We Bought a Farm: Notes From a Blue Bike

"When I ask my teacher friends, they all share the same answer. Statistics and studies have proven this fact as well. There are entire books written on the subject. And there are tons of pinboards on Pinterest and blogs on the Internet about the subject, veritable gift baskets of ideas so large we'd never have time to consume them all. I'm referring to this one simple truth: a child's home life has far more influence on his ability to learn, create, and explore than where he goes to school. Whether a child is homeschooled, goes to public school, or attends a private school, the parents remain the most influential teacher's in that kid's life. Bar non."
--Tsh Oxenreider in Notes from a Blue Bike

I am IN LOVE with this book and cannot thank my friend Harmony enough for sending it to me. It is truly like this woman is writing our story. The details are different, but she and her family lived in Turkey, fell in love with the slow pace, and then came back to America -- blown away by the speed at which they were expected to keep up.

I especially love the quote above. So many of us are in debates over how to educate our children. While I am passionate about homeschooling and I truly believe it has a lot to offer any family who tries it, I do believe that it is not the answer to the world's problems. How involved we are as parents, intentionally, makes a far greater impact, then where they go to school. Homeschooling parents can be uninvolved. Parents who send their kids to public school can be uninvolved. Private school parents can do the same. It is what we do with the time we have that truly will make the greatest impact in the lives of our children.

Tsh (yes, that's her real name!) writes about the act of living intentionally in a chaotic world. This is truly a summary of the life JB and I are striving for. It takes a conscious decision to slow down and keep your days simple. It doesn't come naturally.  (You can read my own musings on this topic by visiting my past post: The Simple Life.)

A great book to read if you are looking to simply life in any of the following ways: food, work, education, entertainment, and travel.