Homeschooling – A Wonderful Experience!
from Mum’s
Mail Edition 14, June 2005
© Written June 2005 by Robyn, South Africa
Most people I know are very happy to send
their children off to be educated by qualified staff. And why
not? Most people I know can't wait for the end of the school
holidays. How, they ask me, is it possible to be with your children all
day, every day without going crazy? Once I explain that I am already
crazy, my answer is pretty simple. Life is short. Childhood is
shorter. Why would I want to give fourteen years away to
someone else? I recall my child's first steps and first words with a
swell of pride. So shall I be there when my child reads her first
word. I will see the light of understanding dawn in her eyes when she
works out her first maths equation. When she draws her first
self-portrait. When she bravely gives her first speech.
Together we will research and discover all the beauty of science and nature,
the richness of history, the creativity of art, the perfect logic of
mathematics, we will puzzle the mysteries of the heavens and learn all we
can about the fascinating earth around us. We will learn about what
we are interested in. We will find the interest in the things we
aren't. While my children's friends are sitting in a hot classroom
on a bright and breezy day memorising the names of all the different kinds of
clouds, we will take our blanket out under the trees and lie there.
Looking up to the sky, we will wonder what those billowy cumulus clouds look
like... is it candy floss or an old man smoking a pipe?
Each and every answer will be right. Life is beautiful. Life is
short. I learnt very little in my twelve years at school. And
what I learned had nothing to do with knowledge. My children will
instead have many rich, and wonderful years of learning at home, together as a
family. A friend of mine with children at a private school recently told
me that young children don't play at each other's houses anymore in the
afternoons during the week. With sport and homework, there is no time to
play with friends, she said. I thought that sounded like a great
pity. School takes up children's lives 7hrs a day, 5 days a week. I
don't want to give all that precious time to somebody else. Besides, we
actually ENJOY being together!