Since Caleb and I are just beginning to understand what it means for him not to attend school this year, our philosophy of “homeschooling” is not hammered out in any sense.
I knew homeschoolers and read about homeschooling–especially attentive to Alfie Kohn and John Holt and John Taylor Gatto–for years before I became a parent. But when we began participating in a cooperative progressive school that formed an amazing, nurturing and respectful community for our family, homeschooling was tucked away in our minds. It was not something we expected would become a part of our lives.
Once we moved and tried public schools, we had a decidedly mixed experience. Our eldest took the ball and ran with it, finding his new school experience challenging and structured in a way that fit. While our second born did not thrive in the much less personal environment of public school, with its specific age-based recommendations for progress and regimented day.
Much of Caleb and my experience this year was relational. How should we live and be and work together? It was indistinguishable from any other kind of parenting — exploring the balance between requirements and freedom, telling and listening, expecting and admiring, ideologies and practicalities. Though I often disagree with Sandra Dodd, I like her series Just Add Light and Stir.
Here’s a quote from Sandra I’ve found to be very true: “After eleven twenty-two years of unschooling I still forget sometimes that the information that was doled out to me on a schedule is just OUT there for my kids, that they find it interesting and that they have no reason to avoid adding it to their fascinating collection of trivia about places, people and the world around them.”
She’s right. Today more than ever, anything you are interested in is findable. There’s so much information, often so much better presented than it is in schools and textbooks, that I find myself wondering if my older son is wasting his time in the building. Caleb has frustrated and surprised and amazed me and I’ve frustrated and surprised and amazed myself. It’s been an irreplaceable time of knowing each other more deeply and learning about a hundred-and-one things, mutually.
Here’s recent zoo adventures (overnight field trip; homeschooling workshops) with all of us.
