Are we done deschooling now?

I remember holding onto the false idea that “deschooling” should take one month per year of schooling, doubled if they went to Pre-K. What a load of sh*t. That’s my first advice to any new home/unschoolers. Forget a timeline for deschooling. It’s crap. Take your time. You’ve got plenty of it. I doubt we’re done yet. But I have seen a huge step forward in one area.

For the past two years Zeb has avoided like the plague anything that included the words “class”, “instructor”, “lessons”, as well as anything that seemed too educational in nature. Things from baseball and soccer to art and games had to be filtered carefully, new ideas worded in ways to cushion any potential connotations they may carry for him. It wasn’t easy.

Now it seems I can tread a little less lightly. Zeb is stepping out of his comfort zone, if only a bit at a time. In December he began golf lessons. (If I might digress for a moment, I love when people realize that 4pm is not the only time in which kids are available – we do have track break in our schools after all!) Zeb has enjoyed golf for some time. He’s had his own clubs for a couple years but Justin’s work schedule being what it is, they rarely have time to play together. When I heard about the golf lessons, I wasn’t sure if word “lesson” would turn him off. I was hesitant so I think I danced around the words a bit, saying something like: “Zeb, would you be interested in learning how to beat Dad at golf?”

He’s been playing for over two months now, has leveled up once and really enjoys his class and his instructor. And since then he’s been more open to trying other things: a weekly homeschool co-op and Tae Kwon Do.

It hasn’t been all easy. Tae Kwon Do was at a community center with an instructor who apparently has appointed himself Warden over what seems to be his own version of boot camp. What the heck? When he actually uttered things like ”all kids are bad and we have to force them to be good” and ”kids don’t get choices in this class” then proceeded to physically handle a tiny little girl while she sobbed in fear, I made the choice to walk out (it was either walk out or freak out). Not the right environment for us.

The homeschool co-op was also fun. December was holiday crafting and Zeb really enjoyed himself. Then he decided he wanted to attend January’s Public Speaking class. He had a lot of fun with it, but it ran its course and he chose not to continue despite science experiments being on February’s agenda.

We’ve talked about trying out art classes soon and I’m still hoping to find a positive Tae Kwon Do instructor. And he has big plans with golf. Something about “kicking Dad’s butt”.