The Homeschooling Handbook_ From Preschool to High School - Mary Griffith [52]
We used to have set hours, but now we have approximate hours. If we miss, I don’t sweat it, because I plan on schooling through the summer. I think it’s not good to take so much time off, so I’m planning on one week on and one week off. We’ll see how that works. (Just about everything is first time because we’ve only been homeschooling for two years, and as our son gets older, the way we do lessons changes.)
We both decide what’s to be learned. I’m not flexible as far as the reading and math—I decide we do it, but he has input on how we do it. Everything else he has a say in. If he’s not interested, we look for other ways to learn whatever it is. There are really so many interesting ways to learn about the world around us, that it’s not hard. We go on field trips, regular trips to the library, and on the Internet, of course.
Freeform Learning: Unschooling
Jennifer and David live in California. David works for the state, and Jennifer writes frequently for local and state homeschooling support group publications. Their two children (eight and six) have never attended school.
Honestly, our day begins earlier than I would like—around 6 A.M. After David makes a hot breakfast and leaves for the office, we settle into our un-routine. While I tidy up the breakfast things and catch up on my e-mail, the children play. Play is still our work and usually involves Legos, drawing, painting, hand sewing, or reading to themselves or each other.
After I have had “my time,” I read aloud to the children, which is something we have been doing forever. We especially like series books about real families. We have thoroughly enjoyed the Little House series and the Little Britches series. Right now, we’re reading the Redwall series. After I have read for a while, we snack and are ready for something else.
That “something else” varies according to the weather, mood, play date, and local support group calendar. Our local group often has at least one activity a week, whether it be a skate day, park day, or library day to focus on. I am a homebody and at this time feel it is important to be at home, so I try not to schedule more than one other play date a week. I feel very strongly that it is important to learn how to get along with each other first. When we do have what I call “quiet days at home,” we do many things together and separately. For example, I may show my son how to macramé and then go on to a sewing project of my own.
Often interests at home have turned into group activities. Both my children showed an interest in playing chess, which led to our family forming a chess club within our homeschooling group. One Saturday each month a different family will host a chess club get-together. This helps all the children, regardless of age or gender, learn about chess and sportsmanship.
The children are allowed to watch one PBS program in the afternoon and then it is the dinner thing. Food is also very important to us, and we usually have done some cooking together during the day. It is important that everyone have a role and feel needed, so there is a lot of bustling around in the kitchen. Everyone having jobs also avoids the martyred-mom complex.
After dinner, David often works in the garage on projects. We just finished remodeling our kitchen, and he made the cabinet doors out of stained glass. While he worked, the children watched and later made some stained glass window hangings that they entered in the state fair.
The day ends at 8 P.M. with family story time.
Melissa and Kevin homeschool their four children (thirteen, eleven, nine, and seven) in a small Northern California city. Kevin works outside the home; Melissa volunteers extensively in the community.
We are unschoolers given to frequent panic attacks.
Until the kids are ten, we don’t do anything that is not child led, but at that point we start enforced writing and arithmetic. We spend our days as we please around our out-of-the-house schedule: