I wanted to write a bit more about my homeschooling tendencies, since I really do not consider myself fully an unschooler. I have been pleasantly surprised though with what I have seen produced by a period of unschooling in my home and from what I have learned from reading up on unschooling a bit.
I would say my first love is Charlotte Mason by way of Karen Andreola’s A Charlotte Mason Companion. It is so gentle, but there is structure. That’s the way I like to be. Life, however, is not always gentle and so it’s hard to always be gentle with everything, including school lessons.
I don’t mean to say that I am “rough” with school lessons, but rather that there are seasons when we find ourselves needing to be very assertive with academics or even aggressive with problems that arise from life itself. At least that has been the case with me.
With children spread out in age like they are here, there are bound to be struggles. A “stubborn” teenager (to put it mildly) can rock the boat. Keeping order in the home (bedtime, chores done on time, lessons done, etc.), sometimes requires a match of wills.
Some teenagers would easily have you enter into a yelling match with them or watch you pull your hair out piece by piece while their younger siblings look on in astonishment. This does not make for a “gentle” atmosphere. Lessons still get done – sure, but a parent’s stamina for creating the perfect Charlotte Mason day may run out sooner than they had intended.
Life is not fair. We all know that. I am not complaining, but making the statement here that we have to deal with it. It can interfere with school lessons, of course, but not with real-life lessons. Children learn a whole lot from seasons riddled with struggles for their parents. How we cope as parents helps them know how to cope.
I know how it feels to sit at the bedside of a dying parent, giving out school assignments to my children on the sidelines, all the while wishing we were on a picnic with one of the classics, but knowing it would have to wait. The children were fine and they ended up learning something bigger than a picnic could have taught them. I am not sure what to call this kind of homeschooling except real-life homeschooling.
In summary: My copy of A Charlotte Mason Companion will be falling apart by the time the kids are grown. We will have done some nature journaling, but probably not as much as I’d have liked. We have, for the most part, been a unit study school thus far. I am drawn to the continuity of a prepackaged curriculum, but life itself is not prepackaged, so that inherently does not make sense. The classical approach interests me greatly, but I am not totally convinced that we could pull it off in this home. One thing I know for sure is that I want to raise good children who are able to love and embrace their own lives, be honest and kind and good citizens, and know that they are capable of learning anything they want to learn.
for you to leave a comment, but you can also e-mail me at lynn AT thehealthyhomeschool.com
Well, I really don’t know what to say…you seem to have said it for me. Trying to plan for next year, still trying to finish this year, I am in the process of research and that research has led me to this post. Thank you.
I look forward to reading more.
Sincerely yours,
Janine
Janine, thanks for your comment! Life is busy. Homeschooling is a job! I hope you’ll comment again and share how all turns out!
Thank you, Lynn. I guess I’m just trying to be at peace with it all, and your words brought peace because they reflected everything I have been struggling with and experiencing.
There are so many doubts, so much responsibility with this job (and it doesn’t help when you have no energy, a brain that can not function, and a will that is weak and undisciplined). I keep saying, “My life would be so much easier if I just submitted to the prepackaged school.” I look to and admire my local hs friends (but in writing this I realize I have been coveting what they have instead of accepting what I have) and I am asking, “Why can’t I do that?” There has been so much anxiety. And I keep asking, “God, what and how do you want me to feed these children?” And my biggest fear has been that I am not doing what God wills for them. It is a job where one really must have faith and trust in who they are and in the path that fits them (how God has put me together); one must trust when one is “squeezing-through-the-eye-of-the-needle while traveling-the-road-less-traveled”. But one must be honest, too. I have to correct my despair and not fall prey to the temptation of sloth. I must SEE that this is good and accept what works for me – as teacher. And then I must find the joy in the job and DO IT!
In finding your post, I have been confirmed with the path we are on. It comes on a day when I watched our oldest pull Shakespeare off the shelf by her own desire. I can see that that concern about her not reading a play this year has been unnecessary – CM tied with Classical united with Unschooling = WORKING!
Your reflection was like looking in the mirror. It helped me to be content about the educational decisions that are being made during the busy real life we are living. And I can breathe because I know I am not alone; there is a woman who has been there and done that; a woman I can learn from. Thank you so much for sharing. I look forward to digging into your garden and reading more about your life and how you grow.
It may not be ideal but we are on the right track. I just have to keep chugging along (now the song Love Train by the O’Jays is chiming in my brain).
Have a wonderful day!
Janine
Janine, I am so grateful for your words. Homeschooling is such a job, but it brings such reward. As you will read on, you will find that I have had to bring our homeschooling to a close. Not by choice, but by circumstance. My work for pay has increased to such a degree that I could not do my little social butterfly 12yo daughter justice. That said, there have been trade-offs. I see more silliness. More gossip. More drama. I see less settled contemplation on her part. The school she is in is wonderful, but public school is a different culture. No matter what style you teach with from home, your children are in a more controlled setting. Does that mean sheltered, overprotected, unsocialized, underprivileged? No. It does not have to mean any of that. What it means is that one person is looking ahead to see what’s on the tracks. It means that peers are more chosen rather than randomly put into your child’s life. You don’t have that privilege anymore when a child goes to public school.
I am rambling now, but I didn’t want you to read of my new direction and think that equals giving up. To the contrary, I feel we were just getting started.
Keep me posted! If you have time. At any rate, best wishes to you!!
xoxo
Lynn