Homeschool
on a Shoestring or Otherwise
By
Karen Andreola
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In
the 1980's my husband, Dean and I, with our two preschool girls,
flew to London with six suitcases. We were sent by the church. Dean
worked at the literature mission, Send the Light, to help supply
Christian books to third-world countries. It was my first year of
homeschooling. We lived in a third-floor flat on London Road situated
eleven miles south of Tower Bridge. The flat was tiny, but when
we emptied the living area of its ancient, dirty loveseat and chair
my two little girls had room to stretch their limbs. After Dad took
the red doubledecker bus to the literature mission, the girls and
I walked three blocks to the playground for daily exercise.
A Frugal
Beginning
Each
child had two cherished toys apiece which we had brought in our
suitcases along with their favorite story books. I had no recognizable
curriculum with me, but the girls enjoyed hearing their storybooks
read aloud to them over and over again. Although they were content
with the same stories, one Saturday, for my sanity, Dad took us
by bus to a large library in our crowded, busy, town. This familiarized
me enough with the route so that I had the courage to venture there
myself by bus with the girls. I borrowed all sorts of picture books,
fiction and non-fiction. There were short benches next to wooden
boxes filled with Beatrix-Potter-sized books for little children
to look through and handle themselves. I also borrowed a few books
on how to teach phonics and simple math concepts. These books showed
me how to make my own phonics cards with sandpaper letters to trace.
I also taught numbers and we made sets with small household items.
Although
the British generally live in row housing with little to no front
lawn, they love to plant flowers between the crevices of concrete.
Along the sidewalk we would see daffodils in April. I'll never forget
the enormous variety of roses of all colors which seemed to happily
soak up weeks of drizzle so that when the sun did shine - what a
display! This was our nature study, as well as watching the squirrels
and pigeons in the park eating our breadcrumbs, the ants who ate
the even smaller crumbs left over by the birds, and the wasps that
flew around the empty soda cans in litter baskets.
I know
you can homeschool on a shoestring for at least the kindergarten
years, because we did it. We had to. We were living on a missionary
budget. I was an amateur teacher. My services cost nothing. The
paper, pencils, and crayons cost very little, and the library books
were also free. I do remember buying a few music and story cassettes
and we did take a trip by bus to the London Zoo, but these did not
add up to very much. I estimate that the entire year of education
cost under $200.
Atmosphere,
Discipline, Life of Ideas
When
we returned to America we had Charlotte Mason's books with us. I
began to read in more detail about education being an atmosphere,
a discipline, and a life. Applying what I was learning about Charlotte's
sensible, simple and direct method of education became my goal.
Creating a pleasant home atmosphere for learning didn't cost anything.
Establishing good habits of mind and body one by one didn't cost
anything either. Inspiring my children by living a life that feasts
on ideas from "living books" wasn't very costly. But these
things do cost something - patient, loving, dedicated, caring service.
Indeed, the essence of motherhood is self-sacrifice. And although
a homeschool mother may be an amateur - has no degree in teaching
and is not paid for her tiring labor - she should not feel demoted.
An amateur is not the opposite of a professional. Inside the word
amateur is the little word "amare" which means "to
love." A homeschool mother teaches her children for the love
of it. And she works at her task with devotion, reaping the fruits
of her labor after the patient passing of years. It is a wonderful
calling. This is important to understand at the start of any homeschooling
endeavor.
Back
in America we were no longer on a missionary budget, but it was
a tight budget nonetheless. We rented a small house with a back
yard and kept our one-income family cost-efficient by having one
car. We freed up money for home education, heeding the adage, "wear
the old coat, buy the new book." I had a copy of The Big Book
of Home Learning, so I started ordering materials for my homeschool
- learning toys, math manipulatives, etc. I also found the perusal
of a homeschool magazine encouraging and informative. This I enjoyed
reading with my feet up while experiencing another pregnancy. Life
was beginning to become more complicated, and has continued to become
more complicated over the years.
A Wide
Curriculum
What
we now do is a mixture of inexpensive and a little expensive. Taking
nature walks, observing nature, and creating personal Nature Diaries
filled with drawings, poems, and descriptions has been an inexpensive
way to expand my children's horizons. (I like to think of education
this way; expanding horizons rather than worrying about filling
in holes with all the biggest and "best" comprehensive
courses on each subject.) The thick coffee-table art print books
we have bought over the years are on the expensive side, but you
get a lot of picture for the money.
It
wasn't until my eldest was age 13 that we began private music lessons.
The cost of the instrument (violin), music books, and teacher bumped
up the school budget to almost one thousand dollars a year! The
children didn't have music lessons while they were very young. Instead,
I economically played beautiful classical music in our home as well
as folk songs and hymns. They now take pleasure and accomplishment
in actually being able to play some of it.
Visiting
museums of art, living history museums, planetariums, and natural
history museums does cost, but the experience has a value not measurable
in money. Charlotte Mason believed that education is more than what
takes place while sitting at a desk. Children come into Charlotte's
wide curriculum with "a keen desire in the heroic past, with
a desire to know about everything that moves and lives, about strange
people, about how and why things work, with a desire to handle material
and create, to run, ride, and row, and do whatever the law of gravity
presents." Many homeschoolers today understand this. Education
is a life, a life of ideas from books and things, experiences, culture,
and religion. It is not only that of acquiring courses and things
that cost money.
All
Those Brilliant Books
I'm
not very good at keeping accounts, but I do know that even with
purchases made at used book shops we must have (over the last decade)
spent quite a bit on the gradual building of a home library, the
size of which we probably wouldn't have had if our children attended
school elsewhere. When I think back on that tiny British flat I
marvel at how simply we once lived. Never (gasp I) would we be able
to fit a portion of the stuff we now have in that place. Perhaps
a kind of mid-life crisis is the problem of living with accumulation.
Clutter is cumbersome. But oh, how we have loved all our beautiful,
brilliant "living books." These are biographies, historical
fiction novels, fiction and nonfiction picture books, classic literature,
and books that teach facts in a story form. Using Charlotte's natural
method of narration (a retelling in the child's own words) can cost
more time and attention than assigning and correcting a quiz book
or questionnaire. With narration, however, the power it gives a
child to be able to express himself in good English is tremendous.
He will remember what he was impressed by long after any test.
A Budget
with a Relaxed Fit
My
assignment for this article was not only to proclaim whether it
is possible to homeschool on a shoestring but also how to homeschool
if you had a thousand or more dollars to spend on each child. Here
is my answer to this budget with a relaxed fit. I would still keep
to a mix of the inexpensive with the little expensive. Added to
this, with the savings, I would arrange a trip to England, Ireland,
or Europe. It wouldn't have to be a long or large tour - just enough
to connect my children with a few places they have studied in history
and religion and let them experience how other people now live.
A Cost
I'd Gladly Pay
Whatever
you spend on your children, never be ashamed of being an amateur
teacher. Don't grow weary in sowing seeds in your children while
they are young, because in due time you will reap. God will be your
guide and help if you ask Him believing. Over time the fruit will
bring you joy. Home education will cost you more than money but
when your children are precious to you it is a cost you will gladly,
and often unthinkingly, pay.
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