March 10, 2009 6:15 AM
Why homeschool preschool? Part 2
[This is the second in a four-part series: Why Your Preschooler Can Thrive at Home taken from a chapter from my book, Mommy, Teach Me! The first part is The Best Teacher is Forever.]
The Best Classroom Has No WallsI mentioned how the modern approach to education - compartmentalization - has produced the idea that only professionals are qualified to teach.
A second mistaken notion is that education is something that happens in a building designated for that purpose.Nothing could be farther from the truth. From the get go, a baby is learning from everything around him. From the time he first grips a rattle and brings it to his mouth to explore with all his senses the size and shape and sound and texture - to his first steps, first torn picture book, first scribble on the wall - your child is expressing his potential for learning in everything he does. The first torn picture book and scribbles on the walls are like beginning science experiments: What are the properties of paper? What is cause and effect? Which is why, though we train children not to repeat destructive behavior, the first time it happens there is no basis for punishment. Until the child knows what is right and wrong, he is conducting research like any good scientist.
So God has given us this setup: A child who loves to learn and a mother who has the potential to be the best teacher her particular child will ever know - two perfect partners in a world perhaps best described by Robert Louis Stevenson:
"The world is so full of a number of things,
I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings"And what is their classroom?
Quite simply, The World: Whirligig seeds fluttering down from maple branches. Bees buzzing in a thicket of lavender. A salamander slithering from under a rock. A bobwhite's nest built in the middle of the action. A mother kitten and her babies. Lightning and thunder and sunshine and snow. So many different clouds. Produce aisles. The sights and sounds and smells and textures in the kitchen. The order of a place setting at the table. The mail box and the person who comes each day to fill it. The plumbing problem and the person who visits occasionally to fix it. The grief-stricken family for whom you made dinner.
A world so full of things meant to make us happy as kings that it seems ridiculous to think we have relegated education to a big building with a bunch of rooms - each room filled with same-age children and one grown-up whose specialty is teaching one grade. And even more absurd that we allow the distraction of TV and video games to undermine the child's natural sense of wonder at all that reality has to offer.
Do I know that kids gravitate toward the distractions? Well, since I have kids, I certainly do. And something inside us allows it because we ourselves are jaded. How else to explain parents allowing kids to watch a DVD in the backseat rather than looking out the window at the world around them? We've forgotten our own innocent delight at the world around us.
If you have young children, now is the time not only to keep pointing your child toward the wonder of the world around him, but to rekindle your own sense of awe.
Later we will discuss how to prepare your home environment to better teach your child. But don't get stuck in the idea that any particular place you set aside is your child's classroom.
With you as teacher, the whole world will be his to learn from.
Photo credit: Lisa (Stretch Mark Mama)'s son decorating the table with nature's beauty. And below, Lisa's sons cleaning up a public park.
Posted in Homeschooling, Montessori, Preschoolers, Toddlers | Permalink
Comments
There is so. much. pressure. on moms to send their kids to preschool these days. And it is so! expensive! Not to mention that it causes the mom to run hither and thither, thus cutting back on the important "mommy and me" times that are so special.
I didn't reeeaaally start to enjoy my kids until they turned four (I'm not a big "baby" person) and it meant a lot to me to have them stay home for a little bit longer.
All that said, I *do* think that "official" preschool does have its benefits -- I just don't think it's essential.
When moms ask for my opinion (which I give, of course!) about preschooling at home, I tell them this:
1) Read GOOD books to your child
2) Find a GOOD set of workbooks (I recommend "Developing the Early Learner, 1-4)
3) Use real-life situations (siblings, friends, outings) to teach your child about proper social behavior (manners, apologizing, etc.)
4) Enjoy the time you have with your child -- it goes all too fast
Posted by: Stretch Mark Mama | March 11, 2009 1:54 AM
