Leaping From The Box

Through blogging I have “met” many interesting homeschoolers from across the country and around the world. Sandra is one such blogger and her On Living By Learning blog is one of my daily reads. I love her byline, “Learn, Grow, Explore, Change the World.”

On Sandra’s June 22nd post, A Homeschool Mixer Introduction, she plays along with Alesandra’s Homeschool Blog Awards homeschool mixer, answering 19 homeschooling questions. These are questions that all homeschoolers have been asked more than once in their homeschooling journey. My children are all grown, so I will be answering these from a slightly different perspective, looking back on twelve years of homeschooling. And since my answers will likely be on the long side, I will answer a few each day until we’re done. So stay tuned, keep watch, you know the drill!

1. Why do you homeschool?

   We began homeschooling in reaction to the education being offered at our local public school. Each of our children needed to homeschool for a different reason: Kat because of the psychological stressors occurring in her fifth-grade classroom and the lowering expectations of the girls in regards to academics, David because he needed more challenge than his second-grade classroom had to offer, especially in the science area, and Charles because his kindergarten class had too much violence occurring and we were concerned that he would gain the label of ADHD when he advanced to the more demanding level of attention that his upcoming first grade level would require.

   Those were the reasons we began homeschooling. They were not the reasons we continued homeschooling after the first year. Somewhere during that first year we began to realize how much the public school had taken over our lifestyle. Homeschooling afforded us the freedom to study what we wanted, when we wanted, where we wanted, and how we wanted. We were in control of our daily schedule and that was a wonderful feeling of freedom!

2. What technique or curriculum do you use?

   The first few months we did school-at-home with an organized schedule and lesson plans. After a few months, I was experiencing serious burn-out, so we took a break over the Christmas holidays and I spent more time learning about homeschooling methods. While I was doing that, my children just kept on learning! My children were actively unschooling at the same time I was learning about unschooling. So for the last 11.5 years of our homeschooling journey, we were unschoolers. (I will always consider myself to be an unschooler, even though I am no longer legally homeschooling anyone.) We did use some curriculum, especially in the high school years, but always to meet a need or interest that one of our children had, such a college preparation or learning a language.

3. Do your kids work above or below grade level (or both!)?

   We did not worry about grade levels, so I never really kept track. In some subjects I am sure they were above, in other subjects, below. It didn’t really matter to us.

4. What is your educational level?

   I graduated from Finger Lakes Community College with an Associates of Science degree in Secretarial Science.

5. Do you feel that your education level has an effect on your teaching (both limits and abilities?)
   No, not really. There are some very intelligent people homeschooling that never had the opportunity to go beyond high school for more education. That does not mean that their education ceased at high school. And a secretarial science degree really doesn’t bring much to the table as far as homeschooling your children. I think what helps more than your level of education is a willingness to know your limits, to know where you need to seek outside assistance, such as co-ops or online classes or community college classes. The most important thing, though, is the mindset that you are never too old to learn anything. Homeschooling will be a lot easier if you believe in that and model that mindset.

Watch tomorrow for the answers to these questions:

6. What does your daily schedule look like?
7. Are your kids always polite and ready to learn?
8. Do the kids (or you!) get frustrated?
9. How has this affected your parenting?
10. How much free time do they have?
11. What do they do during their free time?
12. What hobbies do they have?

Another response to a question I received about unschooling. If you have your own question, click on the “Email Me Today” link on the right sidebar and send me your question.

Background: We have homeschooled our children for many years. Our eldest is now in college. But my dw continually stresses out about curriculum and “being behind,” and this stress is loaded upon the remaining child as she is pressured to complete particular work.

Questions: Is it possible to transition to an unschooled paradigm with only a 15-year-old left in the house? How? What difficulties can one expect? How does one set up transcripts for college?

Thanks,
Unschooling Wannabe Dad

Dear Unschooling Wannabe Dad,

The quick and easy answer is, “Of course it is possible to transition to unschooling!”

Does your youngest child wish to unschool? Does she already unschool in some fashion and just does not realize it? If she has some input into what her studies are and how/when she does them, then she may already be unschooling to some degree.

Unschooling Difficulties

One key to unschooling success is to have everyone in the household at least willing to give it a good try. If your wife is already stressing and worrying, then I suspect she will have a great deal of difficulty adjusting to the notion of unschool. You might need to do some “selling” of unschooling to your wife: meet some local unschooling families, learn about unschooled students who successfully made it into college, joining some unschooling email lists or support groups, and read some good unschooling books.

How is your eldest doing at college? Is your wife worrying because the eldest is having difficulties adjusting to college? Or is she just worrying because that is her natural tendency? If she has specific concerns, such as writing abilities or particular math levels, it may be necessary to compromise and continue with an academic schedule (plan) for those areas and then allow your daughter to unschool in all other areas of her life.

Other than getting your wife on board, the only real difficulty I can think of is if your youngest is uncertain about unschooling or believes that unschooling might not work. Sometimes students are so used to having their academic work laid out for them, without their having any input into what they study, that the idea of unschooling seems scary or even wrong in some way. They worry that they won’t cover the necessary material to get them into college. Or they flounder for a while, not certain what to do nor when, simply because they are so used to following someone else’s schedule.

Deschooling

Your daughter might find it necessary to deschool for a while, just to gain the time and perspective to see what she wants to do for herself. Deschooling is like a vacation from prescribed learning, allowing the student to regain touch with her own desires, her own reasons for learning. Sometimes deschooling is necessary for students who have always followed a strict regimen of learning where they had no input into what they learn (whether school-at-home or in public school). The rule of thumb with deschooling is one month for each year that child has been in public school. Since you have already been homeschooling for a number of years, your daughter might not need that long.

Transcripts for Unschoolers

As for transcripts, there are many ways they can be done, depending upon the homeschool regulations in your particular state. Many homeschools are considered private schools; if that is the case in your state, you create your child’s transcript, translating their activities and interest into “schooly” subjects. In Alabama (the state I have the most familiarity with), homeschoolers join church schools and the church school provides the transcript and/or diploma, based upon the information provided by the homeschooling family.

There are also some “unschooling schools” that provide transcripts and diplomas for unschoolers, which might be a way of reassuring your wife that the necessary material will be covered for college. One such school is West River Academy.

Unschooling High School

Unschoolers can and do graduate from high school and go on to college just fine. We graduated two unschoolers, and while our eldest decided not to attend college, she easily could have, given her grades and SAT scores. Our middle child is currently enrolled at Tallahassee Community College, majoring in computer science, and made the Dean’s List last semester. Both unschooled their high school years, each in their own particular way. I chronicled some of their unschooled high schooling a few years ago, which you can read at Unschooling High School.

Unschooling Wannabe Dad, please let us know what your family decides to do and why!

Readers, do you have any suggestions for this Unschooling Wannabe Dad? Please post your comments!

Today I will be responding to the first of several questions I have received about homeschooling. Please feel free to leave your own comment with helpful suggestions for this worried mom. And if you have your own question, click on the “Email Me Today” link on the right sidebar and send me your question.

I have a question about Universities. I home-schooled my daughter and son till the 12th grade. They both have dyslexia which with a great deal of hard work have managed to overcome. My daughter was also diagnosed with add/hd but my son was only diagnosed with add. They have both finished high school and started in our local community college.

Ironically, my daughter is doing relatively well with the help of the access office with is a program that allows for students such as herself more time with tests, helps with note taking, etc. My son on the other hand has not done so well. I believe he is a late bloomer. He is not so willing to be a part of the access office of the college. He failed the few courses but never fails to be absent from a single class and is always 30 to 45 min early to class. Yet he struggles to meet the required work for the class. I truly feel that he would benefit from attending a small university that understands these types of students.

During the time I home-schooled the children there was not as much support available. At times I was even told I was doing my children a great disservice. The schools were very damaging to my children’s sense of self worth and self esteem and I can clearly see this in my son to this day.

I was hoping I could get some information about a small University that would accommodate this type of student.

I would deeply appreciate any information you may give me.

Thank you so much for your help.

A worried mom

Dear Worried Mom,

There are universities and colleges that “specialize” in students with learning disabilities. I believe there were two or three mentioned in Lauren Pope’s book, Colleges That Change Lives (read my review of Pope’s book).

I did find this website about dyslexia and college, through a Google search, that looked as though it offered support to the dyslexic college student: Dyslexia At College. That website has a discussion forum where you might get better information about specific colleges / universities. It does appear as though the site is selling some sort of dyslexia testing, just so you know.

Since your son’s current college is already offering assistance, though, it sounds like the issue is that your son is not willing to take advantage of that assistance. If your son is not willing to accept assistance offered locally, going away from home to a university likely will not improve that situation. If anything, it will throw additional stressors into the equation, causing him to question himself and his abilities even more. Has he given a reason for why he is not willing to seek out help from the college?

You say you believe your son is a late bloomer, so I wonder if maybe he is just not ready yet for full-time college. Has he tried just taking one or two courses during a semester? Or maybe he is not ready for college at all? Does he have some other interest that he could pursue for a career, something more hands-on? Maybe the reason that he is not willing to seek out the help is because he would rather be doing something else?

Come on, LeapingFromTheBox.com readers! Step forward with your thoughts and suggestions! Feel free to comment if you have advice for Worried Mom.