In the Words of a Brand new Homeschooling Mom
“As I shift my thinking from our seemingly traditional way of educating children, to the new way of learning with worldschooling, unschooling, homeschooling, it’s given me some unique perspectives, although I bet many of you have found this to be true as well. Families who school traditionally always seem angry, frustrated, stressed. Not just with themselves, but with their children as well. They have that set schedule, and heaven forbid if it doesn’t work out as planned! The kids don’t get up on time, don’t do as they are told in a timely manner, etc., etc. The kids fight everyday, about things that no longer seem that important to me.
It’s amazing how much time, energy and effort families are putting into getting to school on time, (kids) behaving in school, doing well in school. Their lives are essentially put on hold … for school. Instead of learning around their life schedule, they are living around a school schedule. This is not conducive to a happy home I’m finding.
Just this morning, a friend posted on FB that her morning had gone to hell in a hand basket because no one was cooperating, no one was was dressed on time for school, lunches weren’t made yet because she had spent her early morning fighting with the kids to get them up on time and such… all so that they can get to a building on time! I posted on her status “You know … Homeschooling would fix this … Set your schedule, or don’t!” She agreed, but left it at that.
I’m also finding parents can not wait until their little ones are five, so that they can drop them off at school and let them be someone else’s issue for 6 hours. They want “Me time” again. Ok sure! I get that! Everyone needs some quality alone time to recharge, but it seems like it’s become a tradition to push our children away and on to complete strangers in hopes that they will learn something.
I watched Lainie Liberti ‘s Tedx Talk she just posted.. and the line where she says that she put a lot of focus on Education and school … but that the only goal for that was for her son to become educated. No other goal… and such a vague goal it was too, just being Educated seems to mean absolutely nothing these days. You can be educated and still have no clue about the world around you, be dense to common sense and compassion.
Come to think of it, the North American way of Parenting is extremely flawed I think. We love and nurture a growing baby in the womb, but as soon as they are born we detach ourselves from them. We push them away so often because “its good for them” that we send them to School at 2.5 years of age … calling it “Pre-School” why? what is this 2.5 year old learning? I’m not even sure.
Anyways …Total epiphany this morning! This past weekend (May Long Weekend, Victoria Day) was a sneak peek into what our new lives as homeschoolers will be like. We slept in, we did what interested us, no expectations, no set schedule, we were together as a family. I turned off the TV after lunch, we read, jumped on the trampoline, colored to our heart’s content. We were just US … togetherness. It was Amazing! I enjoyed it immensely!! As did the kids!
The more I learn about this way of Learning, the more I know it’s right for us.” ~ Candice Robertson, Worldschoolers Facebook Page
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