I need to be honest, when we first pulled our oldest son from school we were completely lost as to what to do next. We knew the school subjects but had no clue how to implement them so we did what I think a lot of people do and we tried to re-create the public school in our home. We gave the same sort of assignments, had set time periods for each subject, did our school day from 8:00 to 3:00 etc. While it worked for the month we did it just fine, it was simply a way to get by until the summer break. Over the summer break though, I started to research, to talk to other home schooling families, to look around at all the possibilities.
One of the most helpful pieces of advice I have ever been given in regards to home schooling is that it is not simply school(as defined by the tradition public school setting) at home and that in order to really thrive home schooling I would have to put all pre-conceived notions of what "school" is aside. This was hard at first but as time has gone by it makes more and more sense. Now my way of thinking and the advice I give to other people thinking about home schooling is that home schooling is not school in your home, but is learning in your home and in the world. There is a huge difference. This is not to say that kids in a school setting such as a public school or private school do not learn by any means. There are wonderful public and private schools out there and wonderful public and private school teachers out there. As any one of those teachers can attest to though, just because a student attends school doesn't mean they will learn anything. They have to not only have the opportunity presented by the school to learn, but they have to take that opportunity and make the most of it and apply themselves.
The same is true in a home school setting. Not only does the parent need to provide the child with the opportunity to learn new things, but they child has to take advantage of that and learn what is being taught. There is one huge advantage that I have as a home school parent though that a traditional school doesn't have. I am able to make learning an interactive experience and change things for each day, each activity, even on the spur of the moment if I would like, in order to help maximize the learning experience. It is hard to do this with 25 students in a classroom even though there are wonderful teachers who do a great job of doing it as much as possible at many schools. It is easier for me to do then them for sure though as I have only three students and the ability to drive anywhere or go anywhere at any time.
So, what is "school" for us? I started out this year with a very scheduled school day and a very set idea of what we would do each day. As the year has gone by though, I have become more comfortable and my definition of what a "school" day looks like for us has changed greatly. We still have plenty of days that resemble a traditional scheduled school day in some ways. These are the days we do our Bible lessons, our Social Studies or Science lessons, our Math lessons, our Grammar lessons, our Writing and our Reading all as you would expect to see. You don't see us at our desks for very long even on those days though. We are at our desks doing writing, sitting on the couch or the porch swing doing reading, in the front yard doing science, etc. The flexibility we have in our school setting really help us do so many hands on activities and we have found the kids retain it so much more then doing worksheets. They love the hands on activities and beg for more of them.
Another huge advantage that we have is that the world becomes our classroom. There are plenty of days that can be considered a "school" day where we never touch a book or a pencil. We take field trips to museums, we go to historical sites, and we do other field trips with home school groups. Activities we do for Cub Scouts are often educational and while many other scouts in the dens have a lot of achievements left to do before they will get their badges, we are almost done as we get to do so many of the things in lots of depth as school projects. Even more important in some ways, then the planned activities we do, are the random learning opportunities that come up that we have the ability to take advantage of. Just the other day a water well truck pulled up at a property near ours. Joe was able to go talk to the workers and they were fine with the kids and Joe going out and watching them pull a well. Simply by watching that and listening to what they were doing and why, the kids learned more then any text book could have taught about machines, ground water, etc. and it is something we can learn more about in actual lessons and refer back to in lessons.
Any learning opportunity has become school for us. Whether it is a traditional learning activity by doing a math lesson at the table and having them work in the work book or whether it is watching a water well being pulled, home schooling has opened up a world of opportunities for us and redefined school for us. Now for us it isn't so much about what school should look like, but about how much learning is taking place and we are loving discovering each day how that takes shape.
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