Homeschooling for Life: Raising Lifelong Learners
When you enter the world of homeschooling you quickly realize that there are a LOT of philosophies and approaches to home education. For most homeschooling parents, it can be overwhelming and make you feel underqualified as an educator even before you start. Waldorf, Classical, Charlotte Mason, Unschooling and Montessori are just some of the methods of homeschooling. But what is the right approach for your family? Then there is the decision of how you want to legally register as a homeschooler. We live in British Columbia, Canada where there are two options: Distributed learning and Homeschooling. I have tried both of them.
I have tried homeschooling different ways; when we started homeschooling I recreated a school setting in our home. We had individual desks, scheduled classes, recess breaks and followed the B.C. curriculum. I was registered as a Distributed Learner and had a teacher assigned to our family. Her job was to support me as an educator and ensure we were meeting our learning goals and B.C. curriculum requirements. I would teach all day then prep for the next day in the evenings. It didn't take long to realize that our family didn't fit this structure. For a care-free family this approach was sucking the joy out of learning and was defeating the purpose of keeping the kids home. I wanted to teach the girls that learning doesn't only take place in a classroom setting and it never ends, no matter how old we are. I wanted to teach them to be critical thinkers and love the process of learning. I realized that I would never fit into a homeschooling box, but loved blending all approaches of education together.
Last year I switched to a registered homeschooler and do not follow the B.C. curriculum. I know this is where you start thinking I'm a crazy unschooler or something - I get it. I had to work through some doubts myself before coming to this decision. I came to realize that education is relative to where you live. In California what is required differs from British Columbia. Even across provinces required curriculum varies. I want my girls to understand and have knowledge of the world, not just the boundaries of our great province.
If you are new to homeschooling, may I encourage you to be flexible. Be willing to try new approaches. Don't try to follow the norm but be open to what works best for your family. I value the years I had under a teachers direction. She gave me confidence and encouraged me as a teacher (I think she gave my girls confidence in me as their teacher too!)
Why did you decide to homeschool? What are your end goals? Write these down and keep them accessible. Remember: The chatter doesn't matter, the vision makes the decision. One of my goals was to spend quality time with my girls. Our original structured approach gave us time together, but not quality time. We were just working a checklist. Now, we have fun learning together side by side. I am proud to be living out what I preach to my kids. We are never too old to stop learning. I hope they are inspired by a 36 year old mom that is always up for adventure.
