Firstly, I am 100% sure that there's a huge misunderstanding as to why I homeschool, and secondly, I am parent of children with various needs and abilities, I am not exclusively a Waldorf homeschooler. I'll start by saying that homeschooling is a personal decision and as individual as each family that decides to go that route. I'll also add that for every great, successful homeschooling family, there is a family that is tethering on the brink. This could be for many reasons, such as lack of time and materials, income, and family dynamics, to name a few, and I'll also add that this journey is not linear.
For the sake of keeping this post concise, I will state the case for my family. My youngest children aged 3, 7, and almost 10 have always received some form of home-education. There are families that work full time and send their children to traditional school, while committing to homeschool after their work day end. There are also families that consists of one or both parents who work remotely, and school their children simultaneously. There are also those who turn childcare/teaching into home businesses so that they are able to homeschool their children as well. At various times in our parenting journey, we fit into one category or another. Essentially, we homeschooled based on the needs of our family unit.
Let's rewind to January 2020 and COVID. I was running a successful homeschooling program and an atelier. The atelier was a new addition to my programming and it consisted of mostly drop in families. On the outside, all of this fit together, but as we began to learn more about the spreading of the virus, and those darn quarantine rules (they weren't bad...just not practical), we found that social isolating was the best thing to do for our family. As a result, my homeschooling business was closed and I direccted all my attention to my children's education.
That is when I learned an important lesson.
I realized with all the changes ,that homeschooling in another language - one that is not my native tongue was no picnic. To be fair, I could have pulled it off with Moonface who was 6 and in grade one, but with Rainman, in grade 4, I didn't have the tools and materials, and I didn't really enjoy all the lesson planning. Months later we are no longer in isolation. Many parents have chosen to homeschool, and there are many programs that seem to have popped up over night to accommodate or fill the gaps for parents in need.
So why am I hubschooling, and not just homeschooling using my own methods and philosophy? It all goes back to the our faith, and the French language. Teaching our children the tenets of our faith is a family affair. I don't even consider it "schooling" as much as I consider it our lifestyle. Regarding French immersion; the biggest factor in my decision to go this route was the same issue as before, a lack of time and resources.
As a non native French speaker who REALLY struggles with the language on a personal level, I realized early into our journey that the pros of hub schooling far outweigh the cons. Now, to be frank, even with my very disjointed French, I COULD homeschool my children without the prepared materials, because I tend to employ the skill of veering more towards World-schooling, and using project-based design. In plain English, I am knowledgeable enough, I love teaching my children, and I love schooling outside of home.
Presently, I appreciate having access to all the French materials, and the most that I have to do is press Print on my HP. I also like seeing my children interact with their peers, and I am loving the lack of lesson planning for the core subjects, which I tweak as I go.
More importantly though, is my desire to leave my ability to find work, should the right opportunity presents itself. I want my children to be able to keep the momentum going should I return to work outside the home.
Am I still schooling outside of the traditional sense? Yes! No matter what, we always find ways to explore various topics in our own time, in our own way. 100% of this work does not include workbooks, or other materials. It includes my time, and enthusiasm.
My reasons may be more on the selfish side, but combining traditional and world schooling methods uproot the stagnant and often mundane fragments of schooling as a family. The coupling of methods used has propelled us into lively fulcrum of learning and growing together. And when we do get out of the house, the mental, emotional and social enrichment acquired through music, skating, bushwalking and other activities continue to tip the scale in our favour.
I am in the process of putting together a post about our daily rhythm, and some of the tools that keep us on track. Stay tuned.
And now to you. How are you faring? What has your journey been like so far?
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“A hundred years from now, it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, how much money I had in the bank…but the world may be a better place because I made a difference in the life of a child.”
~ Forest Witcraft