Piney Woods Homeschool

I’ve been mulling this statement for awhile and wanted to share it in case it might be an encouragement.  As I understand it, " the perfect is the enemy of the good " comes from the engineering world (although originally it was said by Voltaire–see the link), a caution to engineers not to chase perfection so far that they eliminate good solutions in the search for that one perfect solution that can’t be found. I think this applies to homeschooling as well.  Are you trying to create the perfect home environment or nature outing or library or … or … ?  Why not settle for "good enough" and move on?  Good enough is so many times much better than what you otherwise would have had, and what you give up as you try to achieve perfection is not worth giving up for that small improvement over good enough. BTW, FlyLady says something similar about how our quest for perfection often paralyzes us.  That’s why she says to just set the timer for 15 minutes and d...

In Charlotte Mason’s Volume 2, Parents and Children , in Chapter 16, Discipline , she talks about the difference between a system and a method.  She is presenting a method of education rather than a system.  Here are some thoughts on the difference, from an online discussion of Volume 2. Think of caring for babies.  Some baby care manuals are systems, where you are given very specific instructions for exactly when to feed, diaper, play with, ignore, bathe, etc. the baby.  Some baby care manuals are methods, where you are given some general principles but you have to use your own judgment to apply those principles to your specific baby.  I’ve noticed that the systems are very popular, and I think in part that’s because they help us feel like we are doing the right thing when we don’t feel confident in our own judgment.  What happens, though, if your baby has special needs or doesn’t fit the standard "baby mold" that the system expects?  Th...