In today face paced indulgent world how does a homeschooler’s life stack up against the standard public/private school experience? How do the homeschoolers’ educational needs and growth progress from a schooling point of view?
These couple of questions is some that are asked by parents worldwide and they are very valid. Many parents need to know how their child’s education will progress, and whether they will fall behind with their educational needs compared to other children of the same age.
The questions above are also some that I have asked myself and wondered whether I could truly teach our children in the holistic way that I envisaged. While still giving them the educational needs that society deems appropriate for life.
I found the answer to these questions after a short time. My Daughter, now 7, started at a small school 30 kilometers from home. As you can imagine with the bus drive to and from plus the schooling day she was exhausted. This soon led to her not being able to eat and with the expectations of the school she started to become discouraged and unhappy. Neither of these things is what you want for your child.
Now don’t get me wrong, a lot of parents choose to homeschool for many different reasons with the main one being bullying within the school. Nayer didn’t have bullying issues, hers was exhaustion as you would expect with your kindergarten child.
With all this in mind, she only went to school 3 days a week for the first two terms. This meant that she was unable to do the same workload as students that lived closer to the school and started to fall behind.
We made the decision to homeschool her for the last 6 months of kindergarten and spent that time getting her confidence back up and showing her that school could be enjoyable.
Nayer, now in year one is doing fabulous, enjoying school, and moving ahead at a really nice pace. She’s had a support teacher that helped her build confidence with reading again. This teacher spoke to me just the other day, I asked whether my daughter was up to her age grade level, she felt annoyed that children are being pushed to meet an expectation of age-appropriate learning and that children shouldn’t be pushed into reading beyond their level and understanding.
In fact in her words “do we read beyond our understanding and comprehension, NO, so why are we pushing children beyond what they are capable of instead of nurturing the growth naturally”. I fully agree with this statement and find that children grow at a better and greater rate if nurtured instead of being pushed.
This is why homeschooling is such an amazing opportunity for children to learn and develop at a pace that is suited to both their comprehension and level of understanding. Children are in need of nurturing and homeschooling offers the opportunity for parents to watch the growth of their children at close quarters.
Our entire family does a range of other activities outside of the curriculum base. This ensures that they get a well-rounded education as well as the practical skills needed within the activities of daily living.
A typical day for us is.
- Breakfast
- Schooling till 10.30am
- Outdoor play and gardening
- Cooking/art lesson with color baking
- Lunch (whatever we cooked)
- Outdoor play
- Swimming lessons at the river
- Collection of veggies for dinner
- Bath time and bedtime (stories etc.)
This is a day at home with the children and we always find that by the end of the day, they’re tired and eager to go to bed.
In our home, each of the children is enjoying schooling at the level that they are most comfortable with. Through this they are accelerating in the subjects that they enjoy, not being pushed in the subjects that they are struggling with, and at the same time learning the general knowledge that children older struggle to understand.
The progression of a homeschooled student is far greater than that of a public or private school child. They have their family with them supporting and encouraging them all the time. As my children progress through the curriculum they will be given tutoring from professionals on subjects that I myself struggle with. By giving them this opportunity they understand that we all need help with something and that mum cannot teach them everything. This lesson teaches them to accept life in the good and bad times.
YoZenQi Holistic - Megen Hibbins 