The question of school
Apr 6, 2003 Homeschooling
My mom asked how Brett and I were going to handle Noah’s education next year since I’ll be working more. It’s not the time spent “teaching” that worries me, it’s the prep time. I keep scheduling the same four hour block. You know, “When Brett gets home from work, I’ll get on the computer.” “When Brett gets home from work, I’ll go running.” “When Brett gets home from work, I’ll plan for homeschooling.” etc. etc. At some point, I realized that I couldn’t do three or four things at once and I better start making some more realiastic plans.
I’m going to have to work in the evenings. There done. Scheduled. Now I have to fit the rest of my life in.
Well, I’ll run when I can. Wednesdays, maybe, during our weekly playdate and once a weekend. I can give up one hour in an evening to it, too. There, it’s scheduled. Next?
Homeschool prep. Sheesh. That’s a toughie. Hmmm. Aha! Curriculum! Yes, that’s it! In theory I’m against curriculum. In theory I’m all about unschooling. Now back to practical reality, I’m in the market for a curriculum.
The way I figure it is that while I believe in the power of unschooling in theory, I also believe that quality unschooling demands a lot of planning time on the part of the parent. The parent, I feel, needs to be ready to leap into action and produce fabulous unit study ideas and projects for said child. (Clearly, I’m not a radical unschooler.) I am quite simply not going to have the time. Also, I’m realizing that while my heart may beat an unschooling rhythm, my mind demands proof. Rats. I wanted to be a believer but alas, I don’t have the faith. I need something I can look at and say, “Why yes, he’s learning!”
I want a nice, loose curriculum that will allow us to define some goals for the week or month or whatever and give us some tools to work with but that doesn’t demand strict adherence to a timetable or particular pattern. I want a suggestive curriculum. One that leaves us to our own devices an awful lot and gives us space to toss it aside to follow a whim.
Now I have to find time to research ‘em all.
I hear that the Christian bookstores have some to check out so I’m going to visit a few of them and see what they have. And I’ll look online, of course. I told Noah that this is our project for the next few months. He says that he thinks we should look for a magic set, too, since he feels this would be a good way to learn magic. I agree. We’ll add it to the list.
April 6th, 2003 at 11:11 pm
My sister’s been looking into the Clonlara school, from what she’s said it provides suggested curriculum and it keeps records for you too. I just read the Unschooling Handbook and Clonlara was mentioned in there by one of the unschooling families. Just thought I’d throw that out
April 7th, 2003 at 8:07 am
Have you looked at _The Well-Trained Mind_ by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer? They suggest dividing history up into four time periods, doing one each year (so you eventually go through each one three times at three different learning stages) and coordinating your science and reading work along with it. So, for example, in your ancient history year you read Greek myths and the Old Testament and do life science. They’re not unschoolers at all, they’re classical curriculum–but that framework is loose enough to help you focus and look for ideas while allowing a child-led education. It’s an inspiring read.