We're in the midst of a teachers' strike here. School has not started, the two sides are very far apart and there's no sign of movement on either side. A lot of parents are beginning to ask people like me whom they know to be seasoned homeschoolers or unschoolers for advice on making do without school.
Some of the requests come from a place of mistaken assumptions: "Do you still have your Grade 4 curriculum? I was hoping I might be able to borrow it from you during the strike."
Some of the questions are a little more open-ended: "I'm wondering if you have any suggestions for things we could be doing as homeschoolers until the strike is over so he won't be too far behind."
And some of the questions are coming from a nice outside-the-box place: "What would your advice be for a family that wants to take advantage of this extra time and promote learning in ways that aren't necessarily part of school learning?"
I think that for the high-schoolers, who are missing the first month of discrete semestered courses with standardized examinations, the "missing out" anxiety may be somewhat justified. But on the assumption that we're mostly talking about kids in the K-8 age range, how would you respond to parents? How would you encourage them to see the opportunity in the lack of school, rather than focusing on the curricular learning they fear they might be missing? What would you advise them to do while the strike continues?
Or if this scenario seems too unusual to you, what specific advice would you give a parent who wants advice on how to enrich school holidays and summers by taking inspiration from unschooling. In that very short window of time, given that there's no chance to go through a deschooling phase, how would you help them get a taste of child-led autonomous learning?
I'll answer my own questions below.
Miranda
Some of the requests come from a place of mistaken assumptions: "Do you still have your Grade 4 curriculum? I was hoping I might be able to borrow it from you during the strike."
Some of the questions are a little more open-ended: "I'm wondering if you have any suggestions for things we could be doing as homeschoolers until the strike is over so he won't be too far behind."
And some of the questions are coming from a nice outside-the-box place: "What would your advice be for a family that wants to take advantage of this extra time and promote learning in ways that aren't necessarily part of school learning?"
I think that for the high-schoolers, who are missing the first month of discrete semestered courses with standardized examinations, the "missing out" anxiety may be somewhat justified. But on the assumption that we're mostly talking about kids in the K-8 age range, how would you respond to parents? How would you encourage them to see the opportunity in the lack of school, rather than focusing on the curricular learning they fear they might be missing? What would you advise them to do while the strike continues?
Or if this scenario seems too unusual to you, what specific advice would you give a parent who wants advice on how to enrich school holidays and summers by taking inspiration from unschooling. In that very short window of time, given that there's no chance to go through a deschooling phase, how would you help them get a taste of child-led autonomous learning?
I'll answer my own questions below.
Miranda