Homeschooling: The Beginning

We are now homeschoolers!

I'm sure everyone has lots of questions/criticisms. The first that most people bring up is the socialization "problem".

Well, come on, now. Didn't you read my other posts? Do you REALLY think I want my son socialized that way? And I ceretainly don't want him forced into thinking he has to be friends with those types of kids! Or thinking that those kids' behaviors and attitudes are okay!

But think about it. My son is active in hockey and chess (where he DOES have friends he likes and I like, and they're of varying ages, too). The only thing we have changed is the physical place where he does his schooling.

Plus, with all our travel and outings, he meets LOTS of people -- of ALL ages, too! He's finally learning to greet people, now, too (something he never did before). And his behavior and attitude is 1000% better!

If socialization is such a big deal, why do teachers at school always tell the kids that they're not there to socialize?

What is so great about having kids segregated by age? Are they only supposed to socialize with the same age? How will they learn to be friends with people not their age? We don't do it in the adult world, so why teach socialization only by age? Isn't that rather prejudiced in thinking?

Yes, I've really re-thought my position on socialization and think it's a rather quick non-thought-out judgment. Actually, if I think about it, my former position was an opinion based on NO thought. It was kind of like "that's what you're supposed to think" judgment.

Okay, on to the next. So what do I teach him and how?

One thing I noticed in school -- the kids are not learning to problem solve. It's basically data-in, data-out. I want my son to learn to problem solve. That was step one for me.

Step two was WHAT to teach. Of course, the three R's -- reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic.

So what I'm doing is having him read the lessons in his math book, follow those directions (which I'm finding he has a hard time following directions), and then work the problems.

I have him write EVERY day. Sometimes I'll have him do copywork from a quality book, or memorize a saying or quote. And a couple of times a week we work out of a good English grammar book.

Then he reads for a couple of hours every day. Now the reading is important because this is covering history, science and social studies (plus reading and literature, of course!).

He talks with me about what he reads -- and voluntarily, too, so I know he's understanding what he reads. He uses a dictionary as he reads, and he has a list of vocabulary words he has to learn. We do games with vocabulary.

A lot of science and history is observational. We love to travel, and travel is (always has) been an education in science and history. He was always advanced at school because of our travels, believe it or not. So something as simple and fun as traveling I'm realizing is extremely educational!

But other things as simple as looking up in books to identify and learn about birds, insects and plants, helping with our chickens, helping plant a garden are also science education. These are voluntary things with him, as he loves doing all that anyway. The reference books have always been available to him, and he's always used them. I don't need to structure that into his day.

We also have always read the newspaper together (and watched the news together), so he's pretty current on current events. We have always had lots of discussions about what's going on in the world, too.

We still also read at night. I've incorporated other things into our reading time now. One is teaching history chronologically. We're reading books by Susan Bauer that teach history chronologically.

One real plus for me is now being able to incorporate our religion into his school. It's actually making me make a point of it now. We are Orthodox, so we are now learning about the Saints, Feast Days, and the Sacraments of the Church during our nightly readings. It is SO NICE to be able to be free to do this! Morals and hope, righteous living -- all this is such a gap in the public schools! Actually, it's against the law to teach any religious slant in school -- well, except when it comes to Christmas time, the teachers (under "multiculturalism") HAVE to teach about other major religions and what they do during this time. Which is fine with me because I, personally, find it fascinating how other people believe. But this may be a problem with a lot of parents who don't want their kids exposed to anything BUT their own religion. But public schools are absolutely aspiritual. Which may be one of the major problems with our kids nowadays.

Our schedule is:
Get dressed and eat breakfast
Chores (chickens, animals)
School work

It's as simple as that! He's done with school by about noon, 1:00. Then he has the rest of the day to do as he pleases.

One other thing we do: no TV on during the day. He has to use his imagination to amuse himself. This was extremely hard for him at first because he wasn't very used to entertaining himeself! A rather enlightening revelation for me, to say the least!

I've never allowed video games in the house. I've always felt those are brain wasters. He is allowed to use his computer after he's done with his school, but again, I don't allow games unless they're educational. He has chess, typing and some Reader Rabbit or Learning Adventure type of software on his computer only.

Okay, so back to my original question of what does homeschooling have to do with traveling? EVERYTHING! Probably the biggest perk for us is being able to just take off whenever we like -- AND TAKE SCHOOL WITH US! It is so awesome! We now keep a travel book, too, and he has to write a kind of report of everywhere we go or anything we see. He puts in all his souvenirs in that book, too, so it's becoming very interesting to look through it! Plus we put in photos, of course, too. It's lots of fun!

Until next time!