Very true. My mother was a certified teacher when she decided to homeschool my siblings and me in 1982. Her first six weeks were extremely stressful to the point of nightly tears, because she was trying to import “school” into the home—and it didn’t work. We had a “schoolroom” with desks, a chalkboard, and a teacher’s desk for Mom. But with only three of us to teach (and my sister was four years old), the absurdity quickly became apparent. My father stopped her six weeks in and asked her why she was trying to stick with a model she had wanted us freed from. That’s when Mom threw out the “school in a box,” jumped my brother two grade levels ahead in math and pushed me back one grade level, since I struggled where he didn’t. My little sister got to enjoy genuine playtime instead of pre-school. As the years went on, Mom relaxed more and more as she saw we would gladly pick up topics that fascinated us and pursue them without being pushed or cajoled. But my very favorite memories are of listening to “Eroica” on the record player, gardening with Mom, and learning to piece together a pattern to make a new dress. It was hands-on real life that we loved, and the learning flowed out of that. It was scary for Mom to let go of all the teaching rules she had learned (and don’t get me wrong—she was still very organized and methodical), but it gave us the freedom to enjoy each day as a new adventure together. That is a great gift.
Hmmm, I 100% agree with this - kids are developmentally the age they are, and trying to force them into a school-like setting doesn't meet their needs at all.
However, this bit jumped out at me, "I don’t want to be mistaken for the free-range, unschooling mom you meet in the woods (you know, the one with an eight-year-old named Cloud who can’t read." My own kids learned to read semi-spontaneously, aged 2/3 and aged 5. My eldest learned with an hour (at most) of phonics tuition before starting any form of education and my youngest did a year in school, taught himself two years beyond that using Reading Eggs over that summer, and then *jumped* straight ahead to being able to read words like "carbon dioxide". It's subsequently occurred to me the people who say reading isn't natural to humans and needs to be explicitly taught, unlike speaking, are probably wrong.
Cloud's mum is, thus, half right, that kids exposed to lots of literacy opportunities will read when the time is right. Where she's wrong is not monitoring what age that should ideally happen by. The one kid I've met who *was* like Cloud was eight, ahead in mathematics, but couldn't read, and the issue evidently wasn't pedagogy, but rather being visibly autistic and likely having dyslexia too, and his mother wouldn't recognise either of these things, despite being told by multiple people. I think there needs to be, within the homeschool community, a wider recognition there's an age where most children *can* do something and, if your child hasn't cottoned on by then, they might have a disability that could usefully benefit from external support, help and advice.
Just a bit of humor, drawing on a quirky acquaintance I’m sure most of us have had at some point :)
Your kids sound very bright!
For average kids there is growing evidence that the fruit of the more “intuitive” look-say method popular in the mid-late 20th century limits longer term language abilities. When not instructed properly in phonics and made to read aloud regularly when young (when they’re ready!) kids can struggle with unfamiliar words and reading aloud even as adults.
Both my kids were exposed to phonics at nursery (F... F... for FROG!) and through phonics schemes to varying extents. My mum spent about an hour on the sofa with my eldest and a stack of Oxford Reading Tree Biff and Chip books and a 'how to teach your kid to read' phonics primer. Phonics seems to be like a key for kids - once they get the idea of sounding out and decoding, they can eventually use it to read almost anything.
From my educational research, the problem is that's all it does. Without a rich spoken vocabulary, ability to read doesn't seem to improve beyond a certain point. Kids who don't understand what words mean don't automatically understand what they're reading, even if they learn to sound out the words.
However, it does seem kids don't have to spend hours drilling phonics in a classroom to read at all, ever, because it's an unnatural thing to do, as I've seen some teachers arguing online. If that was the case, my kids couldn't have learned to read without lengthy explicit instruction, irrespective of how clever they are! :) Lots of reading, conversation and F... F for FROG! seems to be enough and I suspect, over a period of time, it will get most kids who are reading ready there, in the end.
I’m a second generation homeschooler, and your line is gold: “A solution to a problem you don’t have.”
What I observe, and it’s tragic, is that often preschool is perceived as a necessary solution because we are increasingly becoming a society in which nobody even knows what to do with their small children once they get to be about 3yo. The overeager homeschool mommies start dipping their toes (and an unfortunately large number start asking “what curriculum they need”) and the others start looking for preschool. And if you have real money, you start trying to figure out what list to get on where. How many times I’ve received a blank look when I tell someone asking “what I do for preschool”, and I say, well, I live and the child lives with me. But if you don’t read, or listen to good music, or cook, or make things, or serve at church, or really do much…you’re living a life not fit for a preschooler!
Absolutely. I also think just going to church provides ample teaching opportunity for the “sit still and be quiet,” lesson that people talk about. That once a week is plenty!
I share many of the same beliefs but it's refreshing to hear them expressed in such a clear and meaningful way. I keep getting sarcastic whenever I write about the schools. Also, you're the first funny home,school Substack I've found so far. It gives me hope there might be more. Keep up your great work! P
A truly interesting article, thank you! I am teaching in Sweden, but was raised in the U.K. Homeschooling is not allowed here in Sweden (I might have to write an article about that).
The Substack algorithm has fed me and led me to many articles and posts about homeschooling (in particular the U.S.). I don't know much about it and have sooooooo many questions please (hope it's ok):
1. Do you have to have a teaching qualification to homeschool?
2. Are there any educational authorities who check what homeschoolers are learning?
3. Do homeschoolers receive a teacher's wage?
4. If children have parents that can't homeschool due to their jobs or something, can they be homeschooled with another family instead going to a preschool? Or can a homeschooler onnly teach their own children?
I attended pre school, aka nursery school, and kindergarten as a child. In addition to enjoying it, I’m convinced that it was important to early social development.
One of our kids is incredibly social, and if there were a Christian preschool nearby we would totally put him in!
But it’s not for every child, and not something parents need to feel pressured to re-create at home, as I think pre school itself is actually aiming to recreate a kind of home life.
Very true. My mother was a certified teacher when she decided to homeschool my siblings and me in 1982. Her first six weeks were extremely stressful to the point of nightly tears, because she was trying to import “school” into the home—and it didn’t work. We had a “schoolroom” with desks, a chalkboard, and a teacher’s desk for Mom. But with only three of us to teach (and my sister was four years old), the absurdity quickly became apparent. My father stopped her six weeks in and asked her why she was trying to stick with a model she had wanted us freed from. That’s when Mom threw out the “school in a box,” jumped my brother two grade levels ahead in math and pushed me back one grade level, since I struggled where he didn’t. My little sister got to enjoy genuine playtime instead of pre-school. As the years went on, Mom relaxed more and more as she saw we would gladly pick up topics that fascinated us and pursue them without being pushed or cajoled. But my very favorite memories are of listening to “Eroica” on the record player, gardening with Mom, and learning to piece together a pattern to make a new dress. It was hands-on real life that we loved, and the learning flowed out of that. It was scary for Mom to let go of all the teaching rules she had learned (and don’t get me wrong—she was still very organized and methodical), but it gave us the freedom to enjoy each day as a new adventure together. That is a great gift.
That’s an amazing story, thanks for sharing!
Love this! Thank you :)
Love this!
Hmmm, I 100% agree with this - kids are developmentally the age they are, and trying to force them into a school-like setting doesn't meet their needs at all.
However, this bit jumped out at me, "I don’t want to be mistaken for the free-range, unschooling mom you meet in the woods (you know, the one with an eight-year-old named Cloud who can’t read." My own kids learned to read semi-spontaneously, aged 2/3 and aged 5. My eldest learned with an hour (at most) of phonics tuition before starting any form of education and my youngest did a year in school, taught himself two years beyond that using Reading Eggs over that summer, and then *jumped* straight ahead to being able to read words like "carbon dioxide". It's subsequently occurred to me the people who say reading isn't natural to humans and needs to be explicitly taught, unlike speaking, are probably wrong.
Cloud's mum is, thus, half right, that kids exposed to lots of literacy opportunities will read when the time is right. Where she's wrong is not monitoring what age that should ideally happen by. The one kid I've met who *was* like Cloud was eight, ahead in mathematics, but couldn't read, and the issue evidently wasn't pedagogy, but rather being visibly autistic and likely having dyslexia too, and his mother wouldn't recognise either of these things, despite being told by multiple people. I think there needs to be, within the homeschool community, a wider recognition there's an age where most children *can* do something and, if your child hasn't cottoned on by then, they might have a disability that could usefully benefit from external support, help and advice.
Just a bit of humor, drawing on a quirky acquaintance I’m sure most of us have had at some point :)
Your kids sound very bright!
For average kids there is growing evidence that the fruit of the more “intuitive” look-say method popular in the mid-late 20th century limits longer term language abilities. When not instructed properly in phonics and made to read aloud regularly when young (when they’re ready!) kids can struggle with unfamiliar words and reading aloud even as adults.
Both my kids were exposed to phonics at nursery (F... F... for FROG!) and through phonics schemes to varying extents. My mum spent about an hour on the sofa with my eldest and a stack of Oxford Reading Tree Biff and Chip books and a 'how to teach your kid to read' phonics primer. Phonics seems to be like a key for kids - once they get the idea of sounding out and decoding, they can eventually use it to read almost anything.
From my educational research, the problem is that's all it does. Without a rich spoken vocabulary, ability to read doesn't seem to improve beyond a certain point. Kids who don't understand what words mean don't automatically understand what they're reading, even if they learn to sound out the words.
However, it does seem kids don't have to spend hours drilling phonics in a classroom to read at all, ever, because it's an unnatural thing to do, as I've seen some teachers arguing online. If that was the case, my kids couldn't have learned to read without lengthy explicit instruction, irrespective of how clever they are! :) Lots of reading, conversation and F... F for FROG! seems to be enough and I suspect, over a period of time, it will get most kids who are reading ready there, in the end.
I’m a second generation homeschooler, and your line is gold: “A solution to a problem you don’t have.”
What I observe, and it’s tragic, is that often preschool is perceived as a necessary solution because we are increasingly becoming a society in which nobody even knows what to do with their small children once they get to be about 3yo. The overeager homeschool mommies start dipping their toes (and an unfortunately large number start asking “what curriculum they need”) and the others start looking for preschool. And if you have real money, you start trying to figure out what list to get on where. How many times I’ve received a blank look when I tell someone asking “what I do for preschool”, and I say, well, I live and the child lives with me. But if you don’t read, or listen to good music, or cook, or make things, or serve at church, or really do much…you’re living a life not fit for a preschooler!
Absolutely. I also think just going to church provides ample teaching opportunity for the “sit still and be quiet,” lesson that people talk about. That once a week is plenty!
I share many of the same beliefs but it's refreshing to hear them expressed in such a clear and meaningful way. I keep getting sarcastic whenever I write about the schools. Also, you're the first funny home,school Substack I've found so far. It gives me hope there might be more. Keep up your great work! P
A truly interesting article, thank you! I am teaching in Sweden, but was raised in the U.K. Homeschooling is not allowed here in Sweden (I might have to write an article about that).
The Substack algorithm has fed me and led me to many articles and posts about homeschooling (in particular the U.S.). I don't know much about it and have sooooooo many questions please (hope it's ok):
1. Do you have to have a teaching qualification to homeschool?
2. Are there any educational authorities who check what homeschoolers are learning?
3. Do homeschoolers receive a teacher's wage?
4. If children have parents that can't homeschool due to their jobs or something, can they be homeschooled with another family instead going to a preschool? Or can a homeschooler onnly teach their own children?
What a sad plot agsinst unity.
I attended pre school, aka nursery school, and kindergarten as a child. In addition to enjoying it, I’m convinced that it was important to early social development.
One of our kids is incredibly social, and if there were a Christian preschool nearby we would totally put him in!
But it’s not for every child, and not something parents need to feel pressured to re-create at home, as I think pre school itself is actually aiming to recreate a kind of home life.