As I look out my sweaty single-paned windows, the sky is gray, tinged with coral. The school bus is due to pass by my front door in twenty minutes. I’m up, showered and dressed, and with the baby. The rest of the house is quiet. Seven other children are either sleeping or still lounging in their beds, stretching under fluffy comforters or doing their own reading. What’s *not* happening is a full-blown rush to get everyone dressed, everyone fed, everyone’s books in order, and everyone out the door. That only happens on Sundays ๐
My eldest is turning 18. She recently asked how much more schooling she would need to do before she graduated. My mind flew to all of the subjects and curriculums that were incomplete or unattempted. I thought about all of the things I still wanted her to learn. Like Latin. Like French. I thought about creating her perfect transcript, even though she has no intention at the moment to attend college (shock and awe, I know…I’ll give you a moment…). But when I consider the point of education,ย I had to admit, she was ready to be on her own Life Pursuits.
What IS the point of education? To me, it is to be equipped and ready for LIFE. It means having had enough experiences and learning that my child is able to not only read on a wide level of topics, but to write well in order to communicate, and to have enough math skills to do the basics of everyday living. It means that my child knows how–no, WANTS TO–keep learning as a lifelong pursuit. It means my child has shown the character needed, the maturity, to respectfully interact with people of all kinds. It means my child knows the gospel, and continues to witness how a relationship with God plays out in real life.
I’m afraid none of that would have happened if I treated my homeschool as the destination of that yellow school bus. I know, because I, too, was an elementary school teacher, a project leader, a Language Arts consultant. I was well embedded in that system and know it well. And I knew it wasn’t the best for my children.
I’m not even talking about the subjects taught, although the slide away from focusing on reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic has become more like tobogganing down an avalanche into an unknown abyss. I’m talking about running a child’s life like a machine, where every 45 minutes a bell goes off and *beep* turn off your Spanish Two mind and *beep* turn on your Algebra mind and *beep* whoops there’s a fire drill and *beep* Turn your books to page 42…. All the while dealing with peer pressure, a lack of discipline, and trays of factory produced pizza and chocolate milk.
There goes the bus…
So, when my daughter asked about graduation, I had to consider this. I decided to have her go through a test preparation book, so that we could see where, if any, of the holes were. Not surprisingly, she needed a little help in her math. Four months later of working with her dad on problems, she finished it with a flourish. So the cap and gown has been purchased, the cake ordered, the diploma printed.
What did she learn? I don’t know all of it…that’s the thing with slow schooling; children end up teaching themselves far more subjects than planned, expected or tested. But here is a little list of things I can remember:
English: grammar, spelling, composition, and a wide range of literature
public speaking
maths of all kinds
sciences, everything from general science to botany to astronomy to vet medicine
Bible, memory work
homemaking: gardening, baking, laundry, food preserving, diapers, cleaning
history: American, world, church
music: violin, flute, viola, piano
art of all kinds
milking dairy goats, driving a stick shift
archery, rabbitry, hospitality and ministry
basket weaving, rug making, knitting, sewing (tailoring, actually)
Ultimately, what matters most are not the things that can be put on a transcript. What matters most is the character that comes from loving God. What we have now is a beautiful, young lady not only well-rounded in her education, but someone who is mature, eager to keep learning, and ready to embrace life with her own goals and dreams. She is a sweet daughter, a good friend to others, kind, compassionate, funny, and polite.
Are you operating out of the fear that doing something out of the cultural norm will hinder your children? Well, maybe doing something outside of the norm will save your children. I suppose only time will tell for us–this is our first graduate–but as sleepy footsteps now tenderly move through the house, I can honestly say I have no regrets. And I am proud of the adult my daughter has become.
Blessings,
<3 hearts to P <3
Hi Mrs. Lamar,
I know I might be one of your strangest readers, but I have had a hard time organizing my life, and you, and your two eldest daughters, have been wonderful role models for organization and daily life. You have a couple posts (way back) on “a day in my life”, would it be possible for you to do a revisit, another one of those? Just food for thought! I <3 your blog, btw!
Blessings in Christ,
Issabella
You’re not “strange”! Thank you for the suggestion; I’m sure my current day would look very different from what I wrote a while ago ๐
love the encouragement to think outside the box. Your homeschool writings have helped me to relax a little and realize it’s not the end of the world if my school day doesn’t go exactly as planned. I just had a sweet baby boy 6 weeks ago, and I gave myself permission to slow school for a while. This morning I was shocked to learn my 5 year old daughter can already almost count to 100 without us working on it and count by tens. lol it’s amazing how much they absorb just by listening to an older siblings school!
Your daughter sounds like a beautiful woman of God, Congratulations on that!! ๐ May I be able so say the same about mine some day…. ๐
Enjoy your sweet baby days! And, yes, I’m not sure if we could *keep* our children from learning ๐
Uhm……..I know that homeschooling is more popular in US than here in UK and have no idea what your education system is like either. ………. but don’t agree that homeschooling is the best thing for a child. It is a combination of both, parent and school, both ways of education are vital to provide a good balance. As a child of an academic myself am of the belief that education is vital to understanding the world.Here in UK sadly, the majority of parents seem to think that school has 100% responsibilty in educating their children and no encouragement given at home. Which as you can imagine is turning out a generation of limited intelligence.
All my children had superb educations both at school and home, with all three going on to University and degrees, all three have continued with academic studies, as have I. Learning is constant throughout life,it never stops, or shouldn’t. I see education from various angles, my eldest child is a teacher of Asperger children in a state school and my two youngest children are both in private education.
Right, I have probably got way off track here KeriMae so do edit if necessary!
Basically what I am trying to express is….no, I don’t agree with home schooling, especially in a household of mixed aged children……sorry
No apologies needed ๐ Obviously, we disagree. It does not fit well with either my worldview nor my children’s needs at this time to send them to the state to be educated. I am very thankful that here I have the choice to foster that love of learning from home, and pray to be faithful and purposeful in my endeavors to do so. I’m also thankful we can now earn those academic degrees, if so desired, from anywhere on earth…including from home. You can even go to seminary online now! http://www.masters.edu/academics/online.aspx
P.S. I think homeschooling is *especially* effective in “a household of mixed aged children”. ๐
I love to study,and continually study with the Open University…which is an adult is fine but children need to be in school. We can not shield them from the “real world” as much as we would like to. I speak from experience! I was educated in private school, all girls, which was the norm in the 50’s…….gosh I am old! The education was fine but preparing me for life as a nursing student in a large hospital it failed.
There is no ‘right’ answer, there never is. Interesting to see in the future how your children adjust to the harsh realities of the real world.
Ah, yes, the “real world” of being in a closed building for most of their waking hours (do they even get play time anymore?) following a 45 minute blocked schedule eating junk made in a factory segregated into peer groups of their own age….hm…yes, that sounds like the “real world” to me ๐
I seem to be the caboose on this thread and do not want to belabor it but if I may offer real-life experience commentary, please let me share this:
In response to children responding “to the harsh realities of the real world”, many homeschoolers that we have known were actually working out there in the real world while they were homeschooling. My son worked (because he could) and I eventually called it his work-study in his curriculum. It paid for car insurance and small incidentals but he was scrupulous about saving it. When he was 18 he bought a vehicle with his money and then went to college. He later sold the vehicle instead of accruing student loans. Many years later I can legitimately boast that he is quite accomplished in his field and has never forgotten how to learn.
As for Academia, it does not come joined-at-the-hip with University or any school. One of the most intelligent men I have known, one of the most persistently self-educated, received neither High School diploma nor College. His major criticism of most schooling was that it did not teach one to Think!
If there are “no right answers”, why then do we persist so adamantly for our own opinion?
S.D.G. as per Johann Sebastian Bach
Keri Mae,
Wonderful post. We are very like minded when it comes to home schooling and our children.
So thankful for people like you! And let the naysayers nay. Our children are living examples of a great education. It might not look like the standard factory education but it does far exceed it. In my opinion of course.
Yes, let the opposers have their opinions. We are not raising our children for the “real world”, this present and fallen world which will not last forever. We are raising them for God! They are His and it is for His eternal kingdom that we nurture and prepare them. It will look like foolishness to the world. I would be quite worried if it didn’t.
agreed! loved this!!