I'm Learning Too
The Field Trip Newsletter: #67
I’m back from a mini writing break as I finished up my next book, which will be out next year, and I started working on a new one, this time as a ghostwriter; a completely new practice for me in my writing and I’m embracing it fully and loving the process so far. In the meantime…
I’m learning how to juggle; Not like actually learning to juggle, but I am figuring out how to work, keep up my part around the home, make time for my own life with my husband and friends, and now as a teacher to our son. We are six weeks into our first year of homeschooling, and if I could put everything else on hold and do this full-time, I would, in a heartbeat. I am learning so much alongside Tom Otis. He’s doing a country study research project, and I’m there with him, learning about a country that I might have skipped over. He’s learning history that escaped me. I’m getting the foundation of math that I missed in school. I had a teacher that made me feel very small, and for that, I gave up. I never learned another language, having not been given the opportunity to learn one until high school, and by then, it’s just too hard to retain it for most. Tom is learning French now, at age eleven. I wish I’d had the same opportunity to learn how he is. I think it would have made me a much more engaged student.
Once the weather is cooler and we can be outside more, I want days to do all our schooling outside. I want to challenge him to learn to identify 50 different birds in our area and do art projects that he’d miss out on learning in a traditional school setting. These are a few of the hundreds of things I want him to learn. Learning should be lifelong, and I’m finding this certainly to be true.
It’s hard to put into words all I want him to learn and, as a by-product of his education, all the things I want to learn alongside him. If traditional schools today were more engaged with how they teach children rather than so focused on testing, for which schools are held hostage to get more funding based on test scores, all those test scores they are so worried about would be much higher. Learning should be fun and innovative. It should be engaging and broad. Part of why we switched to homeschooling, which I’m not going to lie, is a lot of work, was for several reasons: the testing is out of control. The schools are so focused on test scores that it leaves no space for anything else. This isn’t the teachers’ fault. They are doing their best with what little they have to work with. But this can’t be a long-term solution to education in this country.
Another reason for this leap is nature. We love to get out into the woods and explore, learning biology hands-on. This has become a favorite tool on our hikes. We take this little tool on all of our hikes, and to see the wonder on Tom’s face is infectious.
We are also part of a group of other homeschoolers who head to the woods together one day a week. The kids range in age from 4 months to 15 years old. They explore and build together. They are learning to work as a team, building forts with found bamboo and fallen limbs. They make fires and roast marshmallows, all while the parents observe. The older kids guide the younger ones through the trails and help them climb trees. A small society, hard at work, like tiny ants or busy bees. They thumb through a mushroom or a bird identification book when needed, self-guiding their interest and education in the woods.
I look forward to forest school more than any other day of the week. It’s the day I cut myself off from the rest of the world, and I can feel the stress leave my body.
If anyone has any homeschooling questions, feel free to reach out. I’m happy to discuss it with you and offer resources, etc. I’m a full-time, working mom, so it hasn’t been an easy transition, but one I’m glad we are making.
If you are looking to supplement your child’s traditional education, below are some resources we love to use in our homeschool practice:
As always, thank you for being here! - Erin