The world has changed so much in the last few years, and we have come to value our work/ life balance as never before. We have become able to work online in the post COVID era and we value the time that this has given us. We are reluctant to return to driving to meetings or even driving in traffic daily to work. In addition to working from home, online schools have also become increasingly popular. Many students prefer this environment for a number of different reasons including the fact that they can focus more meaningfully on their school work without wasting time on unnecessary activities and that they are able to spend time pursuing the extra-curricular activities they love. The post COVID world has also highlighted many shortcomings in education. Parents have seen exactly what goes on in the classroom and in some cases they have decided that there has to be a better way.
The question now becomes what exactly is this better way? And how do we implement it successfully with our children? There are different answers to this question and you will hear many different opinions. It will also depend on the age of your children currently and on their personalities, interests and aptitudes. Many parents still have to work part time or full time while wanting to homeschool and this can influence the choices they make.
From my own point of view the resurgence in homeschooling is a good thing as I advocate a less formal approach particularly for younger children until the teenage years. Young children learn best through play and the environment in which they learn is the best teacher. I think we have lost the opportunity for our children to learn through play and the resurgence in homeschooling might be the chance we need to get back there. When we take this approach with our children it can lead to more balance in our lives and to our teenagers being much more well-rounded and balanced.
With younger children parents will need to be more involved and engaged than with older children. Taking your children on outings and to informal social events, volunteering and visiting art galleries, forming small groups with others with similar interests and hobbies and simply spending significant amounts of time with your children cooking, baking or just reading together, all contribute meaningfully to their education. It can be very time consuming if you are trying to do it all alone and this is not necessary unless you are living somewhere isolated. Homeschooling has become so popular that there are clubs and groups for many different activities and if your child has a unique interest you could start your own group. My children were incredibly lucky to be part of a small informal club called Art and Appreciation (started by a homeschooling mom) where they studied (doing their own research) a particular South African artist for a specified time period and visited exhibitions and produced their own art in the style of the artist. When the group met each child or family presented their art or project on the artist in any form that they chose. As homeschooling parents we also had a chance to catch up and be inspired by other parents.
Some parents find this too eclectic and prefer a more structured approach with books and daily work. In this option you can choose to follow a curriculum and buy books, a whole programme or just normal textbooks and workbooks and work your way systematically through them. If you are structured and disciplined and prepared to sit with your children and go through all the work with them then this method can work well. If your children focus well and like to work in books this will suit them. The advantages of this method are: it is structured; you know where your children are in terms of their grade; it makes you feel secure and it is easy to follow along with the programme.
For my own children I learned to keep the book work to a minimum but we did a little maths and English every day from grade 1 to grade 9. 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. They also did handwriting and learned cursive. Their sentences tended to be highly original and not to resemble the sentences in the book at all. If your child is reluctant to read, read to them. They will eventually get tired of needing you to mediate the written word for them and they will want to learn to read. (Read exciting books and stop on a cliff-hanger…)
When your child reaches an age where they require more formal teaching due to needing to receive some sort of school leaving qualification you will have to look again and decide whether homeschooling is still the best option for you or if some other option would suit your child better. Older children who are very social or sporty, will need an environment where there is a lot of opportunity for them to interact with others. If you live in an area where there is a large homeschool community or a community which is particularly involved in club sports, you will be able to provide the necessary social and sporting experience for your children. However, if there is no large community of homeschoolers it may be more beneficial for your child to enter a mainstream school where they will get the opportunity they need to socialise and participate in group sports. If your child has learning difficulties or special needs, you may have decided on homeschooling as it will provide the flexibility for accommodations to be made to your child’s needs.
You need to go back to basics, and this means examining your end goal and not merely trying a variety of different options. You need to decide where you are going to end up and translate this into the best way to get there. It is important to sit down as a family and make a decision about the future of your homeschooling. If you have been homeschooling your child from the beginning you will be in a much better position because you will have spent time getting to know your child and following their interests and the way they like to work and this will help you to select the optimal environment for them.
Another factor that comes into play is that due to how the world has changed, as parents we are no longer merely equipping our children with a matric exemption in order to study in South Africa, but we are considering options for international study. In order to study overseas you need to ensure that the curriculum you choose is accepted in the intended country of study. One of the disadvantages of the explosion of schooling options is that there are many fly-by-night providers and inexperienced providers who are able to do a good sales job but do not deliver on their promises. You need to do your homework to ensure that you make use of a reputable service provider whichever route you decide to take.
Some of the qualifications that are available to homeschoolers in South Africa include the National Senior Certificate which is the standard matric. If you receive sufficiently good grades you can achieve your Senior Certificate with university exemption which is the basic requirement of all South African universities. Another option is to choose an internationally recognized qualification such as GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) which is then followed by AS and/or A Levels. Overseas universities require three A level subjects to enter university. Good marks are a must as there are many students and few places. A curriculum like Cambridge gives you more flexibility in that the number of subjects, progression and choices are not as strict as doing a national certificate and can be structured around your child’s interests and strengths.
There are many pros and cons during the formal years to home schooling and it is important to remember that unless your child is happy, they will not learn, and they will not thrive.
Whilst you are easily able to do a theoretical comparison between the different curricula that are available, it is far more important to match your child to the curriculum that suits them best. Here you need to keep your end goal in mind. You need to know your child; you need to decide whether you are going to continue with homeschooling and if so, you need to choose which curriculum is the best fit for your child. It is more important to ensure that the curriculum is a good fit for your child than to choose the most popular or fashionable curriculum.
What is new and fresh? Now that we have moved into the world where our children have to use technology and have to develop technology skills we can move away from more traditional subjects and careers and explore more widely. Instead of merely learning biology they can also learn environmental management and sustainability; instead of learning merely mathematics or mathematical theory from a textbook they can learn astronomy and physics from the latest developments in the James Webb telescope. It’s a perfect opportunity to incorporate real world events into their schooling.
As a parent you may have had a formal plan for your child to become a lawyer or an accountant but if you have implemented a plan to learn by play optimally you will have given your child a massive amount of exposure to areas they would not normally have been exposed to. You will be able to see where your child’s strengths lie, and you will be able to guide them in order to optimize their future.
When they reach their teenage years, you can start planning a formal curriculum in order for them to finish their schooling.
What is really new here? The focus should be on a new mindset and a new way of thinking. Your new mindset must also be to decide with your child what works best for both of you. You are in control of your own destiny. Covid has helped us open new avenues in the digital world that were never available before and homeschoolers are thriving on that. You need to throw away your preconceived notions about education and formal education. Your child need not go to university, or they need not go to university as soon as they turn 18. Perhaps they don’t need to finish school at a particular age. Perhaps they need a gap year after they are finished school. It is important that you consider what is best for your family and what is best for your child in particular.
Whatever the situation, we know that the only constant in life is change and there will always be something new and exciting (and maybe controversial) that surfaces and no matter what you choose – someone will agree, someone will think you are crazy and someone may even laugh at you.
Just know, that in a constantly changing world where there is always something new, even when considering homeschooling and the avenues you can take, the most important thing as a parent is to try and do the best we can and make the decisions that will hopefully give our children the best chances of success in their lives. We can only lay the foundation; they need to take the responsibility no matter what we choose.
Catherine Cuff