Homeschooling Questions

In the past, I have responded to readers questions privately through e-mail exchange. I thought I'd make a post of my response this time in case anyone else is interested.

Carla wrote:

Hi Sarah

My boys are only 18 mos. and 3 mos., but I am already concerned how the public school system tends to stifle a love of learning. Researching homeschooling sites is on my list of many things to do within the next few years. I see you are in IN, right? I am in IL. I sometimes feel that homeschooling would be overwhelming or that I would not do it well. Did you lack confidence at the beginning? What do you do to feel competent at it? I would be interested in hearing more from you or direction to some good sites that discuss it. I will be back to see how things are going for you all.

Happy New Year!

Hi Carla.

We're actually in Ohio.

Of course I had a lot of doubts about my ability, and even now I still have days where I question our choices. I believe all homeschooling parents feel the same. But most days I truly feel we are making the best decision for our girls. The first year I overplanned everything, but by midyear we settled into our own style and speed of learning which was much more relaxed. The best thing I think you can do is to just do it, and remain flexible for changes in approach. Everyone has their own learning style, and sometimes it just takes a little experimenting to figure it out. But one of the greatest benefits to homeschooling is that you know your child. You don't need to have your child fit into a rigid learning box....you can make learning fit them. And as they change, your approach can change.


The first thing I did after we decided to homeschool was to learn the laws of our state regarding homeschooling. Each state has different requirements. Ohio's is pretty easy, but I believe Illinois is even easier. I don't think you have to send a Notice of Intent, or keep records, or have an annual review or test, but you can search for Illinois homeschool laws on the Internet to find out for sure.


I also joined some Yahoo discussion groups on homeschooling in general, and on homeschooling in our state. There's a lot of helpful information in those groups! You can go to Yahoo.com and search their groups with keywords such as "homeschool" or "Illinois homeschool." Some groups are purely religious, others secular. It depends on your tastes.


I also went to the bookstore and bought some books on homeschooling "how to." They were a nice introduction to a world I knew nothing about. And some had useful information. I also love books by John Holt, specifically "Teach Your Own."


We are generally of the unschooling variety of homeschoolers. That means that we make life a learning experience, we find important lessons in everyday life. We also follow our girls' interests. We do unit studies this way. For example, we choose a topic and explore all aspects of it. We read literature on the topic, learn science behind it or involved with it, create art, write about it, basically all school subjects are included. Most of what my girls do they don't realize that it is actually "school work" and that they are learning something. We all just love learning new things that it is very natural to us. It is natural for kids anyway...before they become bored with it in, say, school! I just make sure they have a lot of opportunities to choose from. We have a ton of books and hands-on activities. I search for web sites that they can visit that has information, games, videos, etc, about the topic. (Such as this one http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/SchoolsOnline/index.html which is from your state.) We borrow documentaries from Netflix or the library, or watch shows on the Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, etc. They do like the occasional workbook, so we have some of those, and I print worksheets from the Internet, or create my own. And we love games! There's so much that can be learned through playing and having fun. And "field trips" are always a fun way to experience and learn about new topics. For example, if you are learning about a specific period in history there are a lot of historical places to visit that correspond to that time period.


Some homeschoolers subscribe to a specific set of curricula. They order textbooks and sit at the table to do their studies everyday. That's fine too, if the kids like that. And there's no worry of finding information for ourselves because the textbooks have done that for you. The only textbook I order is for math because that is my weakest subject. However, we don't always use it because we are always using math in real life. But I've found that even when I don't know the topic inside and out, we learn it together. Most importantly, though, I want my girls to know how to find answers to their questions. They are learning how to find look up information in books, on the Internet, asking a librarian, asking an expert, or doing their own experiments. We have a little notebook that we are always adding to. It is filled with questions that the girls ask that I don't know the answer to. We look for the answers together. I don't like to just say to them, "I don't know," and have that be the end of it. I don't want them to lose their curiosity.


I also check out http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Students?curriculum/ for a general list of each grades "Typical Course of Study" to make sure we are including what the public schoolchildren are learning. You may be able to obtain a curriculum list from your local schools, as well.


Good luck!

Sarah