Tales from Cat's House of Homeschooled Kits!

I was going to wait until Monday to write this but I found myself getting obsessed with it. This is something that I think about often but never say out loud. Curriculum is often purchaed by parents who love it, without thinking about how their kids need to learn. I am totally guilty of this myself, way guilty.

I see posts off all the time from parents who are enchanted with this or that curriculum. It’s so enticing too. It comes in a great box with everything you need. Calvert is an excellent program but the more I read about the more I thought “There is no way my kids will use this.” My next thrall was Oak Meadow. I still have a mental hard on for this. It’s such gentle in it’s approach. I almost wish I could go back and do K through 6 myself just to use it. Again, it just wasn’t something that matched who my kids are.

I must confess to being a major proponent of student directed learning. Having schooled my own at home and taught in a public school classroom it works. I can tell you from expereince, when students do what they are interested in they learn the skills needed to succeed faster and with better retention. They can apply it to more situations because they have better mastery of it.

This get’s back to all the trust I’m always on about. Students, young people, have to be trusted to learn otherwise they will always be looking outside themselves for direction and approval. Those who love learning do so because the are allowed to explore the topice, idea, or concept to thier hearts content, wihtout fear of limits placed on them external schedules, standards, and age restrictions.

My son was interested in ancient Greece and Rome when he was 10 years old. This was not on the content standards for the grade he was in. He’d have to wait until the following year to learn that if we used a boxed standards based curriculum. He would have missed out on so much reading, book after book. By striking while the iron is hot, so much more get’s done.

It makes sense that we all love to do what we are interested in. If I had gone with something fixed we might not have arrived where we are today. We certainly would have had more arguments about getting things done. We all the others things involved in learning and growing, unnecessary conflict is something I can do without. If you are having trouble with your schooling, ask “Am I doing this for me or for them?” This is a question I ask everyday. It saves time, feelings, and sanity.