What’s in a School Day?

This week the kids in our neighborhood started back to school.  I completely forgot and missed it since we’ve continued our homeschooling routine all summer (we plan to take a “baby break” after baby arrives) and we made the mistake of heading out the 2nd day right at school drop off time and got stuck in three different car lines on our way to drop hubby’s car for service.  We picked up his car later that day and drove by the same three schools as parents were queuing up for the end of day pick up.

During those six school hours we dropped hubby’s car, stopped for breakfast at a local diner, went to Sugarplum’s gymnastics class, dropped some clothes at a local women’s shelter, stopped by two bridal stores, got lunch and picked up hubby’s car.

We got home about an hour before my latest desirable nap time.  In that hour, the girls completed their school (our designated school hours are between lunch and naptime).  Both wrote in their journal and did their spelling work.  Sugarplum is expected to do 2 pages of her work a day but she completed 4 pages and wanted to do more.  Honeybun is expected to complete 3 math pages and 5 language arts pages a day, she completed the 3 math and began the language arts.  All in the one hour between when we got home and nap time (Honeybun finished her language arts during nap time as well as worked ahead for the rest of the week).

And as my little ones lay down to rest after a full morning, I couldn’t help but think of all those kids who were just home from school.  Maybe having a snack because their lunch is so early they are starving by the time they get home.  Maybe sitting down to do their homework (though since it was only the 2nd day of school, hopefully not.)  Maybe settling into the nice comfy couch after an exhausting day at school.  Or maybe getting ready to go to an extracurricular to class to help them “round-out”.

And I thought about what their day probably looked like.  Being shuttled from here to there: classroom to library to lunchroom to playground… Being instructed on routine after routine, rule after rule.  I know a lot of learning doesn’t go on during the first few days as the class works on getting-to-know-yous and learning class procedures.

But I also know that once the “learning” does start, it doesn’t even come close to filling the six-hour school day.  That a lot of time is still wasted getting from here to there, while making sure all the children are following proper procedures.  There is a lot of waiting while everyone gets on the same page, there is a lot of wasted time.

I know that somehow there isn’t enough time to reach every child’s individual learning needs and each child is therefore expected to do the same work, move at the same pace.  Each child in a classroom learns about the same things and attends the same specials, there isn’t time for children to delve into their own interests or explore their own ideas.

And there isn’t nearly enough play time, even in the early grades.  Every second is jam-packed with something to do other than playground time.  That “free play” as it used to be has gone the way of the dodo bird and the youngest children are now forced to sit too long, asked to be too quiet and expected to achieve too much.

Their childhoods are being stolen from them.  They are lumped together with a group of children who are just like them then asked not to talk to each other, not to touch each other, not to play unless it’s the “appropriate” time.  They are told who they will sit by in the classroom, in the art room and in the lunchroom.  They are expected to be “model citizens” when their world is nothing like mine.

So hubby and I made a choice a year ago: we chose to keep our children in our world.  We chose to keep them home to do their schooling, where they already know the rules.  Where they can play most of the day, talk to each other whenever they choose, spend their days interacting with lots of different types of people from the youngest to the oldest while out in their community.  Where they can do their schooling at their own pace, explore their own interests and excel within their own abilities.

We chose to build their education into our lives instead of our lives around their education.  And it’s working for us. My girls have achieved more in the past year than I could have dreamed of.  We are all happier and not nearly as exhausted from the early wake-ups, long days, homework struggles and running around after school.

And while our day described above (which is not our typical) may not seem that much different from the shuffling from here to there schoolchildren do all day, the difference is my children weren’t waiting silently in single-file lines.  They were seated side-by-side in the car, singing their favorite songs on the radio and asking every question that popped into their heads.  They got to choose who they sat by at breakfast and lunch and interacted with babies, toddlers, preschoolers and adults (the only thing missing was all the other children like them, who were at school).

And most importantly, they got to spend those 6 hours with their Auntie who is visiting for a week.  The same Auntie who was here when Honeybun started VPK three years ago, when they missed out on three hours a day together.  The same Auntie who was here when we walked Honeybun to her first day of kindergarten, and missed out on six hours of family time each day.  The same Auntie who got to spend nearly every waking minute with her nieces and nephews this trip, the entire reason she flew half-way across the country.

I don’t ever want to look back and regret their childhoods and all they missed out on, I want us all to have beautiful memories of their growing up.  I don’t believe life should be about learning but rather learning should be a part of life and that is what I aim to achieve every day with my children.  They are still learning the same math, reading and language arts concepts their peers are at school but they’re also learning about their world, their community and all the people in it because they are a part of it each and every day.