What is Homeschooling?

There are so many different ways people homeschool. Some people are unschoolers, some do a more traditional school-at-home type of program, some use pre-packaged programs from an accredited school, some use online schools, and some are eclectic. Within these groups, there are those who focus on classical education, some who provide education with a religious focus, some who use a Montessori approach, and others who prefer a Waldorf approach. And, there are several others that I have not listed here. It is difficult to define exactly what homeschooling is. I think that most of the people we come across, who do not homeschool, have the view of a school-at-home approach. They imagine homeschoolers sitting down each day and conducting the exact lessons that woud take place in a traditional school, only at home.

The reality is that homeschooling allows a freedom in learning that is not available in the traditional classroom setting. We are free to learn what we want, when we want. We are free to explore dinosaurs, if we so choose, for as long as we are interested. We are free to take field trips when we want, where we want. Learning is a journey, not a task to get finished so that we can go out to recess. Homeschool allows us to draw on the interests of the girls to help them develop a love of learning - actually, I think children are born with a love of learning, we just have to nurture it and watch it grow. While we do have probably a more school-at-home approach, and we do pay attention to the state and national education standards, we also enjoy the freedom that homeschooling allows so that we can explore everything we want to.

Homeschooling is also a way for us to ensure that our children learn through an instructional approach and at a level of that is appropriate for each of them.  We are able to tailor the instruction and the instructional speed to each child. While traditional schools are forced to use one curriculum and attempt to differentiate it for individual students, we can use different curriculums for each child, and even change curriculums within the course of a school year if one approach is not working well (which we have already done, a couple of times).

Instead of going away to school all day, sitting at a desk, returning home (exhausted), eating dinner, doing homework, going to bed, then getting up and doing it all over again, learning is a much more continuous process and a much less exhausting process. There is no start and no end to learning. We can learn about deserts at 7 am or 7 pm, depending on when the mood strikes us.