Continuing from my last post, circa November 2004, responding to a question as to what a typical homeschooling day looks like for us… it seems particularly timely to have found this when I was writing about how our family life has changed over time. It’s poignant for me to reread the details of those days, to look back on a snapshot of our lives.
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Well, I gave my philosophical perspective, but here is a sample of what our days are like. After breakfast, we have our academic time. (Davening may be before or after breakfast, my kids now daven on their own so it depends on how early they wake up.)
I learn chumash with each of the older kids separately, and listen to my 5 year old do kriah (Hebrew reading). While I am busy with one, the others will be busy with math. We all are in the living room during that time, but if someone has a question, they have to wait until I am finished with the person I am with.
After everyone finishes, we may sit around and do a read aloud – this week, I started a book about kids who go back in time to the Mayflower. This part of the day takes about two hours. Then we have lunch (usually sandwiches), and the rest of the afternoon is spent on other activities.
This describes our most ‘school-like’ days. It is pretty dry and doesn’t even begin to capture the richness of our days. It doesn’t run like this on the days that we are out with various activities in the morning (eg September was busy with sailing classes, Oct. had gym classes), and never typical for Fridays or Sundays.
Twice a week, a couple of my kids help out at a sheep farm for the morning. We attend a book discussion for kids once a month, the girls have Girl Scout meetings twice a month, they all have 4H at least once a month. A couple of my kids participate in specific 4H projects, sheep and beekeeping, which have them out of the house more often.
My girls have sewing lessons every week, knitting club every other week. We go to the libraries regularly, nature centers, friends, and then there are the one time trips. Last week a couple of kids were busy digging a fire pit in the backyard of someone’s home for the colonial feast that is being planned this Sunday, they all attended a program on Woodland Indians (in which they not only listened to a presentation, but ground corn with a mortar and pestle, dressed in authentic Indian clothing, went in a wichot (wigwam), shot arrows, and much more), and my son read a biography of Daniel Boone (history/social studies).
Yesterday one daughter was out with a couple of friends painting a backdrop for the puppet show they are planning for Chanukah, and have been working on weekly (writing/halacha/holidays/arts and crafts). Two other kids were out at a different friend’s home (socialization – just joking, everybody!!). My oldest son has been very busy for the last couple of weeks building a tree house (math/measurements), sewing cushions for the bench inside (real life skills), planning a treehouse club for his siblings, which includes various prizes and incentives.
They have all been busy getting ready for Chanukah by making presents for family members and friends and listening to Chanukah songs on cassette (Jewish holidays). We have a trip to North Carolina in a few days, where we will attend the local science museum (science), and on the way home will probably stop by the Science Museum of Virginia. (Last year when we went to Colonial Williamsburg, I stopped on the way in Richmond at the SMV to break up the trip. It was a good plan so we will try it again.)
We attended a concert at the Meyerhoff Symphony hall a few nights ago (music), have a play scheduled for the beginning of Dec (literature and the arts), and a ballet for the middle of Dec (music, the arts and social studies).
I read regularly out loud in the evenings to everyone (though my selection doesn’t always manage to hold everyone’s attention equally :)), and usually choose Newberry honor or medal books, classic type material (literature, grammar). My kids read a lot independently (spelling, reading comprehension), and also enjoy listening to audio books (auditory processing skills). The younger ones listen to their own selections of books with cassettes – my 4 yo recognizes her favorites at the library and ‘follows’ along with her finger in the text as she listens. Even my 2 yo sits and listens with them.
They enjoy board games and card games (my 4yo is fantastic at Uno – I don’t know how she got so good at strategy, but I have to work to beat her – the last game I put down my last card right before she put down her last card, and I only was able to win that time because I happened to see her cards since she isn’t careful about how she holds them!).
We have brain teaser kind of stuff around, which they pick up and play with as they like. They listen to the radio when I have it on and have picked up a lot of information, as well as critical thinking skills. We have great conversations on many different topics.
Now the question is, what was the schooling part of the day? There is lots of learning going on all the time, but it doesn’t resemble many classrooms because we don’t do much worksheet kind of stuff. Being relaxed doesn’t mean doing nothing – for us, it means being busy with things we enjoy and learning lots along the way.
This probably didn’t help you much, though, right? Because you may be thinking you don’t enjoy this kind of activity or your kids are too young or you are too tired or there isn’t enough scheduled…….. That’s why it all comes down to developing your own philosophy and finding what works for your family. 🙂
Avivah
This is fascinating. Your children certainly had a special and enriching upbringing. Thank you for sharing. It pains me how much “boring” material my daughters need to sit and write…and then return home and sit and do another 1-2 hours of hw. I wish I had the skill, tools, and patience to homeschool them.
Aviva, I have been following your blog for the past 6 years or so – perhaps you wrote about this in an earlier post, but can you please share as a young parent, how did you decide to homeschool and how did you know what to do?
I hear what you’re saying about the dry material and homework. I can honestly say that with a comparable amount of time many parents spends on homework, they could be using that same time to homeschool. My hands on time usually didn’t go beyond 2 hours a day.
There aren’t magic skills or tools or patience needed. I’ve had teachers tell me the same thing you just said. When I pointed out that they felt competent to teach a class of 25 or 30 of other peoples’ children, they would say, “Oh, but that’s different. I can’t get my own child to listen to me.” Or something else along those lines.
Homeschooling is an extension of parenting, and the same skills you need to parent are what you draw on to homeschool. What is most important when choosing to homeschool is to have the desire to homeschool (I haven’t seen good results when moms talk to me about doing it because their husbands want them to, but they’d rather have the kids in school), and the willingness to find solutions and get support when there’s something that’s too much for you.
I don’t want to oversimplify – there are home management skills that will make homeschooling much more doable. But they are helpful rather than critical to success.
I wrote in 2009 about our decision to homeschool. Since it’s been so long, I’ll repost it with a couple of edits on Sunday.
looking forward to reading it!