I remember once last summer, at Big E’s swimming lesson, I was chatting with another mother and she noticed that Little E had some colors on his hands. She asked him what it was and we told her that we had been mixing colors that morning.
We took glasses of water, colored them with food coloring of different colors, and experimented with what colors they made when we mixed them together.
She asked me if I ran a pre-school or day care, or something.
That story illustrates the way that most parents view education - as something that happens in places other than home. At school, at daycare, at pre-school.
That’s one of the things I value most about our homeschool experience, that we finally understand, as a family, that learning takes place all of the time, not just during set hours of the day at school.
I was reminded of this on Saturday when I read a story in the paper about deep-sea explorers that uncovered a sunken treasure worth $500 million. I was telling my husband about it and explaining that under the agreement the company made with the British government, they would get to keep 80% of the first $45 million and 50% of the rest.
Big E could not understand what I meant, so I went over to the dry erase board and we all calculated step-by-step how much the company would get to keep and how much the British government would get.
Working it out on the board, he and the D were able to see what the agreement looked like in terms of dollars.
It was such a great moment because they got to use their math skills in a practical setting and we got to incorporate learning into our daily lives in a way that was totally unexpected.
This is a connection I think a lot of families miss out on because they separate learning from their home life.
It took us a while to really get this concept, but I’m glad we did. It’s just one of the many reasons I love homeschooling.
1:43 pm on May 22nd, 2007
It’s interesting how “the learning must only take play outside the home” mentality can even influence those who want to homeschool. For example, I have a cousin how wants to homeschool her children. She isn’t because she believes that she isn’t qualified to teach them! This belief despite the fact that she is always doing little learning projects with them.
I’m convinced that she has this belief because of what is out there in society. Not because she is incapable of teaching.
On a side note - many “educators” focus on the “self esteem” of the child in question - but what are they doing to the self esteem of the average parent by constantly telling them they are not “good enough” to care or educate their own children.
*sigh*