Homeschool and My Thoughts on Education in General

This week our Montessori homeschool playgroup visited a local park and learned how to wash and cut fruit, and practice pouring juice. Here are a few pictures from our day:

child drinking juice after pouring it herself

child washing apples

my daughter drinking juice (with 2 hands, as I like to show her)

mom and child getting active together after our Montessori practical living activites

And a little bit about our group and some changes . . .

A few summers ago I had the opportunity to attend a summer writing fellowship with teachers of all ages and backgrounds. As part of our participation in this writing project, we needed to complete a great deal of reading about teaching and the teaching of writing as well as participating in intense writing workshops. I learned quite a bit about the art that is writing and the art of teaching writing that summer.

As our Montessori homeschooling group met over the summer, the participating parents and children each brought something of their own to the group. Some of us visited Montessori schools, read literature about the Montessori approach, and participated in on-line and in-person dialogues about implementing the Montessori method in our homes and for our homeschool playgroup.

Perhaps because of my background in writing I often find that my approach to education and to life in general is rather recursive. I am always returning to my ideas and approaches, again and again, to edit, renew, and rethink how I am doing things. In a way, I am surprised that I had not thought I would do so in regards to my daughter’s (and future children’s) education. What I do know, regarding our family’s decision, is that my husband and I have always felt that our children’s educational paths will, for the most part, depend on their desires and needs as students. Learning is so important in our family. I would almost say that having access to an education and being able to seek out new ideas is part of our family’s survival instinct; neither my husband nor I feel right about not being able to pursue new ways of learning in our lives. It is most frustrating for us both, as learners, to feel stifled. At the same time, it is my hope that my opinions and experiences with various ways of inviting children to learn do not affect our children in an adverse way. That is, I don’t want my hangups regarding education to hurt what my children may or may not decide to do for their own paths.

Which brings me back to the idea of offering homeschool as an opportunity for learning to our children. For now, I don’t know what path my children will choose, and I feel torn as to whether or not I want my daughter to participate in an actual pre-school. For those of you who are homeschooling or not, I am seeking some feedback on how you went about making a decision for your children (or how your children prompted you to help them towards their own path).

Education is so important to me (and I believe for all of us), so I am thinking it is a good thing to feel conflicted about whether or not to move forward with homeschooling or whether to continue to follow the Montessori approach, in its entirety. My hope is that my children’s educational paths will evolve organically, however and wherever they may go.