martinzoo

This morning I read a long, but extremely interesting article about short-term homeschooling that came out in the magazine, Child Brain. I put the article in it’s entirety over on my sidebar under the page title of “Brain Child,” for those that wish to read the whole thing. I found Ms. Brodie’s descriptions of her child’s experience with public school heartbreakingly similar to what we had experienced. Her daughter burned out on public school at an early age, and so did my son, although I pulled him out a lot quicker than she did.

She says: “Every child has a misery quotient, the line at which mere whining turns into real unhappiness. Some children are born miserable, their glass always half empty; others are made miserable by the adult world. And when it comes to squashing a child’s joy, there’s nothing like homework. In Julia’s mind, homework was the shadow haunting every day–the shapeless dread that grew larger with each passing year.

I sympathized with her aversion. Today’s public schools seem to have responded to the endless cry for achievement! by adding more worksheets to the homework pile. Math worksheets, grammar worksheets, bland spelling exercises. I wouldn’t mind so much if the work seemed more valuable–if Julia was asked to perform a fun science experiment, or to walk outside and compose a poem about the sounds in her yard. What rankles is the monotony of colorless paper, the columns of equations and fill-in-the-blank history.”

You can ask all my children, and they will tell you that I have always been an advocate for less homework. What a quick way to kill the joy of learning. The school system thinks 6 1/2 hours of schoolwork and another hour spent on transportation to and from school isn’t enough. They have to add on more work. Why? Do they really think that the repetition of what they already did in school will really help? I, and I’m sure most children, always did as much as I could to get out of as much homework as possible. I tried to get it done in class, or on the bus, or in the cafeteria.

My little niece has asked me if GB has homework, since he is homeschooled. I tell her that all of his work is homework. But I know what she is thinking. He’s getting off easy. Yes, he is. I’ll admit it. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t learning what he should. I make sure he learns everything that children his age are learning in the public school. Just in case he has to go back some day. But I also include lots of things he wouldn’t learn in public school that are of interest to HIM. Because that is what I believe instills the love of learning. My biggest objective is to direct him to a love of learning. I’m 43, and I still enjoy learning new things, but I hated school and all the problems associated with it.

In fact, this article goes on in depth on that very subject, although from the perspective of short-term homeschooling. In other words, those who know that their children WILL go back to public/private school, but just want to give them a break from problems they are currently having.

“The expansion of home education among America’s mainstream has made it a viable alternative for parents who are dealing with short-term problems. These problems might range from a bad principal to a persistent bully to a homework-phobic child hiding in a closet. Whatever the motivation, more and more parents are deciding that, when faced with problems at school, they don’t have to stick it out, or pay a fortune for a private academy. Instead, they can take a “do it yourself” approach to their children’s educations, teaching their kids at home for a limited time, with the intent of returning to the public (or private) schools at a not-so-distant date. “

“The danger of trying to balance a public curriculum with personal interests is that you can fall into a game of “Anything you can do, I can do better.” If the public school fifth graders are adding and subtracting fractions, then your child should be multiplying and dividing them. If they are studying place value through the billions, you should consider trillions and quadrillions. This is not as difficult as it sounds, since the public school day includes an enormous amount of repetition and wasted time. But keeping tabs on your local school produces paranoia. Is my child missing something essential? Will she fail her first sixth grade math test because I overlooked a key concept? ” <<< I worry about that if GB goes back.

I really want to keep him home forever, but is that realistic? I know that I am very limited in the Math department. I know he can take DVD courses or even take a class at the public school if we get special permission. But at this stage I just don’t know what we will do. I feel very confident that I could give him a great education in Language Arts, History, and Science. But I struggle with confidence in the Math department. I don’t want him to suffer from my ineptitude.

On the other hand, he loves being homeschooled. He wants to be home. Any time I want him to work harder I only have to remind him that he could be in a classroom with 23 other children, and then he pulls it together. So for now, and for the next few years, at least, this is what we are going to do. If it ever stops working, we’ll find a new solution. One thing I learned from my older two children is that you CAN do things differently. You can try many things. Until you find the thing that works for you and your child. In the child’s best interest…. that’s what I want.

You really should read the whole article. I’m sure that I didn’t do it justice in my synopsis, but it really was a stimulating article.