My Story - Unschooling
I started thinking a lot more about the unschooling method this fall. I had outlined a basic curriculum plan for the year but wasn't feeling great about it. I wanted time to just connect with the kids more than time forcing expectations and books at them. I had spent time reading the hot homeschooling books such as Read Aloud Revival and Teaching from Rest. I had spent dozens of hours reading online. I spent some time on the Clonlara School website gaining insight and affirmation.
My brother and I graduated from Clonlara's home based program. When we first started homeschooling it was very controversial and essentially illegal in Michigan. Clonlara offered an umbrella of protection that was needed during the late 80's and early 90's. It dawned on me during this season of reading that I knew exactly how to homeschool! I am a graduate of homeschooling!
This felt a little revolutionary for me! I have been teaching the girls at home for four years at this point but we really hadn't found a groove. Sitting down with books was a struggle between age differences, personalities, different learning styles, my varied work schedule, life distractions and my apparently weak immune system. Every day ended in a perceived failure on my part. I didn't want to feel that way but I did. The pressure was too much.
So I went back to basics and asked myself what my mom would do. And I knew. So I decided that this year if we did nothing more than read together and just enjoy each other it would be enough.
Interestingly enough, Miss E had asked one day when school began. Not in the what time of day sense but when did kids begin going to school. As we talked that day we reasoned out that in God's plan parents are the ultimate teachers for their children. Classrooms built around man-made laws and school systems are part of society's plan but not God's original plan for learning. It was an interesting and thought provoking conversation between myself and my ten year old.
Just before Christmas I ordered The School That's Inside You written by Clonlara's founder Pat Montgomery and spent time pouring over that. Wow did it speak to me!
And I've realized in the days since reading that book that it's true! All of it! That kids are drawn certain directions and their interest in those things leads them where they need to go.
When I think back to my childhood, I was forever playing office. I built a briefcase for myself using a gift box and tape. I drew out calendars and made "forms" - because I loved office work! Every place we went I studied how their systems worked - when things went into layaway there were two copies- one for you and one for the store. A register receipt was stapled to the pages. File folders in offices were marked by years and sorted by names.
As I got older I told everyone would listen that I was going to be a mom and do paperwork when I grew up. When forms needed to be filled out I loved it! {I couldn't understand why adults emitted groans when presented with the same forms. I got it once I became a parent!} A word processor came along and I played office in new ways. Creating businesses. Creating forms. Creating systems.
Standing on the cusp of adulthood my first job as a cashier was to pay for gas and car insurance. But my second job! That one was one I loved! Working in a real office! I had patient files to file and systems to learn! That was where I learned the importance of people's names! Having names spelled correctly was important to the patient but also the insurance company and to our files. A file under the name of Petterson wouldn't be found under the more common spelling of Peterson because it would be in the Pett section rather than Pete section. (While in that office we had a dyslexic person for a short time - her filing skills drove me nuts!)
That office job eventually led to another - and that new job actually lead me to a career. Spelling names correctly and paying attention to small but vital details were the only skills required. I was ready! I had literally been studying for that my whole life!
It wasn't long before that job became another that led me to self employment. And being self employed meant figuring systems out - how to handle money coming in and money going out. Files that were active and files that were archived. Invoices, databases, you name it!
Sitting at my desk today I laugh today remembering the dream of my childhood - and the way that I'm living it every day! On more than one occasion I have said that God just laughed when I said that I wanted to do paperwork! My desk is far messier today than I would have ever imagined though.
Pat Montgomery talked of the school that was inside of her - that was from the angle of building Clonlara School to be one of natural learning. As I read it though I realize that everyone of us has a school inside of us! We all have dreams, interests, talents and abilities! Each one of us has the ability to trust ourselves to do the next thing and gain something from it. I think if I could encourage anyone on the subject of homeschooling it would be that. Trust your kids to lead themselves where they need to go under your safe parenting umbrella.
I love this statement that Pat Montgomery shares in her book:
"Learning is too precious a thing to hand off to well-meaning people of any stripe. It is a personal endeavor in which the teacher within is allowed to step forward and flourish. It flowers from the unique history of an individual from birth on. It fulfills the promise of that magnetic pull (vocation) which every human being harbors within his soul. It is a constant, never-ending process that has, far too often, no connection whatsoever with schools and schooling."
More and more I'm realizing that I am passionate about natural, self directed learning. God created each of us with unique interests, talents and abilities. Why wouldn't he have also created us with a natural desire to learn what we need to know to do things that He has in store for us? Think for a minute about your story. What seeds were planted in you from the time you were young? What nurtured and watered those seeds? Did your seeds ever have a chance to bloom or were they hindered by someone else's plan for you? I think that as parents those are some good questions to considering about yourself and about your goals for raising your children.
My brother and I graduated from Clonlara's home based program. When we first started homeschooling it was very controversial and essentially illegal in Michigan. Clonlara offered an umbrella of protection that was needed during the late 80's and early 90's. It dawned on me during this season of reading that I knew exactly how to homeschool! I am a graduate of homeschooling!
This felt a little revolutionary for me! I have been teaching the girls at home for four years at this point but we really hadn't found a groove. Sitting down with books was a struggle between age differences, personalities, different learning styles, my varied work schedule, life distractions and my apparently weak immune system. Every day ended in a perceived failure on my part. I didn't want to feel that way but I did. The pressure was too much.
So I went back to basics and asked myself what my mom would do. And I knew. So I decided that this year if we did nothing more than read together and just enjoy each other it would be enough.
Interestingly enough, Miss E had asked one day when school began. Not in the what time of day sense but when did kids begin going to school. As we talked that day we reasoned out that in God's plan parents are the ultimate teachers for their children. Classrooms built around man-made laws and school systems are part of society's plan but not God's original plan for learning. It was an interesting and thought provoking conversation between myself and my ten year old.
Just before Christmas I ordered The School That's Inside You written by Clonlara's founder Pat Montgomery and spent time pouring over that. Wow did it speak to me!
And I've realized in the days since reading that book that it's true! All of it! That kids are drawn certain directions and their interest in those things leads them where they need to go. When I think back to my childhood, I was forever playing office. I built a briefcase for myself using a gift box and tape. I drew out calendars and made "forms" - because I loved office work! Every place we went I studied how their systems worked - when things went into layaway there were two copies- one for you and one for the store. A register receipt was stapled to the pages. File folders in offices were marked by years and sorted by names.
As I got older I told everyone would listen that I was going to be a mom and do paperwork when I grew up. When forms needed to be filled out I loved it! {I couldn't understand why adults emitted groans when presented with the same forms. I got it once I became a parent!} A word processor came along and I played office in new ways. Creating businesses. Creating forms. Creating systems.
Standing on the cusp of adulthood my first job as a cashier was to pay for gas and car insurance. But my second job! That one was one I loved! Working in a real office! I had patient files to file and systems to learn! That was where I learned the importance of people's names! Having names spelled correctly was important to the patient but also the insurance company and to our files. A file under the name of Petterson wouldn't be found under the more common spelling of Peterson because it would be in the Pett section rather than Pete section. (While in that office we had a dyslexic person for a short time - her filing skills drove me nuts!)
That office job eventually led to another - and that new job actually lead me to a career. Spelling names correctly and paying attention to small but vital details were the only skills required. I was ready! I had literally been studying for that my whole life!
It wasn't long before that job became another that led me to self employment. And being self employed meant figuring systems out - how to handle money coming in and money going out. Files that were active and files that were archived. Invoices, databases, you name it!
Sitting at my desk today I laugh today remembering the dream of my childhood - and the way that I'm living it every day! On more than one occasion I have said that God just laughed when I said that I wanted to do paperwork! My desk is far messier today than I would have ever imagined though.
Pat Montgomery talked of the school that was inside of her - that was from the angle of building Clonlara School to be one of natural learning. As I read it though I realize that everyone of us has a school inside of us! We all have dreams, interests, talents and abilities! Each one of us has the ability to trust ourselves to do the next thing and gain something from it. I think if I could encourage anyone on the subject of homeschooling it would be that. Trust your kids to lead themselves where they need to go under your safe parenting umbrella.
I love this statement that Pat Montgomery shares in her book:
"Learning is too precious a thing to hand off to well-meaning people of any stripe. It is a personal endeavor in which the teacher within is allowed to step forward and flourish. It flowers from the unique history of an individual from birth on. It fulfills the promise of that magnetic pull (vocation) which every human being harbors within his soul. It is a constant, never-ending process that has, far too often, no connection whatsoever with schools and schooling."
More and more I'm realizing that I am passionate about natural, self directed learning. God created each of us with unique interests, talents and abilities. Why wouldn't he have also created us with a natural desire to learn what we need to know to do things that He has in store for us? Think for a minute about your story. What seeds were planted in you from the time you were young? What nurtured and watered those seeds? Did your seeds ever have a chance to bloom or were they hindered by someone else's plan for you? I think that as parents those are some good questions to considering about yourself and about your goals for raising your children.
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