Learning Lifestyles

The real purpose of this blog is to share mini-biographies of famous homeschoolers, but I thought I should let you know a little bit about myself every now and then.  This is the story of how I got started home schooling.

I first heard about homeschooling sixteen years ago when my oldest child was just a baby. I read an article in a magazine about Rebecca Rupp’s family and was inspired by her story. Her life seemed so cozy – reading great books around the woodstove, painting a paper mache globe at the dining room table, long walks in the woods and plenty of time for meaningful conversations. I thought to myself, “That is the life I want for my kids.” In my typical fashion, I then set about learning everything I could about homeschooling, learning, and child development. I am a book fanatic so it doesn’t take much to trigger a reading/research spree. Even after my oldest reached school age and I officially did not send him to school, I was still researching and deliberating on how exactly to do this homeschool thing. There were so many conflicting opinions! Some experts laid out detailed rigorous curriculum plans; some advised a relaxed child-led approach. There were a number of different theories of child development proposed by teachers such as Maria Montessori, Rudolf Steiner, Raymond and Dorothy Moore, and Charlotte Mason. Over the years I tried a number of different methods with my three children. Sometimes I swung like a pendulum from one extreme to the other! With the passing of time and gathering of experience though, I swung less and less. I now have found my center. Everyone’s center will be different. There is no one right answer for every family. The trick is finding what works for you and maintaining the courage and patience to see it through.

I could best describe my philosophy as relaxed and eclectic. My gut instinct told me that we all learn best what we choose to learn. John Holt’s concept of unschooling or child-led learning made sense, but it took a lot of trial and error to find the best way to apply this. When my children were young, it was frustrating for all of us not to have a “plan.” If I were to say, “What do you want to do today?” They would often suggest some sort of craft or building project. I would inevitably be missing some key ingredient of the project and have to either go out and get it or pick something else to do. Or they would tell me they wanted to learn about how chicks grow inside eggs and I didn’t have a single book in the house to explain it (this was before internet!). It worked much better when I started making lists with each child ahead of time to find out what they wanted to learn about and what craft projects or science experiments they wanted to do. This way, they still had ownership of the process and I had time to get things organized. I must admit, I threw in some unit studies along the way (such as Ancient Greece, Vikings, Native American mythology, geology) that were not their idea but were nevertheless enjoyed. Some of my carefully prepared unit studies (castles, pioneers, chemistry) were dropped due to lack of enthusiasm. I had to learn not to take it personally if they weren’t interested in the amazingly cool project I had prepared for them – but who wouldn’t want to build a model of a castle complete with catapults? Timing is everything. If one kid is really absorbed with snakes, the other with logic puzzles, and another with drawing a handbook of “Fairies from Around the World,” then sometimes it’s best to just run with it.

It is so much more efficient to learn about something when you’re ready for it and interested, then to be compelled to learn it based on someone else’s “Scope and Sequence.” However, I do think it’s important for parents to be aware of various lists of books and curriculum topics. The old rule of thumb that you should know the rules before you break them is applicable here. You may read about some great book or a topic of study that never would have occurred to you alone, but your child would love. You could even share the lists with your kids to see if anything catches their eye. Another advantage to knowing the rules is being able to weave appropriate skills into your child’s chosen interests. If you know that most 3rd graders are being taught to capitalize the proper names of states and countries, there is no need to run out and buy a workbook on capitalization. You’ll simply be ready, when the opportunity presents itself to ask the child, “Why do these words on the page start with capital letters?” Don’t answer your own question. They may not know the answer right away, but over time, looking at more books and signs, they may figure it out – and the discovery will be far more valuable and memorable because they learned it themselves. This is of course, very hard for adults to do. It is appealing to dispense answers and instructions to our own captive audience, but so much more effective not to!

I'll talk about what I did for math in a future blog entry . . .