As public school standards become increasingly demanding, private school costs continue to rise, and special needs and safety are at the forefront of parents’ educational concerns, some families are turning to homeschooling.
This was the case for Lael Robertson, San Francisco county contact for the Homeschool Association of California. Lael says that she and her husband, Peter, knew from day one they would homeschool their son and twin daughters: Xander, sixteen, Celia and Oona, fourteen.
“It felt like in our society, everything was out of your house. Families were spread around and didn’t get much time together. We’ve always worked in the home. Our work life and home life are more combined. We wanted to be with our kids and weren’t interested in saying goodbye to our kids. It didn’t seem natural.”
Lael spent her time doing what seemed natural: relying on her instinct that her kids would receive more individual attention at home, rather than in a school. “If they want to look at bugs all day, they can. In our family, that was okay. It’s easier to be more of an individual. When needs aren’t met in a school, it’s not the fault of the teachers, it’s just too many kids in a classroom,” explains Lael.
She and Peter also felt passionately against homework. “We wanted [our kids] to play, to go to museums, to the beach, and to hike. There was lots of cooking and baking, sewing, and a huge art room with projects,” she explains.
On the Fence?
Parents considering their options often wonder how well homeschooled kids fare academically.
Parents who have specific goals in specific subjects may be frustrated with homeschooling, Lael explains. It takes a more flexible approach—one that lets children somewhat teach themselves.
“Xander taught himself to read. He was an insatiable question asker and he complained that he wasn’t learning when he was four and a half, so I bought him some early readers and he started to read,” Lael explains. For example, her daughters began writing letters and words on their own, so when they received books, they began reading.
“Kids want to do things automatically,” she says from her Potrero Hill home. “They learned math and patterns by using rocks on the beach. [Learning] comes naturally to humans, so you build on that. I started buying math books when they were eight or nine, and they wanted more. Your kids will tell you what they want [to learn], and then you go out and find things about that [subject].”
As for the subjects that were outside her realm, Lael enrolled other parents of homeschooled children to contribute to their children’s collective learning. One parent who was a musician taught music, a scientist taught science. They did this once a week for three years with a group of children relatively the same age. There wasn’t any homework and it wasn’t formal. If parents came up with an idea for a project, they were encouraged to run with it.
Experts say this approach, when done successfully, can pay off. Thomas Hatch, associate professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College, calls homeschooling “unschooling,” and speaks highly of the experience. “The theory behind unschooling is that it builds on children’s natural abilities, which helps them develop intrinsic motivation.”
Abby Broughton is the embodiment of intrinsic motivation. In a rural mountain town in Idaho, Abby’s parents decided to homeschool her during a time in their life when it just made sense to do so.
“Academically, I didn’t miss a beat, and I often wondered how that could be so,” Abby says of her junior high years of homeschooling.
“In those two years, my peers had slaved over their desks, while I had tromped around mines digging up cool rocks, glued some wood together, and spent more time on skis than at home,” she says.
