Ahh school. I remember parts like it was just yesterday.
This week, schools in Idaho started back after summer. For those of us that homeschool, it’s maybe a sigh of relief. We can go do outside activities like the museum without crowds.
Homeschool is decidedly different than public school. And all too often we try to shoehorn our public school experience on homeschooling. Mounds of book work. Set hours for school. No flexibility.
One of the reasons the public school system is failing so badly is our children are not robots. The goal should not be to get them to assimilate as much as we can stuff in. That is not a path to anything but cookie cutter responses. The path to dead-end cubicle jobs and suburban lifestyles.
Last I checked we have children that are totally unique.
My middle son has completely different interests than my oldest. My oldest daughter loves to read, while my oldest son might die if he touches a book. Homeschools have the ability to consider each child’s unique needs and build our school around those needs.
Yes, there will still be times for book work. Higher concepts will take some written work. Grammar and writing skills come from use. Math takes practice to get the key concepts down.
Most homeschool families made the choice to teach their kids because they did not like what they saw in the system. And then by accident they started building their homeschool experience as a reflection of the system.
Don’t get me wrong, it happens. We used to spend days with our kids trapped in printed schoolwork. Everything scheduled. Over time, we realized a better solution existed.
When cooking breakfast, get one of the kids to help and do a short lesson on measuring and fractions. Working in the garden? Guess what, that’s science. Talk about how the plants grow, or the water cycle.
Homeschool kids have the opportunity to learn a larger variety of skills. And to be honest, the key life skills are what is missing in the world today. We take our schooled kids who have spent years memorizing facts and send them out to live. And they can’t cook or even handle money.
Lessons don’t need to be structured. Roll with the punches and let your kids lead with what they want to learn. Heck, sometimes the “lesson” will wander into a completely different place. That’s okay.
Don’t forget to teach the core skills, but don’t rope them to the table either. Believe me, no matter which system they come out of, the skills kids think they need won’t be the same.
Years ago, I remember telling my language arts teacher that all this grammar stuff would be useless to me as I wanted to be a computer engineer. Guess what, I write WAY more than I even would have dreamed when I was young.
Don’t stress the structure. They will learn it as they go along. At a pace and style that keeps everyone relaxed and happy.
Let them have fun and guide the activities into true learning.