When I get excited about something, I tend to go all in. I love to research, so I jump wholeheartedly into gathering information. I’ll obsess over it as I learn and think up more questions.
In the past, one thing I would not do was look for the reasons I shouldn’t do the thing, to look at it from the opposing viewpoint. This time around, with something that will have a direct impact on my kids, I decided I’d better be open to doing just that. So when I came across a Youtube video on why this particular mom was decidedly not accelerating her kids’ high school curriculum, I listened with interest.
I appreciated what she had to say, and she felt strongly about it. She talked about not wanting to rush them through, about not pushing them out in the world too early, wanting to keep those precious younger years safe, because they’re adults for many more years than they are children.
I agree with all of it.
And I’m still accelerating my children’s education.
This is the beauty of it. We can take the opposing view on something like this, and allow it to mold and shape our decisions, even if it doesn’t completely change them.
Keeping Perspective
Here’s what I mean. She really made me stop and remember that our kids are only young once and for a short time. It helped me solidify in my mind that I don’t want to accelerate our homeschool at the expense of huge amounts of their time. For instance, having time limits on summer school so we can advance while still enjoying those summer days.
And looking at the whole picture, even during our school year the goal is 4-hour school days maximum (ultimately it takes probably 5 hours from start to finish, but this includes lunch and other interruptions). Since they don’t have evening sports activities or homework, they still have much more free time than their public/private-schooled peers to explore other interests.
I also don’t plan to actually send them anywhere early. If they choose college and want to begin early, it would have to be online or local. Not one part of me wants them to leave the nest early. I’m dreading the day they move out!
Being Strategic
For me accelerating is about being strategic with our time now. There’s nothing wrong with K-12, but there’s also nothing magical about 13 years spent in school, either. It’s more about the quality of education than the length.
This was reinforced in me recently as I read the book, “More Than Happy: The Wisdom of Amish Parenting,” about how the Amish raise their children. Most Amish only receive an 8th grade education. Eighth grade! Then most of them get jobs. The overwhelming majority of Amish are incredible entrepreneurs, hard workers, and a close-knit community.
We’re not supposed to teach our children everything they could ever need to know before they’re 18; we’re supposed to lay the foundation. If later in life they wish they’d stuck with the piano more than the few years we required, they can take lessons. If they want to learn a new language at 35, they can. As long as we’ve taught them how to learn and the joy of learning, we’ve done a huge part of our job.
I very much appreciated this Youtuber’s reminder of keeping perspective. My kids have precious few years before they have all the responsibilities of adulthood for the rest of their lives, so we need to strive for a balance of preparing them for adulthood while still protecting their childhood. For this, there is no measurable standard; just a prayerful, intentional, redirect-when-needed path through their high school years.
So some specific goals to help us strive for balance:
- Set time/subject limits on school year and summer school days
- At this point, we will continue with up to 4 hours during the school year, and 2 hours on summer school days
- Have regular conversations about how things are going. What’s a struggle, what’s going well? These check-ins can help us evaluate and change course where necessary
- Every once in a while, I remind them that they don’t have to accelerate. If it gets to be too much, we can slow down the pace. So far, they emphatically tell me they want to continue.
Not One Big Cram Session
It sounds like a contradiction, but we can accelerate without rushing because it’s more about a mindset and daily practice and rhythms. We are not going to try every subject they could ever do and rush through it, teach to the test, and cram to pass.
The goal will be taking the most necessary subjects and working to master them through understanding, conversation, the ability to write and communicate their understanding of a topic.
I’ve also taken some advice from the book “The 4-Hour School Day” by Durenda Wilson, remembering that even if we only do the basics as far as curriculum, “everything counts.” She says that if your kids are very interested in a topic and learn about it on their own time, that’s still learning; it still counts. Sometimes it’s easy to think that if something is not part of an official curriculum that’s accredited to earn them a credit, then it’s not ‘real learning.’ But while it is important to keep transcripts and keep track of their credits, what’s our real goal as homeschooling parents? Shouldn’t it be that these people in our care have grown in understanding and knowledge, wisdom in how to apply what they’ve learned, and confidence and work ethic to put it into practice? And the cherry on top: that they aren’t so burned out from learning so many things they “have” to learn that they hate learning?
We can do this in two ways: (1) learning what the state requirements are and our personal requirements for what we’d like them to have studied before they graduate; (2) having a decent idea of what track they’re on. Silas will likely be a writer, and so far Haley wants to become a baker, so no college for either of them. This means we can replace fluff classes with classes that fit their individual interests and future goals.
With any choice we make, there will always be pros and cons. No choice we make concerning our children’s future will be perfect or perfectly executed. What we can do is take what resonates most with us and our kids, pray and research, and then take steps toward it and see what unfolds.
Are you accelerating your children’s high school education? I’d love to hear from others who are in the process like we are, and from those who have accomplished this who can give us some perspective about the journey.
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