The Saturday Unschool Examen

Every Saturday, while my husband, youngest daughter and dogs are still in bed, I sit on the living room sofa, journal on my knee, scrawny cat by my side, and by the light of a lamp in the pre-dawn dark, do my Saturday examen.

I reflect on the week just passed, remembering the highlights, the low points, the successes and failures, and the little delights.

I feel grateful, thankful, blessed, forgiving, and contrite.

I think of the week ahead. What are my hopes and dreams? What tasks will I do? What changes do I need to make?

Then I turn the page: a new week begins.

This morning, after I’d closed my journal, I wondered: Could an examen have a place in an unschooling life? Could it be helpful to do a Saturday Unschool Examen? What would that look like? What benefits would emerge from reflecting on the days that have just passed?

Pondering these questions, I wrote this unschooling challenge.

Choose a time and a place

Make a regular date with yourself at the same time each week when no one needs you, maybe waking a little earlier than usual if your days are very full.
Make a cup of tea, coffee or other drink.
Grab your journal or start a journal if you don’t already have one.
Settle somewhere comfortable: snuggle under a blanket on the sofa on a cold winter’s day, sit on a verandah where you can observe the sun rising on a summer morning or go to some other favourite place.

Review your week

What were the highlights?

Did you go on any fabulous outings?
Did you have a solo adventure?
Did friends come to visit?
Were there any achievements that made you smile?
Did you experience unexpected joy?
Did you add joy to your family’s days or someone else’s?
Did someone add joy to yours?
What books and movies did you and your children enjoy?
Did you have any interesting conversations?
What made you laugh?
What made you feel alive?
Were you curious? What did you discover?
What delicious ideas did you ponder?
Did you run, dance, walk along a wall or jump off a travellator with a huge grin?
Did you make some progress on a project of your own?

What were you grateful for? In what ways were you blessed? Did you feel loved? Did you love well?

What were the low points?

Did you face any crises? Ill health? Bad news?
Were there any difficult days when life fell apart?
Were you tired, impatient, critical, frustrated, or annoyed?
Did you fail to listen?
Did you find it hard to let go of control?
Did you compare and feel dissatisfied?
Did someone say something that dented your confidence?

Why did things go wrong? Can you make any changes? Apologise and try again? Forgive? Remember what’s important? Ask for help? Find some support? Do an unschool challenge? If circumstances were beyond your control, can you accept them and go with the flow?

What were the little delights of your week?

Did you receive a flower from chubby child fingers?
Did the sunshine glow on your child’s hair, making a halo around her head?
Did you witness a spectacular rainbow or sunset?
Perhaps you appreciated a coffee or a few minutes to yourself.
Did the cold air kiss your cheeks when you went for a walk, turning them pink, reminding you that you are alive?
Did a bird serenade you with a heart-stirring song?
Did you find the season’s first strawberry, a heart-shaped rock, or a love note from a child written a long time ago?

Did you see God in every moment of your days?

What are your hopes for the next week?

Should you plan an outing?
Are there chores and errands that need attention?
Do your kids need your help?
How will you move ahead with your work?
Should you make a resolution: exercise or read more, look for delights, try not to criticise?
Do you need a new challenge?
What about doing an unschool challenge?

Thinking about questions like these, and scribbling notes in a journal might seem like hard work. We could find many excuses not to reflect on our lives, including that we’re too busy living to write anything down.

But what would happen if we ignored the excuses and did a Saturday Unschool Examen each week?

By pausing, reflecting and paying attention, could we slow down life that so easily slips away, hour by hour, month by month, year by year? We might appreciate each day to the full, capturing memories, recognising the blessings, and noticing the little details and delights.

We could discover we’re loved without limit and want to love the same way.

We could adjust where we’re going so we use our talents, fulfil our missions, and help each other become the people God intends us to be.

And we might feel at peace, knowing we’re moving forward.

Isn’t that worth thirty minutes of our time at the end of each week?

Images

A few delights of my week: sunlight shining through a leaf, a rainbow in a drizzly sky, a nighttime kangaroo visitor, a half-priced lipstick, rippling shadows of wind-blown trees on a sunny carpet, a wet doggy kiss…

…and a photo of four daughters from a few years ago that suddenly appeared on my phone.