Let's talk about this time of "crisis schooling " that we are all dealing with. Whether your kids are in public schools, privates schools, part-time schools, or you homeschool, we are all dealing with what I see many people calling "crisis schooling."
Crisis Schooling: What are we talking about?
Being home, nowhere to go, schooling must still happen, but all in-person instruction is gone. We're all trying to educate our children without resources we have gotten used to having. Whether those resources include brick and mortar schools or "schools" of your own making through homeschool co-ops or other activities, we are all doing without.
And for many working parents, they are also working from home, or juggling working out of the house as an essential employee while also managing their children's schooling and figuring out who is watching young kids while day cares are closed. Definitely not an easy thing to do.
Crisis schooling has our children on Zoom meetings, doing work in Google Classroom or some other platform, studying at the kitchen table, submitting everything online, and learning new concepts from a combination of emails/texts with teachers, Loom videos, learning from mom or dad, or figuring it out on their own. Just tonight I scanned eight assignments or quizzes for teachers from our part-time school and submitted them through Google Classroom. It takes a surprising amount of time!
Anyone else counting down until the last official day of school?
Is this what homeschooling is?
In my perusal of my social media networks I have come across various posts about homeschooling. I have many friends who have made comments regarding their new-found respect for homeschooling parents. Or, I have seen friends comment that, given this experience, homeschooling is not for them. And I'm sure there are many more experiences out there.
I get it, I really do! This is hard. But I do want all those parents to know that crisis schooling is not the same as homeschooling. Not by a long stretch. This crisis schooling is hard for us homeschool parents, too.
So if you are looking at this new schooling situation and comparing it to what you think homeschooling is, let me reassure you that it is not a fair comparison. We usually have much more fun!
So what is homeschooling?
Homeschooling takes a myriad of forms! For every family you know that homeschools they do things different from all the others. For every homeschool curriculum that is out there, there are a number of ways to adapt it for each family's unique situation. There is definitely no one way. Plus what works for one family may not work for another, and what works for a family one year may not work another, resulting in changes or modifications year to year.
In general though, most families come up with a curriculum to follow. They either buy it from a homeschool curriculum program in whole, or they piece together curricula from different programs, or they create their own through free resources online and pull things together from various sources. It's amazing what you can do with library resources, the internet, and local programs designed for homeschool students (like, this year I learned about Forest School when a fellow homeschool mom mentioned her children would be doing that once a week!).
The typical homeschool family has some sort of curriculum they are following, they will have their subjects to study, activities to do, they will have field trips, family discussions, lots of reading, and plenty of extra-curricula activities (4H, sports, music/dance lessons, horseback riding, and so much more). A homeschool family can choose to get work done over 4 days of the week and use the 5th for field trips, a co-op meeting, or a chance to explore other areas of interest. Some families can get all their work done in the morning and have time in the afternoon for other activities (art, music, baking, etc.). In some cases, maybe mom is the homeschooling parent but dad teaches one subject, that one subject may be taught in the evening or on the weekend. Some parents tag team everything because they both work and can work out their schedules so someone is always home. The options are endless!
It's difficult to define homeschooling because there are so many different ways to do it. Also, every state has some sort of rules about homeschooling that parents should know for their state. For the basic rules on homeschooling in Kentucky see this HSLDA page.
A word regarding Homeschool Curriculum
From observing my social media outlets, I've also seen an uptick in people expressing interest in homeschooling next school year, even if just to try it out. The first step is deciding what curriculum to follow. Will you create your own or buy an "out-of-the-box" curriculum? Or will you piece it together from a variety of sources? It takes research, plus also discernment to decide what will best fit your family and your child/children. And a word to the wise, a piece of advice I see shared with new homeschool parents in homeschool forums all the time: if you try to recreate a brick and mortar school experience at home, you and your children will likely end up hating it. Get to know the homeschool groups on Facebook, our local group, ask questions, lots and lots of questions, and find information on homeschooling to read and help you formulate what homeschooling should look like for you.
With that in mind, I am hoping to start posting some "interviews" with various members of our St. Joseph Homeschool Association featuring whatever curriculum they are using. So if homeschooling is something you are thinking about, watch for these posts. And consider following our Facebook page to keep up with our posts and activities (when we are allowed to do activities again).
To everyone out there crisis schooling, let's pray for each other. This is abnormal, it's hard, and we're all missing the ability to see friends and explore the world around us.
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