These are interesting times. Choices abound, and so do decisions. Usually it’s easier to just follow the path and yet, suddenly it’s clearer that there isn’t just one path, or even two. Any path we choose will bring with it some benefits and drawbacks. If you’re heading down the home education route, there are some fantastic perks to beginning right now, but maybe you can be gentle with yourself and your kids because there are also some challenges that families home educating prior to the pandemic didn’t necessarily face. Although this is by no means an exhaustive list, let’s have a look at a few both.
Beginning with the benefits …
Global connections
There has been no time in the last 150 years that as many children have been home as have been in the last six months. This has been a worldwide situation. Prior to the pandemic, home education had already been growing substantially and there was a substantial range of resources. In these last few months, the numbers have grown and so have the connections. Although there were plenty of home educators prior to the pandemic, it wasn’t always easy to find each other or the right fit or navigate online resources. Now, there’s been a huge outpouring of networking and ideas. (Of course this can also become overwhelming).
Social acceptance
Sometimes we’re given an unexpected, practical gift. One of those gifts came my way on a bright, sunny afternoon the last week of August. My daughter and I were sitting on the trampoline reading (me) and sketching (her) and my neighbour leaned through the lattice to ask me a question. We chatted about some things, catching up and after several minutes of conversation, I asked how her granddaughter, who lives there as well, was doing. She responded, matter of factly, that they would be homeschooling this year.
Why was this a gift? Well, I’ve been hearing from so many people who are either taking their school’s online school at home option, beginning to home educate or doing a combination of both. I’ve been trying to be helpful, realizing there are lots of challenges for people feeling thrown into figuring it out. I also suspected that there was one pretty major benefit to beginning to home educate right now but couldn’t be sure, and this conversation confirmed it from yet another person.
It’s that homeschooling just became socially acceptable. Something that was still considered fringe and curious and sort of “out there” is suddenly considered a very reasonable choice. Something that many people thought they couldn’t do, was suddenly something they either had to do, and, like many things in life, figured out. Or they realized they had actually been wanting to try and found they and their children were capable of it.
I knew this. I knew it because an enormous part of the difficulty that home educating parents have always faced, has been navigating the opinions and concerns, however well-meaning, of friends, family, neighbours, acquaintances and honestly, even just people they run into out in public. Sure, there are plenty other challenges to work through because, well, it’s life and family dynamics and you are figuring out your days together, but when you take away the element of having to defend your decision, it frees up a big piece of energy.
So, back to the conversation that confirmed this for me just as I was thinking about it … We chatted about what kinds of things they’d be doing this fall and it sounded so much like our own fall season through the years, but stated with a whole lot more confidence than I’d often felt. The little girl and her mum had been connecting with a couple of other families over the summer and would continue to do things together in the afternoon. They were figuring out some outdoor spaces that they could take advantage of. She was enthusiastic about a waterside park about 10 minutes away. It has a lovely rock beach, bike trails and outdoor workout equipment that both children and adults can use. I knew the one. L and I had just been chatting about the possibility of meeting friends there the next week. I mentioned the botanical gardens down the street and the salmon that would likely be swimming up the creek against the current within a couple of weeks. She liked that idea. I mentioned that to see a more dramatic version of that, she could go a couple of towns to the east and watch the salmon jump up a steep incline. She knew the one. She mentioned really taking advantage of the outdoors this year, in all of our extreme seasons and I agreed. We compared ideas for tobogganing hills and each passed on a new one to the other.
There are some differences. They will be at least trying out their online school curriculum and are thinking of things in terms of subjects, so going to the park workout equipment will be “phys.ed.” We don’t compartmentalize subjects that way. We just see that as life. What is the same, though, is that we were each looking ahead to open time and thinking through rhythm and opportunities that will work for where we’re at with our particular families with confidence in letting people know.
Another difference is that they are going into their first year and we are going into our eighteenth! How I wish I’d been able to speak so freely even seven months ago, without preparing to defend.
So, enjoy! If you’ve just nicely decided to try the home education route, rest easy that you’re choosing something that is now within the realm of acceptable, at least for this year, but I suspect for the long term.
And now onto the drawbacks…
Access and freedom to be out and about are much more limited than they usually are.
Typically, home educating families are out and about at sports, libraries, museums, performances, mentorships and getting together in large or small groups. I know that was an important part of our rhythm. In many places that is not as possible right now and might actually be impossible. That being said, people are finding ways to connect both online and in outdoor space and really embracing the outdoors might be the key.
I think there’s little question that there will be a degree of social isolation that home educating families haven’t dealt with before though. It really is wonderful to get to know and see people face to face. However, school itself is going to be more isolating and distanced as well, so I’m confident that families opting to homeschool instead will get creative and resourceful.
Misconception of what home education is and can be…
The rushed circumstances of the pandemic aren’t necessarily reflective of what home education has to look like. There were several jokes, and some outright laments going around a couple of months ago with people talking about how they were stressed out and not cut out to teach their children, online jokes about the teacher (one parent) sending a child to the principal (the other parent) by 10:00 in the morning. I’ve had a couple of people say that they really are not wanting their children to go to school this fall, but after the spring realized that they are in no way cut out to have them home. To be clear, these aren’t parents who have inflexible jobs or aren’t able to have a parent available. They sounded as if they would genuinely like to home educate, but feel incompetent. Let me just say again that the rushed circumstances of the pandemic aren’t necessarily reflective of what home education has to look like. Learning can be rich and fun and part of living a full life together. It doesn’t have to feel like an online checklist to plough through. It can be play-based and reflect the context of the individual child and their family and community life.
Different things work for different people, but learning with your kids doesn’t have to look like that if it’s not your style. Not every family finds it a fit to follow the directions of a standardized curriculum, although some do, even for bits of time. My kids have done some online courses at the secondary school level to meet prerequisites of future things they were pursuing, but outside of necessity, it hasn’t always been our preferred way to learn. It’s hard to answer to the authority of an outside source. Kids aren’t always keen to comply and then the parent is in a position of having to push through a curriculum that is possibly out of context for their family.
Other options, such as finding resources that are a more individualized fit for you and your children, take some of the outside authority and stress away and put you in a learning partnership instead:). Taking an approach such as life learning/unschooling creates an opportunity to be a facilitator, as your child lives and learns in the most authentic way for them.
Can using the online school option work? Yes, I know young adults who decided to do their entire high school education that way. One of my kids decided to do their high school years through provincial credits. He just felt it was a straight forward path and I still found some solid ways to partner and be involved where helpful. Some families find the online option works just fine for them and it’s free!
However, it hasn’t been a fit in the same way for my other kids and from what I’ve heard, there are many others who don’t find it works for either their love of learning or the relationship between parent and child.
Other styles of home education that aren’t everyone’s cup of tea include a strong holding to curriculum and terminology such as “student,” “teacher” and other words reminiscent of school. This works well for some, but again, partnering and discovering life and ideas with your child doesn’t have to include switching from parent to teacher. Many families who purchase curriculum prefer to use it in the ways that work for them, rather than feel tied to each piece. In fact, I don’t think that even the curriculum writers intend for it to be used verbatim … it really can just be used as a foundation of options.
I believe parents are more competent than they might think they are. Loving, living and learning alongside your kids can take so many forms.
Division of longer term home educating families and pandemic home educating families
Ouch. This one has been hard for me to see and hear about. People new to carrying out “school at home” with the their school’s online curriculum and trying to connect have, in some cases, found there is not room in local groups. As someone who gets really excited about seeing kids have access to individualized ways of living and learning, I initially was frustrated, but in talking to a few other seasoned people, it became clearer.
Normally, home educators of all philosophies are quite a friendly, encouraging bunch and I have to say that for the most part, the pandemic has been no exception. We like to grow in numbers. There is always excitement when new families join because it means more people and more ideas. Lots of collaboration and connection happens among families as we create opportunities for our children. However, enter possibly the most sudden and colossal shift education has ever seen and we went from expending our energy around our own families, the local home education community and, increasingly, many online support outlets to fielding questions and offering support to a MUCH larger population. Imagine shifting from trying to just go about your simple life under the radar to being thrust into the public eye with all kinds of mental health experts, doctors and public educators suddenly on the news talking to the public in expert voices about “homeschooling.” I suspect that for many parents who were initially excited to welcome others to join, the tsunami of “expert” information in the media and some of the misconceptions from new people wanting to quickly join and not understanding just how much effort it requires to facilitate a large home education group (a LOT), gave way to exhaustion.
If you have had this experience of finding “no room in the inn,” take heart. If you decide to have a longer go at it, you will inevitably find other families, whether “new” or “seasoned” – it doesn’t matter. You’ll find your people. You can form your own connections organically, which is what home educators have always done. Over time, the hype will slow, we will all breathe more deeply again and there will be “room” in groups. Another fantastic option is connecting online, whether through Facebook groups or or online forums. I can personally recommend The Canadian Homeschooler Community, Introverted Moms Community (not homeschool specific, but lots of resources, ideas and discussion), Stories of an Unschooling Family Community, and Living Joyfully Network. Even though a couple of these groups might choose to open up registration at particular times though in order to help people get oriented and foster their particular community, it’s not an attempt at exclusivity – there is method to the madness, so to speak;).
Things sometimes cost money.
If you move outside the online option offered free of cost from your school or board of education, there can be some costs involved. They can be high, they can be medium or they can be low. They are rarely completely absent, but it is possible to keep it close.
One of the things that a few families beginning to home educate have mentioned to me is some concern at paying a fee to be part of a homeschool forum or network. This might seem particularly muddling because “school at home” is offering free resources, so it might seem like it should all be a free option.
Home education (in the sense of learning that is not under the authority and registration of a local school – it’s all getting so confusing!) often branches off into various entrepreneurial opportunities. Parents sometimes offer consulting, courses, books, materials, resources and online communities. Some of these are free, but some cost money because they have been a cost of time and money to the parent. For example, some online forums cost a regular fee to maintain and also require the moderator to have a strong, supportive and leading presence which utilizes their time and experience. It would be hard for them to offer this free on a long-term basis.
Other in-person groups might require rental space, insurance or administrative fees. Typically the facilitators are not paid, but payment goes toward those various kinds of upkeep or group events. It can be hard to shift thinking around paying for education, but acknowledging the time, cost, effort and experience that people are putting in can help it make sense.
So, as I wrap up, I realize that I haven’t created two tidy lists. I know there must be more of each. I’m not going to arbitrarily even them up though. The list of drawbacks is longer, but don’t be fooled … I think the depth and richness of the benefits is actually greater.
All the very best to you, whichever way you’ve decided to forge ahead. If nothing else comes from these circumstances, I love that there is more conversation and choice surrounding education:).
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An interesting exploration of the benefits and drawbacks, Erin, thanks.
Totally feel you on this – ‘when you take away the element of having to defend your decision, it frees up a big piece of energy’. Shame we’re not further along with this, at least feels that way here in the UK right now, much media discourse and disbelief expressed about how children can possibly learn without school. But as you so rightly say, more conversation and choice is a good thing.
With over ten years home-edding behind us and maybe, hopefully, another ten or so ahead, we wholeheartedly agree that the depth and richness of the benefits massively outweighs the challenges along the way 🙂
And for anyone new to home-ed, highly recommend the questions and resources from your earlier post https://www.everlearning.ca/finding-yourself-suddenly-expected-to-homeschool-during-a-pandemic-its-ok-if-you-havent-got-this-i-havent-either/ Love it 🙂
Hayley, thank you so much for your thoughts and link:). It’s interesting, there is still lots of talk here in Canada as well about all the lost learning from schools having been closed. A great deal of it is in the media though. I have heard several parents say differently. I think some people are beginning to see that what has taken place for kids during the pandemic is just different learning, not a lack of learning. I was in line in a store a couple of days ago and a Canadian magazine was featuring another article about the stresses of being both parent and teacher which I can absolutely understand (especially where linked to employment), but I hope we can keep reframing the different, unstandardized possibilities of what learning can look like. I actually haven’t read it yet. I’m really hoping more people will have a chance to experience a more natural way of learning, rather than throwing their hands up in despair because it can be so hard to follow someone else’s standardized idea of how children should learn.