Being Honest: Home School Supplementation pt 1

It’s difficult to strike a balanced tone when speaking of reasons people choose to home school their children. In our day to day lives, it’s common to happen upon discussions which reflect only one point of view be it on the radio, on television, in classrooms, in our own homes. Unfortunately most major issues are simply too large to tackle from the middle of the road and so people take a side and battle from that position. That said, it’s fair to say there are very good schools available to most all US citizens, places wherein children can get a quality education. Of course, there are others and it may be these others that has lead so many to educate their own children, in their own way.

This message is straight forward. Readers used to passive aggressive authors will find this style different. This paper is written without mincing words. There is NO intent to label or blame. This is written out of respect for the great endeavor the home school parent has taken on. This honesty and style is out of respect for your strength and temerity. Home school parents have already made the toughest choice, to educate their children personally. This 2 part series is intended to help the home school parent, to share some observations and to offer some ideas, tips and resources.

One cannot be all things to a child. Even if the parent/educator is incredibly well adapted and versatile, socialization with others is a positive in personal development. The discussion needs to recognize the incredible strength needed to make such a decision and if the most is to be made of the decision, needs to recognize each parent’s weakness in teaching.

In observing home school children, the most common deficiency in their home school experience is the socialization aspect. This is socialization on a global scale. Learning from experience, experientially, takes place daily just by being in and about the world at hand. Slam a hand in a door, learn not to close door while hand is in there. Our world is filled with rules, structure, it’s how we are able to function without stepping on one another, both figuratively and literally.

Our lives are governed by rules, nothing we do if free from guidelines. From the mundane to the spectacular there are expectations of how we’re to comport ourselves: in a library, better be quiet. As a home school parent/educator, one must be hyper-cognizant of getting the home school child into the world, out of the house. For kids that go to school, thi is one of the main benefits, they’re learning rules of life. Home school children can get this experience, school’s don’t hold exclusivity rights but parent/educators must make concerted efforts make it so.

If learning to be in groups and work in and around people out in the world is global-socialization, then the more specific and much needed socialization is peer-socialization. There are many benefits to home schooling, especially when comparing the ability to drill down and really focus on core subjects; however, the biggest gap in home school child development is peer-to-peer socialization. Parent/educators are recognizing this more and more and groups of home school children go on field trips together etc. In a school setting though, kids are receiving hours of peer socialization day in and day out, 9 months of the year. Therefore, this is an area the parent/educator must be especially sensitive and aware.

On the flip side, most home schooled children have a far greater breadth of knowledge for familiar subject, they converse with a topic-maturity not often found in similar aged kids. This is why so many parents have made the home school option. It is certainly a benefit to have such focused attention and time dedicated to improving the life of one, two or more children but most often less than the teacher to child ratio found in schools.

Walking away from the first of this two part series a parent/educator can take a few ideas. One, they should be proud of the courage it takes to decide to home school. If they haven’t already they should recognize the advantages they have over institutional schooling: schedule flexibility, location flexibility, subject matter flexibility,etc. Then, they should take to heart the socialization issue and get their child/children out into the world. Have the students experience a variety of situations at a variety of locales. Let them experience the world and learn lessons from these places. Take field trips either as a family or in home school groups. Some places that could be visited: grocery store, library, bakery, construction zone, gym.

As we conclude the first part of this mini-series on how to get most from the home school decision, one tip to achieving all three points above. Parents can look to getting a group of home schoolers together and enroll the lot of them into an experiential education based program. Outdoor education centers will provide this. It’s good to get the kids into these types of programs once or twice a year for concentrated periods of time. Camps are excellent for this.

Of course, do your due diligence and pick a camp you feel comfortable. Email or call the camp, gauge their response and decide if this appears to be a place you’d like your child to be. Outdoor education / adventure camps are excellent choices as you know they’re going to challenge your student/child in a holistic manner, engaging all types of learning in a supportive, success oriented environment.

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