My 3 children have never spent a day in school in their lives.
My boy, Isaiah, turns 12 this month. Grace is 8 and Olive is 5.
Today would be Olive's first day in school! She absolutely does not want to go to school! And I am glad that I don't have to send my "baby" away.
I have added more and more reasons for homeschooling/unschooling over the years.
Initially, I just didn't want to sent away my "baby" to school at age 5.
I had never had him in daycare. The only babysitter that he ever had was grandma. I loved being with my child, and he loved being with mommy. I am a very "attached" mom. I breastfed for an "extended" time, co-slept with each child until they felt ready for their own bed. I'm a stay-at-home mom. My mom was at home for me, and I want to do the same for my children.
When Isaiah was a baby, I picked up a used book at the 2nd-hand-store called, "Better Late Than Early" by Dr. Raymond Moore. This book explained why children should start school at a later age when they are psychologically and physically ready for formal schooling. He suggested looking for the signs that they are ready for school, and then enrolling them in the age-appropriate-grade, like grade 2 or 3. This book was written before homeschooling became well-known, and many years after this book was written, Dr. Moore started advocating for homeschooling.
When Isaiah was Kindergarten age, I got some really simple workbooks and attempted them. He refused to color anything, and 75% of the curriculum seemed to involve coloring. And he couldn't hear the sounds that they expected; like "f" make "fish". After one or two weeks I stopped, and said to myself, "Oh well! It's only Kindergarten." The rest of the year we used no curriculum.
It turns out that school would have been DISASTROUS for Isaiah. He is very "right-brained". He is a hands-on learner and learns on a different schedule than the "left-brained" school system. He is extremely bright, in fact I suspect he would be classified as "gifted" if I ever were to get him tested and diagnosed. But he is what they call twice-exceptional (2E) because his reading skills have come much later than school would expect. But you know what? I found out that is NORMAL for his learning-style and personality. And when he is homeschooled I have no need to put him in a box and force something unnatural on him.
Yes, I strongly believe that school would be Developmentally-Inappropriate for Isaiah.
He would probably be given labels like ADHD even though I know that he is completely healthy and normal. When you read the definition of ADHD in the psychology books, the definition revolves around school. In summary, ADHD is any child that can't sit still when they are forced to do boring or irrelevant stuff in a classroom. To me that is normal child behavior and certainly does not need drugs/medication to treat it.
This E-Book helped me immensely to understand my Right-Brained Child. "The Right Side of Normal" (www.TheRightSideofNormal.com)
LOVES TO LEARN -- HATES TO BE TAUGHT
This sure describes my right-brained son! Left-brained children are more compliant. Right-brained children are more resistant.
Quote from eBook, The Right Side of Normal:
"For the highly right-brained children, complying with a mismatched environment isn't even an option. Resistance is a tool often used to communicate that something isn't working."
Yes, so he might even have been labelled "Oppositional Defiant Disorder" (ODD). Just because school was environmentally-inappropriate for his learning style and personality.
Isaiah has already known for a couple of years that he is going to be an electrician one day. Heck, he has already gone to "Google University" and learned more about electricity than most could imagine. Three years ago, we met an electrician who was in shock about what Isaiah already knew, and who told us that he hadn't learned those things until he was in Electrician Technical School. The thing is, that Isaiah has had a chance to delve fully into what interests him, and it is amazing what he has learned given the time and space.
My two girls are excelling as well. Maybe I'll talk more about them on another post.
My son's close friend has been asking me to homeschool him too. He did not want to go back to "prison" today. His learning style is similar to my son's, plus he gets bullied really badly.
I wish that more children had the opportunity to experience Life Learning like my children do.
All the best Steemsters!
Let me know your thoughts.
