Take Back Health

I am beginning my fifth year of homeschooling, and there has been a shift in the questions I am asked. Previously, I was questioned, “Why would you homeschool?” with currents of disapproval or even disgust in the tone. Lately, I get asked, “How do you homeschool?” because more and more parents are concerned with school shootings. With such a large increase in curiosity about homeschooling, I wanted to take some time to answer both why and how I homeschool.

To Put Homeschool Simply

Why do I homeschool? This blog shows the ways I am careful about what goes into the body, and likewise, I am careful about what goes into the mind. In my first article, I went into detail about how the Bible tells us that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and we should honor our bodies. Homeschool is how I nourish our minds as well as our bodies.

How do I homeschool? This question will have a different answer for every family. Please also note that different states in the U.S. have different legal requirements. (Look up your legal requirements with Homeschool Legal Defense.) Put very simply, I use a combination of curricula to help guide my teaching, but I also use it as inspiration to create my own lessons and field trips. My style of homeschooling follows the Charlotte Mason philosophy of education. You can read more about Charlotte Mason by clicking here, and you can read more about different homeschool teaching styles here.

A Closer Look at My Why

My degree is in education. I was an English major and history minor in the Secondary Education Program at a university well-known for training teachers. I also studied doctrine and graduated with my Lutheran Teacher Diploma. However, student teaching opened my eyes to the ways students were struggling because of the way school is designed.

While student teaching, I had ESL students (English as a Second Language) who were working harder than most of my students but doing more poorly if you looked only at their grades. I had a student who struggled to stay awake and missed turning in homework half the time because she had an evening job to earn money to pay for her tuition. Students were working hard and excelling in real-world situations, but that didn’t reflect on report cards.

I had multiple students telling me I assigned too much homework (about an hour’s worth for English class). In response, I told them I was preparing them for college. I told them I needed to prepare them to reach all the state standards, and there wasn’t enough time in the school day to get them there without homework. I didn’t think about how important their extracurriculars and family time were for socialization.

After I graduated, my husband was in seminary, and I struggled to find a job in a high school. I ended up working at a program for kids ages 5-12 before and after school and during the summer. One day, a young, single mom asked me to please ensure her daughter’s homework was done before she was picked up at 5:30pm. She explained to me that after cooking and serving dinner, she only had 30-60 minutes with her daughter before bedtime. Her daughter often had 4-6 pages of worksheets to complete daily. Her daughter was five years old. She was in kindergarten. My heart broke. These sweet babies spent more time with me after school than they spent with their parents, and homework took away even more of that precious time.

Soon after that, I became a mother of my own child. Looking for a way to work a few hours outside the home, I became a Title 1 Tutor. I was excited to help struggling readers, but my conscience struggled when I had to pull them away from recess. One of the things my professors stressed in university was the importance of recess and multiple breaks – and they shared an abundance of worldwide studies to back it up. Yet here I was, taking students away from socializing and resting their minds.

When my daughter was old enough to start Pre-K, she was very interested in learning and had taught herself how to write her name. We decided to buy a kindergarten curriculum and homeschool. If it went poorly, she could retake kindergarten the next year without falling behind. We ended up loving homeschool so much that we couldn’t possibly stop!

Increasing Reasons

• Family Time – There is more time in the evenings, the ability to take vacations other than summertime, and flexibility in homes where parents work weekends and evenings. (With my husband being a pastor, my kids would see very little of their dad if they were on a traditional school schedule.) Another bonus: siblings can spend more time together. (My kids think it is very strange that I spent so much time away from my sister when I was a kid!)
  
• Socialization – I homeschool because I want my children to be socialized.
  Sitting in the same building with the same classmates and the same teachers five days a week is not socialization. With homeschool, the majority of education is done in the world on a daily basis, and students learn how to hold conversations with strangers and work with new people, just as adults in the real world must do.
  In a classroom setting, usually a teacher lectures while students listen. In homeschool, students often take the lead, and discussions are welcome.
  In public school, students stay with classmates born the same year; segregation by age to this extreme happens only in school. Homeschooled kids can form deep friendships with all ages at church, sports, dance, art, band, co-op, and more.
  In public school, students mostly read about careers instead of interacting with adults in many careers. Homeschooling allows children to go to work with their parents or take part in their own businesses.
  Real-world socialization happens with homeschool.
  
• Outside Time – Indoor air pollution and lack of sunlight (vitamin D) are important reasons to get outside. Charlotte Mason encouraged learning from nature as much as possible. Brain scans show increased brain function after spending time in nature. Some schools have decreased time outside, and older students may have no time outside at all. Our family prefers to have as much outdoor exposure as possible. This year, we joined the 1,000 Hours Outside Official Group on Facebook and challenged ourselves to get as close to 1,000 hours outside as possible. Many families achieve or even surpass 1,000 hours.
  
• Nutrition/ Diet – Our family attempts to eat real food as much as possible. We avoid pesticides, preservatives, artificial flavors, and artificial dyes as much as possible. In the past, my daughter had several food allergies, which complicated things during that time. School food is so much more than meals; it’s all the little reward candies, birthday treats, and holiday parties that create a constant stream of non-food ingredients. Eating only real food is counter to American culture, and it isn’t always well respected, even when parents provide alternatives. (I once had someone tell my two-year-old her mommy was depriving her when I took away candy she was allergic to.) Multiple times, I’ve seen moms post in parenting groups asking for advice when their dairy-allergy child was given dairy because the parents’ say-so was not enough without a doctor’s note. Parents should decide what goes into their children’s bodies, and it should be respected, whether the food is avoided because of allergy, religion, or lifestyle.
  
• Toxins – I keep our home very low-tox. I clean, but I don’t over-sanitize. I am careful to research carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, and respiratory irritants. Please notice I said “low-tox” and not “no-tox.” It is impossible to avoid all toxins, and it is important to remember God created our bodies with detoxification abilities. Unfortunately, many places, including schools, are very high in toxins, and our natural detoxification systems can get overwhelmed. Air fresheners, disinfectant sprays and wipes, dyed and perfumed hand soap, and hand sanitizer are just some examples. Environmental toxins like mold in the AC and air pollution from lack of fresh air create problems for some families. While I don’t mind occasional exposure, seven hours per day, five days a week is not occasional exposure.
  
• Health – Some families have health problems that cause them to homeschool. No matter how well a school cleans, close contact causes sickness to spread. I know some people who homeschool because their child had a heart transplant. Others I have spoken with have children with autism or PANDAS/PANS which causes them to be more susceptible to illness and toxins. Our family had constant doctor and therapy appointments last year while we recovered from severe illness, and a homeschool schedule was necessary.
  
• Curriculum – As a Christian, I prefer that my children be taught what aligns with God’s Word. Whether homeschool parents are Christian, belong to a different religion, or are secular, many parents appreciate the freedom of choosing what their children learn. In addition, the freedom of curriculum also benefits the child. For instance, I once purchased a math curriculum I thought would be a good fit for my daughter. It was not. She cried during every math lesson. Rather than telling her to toughen up and drag her through it, I left the book unfinished and tried other math curricula. I went to a large homeschool convention and browsed so many math books, I lost count. We found one that she absolutely loved, and she ate it up, doing a weeks’ worth of work each day by her own choice. In school, teachers cannot change the curriculum if one or two students don’t click with it.
  
• Individualized Pace – I was a good student in school, except in math. When I was sick and missed a day of school, I fell behind in math. When I just started to grasp a concept, it was time to start the next unit. I never had mastery. I only mastered “learned failure.” In addition, things made more sense to me when my teachers used manipulatives, but it was often the students watching the teachers use manipulatives, because there were not enough manipulatives for all students and not enough time for us to share. In homeschool, each child can touch and work with manipulatives. When I started homeschooling my daughter, I had to go back to the basics of math, and I was shocked to find that the gaps in my knowledge filled in. I was not bad at math; I just needed more time and hands-on strategies. Likewise, homeschooled students can have the pace adjusted for each individual. If a student is struggling with a concept, there is no pressure to move on. If a student demonstrates mastery quickly, there is no reason to fill the time with busy work; simply advance to the next unit.
  
• Financial Reasons – homeschooling is often more affordable than paying tuition for a private school. There are many free homeschool resources.
  
• Time Spent on Bookwork – The amount of time homeschooled kids spend on bookwork is pretty small. Most of homeschool bookwork is one-on-one or in small groups of siblings. A kindergarten student may spend only 30-60 minutes on bookwork. A third-grade student may need only 2-3 hours of bookwork. A high school student may need only 4-6 hours of bookwork. These amounts may sound unbelievably short, especially if you are like me and used to teaching in a classroom. However, classroom management takes up a large portion of time in a classroom. A teacher must teach the lesson, provide instruction for the assignment, answer questions of each student, help those who began the assignment incorrectly start over, and give students who finished early something to do. Even switching subjects takes a decent amount of time compared to opening a new book at home.
  
• Extracurriculars – Homeschooled kids are able to balance education, hobbies, jobs, and family time. It is not often public schooled kids can balance all four because there are simply not enough hours in the day. Because homeschooled kids are done with bookwork within a handful of hours, they have more time for hobbies and jobs (which are education in themselves) and more time for family.
  
• Bullying – Being mocked relentlessly, having reputations ruined, and being physically harmed is not uncommon in schools. During my freshmen year, I had a boy threaten to rape me. When I reported him, he spread rumors throughout his school that I was a slut. It was all over AOL. This was just one of many incidents, and I grew to believe I deserved this sort of treatment. It took me years to unlearn what bullying taught me. Unfortunately, bullying has not improved over the decades since then. I have met many families who pulled their children out of school to keep them safe. I am thankful I can tailor my children’s education to strengthen their self-confidence before they go out in the world on their own.
  
• Safety – Many parents are concerned about school shootings. Unfortunately, public violence can happen anywhere – from playground shootings to a gunman targeting a church. What makes school different is that parents feel even less control because they cannot be there. A parent would take a bullet for his or her child. Most teachers would as well – and several have – but the teacher-to-student ratio is not 1-1, not even close to it. The anxiety some parents feel when separated from their children is reasonable.
  

An Important Note

Public and private schools are needed. Christian schools are a very necessary ministry in this world. Teachers are doing incredible and important work, and they deserve better pay and more encouragement than they typically receive. I did fieldwork with a teacher who was so loved by her students, she was called “Mama” instead of “Mrs,” and it made my heart swell that those teenagers had strong admiration for her and felt safe with her. There were teachers in my life who changed my life for the better, and many of them remain part of my life today. The movie The Ron Clark Story was my inspiration for becoming a teacher and why I graduated from college with a degree in education. This article points out flaws in the school system, but it is not about trashing schools, educators, or staff.

Homeschooling is not for all families, and that is okay. There are many valid and respectable reasons families choose to enroll their children in school. This article is not to trash parents who enroll their children in school.

This article is a defense of homeschooling. Unfortunately, it is common to hear falsehoods such as, “Homeschool kids are weird,” or “Homeschool kids stay home all day and aren’t socialized.” It isn’t rare for the Department of Children’s Services to show up at the front door because a neighbor or relative reported a family for homeschooling, despite homeschool being completely legal. The stigma against homeschooling needs to be dissolved.

The truth is, whether looking at public, private, or homeschool, there will be flaws. Nothing in this world is perfect. Each family must choose the best fit. Some families may make mixed choices such as homeschooling one child but enrolling the other child or enrolling a child in school part-time and homeschooling part-time.

A Day in My Life

Our homeschool schedule is our homeschool schedule and no one else’s. Every homeschool family will look a little different than ours – or a lot different! This section gives an idea of what homeschooling can look like, but remember, homeschooling is flexible.

We wake up around 7am. The kids help get breakfast on the table. We eat, and the kids clear the table and rinse their dishes. We get ready for the day and have our little devotion. (We are currently reading My Big Book of 5-Minute Devotions by Pamela and Douglas Kennedy.)

Our goal is to start lessons at 8:30. My 3rd-grade daughter usually starts with math. She likes Masterbooks, but she loves Life of Fred. We use a combination.

Next, we do social studies. We use My Father’s World, which pulls together resources from many companies. This year, we are studying Countries and Cultures. This program came with a pretend passport, and we “travel” to a different country every few weeks, learning their customs, geography, art, music, history, and a few words or phrases in their main language. I always exchange her pretend American money for the pretend currency of each country we “visit.” Each unit has a recipe so we can try meals popular in different countries. We make crafts that would be used in festivals in that country. We learn what missionary work is being done in that country, and we pray for each country we study. We don’t do all of this each day; these activities rotate while we take 2 weeks for each country.

Next, we do science, and again, we do a combination of curricula. We sometimes use what is planned in My Father’s World. Some of the books included in this program come from Answers in Genesis. The science lesson is usually the same theme as the social studies theme, learning the climate and ecosystems of the country we are studying. My daughter especially loves science, so I also use Masterbooks for science. She reads this textbook independently while I get some dishes or laundry going.

Last is Language Arts. I use My Father’s World and a list of spelling words. My daughter has a pen pal and writes letters to her. I have her write a first draft, which we then edit together, and then I have her write a final draft. She addresses the envelope. I also have her journal about her day, and for this, I do not have her correct any spelling or grammar. I have her journal to learn the love of writing. She is currently creating secret codes, which was an idea she came up with on her own.

My daughter can then go do a quiet activity, such as reading or soaking in the bath, or she can join her brother for kindergarten. My daughter remembers many of her kindergarten lessons, and it’s nostalgic for her to review with us. Because I only have enough copies for my son, she often creates her own worksheets (which gives her further practice in LA).

I use My Father’s World for Kindergarten. It follows Charlotte Mason’s philosophy of education, has very little bookwork, includes many hands-on, creative activities, and includes so many wonderful books to add to our home library. We begin my son’s kindergarten lesson with his calendar. We review the month, year, days of the week, concepts of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and count the numbers. We also add a dried bean to a jar each day we do school, so he can see all our school days adding up, and we use them to practice counting by ones. We add a drinking straw to a box each day as well. Every time we get to 10 straws, we tie them in a bundle. We will eventually use these to count by 10s.

We do a short worksheet, which is based on the letter of the week, the numbers of the week, and the theme of the week. (This week was the letter A, and the theme was apple.) Books are based on the theme of theme of the week. (This week’s book was How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman.) Throughout the week, we have crafts and science lessons based on the theme. (We cut apples in half and made star stamps out of them. We bought a huge variety of apples and taste-tested them, talking about the differences. We baked an apple pie from scratch.) The curriculum also gives field trip ideas. (Going to an apple orchard.)

My Father’s World is an all-in-one curriculum through first grade. Starting in second grade, you have to add on math and language arts, either choosing books available through their website or a completely different curriculum. I like their LA book, but we went in a different direction for math.

There are many different curriculum companies to choose from. Some families stick with one curriculum company, others use a combination, and others make their own. As long as the family is following their state laws, they have the freedom to choose what works best for their learning style and budget. Some people homeschool and use free curricula, only paying for supplies like crayons, pencils, paper, etc.

After spending 30-60 minutes doing school, my son is done with bookwork. He spends the rest of his time building, making songs, creating stories, and learning to clean up without complaining.

Our afternoons are spent exploring the area, spending time with neighbors, going to our two homeschool co-ops, playing educational board games, cooking, visiting the library, music lessons, dance lessons, and spending time together when my husband is home. My daughter also reads 2-3 hours each day.

We try to take a monthly trip to larger cities, and every few months, we travel to different states.

I used to work outside the home, teaching one hour per day. Because of our family recovering from mold toxicity, I no longer work outside the home. There are many homeschool families who have two parents who both work full-time. There are many homeschool families with a single parent who works full-time. It can be done. I recommend finding a homeschool group online, specific to your state (or country if you are outside the U.S.) to get ideas about homeschooling and fulfilling both your family’s needs and your location’s legal requirements.

If you believe homeschool is best for your family, there are ways to make it work, and there is a village ready to support you!