New to Home Education? Step One? RELAX!

Categories: New to Home Education, Léo’s Insights 2021-2022

Posted on October 4, 2021

There is one word that needs to be expressed: Relax! I will repeat that: relax! Once more, repeat it with me: RELAX!

Deciding to do something you have never done, perhaps never even considered, is a bit daunting, to stay the least. The immediate encouragement I can give you is that you are not alone. Every new venture comes with anxiety. Choosing to keep your children at home for the first time is no different. But you can RELAX!

What is usually the cause of anxiety is not knowing, not being sure of or confident about what will take place. Being ignorant of the what’s, when’s, where’s and how’s of the processes and expectations for home education is certain to cause some anxiety, maybe even fear. But, RELAX!

Let me start at the beginning! It took Mom and Dad to create your child. Neither the government, school, church, nor any other institution was involved in this process. Mother gestated and gave birth to the child. Again, no third party agency was involved. Under normal circumstances, father and mother were the ones who took care of the child, taught him/her to communicate, brought him/her to walking, established a moral foundation and much more until the child reached an age where “professionals” took over the teaching and training of the child.

What part of this “take over” makes sense? Put more plainly, parents were “invented” long before schools and governments were! Therefore, parents have always been a child’s first and best teachers. Parents still have this authority over their children and the ultimate responsibility for their education and welfare, no matter what others may say to the contrary.

Let’s question a few of the claims being made by schools.

How can a school know better than parents? A teacher may have a bit more knowledge of a subject than a parent or a child, but anyone can find and learn information.
Where did we ever get the idea that learning takes place only in school, when learning occurs constantly from birth to death? Learning is as natural as it gets. Having to do so in a confined space, on a prescribe schedule, and following a curriculum predetermined to be of interest or necessity for every child is what is unnatural. Parenting, that is training and teaching children at home, is what is natural. So don’t bring school “ideology” home. It hardly works at school and it will not work at home.
Who said children need to learn X at any particular age?
When did government or schools assume the authority over children’s education and how did schools and schooling become so normalized that parents quickly mimic it when deciding to educate their children at home?
How can a one-size-fits-all curriculum meet the unique needs of individual human children?
What repercussions are there for not following government curriculum? None! Nothing! Nada! No problem! RELAX!

Let’s do a quick review:

RELAX! Things will come together as long as you let go of any notion of doing school at home.
RELAX! Parents are ultimately in authority and are fully responsible for their children’s education, no one else.
RELAX! Loving parents will always do better at training and teaching their child than a distant institution that educates everyone in a lock step process which leaves little room for the uniqueness of each child.

So, relax! Take it easy. Enjoy. I will be offering more encouragement for you “newbies” next time.