News From Hawkhill Acres

Are you tired of trying to explain homeschooling or, harder yet, unschooling to family and friends who just don’t get it?

Would you like a foolproof way to deflect unwanted comments from doctors, dentists and checkout clerks?

How much would you pay… Uh, sorry, got a little carried away there. I mean, read on and I’ll give you the perfect answer to those annoying questioners we meet every time we’re out with our kids.

Daughter and I were at the optometrist for her yearly eye exam. Dr. G is really nice and Daughter is fond of her, but she’s one of the “caregivers” who always asks what grade Daughter is in and what curriculum we’re following. Short of going into a rapid-fire delivery of the principles and philosophy of unschooling, it’s very hard to explain what we do in the ten minutes that we have to talk while Dr. G goes over Daughter’s pre-exam test results and sets up her exam machinery.

Last year, I tried to explain a little of what unschooling is, but we got bogged down in the grade thing. For some reason, adults seem to have this thing about knowing what grade kids are in. I guess it’s an easy way to classify them, so that they’ll know what level to talk to them on or something. As parents of unschoolers know, that doesn’t really work. Kids, schooled, homeschooled or unschooled, are all over the place when it comes to different subjects and areas of knowledge.

Daughter probably reads on a seventh grade level, but her math skills are much lower. If she was in school, she’d be in fifth grade. Knowing that won’t help you if you expect her to multiply double digits or enjoy a fifth grade level chapter book. However, if you don’t have those expectations, you can talk to her for a few minutes and you’ll find that she’s very interesting and interested in just about anything you care to discuss.

Back to Dr. G and the Answer. We went through the “What grade are you in this year? Well, even if you’re homeschooling, you must be in a grade. And what do you use for a curriculum? You must have to follow the state standards and make sure she keeps up and blah dee blah dee blah…”

I got a sudden inspiration. “We unschool, which means we follow the kids’ interests. Right now, they’re very interested in the medieval re-enactment group we belong to. So I just integrate our curriculum into that and we cover everything they need to cover for their ages with it. It’s like unit studies. You’re probably familiar with them.”

“Wow!” she said, “That must be a LOT of work for you. I really admire you for doing that.” And with that, we were off the subject and back to the exam.

So, Gentle Reader, next time someone bugs you about homeschooling or unschooling, take a leaf from my book. Tell them what your kids are interested in. (I know that won’t be hard with home/un schooled kids.) Then, tell them that you’ve fashioned a curriculum around it - kind of like unit studies - and have included everything they need to know for their ages. It’s the truth. It’s what we do.

Okay, so maybe we don’t write it down in one of those Plan Books that school-at-homers have, but we do it. We do it when we take them to lessons, clubs, play groups, museums, parks and libraries. We do it when we sit and play video games or watch Pokemon with them. We do it when we cook with them, have long conversations in the car or around the kitchen table. We do it when we sit up until midnight, researching a subject that they’ve shown an interest in.

It’s all curriculum and it’s all good. After all, the word curriculum only means “a course of study”. Well, my kids are studying life in general and everything in particular, so they have a curriculum that’s exactly right for them. If family, friends and people we meet in the community want to think that we’re following some kind of guidelines from educational mavens, so be it. And if that keeps the flak to a minimum, that’s fine with me.

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