Why do we homeschool?
Some of the joys of homeschooling are the freedom and flexibility.
Specific joys include snuggling up with your child and reading interesting books together, digging in the garden, planting and growing flowers and vegetables, puzzling out logic puzzles of how to get the humans safely across the bridge before the zombies catch you, going on exciting outings with fellow homeschoolers to meteorite craters, to carrot and mushroom farms, coffee Roasteries, the workshop of a retired carpenter, the greenhouse of a small business owner who grows micro greens, visiting someone who uses aquaponics to grow herbs and vegetables, learning macro photography with your child in the botanical gardens, visiting the observatory and viewing Saturn’s rings through a powerful telescope, attending the Grahamstown science festival and all the wonders that entails, learning about art online with the educators at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, doing a MOOC (Massive open online course)* on light and building a light box to create different coloured shadows, having your child go beyond your abilities and study computer science courses online for free through Harvard university and learning to program in python, including the neighbourhood children in your science experiments with exothermic and endothermic reactions and viewing microscopic creatures moving on the wall of your bedroom, using a drop of pond water as a lens and a laser pointer, building an unbelievable number of rockets and volcanoes and self-inflating balloons, learning about energy in all its different forms by designing and teaching a course for preschool children, volunteering at the shelter and getting to wash the puppies and groom the dogs.
These are all actual examples of things that I did while homeschooling my two children. I could write a book on all the outings we went on, all the activities we did, all the books we read, and all the art we did together. It was an incredible journey, and I am sure that I learned more along the way than I taught.
There were also many challenges and many times which were not as much fun. We learned from our mistakes and our failures as much as our successes. My eldest found working from a curriculum in a book to be deeply boring and I learned to keep the book work to a minimum and the real learning as informal and exciting as possible.
As a mom, I never had the security of working through a particular grade or a particular curriculum, or, knowing that my children were on par with their age mates, or with where they needed to be. As a Maths teacher, I ensured that they did Maths every day, and that they wrote every day. My children both loved English and wrote mini books and comics as soon as they could write. They were very creative in their cursive writing books and always wrote something funny instead of the sentences that they were supposed to write. We kept a daily gratitude journal and they later kept their own private journals. We read together, and they went on to read extensively of their own volition.
My personal approach and believe has always been that my children should do informal learning till they reach grade 9. I followed that approach because when children reach the age of 14 to 15, they start asking themselves about their place in the world, the difference they can make and for me it meant they were ready for the structured environment of formal learning.
In the informal phase I wanted to show my children what the world is about, give them context, explore and learn critical thinking by evaluating what they’ve seen and experienced. By doing that, I knew that I was preparing them for the next phase of learning.
And when it came to the formal learning, we also did it differently. The extensive practical work that we had done made it easy for the children to understand the necessary concepts and to apply their knowledge. They were able to work independently and had the necessary discipline built from regular work to achieve success. I chose the Cambridge Curriculum as I believe it further teaches critical thinking and requires independent work to succeed. We used simulations and sources beyond the curriculum like Crash Course videos to keep the learning interesting.
It was a joy to be such a big part of my children’s lives while they were growing up. Along the way, my children and I made many friends for life and I am deeply grateful for the entire experience.
* a course of study made available over the internet without charge to a very large number of people.
Catherine Cuff