Deschooling Week One
Hey guys, I wanted to check in and let everyone know how it’s going! I officially withdrew Cash from school last Friday, so we are just starting. Here are some of my takeaways so far:
Deschooling sounds AMAZING, but it’s more complicated than you think. People ask you questions about which curriculum you’re using for the one billionth time, and it’s hard to explain why you don’t have one over a text message. Then you start to feel guilty. Then you’re like…I should make him do some math right now. Then you make mistakes. Speaking of…
Today I made the mistake of pressuring Cash into reading aloud at a particular time because I wanted to add it to our checklist of things we accomplished for the day. He did it, but only to please me. He made many mistakes and tried skipping over pages, which was altogether miserable. This is the same book that he’s been happily reading to me every other day like a pro. He has been using different voices and reading super long words like they are nothing. We had a deal that I would not force learning this week, and I broke our agreement. What a surprise: it didn’t work for either of us. Lesson learned.
Being home all day with no set schedule is incredible. Cash isn’t tired, grumpy, or “not feeling well” daily. He sleeps as late as he wants and is still up by 8 am daily but well-rested.
My relationship with Cash is getting stronger already. When I get frustrated, I stop and breathe, and we talk it out. We are a lot more in sync. He also feels less emotional because he’s not as tired, and neither of us feels we need to cram in quality time.
You might also wonder what we are doing if we don’t have a curriculum yet. The answer is Lots! I want to break that all down for you so you can get a feel for what deschooling looks like.
Figuring out what schedule works best
As I mentioned before, I am still working full-time. I’ll work from home four days a week, and one day a week, I’ll take Cash with me to the office. Because of my work schedule, we already have some structure in place. For instance, we can’t stay up until midnight every night because I still have to clock in to work at 9 am. However, it does give us a lot more flexibility. We have been experimenting with staying up a little later than usual (closer to the 10:00 hour), and I don’t make Cash wake up at any particular time. He generally is awake by 8 am. I use that morning time before he’s awake to take care of my garden, journal, and make a rough plan for the day. I have two breaks throughout the day where I can stop and focus entirely on him. So far, that has looked like fixing lunch, taking him to karate, and maybe doing a quick science experiment. One day we used the break to run to the grocery store for supplies. I clock out around 6 pm, and then we cook dinner together, play, watch movies, and generally hang out. It helps a lot that I can close my computer at the end of the day, and immediately it’s family time. Instead of fighting traffic, we play basketball in the driveway instead.
Testing out homeschool styles and curriculum
During the deschooling period* you must avoid committing to a curriculum. However, we will choose something soon, so I’m using this time to test different methods and styles. Most of our learning will happen on weekends and after hours, but we also have to find things to keep him occupied during the day when I’m working. I’m not opposed to watching YouTube videos or playing Minecraft, but I also want to ensure he gets some learning throughout the day. I researched educational podcasts, YouTube channels, and documentaries and subscribed so that they were all easily accessible to him. I bought a used Mac Mini from eBay and hooked it to our television. I can go through all of this in another post, but I set him up with his own apple id, so the podcast subscriptions, bookmarks, etc., are all his own. He thinks it’s the coolest thing ever, and I can easily unplug it and take it with us when working in the office. I also set up a small bookshelf in the living room and stocked it with activity books, graphic novels, and anything he could pick up independently without my help. Right now, I want to keep things fun and low-pressure. He’s had enough of that at public school, and that is what we are detoxing from. In the meantime, I’ve joined homeschooling Facebook groups, reached out to friends, and done a lot of googling to see our options. So far, I’m leaning towards eclectic homeschooling, where you piece together different types of curriculum based on your child's needs. It seems to be the most popular style, for good reason. I’m keeping a journal with notes of things I observe daily, noting what works and what doesn’t, so I can review all that data when it’s time to decide.
On the weekends and evenings, we’re trying things he might need more assistance with. He’s super into mystery-solving, so we read Encyclopedia Brown books aloud, and I bought him a science kit that allows you to solve a mystery using science experiments. I got him a STEM engineering book with projects like building towers out of toothpicks and marshmallows. We are working on following all of the rabbit trails. What is the coronavirus? What is Fat Tuesday? Why don’t the palm trees we see around town have coconuts? Who was Yogi Berra? All of these things came up in natural conversation, and instead of me giving a simple answer, we dropped everything (unless I was driving) and looked it up. We listen to audible books every night before bed, and he reads aloud to me (from a book of his choice) in the car. We went to a friend’s house on Saturday, and he taught Cash how to (safely) use a hand saw to trim a palmetto tree (Cash also made some extra $$ for his effort!) We also are working on seeking out educational opportunities through field trips. I can already tell this will be a big one for us. We went to Seaworld on Sunday and tried foods from different regions worldwide at their Seven Seas Food Festival. We went to the Arctic exhibit and were lucky enough to have one of the educators all to ourselves for almost an hour. We asked all kinds of questions, she gave Cash collectors cards you can collect from educators throughout the park, and she even gave us special coupons for % off an up-close animal experience. We learned so much in a few hours! And we could stay until they closed at 8 pm
because I wasn’t worried about him getting bathed and into bed by a specific time for school the following day.
It’s incredible how much learning happens when you intentionally make room for it. Also, except for the read-aloud blunder, Cash enthusiastically embraced every bit of it!
*If you’d like to read more about what I mean when I talk about Deschooling, here are some of the best resources I’ve found explaining the concept: