Eclectic Parent

So I came across a blog post recently on Limberlime about being worried about homeschooling. Her post really spoke to me. I’ve been asked many of the same questions by people in real life.

For so many of the questions and comments I hear (”I couldn’t do it”, “How do you know what to teach?”, “How do you teach three different children?”, “Don’t they miss making friends at school.”) the laziest answer is that my oldest is only 6.

“I couldn’t do it.” Sure you could. What do they really need to know at 6? What would they do if they were in kindergarten or 1st grade? Read to them a lot. Art. Talk about the animals as you walk through the zoo.

“How do you know what to teach?” Well depends on your theory. You can look up specific requirements by grade. You can look it up in books by age or grade. Or you can really take the ‘hey they’ll learn what they learn’ theory

“How do you teach three different children?” I’m not sure how curriculum using homeschoolers do it. We unschool. No curriculum, no real plans. Lots of talking. Everyone does stuff to their own level and interest.

“Don’t they miss making friends at school.” Well no. They have friends that are homeschooled. They’re in homeschool groups that meet at  parks and go on field trips. They have friends in school that they see after school or on weekends. They see kids at gymnastics, swimming and the park.

Because our oldest is extremely social, we’re often asked if it wouldn’t be better if he was in school. We sometimes consider it ourselves. But then we think about it. School is a time when you are surrounded by other children but get in trouble for talking to them. You are supposed to sit and absorb like a sponge. Great for some kids (I was a sitter and could regurgitate like crazy - very little actual comprehension though) but horrible for other. What if you don’t sit well? What if you learn best by doing?

One of the things I like best about homeschooling is being able to tailor things to each child. Some kids learn best while dancing around, others by reading, talking, thinking. Our children also get to befriend each other. If each child heads off to school at 4 or 5 and only sees their siblings from 3 PM until bed, I think it’s more likely they’ll drift. At school, they’ll have their own friends and probably not play with each other (I’m in third grade, I don’t play with first graders) and then after school they want their friends over. Our children see lots of other kids, but during the day they have each other.

One of last big worries people have is “what happens if they go to school?” We have no plans for it. We wouldn’t object to them wanting to go once they’re at an age to really understand what they want. Some unschoolers just let their kids learn though whatever is going on. We have no planned curriculum and no schedule, but I do at least have an idea of what a child should know at X age. Rather than Monday, November 12th at 8:30 AM, we think in terms of about 6 or 7 kids should be able to . . .   We don’t try to work things in, we simply bring things up in context of what’s going on around us. They’re interested or they aren’t. If they ever decided to go to school, one of the things they’d have to understand is the difference in how you are taught at school. I would also make sure to bring them up to speed on what school expects. Hopefully it’ll never be necessary.