Lesson 2: Creating a Personal Philosophy
Build Your Philosophy
By now, you should have made a number of complicated decisions about the type of homeschooler you want to be. You have chosen between structured, unschooled or eclectic homeschooling. You have thought about how you plan to approach your child’s disability. You are ready to build your personal philosophy and learn how to use it as you develop your homeschool. If you have been journaling your answers, read over what you have written. If you have not, write a briefly write your feelings on each of the options discussed in this lesson. Then read them over and try to see if a pattern emerges. Are your views pretty laid back, or do you like things strict and formal? Are you relaxed about your child’s disability, or does it make you uneasy?
Begin by deciding which version of homeschooling you want to try first. Remember that you are free to change your mind. However, it is easier to become less structured than it is to unschool, and then try to become structured. You might want to start with structure while you are settling in. Introduce unschooling in a few subjects and gradually loosen up until you feel completely comfortable.
Now begin to think about your child’s disability. These are decisions you may have already struggled with over the years. When my daughter was first diagnosed with cerebral palsy, I was bombarded with decisions to be made. Instantly, I had to rewrite my entire parenting plan to create one that would serve a special needs child. When my oldest child was in school, I fought the schools regularly for accommodations. When I began homeschooling, I was determined to do everything I had wanted the schools to do. I discovered that a few of the accommodations I had wanted didn’t work, or they didn’t work in the homeschooling environment. Over the years, I have watched my children closely and tried to adapt the way I dealt with their disability based on what I saw. My younger children needed many accommodations, but as they became older and their skills improved, I was sometimes able to remove some of these adaptations. Other times, as I became aware of problems, or as their learning became more sophisticated, I added adaptations.
The more structured your homeschool is, the more accommodations you will need. Unschoolers, who generally choose their own learning methods anyway, will naturally choose methods they are comfortable with. You may want to let your child help you decide.
To formulate your philosophy, try writing a few paragraphs about your homeschool An example of this might be:
“I run an eclectic homeschool. We are structured in math, reading and history. Our science and other subjects are more casual and are often blended into the structured subjects. I prefer unit studies rather than learning each subject separately. I intend to create as many of my own lesson plans as possible, and supplement these with found materials. My child has ADD. I accept this as a valid disability. I will adapt our school by putting a great deal of action into our school. We will do the most difficult subjects first and we will break up seat work to minimize restlessness and inattentiveness. In addition, I create a work environment that has minimal distractions, although I intend to improve his ability to work in a distracting environment. I want him to accept his disability and to learn to accommodate himself. My homeschooling goals are to create a deep love of learning, a happy and confident child, and the ability to learn independently. I want our home to be one in which we grow closer through shared learning experiences.”
As you can see, this is similar to the mission statements made popular by Steven R. Covey. This is your family’s homeschooling mission statement. Write it and put it in your notebook where you can refer to it often. If you are comfortable doing so, add your philosophy to our message board. If you are willing to share your philosophy statement with later classes, please let me know. I will create a file of statements other parents can use to help them create their own.
