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Some secrets of homeschooling

June 4th, 2007 at 07:09 pm

1. We don't do much teaching. We are facilitators,

Text is someone who facilitates and Link is http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/facilitate
someone who facilitates meaning we make the path of learning easier. That is it, the main goal of most homeschoolers is to help our children reach their full potential, to learn 'all they need' to be the best they can be. How homeschoolers define 'all they need' varies, but the base is the same, we want to facilitate the learning so no time is wasted. Sometimes that makes us look like traditional teachers, playing games to help memorize states and capitals, other times it means we look 'lazy', watching our kid build yet another lego contraption, but all of us are simply trying to facilitate our children's learning path.

2. It didn't start out easy, in fact many days it still isn't! I remember the first time I heard about 'teachable moments' which is the idea of finding a moment to pass on a nugget of knowledge. I was positive I would never see one. But then one time I counted shoes with no previous lesson plan, another I explained somewhat solar energy when a kid asked why the sidewalk was hot. before I knew it I was seeing teachable moments left and right! No matter what skill is involved in facilitating education I had to learn it, John Holt had to learn it, and you can learn it. If at first you don't succeed try try again!

3. YOU are a home schooler...no matter who you are, or how many children you do or do not have, you ARE 'schooling' at home. If you have a kid, look at how they eat, sleep, brush their teeth, swagger, or channel hop. They learned it somewhere, and that somewhere is you. Of course if you have multiple kids you may notice not all pick up the same lessons...real learning is caught, not taught, maybe one picked up Dads swagger while another picked up moms channel hopping, they will carry that swagger/hop with them for years, but will forget the list of groceries you had them memorize in a snap.

If you do not have kids it is harder to see, but do you have pet? where did they learn food comes in that bowl every day at 6 am sharp? (or not) you, they caught that information from you. If no pets look at your neighbors, do they know you always park in the street on the far side of the mailbox? Do your coworkers know you always stop by coffee o'rama before work? Or that you make the best brownies?

You made the learning of that easy by just doing it. So you are an educator (not that your parking habits are useful...unless you park in the far lot to walk for health and your not so slender coworkers wonder what you secret is...then you are being a facilitator of health education.)

Children are not so different, humans of all ages are designed to learn, we just get to decide what information we are passing along, to be picked up or not.

4 And the barely connected financial note...facilitating is way cheaper than teaching! We just have to provide opportunity's, not lesson plans, fancy materials, or specialized equipment. No money spent on that complete lesson book with extra test guide, no need to fork over hundreds for state of the art microscopes, the best part of learning is finding someone who has one and learning with them! No need for the class on wallpapering when you have a dad who does it daily. Just the need to loosen up and try new methods, try new ways of thinking and talking and try new experiences with others. (this doesn't mean you can't spend more, after all variety can lead to more moola spent, and so called teaching supplies are nothing if not varied)

For further reading try
Text is What the rest of us can learn from homeschooling and Link is http://www.amazon.com/What-Rest-Learn-Homeschooling-Traditionally/dp/0761519777
What the rest of us can learn from homeschooling

2 Responses to “Some secrets of homeschooling”

  1. nanamom Says:
    1181041389

    Amen and amen,

  2. val Says:
    1181135217

    I "home school" my child, but she also attends public school. I think learning begins in the home and I was teaching my daughter to read, science, math, counting, etc before she went to school. I agree in that we should all be home schooling our children, with supplemental education if necessary.

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