At this point if you are considering home-schooling or are already home-schooling you might want to ask yourself: Who puts the curriculum's together? Where do they gather their information? Then ask the basics: What do I want my child to learn? Write it down! What makes a subject interesting? Why is it important to you, to him/her? How many "facts" were we required to learn in school that were forgotten as soon as we took the last test? Just like you, a child learns WHEN they are ready to learn, not when a curriculum or a teacher indicates that they SHOULD learn. As stated in this old maxim:
"When the student is ready, the teacher appears."
Learning should first of all be interesting, next exciting and finally have a reason. Children age 5-7 generally are eager to receive approval. They will color, learn letters, draw shapes, paint, write and read all in anticipation of a smile, a hug, a parent or teacher saying: "good work!" A child is not motivated by a curriculum designed to be completed, or by a teacher/parent demanding, yelling or forcing a child to meet a prescribed schedule! When a child loves to learn, he/she will continue to learn throughout life.
Learning is like the opening of a flower in spring: it's gentle, slow, and all of a sudden............it just is! Relax and enjoy the process of learning with your child. Make learning interesting and real to them. Education should be about quality, not quantity. Our children are already bombarded by an overload of irrelevant information! If your child is crying, your child is no longer learning. Put the books away and just talk. What are they interested in? Take a field trip, start a hands-on project (ie: plant a seed, make a paper airplane, bake a cake, sew a blanket). Better yet, put the professional "curriculum" away and design your own. Ask your child or children what they would like to learn about and design your own "lesson plan". As the teacher/parent you make a point of covering the basics your child needs within your lesson plan.
Perhaps your child is interested in planting a seed. If you don't understand plant propagation, learn from many sites on the Internet or through old fashioned books. Talk about different plants needing different soil types. Basic nutrients the plant needs. How the plant obtains nutrients. How it grows. What it takes from the soil. What it puts back into the soil. The difference between organic and chemical fertilizers. Where do organic/inorganic fertilizers come from? What is the benefit of organic gardening to your child, the soil and the world ? What affect do chemicals used by corporate farmers have on the soil ... our water supply? Explain where our water comes from and how lakes, rivers, wells and municipal water supplies are affected by chemical farming/organic farming.
Obviously, as a parent/teacher, you are not going to slam-dunk your 5 year old with all of this information at one time. Keep a notebook and write what principles you cover with each "lesson". Just as obvious, your older child is going to want more information. Keep notes for each child. Use DVD's to compliment your studies: ie: Food, Inc.; InGREEDinents, etc.
A pre-programmed curriculum often does not allow time to cover subjects near and dear to your heart. Again, WHAT is important to you? WHAT do you want your child/children to learn? Let me share some subjects near and dear to my heart as an example:
1. Basic math is a must! Not fuzzy math being taught in public schools but addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, algebra and geometry.
As the child matures, learning the difference between Austrian economics and Keynesian economics is vital to understanding personal finances as well as our national debt and its' impact on our lives. Why it is so difficult today for individuals to save and to live without credit card debt and a mortgage? How our welfare system, taxes and our foreign aid relates to Keynesian economics and its' impact on each of us personally.
2. Teach our children to understand allopathic and alternative health care and teach the necessity of taking responsibility for your own health. While covering physiology and anatomy teach about whole food vs. processed foods. Teach about the chemicals added to our food to give it a longer shelf life while robbing our bodies of needed nutrients.
3. Research.... and then teach accurate history. "A People's History of the United States, by Howard Zinn" is one of the most widely used textbooks in public schools today. Missing is Washington's Farewell Speech, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, texts of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Zinn feels that "We would need ... to reconstruct the economy ... Everyone could share the routine (but necessary) jobs for a few hours a day, and leave most of the time free for enjoyment, creativity, labors of love, and yet produce enough for an equal and ample distribution of goods. Certain things would be ... free - to everyone: food, housing, health care, education, transportation ..." Why aren't parents in an uproar???
This sounds like the Communism creed: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."
Until next time.....
