First, like any decisions we make outside the norm, herd and conveyor belt mentalities, deciding to educate your children in the home takes courage and curiosity. If you are reading this, you most likely have a curiosity about the notion and the process. All great learning and important endeavors ever undertaken start with simple curiosity. Jumping off the conveyor belt takes courage.
If you commit to encouraging and unleashing your children's natural curiosity, you will find that underneath the exterior shell they probably wear when attending school, they are really highly self-motivated. All human beings are naturally curious about their environment, community and world. Our biggest job in the home as parents and educators is to create and maintain fertile ground for curiosity to be born, cultivated and fueled.
Encouragement and support to pursue their own curiosities is critical, even if you do not share their interests and passions and is the greatest fuel regarding self-inspiration and learning you can give your children.
Embrace tangents. The BEST learning and teachable moments occur in those important conversations we have when we are reading something interesting in science, literature or history. Hands down, these are the small moments that create a profound richness and depth in my children. Schools are unable to routinely offer intimate conversations that occur inside the family that link together every thing they are learning with discussions, debates and experiences. I could write an entire post on the bizarre tangents we have taken that leave me buzzing with positive energy and feelings about homeschool. Tangents usually end with trying to make sense of how we started with one thing/lesson and ended up discussing something entirely different. I cannot explain how or why this is so important, but I promise to write more about this in another post. The biggest growth in myself as a home educator over the past several years has been in embracing tangents. My first year, I stuck so tightly to assignments and schedules that we had less fun, less creativity, less real learning and more tears. Five years later, I still accomplish all of the assignments in my curriculum, but I skim or skip over the bits I know they will find less interesting and really spend time on the bits that I know my children will be more curious and inquisitive about. This is another area that schools cannot compete in.
Demand healthy interactions inside the family. This is one thing I am very structured about and expectations are clear. There is a zero tolerance for inappropriate remarks, teasing, bullying, physical rough housing among siblings. This will carry over into their ability to function well with other children and adults, despite mainstream's fear-mongering that children educated in the home lack important social opportunities and interactions. We work on a consistent and reliable reward/penalty system. This concept also deserves a post of its own.
Take trips. Lots of them. Find something along the way that will tie into your curriculum that year. Then write off the trip as an expense on your tax return.
Strive to know your children and how they learn in ways you could not possibly comprehend if they were in school. My eldest went to a charter school for K and 1st grade before we began to school at home. I recall sitting through parent/teacher conferences in those early years wondering if the teacher and I were talking about the same kid. Looking back, I understand now that the teacher had assessed spot-on how my daughter learned and the positives and negatives of that learning style. The teacher explained how my daughter needed to really comprehend the material AND understand the WHY's of why she needed to know this stuff before it would be committed to her memory. Because the teacher had a class full of kids who were better at "memorizing" things, this left my intelligent daughter behind a bit in certain areas when things were not explained how she needed to absorb them. I realized at this moment that my bright but seemingly average daughter needed rescuing from "the System" that rewards children who are gifted at rote memorization. I understood that if I wanted my daughter to have a shot at excellence as measured by our modern society, I needed to take responsibility for her learning. So I did. This moment with this fine teacher combined with an intimate knowledge of my daughter's learning style helped me understand that a masters degree in education equips one to have a pretty good understanding of the various learning styles children have and how to get most of the kids to retain most of the information in a ten month period to advance to the next grade level. I testify to you that a degree in education is not necessary or required to educate your children at home.
My 12 year old (6th grade) daughter is a breeze to educate at home. A breeze and a delight. She is a bright girl who would likely be penalized in the herd system of a rote memorization reward system, because she is not "hard wired" to memorize stuff. She needs to really understand it from all angles before it sinks in. I learn like this, too. I can do that with her with ease. I am her mother. That being said, it is way easier instructing my 10 year old son who is gifted at rote memorization (more like his father). He would probably excel in the school system. But I can testify that his comprehension and ability to link complicated concepts together is unmatched to his sister's. This child who is "easier" to teach by most normal standards is perhaps my greatest challenge - to make sure he really "gets it". I can do this with him. I am his mother.
Next post will contain resources about the amazing curriculum we have used for five years.
Ciao!
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