A Return Home

These past two weeks have found me trying a new approach to our home schooling program. We were beginning to get a little burnt out with all of the requirements set forth by our Virtual Academy. There was so much to do every single day and while my son was learning loads of new things, we were feeling extremely pressured and learning wasn’t as fun anymore. I was often inundated with complaints of “How much more till I’m free?” Sometimes at the beginning of the day!

I decided to “withhold” school a bit and see what happened. I have heard of the benefits of deschooling your child, but frankly, it scared me clear to death! What if he never wanted to learn? What would I do, then?

I have been pleasantly surprised by the turnout of this short experiment. The first day, all he did was play, play and then play some more. The next day found him reading his books a bit more, but playing all the same. He loves to read, so I wasn’t too surprised by his choosing to do a little reading amongst the playing. This continued on for a few days. Toward the end of the week, I saw him take out his history book and log in to the online school. He spent about 4 hours learning in history and then was done for the day.

The next few days found him online researching and learning about various subjects. He spent a lot of time learning about insects and bugs. He also spent a little time learning about bones. I never said anything to him about it this entire time.

We added in a few lessons this week, but kept up the very laidback pace. Imagine my surprise yesterday, when I received an email across the room from him. He wanted to know “when” we were gong to do “REAL” school. I asked him if he missed doing all that we had been doing. He responded with a huge YES. HE asked to go back to the learning packed schedule we had been keeping before. There is an enthusiasm to learn that wasn’t there before and I am looking forward to the difference this will make as we comply with our learning choice. I guess that even a brief period of deschooling will do wonders for everyone, and I don’t find it nearly as scary as I did before. What do you think about it?

Photo by Brenda Emmett

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