It is a bit of a challenge, as a homeschooling mom, to desire the use of a more unconventional approach to educating my children when there is a lot of pressure to follow the institutionalized standard.
Understandably, the Young Lady must meet the criteria necessary in order to earn a high school diploma. I like The American Academy program we chose for her. She is required to complete some complex tasks and is being instructed at a more difficult level than the other courses we considered. As a mother, I feel good about this challenging program.
I am impressed with the Calvert School choice for the Little Boy, as well. There are wonderful supplemental activites online which are fun for him to work on. He enjoys the incorporation of experiments for each Science lesson, and applying his imagination to the writing assignments. He seems inspired, which makes me very happy.
My concern does not lie with the children's courses. It has to do with the freedom we should have, as a homeschooling family, to really utilize the world as our classroom and embrace every day experiences as the learning opportunities they are.
The idea that school must be done from 8:00 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. in a structured way, using instruction by textbook, completing assignments, testing, and grading, goes against the value of home-based education. When the children are at the farm they're taking in a wealth of information that cannot be obtained in an institutionalized environment. The same is true for shopping, attending medical appointments, and other routine activities. Such exposures create backgrounds of real-world intelligence and practical applications, with natural opportunities to demonstrate the text-book information they've learned. It makes education fun, and when learning is enjoyable it leaves a better impression. Practical and personal application of information opens the mind to store the information more effectively. Having real-life chances to put education to use enables deeper understanding and appreciation of why it is necessary to have certain knowledge.
I am thrilled to be a homeschooling mom. The Young Lady and Little Boy are both well-rounded children with good morals and a foundation of spirituality. I would not want it any other way. :)
atta girl hun--my thoughts exactly!
ReplyDeleteWell done for all you do. Life is an education in itself and if kids enjoy what they are doing the lessons are easy aren't they. The way kids are taught in school is for the convenience of the education system, it has to be to deal with so many children at once. My children still love learning (the youngest now 30), and so do I. We have a little more freedom in England as we don't have to get a diploma. Hugs lin
ReplyDeleteI "unschooled" my boys. In other words, I used books when I had to (Algebra mostly)but a lot of our learning took place naturally. We went weekly to a Science museum, took lots of trips for history....thankfully there are a lot of historic places in NJ but we did some over nighters too ... Gettysburg, Williamsburg, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. Hands on learning worked well for us. As teens, I enrolled them both in American School as I had to return to work at that time. But at age 16 I allowed them to take the GED. All of that book work after homeschooling was monotonous.
ReplyDeleteIt is such a privilege to be able to share those years with our children ... because they're gone before you know it!