I would venture to guess that most homeschooling moms have spent time in a classroom. Even though I was homeschooled for six years by my parents, I still spent seven years glued to a desk watching an infernal clock ticking oh, so slowly!
But I got an even better advantage for, despite announcing how much I hated school on the first day of kindergarten, I spent four and a half years as a teacher before coming home to raise my own children.
Now, I have what they call "School Fever". It's like Spring Fever, only it happens every August. I start to smell those bouquets of sharpened pencils. I pull out Maps and Charts and draw Wall Calendars on Poster board. And, I write out elaborate lesson plans that I know I will never, ever follow!
Then, right about now (February) I start groaning about all those good intentions from August and wondering whatever became of them!
You may be thinking: Her oldest daughter just turned six, what does she know about this? Well, we've been "doing school" for three years-- at least. (I know, poor Joanna!)
That brings me to today's title: The Mistake of School Simulation.
Does it seem a little ironic to you that we remove our students from a classroom environment and then try to recreate that environment for them at home?
Recently, a friend gave me a box of activities that a friend of hers didn't need. This box was chock full of laminated critters teaching consonant blends, time, etc... You know, the same stuff our teachers used to give us to catch our attention or occupy us when bored. Then my friend told me that the lady who created those items so carefully, drawing them out, cutting, laminating, adding brads when appropriate, and etc... had only lasted a few months in homeschooling.
I didn't mean to be rude and honestly tried hard to suppress that laugh, but looking at the box in my hands I knew exactly why she had given up homeschooling!
This lady (like so many other homeschoolers) was trying to simulate a classroom experience for her children. She wanted the bulletin boards, the activities, the maps, the marker-boards, the calendars, etc, etc, etc... just like her classroom. And, in her mind, she was a failure if she couldn't produce it.
Think about it: the only reason we need bulletin boards in a classroom, is so everyone in the room can see them. When you have a few students, this is unnecessary! Another purpose of bulletin boards is to impress the parents with the subjects being taught, when and if they should chance a visit. When you're homeschooling, that's never a problem.
Now, I love maps. As a teenager, my bedroom wall was decorated with maps. I've got nothing against them (or bulletin boards, for that matter) but I'm trying to press a point.
If we're going to try to simulate a classroom "experience" for our children, then we shouldn't be surprised when discouragement hits right about now. But what is our goal? To educate our children for the glory of God, or to recreate an environment that we've been told is the only key to learning?
If you answered the latter, then you might want to chance a glimpse at some public school SAT scores...
Other articles in this series:
Homeschooling Mistake #1
Homeschooling Mistake #2
Yes, ma'am! A good friend of mine is a teacher, and she periodically clears out the trash piles and brings me school supplies. Most of it is cruft, like laminated geegaws and what-nots. Some of it is cool to have, like prepared slides and beakers for science. I LOVE her for that, so I don't discourage her from bringing everything. I can always pass the workbooks on to Goodwill or something.
ReplyDeleteWhat works in school absolutely doesn't work at home for the most part. We do have a bulletin board to display our awesomeness when we complete a task, and two whiteboards to practice on so we don't waste paper. But when I see all the homeschool blogs with posts about tons of "learning" crafts, bunches of games, and the complicated phonics stuff, I know I'm looking at someone who is more interested in "school" than in home. Not that I'm opposed to absolutely everything like that, but most of the "educational" stuff we've learned to use in our schools is actually getting in the way of real education.
So far, all I've truly needed is paper, books, and kids. :0)
Let me amend this sentence: What works in school absolutely doesn't work at home for the most part.
ReplyDeleteWhat works in school actually doesn't work very well in school, either. LOL
Amen to that, Cindy!
ReplyDeleteWe don't have a bulletin board, but our house IS a bulletin board! We've got "stuff" all over the walls! But it isn't stuff that I've cut out of some "Best Bulletin Boards on the Block" book, but rather it is what my children have created or accomplished themselves. And I encourage them to enjoy their work and enjoy sharing it with others! I love the way their eyes light up when I post yet another "project" on the wall!
One curriculum I have says all the time, "write this on the whiteboard"... and it's a homeschool version where they know you're teaching only one child! I don't need a whiteboard, I only need a piece of paper... but it's so hard to break out of that mindset.
ReplyDeleteI just decided to home school my preschooler (her older sister attends regular public school, but I want to get the younger one prepared) What do you suggest instead of a focused classroom type set up? I don't want to do unschooling (as covered in mistake 4) because it know it won't work for us, so I planned on doing something similar to what my older one does in her kindergarten classroom. If it doesn't work in a home school setting, what does?
ReplyDeleteMrs. Undomestic, I want to devote a whole blog post to this, because it's a great question that begs to be answered. For now, let me just say that I'm not trying to bash everything that is done in a typical, classroom setting. For exampple: Standing in front of a 100-number chart and counting out loud is very helpful. But do you really "need" the 100-number chart to do school? No. You can print one off the computer and put it in the child's folder to have them use daily. The same goes for calendars, weather graphs, and etc...
ReplyDeleteMy point was that so many families "need" these things posted all over the wall, to "feel" like they're really teaching their children. But you don't. The unschoolers have this right: every moment of the day is an opportunity to teach your children. Whether you're counting to 50 while beating the eggs, singing geography songs in the car on the way to the grocery store, or just laying down on a blanket in the backyard and marvelling at God's creation-- every moment is a teaching one.
You don't need to spend lots of time and money on teaching equipment in order to teach your little ones. Moms that go overboard in this, frequently end up quitting, because the task is just too enormous.