The Decision to Homeschool
Its hard for me to believe that August is upon us and in a couple of weeks school will begin again. My son just turned 5 and should be going into kindergarten and my daughter is 3 ½ and would be going into junior kindergarten. I often get the question: “so what school will your kids be going to?” Last year I always told people I was holding my son back from junior kindergarten, and most people were accepting of it. This year my response is different. This year I tell people, “I’m homeschooling”.
Making The Decision
The decision to be a homeschooling family has evolved naturally over time. It started out when my son was 9 months old and I realized in 3 months I was going to have to go back to work. I felt panicked at the thought of putting my son in daycare full time. Being off on maternity leave, watching and fostering my son’s growth, and helping him learn about the world around him was a blessed gift, and I didn’t want to give up this beautiful time in our lives. He was still so dependent on me, and my mothering instinct screamed out that he wasn’t ready to be separated from me on a full time basis. I ended up being fortunate enough to have a very understanding employer, and I was able to work only 1 or 2 days a week. I did this until my daughter was born 9 months later and then I quit altogether. By cutting back on my work hours, and eventually quitting altogether to be with the children, the seeds of homeschooling were planted in my mind. I kept these precious little thoughts to myself at first, and eventually brought it up with my husband who was very supportive of the idea. We would do it for a year or two until the kids were “that much” older.
Dealing with Resistance
I’ve done a lot of research since then, and gone are my thoughts of “a year or two”. I’m going to be my children’s teacher as long as I can or as long as they want me to be! It hasn’t been an easy ride since we made the decision to homeschool, but it has been an interesting one. Within mainstream society there is a lot of resistance to the idea, but I am learning to deal with this day by day. I’m not sure why people feel the need to tell me what is right or wrong for my children, but I have come to learn that most often, even when they are in opposition to my decision, they mean well. I don’t get angry about it anymore and if the person is open to discussion then I’m quite happy to share different perspectives.
I also get a lot of positive feedback about my decision to homeschool and it is becoming more and more common today. Whether the reaction is positive or negative, I can always expect a lot of questions. Why? How long are you going to do that? What about socialization? What curriculum are you going to use? Are you going to unschool?
But Why Would You Want to Homeschool?
The first question of “why” is easy for me. I’m going to homeschool because I believe it is best for my children. I know how they learn, and what they enjoy learning. So far in our homeschooling journey, when it’s time to sit down and do it, my kids are thrilled and excited. More often than not my son will come up to me and initiate the learning. “Mommy, can we homeschool?” are familiar words in our house. With homeschooling I believe I can nurture the core of my children’s being. From a holistic perspective this involves knowing what engages their senses. When something engages them, their natural instinct is to want to learn and to work hard at something if they don’t understand it. It’s recognizing that light in their eyes that tells me they are completely immersed in understanding the task at hand. That is the starting point to their learning journey. Learning shouldn’t be a chore, and unfortunately it is often made this way in schools. I can’t even count the number of hours I wasted memorizing in order the Prime Ministers of Canada or the map of the world. Even as an adult I can feel myself sometimes tune out of a conversation if I’m not interested in it or it doesn’t pertain to me. Why would I expect my children to spend hours learning a topic that doesn’t pertain to or interest them? When they have someone right there to engage along with them, see what sparks their interest, answer their questions and help them understand something, the possibilities are endless. I feed off their enthusiasm about the world around them and they feed off my enthusiasm to teach them about it. It’s a win/win situation!
As for how long, I prefer not put a time limit on it. I’ll homeschool them for as long as homeschooling is working out for all of us. I hope it will be a long time but I don’t know what the world holds for me or for them, one or two or three years down the road. At this moment we have the now to work with, and I’m happy with that. So are they. As a matter of fact, most children work best in the now.
What About Socialization?
The question of socialization is always something that comes as a surprise to me. It makes me realize how limited our conception of socialization is. I find it really hard to believe that some people think my children won’t be socialized because they are learning at home. My immediate reaction to people who ask how I plan to socialize my kids is to question them back. “Is putting a child in a classroom with 25 other children the exact same age the only way to socialize kids?” I for one, don’t believe it is. Socialization is the process of interacting with others. It’s the transaction between the grocery cashier, myself and my kids when we go shopping; sharing the playground equipment with other children at the park; going to the library and checking out books with the librarian, or forming a playgroup with kids of the same or different ages. At a basic level, socialization is almost every interaction we have with other people; a constant process of observing and reacting or not reacting to the world around us. I am confident that my children will grow up to be socialized and well adjusted members of society. As a matter of fact, I would argue that I’d have to go out of my way to not socialize them.
Choosing a Curriculum
The issue of curriculum yields almost endless possibilities, and again, I think this is a personal decision based on what works for the family and the children. There are many to choose from. For now, I read the public school curriculum for my region online but I can’t say I follow it yet. While my children are young, we stick very much to unschooling. This is a form of education which is child guided. I pay attention to what interests my children and we proceed accordingly. My son loves math if I can incorporate classic cars into his math problems. He’s not always interested in reading children’s books, but give him a book about cars, any book, and he will eagerly devour it. According to the curriculum, my son is reading at about a grade 3 level and he just turned 5. I believe this is because I made reading fun for him, paid attention to what he enjoyed reading, and if he didn’t want to read I never forced him. My daughter is completely different and at 3 ½ she has just learned her letters. She has very little interest in learning to read right now, but I know she will learn when she is ready. Does it really matter if she’s 5 or 7 when she does learn? I’d rather her enjoy the process than be forced to do something she doesn’t like. She’s a mighty fine storyteller though. Give her a picture book and the stories she comes up with are quite fascinating! I think in the end we will loosely follow a curriculum in case the kids do decide they want to try out school. It will probably make the transition easier for them if we do this. For the time being though, they are so young, and fostering an enthusiasm for learning is the priority. Unschooling seems the best model to follow in doing this right now.
Do What You Think is Best for Your Children
In the end, I think the choice to homeschool is a very individual and personal one, and people do it for many reasons. Whether homeschooling or sending your child to a public or private school outside the house, I think we can all agree we do what we think is best for our children. For our family, homeschooling represents the opportunity to connect with our children on a daily basis, see how our children learn, and work on teaching them in ways that spark their interest and engage them in the learning process. With one-on-one attention, homeschooling also offers the unique opportunity to finish a full day’s schoolwork in a morning, and that leaves the rest of the day for parks and playtime. This works for us. The kids love it, and so do I!
Author Bio: Sherri Downing is a homeschooling mother of two children. She enjoys writing about holistic parenting and the wealth of knowledge she has learned on her parenting journey. She has a passion for creativity and works part time at a music and performing arts studio in the Greater Toronto area. You can contact Sherri at sherri@ecoerth.com
