One of the biggest joys of homeschooling, in my opinion, is having the freedom to explore and learn without a lot of outside restrictions. I freely admit that my views on this were shaped back in the 90s when I was a new homeschool mom. I was in the second wave of families coming into homeschooling. The first wave had faced prosecution and even jail to fight for the right to educate their children. When I came in, homeschooling was legal, but everyone was just a little bit skittish about government control and oversight, and yet there was an exuberance of, “We’re free.”
And freedom is indeed a wonderful thing. I remember listening at a homeschool conference to this mom of many who had a son that just would not do any school. He hated reading, wouldn’t do math, and never looked at his other textbooks. Out of exasperation, the father of the family started taking the son to work. Every day they looked over the properties the father owned and/or managed, did repairs, and rented out spaces. All of the sudden, the son started to bloom! He often got up before the father, raring to charge the day and tackle that next project. After working together for a year or so, and getting his own paycheck from the family business, the son declared that he had enough money and experience to buy his own fixer-upper home. The mother was so excited that her son found something he loved and was excelling in. She found a way to turn all of his activities (measuring, construction, plumbing, electrical, banking, etc) into high school credits and when he turned 18 he had a high school transcript that creatively reflected what he had done in high school. He also owned a handful of his own properties and had a 5-figure bank account.
Most of my children have followed some sort of delight-directed learning that I turned into a high school credit for their transcript. My oldest daughter was not college-bound and did not want another science after taking physical science, biology, and chemistry. I got her an artist’s book of human anatomy. She spent her senior year drawing the intricacies of the human body from the skeleton outward. and I gave her art and science credit for that. Of all my adult children, this one has the highest net worth at the ripe old age of 21.
Lee Binz, the Homescholar, says that all children should receive a college-prep-based education, even if they are not going to college, and for the most part, I agree with that. But it shouldn’t just be confined to a college-prep-based education. My third son, who eventually dropped out of our home school and passed the revamped GED on his first try, quickly discovered in his first job working for a local art studio that he was as well read as his college-educated co-workers when it came to literature. We were able to do that because I didn’t worry about how many hours he needed to get a credit and then stop when that was achieved. Following our delight-directed learning, we just kept reading the literature that interested us.
That is not to say that I don’t use guidelines to see where I’m going and where I need to be. I use the Master Books list of great books from Dr. Stobaugh. I also follow the guidelines of our Ohio Department of Education. But they are guidelines, not restrictions. We read way more American Literature than would have been required for 1 credit in English that year, but the memories we made from that as a family were priceless. I still hear my adult children reference them from time to time in their own conversations.
The Ohio DOE also mandates only 1/2 credit of American History and 1/2 in World History. Izzy and Noah took two years of American History and one year each of British History and World History. Rosie is taking one year of British History, one year of American History, and one year of World History. For her senior year, she is going to do an in-depth study of the history of her choice.
My department of education in Ohio mandates 1/2 credit of physical education for graduation. My daughter runs cross country and track. She puts in at least 6 hours of training and racing per week for most of the calendar year. I am going to give her at least one credit each year because she deserves it.
I think it’s also important to look at the goals of your student. My last high school student wants to go to college and participate in sports. While the Ohio Department of Education may require a Physical Science course the NCAA only requires Biology and Chemistry and another science. For us, that could be Anatomy and Physiology or Astronomy. We aren’t bound to do Physical Science as a high school course and her goals don’t require them either.
My goals for our homeschool have always included the freedom to learn on our own terms according to each individuals’ interests and abilities and to build a strong family culture. What matters at the end of the day is that the children have a love of learning and the ability to learn on their own.
My best advice to any homeschool mom trying to plan out their course of study would be – enjoy the Freedom and space that homeschooling gives you and don’t let the chains from traditional homeschool bind you down.