Homeschooling

We're homeschoolers now. After giving public school a chance for 3 months, we decided it just wasn't for us. There are lots of little reasons that added up to something big. Suffice it to say, I'm happier, Hannah is happier, and that makes the rest of the house happy because the last thing you want is two unhappy women. Since winter break, we've been detoxing from school. I'm trying to get my feet under me and decide what my homeschool philosophy is. In the meantime, we've done lots of exploring, lots of field trips, lots of reading.

 Ben's first day of primary

My reading for pleasure has seemed to fall through the cracks with all the changes, which makes me really sad.  I'm taking 18 credits this semester, which means I'm reading 100 pages a day of text books. But I really love it, because I'm studying education and child development and those things make me come alive. Don't we all learn best when we can study things we're really interested in?

It seems that once you say you're going to homeschool, everyone has opinions and everyone has questions. I love to answer questions, I don't love as much having my parenting questioned. I do, however, realize this is a natural byproduct of making an unusual choice. I thought about starting a new blog to chronicle our homeschool adventures, but instead decided to just use the one I already had. I'm going to try to keep a record of some of our educational experiences and some of the research behind why I do what I do.

To begin with, I want to share a quote from my very favorite parenting book, Brain Rules for Baby by neurobiologist John Medina. "First, I need to correct a misconception.  Many well-meaning moms and dads think their child’s brain is interested in learning. That is not accurate.  The brain is not interested in learning. The brain is interested in surviving. Every ability in our intellectual tool kit was engineered to escape extinction. Learning only exists to serve the requirements of this primal goal. It is a happy coincidence that our intellectual tools can do double duty in the classroom, conferring on us the ability to create spreadsheets and speak French. But that’s not the brain’s day job. That is an incidental byproduct of a much deeper force: the gnawing, clawing desire to live to the next day. We do not survive so that we can learn. We learn so that we can survive.

"This overarching goal predicts many things, and here’s the most important: If you want a well-educated child, you must create an environment of safety. When the brain’s safety needs are met, it will allow its neurons to moonlight in algebra classes. When safety needs are not met, algebra goes out the window."

This concept is going to come up over and over again as we approach homeschooling. Stressed brains do not learn well!

Medina then shares a story of a flight student who made a mistake while in the air. The instructor yelled at her, thinking it would help her to see the seriousness of the situation and focus more. Instead, she began to cry and, try as she might, she couldn't read the instruments. The instructor landed the plane and the lesson was over. Medina says, "What was wrong? From the brain's perspective, nothing was wrong. The student's mind focused on the source of the threat, just as it had been molded to do over the past few million years. The teacher's anger could not direct the student to the instrument to be learned because the instrument was not the immediate source of danger. The teacher was the source of danger."

I'm not saying that pubic school was a source of danger. I am saying that it was a stressful experience for both Hannah and I and, by extension, whole family. In our homeschool work, we will focus on building from where the children currently are, not where I believe they should be based on their age or grade level. I'll understand that all humans learn best when they are safe. A secure learning environment will be my focus rather than reading by age 6.

Wish us luck as we learn together in this new experience!