This is NOT Homeschooling
What we’ve all been forced into – homeschoolers and schoolers alike – is not actually homeschooling. It’s simply learning from home. The majority of new homeschoolers (those forced to have their children learning at home because of COVID-19) absolutely do not have a realistic model of homeschooling to look at. Trust me, homeschooling is way better than this!
I’ve always said that “homeschooling” is a bit of a misnomer. Although I’ll admit that this may not be the case for many homeschooling families, we actually spend very little of our time at home. We are typically out each week for swimming, jujitsu, and various learning activities. We regularly travel as a family, making use of the opportunity to find unique learning experiences as we go. We socialize with other homeschoolers, not to mention the school children in the neighbourhood, on an almost daily basis. Yet, our current iteration of “homeschooling” has many parents who have been forced to have their children completing school from home wondering if their fears about homeschoolers being isolated from others and homeschooling being so difficult that they couldn’t possibly do it. My answer to this would be, “THIS IS NOT HOMESCHOOLING”.
Sure, we have some crossover. You are, in fact, schooling in your home. But that is basically where the comparison ends. Let’s look at socialization, learning style, and activities as our examples.
Socialization
There are a lot of people out there who are terribly concerned about homeschoolers and how they could possibly socialize. I actually tell people with that concern that socialization is our biggest problem – we have to make sure not to socialize too much! Feel free to borrow that one for your concerned friends and family, though with half of the world in some form of homeschooling now, maybe we won’t need it as often. Suffice to say, under normal circumstances, our lives tend to have what could be considered an excess of socialization. We organize activities and workshops for large groups of homeschoolers. My girls attend regular weekly activities. They play with all of the neighbourhood children. They have birthday parties with dozens of children and sleepovers that people might deem excessive in both size and frequency. But guess what – thanks, Covid. Now none of those things can happen. We’ve tried to mitigate some of the impact by attending online classes and socializing with friends via phone, video chats, text, and online gaming, but it is definitely not the same. For most families, socialization is actually a HUGE part of the homeschooling experience. If you are new to homeschooling, I assure you this is far from normal.
Learning Style
If you’re just coming into a learn-at-home situation because of COVID-19 school closures, I would argue that you’re not actually experiencing the best part of homeschooling – the ability to choose your own learning path! While I know it has been different in every school district, most parents and students I’ve seen transitioning to home learning have struggled with the sudden online learning model. It’s already difficult enough for teachers to differentiate learning, and now they have the added difficulty of trying to do so in an unfamiliar digital setting. And, guess what, not everyone learns the same. That includes the fact that not everyone is well-suited for online learning. While homeschooling regularly, you have some many options, so many sources to pull from, and the freedom to follow your children’s interests to craft learning opportunities and provide experiences that pull from their passions. Some homeschoolers follow a “school-at-home” regimented schedule; some homeschoolers practice radical unschooling. Most are somewhere in between. The point is you choose how you facilitate learning based on what works best for your family. Forced online schooling is not homeschooling.
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Activities
In our homeschool, we have rarely seen a three day span where we are not actively participating in a learning activity outside of the house. Some of these are regularly scheduled activities, some one-off workshops and events, and some spontaneous playdates or learning opportunities. What we definitely don’t typically do is sit at home, away from the rest of the world, learning inside of our little box. From my experience, there are not many homeschoolers who consider what’s happening right now within their personal range of normal. So, new home-learning families, it might seem impossible to do this. It might feel like you’re trapped 24/7 together and there is basically never a break. COVID-19 has put us in a really awkward position of finding ways to carry out activities online to keep things interesting but homeschooling is typically very active.
So, we might all be learning from home right now. We have to. There is no other choice. But, some of us made that choice on our own and we’re here to tell you that homeschooling is way more fantastic than what it appears to be right now. We’re super excited to have an influx of new folks learning from home. We’re here to support you as you navigate tricky waters. Also, we want you to know that this is NOT homeschooling.