By Rachel Vallance
If you are of a certain age you may remember the theme from the PBS show Reading Rainbow, “take a look, it’s in a book!” If our homeschool had a motto that would be it, and if I had to name our learning style it would be Librarian-ism, or perhaps Biblio-Chao-tech: Books, Chaos, and a bit of tech. One wonderful thing about homeschooling is you can mix up learning styles to fit your child(ren). In our house it is always book central.
The start of our homeschooling journey a decade ago was like walking out onto the porch at night to watch a meteor shower and seeing a white-striped fluffy black critter. Lots of awe, wonder, and a fair share of shock and panic. We knew it was the right choice, but how could we teach everything and guide our children to success? There were so many expensive shiny curriculum options, and we were dealing with a huge financial and medical crisis. My husband and I both have degrees in social sciences, he worked as a behavioral ed tech, I had run a seasonal bakery, and owned a small resale, repair, catering bit of everything business. I count myself as a competent carpenter, seamstress, and DIYer, but teaching all of history, biology, and advanced math sounded far more risky for our future than crossing that skunk-blocked porch. So what did we do? Shut the door for a moment to pray, research, and talk about our own learning styles. We had frank discussions about what we’d observed in our children, what we remembered most from our public education, and what gave us and our children the most joy. We realized sometimes looking outside the box and inside the book is the best way to learn.
Deborah Farmer Kris asks in her book Raising Awe-Seekers, “Have you ever spent days,
months, even a year inspired by a question? Have you ever seen your child get blissfully lost in exploring a big idea?” From the start, our goal for our homeschool has been to teach our
children how to learn, and to love to learn. We don’t want standardized test checklists, we want them to see the awesomeness of creation and study the stories of this world, and say, “I want to know more!” We want them to appreciate and want to protect the gifts we’ve been blessed with, while finding a way thrive and help others do the same in this wondrous world.
The problem was our budget. How do you give your children the world on $500 a year for all their education supplies? It turns out we already knew the answer: The Library!
When we lived in rural Maine, our long car rides were filled with audiobooks which provided a shared adventure that led to pretend games, world building with Legos and Keva blocks and recycled cardboard, and notebooks filled with their own illustrated fan fiction. Once we moved to a Maine city, we realized how important those shared stories are to our homeschool. We make time to read aloud before bed, and offer audiobooks for afternoon quiet time. We’ve encouraged books for learning, a cure for boredom, entertainment, and relaxation. Even when the library was a 30 minute drive, there has rarely been a week we don’t visit at least twice, and I don’t remember leaving with less than a reusable grocery bag full since the birth of our second child. We have our own bookcase dedicated to library books so they don’t get mixed up, have cards for two local libraries, and two e-library cards from out of state. If it sounds like I’m bragging and proud of this, I am!
Does this mean my kids have read the top 100 Classics, can quote Plato’s Republic in Ancient Greek, or list the hierarchy of all living things? No, but they know how to learn about them! Do you know the Modern Major General song from Pirates of Penzance? That is essentially what our Biblio-Chao-Tech homeschool education looks like, all based on their interests accumulated in weekly bags of books, with guidance from us to help contain the chaos and cover the required subjects. They can recount random facts about the history of planes and cars, build accurate replicas of battlefronts from both of the World Wars, know the chemistry, biology, physics, and history of bread, and can even craft days-long games of world-building pretend. They are very well-acquainted with complex social structures, the best practices of moving and protecting water, they can tell at sight the difference between a pansy and a peony, and share many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse. Yes, one child loves math, we still love him! They can sail a boat around Penobscot Bay, explain elephant toothpaste, grow their own supply of fruits and vegetables, build load-bearing bridges with spaghetti and marshmallows, code Lego machines, map a trip and make a budget for it, and play the Jurassic Park theme on piano. A well-rounded chaotic awesome not quite classic education, all built upon a small laminated library card.
How do we make this work for meeting Maine homeschool requirements? We start with an
idea, an inspiring book, and ask our children: What’s next? What can we do with this? I often
explain to the curious: start with a cookbook, plan and make a family meal, and you can cover all the subjects with a little help from a library search. There are certain foundational academics they need to learn, and for that we often turn to technology for a base, free programs like Khan Aca demy, PBS Learning, and Great Courses, but it always leads us back to a search at the library because they want to know more. They see the wonder, ask the questions, and want to go out and discover our world with awe and joy. Whether you are just starting or heading into high school, don’t be afraid of the skunk in the way of your homeschool journey, go out a different door, and find your way to the library. Ask them to recommend a good book on skunks, or stars.
Find out more about using your local library as a resource!