You Call That Homeschooling? Part Twoby Andrea Hermitt | More from this Blogger 22 Mar 2008 08:38 PM About six months ago, Valorie wrote a blog called You Call That Homeschooling. It's excellent. Go read it. Well some messages from the last couple of days have me in a place where I am defending my mode of homeschooling. While it is a bit odd to turn someone else's post into a series, this discussion was only fitting to put under the same category. If you read my post from this morning, Homeschool Resource Review: The Masters Academy of Fine Arts, then you know that someone has challenged the way I homeschool my kids as not really counting as homeschooling. I have been accused of not practicing what I preach. I feel like I was called a fraud. But here's the thing. Homeschooling means so many things to so many people.
To homeschoolers, homeschooling can mean: Unschooling,which loosely means allowing a child to learn on their own terms. A literature approach to learning as in the Charlotte Mason Approach Unit studies where children learn all disciplines while covering one topic at a time. A Classical approach to education, learning in the same way our forefathers were taught. An eclectic approach that combines some or all of the previously mentioned methods. Homeschooling can be done in the home, in a classroom built in the home, sprawled across the living room furniture, or under the dining room table which has been draped with a sheet to resemble a tent. (My daughters favorite place to get her work done.) Homeschooling can happen in a park, at the parents workplace, or at Grandma's house when mom and dad are working. Homeschooling can be done with the use of Co-op classes, by taking classes at the local community college. Homeschooling can also be done with the help of an online high school that parents pay for, or a local once, or twice, or thrice a week program where kids get tutored in their courses. It is bad enough that strangers who are not involved at all with homeschooling put restrictions on what homeschoolers are supposed to look like and do. But, I have also noticed that fellow homeschoolers also try to put all homeschoolers into the same box they fit in. I think it is really unfair to ask a family who has escaped from the square shaped box called public school to jump into your round shaped box, when they clearly belong in a heart shaped box. This is what I call homeschooling folks. To each his or her own! Learn more about Andrea Hermitt  Andrea Hermitt is a native New Yorker currently residing in GA. She has been married for over 16 years and has two teenage children. Relevanthomeschooling tags User Comments jeannieisnew (75) 23 Mar 2008 06:39 PMAndrea, I really enjoy reading your blog. You are so witty and entertaining, but you also clearly know your stuff! That was why I was a bit puzzled by your comment about "online answer to keeping kids in school." I just enrolled my son in a virtual academy, and feel great about that decision. I did this because he does not fit in the square box. I do, however, like the idea that he will still need to be accountable for his achievement. I know this isn't 'true homeschool'...and I guess that's because the state still has a say in what I do. However, I am both excited and nervous about what we are about to do, and wonder if we will be seen as the enemy by BOTH brick-and-mortar families and the homeschool community. I have noted in several blogs here that there should be an atmosphere of tolerance, both for those who put their children on a bus as well as for those who choose to homeschool. I believe that was the meaning of your blog, and if I mis-read that one statement, my apologies. I just wonder what reception I will receive if I join a homeschool group while using a virtual academy...will I be percieved as undermining all that for which homeschool stands?  Andrea Hermitt (5512) 23 Mar 2008 08:32 PMJeannieisnew, thank you for the compliment and question. I started answering it and kept writing and writing. I realized it was blog length so I am posting it. It will show up tomorrow. You made some good points and asked some good questions. Community Tags approach, homeschooling, home school Discuss this article
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