The school year is almost over. Our second full year without school. If someone asked me today what our style of homeschooling is, I wouldn't quite know what to say. We use parts of various curricula. We "unschool". We play hooky. We throw our hands up in exasperation.
The lessons that stay with us are not necessarily those we anticipated and planned for. Here are a few I walked away with:
- It's often easier to say "yes". We frequently say "no" out of a sense of duty, obligation, the existence of a previous agenda or expectation. When you stop and think about what matters, at this given moment, a "yes" may come more naturally. Sometimes.
- Yelling is most effective if you burst out laughing immediately afterwards. Go ahead, undermine your own authority. You may gain some when you least expect it.
- It's OK for kids of different ages to learn the same subjects. My older kid can benefit from 2nd grade math review. By the same token, my younger kid gets early exposure to fractions. And who says she can't write a paragraph when she hasn't yet mastered the art of spelling?
- Discussion of mating makes sex education really easy. It's a natural topic of conversation, not a forbidden one shrouded in an aura of mystery.
- You do not have to learn everything in order. However, it is sometimes interesting and effective to learn things with the seasons. We planned to learn about the systems of the human body this spring. That idea went out the window as soon as things started sprouting all around us. Now, we're studying plants.
- An orderly house is incompatible with homeschooling. Click here for an elaboration.
- My parents are more open-minded than I thought. My mom, especially, has embraced our more natural, interest-led approach to learning. Having read "Dumbing Us Down", my dad, a lifelong teacher, and an engineer with a rigidly scientific mind, now calls institutional education "indoctrination". Never too old to learn.
- My parents trust me more than I thought. Way, way more.
- When I want my kids to concentrate, I let them chose what they want to do. My guess is that many kids with "short attention spans" would surprise their teachers if they were given this option. This works both ways: if you want to concentrate, choose what you want to do. Ditch your "to do's" for "wanna do's". It's a lot harder than you think.
- Nearly everything is educational. And if it isn't, don't assume your kids are not learning.
- Doing more is not more enriching. When we do less, we might discover something about ourselves we didn't know. Time slows down a bit. Kids still grow up too fast, but maybe doing less slows it down just a tad.
- Homeschooling is highly compatible with self employment. At least our version of it. Ironically, being self-employed was the reason I thought homeschooling would not work for our family. And perhaps it would not have in the days when both Chris and I were putting in 12-hour days at the shop. But no one can maintain that level of intensity for many years and keep their sanity. It's interesting that we made the decision to homeschool just as we were learning to pull back from the business, and delegate more to our staff. Homeschooling has given us interesting insights about how to interact with our staff. And vice versa.
- Since we began two years ago, homeschooling has become the center from which all other activities radiate. It informs how I live my life. It has revolutionized how I think about the world. It cannot be tucked away into unused corner of your house: it has assumed a central role and location.
- Homeschooling is consistent with the type of life I've always wanted to live: a little contrarian, always questioning, independent in thought, moving toward self-sufficiency and away from consumerism, quiet, private, free to be you and me. I just didn't know it.
Before I met Mary, I was not much of a hat wearer myself. I had this notion that a hat would flatten my hair. But hanging out with her these past few years made me realize the error of my way vis-a-vis hats. Consider, if you will, the many benefits of hats:
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