If you are a public school teacher reading this, my hat's off too you! Especially if you are in early elementary school.
A friend from homeschool co-op called me one day last summer. She is one of my mentors. I just love her heart, and cherish her wisdom. As we spoke, God blew my mind. He reminded me of something so important and so (I believe) inherent in the public school system that I don't think we notice it. Oh some people do. [Montessori anyone?!]
So my friend called to get my husband's number from me so her son can chat with my husband about the IT world. My husband has worked in the IT world for over two decades. He was a programmer, and now he is an Infrastructure Architect. (Ha! I even know what that means!)
He is a consultant now, but he has worked a "regular" job in IT as well. He's an in-the-office guy AND he regularly telecommutes. And he has experience coordinating efforts of and working with all kinds of IT professionals.
She is so smart to have her son ask his questions of a real-life IT guy. But that is Homeschool101. I mean, every. single. college seminar tells you that.
It is a great idea. My daughter 'shadowed' a doctor, and now she wants to be a doctor (thanks, Shon!). Great idea, but nothing new. Not earth-shaking.
But you know how it is when you get a call from a good friend whom you haven't seen in a few weeks, right?! You get a little, shall we say, chatty. [Oh, is that just me?]
So once we got the reason for the call out of the way, we were able to just be friends talking and catching up.
We got to talking about real life stuff. About our kids. It always comes back to that, doesn't it?
And through the course of our chat she mentioned how routine is important for kids. [OK, we ALL know this, right?]
But we were talking about how she put two of her kids in public school this past year, and how hard it is missing routines when it is summer. [Click! PIeces begin to fall into place...]
And then she blows my mind by saying that the routines of public school give kids certain life skills. Skills they don't necessarily get in homeschool. [And I knew EXACTLY what she was talking about!]
Those little routines are great! I'm not even talking about big, life-altering routines, just simple things: at 8:23 we go to this room first and put our backpacks here, then we sit here to do this and at noon we sit there to do that.
You have seen the pictures of the day's routine in preschool classes. You have heard about or experienced the daily routine of high school. Every day is pretty much like every other day. [Bueller, Bueller... Bueller...]
You know, the drudgery of school. The stuff I hated in school. Oh! The monotony! Jobs are often like that too. MOST people have a schedule they keep. And most days are like the other days. We call it the "routine" and complain about it being "hum-drum" and a "rat race" -- our daily grind stuff.
If you think about it, it is the structure of routine that helps kids be organized. If they have to have shoes for going to school every single day, they eventually get into the habit of putting on shoes before they walk out the door. The routine makes learning the days of the week almost effortless.
I know, you are like, well, yes, um... people wear shoes. And Friday comes after Thursday, every week. But those things are so much easier to learn in a structured, routine environment! And although we do all of our subjects all week, we do not have much of what would be called structured routine. I used to, but it is so against my nature that I have forgotten about it. And I have forgotten the rewards of that as well because we are no longer reaping those rewards.
What rewards? [Perhaps you are like me, and out of routine, so you have forgotten.]
Daily routines and structure helps kids to be organized. They remember that we work first, eat lunch and then, after more schoolwork, we go outside to play with the neighbors. [Or at least they remember that the neighbors don't get home until after 3.]
It also helps them to be self-reliant. Even if you are a super-helicopter parent who brings all the forgotten homework/lunch money/etc. to your child, there are still unwanted consequences to forgetful behavior like forced waiting and embarrassment at having to call mommy to bail me out. Kids do eventually stop wanting to call home. But a homeschooled kid just goes to the other room to get a pencil or the homework page. No. Big. Deal. No embarrassment, no uncomfortable waiting. And no feelings of I'm too old to be relying on mom. So those lessons are a little harder to learn.
And scheduling - schools can't be as loose on homework deadlines as homeschools. I can't tell you how many times we've skipped a subject to do a field trip or put off an assignment to go do other things. That is the BEAUTY of homeschooling. But it comes with a price. My kids have not learned time management skills until much later in life. [Maybe that isn't true of other homeschoolers?]
So, thank you public school teachers for all the lessons you teach - the ones in books and the ones that are not in the books.
Homeschool moms, how do YOU put routine in your homeschool? How do you teach these valuable life skills?
[Oh, and Oklahoma, fix the budget mess and give them raises. Cut the administration, cut your OWN salaries, take a bigger chunk from casinos - whatever it takes.]
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