Ask yourself when and where you learn most effectively…. In a simulated artificial environment, focused on one isolated skill at a time, or in an authentic, real-deal scenario? For MOST people, actual true-life experience provides a more motivating and realistic situation for learning skills, even though it may be more messy, chaotic, and overwhelming to absorb those skills all at once.
The reasons for simulating an environment and isolating skills are numerous, and sometimes wholly understandable and justifiable.
- Pilots who are learning to take off and land can practice on a computer simulator hundreds of times before testing those skills in a real plane, which saves money, instructor time, and possibly their own life.
- Nurses who are training for emergency situations can practice on specialized (expensive) mannequins who just happen to present with that specific emergency condition, who feel no pain, and who can be “reset” for each new day’s lesson.
- Cake decorators can frost cardboard cakes, saving time and money, and unneeded calories in their diets.
But ultimately, experience trumps artificial practice, and those who have plenty of experience in real situations move up to the title of “expert” as they encounter different scenarios and apply previously learned principles to new situations.
So why do I bring this up??? Because public schools have necessarily become great at simulated environments and isolating skills. Grouping children into classrooms under the direction of one or two teachers, and asking them all to make progress on one skill at a time is more efficient than setting children loose in a real environment. It’s a behavior management issue. Controlling a large number of students is difficult, so the learning environment has to be controlled instead.
Which means that having your child learn math in the grocery store (an authentic situation, where not all applicable skills can be anticipated) is generally preferable to setting them in front of a workbook page every-single-day where a predictable scope-and-sequence rules. But can you imagine trying to take 22 third-graders to Walmart? Instead, the public school gives them a worksheet where they pretend they are at Walmart, and then the kids write their answers on little blanks for the teacher to grade. But you are not homeschooling 22 third graders (thank goodness, right?). So it’s more effective to teach math in an authentic setting which could be the grocery store, the restaurant, the bowling alley, the hardware store, or Disneyland. Handling money is HIGHLY motivating to youngsters and when they make mistakes, those mistakes have authentic consequences! THAT is more motivating than getting one wrong on your homework.
This is true for science (catch an insect and watch it for 20 minutes, instead of coloring a worksheet). This is true for writing (the task of writing a letter has kids scrambling for good handwriting and better spelling). This is true for cooking (learning to multiply fractions can mean the difference between delicious cookies or solid inedible lumps).
But notice that in each of these authentic situations, because the risk of failure exists, the pressure to perform has also increased – for better and for worse. If you have a very anxious child, they will do better practicing the skills involved ahead of time, in an artificial simulated environment, and then slowly working up their confidence to perform in an authentic situation. For example, working in a concession stand takes many sub-skills, and one of the hardest is counting back change correctly. This can be the focus of a worksheet, or a game, or a role-playing exercise BEFORE they have customers standing there waiting for their brain to work. But link the preparation to the real deal if possible.
Remember to look closely at your own family’s strengths and realize that in some way, you are providing an authentic learning environment where your child is an apprentice to you. Do you have chickens that your family cares for every day? Most kids do not have the chance to take a class specifically about poultry until they are graduate veterinary students. Do you often weld things for your farm or machine shop? Welding is a high-paying job worldwide, and students don’t usually get the chance to try it until their junior or senior year of high school. Because your family has unique strengths, your child has more authentic experience in SOMETHING than you think. Give them credit for that real-life learning, and if they are interested, add some reading or youtube videos that go more in-depth on that topic and count it as a class, or as fulfilling the requirement for that subject.
Now, with all that said, don’t be afraid of artificial learning and don’t avoid it entirely. There is nothing morally wrong with it. It’s easier to teach certain subjects in a predefined sequence, which is why we pay for workbooks written by experts. This concept is just for YOU, as homeschool parents, to be more aware of as you plan, prepare, and document learning. If your child picks up a turtle and carries it around for six hours and spends the afternoon building it a habitat, and then you tell your sister that you just didn’t do any homeschool that day, because no workbooks were opened, you are incorrect. You’ve actually been homeschooling in the best possible way, and you deserve that moment of recognition for yourself.