Monday, January 31, 2011

Monday musing 2

Once again it's Monday, and here I sit freshly brewed decaf cappuccino nearby and an everything bagel with fried egg as my breakfast. My son is eating his similar breakfast, minus the coffee in the other room. We're working up to starting the school day which will begin shortly with him reading a book to me. Then we'll progress along to writing words and sentences, some addition and subtraction, some kitchen alchemy in the form of bread making and then we'll have a lot of playing throughout the afternoon. Later this evening he will go to basketball practice, we'll have family dinner afterward, family storytime in bed followed by song and then off to sleep for him. My husband and I get a few hours of quality of time and then I'm off to bed as well.

This is the basic structure for our schooling. It's flexible and throughout the week it ebbs and flows depending on what comes our way. We go the park with other homeschoolers mid week, we go the library for storytime, sometimes we grocery shop and he is in charge of weighing things and reading the list. One of the great joys of homeschooling is being with my child everyday and guiding him through the world in a gentle manner. For us there is some structure in that but it is combined with the freedom to move around and change it up at any time.

For those people who think homeschooling is weird or absurd or that I'm not qualified, I say "mind your own business." For those who think all homeschoolers are socially inept, backward, or right wing conservative religious folks I say, "Obviously you have never met any of the kids in any of the groups I have been a part of." Those groups include kids from ages birth to 18 and have spanned 4 states.

I didn't sit down with the intention if writing about homeschooling but I guess, that's what was on my mind. I think families need to do what works for them, and this works for us. Until such time as is doesn't anymore we'll continue on this path.

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