Table of Contents
This post is about two extremes that can influence how you homeschool…
1. One main perspective is that “school” is too formal, too boring, too hard, too unappealing, too unchildlike, too restricting, too complicated, too uninteresting so that we must protect our young children from “having to have school” until they are older and can maturely handle the drudgery and necessity of it. A slant on this is to have less “school” and more time to freely roam around in self-discovery.
2. The other main perspective is that “school” is a lifestyle, integrated into everyday life to the extent that it becomes the life and without “school” there is no life. Everything is about learning and education; there is no separation of school versus family life versus spiritual reflection versus running errands versus work responsibilities. It is all blurred together so that the child grows up thinking that their version of “schooling” is actually “life”.
Perspective 1: Delaying “School” or Less School
I agree that there is definitely a good point in not pushing a child to grow up too soon. They need time to play, time to discover some things on their own, less structure and expectations for some aspects of their little lives!
But there can be problems with the perspective of delaying school to the extent that some people would promote it to be.
(If you are new to homeschooling, here are two examples which are sometimes promoted: One, those who delay formal learning for school skills, especially writing, up to even age 12 – to allow for a childhood of playing and learning to work and socialize. And two, those who have very short school hours (2 hours or less), 4 days/week and then self-discovery and playtime otherwise. I’ve already written about aiming for more school hours than that here, here and here.)
A main problem is that this perspective can encourage a distorted work ethic (“play is better than the necessity of work so enjoy being free from work while you can”) and ultimately can destroy a child’s interest in learning. (“School is not fun. So wait until you’re old enough to handle school little by little and you’ll get used to it and then maybe you’ll figure out your own interests and have fun with those.”)
It starts with wrong assumptions – that school is boring and too hard for little minds, so it must be delayed (or even squelched if a child says that he or she wants “school”).
But “school” at an early age CAN be fun and child-like, eagerly anticipated (e.g. “I want school too”, “I’m big enough”, I want to copy and learn/follow the leader”).
A child can effortlessly pick up on so much if something is taught in a child’s language!
A child can learn to read early relatively easily, which means less need to read everything for him/her for future lessons and that means more time allowed for younger siblings and a sense of independence for the young reader!
- We published the “Let Me Read” literacy program, designed especially for the kindergarten age. Many kids can enjoy learning to read before they reach the primary grades, if they are taught in an effective and fun manner!
- We published also math, science, socials, printing, and even creative writing curriculum for the early years of learning. (To our knowledge, we were the first Canadians to write and publish a complete-subject HOMESCHOOL curriculum designed specifically for junior and senior KINDERGARTEN. See that bundle on this page link.)
Why on earth would I want to delay or lessen this kind of school?
And why would I ever want to burden a child at ANY AGE with tedious, picture-deficient, dull drills, dust-laden, ineffective curriculum (whether cheap, expensive, or free)?
I want to use stuff that isn’t wasting their time or mine with meaningless busywork!
I want to use things which are appealing to a young child who was eager to learn!
“But the research shows…”
Have you ever read the statements that go something like this: “Research shows that ____children learn better when their formal school years are delayed until age ____”?
The problem with “research” like this is that they are studying incomplete data – they aren’t comparing HOW the children were taught.
So yes, if you are choosing only to use
- a written method of materials designed for older children, so that young children might have to sigh over squinting to decipher the lessons but “get it done so they are rewarded with play”
- stories which have long and complicated sentence structures with upper-level vocabulary
- purposely want “no visuals”, no short sentences like how a child naturally speaks at that age
- or if you think you must correct every little bit of schoolwork or natural wiggly-ness for them to learn well
- If that is what you’re choosing for your teaching approach, then, please, let your littles run freely before being subjected to that kind of schoolwork!
But I think there is a better solution.
Something better…
Direct towards what is good and beneficial and don’t worry about delaying good skills for children to know! But teach it at that young child level, not at the level of an older child or at the level of an adult because they simply are not that age/stage yet.
(In other words, know your students – their age/stage, their needs and their interests. Teach where they are at now, not what they will be in 10-20 years from now.)
Today, there are a number of moms who are writing more child-friendly curriculum materials to help guide a teacher/parent to allow the young ones to participate in the wonderful world of learning!
With a leader’s loving guidance (as opposed to neglecting them self-discover everything on their own), exploration is enhanced with a fun, formal-if-you-want-to-call-it-formal, series of lessons that are designed right at the young child level, in a child’s language!
It isn’t psychological manipulation; it’s simply appealing to someone who likes pictures, hands-on play, and wants to grow up to understand words and equations just like Mommy and Daddy!
If the lesson materials and attitude of the teacher(s) are appealing to a young learner, many children will naturally and eagerly learn useful skills as they grow into more-formal school years, instead of being delayed to start anything because “mom” doesn’t “have time” or pop culture thinks preschool years are only for entertainment and self-interests.
Personally, I’m thankful that my mom taught me how to read, do math, understand some basic science, enjoy doing some artwork, in my kindergarten year(s) before I entered grade 1 in my local school. Yes, that meant that I and a handful of other students skipped out of some reading lessons for that class and instead practiced our reading and discussion skills with the school librarian so that we would not be held back repeating what we already had learned. But that isn’t a real problem for either teacher or students, is it?!
What about “Self-Paced Learning”?
“Self-paced learning” properly understood does not mean the same as “whenever a child finds out on their own without my guidance”!
- Self-paced learning still should mean to lead a student, to teach new things that would not be self-discovered as soon, even to stretch a person’s knowledge, but not to the point of frustration of the student or a student not understanding the majority of what has been taught.
- Self-paced means to go at the approximately the same speed of what a student can grasp of what is being taught to him or her. It doesn’t mean the student alone sets the pace!
Instead of just play and self-discovery, a young child needs some guidance towards good things to know. And we shouldn’t be afraid to lead them or to speak in a ‘language’ that they readily understand!
Perspective 2: Everything is “School”
The other main perspective is that “school” is a lifestyle, integrated into everyday life to the extent that it becomes “the life” and without “school” or learning some “new thing”, there is no life. Everything is about learning and education; there is no separation of school versus family life versus spiritual reflection versus running errands versus work responsibilities.
I agree that homeschooling is a kind of lifestyle because we DO take various aspects of real life, including teachable moments, and can use that for the benefit of our children regardless of what time of day it is.
But I also think there SHOULD be some separation between activities in a homeschooling family’s life!
To me, running errands to get parental work accomplished can sometimes be OK but it should be balanced with intentionally giving up our time and work to teach our children, if we have decided to homeschool.
It’s about taking the responsibility to set aside significant amounts of our time to guide their education beyond just including them in our day-to-day tasks as adults.
There IS a need to have time set aside for schoolwork, which IS different than learning in a “grocery store field trip”. We are not just to have a “free-to-do-whatever” lifestyle that allows us to regularly say the statement, “Well, after all, my kids are learning something!” (Sure, this is fine to say some of the time; but if that becomes a frequent attitude, it sounds to me more like an excuse, showing a lack of intentional effort into what children need to learn and grow in knowledge and skills.)
Another problem with the second perspective is that a “graduate” can feel lost without that version of school when they are faced with “the differences” in the real world beyond their close-knit family.
They may do well with work at home or as an entrepreneur in their own business or ministry (which is often more flexible). And yes, those workers and creative people are just as valuable to society.
But if they want to or need to go in-person to a college/university or get a job to earn money to buy necessities and live away from parental provisions, it can be a challenging for them to successfully adjust in a system where they are required to come at certain hours, on certain days, to do specific activities.
And think of how we as adults…
- want to spend quality time with family instead of always being surrounded with work assignments.
- need to take time to study the Word of God, not just hear a verse here and there or quickly read and then rush out the door to something else.
- find it better if we’re not always multi-tasking but rather sometimes, take the time to focus on doing one thing at a time, in order to get it done well.
Let’s see the benefit of separating some things from other others, instead of blurring everything together!
Rather than leaning towards an extreme, aim for balance! ♥
Generalists and Specialists
Two extremes that can impact your direction for studies:
The generalist knows less and less about more and more until he knows nothing about everything.
The specialist knows more and more about less and less until he knows everything about nothing.
This anonymous quote came from a University of Western Ontario professor I had in a course I dropped after the first class (because I wasn’t interested in it). It is the only thing I remember learning from him.
Is there a place for self-discovery methods in good education?
I think so. You can read about it in part 2 of Balancing Homeschool Perspectives: Inquiry-Based Science.
Of course, a child can specialize in a talent or follow a special interest and THIS is FINE!
I’m encouraging though that this isn’t all you try to do. Be balanced—teach broad subjects too with enough depth to get them somewhere in life. It will also help them to understand other people.
(This post has been updated since originally posting in 2018.)