Keeping the Dream Alive

While the power lasts, I find myself hanging out on property sites again today. Specifically sites listing farms and smallholdings.

If you've been around my blog for any amount of time, you'll know this is a big dream of mine - to one day live in the middle of nowhere, grow things and keep things and generally be a farmer-type.

I put the dream on the backburner when planning our near future. My son's art school, post-school studies, my attempts to get a business going, my stuck-in-a-rut existance where I currently work. Living out in the country didn't seem to fit into the plans too well, simply because we'd need to be near the city for everything we'd planned.

And then yesterday my son started to rethink the art school thing. He enjoys art, but not passionately so. He's not into formal school as such, and although an education is important, there could be other options to look at.

So late yesterday afternoon, on the way to an art class, we started to have a chat. I made enquiries to a few private schools for their info, I hauled out the old home-school stuff for a re-look, I chatted to a friend whose son is getting his education informally. And I think we could do it.

For post-school studies, my son needs a grade 12 certificate (high school completion here) and an art portfolio. Nothing fancy, nothing hectic. With his interest in computers, we're looking for options that will combine computer training, art and business skills. We may do a pick-and-choose programme, using aspects of various systems, tailor-made to who he is and how he learns. We may enroll him part-time at a high school for a class he'd not learn well on his own.

In short, the options are vast!

And not having to be near a school, necessarily, may just - JUST - mean I can take another look at my Big Dream.

Education by internet is growing, so much so that the School of the Air in Australia is closing down. Free tutorials AND paid lessons abound. A local bookshop has the entire subject range for GED on CD at a minimal price. Tutoring by a mentor is often available for specific areas of learning.

And just imagine the practical life-skills education one can get in the great outdoors!

It's not that I'm trying to escape society, isolate us or take us out of his circle fo friends. Far from it. I'd love him to experience the type of close community formed in a rural area. And a bit of hard work to keep animals, home, food etc going never hurt anyone.

Anyway, I'm just wandering my wish-list today. Most things are still way, way outside what I could ever afford. But a bit of mind-expanding daydreaming never hurt anyone.