Newsletter, Vol 1, Issue 2 Beginners Section

Today’s homeschooling is far more about “home” than “school.” Few of us today have the close-knit family life that so many Americans once had—before compulsory education pulled the children from their parents’ responsibility, beginning in 1852 in Massachusetts. Children who attend school are raised by strangers more than by their parents. Family circles are more loose and ephemeral than ever before. In the past 150 years, schools have gained an increasing stranglehold on culture, while families have lost more and more influence over their children. Is this a coincidence?

Many modern families consider eating a meal together unusual. And more often than not, they spend their “together” time watching television or a movie rather than looking at each other while discussing and listening to what other family members have to say. Compared to Americans of the early 1800s, modern families in general are strangers to each other.

Regaining Traditional Values

Homeschooling affords the families who value this traditional child-parent relationship, a way to regain their own family culture and closeness. Teaching your own children academic subjects as well as your religious, spiritual, cultural, moral, and ethical beliefs is the heart and soul of homeschooling today. Watching a movie or television show is a passive function in which observers view a “third party” rather than relating to one another.

You Are Homeschooling Already

The simple fact is, you already know how to homeschool. You knew what your child needed and how he or she should progress, before your child was 6 years old. Nothing has changed. If you are talking, seeing, hearing, or playing with your child, you are doing a simplified version of home “schooling.”

Now, add to this interaction a planned activity, such as “playing” with simple addition/subtraction facts using sticks, blocks, or coins; “playing” with the phonetic sounds of English (as the precursor to learning to read); or “playing” with crayons or pencils to develop the early fine-motor skill necessary for later handwriting. You are now home “schooling” your very young child in the “three R’s,” that foundation of academic knowledge early Americans learned at home, before mandatory schooling. All you need to do is develop a sense of connectedness with your own past and continue parenting.

Homeschooling is simply a matter of finding out what your “school-age” child (over age 6) needs to know and then becoming resourceful. This information is readily obtainable in today’s world, due to the growth of homeschooling, the widespread existence of good educational stores, and the phenomenon of the Internet. In most U.S. towns and cities, you can find a series of workbooks for math, reading, and other academic subjects in many large grocery and discount stores. We are not saying that this is the sum total of academics in homeschooling, but it could be that easy.

By  “bringing your children home” you take the first step to regaining traditional values in your lives. Whether you are a single parent with one child, or married with six or more children, or somewhere in between, homeschooling is the way to make your family circle closer, more authentic, and more valuable to everyone involved.

If you don't already know it, you’ll find that “academic education” is a relatively small part of the entire picture. Often families come to homeschooling because of a negative experience at “school,” only to find that homeschooling affords them not just a wonderful education, but closer relationships, less peer dependency, deeper spiritual or religious values, and a resurgence of their family uniqueness. ♦

Copyright, 2000, 2006 by LEI and Modern Media. All rights reserved. Used by permission.