In 1991 Dr. Bill Hagan, a religion professor at California State University at Dominguez Hills who was my children’s professor when they were earning their Master’s Degrees through independent study, phoned to tell me that he and his fifteen-year-old daughter were going to be passing through El Paso the following week. He said that since they were going to be here, he would like to come by our house and meet his students in person. Although the children were finished with their school day before he and his daughter arrived, we spent several hours talking about my approach to home education and how I incorporated my educational philosophy into my classroom.
In 1993 our family was featured on the CBS series How’d They Do That? and, because Dr. Hagan had actually visited us in our home, they interviewed him to ask why he thought we had been so successful with homeschooling. When the show aired, I was surprised to discover that in his interview Dr. Hagan said that although we had a homeschool, I ran it like a “real school.” Initially, I was taken aback by his remark because the truth was that I ran my homeschool nothing like a traditional public or private school, and I could not imagine why Dr. Hagan would come away with that impression.
As I thought about Dr. Hagan’s remarks, however, I realized that most people, including many homeschoolers, do not recognize a homeschool as a “real school.” Many people assume that homeschools have little, if any, real structure and that homeschooled students are allowed to study only what interests them and to do so on whatever schedule suits them. Unfortunately, there is some basis for people having this impression of homeschoolers, and it has led to many parents applying this line of thinking to their homeschools.
I am, therefore, writing this blog to offer some insights into how to make your homeschool “real.” Not real in the sense that it will be modeled after the public system, but real in that it will be a structured and predictable part of your family’s daily life.
First, set “real” school hours. At our house, school was in session from 8:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. Normally, that ended the school day. However, if anyone had not finished his work in that allotted time, he came back to school at 1:00 p.m. to complete his lessons. This schedule was a constant during the 25 years that I homeschooled. As the children grew older and their work became more advanced, we found it necessary to make some changes, but the school hours were written in stone. If, however, someone finished his work in less than the three hours allotted, he was “out of school” for the day.
Second, each day give each student “real” assignments that include all of the subjects to be covered and the amount of work to be completed in each subject. When your students know in advance exactly what they are required to accomplish during their school day, they tend to get to work and get it finished so that they will be free to do other things.
Third, set up a “real” school year. Prior to the beginning of the school year, set up your calendar so that you know ahead of time exactly when your school year will begin and when it will end. You may be thinking that this third suggestion should, actually, be the first suggestion. Under normal circumstances, that would be correct; however, I am writing this in the middle of the school year. I have, therefore, moved it to third place so that you can make your adjustments now for a school year that is not on target.
At the beginning of the school year, mark your starting date and your ending date for the school year on your calendar. Next, count the number of actual school days in each month (remember to subtract any days such as holidays or school breaks so that you will have an accurate count of actual school days).
If you use a curriculum with daily lesson plans, check to determine whether you have allowed a sufficient number of days to complete all lesson plans. If not, adjust your calendar so that you will either begin your school year earlier or end it later in order to complete all lessons. It is a good idea to allow ten additional days for emergencies and sickness that may interfere with your schedule.
If you do not use a curriculum with daily lesson plans, prepare a daily lesson plan for each student for the coming school year. That way you will know exactly how much work each of your students needs to complete each day.
We are now at the mid-point in the year, but you can use this same system to discover exactly how many days your students will need in order to complete their current grade levels. When you have done that, adjust your calendar to allow time for them to do so. If you discover that in order to complete their work your students will need to have a longer school year than you had anticipated, you can let them know now and avoid a lot of unhappiness in May.
Setting up a “real” school year, establishing “real” school hours, and giving your students “real” assignments each day will help you create a homeschool that operates like a “real” school.
Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker. Her own story of teaching her ten children from the first grade through master’s degrees before their seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother. For more information visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.
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