Teaching Outside of the Box

      One of the hardest things to do when you are new to home education is letting go the public school mind set we've been indoctrinated to believe is the "only valid" method of teaching. We're indoctrinated because we've spent twelve years being educated from that method.  Even if we find fault with it, we have a tiny part loathe to  disown the whole system.


      This unwillingness to trust our own judgement leads to several quaint, if not out rightly bizarre, attempts to
make our home into a more fitting atmosphere of learning. You will find many veteran home-schoolers who bought a school desk for their child to sit in, a black board or a marker board for the teacher and student to use,  and even designated a certain room in their home as the "classroom".  You are reading this post from a woman guilty of all of the above. (BIG SMILE)

        I came to trust my judgement by watching my kids. I have learned that the very things I had against the system of public education were incorporated into the bells and whistles I'd brought with my child when we began to school at home. I found I didn't necessarily need preset hours or  posters covering the kitchen. I didn't have to have a special room where magically my kids would enter and begin to learn! My children had in fact been learning since being born. Guess who they'd been learning from? Me. This learning took place all over the house, and outside the house, in the car, and usually in my lap, or maybe snuggling on my bed with story books, or dvds, or shadow puppets. Sometimes my children learned from a swat on the hiney or a firm "aaannnnnt NO." More than not my kids learned with laughter. When I look back on their educations, I remember how wherever we were from the fourth of July in the driveway lighting fireworks ( Did you know the Chinese developed fireworks...) to a family dinner out ( Who can read the menu to mom? Who can figure the tip we should give?) we were learning. When education becomes learning and is done all the time, then having the "proper" stuff doesn't matter.

      Now that I've helped break down the public school box a little, I will say, I did find some things useful. I liked posters on the walls that were about the new subjects I taught each year. I felt it added a fresh start to the new school term and peaked the kids' interest.  I loved a big marker board. I illustrated difficult concepts on it. More than once I had a math bee there, as well as used it for grocery lists. So please don't disgard something the public school does because it comes from them. After all, they began using a lot of our techniques when they saw the results we were getting!  If something is working for you keep it. If your curious to try something, don't get bogged down in whether it's right or wrong. Is it right for you and your child? That's the question to ask.

Me in the family room before church.

Us on Halloween