At the public library today, E confidently walked up to the librarian and asked him to help her find a specific book. He was wonderful—after he found the book in the stacks, he showed E the library’s kids’ website.
“We usually do this with kindergarten classes,” he commented. “What school do you go to?”
“I’m homeschooled!” she said proudly. “But I would be in Grade One if I wasn’t.”
He nodded thoughtfully, then continued showing her the browsing section of the website, where kids can scroll through the cover images of popular books.
“Oh!” She cried, spotting something familiar, “I’ve read that one. Actually I’ve read two of the Percy Jackson series.”
His eyes grew wide. “Really?” he said, then looked at me questioningly.
When I think about it, it does seem improbable. Four months ago I was still teaching E how to read, and she was still refusing to look at a book outside of lesson time. How did she ramp up her reading so quickly?
Quite simple, really: she reads all day, every day, on a Kobo with an unlimited supply of books. That’s her curriculum right now. I couldn’t possibly have taught her as much information as she has absorbed from the Magic Treehouse and Percy Jackson (and later recounted to me.)
We’ve taken a slightly different tack, educationally speaking, since we returned from the worldschooling summit. Although math is still compulsory (and reading would be compulsory if we needed to compel them to read—as it is I need to get them to stop reading long enough to look where they’re walking,) we’re encouraging the children to pursue their passions.
Our first few days back I got to work finding tutors and guides for the kids. N wants to learn Greek, and Duolingo wasn’t going to cut it; I found an online tutor (based in Athens!) and arranged for a trial lesson. Both N and his tutor decided it was a good fit, and at N’s request he’s now doing three hours of Greek lessons a week. I think he could do more, but it’s okay if he wants to ramp up gradually.
While I was on the tutoring site, I also looked around for an art teacher for K. She hasn’t been asking for one, and she’s working on her art independently, but I figured that a good teacher could help K go farther in her areas of interest. K was unconvinced when I told her about the trial lesson—in truth, I almost cancelled it—but she ended up really enjoying it. She’s now signed up for two lessons a week.
R is a bit harder to shop for, so to speak, but if she’s truly interested in learning about fashion design, she needs to learn it from someone who actually knows something about garment construction. It’s true that I know how to run a sewing machine; but it’s preferable to learn from someone who’s passionate about the subject, so I’m continuing my search for a good sewing instructor.
Our educational philosophy has definitely undergone a transformation; Mr. December’s views have shifted hugely in many respects. Maybe he’s finally deschooled himself, or maybe it was the influence of the worldschoolers we met, but most likely it’s the cumulative effect of the giant pile of books and studies that he’s been reading lately. I’ll let him tell you all about what he’s learned, though—I can’t do it justice, and anyhow, this blog is due for a guest post.