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!
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