Homeschool reflections

School has been in session for a full month now, and it has flown by! I have started a blog post about it several times and never finished. There seems to be too much to say, as there is a lot going on here for the second-grader and preschooler. And for me! The summer was a time of learning and processing for me, and now I get to experiment with what I absorbed from multiple books on homeschooling. 

I read: 

- Family Matters by David Guterson 

- The 4-Hour School Day by Durenda Wilson 

- Homeschool Bravely by Jamie Erickson 

- parts of The Well-Trained Mind and Writing with Ease by Susan Wise Bauer 

- I’m starting Teach Your Own by John Holt

The biggest takeaways? 

One of the biggest benefits of a homeschool education is that it is, in fact, not school at all. This is a terrible paraphrase of a really good quote in one of the books I read. I think it synthesizes what I learned about how a lot of what I think of as "school" or "education" stems from what is necessary in a classroom of 20+ kids. Yet homeschooling requires basically none of these structures. Having been classroom-schooled myself, it is taking a lot of reading and thinking for me to shed those structures and formats and think more broadly about education. 

Look ahead to the goal. Sum up our family's homeschool mission, make decisions of what to do or not to do through the lens of the mission, imagine the kind of adults we want to raise our children to be. Math, reading, and writing are important foundations to teach. But, there is so much more to model and share: good habits, character formation, spiritual growth, etc. Asking for and seeking the Lord's wisdom in this is essential. These things should be considered to be just as important as, if not more important than, spending time on addition equations or ancient Egypt. 

See learning everywhere. This is threefold in my mind, although the three probably run together. 

1. Math, reading, and writing (and other subjects) can be practiced and absorbed in many contexts besides a "lesson"--and these are equally valid learning opportunities. I think my own education formed me to think that you have to sit down for a lesson for something to count as true "schooling." 

2. Consider the learning opportunities of play. For example, Anya is creative and project-driven. She might be deep in a pile of cardboard, tape, and paper scraps--she is practicing problem-solving, emotional regulation and self-control, project management and sequencing, and more, besides the hands-on building skills.

3. Valuable learning happens in daily life--invite the kids into daily routines and jobs as much as possible. I read a book when Anya was a toddler called Hunt, Gather, Parent, about a traveling journalist who noticed how kids in other parts of the world were generally super helpful with chores and things, compared to her kid and others she knew in the US who whined, complained, and fought about helping around the house. So that book made a big impression on me back then and has continued to form how Tim and I invite the girls into (and, expect them to participate in) house routines... laundry, cooking, tidying, cleaning, and more. But anyway, this tied into a lot of what I read this summer. Homeschooling is an opportunity to teach your kids solid habits for adulting, as they observe and participate in grocery shopping, appointments, managing a house, and more. These things are just as important as "lesson time." 

School revolves around family life, rather than family life revolving around school. I think for most families who choose traditional schooling, family life revolves around a set school schedule. One blessing about homeschooling is that the opposite can be true... structured lesson time revolves around family life and the needs of the season. 

Burnout happens when learning routines are confined to a room or space, i.e., trying to recreate a classroom experience. This has been essential for me in this busy cottage-cleaning season. It's nice to have a regular morning lesson time upstairs, with our calendar, a weekly song and poem, Alina's preschool activity and reading, and Anya's math. But otherwise I try to look out for flexible lesson times/locations in the day: Anya can work on her history notebook page at the table in the cottage while I clean; I can read off spelling words while I chop onions for dinner; we can read Story of the World at lunch; we can go through our grammar lesson (which is purely oral/conversational) at snack time. She can do her math page or handwriting work while I put Olivia down for a nap. 

Let kids be kids. American kids in general seem to be over-scheduled and over-screened. Homeschooling is flexible. Instructional time, when one-on-one, is a small part of the day. There is abundant time for kids to be kids, and play! This is a benefit and a blessing, to not be overly busy and rushing around to things all the time. 

Trust the Lord for the homeschooling process and what the kids and I need! He definitely helped me to go into this year feeling more relaxed, open-handed, and trusting than in previous years. He will guide us; he will provide what we need in each season and each day.