Radical Homeschooling

I haven't talked much about my views on education here, in this space. It's odd really. I've raised two kids, after all. Now, thanks to the pandemic, it seems everyone is schooling at home (which, by the way, is completely different from homeschooling).

We were/are radical homeschoolers. The older kid is already an adult and off on his own. We must not of screwed him up too bad, because he's on scholarships and already has one degree under his belt (received at the ripe ol' age of 18) and is halfway through his next degree. And yes, these degrees are from actual colleges.

The second kid would be a sophomore if he went to the local school. In truth, I couldn't tell you what grade level he is at. He could probably compete with any high school or community college graduate on even footing, and likely could do better than most.

The hardest part about homeschooling is finding shit that isn't full of fake crap because of religion. It seems that if you are religious, there are more things you can't teach your kid than things you can't -- evolution, big bang theory, a lot of basic biology and physics, sex ed, certain parts of animal behavior, and factual as opposed to whitewashed romanticized history.

The easiest part of homeschooling is you don't have to deal with the bureaucratic nonsense of most schools. Freedom, bitches. It's always about freedom!

In the early years I took it easy. Lots of crafty and hands on shit. We basically followed the kids' interests with minimal structure. The only thing I insisted on each day during grade school was a bit of math and reading/grammar daily.We definitely leaned toward the unschooling side of the equation, which means we would follow passions. One week could see us obsessed with ancient Rome and the next may have found us experimenting with gravity well emulators.

A bit more structure was added in middle school. We kept up with math but reading gave way to composition and a bit of literature. They were assigned a history period and geographical area each year, but they designed their own research project on it (one opted to do in depth timelines, the other did a plethora of little booklets and folders). Science was easy for our science loving family. We followed interests and got kits or found stuff online. Lots and lots of astronomy and biology. Tons.

High school is where shit gets real. The eldest was the easiest. He fucking LOVES textbooks. So, we grabbed some textbooks on the core subjects and he happily worked through them. He did take some elective classes -- music, art, a history class at one point. Then, right before his junior year, he decided to go to college instead of finishing high school. Just like that, we were done homeschooling him.

Homeschooling in 2020

So here we are in the plague year. We got one kid who just wrapped up his freshman year. Any plans we had are in the garbage now. So what are we doing with him?

Well, first and foremost, he is not interested in heading off to college next year. He's thinking about taking a class or two at the community college for his junior and senior year, if on-campus classes are ever a thing again.

He is well ahead of grade level, so last year was a bit of a blow off. Life was crazy (uprooting, settling, adjusting, my mental health...). He did some online math so he didn't fall behind, what ever it is kids can fall behind of, and pursued his own interests -- primarily science, coding, and engineering stuff.

I'm not one for following the status quo, but I don't want to screw my kid over either. So the basic goal is to make sure he is college ready in the event he chooses to follow that path. So we decided to tighten shit up a bit:

• Math: He chose "Making Math Meaningful." Honestly, I think he'll be bored, he seems pretty far beyond this stage, but it was inexpensive enough so we'll see. He's doing their grade 10 book, which appears to be some trig and geometry, with a bit of algebra. 
• Composition and Literature: We went with Oak Meadow, a secular company with eco-hippy ideals. Right up my alley! The name of the curriculum is "Hero's Journey" and it has a bunch of cool books as required reading (Like Krakauer's "Into the Wild"). I can get the books from our library -- they have all of them as both ebooks and audible books, so yay! We just had to get the course book (used and cheap, of course). It's essentially your basic high school English with cooler required reading and a year long theme.
• Science: Another Oak Meadow choice, and the real reason we were looking at them -- their high school science stuff is considered very legit. It was a toss up between environmental science and chemistry, and he ended up going with chem. This was the most expensive. I got the course book and textbook cheaply via used sources, but the lab kit was $275. Eek, but what can you do?
• World Geography: Yet more Oak Meadow. Pretty simple and basic, cheaply procured on the used market. We're combining this with a crash course on basic workings of the government via Crash Course (free PBS thing). He is pretty up on politics and the government, but just want to make sure there are no holes in his knowledge on how our broken system is actually designed to (not) work. 

Yep, that's right, only four "formal" classes. Remember, for the average high schooler half of their classes would fall under electives, aka hobby classes. This kid has hobbies. We call those electives. Why not? I mean he plays the keyboard in his spare time, isn't that the same as a  music elective? He spent yesterday designing a kite that attaches to a floor fan, isn't that the same as engineering club or even an art elective? Enforced electives -- those I call busy work. 

How It All Plays Out

We are pretty lax. I give him a binder at the beginning of the school year, usually sometime in May. It has the expectations for the year laid out. He looks at his school shit, decided how he is going to pace the work, and then does it when he feels like it. He's not much for school in the morning, that's his gaming time with friends, so he usually does it in the afternoon or evening. Who cares?  I collect it every couple of days and grade it for him, and then we go over any issues.

If he needs help, he asks for it. Actually, he usually Googles it first, watches some YouTube vids, and then asks for help if those fail.

The goal is to be done by mid-June, when the public schools around here get out. He typically finishes around Mid-May, though.

Seriously, it really is this easy. I've been through it with two now. People always ask, but what about when they refuse to do the work? They usually don't at least not more than for a couple of days. We've made it pretty clear from the beginning that failing to get an education hurts them, not us. Maybe that's why they don't fight it. Of course, we also never treated our kids like property or demanded shit from them because of parental power trips, so they naturally have a pretty high level of innate responsibility.