The Spirit of Ma’at Vol 1, No 10

Fanning the Flames An Adventure Into Homeschooling

with Diane Flynn Keith

by Diane M. Cooper

Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.

- William Butler Yeats

Diane Flynn Keith has homeschooled her two sons for nine years. She is also the Editor of HomeFires - the Journal of Homeschooling Online. She is a writer and a popular speaker at homeschool events and conferences.

DMC: What caused you to seek homeschooling for your children?

Diane Keith: Basically we had exhausted all the alternatives. My oldest son, who is now 16, went to preschool, and we assumed that we were going to go through the school system like everyone else.

His preschool experience was pretty good - until he went to kindergarten, which was a team-taught class. The teachers couldn't agree on policy or education, and they were fighting constantly. It created a really tough environment in the classroom. Plus, it was a very structured, academic-intensive program - kind of a prep program. And as far as I could see, this was totally inappropriate for little kids. We then tried a Waldorf school for a year, and at that school there was an awful lot of disruptive behavior in the classroom which the teacher wasn't capable of handling.

My son was miserably unhappy, and it wasn't the right educational environment for him. So at that point I started to read as much as I could about homeschooling.

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

-Mark Twain

DMC: Is there an accepted structure for homeschooling?

Diane: I think that homeschooling comes in as many shapes and varieties as there are people. First of all, there are many reasons people homeschool. Some come into homeschooling for religious reasons. Some come in because they have an educational philosophy that may not correspond with what's being taught in public or private schools. Some come because they think they can achieve academic excellence with a one-on-one, custom-tailored education for their child. Gifted children and kids with learning disabilities also prosper with individualized instruction.

There is a huge advantage to homeschooling because the curriculum can be tailored exactly to the child's particular needs, interests, and abilities. Many kids learn better in a one-on-one environment where they can progress at their own speed. You also can get rid of what doesn't work and find things that do work easily without having to get board approval to change the curriculum. Many people homeschool their kids because of the desocialization going on in the public schools, and they want to provide a safer environment for their kids.

Once you get past the reasons for homeschooling, then the methods that can be used are just as varied. In a fundamentalist Christian homeschool, for example, you might find a very structured, traditional format, with 45 minutes of math, 45 minutes of history, and so on. The kids might work at a desk or at the kitchen table from nine to two, ticking off the subjects just as they would do in public school. Packaged curriculum products that can be purchased through a distributor might also be used.

For those who stubbornly seek freedom, there can be no more urgent task than to come to understand the mechanisms and practices of indoctrination. These are easy to perceive in the totalitarian societies, much less so in the system of 'brainwashing under freedom' to which we are subjected and which all too often we serve as willing or unwilling instruments.

-Noam Chomsky

The other end of the spectrum is what is called ''unschooling.'' There is a guy named John Holt who was a teacher, and in the 1970s, after teaching kids for a long time, he came to the belief that to take children and sit them down in the classroom all day with a textbook that was totally irrelevant to their lives or interests was psychopathic. After viewing children for many years, he felt and saw that kids really are all about learning. If you just follow their lead and facilitate the subjects that they are interested in, you will most likely cover everything that would normally be covered in a classroom situation. He coined the term ''unschooling.'' He started the ''Growing Without School'' movement, and now there is a magazine on the subject (see Growing Without Schooling, Holt Associates).

Holt died in 1985, but the movement continues.

So here you have these two ends of the spectrum. One is going to follow the interests of the child and realize that children naturally learn everything they need to know to be literate. On the other end, you'll find someone who is following the traditional school model.

Most homeschoolers will fall somewhere in between. We call them ''eclectic.'' They might use a textbook to teach math, but they also might read historical fiction to their kids in order to cover history. They might hire a scientist or an engineer to come in to teach a science class, or they might exchange with another homeschooling parent who has aptitude in writing or languages. They will create all kinds of opportunities for their kids to learn. They may learn very traditional subjects in non-traditional ways.

DMC: What are the most important things a parent must have in order to homeschool?

Diane: I think there are three very important things. First, you've really got to love your kids and enjoy being around them and believe that teaching them is a really good idea. Second, You've got to trust in your own ability to find the materials that your child needs in order to explore subjects until they are completely satisfied. And three, you've got to trust that your child will learn.

DMC: I've read that if you provide kids with opportunities to learn, they will gravitate toward the process naturally.

Diane: They do, all the time. Successful homeschooling parents will take many interesting items and sprinkle them around their house, anticipating that their child might pick them up out of curiosity. I do that. I might leave a science kit lying on the table in the living room. I might put Discover magazine in the bathroom, or a novel in the family room, or I might put out an educational game. Everything springboards you to some subject.

I actually do a workshop for parents where I take a bag of M&Ms and show how someone can cover every subject in school by exploring what's on the outside and inside of a bag of M&Ms. Everything in life is a learning opportunity.

DMC: Sounds magical in comparison to traditional schooling.

Diane: It is remarkable. But you have to understand when your child gets to a certain age their education will look nothing like a public school education. They may have covered all the subjects but not in the traditional way. Perhaps they never studied the Renaissance period but they may have spent three years studying Egypt. Is that any less valuable than traditional history? In traditional school you never get an opportunity to spend as much time as you want on subjects that you are most interested in and for which you might have a natural talent. If you have children who have been allowed to explore as much as they desire, their overall knowledge of the world is going to look different than that of kids who are schooled in the traditional way, where you are required to study it all whether you are good at it or not.

For some people who wouldn't understand how to create a really rich learning environment, perhaps homeschooling wouldn't be the right choice for them. Homeschooling is more for people who get that just by exposure alone you can introduce incredible topics that kids can grab hold of and explore to their hearts content.

DMC: When I think of putting myself in the position of finding education for my child, I certainly wouldn't pick traditional schooling. But I would also have to consider what seems to be an incredible commitment far beyond motherhood when you choose to homeschool.

Diane: Most people think that way. But I put motherhood and education in the same camp. It is an incredible commitment to make the choice to have a child in the first place. Parenting to me is about providing a really rich and safe environment to nurture the child's interests and needs and abilities. If your goal is to raise a human being who is responsible, caring, enthusiastic, and informed, and provide an environment that reinforces those attributes, homeschooling can become a part of the parenting process. It's a real integration of home, family, work, learning, and play. It actually comes very naturally for people if they would just allow the process to happen.

The problem is that our society more and more pulls families apart. Dad's off working, Mom's off working, and the kids are shipped off to daycare and schools. So the family members never have an opportunity to get together for extended periods of time - to get to know one another, to work together and play together. The bonding process that occurs within the family when they go through this thing called homeschooling is just remarkable. There is incredible good will that is established between the family members toward one another, and the environment is just so healthy, happy, and rich. The incredible relationships between family members is really the long-term benefit of homeschooling, as far as I'm concerned.

My grandmother wanted me to have an education, so she kept me out of school.

-Margaret Mead

DMC: Who decides what the children learn?

Diane: I think the children do, ultimately. I think parents should not think of themselves as ''the sage on the stage,'' but ''the guide by the side.'' Instead of trying to fill these little people up with information that you think they should have, if you just watch and listen and expose them to a lot, you'll begin to see little flames of interest. It is your job as a facilitator to fan the flames. They may burn really bright or they may come in short bursts. The flame of interest could last three days or three years, or it might even last forever. But that is the child's choice, ultimately.

DMC: Tell me how you began the process of homeschooling with your children.

Diane: I started out with packaged curriculum because I was trying to follow the model in which I had been raised. I went to a private Catholic school most of my life, so I was really being preped for college. I assumed that my kids would go the same route. I bought packaged curriculum products - and after a little while, they refused to go along with the program.

I was talking to a friend who had been through something similar, and she told me that all she did at first was read to her child. By reading to her, they covered history, because she chose historical fiction. Her daughter learned to read. Her vocabulary improved because Mom was using big words and pointing them out in the book and explaining what they meant. She told me that she didn't think it was a bad year to spend your time reading to your children and see where it takes you. Books springboard you to many different subjects!

So I took her advice and I read to my kids, sometimes as much as six hours a day. They might play with Leggos or clay or whatever they were doing, and I'd read. We'd read all the stories they wanted to read, and sometimes we'd read them three or four times. When I wanted to introduce them to something a little more rich, they learned to negotiate. We read stories about dinosaurs, and it just so happened that an exhibition came to town that had robotic dinosaurs. That lead us to the museum that had rocks, and my kids got interested in archeology and digging for sharks' teeth. I read them a Hardy Boys mystery, and in the story a metal detector was used - so we got a metal detector.

Using the metal detector, we ended up finding an unusual coin at the beach. So we took it to a coin collector's shop. The owner, when he saw how interested my kids were in coins, locked the door of his shop, opened his vault, and spent the next three hours teaching my kids about the history of coins. Because he also had precious stones, one of my sons got interested in famous jewels. That eventually led to a trip to the Smithsonian to see the Hope Diamond. At the Smithsonian, he saw moon rocks, and that led to a real exploration of space and astronomy. That interest has really carried forward to this day, as he is very interested in astronomy and flight. He is just getting his solo pilot's license in about two weeks. He plans to get his private pilot's license in about a year.

DMC: How old is he?

Diane: Sixteen.

Set me a task in which I can put something of my very self, and it is a task no longer; it is joy; it is art.

- Bliss Carman

DMC: What about the younger son - he was completely homeschooled, right?

Diane: Actually, he tried kindergarten for about a month and a half. But the teacher thought he was too precocious. He was a spontaneous reader. He taught himself to read at four years old. We didn't do phonics programs with him - he just got it. So because of that, he went into the classroom and he could pick up the fairytales and just read them. The teacher said he was disruptive to the classroom because he would read to the other kids, and that he had too much information for a child that age. As if I had control of that! She just didn't know what to do with a child like this.

This was supposed to be an alternative school, accepting of individual differences. I saw we were going to have problems all along the way, so I chose to keep him home and let him learn at the pace he was comfortable with. He refers to himself as a kindergarten dropout.

This kid really loves nature. We read nature story after nature story. He raised hamsters and rabbits, chinchillas and iguana, cats and dogs. He reads all kinds of survival stories and he's turning into a wilderness expert. He can build shelters, start a fire from scratch, trap animals if needed to survive. He got into ornithology and is fascinated with raptors. He is studying to take his falconer exam in the next month or two. Just today he got accepted to a program as a docent in a zoo in San Jose, so he'll be teaching other kids about the animals in the zoo. He also will be a camp counselor for their summer program.

DMC: ...and he's only fourteen?

Diane: He's only fourteen. And reading was the start of it all.

DMC: You mention in your website that there are ''legal'' ways to start homeschooling. What are those ways?

Diane: In the United States, homeschooling is legal in all 50 states. However, the way you can homeschool differs. Some states recognize the parents' right to educate their children and the parents have to do very little in terms of recordkeeping and getting approval from the state to do what they want to do. California is one of the states that offers parents a very unrestricted method of homeschooling.

In other states, you can only homeschool through the public schools, which then offer home study programs. Essentially what that means is that the school finds a facilitator for each family, usually a certified teacher who oversees the curriculum. They help the family develop a course of study. They might provide resources and materials for a family to use. In some states they might insist on testing each year, and as long as the kids are meeting the bare measure of academic literacy they are allowed to continue to homeschool.

In some states, families can establish their homes as private schools which are then operated exactly in the same manner as any private school, except the only children enrolled in the school are your own.

DMC: Does that handle the state's compulsory attendance laws?

Diane: In California they don't have a law that addresses homeschooling, but private school teachers do not have to have a valid teaching credential. So I put the state on notice that I had established a private school, and enrolled two students.

DMC: How is the high school diploma handled?

Diane: Everyone thinks that you have to have a diploma to go to college, but you don't. A candidate becomes eligible by passing the interview process, having decent SAT scores, and, through a documented portfolio, being able to give the college an idea of what he or she has been involved in. Some colleges now require that homeschooled students also take SAT II tests to determine proficiency in various subjects like English and Math. Or the whole testing process can be bypassed by going to community colleges for two years and then transferring to a college or university.

If you have established your home as a private school, you can create transcripts for your student to satisfy that requirement. Also, many colleges have adapted their admissions procedures to accommodate homeschoolers who don't have typical transcripts. The best advice is to contact the college of choice and find out exactly what their admissions procedures and requirements are for the homeschooled student.

Many colleges actively recruit homeschooled students because such students usually have a very good idea of what they are interested in studying - also, the colleges see these kids as very self-motivated. It's exactly what they want on their campuses.

DMC: What are the challenges that the kids and parents face when they begin homeschooling?

Diane: If they start from birth, they don't have the same kinds of challenges that people do with kids who have been in traditional school for a while.

The rule of thumb is this: For every year a child has been in traditional school, you need to allow at least one month of deprogramming time when you bring them home to homeschool. If they've been in pre-school, you have to double the time.

DMC: Why ''double the time''?

Diane: Because they are so moldable at the pre-school age. If they are taught how to stand in a row, told what to do, where to do, when to do, how to do, for an extended period of time, they need a lot of time to deprogram to a point where natural curiosity guides them to what they want to do. Some kids need a full year to just sit around and do nothing academically. This usually freaks parents out. But during this time, what you do is expose them to the bounty of life. You take them on field trips. You read together, you do fun projects together, you do art. Sometimes these kids just need time to sit and think, or they need solitude, because they have been constantly under surveillance by teachers - graded and typecast. They need to break the mold and rediscover their own innate talent to learn, which they will if they are given enough time and parents just trust that process.

Trusting is often difficult for people coming into homeschooling - particularly for parents. But if they give their children that time, they will be successful.

DMC: If a parent is seriously considering homeschooling, what are the first steps?

Diane: First, find out the legal aspects for homeschooling in your particular location. Once you know homeschooling is legal, then the next thing is to read about how other people homeschool. Look at the different homeschooling methods and figure out your personal educational philosophy. This will be your plumbline and will guide you into a curriculum. It also will help you choose activities, and determine how you and your children are going to spend the day. Your personal educational philosophy will guide you forever through homeschooling.

Also, it is important to get connected with other homeschoolers. Attend homeschooling conferences where you can hear speakers, go to workshops, and meet other homeschoolers. Also, homeschool support groups are available in every state, and homeschool e-lists give support online. It's good to surround yourself with like-minded people who will encourage you and share resources.

DMC: How do you know that you are a successful homeschooler?

Diane: Gosh, you're with your children so much that you have a really clear idea of where they are and how they are doing. Keep a journal, and at the end of every week, just write down the things you did with your kids. This serves as documentation of what you've accomplished with them, and its a nice record to have for yourself and your children.

You can also tell you're successful because others will tell you that your kids are really remarkable. That kind of feedback gives you acknowledgment and affirms that what you are doing is the right choice.

But mainly, you'll know because these kids are remarkably happy. What have they got to be angry about? They spend their days exploring things they really love. They are surrounded by people who really love them and respect them and are trying to help them be the best that they can be. The result is that you have happy, well-adjusted, literate, talented kids. Most homeschoolers fit into that category. I'm sure there are exceptions to the rule, but the majority of the families I've met have capable, happy kids.

Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children.

- Walt Disney

To contact Diane Flynn Keith and the Journal of Homeschooling, go to www.homefires.com.