Anti teacher?

Anti teacher? 

Are all home schoolers anti-teacher? It's a question I've asked myself many times before.

The simple answer is no- not all  home schoolers are anti-teacher. Some are, while others are not. While many home schooling parents aren't anti-teacher many have concerns about main stream schooling and the Education Department.

The home schooling ideas came about for us during a conservation with Simon about eighteen months ago. We were discussing the classroom management of a teacher at my school. This teacher treats their class as though they were in the army. They were allowed minimal time talking and were expected to move around the school, not quietly- but in silence.

Life skill?

I remember seeing the class practicing their 'lining up skills' and walking down the corridor- for twenty minutes until they 'got it right.' (I've yet to see "lining up skills' listed on a job description) All while having their teacher speak to them as though they were new cadets in the Australia Army. Back in the classroom students were punished for what was deemed poor behaviour in very inappropriate ways. They were physical punishments. I'm not talking about the teacher hitting them but it was more about what the students were expected to do to themselves. For example, in one instance a student was swinging on their chair. This is certainly something that needs to be addressed for both the safety of the student and that of others. This teacher required the student to stand on one foot for one minute per year of life, and if the other foot touched the ground the time started again. I've seen one student have to do this for half an hour. This wasn't helping the child in any way. In fact I saw the child swinging on their chair the following day. So it wasn't the deterrent the teacher was hoping it would be. 

So that's how it started. Simon asked me if I would send our boys to my school and I said 'while that teacher is working at the school my boys won't be attending." (Insert Mother Bear growl) This obviously lead to the question 'well whose class would you be happy to have the boys in?' I went through all the teachers at my school and one by one each teacher was crossed off the list in my mind.

Now this may get you thinking, "Gee there's a lot of mediocre teachers at her school!" No, that's certainly not true, but they do work in a system that's mediocre. It wouldn't matter if the school was filled with excellent teachers. It wouldn't matter because they are still expected to follow the same boring curriculum that's set out by the Government. They are still expected to have their students line up, wearing identical uniforms and work to a series of bells each day.

A working holiday

Teaching is hard work. It really is. Contrary to popular belief it isn't a 9-3:30 gig. And those much talked about twelve weeks of holidays a year aren't all they're cracked up to be. Teachers don't get in, and stay in teaching for the pay, excellent working conditions or for the holidays. Most teachers get into the profession because they genuinely love kids and want to help them to learn. They can live and breathe their jobs, often to the detriment of their social lives, sanity and own family time. In some cases they are filling in the holes where some parents can't manage. Some teachers bring breakfast and lunch into the same students each day because I haven't received enough from home- all out of their own pocket. So to say I'm anti-teacher is far from accurate.

Are your kids engaged in the classroom?

It's important to note that I have encountered more than a few teachers who home school their kids. They, like me, have seen the expectations placed on the schools and teachers, and they don't like what they see. They do the best they can to make learning engaging for their students within the limits put upon them by the Education Department. When it comes down to it I wouldn't want my kids in my own class because I'm bound by a long list of expectations- expectations that I won't have placed on me when I home school. I highly doubt my boys are going to request to learn about 'Rules and Regulations' when they are six years old. Let alone for ten weeks. I'm willing to put money on it.

Then there's the other side- the loud and proud teacher bashing home schoolers. These are the parents who've have really negative experiences with both teachers and the school. Sometimes they feel unsupported. From my experience sometimes this is justified and sometimes the expectations of parents are unrealistic. Sometimes parents forget that we are teachers- we have no training or have limited training in speech development, gross and fine motor skills, we aren't audiologist, we aren't optometrists but yet parents complain "why wasn't this (disorder, problem) picked up earlier?"

Teachers often do their own research.

The best most teachers can do is suspect something that is 'not right' with a child and do some research of their own. They can voice their concerns to the parents and can recommend the child get assessed by relevant professionals. Having said that, for every parent who has said "why wasn't this picked up earlier" there's another parent who just doesn't want to know about even a suspected educational or behavioural issue. A while back a colleague and I were discussing a student. Let's call her Jane. This colleague was asking my opinion about Jane's behaviour. We both agreed that the behaviours Jane was displaying in the classroom and play ground sounded like she had trouble following basic instructions. My colleague discussed with the parents that a hearing test would be beneficial for Jane. A reasonable suggestion made by a caring teacher looking out for the educational interests of one of her students. Unfortunately the parents didn't see it that way. A very nasty letter followed accusing my colleague of being 'up herself' and stating that she 'had no right' diagnosing deafness. "Wow" was my first reaction. I'm amazed at how defensive some parents can get towards well meaning teachers. It wasn't as if the teacher said this with malice or in an attempt to upset the parents- it was a legitimate concern. If I had a teacher say the same thing to me I'd be praising them for caring about my child, and I'd be on the phone to the relevant professional toot sweet- not sending a nasty letter. After being tested Jane was found to have a significant hearing loss due to fluid in her ears. In the following weeks and months her behaviour, language, reading and writing all improved dramatically. There was no apology from the family.... 



Schools have budgets to work to

Parents need to remember that schools work within a limited  budget so getting extra support from an aide or Special Education teacher just isn't realistic in many cases. When I started teaching we regularly had access to a visiting teacher who would not only work with individual students but would help teachers to understand the different disorders and how they could help the students when the visiting teacher wasn't there. This was beneficial to all involved. Then the funding just stopped. Scrapped. We now rely on a fortnightly, half day speech pathologist who works with a long list of schools each fortnight. I guess beggars can't be choosers.

Many teachers are aware some of their students require extra assistance but there just isn't resources or funding to provide the assistance some children need. The majority of teachers and schools have the best interests of their students in mind when making decisions and do whatever they can to provide for each child. 

I truly believe that 99% of teachers and principals want what is best for their students. The problem is that there are differing ideas about what is considered 'best.' Unfortunately there are people who have had really negative experiences within the schooling system and this is a shame.

I hope you've found this post to be informative. Please feel free to share and post a comment. I have Facebook page called "My life as a homeschooling teacher." Feel free to pop over and "Like" it. 

Making it work

 Sacrifices

The response I get from people when I tell them that we are home schooling our kids has been varied. 

Some parents find themselves feeling 'distant' from their kids.

Obviously the positive ones are awesome to get and are uplifting. When I told one of my teacher friends that we were home schooling the boys her first response was "I'm jealous!" She went onto say that she would love to be able to home school her kids. She works full time as a teacher and her kids go to school at a different school. She feels like she never sees them anymore. In fact she has mentioned on more than one occasion that she's 'lost connection' with them. She feels sad about that, and I feel sad for her and her kids too. I think, if that's how she feels, how many more parents feel the same? 




A big but easy decision for us.

This brings me to the question she asked me. "How do you make it work?" Quite simply we've made sacrifices. For us the biggest decision we made was moving to a cheaper area. We owned a house in the area where I grew up. It was close to my work, it was close to Simon's work, it was close to both our parents places. We weren't unhappy there, but the mortgage meant that Simon had to work full time and I'd need to go back to work once Nate started school in 2018. Obviously this wasn't going to work if we wanted to homeschool them. 

Moving house is how we 'make it work.'

So after we made our decision that we were going to home school the kids we put our house on the market, sold our house, bought another cheaper place. Now Simon and I both work three days each. Neither of us need to work full time because we are living within our means as well as saving for the future. Sure, I miss having mum and dad around the corner but this is the sacrifice we had to make. The house is larger, we live by the beach and we have a 250 hectare bush reserve out the of our house.  Certainly the move had a few rather large pluses as well.


My career has been sacrificed by becoming a mum. I'm fine with that.

The next largest thing I've had to sacrifice is my job. Yes, I'm still a teacher but before I had children I was on the leadership path. I worked as a learning coach at my school. I've been told that my chances of gaining a leadership role and working part time is unlikely. I don't know of a working mum out there who could say that taking 12 months off to have a baby enhanced their careers. Why would it? So remaining part time indefinitely will greatly minimize my chances of a promotion. And considering how much my views on teaching and schooling have changed since having kids, I'm not sure I even care anymore. 

Then there is the everyday sacrifices that we make in order to be able to afford to home school. For us this means living simply. We enjoy growing our own vegetables (and some fruits) and we enjoy making all our meals from scratch as much as possible. We try to link it into the boy's learning as much as possible. Growing our own food and cooking from scratch works well for us because it is also helping us to be as healthy as we can be. We also do all of our clothes shopping from Savers and other second hand shops. (Okay- I confess. I already did this before we started on our home schooling journey. I hate wearing clothes every one else is wearing- you go to a department store and buy something new and the next thing you know you are dressed the same as every second person. And there is already enough on the planet without making new ones for me. But op shopping helps save money and is fun.) We are frugal with our money but we are still living a life we love. 

Making it work

There are heaps of parents out there who are a 'making it work' within their different circumstances. Some mums who are studying and home schooling their kids at the same time, who do their own book work while their kids are working on independent learning tasks. There are parents that arrange their work so they work on weekends and home school during the week. Some parents home school four days a week so they can work one day a week. That's the beauty of home schooling! It's flexible!




If you are considering home schooling I would recommend you get onto the mountains of home schooling sites on Facebook and ask parents how they 'make it work.' Many parents are being very flexible with their lives in order to make home schooling work for their family.

I hope you've found this post informative. Please feel free to share and post a comment.

Love Alexis

  

Homework

Homework. 

How many of you just shuddered at the mere sound of the word? As a teacher I shudder too!

As a homeschooling teacher I can see both sides of this contentious topic. 

Bike Education instead of the 3Rs... something has got to give

One of the biggest complaints from teachers is what's referred to as a 'crowded curriculum.' For the non-teachers out there, this basically means there's too many learning outcomes to cover within the school day. 

Think about it. How many times in the media do we hear recommendations that XYZ 'should be covered in schools?' I'm talking about Drug Education, Road Safety, Water Safety, Swimming, Religion, Sex Education/ Family Life, Healthy Living, Gardening, Safe Pet Handling- the list could go on. Don't get me wrong- I believe all these things are important for children to learn about. However, whenever something is added to the curriculum something has to be pushed out as a result. In fact many teachers have commented to me over my time teaching "wouldn't it be nice to teach reading, writing and numeracy!" The point I'm trying to make is that teachers are expected to cover so much content that some of it may need to cross over into the home. 

"The Government has decided that all Australian children should learn how to communicate effectively with marsupials."

Shouldn't this be how kids spend their free time rather than doing homework?

Then there's the other side. Flash back 10, 20, 30 years and look at it from a young child's point of view. You've gotten up at 7:30-8am to be at school by nine. You spend 6.5 hours a day there, five days a week. You get two breaks in that time and when you finally get home you're then expected to do more work! Someone said to me that students should do this because working an eight hour day is expected of workers now. Really? Something about this situation just doesn't sit right with me. What about you? Do you think that sounds reasonable? 

Parents helping their kids do their homework... is this you?

On top of the expectation to use what should be free time to do homework, there's the issue of the quality content of the homework. I truly believe that 'full on' work should be taught at school and shouldn't be set as homework. The reason being the way maths  is taught. It is more than likely that different methods are used at home than at school because parents were taught other methods when they were in school, therefore creating potential confusion. What I see is parents trying to help their kids with homework, but yet both the parent and the student end up frustrated. Homework should be a fun way to consolidate what they've been doing at school. A good example of this is the homework given out at my school recently. It was simply "Make, Bake or Create something that interests you, and present it to the class  which resulted in tangible excitement and interest amongst the kids." I think this was a fantastic piece of homework that has no right or wrong answer to it.

 Homework should look like this?

Two points to note 
One: you can't please everyone. After homework was handed out, a parent complained that it wasn't 'real homework', and he wanted sheets of equations for his child to complete.
Two: Even though I think the "Make, Bake or Create example  is better option, I still don't think that it was necessary. I consider this to be busy work- for the home. I wonder if teachers would give it out if it wasn't deemed necessary by their schools? 

So there you have it. Homework from both sides. I truly feel homework shouldn't cause any stress on families and should be relevant to the student. However if it is required by the school it should be fun and engaging.

Please feel free to share this blog and to write a comment.

Love Alexis

A time to celebrate?

A time to celebrate?

You've all seen the photos on the first day of school. You know the ones I mean... the ones where mums and dads are seen cheering as they send their kids off to school.

Yes, they are light hearted and meant to be funny, but it leads me to the situation I'm faced with now that I'm a homeschooling mum. It all revolves around our decision to home school. I'm not the first homeschooling parent to have this problem nor will I be the last.

It involves our choice to spend more time with our kids than the parents of mainstream schooling parents do. "You must really love your kids if you want to spend THAT much time with them!" one parent commented to my homeschooling friend. Well, yes, we do really love our kids, that's one of the reasons we've chosen this for our family.

It's a long time between cuddles.

Think about the time children spend at school. Six and a half hours a day, five days a week, forty weeks a year. That's thirteen hundred hours at school. The question is, do you want your child in a school or with you for all that time? The answer for us is no. I want to spend time with them. They are only going to be this little once, you NEVER get this time back! So yes, I want to spend that amount of time with my kids. Sure they drive me crazy some days and I'm counting down the hours until my husband gets home but those days are getting fewer and fewer. The toddler years were quite hard for me especially having two toddlers only 15 months apart. The days were long and they needed and wanted my attention most of the day. Sure we all got a nap half way through the day... that's the only thing that got me through some days, but I'm finding them to be easier to deal with on a daily basis. That's not to say Elliott doesn't have a melt down over the slightest thing, but the melt downs tend to be briefer, less often and less intense than they used to be.

Ever feel like this?

Kids are hard work. Anyone with kids knows that, and homeschooling my kids is going to be hard work. I have no doubt that sending my kids to a public school would be the easiest option for our family. I mean I would have more time on my hands and I'd be getting paid more. But the question is, "is the easiest option the best option?" For us, no it isn't.

Then there is the constant questioning from people. I sometimes feel they are asking the questions about homeschooling not with the desire to understand the answers but rather the desire to mock and ridicule you with the wording of their questions. Questions like "aren't you afraid they'll turn out weird?" In my time as a teacher I've seen more than my fair share of weird mainstream schooled children, so I don't think homeschooling is a contributing factor to their 'weirdness.'

It seems that home schoolers are constantly having to give thorough, well thought out, essay style responses to 'why?' Why do you home school? It seems that 'because this is what's best for our family' isn't enough. Turn around and ask the same parent why they mainstream school their kids and you'd be looked at like you've got two heads. They never have a thoughtful response ready in essay form for me to print out and read... double standards! As my hubby says "We (society) out sheep the sheep for the sheep need a cattle dog to keep them in line, whilst we keep each other in line" through ridicule and social pressures. 
 
"My kids are little sh##s!" I hear many parents say, as though they had nothing to do with raising them! I think all kids have difficult behaviour for some reason or another. Be it they need attention, are bored, are hungry, having conflict with the siblings and the list could go on. Our job as parents and teachers is to find out why they are misbehaving and take steps to minimize the child's negative behaviour. I honestly believe that what children want from their parents is time and attention. Whenever our boys have been misbehaving, it usually comes down to have they been receiving the time and attention from us that they need and deserve.

I hope you've found this post to be informative. Please feel free to share and post a comment.
 

The 's' word

The 's' word

Socialisation. 

What images does the word bring up? Does images of Sex and the City come to mind- with glamorous ladies dressed to the nines sitting in a swanky restaurant or club having cosmos and then dancing the night away come up? Or does the image of children having fun on a playground come up instead? Or does the image of young mums and dads taking their newly acquired puppy to "Puppy School" come up.

For me it's the latter. For me dogs are 'socialised' -not kids. Kids are raised and lead by what they see others doing. Children learn what is acceptable behaviour in our community through observations and interactions. What is acceptable in one group may be different in another group. For example, the language considered okay on the football field would not be acceptable at a church picnic.

It's this 'learning what is acceptable' that is one of the issues I have with mainstream schooling. Behaviour and language are the main areas lowered over my time teaching. 

The language you can hear in schools is a good example of how the standard of what is considered normal is slowly getting lowered. 
I remember in my first year of teaching a little girl in Grade 2 telling me this joke. Her-Knock, knock.  Me- Who's there Her- Bare Me- Bare who- Bare bum." (Add giggle) Yes, the word bum was in the joke. At the time this was considered to be inappropriate at my school and we discussed what words she could have used instead of the word bum....Well last year we had students at my school  joking about funny names like "Isma Harerite" sounds like "Is my hair right." Well one boy came out with "Mike Hunt." If you haven't heard it before can you please work it out yourself! Some of the children didn't get it, but the boy quickly attempted to explain why it was funny- before it was put a stop to. Now there is a group of students who've gone home with a new word! Since I've started teaching inappropriate language has gone from bum and bitch to F and C!

Time and time again I've seen parent dismiss their child's inappropriate behaviour as 'normal' and therefore acceptable. A prime example is aggressive behaviour in the yard (and in school in general.) Once while I was on yard duty I came across a group of young male students around 5-6 years of age who were playing 'prisoners.' I initially thought nothing of it as I could remember kids playing 'cops and robbers' when I was in primary school so I therefore thought it was a game along the same lines. Well I was very wrong. As I watched the boys play I noticed that they were putting a library bag over the 'prisoners' heads. When I asked the boys why they were doing that they answered that it was because he was about to be 'executed.' They then proceeded to discuss what type the execution was going to take place that day. "Will we hang him, shoot him or chop his head off," they cried. When I discussed this with the boys' parents some were adamant that this was 'normal' behaviour for boys. What came to my mind was 'how does a five year old know what an execution is?' Why is this okay that a child who has been alive for five years knows what this is! Often children will see things on the television, in the media, at home that they deem to be normal. They then bring these 'normal' ideas to school, where they pass behaviours and language onto other children as being 'acceptable.' While in this instance they were 'only pretending,' what is a concern to me is that youngsters know about these adult concepts before they are able to process it. But more importantly because it normalizes violence and desensitizes them to the images they see.

On a side note, as a parent who is quite selective about what I let my boys watch, I am absolutely amazed at the number of "G" rated shows and movies that contain 'executions' or threatened executions. I'm not talking about the ones that are obviously on the more violent side, but rather the surprising ones. I can remember putting a movie on in the car when we were going on holidays. I believe the movie was "Wind in the Willows." You know the one with Toad, Badger, Mole etc dressed in human clothes singing and dancing... Well while I was driving along the highway I hear from the back seat "prepare the prisoner for execution." What! I nearly swerved off the road. Honestly, this was in a "G" rated movie. I don't think a movie with animals singing amd dancing is aimed at anyone other than young children but this was deemed acceptable. Ridiculous. After we came home from our trip I watched the movie by myself and sure enough there was a character being led off to the gallows! The execution never happened but I still have a problem with this. I've also heard an 'execution' reference in a Pacman television show. 

Another problem behaviour I'm concerned about is clothing. Yes, many if not most schools require students to wear uniforms to school. Inappropriate clothing comes out at every opportunity there is. A free dress day, sports day, swimming or school disco leads to a competition over who is "sexiest." This is not just limited to the older levels of the school but it can be seen in younger and younger grades. Can I just add here that I've never seen or heard about boys talking about which of their friends are looking "sexy" but they rather focus on who is cool or funky. I would by no means describe myself as conservative but I do however believe that girls should wear bathers that require more material than a large handkerchief. Short skirts, high heels, bare bellies and spaghetti straps just don't belong on any girl of primary school age. (Unless she is having fun in a dress up box.) There is peer pressure to keep up with their friends when it comes to clothes. The issue is that once one kid does it everyone else follows. Once everyone is doing it kids looks for new ways to push the envelope and this is how their clothing choices become raunchier and raunchier.  

Where this anti-social behaviour comes from is many and varied. I'm calling this anti social even though this behaviour is widely accepted as being normal because I don't think it should be considered to be okay. It comes from television, from video clips, from movies, from commercials, its what they hear at home and what they hear at school. I've lost count of how many parents of students in the younger years say to me 'they never did this kind of stuff before they went to school.' Especially if it was their first kid. I've discussed this with other parents- many of whom, again, say 'oh that's a normal phase.' What is a normal phase? To speak like a trucker? I don't think so. I would agree that even those children who've been raised in a non-swearing, well mannered environment, will be introduced to this type of behaviour in the school yard. Sad really. I hope that if we don't accept bad behaviour maybe it won't continue.... Don't worry- I'm laughing at myself too.

You know the saying that goes something like "it takes a village to raise a child."  Well I've seen the village and I don't want it raising my kid! 

Again, I could talk about socialisation for ages. Enough for today. More another day.

Worries

My homeschooling worries

I honestly feel like we're about to jump off a cliff into a chasm to which I can't see where I'm falling to, let alone the bottom. As with everything there is fear of the unknown. Some days I'm all gungho about homeschooling ready to put all the naysayers in their places. Other days I'm not so sure. I don't think there has ever been a day where I thought about putting the boys into mainstream schooling but there has been a few days here and there where I think 'what am I doing.' On these days of emotional tenderness I feel like a won't cope, and all of the things the Negative Nancys have said come flooding back to me like a tidal wave.

My concerns that come up occasionally include but are not limited to:

What if this is us after homeschooling!

*Money: Homeschooling is going to cost us bucket loads of money. When we had our first son we never thought for a minute that we would be homeschooling the kids, so we imagined that I'd go back to full time work once the youngest was in primary school. I work three days a week so we are talking about two extra days per week. That works out to be a lot over the years. I just have to remember that we are surviving nicely on what we bring home now and we are constantly saving so hopefully it'll be okay.

* Will it work: I know this is something that is in the back of my mind all the time. As a teacher I've given parents activities and games to play at home with their kids. I've lost count of how many parents have told me that the kids just won't do the extra work. I worry about that being my kids. I rationalise this worry with "well why would they (the students) want to do more work once they are home after a long day at school." Homeschooling will be the work- not extra work.

What if this is us?

*Logistics: This worry involves the fact that I'm sharing the homeschooling with Simon. There are a few minor worries including will he have enough patience to home school them? Will there be groups and outings he is willing to go to or will all that side of be left up to me on the days I home school? And will he be accepted by the homeschooling mothers. I say this last point because there have been some homeschooling mums I've been in contact with that meet up in a small group and because they meet up on a day I work I ask if Simon could go instead of me. Often the answer is no.There are a large number of 'mothers only' groups out there! Wow! In 2015! 

As you can see I've got some worries about homeschooling, but what it comes down to is that I have more and bigger worries about main stream schooling! For these "What am I doing days" I find it helpful to have a list of all of the reason we've decided to home school the boys and those feelings quickly disappear.  

I hope you've found this post informative. Please feel free to share it on Facebook and to make a comment. 

Homeschooling so far

What I thought home schoolers would look like...

Our homeschooling life...the journey so far!

       I really didn't know what to expect when we started this journey into homeschooling. My idea of homeschooling mainly involved large Christian families wearing their hair in buns and in matching home made dresses. I was very wrong.

 

        My school had received some ex-home schooled students in the past and for the most part these children were on the 'strange' side and struggled socially. Most were educationally on par with their mainstream schooling classmates. In my sixteen years teaching I can think of eight ex-home schooled students that came to my school. There are four ex-home schooled students currently at my school. Two are excellent examples of a job well done, and the other two aren't get examples of homeschooling. In fact one of the ex home schoolers that we have currently at my school was found stealing from my classroom last week! Oh dear! Had to be the home schooler! So in other words my view of homeschooling was quite limited.     

      After we decided to home school the boys we then started to look for 'how to get started' type resources. There are many homeschooling websites, both in Australia and overseas. I find them very useful. The first thing that stood out to me as a homeschooling teacher is the reliance of 'worksheets' by many homeschooling families. I wrongly presumed that many parents were home schooling their children so they would get a more hands on education. I was wrong. I guess for many parents their idea of learning involves worksheets. I've actually seen on some home schooling Facebook pages parents pulling their kids out of their mainstream school, and having seen what was in their workbooks, were 'angry,' 'rope-able' and 'furious' because the books were empty of worksheets. I on the other hand would have been angry, rope-able and furious if my boys HAD come home with book full of worksheets. "What have they been doing all year" one mum asked. To which I replied they were "probably doing more hands on activities." Hands on activities don't always lead to book work. For example, would you prefer your kid learning about measurement and money with a worksheet or by selecting, budgeting for, buying and cooking their meals every day? I know which one I think is more engaging! Many things just can't be taught with a worksheet, and the only times I've used worksheets is to help the students record their findings of hands on activities.

        I think for those wanting to home school their kids the first thing they need to establish is how their children learn the best. I recommend doing some research on "Learning Styles" or "Multiple Intelligences."  If that is work sheets-then great. If not, look into other options. For me home schooling isn't about merely replicating the school classroom in the home...it's about giving my kids opportunities to learn within the context of life itself and to enhance their curiosity about everything big and small.

Here is a link to one of the many Learning Styles tests which is suited to primary school aged children. http://www.schoolfamily.com/school-family-articles/article/836-learning-styles-quiz

 There are many support groups out there for those wanting it. Since February we have been trying to meet up with other home schoolers in our area. There are absolutely heaps of home schoolers out there. A lot more than what I could ever have imagined. We've met with three homeschooling parents and their kids. And we have a few more lined up in the next few weeks. The great thing about having so many home schoolers out there is that you can be selective about who you allow your kids to hang with. I'm not saying we look at their profile pictures and say 'oh they don't look like our kind of people.' Rather if their kids don't click with our kids we will look for other options. I'm not going to force my kids to spend time with kids they don't click with. 

Which leads me onto the parenting side of homeschooling. There was an incident at my school a while back that involved two parents having a playground fight (yelling, name calling, accusations- nothing physical) and I mentioned to Simon how I was glad I was going to 'miss out' on the school yard dynamics between parents- the subtle put downs, the comparisons, the unspoken competition between parents. Once again, I was wrong. On all of the Facebook pages for homeschooling there have been all out wars between parents that get down right nasty. Through Facebook pages I've seen fights (and I'm calling them fights rather than arguments because of the viscous comments, ganging up) about the price of an item a home school mum was going trying to sell an item for, to mums requesting meet ups with anyone other than children with autism and to mums taking offense in the way the word 'gifted' was used in a comment. The thing that amazed me is, not that the argument begin (as arguments) but how they escalate into name calling, put downs and how there is ganging up on certain people. Grown women (yet to see a dad in one of these fights) saying things like 'if you loved your kids more....' Looks like as a home schooling parent you could still get involved in this kind of rubbish if they allowed themselves to. I strongly doubt some of the things these parents said would've been said if they were face to face with the other parent... 

So this is our story so far. Stay tuned for more stories of our homeschooling journey.

Welcome! Our reasons for homeschooling

Hi there everyone! Welcome to my first post on "My life as a homeschooling teacher."

My intention of this blog is to share my family's homeschooling journey from start to finish. Sharing the highs and lows that I'm sure we will encounter. We are still 18 months away from starting homeschooling officially so I'm a novice homeschooling mum. I am by no means an expert in teaching nor am I a homeschooling expert, but what I am an expert in is giving everything I do my all.

My husband and I decided about a year ago that homeschooling is for us. The logistics for us is me (Alexis) homeschooling the kids three days a week and my husband (Simon) homeschooling them two days a week. They will have two days 'off' and we'll have one family day. We will be homeschooling them on the weekends just because of the logistics of the week and balancing homeschooling with our work. We have two young boys names Elliott (aged 4) and Nate (aged nearly 3.) They are only 15 months apart in age. We live near the beach which we absolutely love.

Many people question our decision to home school because I'm a teacher. Some people have told me that it is like working for Bank A but having our money in Bank B. I can see why people could be confused by our choice but what it comes down to is that there are many teachers in the system that know how they should be teaching but their hands are tied when it comes to curriculum and expectations placed on them by their school and the Education Department. I am one of those teachers.

Our reasons for homeschooling our kids are many and varied. They include:

1. Family time: My husband works weekends. This works well for us now because he looks after the boys when I'm working. However in 2017 when my eldest starts school that won't work! My husband would not get to see my son except for evenings. That's not going to build a strong family unit!

2. Curriculum: The Australian Curriculum, in my opinion, isn't child friendly. Every single teacher would probably agree that we should be 'following the student's interests.' Schools have it on their websites and Facebook pages but at the end of the day they are expected to follow the Australian Curriculum. I have been to PD sessions throughout my years teaching focused on "Inquiry Learning."(It has had different names over the years) Each session we are told to allow the students to follow their interests- to give them the lead in their own learning. Sounds great right!? The problem is that student lead learning has to be within the confines of a topic which is usually the focus of the school day for ten weeks. So if a 6-7 year old is studying "Rules and Regulations" (yes that was the term one topic for Level 1 and 2) they have to find somewhere in that topic to be inspired by. I personally don't consider that to be truly following the student's interest- but it sounds good to parents!

3. Socialisation: One comment I get about homeschooling from EVERYONE is about socialisation. "Aren't you concerned about their socialisation?" they ask. The answer is simply "Yes, I am worried about the socialisation- that's why we're homeschooling." It isn't the response they are expecting. What I have observed over my time working with kids is that many students come to school as lovely, friendly kids and in a few short years they have morphed into a kids that excludes people for different reasons (i.e you're poor, you're dumb, you're fat, you're ugly, you've got XYZ disorder and the list could go on.) 

This exclusion of kids is often condoned, if not encouraged, by the parents. I remember one instance where a student invited every single child in the class to their birthday party except for one student. They handed out their invitations in front of this child and the poor kid was standing there waiting for his invitation that never came. To add insult to injury at playtime the birthday boy told the uninvited child that his mum said that he couldn't come because he had autism. As a parent my heart bled for him. The cruelty of the situation was huge. When I spoke to the birthday boy's mother about it she denied that she had said that he wasn't invited because he had autism but was more a matter of 'well you have to draw the line somewhere.' (I truly don't believe for a second that a seven year old is going to come up with the reason 'because you have autism' on their own. ) I did convince her that there wasn't much difference between 24 and 25 children at the party. He was eventually invited, he went and enjoyed himself. 

I'm not seeing what I consider to be well adjusted, well socialised kids in schools. Some people have said "oh that's normal for kids to do this and do that..." Is it though? I don't think it is. Over the sixteen years I have taught I have seen an alarming change in what is deemed 'normal' and 'acceptable' behaviour. When I started teaching the preps, Grade 1 and Grade 2 students they were, in my opinion, well adjusted, friendly students who, for the most part, included everyone in their class. Not every student in a class is going to be besties each other, that's a given. What I have noticed in kids of late is that they seem to think that merely not liking a kids isn't 'enough'- they have to tell that child that they don't like them. They have to let them know that they "hate" them. And then the spiral of "tit for tat" starts that can last years. I don't want my boys in that kind of environment where  behaviour like this is considered okay- because it's not okay with me.

I could go on about socialisation for ages. But enough for now. I promise I will talk about this is a future post. 

4. Time wasting: As a teacher I see an enormous amount of time wasted in schools. When you step back and have a look at how much time children actually spend on independent learning tasks it is in my estimation about two hours of real learning time per day while they are at school for  six and a half hours a day. There's wasting time while the teacher deals with students with behavioural issues, there is the organisational stuff (marking the role-which I've seen take one teacher take 10 minutes to do twice a day each day, lunch orders etc etc) There's waiting in line, there is waiting for the rest of the class to finish their work so they can go on with the next part of the session. I often see children waiting in line and think that my kids aren't going to waste so much of their lives waiting in a line. When we home school we are going to do an hour each of reading, writing and numeracy and the rest of the day is going to be on the 'rest of the stuff' like Science, History and Geography. 

5. The Rigor and Routine: This is the stuff I truly loath. I hate the idea that my children will do something just because they hear a bell. It's very "Pavlov's dogs." I don't like the idea of uniforms, lines and being silent. I don't think this is what children are meant to do. The longest hour of the week is assembly. Expecting children (and adults for that matter) to sit in one place for an entire hour listening to awards, house points, "Week in review" by the principal is ridiculous. When I questioned this I was told that it was indeed a learning experience because they were learning how to be a good audience member. But you know what?! My boys are going to learn about being a good audience member when they go to see puppet shows, or to the movies! Which one would you prefer to be doing? Over a year that's 40 set aside for assembly, or 280 hours over seven years at primary school! I'm pretty sure I can find something more exciting to do in those 280 hours!!!!

6. Anti social behaviour: Here I'm talking about aggression and harassment between students, and students towards teachers. Bullying is a huge issue in mainstream schooling. Every day I see examples of clear and obvious bullying such as hitting, kicking, punching, scratching, biting and name calling. These ones are easier to get to the bottom of because there is often others who see it. 

But then there are the more subtle examples of bullying (particularly with girls) which are a lot harder to deal with because they aren't out in the open like a punch. There are often no witnesses to the incident. I'm talking about children intimidating other students through whispers, excluding from groups, notes, emails, text messages (I'm amazed at how many primary aged students have access to mobile phones.) Even when faced with the physical note, email etc students will often deny their involvement saying "it wasn't me that wrote that note" (for example) and then it becomes a matter of "he said, she said."

With each example, regardless of whether it is the open kind or subtle kind of behaviour there is a limit to what the schools are "allowed" to do. I've seen one student kick the principal in the face, the VP in the balls, bite, kick, punch, spit on their class teacher, and I personally was hit over the head with a rock while trying to protect a student from being hit. This was all by the same student, and he obviously has major issues. He was suspended over ten times in the first term. The department was of little help to the school in regards to how to deal with him and he continues to be aggressive towards everyone he encounters. Yes he definitely has the 'right to an education' but I think the students and staff's right to a safe learning and work place should be put above his right to an education. Some may say this is wrong, but what I feel is wrong is hordes of students (and staff) feeling anxious everyday about what one child might do to them. Saying to a child that child X has a right to be there at school which mean they will more than likely be assaulted by the other child- that doesn't help the child to feel safe.

So there are the main reasons for us to choose homeschooling for our kids. We are by no means 'anti-teacher' but rather we don't like the limits put onto teachers in regards to the way we teach. I'm sure mainstream schooling will work for many people but not for everyone. 

Please come back to see more of my posts about our homeschooling journey.