed exploration and more focused academics. Eclectic learners can bring in pieces from other curricula and still make it all work within the Enki blueprint.

Some may a have noticed that all of my blogs were down for a few weeks. I needed time to work on the project, and to decide where I want to focus my blog writings. Look for many updates on Holistic Learning, as I write about what we do day-to-day. Also keep an eye out for posts on my newest blog, Local Learning. Local learning is an idea I've been kicking around since last June; I want to explore and write about people learning where they live.

Time's up; I can only ignore everything else that needs to be done for so long.