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Classic Literature Is Not Necessarily Good Literature

May 21, 2004 by 2 Comments

Yes, Johnny IS reading, but WHAT is he reading? Decide if the subject matter is something you want your student to devote hours and hours to before you assign the book. Many selections being sold today as “must have” children’s books are not anything I would want to have in my home. Contemporary children’s authors seem to think sibling rivalry is to be encouraged, unacceptable behavior is heroic, and deplorable grammar is an effective method of identifying with the reader.

I recently read an advertisement for a children’s museum exhibit featuring a popular cartoon character. The theme of the exhibit was “Reading is Cool.” I happen to disagree. Reading, as an isolated activity, is not necessarily cool. The subject matter could make the reading into a very “uncool” activity. We should be teaching our children not only the skill of reading, but also teaching them the much more important skill of selecting quality reading matter: is this book a good model of grammar usage, or does the author continually “break the rules” in an effort to grab an audience? Is the subject matter worthy of my time, or do the characters run contrary to my family’s standards and values?

Additionally, just because a story has been around for decades does not make it worthy of your time. Many “classics” (as described by literary critics) merely focus on subject matter that no one else had yet dared to tackle, e.g. The Scarlet Letter/adultery. Before taking a recommendation from anyone, know what their standards are. The same standards-screening principle applies to movies, videos, computer games/software, etc. as well as books. Occasionally, I felt the need to read a book myself to determine its worthiness before allowing my student to read it. Not only was it a great use of my time, but it also gave us a wider scope in discussing the book later — plus the student was able to see a parent devouring a book, something all too rare in today’s video-saturated world.

Filed Under: Curriculum Choices, Homeschooling as a Lifestyle, Reading

Every Day Is a Learning Day, and Life Is Our Classroom

March 22, 2004 by 1 Comment

Every day is a learning day, and life is our classroom. Do not let yourself get stressed out thinking that your students have to be working from a book to be doing school. Learning is also found outdoors, in everyday life, and many other places. You can count all that as schoolwork. There will be days when your students may want to do double workbook pages to make up for the time they’ve “lost” in doing outside activities, but do not think they have not learned from those activities. Even if we were kept away from our books, we were still learning very important lessons.

Life seldom follows a “routine.” In my opinion, homeschooled kids have a distinct advantage over their government-schooled peers by seeing first-hand that life is not the same day after day. My students and I once canceled our plans for an “Engineering Day” field trip to engineer a dam of bricks to divert the backyard’s melting snow away from its chosen path into our basement. It was definitely not “routine” and a very important lesson — both in saving the contents of the basement from a flood and in how to persuade water to take an alternate path. Any skill valuable in life is a subject worthy of your time to teach: laundry, cooking, comparison-shopping, auto mechanics, home repair, car-buying, button-sewing & mending, etc.

Filed Under: Homeschool v. Public School, Homeschooling as a Lifestyle, Learning Outside the Books

If This Is HOMEschooling, Why Are We Always in the CAR?

March 20, 2004 by Leave a Comment

Field trips and group activities are great, but do not overdo. You do not have to go on every field trip or do every activity. Only the ones specifically beneficial to your students will specifically benefit your students. Trust me — it is a horrible feeling to realize you have lost a valuable day to a useless activity. We are working towards Guilt-Free homeschooling here, so put your students’ needs first and say “No” when necessary. The feelings of the Mom who organized the trip/activity are not more important than your own children.

Also, do not feel that your students are not learning anything if they are not sitting at a table holding a pencil. Do not feel guilty about leaving the books behind in favor of other methods.

Teach them map-reading, directions, finding their way across town and back again — important life-skills. On your way to the grocery store, teach them to notice both street signs and landmarks, both compass directions and right/left turns. Ask them to tell you how to get to the store — instructing you before you approach the required intersection — teach them to “see” their way there in their mind and tell you the full route, if possible. (At 5 years old, my daughter gave perfect directions to an out-of-town adult friend who realized too late that he did not know how to return her to our house from a group activity. My daughter had never been to that specific location before either, but she knew our town’s layout well enough to be able to know which direction home was — even after dark!)

[For more information on cooperative classes and group activities, visit Topical Index: Co-op Groups .]

Filed Under: Co-op Groups, Homeschooling as a Lifestyle, Learning Outside the Books

But Public School Is Free… Won’t Homeschooling Cost a Lot?

March 14, 2004 by 2 Comments

There are many ways to look at this question; please allow me to explain them in detail before you make any quick decisions.

What is the true “cost” of public schooling? Aside from the obvious arguments of emotional, mental, physical, spiritual, or moral issues, public school is not free. Stop for a moment to reflect on how many extra costs come up: field trips, fund raisers, extra supplies, uniforms (sports, cheerleading, band, gym, etc.). Then there is my un-favorite: I purchase new school clothes (or notebooks, pencils, whatever) only to have my students come home after a few days of the new school year with the report that their clothes (or notebooks, pencils, etc.) are not appropriately in fashion and must be replaced. They absolutely would become the lowest pariahs in the school if they had to continue with the original purchase.

Once you have become committed to homeschooling, constant attention to fashion tends to pass by the wayside. The ability to do math in one’s pajamas becomes a status symbol. Occasionally, you can spend a little more on a special wardrobe item because you know you have not spent a lot already on clothing that is not being worn. Food from home is always more economical than purchased meal plans or special lunch-box items, and there is the added bonus of raiding the fridge of leftovers between classes. All in all, I found homeschooling to be a great benefit to our budget — we seemed to have extra money, even after buying all our books and supplies.

Invest in “recyclable” homeschool materials that can be passed down from one student to another. Workbooks are considered “consumable” — used up by only one student. Some students benefit from the “personal” aspect of workbooks, other students do not have strong feelings and can write gently with pencil (allowing the answers to be erased later for use by the next student) or will not mind writing their answers in a separate notebook (allowing the workbook to be used and reused and reused). Textbooks and (of course) all “real” books can be read and reread by as many students as you can produce.

Once your books have been passed through all your available students, you may be able to resell them to other homeschoolers. Beware: textbooks will eventually get replaced by newer editions, which can leave you stuck with an unsellable volume. When selling or purchasing used curriculum, it is important to keep all related materials together in the same edition. There is nothing more frustrating than finding a “bargain” on a used math text, only to find the answer key is no longer available for that edition (sadly, the voice of experience).

So far I have only addressed financial “costs,” but I realize that in the back of your mind you are already assessing other costs to your children and your family as a whole. Some of you (unfortunately) have already experienced the “social” cost of seeing your child’s attitude change from being a dedicated member of your family to becoming more attached to the government school teacher. To borrow a theme from currently popular advertising, “Box of pencils, $2. Textbook, $56. Getting respect from your child, PRICELESS!”

When our family began homeschooling, I read or heard somewhere that it takes approximately one month to “recover” for each year spent in government school, double that if the student also went to preschool. Recovery involves un-learning public school ways and re-learning a homeschooling mindset. It was a fairly accurate guideline for my children who had preschool-through-fifth grade and preschool-kindergarten in a public setting. (Their preschools were church-sponsored, but still are considered as meeting the government-school-model qualification.)

Another symptom of the social cost is the child who takes up with the “wrong” friends, adapting their values and habits. I probably do not need to go deeply into s*x, drugs, and attitudes to convince you that there is an extremely high cost associated with peer pressure.

[Unfortunately, some spelling had to be edited to eliminate unwanted search engine hits.]

Filed Under: Deciding to Homeschool, Homeschool How-To's, Homeschool v. Public School, Homeschooling as a Lifestyle

Are We Homeschooling or Schooling at Home?

January 27, 2004 by 2 Comments

Yes, there is a difference. Homeschooling is much more than just bringing the books into the home. Homeschooling is a lifestyle; it involves every aspect of life, from schoolwork to free time, from your manner of dress to your manner of speech. Now, lest you close this book before we have even gotten acquainted, let me say that I am not an evil taskmaster, pushing you to conform to a rigid code of standards. Far from it, my version of homeschooling is relaxed and Guilt-Free. This is homeschooling, not school at home. You are free to do whatever works.

When I say homeschooling affects your manner of dress, I mean that it is OK to wear your pajamas — not something we want to see in public schools. I encourage Moms and kids to wear what is comfortable, whether that means sweatsuits or blue jeans. (I will address that pesky, little issue of denim jumpers later.) When you do leave the house, whether that is for a field trip or just shopping and errands, by all means look respectable, but do not go to the extreme of wearing your “Sunday best.” I personally feel that if I do not want to be seen in a stained T-shirt with holes in it, then I should not even wear it at home on laundry day — use it for waxing the car, and then throw it out. Another way homeschooling should affect your manner of dress will be covered more fully in the section on Role Modeling. For now, suffice it to say that we should be setting higher standards than “the world,” not copying what it does.

“Schooling at home” is an attempt to reproduce the government school model within the confines of your dwelling place. Shiny little desks lined up in rows, precise time requirements for starting and stopping each subject, never giving an inch from the tightly-planned schedule, using the exact same textbooks as the local school district — these are the earmarks of school at home. What is the point? Jesus came to set us free from the Law; we are not called to put ourselves back in bondage to it.

I do recommend having a designated place for doing schoolwork, but the dining room table works just fine. We also designated shelves to hold the schoolbooks when they were not in use, just to discourage clutter. When my students were smaller, we did use an enclosed back porch as our “schoolroom,” but as they became able to work on their own, they were rewarded with the privilege of going to their bedrooms to read or do other independent work. If you have the space available, a “schoolroom” does provide one collection area for all the textbooks, real books, reference books, art supplies, desk supplies, teaching aids, maps, charts, etc. You can never have too many shelves! Cupboards with doors are also a blessing for making things look tidier than they may actually be. Boxes or baskets are great for sorting and storing all the myriad of little “things” that tend to accumulate — I highly recommend stackable pencil boxes (we used to use Grandpa’s old cigar boxes, but now we can purchase very inexpensive ones decorated in kid-friendly themes).

Most importantly, fit homeschooling into your family’s lifestyle. Do not become enslaved to a schedule. “Life happens,” and we often find our schedule being tossed aside because someone got sick or some other such emergency came along. Sometimes the “emergency” is just a beautiful day that begs to be enjoyed. We can all benefit from the blessing of taking a day off just to enjoy God’s creations around us and fellowship with each other or with friends. An acquaintance who is a public school teacher informed me a few years ago that they were allowed a certain number of “mental health days” each year, similar to physical “sick days.” It is amazingly refreshing to both teacher and student to have a day free from duties, just for the purpose of relieving a little stress and re-ordering our thoughts.

How does homeschooling affect your entire lifestyle? I have found many ways that my “worldview” shifted when we had moved the education process back home where it belonged. I no longer looked at books as the only source for imparting knowledge. Some of our most important lessons have come from spontaneous conversations or circumstances. Learning does not stop at 3:15pm, nor does it cease during the summer months. Summer provides a great opportunity to concentrate on outdoor learning: swimming, bicycling, roller-blading, hiking, etc.

I also noticed a gradual change in my attitude toward my children and in my children’s attitudes toward us as parents. We became much closer as a family. We have come to support each other with a fierce loyalty. We enjoy opportunities to go out together to do even the mundane things as a family unit. Other people, even some homeschoolers, do not understand our preference to spend time together. If you have been homeschooling for a while, you may. If you still do not, read on.

Filed Under: Homeschool How-To's, Homeschooling as a Lifestyle
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