In Which I Give an Honest Look at Homeschooling

As with all things parenting, I have strong feelings about homeschooling in our family for this year. I am confident that the Lord is asking this of our family. I cannot think beyond this year, nor should I be!

I do think that I jumped the gun a little bit in terms of our approach as I fell prey to a few things:

1. I felt tremendous pressure to 'prove' homeschooling is legitimate. Some of this was due to pressure I put on myself, and it was also due to pressure/skepticism that I sensed from others. I know homeschooling raises some eyebrows. I get that. But if you have questions or concerns about our family's personal choice on the matter, then please just ask me! Last time I checked, I'm fairly approachable :).

2. Due to the aforementioned pressure I put on myself, I felt that our schooling needed to be socially accepted. And so, I tended toward something that was accredited. Accredited schools are good and wonderful, absolutely! And we will still be supplementing with our current curriculum. There are many great things about the curriculum that we chose, but it is all workbook-based. This isn't working for us so far for a few reasons:

• School is becoming something to just 'get through' for my oldest who is only at the tender age of 5. I don't feel that the workbook approach is fostering a love of learning for him. It's becoming something to just complete, shut the workbook, and move on to something else. He's not excited about the work, and admittedly, I'm not excited either.
• We came from a wonderful montessori school which is all based on a more tactile experience of learning. Workbooks are a far cry from that. I want workbooks to supplement our experiences, so I'm surely not ruling them out altogether. I do think that learning can and should extend far beyond workbooks. That's just like, my opinion, man (Lebowski reference, anyone?).

Our family needs a different approach to education. I have spent much time trying to determine if our current approach isn't working due to my own laziness. But honestly, that's not the issue here (my laziness comes into play in many other aspects, but that's another post for another day!). The issue is that Kindergarten learning should be foundational and help foster a love of learning. Our current approach is not achieving that in our family.

My outlook on Kindergarten is this: lots of reading, some math, some writing, gross and fine motor work, virtue, and socializing. Reading poems. Listening to good music by way of concerts and music played in our home. Focusing on quality over quantity. All of these can be achieved in many ways. I'm trying to work in more art projects as well and always strive to be living the liturgical calendar.

Just as a family might switch schools at the end of the year if the school (public, private, Catholic, montessori, some combination) wasn't working for their family, we are switching approaches as well. Families switch schools all the time, change their level of involvement, add extracurriculars, etc based on what their family needs at that given time. Those choices are all in an effort to serve the needs of their family. Our choices are no different.

And so, it's time for a change. With Charlotte Mason as my inspiration, I hope to take a more holistic approach to education in our home.

St. Philip Neri, pray for us!