“Doing the Math” Adding Up The Time In School

The first thing many people ask about homeschoolers is “but how are you going to teach them maths and science?” That’s my personal experience and I also find it a rather odd question! Firstly, numbers are the language of the universe so we can’t avoid learning it no matter what we do! And science, that’s also in everything from cooking to art, anatomy, physiology and medicine (natural and otherwise).

But just for a moment now, I want to turn your attention to the THOUSANDS of hours spent mostly seated in a class room that a school student will spend being fed information for rote learning.

Firstly a disclaimer… I liked school! But I lived my childhood in a VERY different world to my children! School was my escape, but that was my journey. My partner and I… are entrepreneurs, who love our girls dearly. I want my children to be exposed to our very much open mindset, attitudes and philosophies, much more than those of 30 other, same aged children. 30 children who are likely to be parented quite differently.

That’s not to mention their potential teachers. I can’t imagine my children spending 1200 hours a year that way, for 13 (school) years! That’s 15600 hours AT school alone! Not counting any childcare, kindergarten, after-school care OR the mere hours of travel to and from and preparing packed lunches for their only social time (outside of class).

So, let’s ponder those numbers for a moment. Count the number of hours in that time you could have spent reading carefully selected books to your children, how many hours in that time your children could have spent active, exercising, climbing, building strength, co-ordination, outdoors, learning about real life by being in it, talking to people of ALL ages, from all walks of life.

Imagine how many of those hours your children could have been focusing on what they love, rather than being made to memorise facts that will very soon be forgotten, due to them not being important or relevant to your child. Imagine how many of those hours your child could have been developing actual life skills, survival skills, relevant to this modern world.

See, I like looking at those numbers. The numbers of possibility! An that is the love of numbers I want to share with my children. I won’t be “teaching” maths and science as isolated subjects to my children. I will be immersing them in the world where numbers are all around, relevant and useful…where they will fall in love with understanding them, of their own accord.

This is my answer to that question I keep getting. I hope that clears things up for those that REALLY truly ask because they want to know or care;) Thanks for reading if you got this far!