Similar to most adults my age, I attended a traditional brick-and-mortar school. Each day my teachers followed the same routines as they systematically taught each subject. Even as a decent student, I obtained a general knowledge of each school subject. After my husband and I became parents, we decided to homeschool our children, and I can honestly admit that I have learned far more teaching my own children at home than I ever learned about certain subjects during my time in school.
In my experience, I have found that many homeschooling parents would agree with that statement, regardless of their prestigious Alma Mater. The fact of the matter is that most parents who were taught in traditional brick-and-mortar school settings experienced the same methods of RMR (Read-Memorize-Regurgitate). This method seems to be the normal routine for most brick-and-mortar schools along with providing only a bird’s eye view of important subjects like history, literature and science. Traditional brick-and-mortar schools have a limited amount of time and resources. It’s hard for those teachers to delve into each subject with their scholars because they have so many children to manage. Teachers also have limited flexibility with their curriculum, which hinders the variety of information they can share in their classrooms. There is less time for the in-depth, up close and personal view that one can get in a homeschool lesson. When you couple the traditional style of RMR learning with the inability to deeply explore each subject, learning in a traditional brick-and-mortar school can become dry and very tedious. However, when teaching at home, in a new way, the eyes of many homeschooling parents are opened to the point of clarity on topics never before grasped.
When a parent presents a subject to their child, their goal is to bring it to life for their child. Often this will lead to a bit of research on the part of the parent. For example, in a science study about insects the child may begin peppering mom and dad with questions about the fireflies seen outside their window at night. Not wanting to continue to tell the child “I don’t know,” to the litany of questions, a parent may decide that a quick Google search is in order and then a discussion blooms about the mating habits of fireflies, the fact that they are part of the beetle family, and that they are carnivorous (betcha’ didn’t know that!) Many times this is what leads parents to continuing education in their own homes as they either struggle to stay one or two steps ahead of their education hungry child, or because they really find some of the areas of study fascinating as well.
Why is this important? When parents model a desire to learn and demonstrate a love for learning, the children see it, and can become more likely to enjoy learning, too. Most homeschooling families truly desire to create an environment in which their children not only learn, but develop a lifelong passion for the pursuit of knowledge. The best thing about doing this in a homeschool setting is that the parents have the opportunity to learn right along with their children!