When I began as a homeschooling mother five years ago, I tried to recreate an institutionalized setting at home, complete with calendar time, desks, and the Pledge of Allegiance. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Gradually though, I began to loosen my mind from the mass education mold I'd grown up in and taught in professionally. Thinking outside the box, I grew into our freedom as homeschoolers.
We've schooled into mid August for two years now, and taken part of August, all of September, and part of October off. The humidity, and the weather in general, are better in September and October, making them ideal months for outdoor activities like hiking and biking.
Now, five years into homeschooling, I'm rethinking the structure of a school year entirely. Why does the traditional structure exist? When did it begin and why?
When mass schooling began in America, students were given the summer off to help on the family farm. Their abled bodies were needed; paying for farm help wasn't an option for most families. Family sizes were typically much larger then too, further facilitating family farm life.
Is our country structured the same way now? Decidedly not. Family farms are disappearing in alarming numbers, much to our dismay. That way of life seems ingrained into my ten-year-old. He wants it with his whole heart--large family and all.
We can only pray, along with Ann Voskamp and her husband--a Canadian farm family fearing their own demise--that family farmers find a way to preserve their way of life. And we can commit to buying local produce.
Now that children aren't working family farms all summer, what are they doing instead?
The unfortunate answer? Not much. We've replaced summers of hard work, with summers of leisure. I don't mean you or me personally, but our country as a whole. Kids are driven to this or that program or experience, one after the other, all summer. Instead of instilling a work ethic in our young people, we're spoiling them. Treating them like summer camp customers we'd like to see again the following summer.
No wonder our young men are "failing to launch" when they hit eighteen, either as college students, trade students, or working hard in some field. They simply aren't prepared emotionally and mentally, after living such a pampered life.
Yes, thirteen years of school is hard work, but kids need other responsibilities as well--other kinds of work and discipline, to be fully prepared for a life of work. After Adam and Eve, life became work. We can mourn this all we want, but it is reality.
But absolutely, kids need down time, just as we do.
Let's analyze how their down time is best used. Is structured activity the best? I don't think so. The people who invent, plan, structure, and carry out activities for others? They use higher level thinking skills and leadership skills. The people who participate in the activities? They sometimes need thinking skills, but not as a rule. Generally, they're being entertained, or working on one skill, or maybe they're exercising.
What if kids had to invent their own fun? Plan puppet shows, design sets, write scripts? What if playing a team sport meant planning it with the neighborhood kids--deciding on the rules, times, equipment, recruitment?
Do we have to farm every childhood experience out to "experts"? Or can we allow kids to become experts themselves, by experiencing process? You've heard it's not the destination that matters, but the journey itself?
Have you ever been asked to teach on a certain passage of Scripture? You have to study pretty hard, looking at background and history, different interpretations, and then you have to decide how to present the material to your group.
By the time your lesson is over, you've potentially grown in many ways. And perhaps best of all? You realize anew: You get out of something what you put into it. If kids want a summer to remember, let them put something into it--besides just Mommy and Daddy's money.
If you're a homeschooler, remember that you don't have to do anything a certain way. Not the summer, not the school year. You can blend the best of both worlds, by structuring your year the way it works best for you and your family.
We don't need summer to teach what we can't teach during the school year. How about making life a smooth one piece? To that end, we're praying around here about moving to a Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday school schedule, year round, with Wednesday, Friday, and the weekend off, except for heavy snow months. In January and February we'll school five days a week, to total around 180 school days per year.
And the weekends? Except for cooking, I plan to have no-work weekends. Strictly family time. Down time. With Daddy working 54 hours a week, we need to make the most of the hours we're together. When we do chores seven days a week, it wastes the rest time God wants for us. Leaving one day free to worship God together in different ways, beyond just church? It makes sense for the soul.
Having Wednesday and Friday off from school (or whatever arrangement we decide on), as well as the weekend, gives my children more time to explore their interests and invent their own activities, practicing leadership and higher level thinking skills, and cooperative learning skills.
It also gives them more time to help our home run smoothly. Mommy and Daddy shouldn't have to do everything, save for the twenty or so minutes of chores our older children do. I am a manager of my home, yes, but I needn't be swamped every minute of the day. That's just bad management. Kids should move into adulthood knowing what hard work feels like. They should be capable of taking over as manager, by the time they leave our home.
The girls will someday, God willing, have their own homes to manage. And if they aren't blessed with children, they'll probably have some type of job to manage, as well. And the boys? They'll need management and organizational skills for whatever endeavor they pursue.
On Wednesday and Friday, their days off from school, the children will be my partners. No, not all day. If we work as a team, this home can be better than it ever was, in far less time.
Whether you homeschool or not, think about what summer can be. Think outside the box.
I can testify--and you can too--that it's hard to let kids loose with their time. It's messy when they invent and create. And it's noisy. There are false starts, with sibling rivalry and whining. And teaching them to help around the house in productive ways? That's very challenging as well. We have to patiently train, and consistently check up on their progress and work ethic.
But what is our goal? To have as much peace as possible? To have as many kid-free hours as possible?
Or to release God-fearing, hardworking, creative people into the world, to impact it for Christ?
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