On Homeschooling........

Today I was out in the garden pulling amaranth for the pigs (they don't call it pigweed for nothin'), the boys were beside me talking excitedly about their finds as they were digging like "archaeologists" and found surprise oh surprise, more buried trash (a hose, clamps, an old bottle and a shoe).

(Our land has been abused and dumped on, and last year, upon seeing a tiny speck of white in the yard under a clump of grass, the boys decided to pull the soil back and it was like pulling on a ball of yarn- after a two day excavation of epic proportions, they unearthed an entire cast iron bathtub! Made a good pig trough.)
Anyways, they were covered head to toe in dirt in their overalls talking excitedly and our heads riveted at the sound of the bus, it stopping to let off the neighbor school kids and we took a minute to ponder the wide open, curious faces staring at us from the bus windows.
The bus soon pulled away, the boys ran off to another project (building a dragon kite,) and I was left to ponder in the garden.
And I pondered on this simple thought-

I cannot imagine what it would mean to be separated from my kids all day.

What that would do to the fabric of our family. Sure there are days when I want to tear my hair out and leap off a high cliff, but most days, nope, I am right where I want to be, right with who I want to be with. I am not ashamed to admit it- I am way to attached to them. I want to be with them, experience this crazy
life with them, see their reactions, get into long talks, share my work with them....and I haven't bought the premise that an hour of "quality" time at night sandwiched between dinner and bedtime is measurable to hours of quantity. Both is better and easy enough to have when you homeschool.
The meaning of life has to be love. Otherwise, I don't really know what the meaning to life is you know? It has to be love. To give love and recieve love. To be love, to love deeply and freely. Its our human experience. And to grow love you need to spend time with those you love. Its that simple really.

Mostly, I felt and feel blessed and lucky to have this time with them. To live in a state that is homeschool friendly. To be as a family, intimately involved in our own special culture, our own way of opening up to the day, what it presents, what learning we can eagerly sop up and adventures it may include. I feel blessed that they have the time, hours of it, to daydream under the walnut trees, to build maple tree forts, to take off on extended hikes in the woods discovering all the wonders of pond life, and woodland flora.
A big part of the wonder of the natural world is that its unpredictable. By being relatively free, we are free to open to this wonder, and free to follow instinct in a way that a highly regimented schedule of school would just now allow.
Homeschooling is a big part of our lives here on the homestead. It fits into the rhythm of our day, but the learning never stops. We do have and choose to do what I call table work, but the real learning happens in the hours of freedom and the nourishment of instinct.

I think a lot of people who have misconceptions about homeschooling immediately think of two things- one that we are trying to shelter our children.

Not so at all. I do know families like that, but we are about exposing our children to a huge range of diversity in pursuit and people. Sure, some of the values of childhood school culture do not penetrate our walls, and for that I am most thankful (specifically the food values (cafeteria food is a crime) and the value placed on mass consumption/disposable goods, though get me going and I could easily list twenty things I am glad my children are not exposed to. When I was a newspaper reporter I spent hours and hours in schools, reporting on mundane school events, and celebrated ones and was in the schools so much the staff and students forgot I was there. I saw many things that made my stomach twist and turn. Third graders teasing each other about blow jobs. Kids being put in front of Disney movies so teachers could get their papers graded. Children being humiliated by teachers and excluded. Things of that nature. Don't get me wrong, I am sure there are many caring capable teachers out there. One of my best friends is a public school teacher and she is amazing at what she does. But, no, its not for me, for my family- my children are just too precious to me and I saw enough to be too distrustful to hand them over to the institution.)

.....but we do not homeschool to limit or shelter them. I want them to experience everything the world has to offer. Except at this young age, I want them to experience it with our family, together.
There is a growing number of parents who have attachment parented and do not want to stop at the magical age of five. In the past, many parents homeschooled because of religious reasons, but lately, there are growing numbers of us homeschoolers who homeschool and religion has nothing to do with the reason. We are interested in being out in the community, getting exposure, experience and soaking up all there is to offer out there- basically on giving our children *more* freedom than perhaps they have at school. Exposing them to a more whole community of people, ages and cultures than they may find in a classroom of thirty or so other kids just all the same age.
And the second thing that comes to people that are apprehensive about homeschool is often academics. They tend to focus so heavily on this big question in their mind (how do you do it? what do you do when you have to teach something you don't know??) In most of their minds they picture us doing *school* at home, kids lined up in little desks while I prattle away spending 45 minutes on each school based subject. Not hardly.
First of all, its amazing what you can get done in an hour sitting at the table with one student instead of heading up a class of thirty. Our table work takes about an hour a day. Second of all, they are completely missing the point as to *why* we choose to homeschool.
Granted, those that choose to homeschool do it for a wide variety of reasons. We are a highly diverse bunch.

But we personally here- we choose it to deepen and strengthen our intimacy as a family. It's that simple.
Homegrown/schooled
kids like homebirth, homegrown veggies, homegrown meat, homegrown music, homesewn clothes, well, I could go on......
it just *suits* us. Homespun.

Its not for everyone, but then again, the same could be said for homebirth. It takes a mama who looks at the situation and says- you know, I don't think I am gonna give this extremely important experience over
to the state or the institution. I think I am gonna do this at home. I think I am gonna do this *myself*, with my family.

And what we learn on this path, this winding homeschool adventure, the years passing by,cannot be measured on state standardized tests, cannot even be explained with words. Its the rich fabric and interconnectedness of our lives and the people we love the most- our relationships with our children and with each other.

Soon enough they may have to punch in from 9 to 5. Give their lives to an institution, someone elses idea on what they should learn, someone else will and might dictate their time, the majority of their day. But not now.
And through this adventure, this journey of school at home, we have time, plenty of it to spend together. Busy time, running around to meet friends and sports games and lessons and whatnot. But plenty of time to spend the whole day curled up with the latest novel, or plenty of time to spend the day getting distracted in the woods with the goats. We have our freedom and our time together as a family to grow deeply together, to create a rich and highly textured family culture, a closeness deepened and strengthened by our hours together. The freedom to learn at our own pace, the joy of a self directed path of learning.
The enthusiasm this fosters.
The ability to be ourselves without peer judgement, without mass herd mentality and the barrage of a culture whose greatest goal is constant and relentless consumerism.
Its a beautiful thing this homeschool.
And as I stood in the garden watching the sweet faces pass me by in the big lumbering yellow school bus, I felt immeasurably grateful at the pace of our lives, the intimacy we have as a family and the quality of life here that we have created. It's not for everyone, but it suits us just perfect.

~Shawna