We've been at this homeschooling gig for three years now. Each year has varied little in its routine: We start enthusiastically in July with loads of curriculum, a carefully-planned daily schedule and checklists and progress reports; by October, the wheels have fallen off. We're not so enthusiastic. What seemed like excellent, motivating resources become drudgery to complete. No matter how I try to shake things up, we never regain our enthusiasm.
I always remember loving school as a girl, but I can also remember countless days spent in the nurse's office or huddled miserably in a classroom, waiting for the sweet release of the school bus headed homeward. Most of the learning that has stuck with me through the years are subjects I explored on my own with the help of World Book encyclopedias and Childcraft volumes. I cannot recall, except in very brief flashes, any of the many lessons and lectures I sat through. I do remember wandering by myself in the woods, thinking and exploring and questioning.
Child-led learning seems like the most natural thing in the world. After all, Zack learned to walk without walking lessons or walking units or walking lapbooks. He learned to speak English on his own. He even learned to read on his own. He didn't study phonics or sight words. We just left books all over the house and read out loud to him as often as we could. By the time he started preschool, he was reading. So why do I feel this ingrained compulsion to open up his head and pour in all the rote information I can now that we're homeschooling? I'm almost afraid that if I don't drill him on states and capitals and presidents and measurements and geography and life cycles and the principles of economics that he will reach adulthood ignorant and floundering. Never mind that it's been years since anyone asked me the capital of a state and we both had to look it up.
I had a lively discussion with Russ the other night about the wisdom of teaching Roman numerals. My opinion is that it's archaic and useless knowledge in today's environment. Russ feels if his school-going peers are learning it, then Zack should, too. Just in case. Just in case what? Just in case he wants to sit through the credits of a movie and try to figure out what year it was filmed instead of, I don't know, looking it up on IMDB? Just in case he wants to know which Super Bowl is being played? No, it's in case I die and Zack has to return to school. Thanks, hon. Regardless, I'm not a proponent of teaching a concept or subject just because it's always been taught.
So it sounds like unschooling would be philosophically fitting for us, right? Except it scares me to death. He's ten years old. How does he know what he wants to learn? He needs a schedule and guidance! He needs textbooks and worksheets! If I left him to his own devices, he would noodle around on his computer all day! The horror!
But we're trying unschooling for a while. (Just like we tried nighttime homeschooling for a while until I discovered that I fold up mentally and physically at 10:00 p.m.) Russ and Zack were out of town for a week last week and Russ is off work most of this week. We're having work done on the house before the holidays and then we have the holidays themselves to endure...er, I mean, ENJOY. Our homeschooling schedule is going to be up in the air until January, so why not give unschooling a try? If it doesn't work out, a few months won't set him back irrevocably.
Right? Right??!???
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