Think for a second about the questions our brains ask when we are asked to do something. Though it might often be subconscious, ‘Why am I doing this?’ is one of those questions. Pupils in a home learning environment are no different. Home learners want to understand why a certain topic/subject has ended up on the non-negotiable curriculum list..not necessarily because they don’t enjoy the subject or aren’t naturally scientifically/literarily inclined..more that they really want to understand.
The larger picture (the bit about maths being a non-negotiable subject) is understood – homeschoolers, like any other school leaver, need a school-leaving qualification to progress to higher education or gain an apprenticeship or find work. Homeschoolers understand why maths as a whole is important..but percentages? Why must percentages be part of a maths exam? What value will learning percentages bring to their actual (post-exam) life?
Without a reason why, lessons can lose their purpose and students, their motivation. I try to follow the same formula when planning the school year as I do planning lessons, explaining
- What are we learning?
- Why are we learning this?
- How are we going to learn this?
Taking five minutes before starting the lesson to introduce the topic and explain how this ties into the curriculum’s purpose reinforces the idea that each lesson is for a purpose and helps focus a students’ concentration: Reminding them why they are sitting at the kitchen table/in a homeschool classroom instead of doing whatever else they’d choose instead. Being home for school can be distracting for home learners and these little intros to lessons also help to draw the boundary line around lesson time and home time.
The point of many lessons is obvious – learning coding allows you to make computer games/build a website/express yourself online/do really cool things; learning a language helps you communicate with more people – but percentages might seem pointless (until you explain that’s how shopping for discounts works), handwriting might seem unimportant (until you ask them to decipher each other’s work), reading aloud may seem a waste of time until they’re asked to give a presentation.
The path of least resistance is not always the best choice when it comes to teaching children to learn, but it’s always a good idea to try to limit that resistance and for us the best way to do that is to work as a homeschooling team and ensure everyone knows the purpose for the school we are doing. (Parent-teacher included.)
If your children trust you to make the best decisions for them (as parents) and believe you’ll do the same as their teacher (because you consistently explain how and why) there’ll either be a seismic shift whereby they no longer question lesson material (the dream!); or they’ll simply trust you (as teacher & parent) that if the logic of the lesson is still unclear to them, there is a reason their (precious) time is being taken up with learning X.
Involving students in sourcing resources for home-ed lessons, following their interests when planning lessons and explaining the WHYs behind academic non-negotiables, helps blur the lines between teacher and parent. You get to be the parent who’s on their side, supporting their learning experience, rather than a teacher who’s telling them to do (nonsensical to them) stuff. You’re a team in this game of learning.