Homeschooling is somthing I haven’t talked too much about in this space. Maybe bc I don’t too often talk about my history, or maybe bc I am an adult now and I don’t have kids myself. Homeschooling and education in general, but alternative education specifically, has always been a big part of my life.
Both my parents were educators. Or at least intended to be. They met while in teaching college. I have an older brother who has a different father (also a teacher) than myself. My brother went to public school all his life, something I think my mother regretted. I was homeschooled until I was 8 and a half. My father had given up his educational career when I was still an infant, but remained an intellectual. My mother worked mostly as a stay at home mom for much of my childhood, sometimes working part time when she was able. She also did a lot of non paid work, like running a group for mothers with young children. When I was 6 or 7 my mother worked at a farm stand and I would often go to work with her. A formative experience for me.
My mother was my primary teacher and she kept extensive notebooks on my early education. My learning was mostly experience and project based. I don’t remember too much about homeschooling until I got a little older and we joined a homeschoolers group. From my perspective this group was like-minded hippyish (for lack of a better word) people, like us. I didn’t learn that many homeschoolers are deeply religious until later in life. Some people I remember clearly in the group were a jewish family that invited us to all the celebrations, played music and sang and we would all go to music festivals in their camper together. Another were a “normal” suburban family with a split level home and huge wooded back yard, we would get co-op deliveries dropped off from a big box truck in their driveway to share with the entire group. We had homeschooling neighbors who had raspberry bushes and an above ground pool. We could walk to their house from ours and they had several children but my best friend was the girl my own age. This family moved away to a magical handmade home in the PA woods, complete with wild strawberry fields, a whole tree as support beam for the house, and a cold stream with crayfish on the property. As a group we went seining in the bay, to museums and parks, went apple picking, to nature centers, made crafts, or to educational lectures and events. We visited temples, Native American festivals, churches, musical events, plays and theater, and all sorts of cultural events. We traveled to historic areas nearby when we could. Some of us also attended Nature Camp, which was a local school for all things outdoors and in nature. There we learned to walk quietly in the forest, respect wildlife, sing bird songs, build fires, identify edible plants, observe nature and be part of it without harming it.
I never remember having to solve math problems or learning historic events in a traditional way. We never had “homework” or sat down at a desk at a certain time to learn writing, reading, maths. I would learn practical skills while learning about other things and interests. In my memory this is very self guided, but I’m sure my mother oversaw everything and steered me towards learning the important subjects. We read a lot: stories and fiction, but also art books, comics, non fiction, and informational and educational books. I have many memories of being at libraries, getting read to at night, and learning all sorts of things from books. But I also distinctly remember not being a very competent reader until I was about 8 years old. We created lots and lots of art. Art was a conduit to learn about many many things as well as art itself. We asked a lot of questions. I remember asking my parents questions, our friends, librarians, random strangers. In my education everyone was a teacher and everyone we came in contact with knew something interesting to learn. We had friends who ran restaurants and I would play on the flour sacks, learning about kitchens and making change and waiting tables. At the farm market, I would help my mother bake pies in an industrial oven, make flower arrangements and wreaths, pick and sort corn, listen to Spanish speaking farm workers. My aunt owned a metaphysical shop and I would run the register, help customers and stock shelves. Everyone’s vocation became a teaching moment.
Sometimes we took classes. Ballet, cooking, languages, pottery, and other education taught by someone other than my parents. And sometimes I went to school. I remember going to a kindergarten for a few weeks (in my memory). It was the first time I had seen a computer. It was a bizarre contraption. When I was 8 and a half, I started attending The New School of Monmouth County part time. This would start a relationship with this private alternative school that last to this day.
What was your early education like? What do you remember most? What were lessons you learned? Which of those stuck with you through your life?