Home Education Magazine

September-October 2001 - Articles and Columns

"You've homeschooled for awhile," a young father said. "Can you help me get started?"

I've been getting this question a lot lately. Usually, when I ask how old the child is, they answer, "About four."

"Do you read books together?" I ask. "Play games, go on walks, ice skate? Do you rake the lawn and look at bugs and see who can blow dandelion parachutes the farthest?"

"Yes," they assure me. "But shouldn't we be doing something more... homeschoolish?"

I can't think of anything more homeschoolish than this: choosing to give your child the gift of time. There is the gift of your presence. You will be there to guide her learning, help find answers to those impossible questions, and to take her on wild camping adventures in the back yard. Just as important is the gift of time for them to grow up unhurried.

By homeschooling, you give them the gift of time to explore the world. Between the ages of three and five, my children spent most of their time looking for frogs and tadpoles in the neighbor's pond, or salamanders under rocks. They hunted for caterpillars and ladybugs, spiders, and shiny copper beetles that glinted in the sunlight. They spent hours kneeling on the couch by the front window, watching birds at the feeder and browsing through field guides.

One rainy day they discovered that if they leaned a board against the couch, they could roll lots of different things down it. They decorated the living room wall with a series of toilet paper tubes taped so that they could put marbles in at the top and watch them zig-zag down the entire wall before spilling all over the floor.

By homeschooling, you give them the gift of time to discover ideas. If you let children play around with blocks and puzzles and balances, they will discover math. I have yet to meet a child who doesn't refer to LEGO(R) or DUPLO(R) blocks by counting the knobs on top. My children learned to call blocks by shape names so they could discuss castle architecture. They used counting frames to keep score in card games, and loved weighing things on the kitchen scale. When they discovered what rulers and tape measures were for, they went around the house measuring. How long is a shoe? How big are daddy's ears?

By homeschooling, you give them the gift of time to create their own world. When our children were young, we did not watch TV or play computer games. Instead, we listened to the radio and read lots of books. We kept a bin of costumes in the corner, and another one full of puppets and stuffed animals. We cut plastic milk jugs to make knight's helmets and rolled newspapers into swords for a spontaneous re-enactment of "The Three Musketeers." Or to use as hockey sticks for after-dinner games of kitchen hockey. I think we used a small plush ball for a puck.

We went to story hour at the library, where we learned fingerplays, and clapped and sang "Old MacDonald's Farm." At home, stuffed animals became circus performers, or lived in cardboard box "cages" in the living room pet store waiting to be adopted, while my children and their friends rang up the sales on a toy cash register.

By homeschooling, you give them the gift of time to play. I substituted "game breaks" for coffee breaks, and found it good for my soul just to sit on the floor and design domino mazes with my children. We played Uno, Crazy Eights, Old Maid, Go Fish, and War. We played dominoes, Tic-tac-toe and checkers. Even chess. Not only did we have fun, but as they rolled dice, spun spinners, tossed coins, my children picked up an intuitive understanding of probability.

We also played with words. We made up rhyme games and sang silly songs and created secret codes. We still do this, though now it's cribbage and Scrabble, and the domino mazes are much more complex.

By homeschooling, you give them the gift of time to reflect. One of my children's favorite times of the day was our quiet time. Sometimes I read a book, other times they listened to a book on tape. In the summer we'd lay a quilt on the grass and watch the sky through the branches of the hickory tree, and listen to cricket music. Usually stuffed animals would join us, and eventually, as my children grew older, this became their time to tell stories to their animal buddies.

Sometimes we would each go to our own space - usually our bedrooms. "Just in case you get sleepy and want to take a nap," I would tell them. "Or just want to be alone for a while." This might not seem important to small children, but as they grow older, knowing that they can take time for solitude is important.

By homeschooling, you give them the gift of time to be noisy. When I got tired of reminding my youngest about "outside noise" and "inside noise," I collected all the pots and pans and buckets and wooden spoons and piled them in the living room.

"Let's drum," I said. For the first few minutes it was total cacophony, but then he began to follow my rhythms. After a few minutes I set up a microphone and taped his music. Then we listened. It was great fun, and he wanted to do more. So I taped up a sign-up sheet for the "recording studio" and he'd sign up for drumming.

Outdoors was a great place for doing more than just shouting - we sang songs while raking leaves, and danced around the piles like mad leaf elves.

By homeschooling, you give them the gift of time to make messes. When my first child reached for the markers, I knew we'd need a place to be creative - somewhere without carpet! We set aside part of the living area. Anything messy happened there, from finger-painting to making oobleck. We mucked about with paper mache (a really neat thing to do with 4 and 5 year olds), played with clay, snipped paper into snowflakes, and mixed baking soda and vinegar together. Best of all, if they were in the middle of something truly gloppy, and needed to leave it overnight, we didn't have to move it off the dinner table. Of course, they did have to help clean up after projects, and put things away. But what a gift it was for my children to not have to ask permission every time they wanted to make a mess!

By homeschooling, you give them the gift of time to do "real work." There are many household jobs that young children can help with. Sure, it might take a bit longer, but once they learn how to vacuum the floor, or sort newspaper and cereal boxes for recycling, it's worth it. Not only that, my children wanted to be a part of whatever I was doing - at least until they got older and wiser. So they helped me knead bread, bake cookies, mix potting soil and plant seeds. They took over the fun jobs, misting plants and frosting cookies, leaving me to clean the toilets.

When I folded laundry, they matched up the socks and folded towels. At the time, I figured I was helping them learn math. You know: sorting, matching. What they really learned was that they are important too, and if we all work together, we'll have more time to play.

(c) 2001 Sue Smith-Heavenrich

September-October 2001 - Articles and Columns

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