I'm so over the debate about public/private/or homeschool. I have one parent who is the elected member of the School Board and another who is a professor of Education. I've held strong opinions about education reform since I was in the second grade.
My new view is "Who cares? We are all teachers here!" Every single adult has some contact with children in our lives. We're parents. We're aunts and uncles. We're Grandparents. We're Sunday School Teachers and random people waiting at the bus stop. We don't have to wait for some obscure bill to get passed. We are the change we seek.
Everyone single one of us has passions and interests. I'll call it affectionately "our inner geek." Teaching means taking a second to let a new initiate into the tribe. The tribe might be made up of bakers or chemists or obscure Winter Olympic Sports Athletes. Teaching is sharing our individual passion with another.
Teaching is simple. It's something we do innately every day. I think we Americans lose a lot when we think of change on some grand, operatic level. Micro-teaching reform is really cool.
I do my homeschooling on the cheap. My equipment is a pencil and a library card. A home computer and an internet connection help. (There are free computers and internet access at most public libraries.) I'm constantly amazed at how easy it is to tailor an individual educational plan without all those expensive packets and curriculums.
My micro-education reform of the week is "typing class." Here is a super easy and free typing program to set up for your family called Type Web. If you click under "Teacher" you can set up individual lessons for each of your family members. My kids love it. They earn online trophies for every lesson they complete. My husband is learning to switch over from the hunt-and-peck method at age 42. He and our kids have a friendly competition.
I love finding these little additions that make our life easier and more fun!
