This is a response I posted to a home school group....in response to a rather new home schooler who has three young children with one on the way! She expressed concerns of feeling behind and having difficulty tending to the oldest child's needs as she met the needs of her youngest child. She reminded me of my early days of home schooling - very fond memories. There are many things I would do differently as I have gained new knowledge regarding child development and learning. Moreover, I have matured and perhaps I am more settled now that I have one in college and I have witnessed the many benefits of home education. In the early years, this educational choice was unknown and unexplored by me! I remember having some of the same concerns; but, the veterans were always willing to give words of encouragement. Hopefully, I can do the same for others.
Response:
Many of us have been where you are and it does get better....
I have several thoughts I'd like to share. First, I wonder if a teacher EVER feels like he or she is running right on schedule? I have taught in public, private and home school situations and I always feel as though we are running a little behind. But, persistence seems to win out and the students do learn. That said, I am sure you are definitely not alone in that regard.
My three are 19, 15 and 13 so when they were little, I was quite busy. I used Accelerated Christian Education's preschool/kindergarten phonics program with all three of my children. I modified it rather heavily to fit the learning needs/styles of each child but at the younger ages (preschool and kindergarten) we'd work in about 2 half hour spurts per day...I continued with ACE for first and second grade because it was self-paced, heavy on reading and my children could work on their own unless they had a question about something. Literally, the curriculum taught my children reading and basic math and I was 'available' for help. I did have them read much of it out loud so I could ensure they were improving, but as they got better, I backed off of this a bit and they began reading silently. At this age, about an hour or two 3-4 days a week was plenty of time to get the work done. We do home school year round with fall, winter, spring and summer breaks (rather than two months off in the summer) so this probably helped. Developmentally, play, pretend, talking, helping mom with the baby, helping mom with cooking, working in the garden and freedom to explore are excellent opportunities for learning - all of which support literacy, math, science and critical thinking. There are also a number of web resources (games such as those found at http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/)that support learning as well. This is another activity that frees mom/teacher to take care of other children/needs from time to time.
During these early years, I made sure the children had plenty of opportunity to play with other home schoolers, take lessons of some sort (dance, tennis, art, music, etc.) and participate in church (through attendance and service). Again, these all support learning and literacy.
Once they got older, I began to vary the curriculum more (remembering, even early on, I always modified ACE and added things I felt were important such as trips to museums, plays or working in the garden - also, once I saw they grasped a mathematics concept.....I let them move on rather than continue with repetitive problem solving. ACE always offers review so I knew they'd get to review the concept again down the line). Now, we use Khanacademy.org for math - it's a free online learning site. We may not use it forever, but they boys enjoy it for now. We've also used Liveonlinemath.com for geometry (my weak spot in Math) and the teacher for this was very helpful. Switched on Schoolhouse (SOS) has been a great help as well - parents are able to choose their level of involvement with SOS. We can help with projects, lessons, etc.; but, if baby starts crying or someone is sick, SOS is great with tutorials, games, quizzes and tests that allow the child to keep learning. SOS is the guide - same with Teaching Textbooks.
I remember that people always used to ask me how I could do it with such varied ages - and, I think the curriculum and activities I chose was one of the keys. I did not choose labor intensive curriculum. Choosing a curriculum that helps teach the child really helps out those of us who have our hands full. Also, reading aloud and learning could easily have occurred in the evening or weekends when I had an extra set of adult hands. It's amazing what 15-20 minutes a day can do to improve reading skills. I even used to have the kids sit next to me while I nursed and we'd read aloud. Plus, we always remained active outside the home. Two-three days were set aside for field trips, play groups, social gatherings, outside lessons or community service. These are tremendous learning opportunities in and of themselves.
All that said, there are other sources of encouragement I'd like to share with home schoolers - really, any educator....
School Can Wait - a book by Raymond Moore (might help with those feelings of never getting enough done and getting behind)
Creativity - this is a presentation on creativity and how traditional education has a tendency to squelch it. Perhaps we need to change the way we think learning should occur? Dr. Ken Robinson has some very interesting things to say.
Sudbury Valley School - this is a school that sees learning very differently and they have a great deal to say about letting children learn what they want to learn at a pace that fits their individual needs.
Also, the unschooling channel on youtube has several experts discuss 'learning' today. Now, I'm not a typical 'unschooler' but I keep these ideas in the back of my mind and consider them because I believe there are some very valid points to this view of learning......however, I think the public school teacher in me causes me to feel as though my children must be able to pass the SAT with flying colors in order to get into the university of their choosing. So, we do work on the basics (although for high school we focus on their passion - my daughter focused on music and she is now a music education major at a local university and my son is interested in health so we focus on science).
Finally, Howard Gardner, a professor at Harvard, gives a brief comment about learning - how we've got it wrong and what we can do to better serve our students. I think it might help us to see that perhaps we are not as far behind as we might think. Perhaps the schedules and standards we are so often urged to follow are incorrect? The link to the clip is - here
Happy home schooling everyone - it is a wonderful way to live and to learn!!
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