Classroom Optional

"I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn." - Albert Einstein

I'll be one of the first to admit that I don't always enjoy homeschooling my children. It's hard enough being a mother and running a household; add teaching into the mix and it can be exhausting at times and sheer maddening at others.

And yet, it fits our family and our lifestyle. It has been our savior more than once - such as when Jacob was diagnosed with cancer. We were able to work around his schedule and through his treatments. Jacob also has a speech delay and can be very hard to understand at times. His speech therapy (through therapy services) is helping him through this and with time it will be a past memory but at the tender age of six it could greatly impact him to be around teasing or having to be put in a special education class because of his lack of vocal skills, when his intellectual skills are not affected.

"Try not to have a good time ... This is supposed to be educational." - Charles Schulz

What works for us is to view life as a learning process. There are no set times in which to learn things and no set rules. Last year when Becca was having trouble with reading and math we took a small break. We started back at the beginning this year and she has absorbed everything like a sponge. Studies show that the ideal time to grasp reading skills is age 7 so I did not despair when she "didn't get it" earlier. She wasn't ready. Jacob, on the other hand, was pushing to start reading and is sailing through the book - every child is different. Homeschooling allows me to tailor the learning style for each of my children.

"Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books." - John Lubbock

I believe that a child is naturally curious about the world around them and will naturally gravitate towards learning what they are interested in. While every child needs to know the basics I am happy to spend more time on math with one child and more time on science with another. Diversity is what makes the world go round and each person is just better and interested in different subjects. Jacob pours over history books with daddy and made a project for school about World War II, some of what he knew was more than I know about the war! Becca made a poster about breeds of dogs and their group and uses. She spent one summer outside nearly everyday with a bird guide book and would study the birds around our house and would fly around the yard pretending to be a bird. She was called "Nature Girl" by my family because whenever they saw her she was outside with the book in her hands. I let them focus on their interests and they learn much better in the process.

"We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a belly full of words and do not know a thing." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

So while I admit up above that I don't always enjoy the homeschooling aspect (just once in awhile it would be nice to send them away to have seven hours alone to myself and not have to be the mom, teacher, cook, PE instructor, music teacher, and principal!) I do love watching my children learn. Whether it is the excitement in their eyes as they pull their favorite book off the shelf, watching a child draw little maps for over an hour, seeing them search through each rock in the flower beds to find a fossil, helping them put pen to paper to write a letter, or seeing them read to their little brother on the couch - it is watching a love of learning blossom. We've all heard the expression "The world is your classroom"...I truly believe it.

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." - William Butler Yeats

My point is not that a child can not get a good education in the public or private school setting...because they can. My point is that learning doesn't require a classroom.

" I have never let my schooling interfere with my education". - Mark Twain