Parents counter myths about homeschooling

Homeschooling numbers return to normal after more than doubling in pandemic year, but it’s still ideal for these families

For 14 years, Sarah Barnes and her family were considered outsiders for choosing to homeschool their four children.

But when the provincial government mandated schools to close in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a Facebook group called Homeschoolers of Newfoundland and Labrador, of which Barnes is an administrator, exploded, she said.

Many of the group’s members would joke, “A year ago we were the weird ones, now we’re the heroes,” Barnes said.

Some newcomers to the group didn’t even know the option to homeschool existed.

“We had people asking us if it was legal and I wanted to say, ‘Why? Do you think we’re all criminals in this group?’” Barnes said on a Zoom call from her home in Botwood. “COVID, all of the sudden, opened up some people’s eyes to an option ... they didn’t even know was on the table for them.”

While the numbers of kids being homeschooled has since returned to normal, with 271 students for the 2021-22 academic year, only eight more than the 2019-20 school year, there were 628 students being homeschooled in 2020-21.

Despite the interest, misconceptions about families who homeschool were still present.

COMMON CRITICISMS AND CHALLENGES

The Number 1 criticism Barnes has heard over the years is that homeschooled kids don’t get enough socialization, she said.

“If you actually turn it around and pose the question back to them and say, ‘What do you mean?’ A lot of people can’t actually answer that question,” she said. “The goal … is to get (my children) out there, to put them in the world, to make them confident, to make them functional adults.”

Barnes openly admits there are days when the isolation and the constant lunches, snacks and messes can leave her daydreaming about sending her kids to the bus stop.

Yet, many people still assume homeschooling requires saint-like abilities.

“It’s not all rainbows and unicorns. We’re not all sitting around holding hands all day long,” Barnes said. “They think we’re blessed with some kind of superhuman patience. No sir. We have our moments just like everybody else.”

SHORT DAYS, INDIVIDUALIZED LEARNING

“The thing that surprises a lot of people … is it doesn’t require that full 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. day, because it’s a very individualized learning,” Barnes said. “All of that business of a classroom, prepping, dealing with other students, getting the class to calm down, all those things that happen in the public school system, you don’t have that. So, when you remove all that extra stuff, the time on task becomes very, very short. So, I don’t have to put in a six-hour day, I can do two to three hours and our day is done.”

When you become a homeschooler, it’s hard to know when school ends and when life begins, Barnes said, and even trips to the grocery store can be a lesson in economics.

That’s something Burlington Tooshkenig has been discovering this year as well. He says walks with his children, Sophie and Judah, near his home in Holyrood sometimes become science class.

“Yesterday they were talking about photosynthesis and the colours of the leaves and how they were changing and comparing them. School was continuing on our walk yesterday and we weren't even in school,” Tooshkenig said. “There's so much hands-on learning. And I think that makes learning more interesting for the kids and sets them up to be lifelong

learners.”

Like Barnes, he says it’s easier to tailor-make the education experience based on the child.

“If my kids excel in a certain area, I am able to fast track them and allow them to excel in those areas. Or if they fall behind, I'm able to sit and do one on one and think of different ways to teach the subject that they might be having difficulty with,” Tooshkenig said.

DIFFERENT REASONS FOR DIFFERENT FAMILIES

Barnes chose to homeschool because her husband was a medical student doing a residency and she wanted the freedom to move as he began his career.

Tooshkenig, who had been an early childhood educator before becoming a stay-at-home dad, had other reasons.

“The big thing was I didn't like school from Grade 5 (when) we had … to leave the (Walpole Island First Nation) reserve and go to school in the town nearby. I encountered racism for the first time, I encountered mean teachers, I encountered all these things and the education gap that was between on the reserve and off the reserve was ridiculous,” he said. “It is a total break, free from a lot of things that I grew up with, and how I was parented. So, I'm very intentional about those things. Spending time with my kids is really, really important.”

As they learn about science and math, and how to read and write, Tooshkenig gives them important lessons he believes wouldn’t be taught in the public school system, such as their heritage as both Newfoundlanders on their mother’s side and Indigenous on their father’s side.

“They are steeped in Indigenous culture, as well as Newfoundland culture,” Tooshkenig said. “I want them to know that they belong in both worlds. And by me being able to stay home and foster that, I think that they'll have a better start.”