After observing the home school movement for 20 years, I’m tickled at how large and diverse it has grown! It’s such a blessing to see parents take charge of their own children’s education. We now have so many options that we don’t know what to do with them. And yet for all this, I think that many of our kids are still being shortchanged by our presumptions, distractions, and lack of due diligence. I guess it’s easy to think that since we are home schooling (O, virtuous parents that we are), our kids will automatically turn out to be angels and geniuses. (My own smugness makes me want to retch.) And since we have so much freedom to choose our own path, it’s also easy to choose the path of least resistance. I think we can set a higher standard for ourselves. The media is quick to point out the families who are slacking off, and could easily sway public opinion in favor of stricter legislation. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance – and diligence!
I would just like to briefly encourage each of you to do what it takes to get the job done right. If you made the decision to home school your kids, you need to be ready to pay the price in terms of your time and energy. I know that this can be a struggle in our family with 10 kids (seven "official" school age, one in full-time college while living at home, and two preschoolers), and I’ve certainly seen it in other smaller families, too. I don’t always want to start a math lesson knowing that my child will argue with me about it. I don’t always want to take the time to grade a paper, even though errors quickly become engrained when not corrected. I don’t always notice one child wandering off to pester someone else when I am working with another one. It’s easier just to assume that everyone is going to do whatever they are assigned, when in reality it’s not what we EXpect but what we INspect that gets done. Also, even if we do expend a lot of time and effort, that’s no guarantee that we’re doing it right. We may be beating our heads against a brick wall using ineffective, inefficient methods, or even using otherwise good techniques which just aren’t right for this child this year. So we have to pay attention to whether it’s working for us, and not just “rest on the laurels” of the success of the home school movement at large. No, we shouldn’t jump from one thing to another too quickly. We have to give things time. But if, after consulting with our children and researching the options, we know things just aren’t working, we have to be willing to adjust.
For our family, “doing whatever it takes” meant joining an academic home school co-op which meets all day once a week and provides assignments for the rest of the week. I can put the hours into preparing and teaching lessons for English classes (kindergarten and middle school) that I could never justify doing for just one or two of my own children if I were having to plan and teach lessons for all of the other subjects and grade levels, too. I am passionate about teaching English, and my kids love learning from the other teachers who are more skilled in science, history, and math. It’s a win-win situation for us this year. But that’s what is right for us at this particular point in our long home school journey. You have to figure out what is right for your own family each year.
It won’t hurt any of us to take an afternoon or two and carefully think through long term and short term goals for each child. What will it take to get there? Are you making decent progress? What needs to change? Here are some areas to think about:
- Are your goals reasonable and measurable?
- At this rate, will your child be prepared to handle life in the big outside world?
- Are your plans specific and doable?
- Do you follow through on these plans?
- Do you have a proper balance between structure and flexibility?
- Are your curriculum and methods effective?
- Are you properly motivated?
- Is your child properly motivated? (Attitude is just about everything!)
- Is the emotional atmosphere of your home healthy?
- Is your home orderly enough for learning to take place without too much distraction?
- Are your children participating in household chores, which is good training for them and frees up time for you to oversee education?
- Are you accountable to anyone?
- Are you willing to humbly learn more about the educational process, even from people who are different than you?
I’m not saying this to make you nervous or to induce guilt. Home education does not have to be complicated. In fact, when we get distracted by trying to do too many different things, we will not excel in the vital basics. I love the Charlotte Mason method, though I don't use it exclusively. In my opinion, in the elementary grades you can easily build an enviable home education program like this:
MORNING (essential subjects in short doses)
- Bible! (Read a little, and maybe have them copy a verse or two?)
- basic reading and thinking skills (much spelling is picked up naturally when you teach phonics)
- lots of great books on various subjects (history, geography, science, stories, poetry, etc.) for you to read aloud and discuss with them
- a little handwriting and grammar practice using simple copywork or dictation
- a math workbook supplemented with hands-on materials
AFTERNOON (enrichment and independent work as you are able)
- well-chosen books for them to read independently when they are ready for this
- appreciating great music and art works
- hand crafts and other projects
- fresh air nature study and outdoor play
- independent delight-directed pursuits
In the later years, education will naturally become more advanced and there will be more “stuff” to learn. But if we focus on being faithful at the little skills and habits in the early years, the big skills and habits will come much more easily when we get to them.
I've always like Edgar Guest's poem "Results or Roses" and I think expresses this concept so effectively. Enjoy!
Results or Roses
by Edgar Guest
The man who wants a garden fair,
Or small or very big,
With flowers growing here and there,
Must bend his back and dig.
The things are mighty few on earth
That wishes can attain
Whate’er we want of any worth
We’ve got to work to gain.
It matters not what goal you seek
Its secret here reposes:
You’ve got to dig from week to week
To get Results or Roses.
