mumsrea
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| Posted: May 19 2008 at 4:10pm | IP Logged
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So how did you make the transition from outside school to homeschool, if you did, how did you communicate to your child that home was a place that was now to be viewed as a place where (non optional) school work was to be done?
And along the same lines, how do you motivate a reluctant child.
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SallyT
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| Posted: May 19 2008 at 8:01pm | IP Logged
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How old is your child, and how long has he/she been in school?
We brought our older children home when my daughter was 9 and had gone to school for four years in England: years 1-4. My son, at five, had done playgroup, nursery and reception. Our transition into homeschooling was helped by our also, simultaneously, transitioning into life in the US again, after our four years in Cambridge. So there was going to be a gigantic transition anyway, no matter what we did, which made things both easier and harder. Easier, in that carrying on as we had done was not an option. Harder, as in everyone was on emotional overload: huge move, financial crisis, new baby.
So my reluctant oldest was not only reluctant, but angry and grieved over our move and not remotely in the mood to cooperate with me about anything.
I very quickly gave up on expecting non-negotiable organized schoolwork to happen. I wish I had given up more quickly, actually, and avoided the clashes which I had with that child. One thing which I learned from the experience was that when people say that children who have been in school need a "deschooling" period, they aren't kidding. The natural summer break wasn't really enough. What children who have been to school need more than anything else in the beginning is time to reconnect with family and to acclimate to a life centered around the home.
Our successes in the early months/first year had nothing to do with formal schoolwork (that was a nightmare), but a lot to do with learning to learn together. We did a lot of reading aloud and going to the library. We took a lot of little field trips together. We cooked a lot. We tracked the progress of hurricanes. We did do some hands-on history projects -- as I recall, a Ken doll got mummified in grand style one day, and we shopped for and cooked ancient Greek and Roman lunches. We also -- and this was key -- sought and finally made some homeschooling friends.
Beyond all that, I let the formal work go for months and months. Eventually we did get to a place where I could begin adding things like math back into the day, and the reluctant child was willing to do it. The homeschooled friends had a lot to do with her willingness to do schoolwork. Anyway, eventually we did arrive at being able to do a gentle routine of mostly literature-based schoolwork, which we have continued to this day.
Incidentally, that child is now 14 and skipped up a grade to be in (homeschooled) high school with her best friends this year. We didn't plan for this and are playing catch-up a bit with algebra, but otherwise she has had a stellar year. She certainly has not suffered from our taking time to deschool at the beginning -- if anything, in most regards she's ahead of her grade level, in terms of her reading and writing and thinking ability.
Anyway, to sum up an answer to your question: these things take time. It doesn't hurt to ease into a new lifestyle of learning at home, and your child won't suffer if what you do the first six months or the first year is read together and do real-life learning. Better to win him/her over to homeschooling, and to wanting to learn, than to try immediately to replicate school at home.
Blessings to you, and prayers as you begin your homeschooling adventure.
Sally
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Topic: how did you make the transition?
