Homeschooling WITH Red Oak Community School

As my time on the Red Oak Board of Directors comes to a close, I’m feeling a lot of feelings. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished thus far. I’m excited to see the fresh ideas new leaders will bring to our community. But most of all, I look forward to time I will have to engage the community as a plain old parent.

Having been involved in leadership at the school since its inception, and given my natural inclination towards volunteering, I will be helping out as I am asked and able. But I’m looking forward to taking a step back, to reflect on my family’s time at ROCS the past four years, the opportunities it has provided us to homeschool part-time, and how I understand that experience. I hope that in sharing some of my thoughts I can provide perspective for other parents engaging in or considering part-time homeschooling.

First, a short bit about how we came to Red Oak. As a professional educator, I was eager to be actively involved in my daughter’s education. I blogged regularly about our early adventures in homeschooling (during the toddler and preschool years) sharing ideas and advocating for creative and playful learning on Art Education Outside the Lines.

I ran in social circles with various homeschooling families and heard stories about why and how they approached this work. I was interested, but hesitant. Having spent my life in schools—as a student and teacher—I had no experience with homeschooling and I wondered if I could make it work while maintaining my job and my sanity. I wondered what Cora might miss from studying with other teachers and kids her own age.

And then, just as we were getting ready to think seriously about Kindergarten, I was invited to a planning meeting for what would become Red Oak Community School. I joined the education committee and helped hire our first teachers. We enrolled in the half-day kindergarten program (discontinued after that first year), and three years later, we are homeschooling two days a week and she attends ROCS the other three.

This arrangement has worked well for us. The two days we homeschool, I make a list of what I want to do that day, things like practice piano, silent reading, math, writing, movement, something creative, and take a shower. Cora gets to help decide the order of operations. Some days we get through our list and some days we don’t.

On the days she goes to school, I correspond with students and grade papers, I schedule meetings and attend online lectures, hit the gym or take the dog for an extra-long walk, work on Over the Fence Urban Farm, and read and write following my own interests. I need this time to myself and I’m sure I’m a better homeschooler because of it.

Cora is in third grade this year. Recently, as we talked about the future of her schooling, my husband asked me, “What do you like about homeschooling?” and “What do you think Cora likes about it?” They were good questions, ones that meant a lot coming from him. I know he would love to be more active in this process but cannot due to work. Within the question was a desire to know what keeps me going and what benefit I think it has for our child. The questions are still rattling around in my mind. But here are a few of my preliminary responses.

I think Cora clearly enjoys homeschooling for some of the simple pleasures it provides like waking up on the later side, staying in her pajamas most of the day, and playing with Legos at breaktime. But, I think she also likes it because she enjoys learning with me. On the days we homeschool, I give her my undivided attention as much as possible. She likes being the only student in the classroom. Together we are reading stories from all over the world, studying geography and history, and puzzling through basic mathematics I haven’t played around with in decades. The older she gets the more I sense she recognizes this time as a special gift I am giving her.

I also like homeschooling because it provides me time to learn. My own life has been enriched by the content we study. I feel intimately familiar with what she is learning and, in that way, I can help her make connections to that content at other times like when listening to a podcast, watching movies, or traveling as on a recent trip to Massachusetts. In addition to visiting the Freedom Trail, we saw an installation of arms and armor at the Worcester Art Museum that had us referencing our medieval studies last year including works by William Shakespeare and her recent introduction to Dungeons and Dragons with her dad and brother.

That museum visit was my first inspiration for this post. As an art educator with special interest in museums, these spaces bring me to a place of deep contemplation. On that visit it felt like so much came together and I reached a new understanding of what we’ve been doing these past four years. Cora read wall labels, directing my attention to facts she found there and asking questions. I’ve observed lots of kids visit museums. Her attention to the objects around us was laser-focused. I was impressed, and proud. Included in that exhibition were weapons from Japanese samurais, which offered Cora opportunities to teach me some of what she’s learned at Red Oak with Ms. Meridith. I was impressed by her growing knowledge and inspired by her enthusiasm. It was great to see the convergence of her home and school studies.

Back at ROCS, prompted by Miss Maureen to write a paragraph about something memorable from winter recess, Cora reflected on our time on the Freedom Trail. It was amazing hear about the trip in her own words. And for this mother of a reluctant writer, impressive to see her put so many ideas on paper. She even accurately used the New England term “wicked” to emphasize her excitement about visiting historical landmarks. The following week during homeschool we revisited the paragraph, which Maureen had emailed. We went over the spelling errors and then Cora rewrote it to send to her pen pals.

My husband and I have had a long running joke based on something Howard Stern once said about his own childhood. Growing up a Jewish kid in a predominantly Black neighborhood, he wondered if his parents were conducting a social science experiment on him. In a way he was right. Whether we are active or passive researchers, the choices we make on our children’s behalf have consequences. I’m sure if you are reading this you’re profoundly aware of this already, and have probably lost more than a few nights of sleep wondering if you are making the right choices. In the end, I think the answer is always yes. There is no single right choice. Sometimes there is no choice at all. But in the end, while it may sound like a cliché, life really is what we make of the experiences before us.

I feel very fortunate for the opportunities Red Oak (and a life partner with a good job and health benefits) provides me to be involved in my daughter’s education. I’m not sure what our future holds, but I’m grateful for the time I’ve had thus far.

Jodi Kushins
ROCS Mom and Blog Editor