Striking a Balance

Striking a Balance

One of the greatest challenges we are facing as new homeschoolers is figuring out an educational philosophy that fits with Lucas' learning style and satisfies my need to feel like he is learning what will be necessary in the future to be well educated and successful.  I have read a lot about the idea of unschooling, and I am really enamored of the concept. The unschooling philosophy is based on education pioneer John Holt's 1964 book "How Children Fail." Put simply, Holt wrote that living is learning. He believed children should follow their innate curiosity and passions rather than being forced to learn hordes of information they will never use.

I've read countless stories of families who have used this philosophy and have kids who grow up as capable adults, and ending up in jobs which reflect their personal passions.  What better way to define success than to be able to make a living doing something you love and have a passion for? 

This model of self education of course relies on a child's innate curiosity, and the idea that nurturing this curiosity and providing them with the support and structure they need to pursue their interests fully will allow for a well rounded and well educated child.

At the same time, I feel like in this time of transition from regular school, Lucas needs a certain amount of guidance and school-like structure.  He, for example, would never voluntarily ask to learn math, but I feel that there are some major concepts such as multiplication and division which are introduced in 3rd grade that I want him to learn and feel proficient in by the end of the school year.

So, we are trying to find a balance between the two.  I'm trying to help him explore things he's naturally curious about, and take what learning opportunities we can within those subjects.  For example, with his current bug obsession, we read about bugs, to practice reading skills, draw them, learn about their life cycle, which is science, and I have had him write stories about what it might be like to wake up and find he had been turned into a spider.   We also use Google to look up whatever questions he might have pop up, like how long does a scorpion live, or where is the Ivory Coast, where Emperor Scorpions come from.

We also do a more structured curriculum for math and language arts, which although not his favourite thing, allows me to feel that he is learning the important concepts that he should be at this age.  I also am making an effort to incorporate math vocabulary and concepts into everyday life, such as talking about percentages we may hear on TV, and what they mean, or look like represented on a pie chart, and also fractions, as in when we follow a recipe to make something.  Making him aware of these concepts allows him to start to see the patterns of math and how they apply in the real world.

In this way, I see learning happen organically, and I see him gain confidence in his ability to learn about the world around him.  This learning sticks, unlike most of what is being taught in school, which, unless the child has a genuine interest in what is being taught, is quickly forgotten.  I'd much rather have 2-3 hours of "school time" (which includes math and language arts) and have meaningful learning take place, than have him waste 7 hours at school and come home unable to tell me anything he'd learned that day.  This also leaves plenty of time for the physical pursuits that he really loves, such as soccer, hip hop dance, and tennis, all of which he's able to do as a part of various homeschool sports programs.

Hopefully this style of school, with some structure, but plenty of time focusing on what interests him as well, will continue to work well for us as we go along. I