Since suddenly everyone is very interested in homeschooling,
and I’ve been doing it for about 10
years now, I thought I’d write down a few
things that might help. Don’t expect homeschooling to be like a public school
classroom. You don’t have the resources, the structure, and the support systems
that exist in a well-run school. Also, you’re the parent with a different
relationship with your children than a teacher has. Your number 1 job is still
being the parent.
In times of trauma and transition, kids need time to detox.
When my youngest child started homeschooling, she’d been in a sub-standard
school with a second-grade teacher who wound up going to jail! You don’t know
all that your child is feeling and they may not be able to tell you, so be patient
and give them time to run, draw, make mud-pies, or do whatever they need to do
to get their heads right. Creating a space of safety and acceptance has to
happen before learning.
 |
| Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash |
Homeschooling rules vary from state to state. I’ve
homeschooled in Texas and Oklahoma, where it’s pretty lax. All I had to do to
withdraw my kids from public school was to submit a letter to the school
district stating my intent. Although I was a certified teacher at the time, it
was not a requirement for me to have a certification or even be a college
graduate. I have not been required to submit any documentation or comply with
any standardized testing. In order to go from homeschooling to college, my
oldest had to take the SAT and submit a homeschool transcript. I broke the transcript
subjects down by semester and made a pretty document out of it. Then I included
a letter explaining that we did not use grades in our homeschooling and why. I
also included the official transcripts of her online classes and
pre-homeschooling public school classes. This documentation was accepted
without question by the admissions counselor at Austin Community College.
There are different flavors of homeschooling, so don’t
expect your experiences to match someone else’s. Some people stick to a very
structured approach, either buying or creating a curriculum that tracks closely
to a public school format. Some people do something called free-schooling,
which is a collaboration between child and instructor where the instructor is
really in a supportive role, providing resources and assistance but letting
the student lead with their interests. And then there is unschooling, which is
letting the student follow their own interests without much guidance or
support, trusting to the innate curiosity of the child and relying on the
educational value of play and experience.
My oldest started homeschooling at age 13. She is a very
motivated, driven, and organized person. She created her own education plan,
located books and resources, and pretty much drove the whole process. I helped
by purchasing textbooks, signing her up for online math classes, and answering
questions. When she turned 16, I found that I was having a harder time giving
the support she needed for the more advanced material she was learning, and I nudged
her gently into college. She started at ACC at 16 and graduated 4 years later
from the University of Texas with full honors. By most measures, she could be
considered a homeschool success.
My youngest is completely different. She utterly rejected a structured
approach, hated online programs, and resisted every attempt to get her to write
anything. She abandoned Rosetta Stone and would rather walk on hot coals than
solve an algebra equation. Does that make her a homeschool failure? She reads
voraciously, she’s watched every science documentary worth watching, she excels
at extremely complex, strategic board games, she’s a self-taught expert at
Adobe Photoshop, she’s tamed and trained two rescue horses, and she’s had a
front-row seat to some really interesting and historical political moments.
She’s 17, so it remains to be seen what trajectory her life follows, but
chances are it will be very different from mine, or her sister’s.
In retrospect, I think the greatest gift of homeschooling is
the freedom that comes with unstructured time and relief from constant peer
pressure. Even if you choose a structured approach to schooling, most parents
find that they can get through a day’s schoolwork in half a day, leaving more
time for playing, sunshine, and creativity. You’re giving your child the time
to figure out who they are, what matters to them, what thrills their
imagination. Instead of training them to be good employees, you’re freeing them
to be themselves. You might find it’s tempting to just push them harder. After
all, you’re in charge and you don’t have to track to a class of 25 other
students. Some children will want to jump ahead and fast-track their way to
college. Some won’t. It’s okay either way, if you let it be.
Here are some resources and ideas for folks who are
homeschooling for a little while or longer:
Khan Academy – This is a great site with self-paced programs
in math, science, and more. Short instructional videos are provided to help
students grasp new concepts. Available in multiple languages.
DuoLingo – You don’t have to pay for Rosetta Stone to get a
robust language learning app. I use this on my phone to keep up with my German
and French vocabulary as well as starting to learn Spanish. I’ve taught foreign
language, but this works as well as classroom instruction.
Crash Course – Fun educational video series by John and Hank
Green in multiple topics. I really like the Anatomy and Physiology series, and
Crash Course history is excellent too.
Oxford University Press American History Series – Get these
from the library if you’re a fast reader, or pick them up used if you can. This
is serious scholarship, but a junior high or high school age student can read
them alone or together with you. It’ll probably take you at least two years to
get through the series, maybe longer, but you’ll know a lot more about American
history than you would learn from any American textbook.
BYU High School – When my oldest was still in public school
but had exhausted all the coursework our rural school could offer, we turned to
BYU classes for structured classes in math and science. If you need a
structured approach and a transcript from a reputable school, this will meet
your need, but it’s not cheap. We used this primarily for math. There may be
better alternatives out there now.
Reading/Writing – The key to learning how to read better is
to read more. The key to learning how to write is to read more. The key to
learning how to speak well is to read more. Just read. It doesn’t matter what.
Let them read anything and everything they’re interested in. Graphic novels. Fantasy.
Science fiction. Murder mysteries. Romance. Economics. I have a shared Kindle
account with my daughter. I’ve discovered that if I download it, she’ll
eventually read it. You can download e-books from the library too. Particle
physics? Forestry? Jewish history? All the President’s Men? The Underground
Economist? It’s all good. Take time to read together out loud, especially harder
stuff. They love being read to at any age. Maybe they’ll read to you too.
Experiential Learning – Most people learn best by doing.
When we moved school districts and my oldest daughter suddenly had to take a
standardized science test, she was nervous. But afterwards she told me “It was
really easy. I’d learned all that stuff hiking and attending ranger talks.” Take
your kids places and talk about what you’re seeing and doing. Even if museums are
closed and concerts are cancelled, you can go explore local trails and parks.
Look for bugs, take pictures of the flowers, explore cloud formation and weather,
look at the rocks and figure out how they were formed. Encourage their curiosity
and look stuff up together when you get home, because you won’t know how to
answer all their questions. You’ll be teaching them a skill that they may not
learn in a classroom, how to see the world with questioning eyes and how to teach
themselves.
Most importantly, trust yourself, trust your kids, and accept
that you’ll make mistakes along the way!
