From Home

Schools here are shut down. At first it was a week extension of spring break. Then it was another two weeks or so. Then there was this headline:

“Large numbers” of Texas kids could miss rest of school year, education commissioner warns.

This is part of the attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19 to avoid overwhelming healthcare resources. Our churches are also closed. Political conventions (probably any other convention as well) are being postponed. What had been a request to avoid gatherings over 100 went down to 50, and earlier today the President and team announced we should avoid gatherings over 10.

Here at the Spherical Model household, we were already working at home. But that didn’t mean staying home all the time. So, apparently to enforce his need to abide by the directive, Mr. Spherical Model went and broke his ankle over the weekend. Ouch! Looks, as of today, that no surgery will be needed, so it will just be a temporary adjustment. Been there, done that. Healing happens—eventually. So, anyway, we’re staying home.

But, about those schools. What do families do when the government fails to educate their children as promised?

Homeschool.

That's the realization that hit me when someone offered this helpful schedule:

Found on Facebook; don't know original source

I thought, "That looks like a homeschool schedule." Not exactly ours. I knew homeschoolers who scheduled out the entire day in 15-minute increments. Ours was much less structured, but there was always an underlying schedule or expectation. It turns out there isn’t a right or wrong way: there is just your way, which will look different from everybody else’s way.

By the way, there was a followup to that graphic, with some humorous reality:

But what does it take for education to happen? It doesn't require anything that looks like a classroom reproduced in a home. Instead, it requires acting intentionally. Following through. And enjoying it together. Improved relationship means learning happens better. There’s evidence that learning can actually be undone in a negative environment—like a public middle school or high school where a child faces bullying or lack of social acceptance.

Here’s the thing: the government has been failing to adequately educate our children for quite a long time. This pandemic is just getting everybody’s attention.

I’m not the only one thinking along these lines as we hunker down in our virus-free homes. Andrew Klavan said this in his podcast today:

Maybe we can use this moment to think about what an even better future might look like….

Now that children are staying home from school and workers are telecommuting, maybe this is a moment to wonder: do we really need to send our kids to government facilities where teachers’ unions keep dangerous incompetence in place, spouting leftist gender horse manure? Couldn’t more moms work from home so that kids could be schooled in the values of their families? It’s worth wondering, anyway, if our new technology could bring back some of the home industries.

Maybe this is a moment when we solve the college debt problem by not sending kids to crappy colleges where they learn to hate their native land by reading communist histories by guys like Howard Zinn. Maybe this is the moment when places like Hillsdale can teach the truth in beauty online, and that’ll count as a college education.

Many more people could homeschool than thought they could. Here’s an opportunity to find out whether you can. And the world is adjusting to help you out.

I’m about to share a bunch of memes that we homeschoolers are getting a kick out of. Then I’ll share with you some of the links that have popped up just this week to help you out. The first has been around a while; I don't know the origin. The others were passed along by a homeschool friend; they were listed as posted by Leah Hovey (whom I don't know; she may have created them or just passed them along). 

OK, here are the links for you online learning enjoyment:

Scholastic releases free daily courses for kids stuck home amid coronavirus school closures

Over30 Virtual Field Trips with Links

Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden Home Safari Facebook Live each weekday at 3pm EDT

Stuck at Home? These 12 Famous Museums Offer Virtual Tours You Can Take on Your Couch

Paris Museums Put 100,000 Images Online for Unrestricted Public Use

  

75+ Entertaining and Educational Activities for When You’re Stuck Indoors

  

LUNCH DOODLES with Mo Willems!

Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence at Home

LearnInColor.com

Not long ago, I posted about some of the various online resources for free or nearly free.

So, think about this: if it’s possible to do this for free, from home, do we need public schools? Is their main purpose just to house our students as a daycare facility? Or worse, to indoctrinate our kids with things we’d never want them to be taught if it were up to us?

Because it is up to us.

So, let this be your experiment. Take this sudden break from how things are always done. Use it. Choose to enjoy this crazy time with the family. Read aloud together. Talk about things that interest you, and what interests them. Use these great online resources. Do some online exploring every day. Do some play-learning together every day. And see if their appetite for learning goes up. See if yours does.

Maybe you were meant to be your kids’ main teacher all along.