Curriculums and Lesson Planning

Attempt #2 (first one bit the dust via 2 yo)

After the socialization question, the most common for homeschoolers question is, “How do you do it?” Unlike the socialization question, however, this one is asked by homeschoolers as well. Depending on who is asking the meaning of the question can range from “what curriculum do you use?” to “what do you – literally – do all day?” to “how do you organize your life?”

I have a friend that recently decided to try homeschooling. Her daughter is in preschool but it isn’t meeting her needs. We haven’t gotten around to the ‘How’ question yet, but knowing that she’s planning on homeschooling makes me think that we probably will. I think the biggest factor in how you homeschool is why you homeschool. Do you feel that the local school doesn’t give a good enough education? Then you will probably choose a rigorous curriculum with a solid foundation. If you feel that school doesn’t offer enough of a moral compass, you might chose a religious curriculum and use your beliefs to interperet literature or history. If your child was having trouble with his or her teach, you may be perfectly happy using a school at home curriculum.

We homeschool for a couple of reasons. When I was in school I was bored beyond belief during language arts but had trouble with math. It never made sense to my that I was in “X” grade when every test said I was three up for language and one down for math. Similarly I don’t like the compartmentalization of subjects. Life isn’t divided into hard and fast categories. Things overlap. When I was in college I had started taking humities classes for my ged ed requirement but planned on double majoring in English. Well I took a few English classes and hated them. Reading the same book in both Humanities and English would get two very different results. The English department focused on subject, plot, characterization while the Humanities department would look at the book situated in it’s time and culture. I really enjoyed looking at how politics affected art affected literature affected scientific exploration.

So even if Arizona’s schools weren’t the worst in the US, which is close to being the worst in the industrialized world, I would still be interested in homeschooling. We don’t use curriculum so we don’t have grades but I can tell that they are at different places for language arts and science for example. And it’s not a problem because I can accomidate all sorts of ages, ranges and interests.

We do a lot of art at home, take art classes, have season passes to children’s theater. We listen to music, need to get back to learning instruments, talk about feeling (happy, sad) and what we like. Basically we try to have children that are well rounded. We’ve become a society that focuses on schooling as the earning of a grade. We’d rather our children know how to learn than be very good at memorizing or filling in multiple choice tests.

So whether you purchase one curriculum or several pieces, or make your own curriculum, or unschool, I think it’s important to make it yours. The friend that is thinking about homeschooling is an artist and so is her husband. I can’t imagine them not using a great deal of art in their learning. It is important to them and part of their lives. Similiarly outdoorsy people can go for nature walks, grow gardens, hike with their children, learn the names of trees. Take your interests, what is important to you, and use it to teach or integrate it into their learning or just make is so much of their day that it surrounds them.