Relaxed Homeschooling

Relaxed Homeschooling:
How I Jumped In

When we started homeschooling officially last September, I didn't really know what I was expected to do versus not do with a child at home learning. I had read everything I could get my hands on since the day she was born concerning this topic but to really be doing it was another matter to me. I had taken an introduction to homeschooling class at a nearby church, hoping that my answers would be found there. Not finding satisfactory answers to the questions I had concerning the "right" way to homeschool, I jumped right in with school anyway.

I had been told everything from you wouldn't need to spend anything to some whom spent close to $1,000 per year per child. I also had been told about all sorts of books, lesson plans and other manipulatives that one just had to have to homeschool. I had visited many different households that ranged from an actual schoolroom complete with a library including rows and a system to find books to just a table in the kitchen.

A suffocating feeling began to completely overwhelm me. It made me remember when my daughter was two and a helpful friend gave me a stack of catalogs when I expressed an interest. Being an avid reader, I figured looking through a bunch of catalogs would be fun. That was hardly true as I tried to make sense of all this confusing information.

In the end, I purchased nothing and headed for the library instead. The way I thought, Kindergarten was optional anyway in our state, so I couldn't really mess up something that wasn't even required by law. With a bachelor's degree myself, I figured I had time to learn how to homeschool even if maybe we weren't doing it correctly this first year.

I am really happy that we started this year with no lesson plans, no formal curriculum, and no schedule of how our days would be. I felt that she was just a child and she should enjoy this part of her life. I never wanted to rush her growing up. I felt that today we want our children to know too much, too soon. I saw the other families rushing around and the mothers were so tired. As I was totally enjoying our days this year, I often wondered if we were actually doing school wrong. So, I read more about how to homeschool. It was then that I read about unschooling.

I had never heard anything like this and it was so similar to the way we were doing things. Anything that was learning counted as school for the day. The line that divided our day of actual school and just life was so blurred there was barely any distinction at all. The attendance record I had printed out to keep for her 180 days of school filled up quickly as I realized we were learning all seven days a week. It was in bits and spurts; nothing formal. Some days we would delve far into a topic and others we would just brush the surface of something. But we were learning and that was all it was about in my view. When confronted with some that schooled 4 days versus 5 days a week, I just laughed inside as I again felt the freedom of not having a schedule.

Part of me wondered as we were playing with the garden outside if she was learning what she needed to know when. Fearful that perhaps we weren't doing school correctly yet, I asked around. Finding stressed out mothers was perhaps the biggest shock to me. Homeschooling is supposed to bring freedom into our lives, not stress. I listened and found these same mothers who supported the freedom mentioned as an idea were not able to make it a reality in their own lives.

Again, I found that learning from life naturally is so fun and free. As this year draws to a close in the education realm, I am finding that school for us is really life. I am not comparing myself to others any longer. We've made it through one year and it was fantastic. I wouldn't do anything different. In fact, school for us will never really end one year and take a break. Life doesn't so we shall just go on as we have all year.

Did my child learn all she needed to know with the freedom of unschooling this year? If I were to take inventory of all she has done, I would say her experiences have been great and varied. She has learned how to read, done compound math problems, started her multiplication tables, tried every scientific experiment she can get me to help her with and stretched her creativity with all sorts of art media. She has grown in areas I never expected. The biggest blessing of all has been seeing her desire to learn only grow and multiply. I have never had to force her to learn. She needs a mere guided hand from me. I have come to see that this is what unschooling is all about and we are absolutely having a ball.

-K.B.-

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