Homeschooling Doesn’t TAKE Time, It MAKES Time

By Linda Dobson

If you're lucky, you can do away with time!

Many folks ask homeschooling families typical questions, typical
with regard to “normal” thinking occurring in a schooled mind.

“How much time do you spend homeschooling?”

Time. In reality time does not even exist, yet, it’s the ruler by
which we measure success and failure, or as we more typically term them,
“quality” time and “goofing off” time. When we need to count minutes, to
check the hour hand of the clock as it drags one day or flies the next, we’ve
missed the point. The point is not to cut non-existent time into manageable
chunks  that  serve  our  perceived  needs.  Rather, homeschooling
allows you, together as a family, to embrace each moment as it unfolds.

The Natural Rhythm of Homeschooling

Your stomach can tell you when it’s time for a meal. Your body can tell
you when it’s time to lay down for rest or wake to face the joy of a new day.
Your spirit can tell you when it’s time to stop and go inside for the light and
love you need to bring to the rest of your life.

You  need  not  rush  your  children  to  a  school  bus  that  also  bears  the
illegitimate message,  “After this trip, it’s the predetermined time to  learn.”
Every moment of every day is the moment to learn. Each moment presents
new and  exciting possibilities that are yours for the taking  if  only  you are
aware they exist.

See also “Homeschooling: You Know Your Kids – and Like Them!“

The  gift  of  time  inherent  in  homeschooling  – the  time  you
share  with  your  children – is  a  unique  opportunity  in  a  society  constantly
forcing  you  to  spend time  in  a  thousand  other  directions.  But  it’s  an
opportunity you must present to yourself, by yourself, for yourself. Strong,
misguided  societal  pulls  in  other  directions,  like  school  and  the  economic
merry-go-round, don’t allow the time  necessary for this  opportunity.  A  lot
of  folks  will  be  quite  happy  if  you  let  this  opportunity  slip  by.  They’ll  be
ecstatic if you never even realize it exists.

But it does exist. Right here. Right now. It is up to you to begin.

Homeschooling MAKES Time

Make  your own rules  about  time.  I  guarantee  your  rules  will  be  more
comfortable,  like  a  warm  pair  of  slippers  on  a  chilly  December  evening.
Your  rules  won’t  assign  arbitrary  schedules  to  your  family’s  life,  as
schedules imposed on you by others must, of necessity, be arbitrary. Your
schedule can be a more natural one, serving a purpose in your unique life.

Politicians bemoan the state of U. S. education, yet they continually fail
to make the connection between family and true learning, between love

and the ability to love, between time together and connection.

Do  you  really  want  someone  else  to  “watch”  your  children  grow  as  they
struggle  under  the  weight  of  coming  of  age  in  a  time  when  every  turn
around the corner holds decisions they are unprepared to make? Or do you
want to actually  “raise”  your children, physically and  in consciousness? If
so, homeschooling gives you the “time.” You can give it back to
your family.

The homeschooled child missed one multiple choice answer on the
math  application  section  of  the  year-end,  fourth  grade  achievement
test.  The  problem  concerned  a  clock,  and  the  measurement  of  time.
Certainly  the  problem  was  age-appropriate,  technically  appropriate,
even  culturally  appropriate.  Unfortunately,  it  just  wasn’t  his-life-
appropriate.

Homeschooling  needn’t  consume  “time”  to  the  degree  that
public  school  currently  eats  up  your  children’s  time.  So  much  more  is
efficiently accomplished in a warm, responsive atmosphere as you interact
throughout the day. Even single working parents are finding they can earn a
living  and  still  have  enough  time  to  enjoy  the  learning  journey  with  their
children.

As  you  realize  the  connection  between  life  and  learning,  your  fears
about not having  enough time to “do school” fade away. You can find the
time. You can make the time. And if you’re really lucky, you can do away
with time!

Adapted from Linda Dobson’s The Art of Education: Reclaiming Your Family, Community and Self

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