Homeschooling For Life

Homeschooling.......what an amazing adventure. It means so many things to so many people. For me, it is about real parents learning side-by-side with real kids about real issues that will help to create, for all involved, a real life.

I've been a part of the homeschool movement for nearly 15 years now. I started this journey in early 1994, just as my oldest son, Ryan, was turning 5 and the thought of sending him away to school left a bad taste in my mouth. Why would I have a child, raise him until he was 'school age' and then turn him over to someone else for the next 12 years? I was selfish. I actually wanted to raise my own son. What an novel idea!

After homeschooling for more than 10 years, our family, which now included 3 sons, moved back to northern California and our financial situation required that I began working outside the home. During this two year period, all three of my boys attended public school. Those two years seemed like an eternity, but I was finally able to return home and, once again, we picked up our homeschool adventure where we'd left off----and we discovered a popular choice for homeschoolers in California----charter schools. This option seemed to be the best of both worlds for my two older sons.

While charter schools are public schools and use traditional textbooks and/or online classes, they offer the unique opportunity to complete the required work at home under the supervision of an assigned independent study teacher, with all work being facilitated by an involved parent. My oldest son, Ryan, graduated from a local charter school in 2007 and my 17 year old, Matthew, will graduate from the same school this year. This approach, while attached to the public school system is, in my humble opinion, a legitimate way to achieve homeschool success, if you so choose. Because Matthew is at home, we are able to discuss things right then and there. We often, very often, 'chase rabbits' when it comes to discussions simply because there is so much to say about one subject and that subject is nearly always linked to another, and so on. We are a family interested in the facts, but also in knowing the more personal side to various issues, which demands involvement and conversation. The charter school option also allows plenty of time for children to explore their own creativity and the world around them----Matthew writes, reads, bikes, plays guitar, and spends time with family and friends. Some 'hardliners' refuse to accept charter schools as a 'real' homeschool option but it has worked well for us. Charter schools may not work for everyone and, I must say, that were it not for the fact that we are linked with a teacher who gives us a huge amount of freedom, I would not be willing to consider this option.

Alex at Trinidad Beach

Now, having said all that, my youngest son, Alex, who is 11, is independently homeschooled. We did, in fact, try the charter school situation with Alex the first year I homeschooled him. For a young child, I felt it was just too rigid with too many requirements. And, all the work he was doing demanded my complete involvement. So I was, in fact, homeschooling on my own anyway----I just had to turn in all the work to prove it. So, for Alex, we have embraced the world of 'unschooling'. I almost hestitate to use that term simply because it means different things to different people. I guess you could say we 'unschool' in a more structured, yet eclectic, way as compared to the most commonly accepted definition of the term.

Unschooling, for us, doesn't mean that we will never use a textbook or workbook (I will say that when and if these are used it is primarily for reference) or that we don't follow any course of study. With Alex, we maintain a loose schedule that allows for field trips, plenty of time to read about whatever we are studying at the moment and an adundance of free time for Alex to enjoy what interests him. We spend a great deal of time talking about various issues----at present we are focused on the subject of slavery because we are studying American history and have finally arrived at the 1860s and the Civil War. We are watching the Roots televison series on DVD and reading a whole range of books about the people of that era and the thoughts and ideas that were born out of such great pain----that rose from the ashes of the incredible atrocity that is slavery. We use a practical approach for mathematics and we use two amazing books for English Study: English From the Roots Up and Intermediate Language Lessons. Our 'study time' is accomplished in the morning and early afternoon which leaves ample time for Alex to use the computer, read, play, draw, daydream.......all the things that an 11 year old should be doing.

Daydreaming at the Trees of Mystery Sky Lift Overlook

Because there are as many definitions of what unschooling is (or isn't) as there are unschoolers, there is no one way of doing things. What worked yesterday may not work today, but then it may work again tomorrow. As I see it, unschooling is never an excuse not to do work, it is more about the way in which we approach that work and then having the flexibility and confidence to make changes when necessary. Children are not empty vessels to be filled up. They are already filled with an innate sense of the world around them and our job as parents/teachers is to help them discover, or perhaps uncover, what they already know about it, while gently guiding them to learn what they don't.

Blackberry Picking in Blue Lake

Although the 18th century English educator, Charlotte Mason, was not an unschooler, per se, she masterfully taught children using the very principles that the unschooling movement embraces. I rely heavily on her written works, ideas and guidelines in teaching Alex. Why? Because, at least for Alex, they work. Ms. Mason was a proponent of 'the gentle art of learning'. She believed that children should be given the tools for learning and then allowed to become participants in their own educational journey, rather than just spectators as is most often the case in the public school system. Those tools included limited study time, daily access to the outdoors, nature walks, keeping nature journals, the availability of good literature ( real or living books), and, among other things, plenty of time to dream.

The world of education, before it became a government mandate full of rules and regulations, was a specialized vehicle for life. Many parents taught their children at home as the natural course of things. A person learned what he needed to know in order to make a life for himself. Education was practical, personal, and meaningful, as it should be. We should all have the opportunity to learn about what interests us----what excites us----realizing that no two people learn exactly the same way.

My journey as a homeschool parent is my own. My children's homeschooling journey belongs to them. I have played, and continue to play, a part in it, but what they've learned, what they have come away with, belongs solely to them. I love what homeschooling pioneer, John Holt, said on the matter, "What makes people smart, curious, alert, observant, competent, confident, resourceful, persistent - in the broadest and best sense, intelligent- is not having access to more and more learning places, resources, and specialists, but being able in their lives to do a wide variety of interesting things that matter, things that challenge their ingenuity, skill, and judgment, and that make an obvious difference in their lives and the lives of people around them."

I hope you will tell me about your own homeschooling journey---what works for you, what is it that you find exciting about being a home-educating parent, your learning philosophy. Share, share, share!

Charlotte Mason sites you might find useful:

http://www.amblesideonline.org/WhatIsCM.shtml

http://charlottemasoneducation.com/

Unschooling sites you might find useful:

http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/earl_stevens.html

http://www.holtgws.com/index.html

"Leaders are not, as we are often led to think, people who go along with huge crowds following them. Leaders are people who go their own way without caring, or even looking to see, whether anyone is following them. "Leadership qualities" are not the qualities that enable people to attract followers, but those that enable them to do without them. They include, at the very least, courage, endurance, patience, humor, flexibility, resourcefulness, stubbornness, a keen sense of reality, and the ability to keep a cool and clear head, even when things are going badly. True leaders, in short, do not make people into followers, but into other leaders. " ~~~John Holt