Conscious Discipline and Homeschooling

I just had a discussion about my favorite subject - Homeschooling. When, why, what, how and whether or not to homeschool. One of the questions you have to ask yourself, why you want to homeschool your Child. Is it because you are not happy with the school system, because your child is learning outside the box, or you are living somewhere where you don’t have access to a public school. Living on the boat the question is not whether to homeschool or not, we have to make the decision what we want to teach our children while sailing the oceans and whether we want to follow a curriculum or not.  A lot of people believe that children are already learning a lot while living on a boat, which is true, however it is still a challenge to establish a routine (school or chores) on the boat. You not only have to take into consideration,  whether you want to explore the unschooling, before you expand into the homeschooling; you also need to consider what is your and most of all your child’s learning style, do you like to be creative or do you want to follow an already established curriculum . Lots of decisions are to be made to be able to tap into the most possibility and the potential of your own and your child’s mind and heart.

When I first started I did not know anything about homeschooling, luckily I met Alethea from Daytona. She opened the world of homeschooling to me; through her I learned how many ways of homeschooling there were and how creative you can be.  Creating my own curriculum has given me a lot of freedom; however I still haven’t been able to fully detach myself from the conventional school system. It is very much in grained how and what we have to learn and the biggest question is still how will they cope once they are moving back into society, where everything is ruled so much on performance, what grades you have on paper and outer appearance.

This is now our third year of homeschooling and I have to say I love it even though once in a while I have my moments with Julia and Carlos. Julia likes to sleep in, I like to get started early in the morning. Carlos does not see me as his teacher, I am his Mum. I believe that I think outside the square, but boy has he shown me how much bigger you can think outside that square and we are constantly challenging each other through that. I would say that I am flexible and take the teaching as they come, living in the moment as much as possible, if you have a child that likes the routine and needs to know how everything is going to happen, that can end up in a lot of frustration on both sides.

Whatever it is that draws you to homeschooling, I believe you have to keep one thing in mind, you as a teaching parent have to be conscious, disciplined and committed until your child is ready to take on this role and see it as their own responsibility. I want to teach my children that they learn every day, all day and see life itself as the school. Everyone is a teacher to us and if we can embrace each situation with our heart, challenges will turn into opportunities. There will be no mistakes only stepping stones on this journey to our own deeper understanding and living of life.  The changes we want to see in this world we have to start in our own heart and home.