How to start homeschooling - Essential guide for parents

Hi, everybody. Thanks a million for joining in today. We're delighted to be joined by Manisha, who is fabulous in the world of podcasting and also involved in a homeschooling process. Manisha, thanks so much for joining us.

Thank you so much for having me, Una. It's so nice to be here.

Thank you. So Manisha, as we can tell by her accent, isn't from Ireland, but we'll have a wide range of experience internationally to give us a little bit of an overview as to different systems. Today's topic, we're going to look at a little bit more on the homeschooling process. So we would have been familiar with doing aspects of homeschooling during COVID and during the pandemic, but maybe more schools and more parents have moved away from this process and it wouldn't be something that we may adopt over here this side of the world. So Monisha will be giving us a very good overview as to maybe some practical things and things to look out for if you're interested in that space or wanting to learn a little bit more about it. So to kick things off, Anisha, do you want to give us a little bit of background as to, you know, what brought you to this point and what you already involved in in other activities?

Absolutely. So I was a teacher for 20 years, still a teacher, and I started teaching in the New York City public school system. And over the course of my teaching career, through a combination of subbing and private tutoring and teaching the schools, I taught over 2,000 children in three countries at some of the most elite private schools in the world, and then also at some of the most unrest under resourced public schools, and also what would be considered a thriving public school. And children have a wide variety of learning capabilities. And I was just so disheartened to see what I observed to be an education system that was broken at every level and frankly just didn't make sense in terms of the vast amount of knowledge we know about how children learn differently about how to curate a child's education according to perhaps a diagnosed learning disability or a learning preference. And especially as a tutor, I was really kind of trying to zone in on how each child learns and saw how difficult that is in a standardized, homogenous school system, and how much of school was really about coercion rather than cultivating a love of learning. And so I was thinking about this problem and I learned about this growing movement of families in New York City who were starting homeschool co ops and basically what they would do is hire a teacher, and they would set up a tiny school for six to eight children, and they could really choose whatever they wanted their children to learn. And so I thought that idea was very compelling because I think teachers are amazing. And the idea that a teacher could have absolute freedom to design the school that was best for kids in collaboration with parents seemed like a great concept to me. And so as I dove deeper into that world and actually, I founded a tech company that was kind of like Airbnb for teachers starting their own schools. And so the way some of these homeschool co ops worked with, they were hybrid models. So children would attend one, two, or three days a week, and the rest of the time, parents would be homeschooling their children. And so then I discovered homeschooling, which completely blew my mind because it was nothing at all what I thought of. I think, like most people, I thought, you know, it's a mom sitting around a kitchen table teaching six hours a day to her children and, you know, sewing their clothes and baking bread. Some of that goes on, of course. But in fact, the people I met homeschooling were people in tech. They were teachers, they were artists, entrepreneurs. It was really the most innovative people. And also parents who. Children are really struggling in the school system. And I know you know your podcast about neurodiversity, and that population has really found a gift in homeschooling in that they are finally able to give their child an education that serves them. And so I was just amazed at this approach to education that had kind of evolved organically. And so I realized that one of the challenges that people have is that there's just no support. I mean, when you're starting homeschooling, you're really just doing it for the first time, and you have to figure it all out on your own. And there's a lot of repeat research that goes on and kind of scrolling through Facebook groups. And so I wanted to make it easy for families to find resources and then also give them support, because it can be really hard to make a counterculture decision like homeschooling. And so I wanted to create a community, both of parents and also child life specialists, who could help empower families and give them tips along the way. And that's how we got to today with the Teacher Kids podcast and online homeschooling community.

Amazing. Thank you, Masha. That sounds fabulous. And I suppose, as we mentioned from an Irish base, maybe homeschooling isn't something that would be adopted by many in terms of you know, lifestyle and bits and pieces. I suppose maybe a main initial question and something we might look at is from the social side. So I suppose an ongoing query might be, well, if a child or a student has been homeschooled, how might that maybe hinder their social skills? And what kind of tools might you suggest as to, you know, might help that or help ease that process?

Certainly. So I can't speak exactly to statistics in Ireland, but in the United States, homeschooling is exploding. It has tripled since the pandemic. And one of the results of more and more people homeschooling is that these very large homeschooling communities have emerged. So most of the homeschoolers that I know and most of the homeschoolers I've met are in urban areas like New York and San Francisco, but they have lots of friends and even smaller suburban areas. In rural areas, it can be a little bit trickier, but it's not really any different than having an only child in a rural area. It's the same set of problems. So, first of all, there are many people homeschooling. It's very social. And what's also exciting is that parents can curate the social experience for their children. So it's not like you're just stuck with a group of kids the same age who you may or may not resonate with, but you can choose your friends. A lot of the kids will have one day where they're going to forest school and another day where they might go on a field trip with other homeschoolers. There might be a dad who is a professor of science who teaches a science class for all the kids. Another day they might have a play date. What a lot of families I've seen do successfully is have a weekly board game night. And I often suggest if you're trying to get a social life going for your child, especially if you're more introverted yourself, just having a consistent weekly board game night that you post in your homeschool group, and everyone knows that they can come, and that's there can be a great way for children to make friends. So the social lives of homeschoolers are wonderful. I mean, they're mixed stage groups. The groups are very diverse because a lot of people are homeschooling because they have been ostracized from traditional school. So they're quite inclusive. In the USA, black homeschoolers is the fastest growing group. It's grown five times. There's 16% of black Americans that are homeschooling. Right now. So you can imagine the diversity, and it's really extraordinary. And then the other facet of this is that I often encourage parents to think about, what does socialization mean to you? Every parent wants their child to have friends, but we often have this misconception that children develop their social skills from their peers, that it's their peers who teach them how to socialize. And if you think about that idea for a second, it doesn't really make sense. Like, a child would not learn math from their peers who don't have the same level of math than they do. A lot of children have terrible social skills. They call each other names, they bully, they throw a pissy fit when something goes wrong. And so having adults around to help curate those experiences is helpful. Being able to observe your family relating socially, that's how children learn through modeling. And even more fundamentally, that secure attachment between a parent and a child is really the foundation for a child's social capacity. So it's actually Dr. Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Mate, who wrote this book called hold on to your Kids. And I spoke with Dr. Neufeld on my podcast, and he said, don't use the word socialization. Think about social capacity. How do you want to curate your child's social capacity? And that is through the healthy relationship with a parent. There's so much research that supports that. And, you know, I see parents who have children AS YOUNG As 1, 2, 3 are saying, oh, does my baby need friends their own age? And, you know, really, they don't. I mean, if your child loves that and they want to hang out with kids their own age, great. But it's really only until around 8 or 9 that it's even that much benefit to them to have other kids who, oh, I don't know how to read either. Oh, cool. We share something in common. But I think a lot of that is misunderstood. And I'll just say, you know, really, this idea of a peer culture where kids learn from their peers and hang out with their peers is only something that's emerged since after World War II. That was never the concept that children made friends by hanging out with kids the same age. It's a new idea, and I think, in some ways, kind of a harmful idea. So that's my thoughts on socialization.

Thank you. And I suppose it's really, really important, as we are, you know, an evolving, developing species, to have that social unit and out is vital, in a sense, to our existence. And as you mentioned, I suppose in terms of, you know, that commonality with sharing or they have difficulties reading. So as you mentioned, we work obviously with students with learning differences, dyslexia, autism, and anything kind of across the board, either in the conventional education system or in alternative patterns. And we find for them it's the most useful to obviously have at least role models or people at their own age group that they can link in with to say, oh, okay, well this person may also have this as a difficulty or they may struggle also also in this area. So kind of limits, I suppose, that isolation aspect as well, for them to have people a little bit further along the path as well, that they're like, okay, I can get through this because it's definitely, it's doable and from a curriculum piece measure. So I suppose trying to keep up with the curriculum at home, where it isn't maybe being monitored in that kind of regimental fashion in let's say a school system of going for six, seven hours a day, how do you find kind of keeping on top of such a vast arrangement of curriculum competencies to tick off every week?

Sure, great question. So one of the wonderful things about homeschooling in the modern age is that there are so many curricula that have been developed specifically to support parents learning at home. So you can find a curriculum that your child loves and you're really off to the races. It's actually built for a parent who might not understand that material. And I will share it with your listeners, but I actually built a free curriculum Planner based on 200 different archetypes of children with different learning needs to try to find the best fit. And if you have that curriculum, especially if it's mastery based, meaning that you move on to the next concept when you've mastered the one before it, you really are kind of set with having a curriculum. And then if you really want to make extra sure that your child is on track, we won't. We'll, you know, also you need to think about what are the things that school deems are important and are those actually important skills for your child to learn. But that aside, there's some really wonderful exams available. I mean, the ones I know are mostly US based, but Moby Max and the MAP Growth test, it's very quick and easy to take one of those tests and see what areas might need a little fine tuning. So I feel though, just with the curriculum, you're off to a good start. And, and especially, you know, some of the curricula is actually adaptive learning apps. So for example, you know, you work with children with DYSLEXIA There's Nessie, which was created in the UK and it's a wonderful literacy app. So the other dimension of this is that I think homeschooling only needs to take an hour or two a day because that one on one learning is so powerful. And actually Benjamin Bloom did a study called the two sigma problems which showed it was in the 50s, he was an educational psychologist at MIT that one on one learning is two standard deviations above the norm, meaning children who are doing one on one tutoring, regardless of the quality of the tutor, did 90% better than the rest of the class. And so I think parents see that very quickly when they're homeschooling that, oh my gosh, we went through the entire K through 8th grade curriculum in six months. Because I'm just my child learning at their own pace. We're catering it to their needs. They have a curriculum that suits their learning mode. So it just happens a lot faster.

Definitely. Completely agree. And as you said that one to one aspect, wherever possible it can be facilitated, can help, you know, the child or the student learning at their own pace, as you mentioned, ask questions and feel more comfortable with absorbing and understanding information. I suppose the important things for us to outline is that unfortunately, Irish is still quite compulsory in an Irish system and lots of students would traditionally learn that through a school platform. We are possibly a little bit behind in devising more of a detailed structure if people want to maybe learn that at home. Now, obviously, if a student has a learning difference and that has been granted through an education psychologist, and they've gone through many hoops and bounds, they may be entitled to an Irish or foreign language exemption. But at present, obviously Irish is still compulsory to learn and is very much taught through an education system. So if there's any parents linking in that are interested in the homeschooling aspect, important to take that into consideration. And what other mechanisms or avenues can be put in place then in order for the child to adapt or the student to adapt, kind of integrating into that language system barrier, let's say that we have over here that maybe isn't evident in other parts of the world. Aisha, thank you so much. So if people want to kind of link in with you and learn a little bit more or find out any of your fabless offerings, tell us a little bit more of what they can do for sure.

So we have a website, teacherkidspod.com and I think our podcast is the only podcast called Teach your kids on Apple. So you can subscribe and look for an episode that interests you. We're also on YouTube and if you want to join the online community, you can join from our website. There are membership options. So if you want to get help, connecting, you know, more personal, one on one support, finding the best tutor for your child, connecting with friends, finding curriculum, you know, if your child has a learning disability, connecting with a certified child life specialist. That membership is $15 a month. And we're very committed to equity and education and helping under resourced families. So if you don't feel like you can afford to pay, all you have to do is send me an email and say I can't afford it. And no questions asked, we'll give you a free membership. We just trust people that if they can help support the community, great. And if they can't right now, then it's free for them to use.

Well, thank you. That's a lovely offering and it's great to I suppose cater for lots of different economic statuses based upon obviously the current climate that we live in and might be useful for some of our listeners, as you mentioned, even maybe trial and approach to see. Okay. And develop a little bit more insight. So it isn't definitely something to make a drastic change on. Obviously there's many different implications and every education system is different, but might be something to explore, you know, and keep it in the back of your mind as to, okay, well if we were to do this, what would that look like? And the planning process is obviously the most important in implementing this as well.

Yes. And I just want to add to that, you know, in terms of the Irish, there are so many resources available, even, you know, YouTube, tutors, different ways. I really support preserving the cultural heritage and think that's a wonderful. Even though it might be tricky for some children to learn. And, and I will also just add, you know, I mean if you are attending school, you can still homeschool, you can still curate your children's education and bring more tools in to support their learning.

Amazing. Perfect. Thank you. It was fabulous having you on. It was so nice topic, something totally new for us to explore and definitely, as you said, growing in lots of other areas of the world. So hopefully it'll be taking off again over this side of the pond soon.

Wonderful. I'm just so happy to know you, Una. And I will definitely be sending our community members your way because I think a lot of them will benefit from what you have have to offer. And thank you so much.

Thank you so kindly. We look forward to speaking to you soon. Thanks, Marcia.

Sounds great. Thank you.