"If you think in seasons, plant cereals. If you think in decades, plant trees. If you think in centuries, educate your children. ~ Chinese proverb.

I’ve spent the last 6 weeks or so trying to convince you that you can and should homeschool your children. People who know me would tell you that I am very vocal about my dislike and distrust of the public school system as it currently exists. I don’t think it can be fixed, and I think the only reason such an obvious failure of an experiment is still in operation is because a whole lot of people have a whole lot of careers and money tied up in it. They aren’t going to let go any time soon. Since everyone is entitled to their own opinion, my suggestion to those of you who might still be considering sending your child to public school is that you read any of John Taylor Gatto’s books. He writes about how public school came about, why it exists, and what it is doing to children in the name of education. Mr. Gatto used to be a teacher in NY State, and the information presented in his books was learned first hand.

From this point on I will assume that you have decided to homeschool your children, and that you are reading this column for some good solid advice about how to do that. I will also assume that you have looked into and taken the steps necessary to be a legal homeschooling parent—doing whatever it is that your state requires of you to be accepted as "qualified" to homeschool your children. In my state, I must have 2 years of college or take a "parent qualifying course." The course I took was a great one and was offered as a correspondence course.

Now we’re ready to get down to the fun stuff. Once you know what subjects that you are required to teach, you can decide how much room is left to teach what you WANT to teach. Learning does not always center on academics. If you have a passion for something—anything—now is the chance to share it with your children. You can build an entire curriculum around your interest. That is one of the wonders of homeschooling—it allows the time to study subjects that would not be included in a public school curriculum—like puppet making (my family is interested in marionettes) jewelry making, or making musical instruments. Each year my children and I choose several subjects we want to learn about. This year we are making our own wooden Native American flutes, learning how to make glass beads and them use them in making wire-wrapped jewelry, and learning bookbinding.

I feel very strongly that part of the huge problem in our society is that we have lost what I call "craftsmanship." Children are so distracted by the force-fed public school education that there is never, in all of the years of their growing up, time to be exposed to some of the wondrous crafts out there and to become skilled in one of their choice. Everyone is raised to be a passive "watcher" and to let the experts do everything. I’m not just talking about hobby type crafts, but skills using one’s hands to actually create something. That is a joy that many children in our society today never know, and I hope that you will realize the potential to let yourself and your children try as many crafts as possible while you are homeschooling, and to make craftsmanship an important part of your learning day. You will be as amazed as I was at the amount of confidence and pride being skilled in a true craft can give a child.

In previous columns, we’ve touched a little bit on some different methods of learning, so maybe you already know how you want to teach. Next week we’ll talk some about different learning styles—the fact that some children are "visual" learners, while others are "kinetic" learners. For now, start off by getting a good idea of exactly what subjects you are required to cover in your homeschooling.

As usual, the states all have different subject requirements, and some classify the same subjects differently. My state, Washington, requires that we cover 11 subjects listed as follows:

Occupational education

Science

Mathematics

Language

Social studies

History

Health

Reading

Writing

Spelling

Art and music appreciation

Some states group the subjects differently. For instance, some states define reading, writing, and English as Language Arts. My state requires us to separate the subjects. Since the name of the game is meeting the state requirements, make sure you cover all the subjects in a "to teach" list. Most states require a varying degree of depth of study depending on the age of the children you are teaching, so that will also influence your teaching method. For instance, a 9-year-old might be learning about the subject in less detail than will a 15-year-old.

Some homeschoolers purchase entire curriculums ready to use right out of the box, especially religious based homeschoolers. I do not personally know of anyone using a boxed curriculum, but once, years ago, I was tempted because they came with everything a parent needed to jump right in and start teaching. But unless you are able to preview the curriculum (perhaps you have a friend who is using it) you may find that you don’t always like everything included in the box. I have given away and donated much curriculum material over the last ten years, mainly because it is hard to know if it is what you want until you try it. And most of the "curriculum in a box" materials come with a pretty stiff price tag.

Instead, most people I know, myself included, purchase books and materials for the subjects separately. These materials are not always bought from a homeschooling supply store; they are just books and kits that seem to fit the bill for what you are studying. For instance, I just bought Elias an accurate see-through model of a car engine. At 17, he is learning about cars and how to repair and maintain them. This model will let him see what goes into an engine and how it operates. A few years ago, when he was studying robotics, we purchased quite a few kits for him to build his own robots.

We spend a lot of our curriculum budget these days on art supplies at Staples because all of the kids are into drawing. Sketch pads and various kinds of pens and pencils, as well as paints and glitter and glue are always needed. Nasco ( http://www.enasco.com/prod/Home ) puts out a series of catalogs that we use to purchase supplies of all sorts. Thankfully, the library is a free resource that we make much use of, not only for books, but also for videos. Though we do not watch regular television, we do use our own personal videotapes and some from the public library in our leaning. They are especially useful to learn about other peoples and cultures around the world.

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