Inga’s friends know that, about six years ago, she homeschooled her son for a year. Maureen Kelleher asked her to write about comparing homeschooling with quarantine schooling. With help from Maureen and Erika Sanzi, her piece was recently published at Project Forever Free, a parent-focused website about education, part of the Brightbeam network.
In today’s chat, Inga talked about how when she homeschooled her son, they went to libraries and playgrounds (especially Landa Library) and used their museum memberships to experience art classes, science demonstrations, history reenactments, and more. Homeschoolers will tell you that they are not actually at home that much!
As we are all learning, your kitchen table is not the same as a school desk. It helps to set up an overall schedule, but it’s not going to be planned minute-by-minute like a typical school day. Homeschoolers spend a lot of time choosing curriculum, but quarantine schoolers are using materials supplied by our children’s teachers.
If quarantine schooling has a silver lining, it’s that we have time to teach our kids life skills. Making a double batch of brownies is actually a math lesson in itself. Our kids are using technology not just for amusement but to really get work done. Hopefully they will come out of this experience with a greater sense of independence, and deeper caring about our community.
