• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts

The Educators Room logo

  • Start Here
    • Impact Statements: Teacher Expertise
    • Newsletter
  • Browse Topics
    • Content Strategies
      • Literacy
      • Mathematics
      • Social Studies
      • Educational Technology
      • ELL & ESOL
      • Fine Arts
      • Special Education
      • Popular Topics
        • Teacher Self-Care
        • Instructional Coach Files
        • Common Core
        • The Traveling Teacher
        • The Unemployed Teacher
        • The New Teacher Chronicles
        • Book Review
        • Grade Levels
          • Elementary (K-5)
          • Middle (6-8)
          • Adult
          • New Teacher Bootcamp
          • Hot Button Topics
            • Menu Item
              • Principals' Corner
              • Charter Schools
              • Confessions of a Teacher
              • Interviews
              • The State of Education
              • Stellar Educator of the Week
            • Menu
              • How to Fix Education
              • Featured
              • Ask a Teacher
              • Teacher Branding
              • Current Events
  • Podcasts
  • Courses
    • Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout- An 8 Week Course
    • Becoming An Educational Consultant
    • Teacher Branding 101:Teachers are The Experts
    • The Learning Academy
    • Books
    • Shirts
  • Education in Atlanta
  • Teacher Self-Care
  • The Coach's Academy
menu icon
go to homepage
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts
×

October 28, 2016 Opinion

Homeschooling: Making Education Natural Again

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Christina Gil

Christina Gil was a high-school English teacher for sixteen years, but she recently left the classroom to follow a dream and move with her family to an ecovillage in rural Missouri. She believes that teaching creative writing helps students excel on standardized tests, that deeply analyzing and unpacking a poemis a fabulous way to spend an hour or so, and that Shakespeare is always better with sound effects. When she is not hauling water to her tiny home, she can be found homeschooling her two kids or meeting with her neighbors about the best way to run their village.
  • Homeschooling: Making Education Natural Again - October 28, 2016
  • Six Reasons Why Tests Suck - October 20, 2016
  • I Remember When Teachers Were Allowed to Teach Their Passions - October 14, 2016
  • By Not Allowing Your Children to Fail You Are Making Their Brains Smaller - October 13, 2016
  • Why Poetry Is So Great for Teaching Growth Mindset - October 7, 2016
  • Deliberate Practice and Growth Mindset - October 5, 2016
  • Seven Steps to a Fresh Start for your Class - September 23, 2016
  • How to Integrate Literacy into the Non-ELA Classroom - September 21, 2016
  • How To Do A Focused Writing Bootcamp - September 16, 2016
  • You Probably Shouldn’t Be a Teacher If... - September 12, 2016

This year has been one of change for me.  In January, I left teaching to follow a dream and move with my family to an ecovillage in rural Missouri.  Since then, we have been homeschooling our two kids.

When we were telling my family about our decision to leave mainstream life behind, they were - not surprisingly - skeptical.  One of my dad’s questions was, “How can you take the kids out of school like that?”  My answer was that the reason that I could take my kids out of public school was that I had spent sixteen years teaching in a public school and I knew exactly what they would be in for.

They had wonderful teachers, and their old school was just ranked best in the state, but still, I knew that I wanted to get them out.

This year, we have also joined a homeschool co-op.  What this means is that the kids are home in the morning, mostly working on math and ELA, and then in the afternoons, they go to three different places to do school with three to four other kids.  Mondays and Wednesdays they do geography, music, and drama, Tuesdays are science and art, and on Thursdays, I am teaching poetry for now (and maybe Shakespeare soon).

There are obviously lots of differences between teaching my own two kids and teaching 100 or so seventeen-year-olds.  But these are the major differences for me:

We spend way way more time outdoors.  Before, in their excellent elementary school, my kids spent a total of 30 minutes outside each day—and that included the time that it took them to get dressed, line up, and wait to go outside.  The only time that I was outdoors was walking from my car to the school and back.  I never ate lunch or went outside during a free period because I didn't even want to know if the weather was nice.  My cinder-block room had a broken shade that stayed down permanently.  I was better off not even thinking about what it was like out there.

But now, the kids play outside for hours at a time, I am constantly walking to places or working in the garden during a school break.  It seems that half of their lessons, either with me or in their other co-op classes, involve going outside to observe natural phenomena.  Once, they even helped with the sorghum harvest.  I get to create poetry lessons that teach an appreciation of the natural world and spend time with my kids observing grasshoppers and writing poetry about them.

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="yes" overflow="visible"][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="no" center_content="no" min_height="none"]Now, the kids play outside for hours at a time Click To Tweet

I can follow a curriculum—or not.  We found a great math series that involves puzzles and challenging word problems, and we have followed it to the letter.  But when it comes to language arts, we are mostly making it up as we go along.  If I want to do a unit on growth mindset, I can.  There’s no need to do work that we don't see as valuable, so we don’t.

My kids actually eat lunch.   This is huge for me.  The only thing more tiring than packing lunches every day for school was packing lunches that never got eaten.  Now, I get to make them a hot lunch and sit with them while they eat it.

It’s often more difficult to get one six-year-old to do his work than it was to get a class full of teenagers to do theirs.  Not everything is easier now than it was before.  Sometimes I miss the simple days of no negotiation.  Now that I am teaching my own kids, it’s more complicated.  And they’re not out the door after 55 minutes.

I trust that they will get what they need.  I am able to let them lead me rather than tell them what they have to do all the time.  For example, one of the trickiest areas has been getting my daughter to write.  I tried to assign paragraphs or essays or stories.  Each time, the battle ended in tears.  But when I saw an email that she had typed to a friend, and when it contained a comma for a direct address and a correctly used semi colon, I knew that my ten-year-old would be fine in the writing department.  She might not want to do what I want her to do when I want it, but she will learn what she needs.

I trust my kids will get what they need Click To Tweet

It’s fun and challenging and sort of crazy to make this big change.  But I never wanted to be one of those teachers just hanging on until retirement.  When I started to sour on the profession, I got out.  I’ve had to learn a whole new set of skills for sure.  But it has been an adventure.

 

homeschooling[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Related posts:

Default ThumbnailNo End to the School Year for an Unschooling Child Making STEM Matter in Schools Default ThumbnailPay It Backwards: Reach Out to Your Former Teachers Default ThumbnailClassroom Technology: When you Can't Beat Them, Join Them
« Transforming the 'Trump Effect' in Schools
Stress and Mess: Deliberate Practice and Professional Obligation -- Part II »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

The Educator's Room was launched in 2012 to amplify the voice of educators. To date, we have over 45+ writers from around the world and boast over twelve million page views. Through articles, events, and social media we will advocate for honest dialogue with teachers about how to improve public education. This mission is especially important when reporting on education in our community; therefore, we commit our readers to integrity, accuracy, and independence in education reporting. To join our mailing list, click here.

What we do

At The Educator's Room, we focus on amplifying and honoring the voice of educators as experts in education. To date, we have over 40 staff writers/teachers from around the world.

Popular Posts

  • We Crowdsourced What Teachers Said Can Stop Gun Violence in Schools
  • You Showed Up: Reflections On Another School Shooting
  • No, Teaching Cannot Be Your Only Passion
  • Weird News: Why Are People Asking Quinta Brunson To Do a 'School Shooting' Episode?

Featured On

Buy Our Books/Courses

How to Leave Your Job in Education

Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout

Using Your Teacher Expertise to Become an Educational Consultant

Check out our books on teaching and learning!

The Learning Academy

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Accessibility Policy

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Contact

  • Contact
  • Services
  • Media Kit
  • FAQ

 

Copyright © 2021 The Educator's Room.