A question I get asked a lot around this time of year is "So, will you and the kids be starting up(homeschooling) when school starts?" It's the match to the question that is asked at the end of the school year, which is "So will you be taking the summer off?"
Lately, I've been giving the easy answer to a lot of people..."Yup".
That's the easy answer, but not really the true answer, in my way of looking at it.
Homeschooling is just a whole different mindset for me. Most people unfamiliar with homeschooling have an image of homeschooling that matches the school model we are so familiar with. Kids sitting at the kitchen table for a set period of time working on their studies, while Mom plans and directs the daily studies.But homeschooling takes as many different forms as there are homeschooling families.
So the honest answer for me is that we never really stopped learning over the summer. The things that are different for us in the summer are that our homeschool group doesn't meet over the summer, and I don't have paperwork to send to the school district like I do during the school year. Otherwise, it's learning as usual. The kids are always curious, always asking questions...and that's where our homeschooling comes from...that's how I determine what they know, what they are curious about, how to fit in learning experiences in their areas of interest. The learning opportunities just present themselves. We don't follow a specific curriculum. They rarely want to do work in workbooks. My daughter reads like there's no tomorrow. My middle son is excited to be learning to read and is very curious about the American Revolution and Civil War, about soldiers and weaponry. My youngest son is constantly counting things and finding letters he knows everywhere. I read to them before bed several nights a week. We play tons of games which just happen to require math, reading, problem solving, logic, strategy, matching, etc ( You know...games like Yahtzee, Monopoly, Parcheesi, Sleeping Queens, Chutes and Ladders, Sorry, Battleship, Go Fish...)
I see myself more as a facilitator and a resource finder. My husband and I find answers to the kids questions, help them figure out where to find answers, and introduce stuff that they might not otherwise get a chance to learn about and give them the time and space to learn through their play as well. Honestly, our school year probably looks a lot like other peoples' summer vacation. I look for fun field trips to go on, good games to play, good books from the library, websites to visit. I'm not much of a tv watcher, but my husband is great at finding fascinating shows the kids might like...those How It's Made sort of shows, Fix It Up, Do It Yourself...they love all those kinds of things.
I feel it's a real gift to be able to let the kids learn like this, and be a part of that. It's great for me, because I'm just as curious as them, and I'm learning and relearning stuff right along with them. People often wonder how a homeschooling parent can teach their child without having a teaching degree themselves. But, think of it this way...do you remember everything that you were taught in school? Of course not. Neither do teachers. Teachers have resources and guides to go by just as I as a homeschooling parent do. All I have to do is be willing to find the answers and the resources.
