Chapter 5: A Day In The Life...

In this chapter, read about the different ways that homeschooling "unfolds" in the various households already homeschooling their children. Hopefully you'll get the picture of what it's really like...

5.1 A Day in the Life...

A Day in the Life...

...of a homeschooling family in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. This homeschooling mother says, "For those starting out, I just want to quickly assure you that home education is not difficult. It is something that can fit naturally into your day or evening. Home based learning does not need to be overwhelming, highly structured, rigid or expensive. Home education is a choice that should fit your life style." Read though the link above to see a discussion thread of families sharing their homeschooling "day in the life" stories to get a better sense of what that might be like.

5.2 Think Pink : A Day in the Life of a Homeschooler

Think Pink : A Day in the Life of a Homeschooler

This is a link to blog by a mother who homeschools her two young girls. In this blog, she shares "with you what any given day might hold in our home as we go through the process of learning together." She included some cool pictures, too!

5.3 Average Day in Homeschooler's Life

Average Day in Homeschooler's Life
by Joshua Meeks (Grade 9)

If you want a child's perspective, read this link. ;-)

5.4 A Day in the Life of Homeschool Mom - Homeschoolblogger.com

A Day in the Life of Homeschool Mom - Homeschoolblogger.com

Ah, the life of a homeschooling mom...I'm sure my wife, Maria, can relate.

4.1 Welcome To The World Of Homeschooling

The Fletcher Family in Ohio answer a lot of the common questions people have about homeschooling--I really like their approach...that it's a family "lifestyle choice for us as well as a style of parenting we wanted to embrace."

Read Frequently Asked Questions answered by The Fletcher Family of Ohio.

Chapter 3 - Homeschooling In Action...Stories That Will Inspire You!

In this chapter, you will read about real homeschoolers who will likely warm your heart and almost surely inspire you. Enjoy.

3.1 Home-schooler teaches others to read

This is an inspiring story from MSNBC.com about a little 8-year-old homeschooler who helps others to read...WOW!

Home-schooler teaches others to read - Making a Difference - MSNBC.com

In our experience, homeschooling gives the family time to tackle projects like the annual Young Author's Competition. Alexandra, Cameron, and Brandon have all written and finished books (including illustrations and binding), which took a lot of time to complete. I think many parents would agree that writing a book is a very worthwhile pursuit, but let's face it...what keeps many children from attempting it is the time involved, not to mention parents who are "time-challenged" to help after work.

Maria integrated the Young Author's book projects into the kids' everyday learning units. It worked...not surprisingly, many of the award winners throughout our local school district in all age categories were homeschoolers.

3.2 Home schooling on the rise

This article discusses the continual rise in the number of families turning to homeschooling as an education alternative for their children.

Home schooling on the rise - Nightly News with Brian Williams - MSNBC.com

What always amuses me is how stubbornly hardfast the lines are drawn on either side of this debate. Maria and I homeschool out of choice, not fear. Our children are still part of the unified school district and the teacher assigned to our family has been working closely with Maria for over eight years. We have a lot of flexibility, yet with Leslie's guidance, we know we're keeping up with statewide requirements at all times.

Alexandra joined public school in 5th grade and is now a 7th-grader in middle school. Cameron will join her this coming school year. So, I guess you can say we have one foot in homeschooling and one foot in the public schools. We don't see our choice as one or the other--instead, we blend our options and it doesn't feel like two different worlds for our children.

3.3 Teaching children well, from home

Here's an article that features a mother who decided to homeschool her daughter diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder.

Teaching children well, from home - Health - MSNBC.com

In this article, someone brings up the "S" word--"socialization." Many think that homeschoolers will lack socialization skills if "sequestered" in their homes instead of "integrating" with other children in a public or private school environment.

I don't agree. Of course, I have a rather large family, so the kids have built-in socialization opportunities. I've actually found the flip side to this argument to be true. My children have learned to express themselves without fear of censorship from other "less tolerant" children and have grown comfortable with being "individuals" in addition to being part of a group (in this case, a family), which is no small task given the cliqueishness of our schools. This is nothing new, either. Part of the drama of growing up is learning to deal with cliques that you wish to be a part of or who may not wish to include you.

My children dance, play sports, write, draw, play with neighborhood kids, go to the amusement park, play video games, chat on the Internet, listen to music on iPods, go to sleepovers at the homes of friends...not exactly the antisocial family-in-the-mountain picture some have of homeschoolers.

Maria did go through a period (primarily due to financial restraints) when she made our own draperies, painted the whole house, and created (with the help of the kids) various decorative crafts for the house--I did tease her that considering she was also homeschooling several children, she only had to learn to kill her own meat to be classified as a full-blown "mountain woman!" ;-)

3.4 What do you think about Homeschooling? And why?

I like this person's response to this question on the relatively new Yahoo! Answers website...what do you think?

Yahoo! Answers - What do you think about Homeschooling? And why?

3.5 Cool Homes - Homeschooling Families' Home Pages - A to Z

Ann Zeise created this website that is literally a virtual neighborhood of homeschooling families from all over the U.S.

Checkout the family at House #19 ;-) Thanks, Ann!

Cool Homes - Homeschooling Families' Home Pages - A to Z Home's Cool Homeschooling - 9/30/98

Chapter 2 - Reasons to Homeschool

As if you couldn’t already tell how enthusiastic I am about homeschooling, let me share our family’s reasons for doing it.

2.1 - Spending More Time With Your Kids

This is a biggie! My friends will attest to this—I’m always saying, “It seems like you blink and your children are all grown-up.”

So many parents wake up one day and find those precious early years have rolled right by—now, it’s been reduced to driving the kids from one activity to the next (soccer, karate, dance, baseball, friend’s house). Monday through Friday promptly at 8:15 AM, you drop the kids off to school almost like a job. Evenings are filled with homework for them, cooking and unwinding from a busy workday for you.

Sound familiar?

Here’s a typical day at the Yee home: Dad wakes up to make coffee and check e-mail. Mom drives him to the bus stop that starts his morning commute. Dad relaxes on the train and writes books (grin). Mom returns home and sleeps for a couple more hours.

It’s 9:00 AM.

Cameron or Nicholas usually wakes up first. Cameron pours some cereal and Nicky plays quietly (yes, quietly, believe it or not) in the living room. Maria cooks Cameron Top Ramen. Brandon wakes up and flips the television to Cartoon Network. He goes to the kitchen nook and sits down with Nicky to eat cereal or noodles. Alexandra begins to stir at around 10:00 AM. She hops on the computer, checks e-mail, and sets her AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) outgoing message to “I’m here, but I have to start homeschooling—be back at Noon.”

Maria starts to lay out her materials (books, worksheets, art supplies, lesson plans, colored pens and pencils) on the kitchen table. She has already mapped out her lesson plans a week or two before. Alexandra stakes out the family room as her area and starts to read a book, legs propped up on the couch in a relaxing position.

Cameron and Brandon sit at the kitchen table still nibbling on breakfast. Maria reviews fractions with Cameron, continuing their studies from the day before. Brandon practices his writing and spelling by filling in word jumbles on a worksheet—he completes the assignment and proceeds to draw a picture of various insects learned the day before for about 20 minutes. Cameron completes his worksheet on fractions and needs a break before reading about California history—he and Brandon play on the X-Box for 30 minutes while Nicky observes (okay, he also makes a lot of comments!).

Alexandra finishes several chapters of her book and begins to work with Maria on math.

After 45 minutes, Maria gathers all of them to work on a “Cycle of Life” science project. Leslie from ENCORE has provided Maria with a kit that includes cocoons, a netting enclosure, magnifying glass, and book. The kids observe the metamorphic progression of the cocoons—over the last week or so, the cocoons have transformed into three butterflies. Today, the children will release them in the backyard because butterflies only have three days to live. The kids take digital pictures of each other with the butterflies before picking up the netting and letting them fly away. The butterflies don’t take off right away, which gives the kids a few more opportunities to take digital pictures—eventually, they take flight.

Maria’s already making sandwiches for lunch. It’s just after 12:30 PM Alexandra will explore social studies after lunch. Cameron will tackle English and reading. Brandon will continue an art project, then read to Maria for 15 minutes. By that time, it’ll be time to get ready for dance and tennis. Maria plans to swing by Jamba Juice first—a smoothie on a hot day is just the answer!

Dad will be home at 6:30 PM. He plans to take the kids to Barnes and Noble at 9:00 PM. Alexandra is looking for a book to read and Cameron wants to use his B&N gift card. Brandon and Nicky will be playing with the train set in the kids book section—surprise, surprise, they have the trains to themselves because no other kids are out so late on a school night.

Ah, but homeschooled kids don’t have to wake up at 7:00 AM, now do they?

Starting to see how this works?

2.2 - Controlling Your Family’s Time

This goes hand-in-hand with spending more time with your children--YOU control your family's time!

Raise your hand if you wake your children up at 6 AM so you can drop them off at school (or schools, as the case may be) on your way to work. Do they eat cereal or a peanut butter sandwich in the car because there's really no time to eat at the kitchen table? Do you put your children to sleep no later than 8 PM because there would be no way they could wake up otherwise?

Now, let's be clear--we parents do what we have to do. Many of us, me included, work jobs that start very early and the commute is murder. There are many two-income families nowadays--at least Maria stays at home with our kids. But, I'm sure many of you don't have to imagine what it's like to be on the go-go-go! Why? Because you just do it. We do what we have to do.

But, imagine just for a moment what it would be like for your family if we remove the rushing from the equation...

In our household, everyone is still asleep at 7:30 AM. Unfortunately, I wake up Maria because I'm loud when I'm getting ready for work at 4:15 AM Other than that, as the story goes, "No one was stirring, not even a mouse."

The kids wake up naturally--yes, Maria starts school around 9:30 AM, but that's not a hard and fast rule. The kids always eat a warm breakfast at the kitchen table--okay, Alex eats on the go, but guess what? She's now in public school. Hmmmmmmmmm.

Maria has school work ready to go for each child. They usually start at the kitchen table and slowly but surely start to find their own quiet space somewhere in the house to read, write, draw, or think. There are no rows of tables and chairs that force 30 children into uniform order for hours at a time.

When I get home, I'm known to take Cameron, Brandon, and Nicholas out for (you guessed it) a "Boy's Night Out!" This could be bowling, pee wee golf, visit to Barnes and Noble, ice cream, you name it. They love it.

Did you know there are absolutely no children in Barnes and Noble after 9 PM on a school night? That's because they're already at home asleep preparing for the hustle and bustle of the next day.

Controlling your family's time--think of it as your new mantra!

2.3 Learning Along With Them

For all you parents who think you're not "smart" or "skilled" enough to teach your child at home, answer me this: Who said you couldn't learn right along with your child?

Maria is a college-educated woman who speaks fluent Tagalog and Spanish and reads a lot. She was extremely hesitant to take this all on initially because she didn't think she knew the various subjects well enough to teach them to the kids.

That's when Leslie, our ENCORE-assigned teacher, stepped in and coached Maria. She reminded her that it's perfectly acceptable to learn right along with the students--teachers (and trainers, in my world) do it all the time. Once Maria was "released" from the burden of having to know everything in order to teach, teach is exactly what she did!

Maria would study about new things in the evening to prepare for the next day. She would conduct experiments right along side the kids, not really knowing what the outcome would be--again, nothing wrong with that.

Maria also doesn't hesitate to ask for outside help from Leslie, other parents, or even programs within the public school--remember, we're still part of the public school system through ENCORE, so we're entitled to access public school services, as needed.

I know from my work as an instructional designer and trainer that the one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it. The same holds true for homeschooling parents--in many ways, it'll feel like you're going back to school with your kids.

Chapter 1 - Our Story

I never thought I’d be writing a book on homeschooling—in fact, who would have thought that we’d be homeschooling our children for eights years strong and counting?

Yet, I can’t imagine going back and doing it any differently.

I remember Maria and I laughed a little bit at the start and joked that we were morphing into “mountain folk”—that’s how backwards our concept of homeschooling was back then. Surely only families who wanted to segregate themselves from mainstream society would advocate homeschooling for their children, right? Wrong!

In many ways, it seemed like Maria and I were taking gigantic steps backward from what our generation had come to expect and strive for: two incomes, a big house, multiple cars, exciting careers, traveling the world, 1-2 kids…

Instead, we were surviving (survival is the key word) off a single income (the husband’s at that—so not PC), living in a modest-sized house, driving a hardworking ’97 Dodge Caravan with over 236,000 miles (and counting), spending more time on family than career (where’s that corner office now?), taking a vacation every 3-4 years, and oh, did I mention, having four kids!

What were we thinking?

Well, by some divine intervention, Maria and I ended up doing the smartest, most fulfilling thing that parents could ever hope to do for their children—homeschooling.

I would be lying if I said it’s been a breeze—not quite. But, we’ve spent more time with our children than probably most parents spend in a lifetime. These are precious years that flash by in a blink of an eye. I’m convinced that Maria and I will look back and thank our lucky stars that we had this opportunity to spend productively, educationally, and lovingly with our children—worth more than all the bikes, vacations, cars, and big-screen TVs I could have bought them if we took maybe a more conventional path.

Now, I can’t help myself—I’m a total homeschooling evangelist. I light up when I talk to other people about my family’s experiences—and trust me, my enthusiasm is contagious. Conversations that start off with, “Hmmmm, interesting,” and eventually end with, “Wow, that’s really terrific,” have convinced me that more people might benefit from the homeschooling experience if only they had the courage and inner trust to take the plunge—or in our case, dumb luck!

The title of this book is not made up—many parents I speak to are quite enthralled by my homeschooling escapades and they all think Maria is a saint to be both parent and teacher (not to mention dependable chauffeur) to our four children separated in age by only a couple years. But, almost without exception, the conversation ends with, “Oh, but I could never do that,” followed quickly by, “I simply don’t have the patience.”

We said the same things ourselves, and yet here we are eight years later with a good 10 years more ahead of us (Nicholas is only four).

Maybe you simply need a little more nudging from a couple who took an unexpected detour off the fast track and never looked back. Read on.

1.2 - Looking for Private Schools

First up—Nameless Private School Number One.

Over dinner at a friend’s house, we listened to a couple, who were extremely pleased with Nameless Private School Number One—excellent, rigorous academic program, disciplined students (I’ll come back to this one in a moment), and strong test results.

Sounded good to us.

Later that week, we made an appointment to visit the school. A very soft-spoken woman (I’ll call her Mrs. Smith) welcomed us to the school and steered us and a group of other parents into a large seating area.

There, we were greeted by Reverend John.

“Let me start off by saying that our school has a very strong academic program and that our students consistently score high on statewide tests,” Reverend John said.

Sounded good so far.

Reverend John continued for approximately three more minutes expanding on the strengths of their academic program.

But, then the shift happened.

Reverend John began the fourth minute of the meet-and-greet with, “Now, let me share our discipline policy.”

Yikes, what was this?

“We firmly believe in ‘Spare the rod, spoil the child.”

Hmmmmmmmm. I’m listening.

“At our school, we have a very strict discipline policy. Let me explain the process.”

He went on for about ten minutes on the levels of discipline: 1) verbal counseling, 2) letter to the parents, and 3) a formal spanking in the principal’s office (paddle and all).

Hmmmmmmmm, I’m not liking this anymore.

It was not lost on me that Reverend John spent about 10 minutes on their spanking policy (oh, by the way, Mrs. Smith would handle all bad girls—comforting, not!) and less than half that time talking to us about their academic program.

Let’s just say that Maria and I ditched them during the classroom tour.

Next up, Nameless Private School Number Two.

Now, this was a nice little school—located a few miles from our house, this school had a fish pond, a small library in a playhouse, classrooms with lots of activity, attentive, kind teachers, and an animal petting area.

This school required a lot of parent participation—nice—and encouraged families to work and interact together.

As we continued through the school tour, we encountered a classroom in which the children were busily working on a science project.

Now, science is definitely a topic of interest for Maria.

As she watched the activity unfold, Maria whispered over to me, “Jeez, is this what they consider a science project.”

“I guess,” I whispered back.

Maria wasn’t really being snide—she was more surprised at the simplicity of the activity used to demonstrate a scientific fact. I think she thought it would take a lot more ingenuity and effort.

We finished up the rest of the tour and got in our car.

“My goodness, even I could do that science activity,” Maria said, weighing the pros and cons of what we would actually be paying for with our private school money.

“Why don’t you?” I replied in my typical combative tone.

My response lit a fire.

“Fine, I will.”

Enter homeschooling.

1.1 - Alexandra’s Pre-School Experience

It all began with Alexandra.

Maria was a stay-at-home mom and I was a self-employed instructional designer writing training programs for several large companies in the Bay Area. Maria just had Cameron and needed a little respite from our darling Alexandra.

We picked a pre-school about two miles from our house and figured Alexandra could go a few days a week—just enough time for Maria to regain her sanity.

For the first month or so, it seemed like a perfect plan. Alexandra was enjoying being around other little kids, and due to necessity, potty-training followed quickly behind. Alexandra, with her cute, short bob-cut and relatively shy demeanor (at least around other kids), seemed to be hitting her stride.

Then one day, Alexandra shared with me that the other little girls thought she looked like a boy with her short bob-cut and that her shoes were ugly. Now, Maria and I were not prepared for this kind of cattiness at such an early age—high school, maybe, but pre-school? Give me a break.

We started saying those typical parental phrases, like, “Well, just ignore them,” and “They’re just jealous,” and “Obviously, you don’t need friends like those.” Well-meaning, yes, but did it solve the problem? Not exactly.

This went on for about a year. It wasn’t all bad, mind you, but with kindergarten just around the corner, Maria and I started getting concerned—translation, panic. If pre-school could intimidate my daughter, just imagine what the public schools were gonna do? With her shyness, we were afraid the other kids would eat her alive—maybe a wee bit over-protective looking back on it, but whatever the rationale, we were convinced we had to do something fast!

We pulled out the phonebook and started looking for private schools.

1.3 - Considering Homeschooling

“Did you know that Antioch Unified School District has a homeschooling program?” I said as I zeroed in on a listing entitled, “ENCORE Homeschooling.”

“No, I didn’t,” Maria replied.

We continued our research and stumbled upon a program option that had been available for a couple years to families who wanted to homeschool their child, but with public school support. Approximately 70 families in the area were already participating.

Maria made an appointment to visit the program coordinator. She explained the specifics: 1) The parent is the teacher, 2) The children are still part of the school district—no loss of money to the public schools, 3) A credentialed, extensively experienced teacher would be assigned to our family to work with Maria on lesson plans and overcoming any problems, 4) We had to turn in lesson plans to our assigned teacher, but they would be responsible for all other paperwork—nice, 5) The homeschooling teachers and parents also provide supplementary classes like art, writing, and science, if we wanted to participate, 6) State testing was available—not required—if we wanted to monitor how our children were performing and progressing against state standards, and 7) Our children could take advantage of public school programs on an ad hoc basis, like speech, music, and sports, if we wanted to participate.

Hearing no real disadvantages, we signed on the dotted line and dove into the homeschooling waters. We were treading water from the get-go and never came close to drowning—an important point to keep in the back of your mind as we journey forward.