By Lisa S. <mailto:jseley@kansas.net>
So, you're thinking about homeschooling!! The first thing to realize is that
it is quite common to feel somewhat overwhelmed. None of us really knew when
we started, what we were really in for!! It can be scary at first--we've somehow
understood that teachers and schools have some special knowledge, and often
feel that we are not trained to do the job. BUT, just compare it to parenting
in general...you didn't really get to train for that job either, did you?
Like parenting, homeschooling is a process and a journey, one that you should try to enjoy as much as possible. As you begin to make decisions in curriculum, etc. do your best to RELAX. There are SO many choices today.
Take your time in choosing books, and be willing to make changes along the way as you become more familiar with the options.
Don't be surprised if you meet up with some dislike or misunderstanding of homeschooling, maybe even from Grandma or Grandpa or good friends. Decide WHY you want to homeschool, and then be confident in that decision.
READ, READ, READ! There are many great books on Home Education. Start with general books about the benefits of home education, and move to the how-to books such as Cathy Duffy's Curriculum Guide.
Decide what approach you and your children can work the best with. Do you want a program that's textbook oriented, or a satellite program where someone else directs you, or a more hands-on, unit study type of schooling?
Look for SUPPORT...whether it's in your own town or on the internet. We all need each other's advice and expertise. It can really make or break your experience as a homeschooling family.
And last but not least, realize that you are going to have bad days. None of our schools are really like those neat and tidy families on the fronts on the magazines.
SURPRISE!!
In fact, I would venture a guess that even those families on the covers have another side to them! :-) Educating your own children, and doing a good job of it is a tremendous commitment. It takes lots of time, energy and patience.
You have to give up some things that you might have done and money or friendships you might have made.
You have to start each day new, and pray for strength and wisdom to make the right decisions. For me, I believe this is the key. I know that not everyone who homeschools shares my beliefs, but it is very important for me to know that God has called our family to this experience together, and we need help that only He can give to make it the best for all of us!
Blessings to you all as you start on this "Great
Adventure" called homeschooling!
Lisa S.
By Karen @ Redwood <mailto:karen@redwoodgames.com
The first thing to do is....RELAX!
Go to the library. Have the kids choose some books. Read to them. Have them read to you. Have them read to themselves. It doesn't matter what they read as long as they enjoy it. If they start a book and it bores them, let them get a new book.
Check out "What your Nth Grader Needs to Know" by E.D. Hirsch. It's in the library.
Learn to use the computerized library catalog. If your branch doesn't have a book, your library can usually order it from another library in your state. For most of us this is a free service.
Don't be in a rush to buy curriculum. As long as you are going to the library and reading, the kids are going to be way ahead of their public school peers anyway. Some approaches (like Robinson) have kids just read, write a page and do math. That's it. No worksheets, no grammar, no spelling. Just read, read, read.
OK, now that you are all reading, it is time to get a math text. This is probably the only text you will HAVE to purchase. Check out garage sales, "Friends of the Library" sales and stores and used book stores. If at all possible, look at the math book before buying it. Is it easy? clear? Does it offer enough practice problems? Stay away from obsure texts that seem difficult. Older used books are
OK and sometimes preferable to new ones.
Should you get cuisinaire rods and all that stuff? If you want to. But billions of kids have learned math with nothing more than pencil and paper so, if money is an issue, don't worry about it. The key is to use what is EASY and FUN.
The biggest mistake we all make when starting homeschooling is to buy expensive curriculum. Go slow. Use the library. Check out the texts before you buy them.
Good luck!
Karen @ Redwood
Some people understand unschooling
as soon as they hear about it. Others wander about in a fog of confusion, wondering
how unschoolers can be so certain about something that seems so counterintuitive
to everything we've picked up about how kids need to learn. Maybe a few, well-defined
steps in the unschooling direction could lead out of at least the very pea-soupiest
part of the fog.
Step One
To unschool, you begin with your child's interests. If she's interested in birds, you read - or browse, toss aside, just look at the pictures in - books on birds, watch videos on birds, talk about birds, research and build (or buy) bird feeders and birdhouses, keep a journal on birds, record and ponder their behavior, search the web for items about birds, go to bird sanctuaries, draw birds, color a few pictures in the Dover Birds of Prey coloring book, play around with feathers, study Leonardo DaVinci's drawings of flying machines that he based on birds, watch Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds."
But DON'T go whole hog on
this. Gauge how much to do and when by your child's reactions. Let her say no
thanks. Let her choose. Let her interest set the pace. If it takes years, let
it take years. If it lasts an hour, let it last an hour.
Step Two
Second, you need to make
sure your child has opportunities to expand her interests. Have books, videos,
kits, games, puzzles, music tapes, puppets, nature collections, and other cool
things available for her to pick up when she chooses. (Think library, yard sales,
and attic treasures.) Take her places as a way to spark an interest. Wander
about museums and just look at the cool stuff that interests either of you.
(And resist the urge to force an interest in the things you think would be good
for her.) Read a book or do a kit even if you're certain it won't lead anywhere.
Let her say no thanks if she's not interested in pursuing something right now,
or in pursuing something to the degree you think she "should."
Step Three
Get interested in things yourself. Not interested in your child getting educated, but in learning for yourself. Pursue an interest you've always wanted to but never had time for. Be curious about life around you. Look things up to satisfy your own curiosity. Or just ponder the wonder of it all. Ask questions you don't know the answers to. "Why are there beautiful colors beneath the green in leaves?" "Why did they build the bridge here rather than over there?" "Why is there suddenly more traffic on my road than there used to be?"
Let your child know that
all the questions haven't been answered yet and it's not her job to just keep
absorbing answers until she's got them all.
Step Four
Start noticing the learning available all around you. There are fractions in time and cooking and in the relationships between objects. (There are one third as many blue M&M's as there are brown.) Tax is a percentage of the total, some items offer 20% more free, and stores having a sale will knock a percentage off the regular price.
There's oodles of science in cooking. Why does heat make the white of an egg turn from clear liquid to solid white? What process turns liquid cake into poofy air-filled solid cake? Don't worry if you don't know the answers. Anyone can look up the answers. Few can ask the questions.
As a real-life example, by watching Xena and reading Little Town on the Prairie, my daughter was exposed to three references to Julius Caesar, Brutus, and Marc Antony. She doesn't "know" Roman history now, but she's got a hook or point of reference to build from tomorrow, next week, three years from now: "You remember Julius Caesar. The guy Xena hates."
Unfortunately we learned
in school that learning is locked up in books and reading is the only way to
get to it. It's not. It's free. We're surrounded by it. We just need to relearn
how to recognize it in its wild state.
Step Five
And, finally, forget the linear approach to learning we grew up with. For instance, we learned that the way to learn is to read "all the important" stuff about a subject gathered and packaged for our convenience in a textbook and then move on in line to the next package of information.
Sure, sometimes an interest will cause kids to gather up a huge chunk of learning all at once. This is easy to see. And easy to overvalue as the "best" way to learn.
More often kids will slowly
gather interesting tidbits, making connections as things occur to them to create
a foundation. They'll add pieces here and there over the years to build on that
foundation. This is not so easy to see going on. And very easy to undervalue.
So, if we can train ourselves to see that process we can help it along by valuing
the times when they see Thomas Jefferson on the Animaniacs and then later on
the nickel and then still later on Mount Rushmore. Those moments will establish
a feeling of recognition and familiarity. Then the more tidbits they gather
about Jefferson, the more interesting he becomes. And the more interesting he
becomes, the more they want to know about him.
It took at least two years and a lot of posts by very patient unschoolers (and a lot of questions by other newbies who were equally confused) for me to finally "get" unschooling. Hopefully, these five steps will make your transition to unschooling easier than mine was!
© 2000, Joyce Kurtak Fetteroll