With so many people knowing that I homeschool, I get asked so many questions about it. I love answering all the questions that I get, but sometimes I do not know the answers so I will go home and research them. Here is a question that I had to learn more about.
Deschooling is the transitions period for a child leaving a structured institution of learning like a public or private school and changing to a more relaxed form of schooling at home. This transition not only affects the child, but parents can also go through this as well.
I have not personally gone through the deschooling process, but have many friends that have. Between hearing what they went through and what I have learned through my research, I wanted to share a few things with you.
This transition period can be a difficult and confusing time for both you and your child. For a child that has been in a public or private school setting, they have learned what happens and is expected of them there. But coming home for school, your child may not be sure what will happen and what is expected of them. During this period of time you and your child are both discovering the new normal.
It all boils down to patients and understanding for you and your child. This transition period will not happen over night. You will hit a few ruff patches along the way, but it will not be like this forever. Once you and your child find the new normal together things will move much smother.
How long should I deschool?
There is no set time that it will take for your child to go through this transition. The longer your child was in a public or private school the longer it will take them to adjust to the more relaxed form of schooling at home.
If you see that your child is struggling from the lack of their public or private school structure, try adding some fun learning activities. For example, go on an educational field trip or play an educations game. You can also add some engaging lessons during this time.
How do I start deschooling?
10 Tips to Help you start Deschooling
1. Be upfront and honest with your child. Help your child to understand that there will me an transition period for you and them. Explain that y’all will be learning how to homeschool together.
2. Find other Homeschoolers in your area. Most area have a homeschool group that has parties, field trips, park days, and just days to get together and learn. You can find these groups on Facebook, asking other homeschool moms, or even asking someone at your local library. Homeschool groups are not just for the children. You may also want to look into local Homeschool Co-ops.
3. Go on Field Trips. Field trips are one of my favorite parts of homeschooling. The children get to learn and have fun at the same time. Field trips do not have to cost an arm and a leg. Here is a list of fun and inexpensive Homeschool Field Trip ideas.
- Museums – they sometimes offer discounts to homeschoolers during weekday school hours, so check with your local museums to ask about homeschool field trip rates
- Public Library
- Post Office
- Police Station
- Fire Department
- City Hall
- Virtual Tours
- Zoo
- Nature Parks
- Aquariums
- Government Buildings
- Historic Places
- Military Landmarks
4. Be Creative. When I say be creative I mean, write a story and draw a picture about it, build something, make something or paint a picture. This should be a fun time.
5. Read Together. Find a comfortable place, a great book, and read it aloud to your child. You do not have to read the entire book in one day. Spread it out over a week or so.
6. Checkout your Local Library and the programs they offer. Our local library offers a preschool story time on Wednesday mornings, activities for school age children on Monday afternoons, and a great summer reading program. Libraries are not just a great resource for books.
7. Explore the outdoors. Exploring the outdoors can be fun. Here is a list of some fun things to do outdoors:
- Enjoy some time at your local park
- Have a picnic
- Take a field trip to a nature park
- Draw pictures in the backyard
- Notice all the different trees and flowers in your local park
- Go for a walk or a hike
8. Spend time learning your child’s learning process. This step may take some time. During this time, you will want to make notes of your child’s strengths and weaknesses. What subjects come natural to them and which ones they really struggle with. Think about what homeschooling style would work best. Then you will want to order a curriculum that fits your child’s and your family’s needs.
9. Watch Educations Videos on YouTube. YouTube can be a great resource! There are so many videos on so many subjects. Here is a great list of fun Science Experiments.
10. Learn about the Different Types or Styles of Homeschooling. Here is a list to help you do that.
- School-at-home Homeschooling is when you mimic public or private schools in your home. Most new homeschooling families start with this method until they figure out what works best for them. Most of the time, when you buy an All-In-One curriculum or School in a box this is the type of method you are doing. This is what works best for us, but it does not work well for everyone.
- Classical Homeschooling focuses on literature, poetry, drama, philosophy, history, art, and languages.
- Charlotte Mason Homeschooling was developed by Charlotte Mason. It places emphasis on literature and she even coined the phrase “Living books”. She believed in sparking the imagination of a child through subject matter.
- Montessori Homeschooling is also known as Montessori Method of Education. It was developed by Maria Montessori and her method focuses on the development of children, physically, socially, emotionally, and cognitively.
- Unschooling Homeschooling is informal learning where the student learns though life experiences. “The term “unschooling” was coined in the 1970s and used by educator John Holt, widely regarded as the father of Unschooling,” according to Wikipedia.
- Unit Studies Homeschooling is when math, spelling, science, art, history are taught on one single topic.
- Eclectic Homeschooling is when you pick and choose from many different books, websites, and so on to teach your children.
- Waldorf Homeschooling, also known as Steiner education is based on the students’ intellectual, artistic, and practical skills.
- Natural Learning Homeschooling according to Wikipedia, “Natural learning” refers to a type of learning-on-demand where children pursue knowledge based on their interests and parents take an active part in facilitating activities and experiences conducive to learning but do not rely heavily on textbooks or spend much time “teaching”, looking instead for “learning moments” throughout their daily activities.
- Informal learning Homeschooling or Self-Directed Homeschooling is learning that happens through everyday life participation and creation. Anything from planting a garden to baking a cake or even talking to a technician at work about the installation of new software can be considered informal learning are some examples from Wikipedia.
Where did the term deschooling come from?
According to Wikipedia, “Deschooling is mainly accredited to Ivan Illich, who felt that the traditional schooling children received needed to be reconstructed. He believed that schools contained a ‘hidden curriculum’ that caused learning to align with grades and accreditation rather than important skills. Illich believed that the modern school is grounded on a foundation that is focused on growing schools as an industrialized system. Rather than focusing on the needs of the children, it is more heavily focused on the aggrandizement of the school system. Illich communicated that the school system has formed a toxic industry that specializes in what families should be capable of forming themselves, namely education. According to Illich, schools align success on paper with academic excellence. He presumed that schools, grades, and diplomas gave false assumptions that the students have become knowledgeable in a certain educational concept.
John Holt was an educator who also believed in deschooling. His thoughts were closely aligned with Illich because neither were convinced that school was the place that taught students everything they needed to know. Instead, they communicated that school was not the sole avenue for learning because students learn consistently through other facets, such as exposure to the natural world. As a result, Illich and Holt saw schools as being insufficient because of their focus on strictly doing ‘skill drill’ instead of other methods of learning. Additionally, theorists of deschooling saw education as maintaining the social order. Therefore, they wanted to ‘denounce the monopoly that traditional education institutions held on education and learning.’
‘Deschooling’ a person does not mean disregarding the act of learning or studying in schools. Illich and Holt’s image of an unschooled society would ensure that everybody has the choice of whether or not they (or their children) attend school. Rather than being forced to go to school, taking a test before entering a school or being denied the opportunity to learn a desired topic, people would be free to choose how they learn. According to John Holt, an advocate for unschooling, ‘a deschooled society would be a society in which everyone shall have the widest and freest possible choice to learn whatever he wants to learn, whether in school or in some altogether different way.’ Illich invented the term ‘deschooling’ and Holt, later, began to use the term “unschooling” to encompass his educational belief system. “
You Have Decided to Homeschool, Now What!? Blog Post
