New Beginnings

So after thinking this through for the last 5 years (yes, I know.... 5 years?!?), we have finally made the decision to take the plunge into the unknown!  Like most unpredictable situations I have faced in the past, like the decision to have children, going into labour, choosing homeschooling (they all more or less fall into the same measure of unknown!), I sort of refrained from having any black on white expectation of what it would look like.  People often try and give their input on what they think beforehand, sometimes great, sometimes not so great (sometimes informed, sometimes not so informed), and I usually tend to take the "eat the meat and spit out the bones" approach, mostly being a bit optimistic about what awaits.  And then the wave hits you, and you are forced to face the reality of this unknown, throwing you into total surrender to the One who knows what He is doing, and riding it out the best you can.
That said, our start was definitely an interesting one, not exactly moonshine and roses (is that just an Afrikaans saying?  Maanskyn en rose, so mooi gestel :) ).  Our plan was to at first only take our oldest out of school, settling him and then in the new year start all three with our new approach.  With Mr.1 having a quite a serious personality, always wanting to know exactly what is expected from him and what the program will be, our homeschool start was one "lovely" emotional roller coaster ride!  From really enjoying the freedom to being frustrated with not having any formal schooling, I eventually managed to get him to relax by "pretending" he is on holiday!  While all this was going on, little Ms M decided that it is totally unfair that she still has to attend school and began protesting every morning with great resistance eventually leading to the decision to take her out as well.  Needless to say, since we have made the decision to have both older kids out of school, everything has settled, every one has relaxed and for the first time at the start of week 2, I started to become excited about homeschooling again :).  For now, my greatest struggle is to make up my mind on approach.  So much of ones thinking is still stuck in the "old way of schooling", whilst knowing the benefits of doing it in a new way.  One day, you are totally relaxed, having this lovely organic learning environment and just enjoying all the deep, meaningful learning that takes place.  Then the next you open up some educational books and freak out because you are totally inundated under possible curriculum/approaches/standards/what your children should be able to do by what age etc etc...  So, for now my approach will be as follows:  Take one step back, take a deep breath and take one day at a time!

Why homeschool?

I have been witnessing quite an interesting phenomena these last few months....  Since we made our decision to homeschool our children, amongst other, THE MOST ASKED question that I face is "What made you decide to do that?".   Following this question my mind rambles through 30 000 possible answers to give, with this being such a complicated question. At first my reply wants to be "What made you decide to keep your child in school?" :), but in all honesty, this is such a loaded question, I could keep you busy for a day in trying to explain why we made this choice.  We are quite normal people (or so I think!), lying somewhere on the spectrum between serious conservative Christians and total free-living Hippie's, and our decision to homeschool would most probably differ tremendously from both those extremes.  

The most uncomplicated answer I could give would be that homeschooling just makes so much we believe in for our children and family, possible.  I could carry on about the negatives of formal schooling, the unnecessary pressure kids experience etc etc, but in essence it is actually the opposite that made us look in this direction.  After trying formal schooling for four years, we found that within a great school, with great values and two brilliant teachers teaching our oldest and middle child, we still couldn't satisfy the needs we find most valuable within our family setup.  So here they are in no particular order:

1.  Time!  With the kids in school we could find very little time to invest into each of their characters to the extend that we would have liked to.  And in the little time there was, everyone are either tired or being rushed to the next activity/thing.  This includes their attitudes towards life and each other, their contribution to our household with each one pulling their weight, their world view and their whole belief system.

2.  Whole person development:  We found that in school, because of the very content heavy curriculum they follow, there is little time left for any development of the child as a whole person.  The best part of their day was spent on very platonic academic content, and development of their other interests and strengths was not valued much and in many ways left behind.  Also the fact that there is one teacher for 30 children tremendously inhibited her from being able to try and tend to every child as an individual.  

3.  Adventure and Experience:  We have in so many ways seen the amazing fruit of learning through inquisitive experience.  We very much try and veer away from the whole performance mentality and love taking the kids on various adventures and having them learn through experience rather than program.  We have found learning through this way to be much more effective and long lasting rather than just pushing a bunch of information into the short term memory and having them relay that through tests.  

4.  Developing each child to his own:  The last reason can basically be summed up as this.  We would love to see each of our children develop into the very person each of them were made to be, developing and maturing at their own pace, and being raised with the knowledge that they can make a success from anything they wish to pursue.  Although it's not only through homeschooling that you can achieve this, I do hope that spending so much quality time and discussions with our kids, building into each child's identity, we will be able to send them out into society with the knowledge that the world in its modern setting really is their oyster and that they can conquer anything they please!

Many other questions include: "How are you doing it?", "What curriculum do you follow?", "How do you assess your child's progress?", "What about social interaction?", "How will they get a Matric?"... and so I can carry on.  I totally understand that homeschooling in South Africa (although not really new), is still such an uncommon thing, and that many people still do not understand what it's all about.  I also understand that our decision to do this instantly make other people question their own decision to school.  And so all of this creates a whirlpool of questions being thrown to and fro.  Hopefully through this blog, we discover some of these answers together!

Life Lessons

As homeschooling is just one of the many ways in which I am growing, I also love to have chats, laughs and vents about parenting, God and lots of other life issues.  Would love to hear what you have to say about them!

Homeschooling Tools

So having to start from scratch and figuring things out, I know how helpful all sorts of schooling tools are.  Be sure to find my best ones here.