Bear with me. This is homeschoolese. It may be so uninteresting to some of you that you should quit now and return another day. That being said...
I'd been investigating a curriculum and philosophy of education called "Robinson", as in The Swiss Family. Basically, it uses classical literature and Saxon Math to teach kids. A typical day of Robinson would be sans sugar, sans TV or screen based media. It would include liberal doses of park your butt and bust out some math. Approximately, 2 hours of that...plus 2 hours of reading..and some writing for good measure. Because, you know, most kids like to wake-up to a bowl of unsweetened oats, then sit down at a desk for 2 hours of uninterrupted math. Of course, parents shouldn't engage this process (except to be the enforcer) because doing 2 hours of excruciatingly boring math by oneself builds character.
HOLY CRAP. I was nearly snowed. I almost bought into thinking this is how school should happen. I was, however, saved by the director of a public school. I'm sure she is flagrantly pagan. Yet I had one of those moments (usually saved for church) when I felt that as she spoke God was speaking to me.
REPENT!
Turn. Run. Robinson, and his Swiss Family are not for you!
Lately, homeschool has SUCKED. It's no wonder really. I was sitting my kids down with a pile of worksheets and asking them to be self-motivated and disciplined and complete these worksheets in a timely manner, all with a good attitude. Robinson and his insipid philosophy and wheedled into my thinking and robbed my family of joy.
I am 34.
An adult, by every definition.
I would be grumpy about sitting down for 3 hours to complete a bunch of worksheets.
It would be like doing taxes everyday.
(Not that I would know, because I haven't done my own taxes in well over a decade
- but one could assume it would be similar.)
This Robinson stuff is crappy pedagogy. All the research in adult and childhood learning suggests this an exceptionally bad way to learn. Besides that, it's a joy killer. I got into homeschool because I was disenchanted with this type of "back to basics" education. I knew adults learn best when they:
-are ready to learn
-and can attach learning to their own life and interests
-are given opportunity engage and interact with others in the learning process
I figured that kids learn best that way too. And I was right. The research has my back.
So when we started this homeschool journey we played, and we read amazing literature, and we built, and painted and experimented. It was FUN. And I was a good teacher. Somewhere I got lost, though. Because my kids got older and their school got harder. It's easy to have fun learning to add. It's more difficult to create authentic, experiential learning around long division and multiplying fractions. Add in a regulating challenged baby and the whole thing goes to #$&%. So I started looking into things like Robinson (because if my kids were basically schooling themselves homeschool seemed doable).
But at what cost?
Back to that public school director I was talking about. She founded a charter for gifted and creative learners. Like I said, she's a pagan right out of the Republic of Boulder. Yet, her philosophy of education is far more biblical. Honor the child. Be humble. Smart is good. Kind is better. Allow for differences. Create safe places. Work together. Teach community. Strive for excellence. This world is a place of beauty; let children be in awe of it. Inspire. Encourage. Serve.
She said these thing, she and her Crunchy-Boulderite-Dansko-Wearing self, and I remembered. I remembered what makes me a good teacher, and what makes homeschooling beautiful. I remembered why I started.
Here's the thing: It is quite possible, probable even, that I cannot do home school like I believe homeschool should be done with my particular preschooler. Either she's going to school, or my "biggers" are. And if I'm lucky it's possible they all will. Because if I can get them in, they are gonna go to that school the Pagan started.
Enough with Swiss Family Robinson. We're done. God has spoken. Truly. And through a Boulderite, no less. So I went to the library this weekend. We're reading together again. And baking. And experimenting. It's messy. Not sure if its sustainable. But it IS better.
I'd been investigating a curriculum and philosophy of education called "Robinson", as in The Swiss Family. Basically, it uses classical literature and Saxon Math to teach kids. A typical day of Robinson would be sans sugar, sans TV or screen based media. It would include liberal doses of park your butt and bust out some math. Approximately, 2 hours of that...plus 2 hours of reading..and some writing for good measure. Because, you know, most kids like to wake-up to a bowl of unsweetened oats, then sit down at a desk for 2 hours of uninterrupted math. Of course, parents shouldn't engage this process (except to be the enforcer) because doing 2 hours of excruciatingly boring math by oneself builds character.
HOLY CRAP. I was nearly snowed. I almost bought into thinking this is how school should happen. I was, however, saved by the director of a public school. I'm sure she is flagrantly pagan. Yet I had one of those moments (usually saved for church) when I felt that as she spoke God was speaking to me.
REPENT!
Turn. Run. Robinson, and his Swiss Family are not for you!
Lately, homeschool has SUCKED. It's no wonder really. I was sitting my kids down with a pile of worksheets and asking them to be self-motivated and disciplined and complete these worksheets in a timely manner, all with a good attitude. Robinson and his insipid philosophy and wheedled into my thinking and robbed my family of joy.
I am 34.
An adult, by every definition.
I would be grumpy about sitting down for 3 hours to complete a bunch of worksheets.
It would be like doing taxes everyday.
(Not that I would know, because I haven't done my own taxes in well over a decade
- but one could assume it would be similar.)
This Robinson stuff is crappy pedagogy. All the research in adult and childhood learning suggests this an exceptionally bad way to learn. Besides that, it's a joy killer. I got into homeschool because I was disenchanted with this type of "back to basics" education. I knew adults learn best when they:
-are ready to learn
-and can attach learning to their own life and interests
-are given opportunity engage and interact with others in the learning process
I figured that kids learn best that way too. And I was right. The research has my back.
So when we started this homeschool journey we played, and we read amazing literature, and we built, and painted and experimented. It was FUN. And I was a good teacher. Somewhere I got lost, though. Because my kids got older and their school got harder. It's easy to have fun learning to add. It's more difficult to create authentic, experiential learning around long division and multiplying fractions. Add in a regulating challenged baby and the whole thing goes to #$&%. So I started looking into things like Robinson (because if my kids were basically schooling themselves homeschool seemed doable).
But at what cost?
Back to that public school director I was talking about. She founded a charter for gifted and creative learners. Like I said, she's a pagan right out of the Republic of Boulder. Yet, her philosophy of education is far more biblical. Honor the child. Be humble. Smart is good. Kind is better. Allow for differences. Create safe places. Work together. Teach community. Strive for excellence. This world is a place of beauty; let children be in awe of it. Inspire. Encourage. Serve.
She said these thing, she and her Crunchy-Boulderite-Dansko-Wearing self, and I remembered. I remembered what makes me a good teacher, and what makes homeschooling beautiful. I remembered why I started.
Here's the thing: It is quite possible, probable even, that I cannot do home school like I believe homeschool should be done with my particular preschooler. Either she's going to school, or my "biggers" are. And if I'm lucky it's possible they all will. Because if I can get them in, they are gonna go to that school the Pagan started.
Enough with Swiss Family Robinson. We're done. God has spoken. Truly. And through a Boulderite, no less. So I went to the library this weekend. We're reading together again. And baking. And experimenting. It's messy. Not sure if its sustainable. But it IS better.
2 comments:
So what are your thoughts on the "unschool" homeschool philosophy?
song
funny you should ask... see my recent post.
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