If you’re a new homeschooler, you might wonder if going through a full deschooling process while transitioning from a traditional school setting to homeschooling is a good idea. Is Deschooling the best thing for your family, or it actually just going to be a big waste of time?
Deschooling is not a requirement to begin homeschooling, but it is a necessary step for many families in order to have the smoothest possible transition from public school to homeschooling. Deschooling can lead to better long term results and a more relaxed homeschool environment.
Let’s explore why Deschooling can be such a helpful transition too into homeschooling, and how to know if Deschooling would be helpful for your family or not.
Why is Deschooling Important?
First of all, if you still aren’t sure what deschooling is, first go read Deschooling: What Does it Mean, and Do You Need to Do It?, then come back here!
As a first time homeschooling parent, you may have some specific ideas about what homeschooling should look like. I’m just gonna tell you upfront…your ideas probably aren’t realistic!
- Deschooling can play an important role in helping you as the parent to shift your preconceived expectations and you transition into homeschooling your family. It’s not uncommon for to miss much of the natural learning that happens while homeschooling, because it doesn’t always look like what we are used to seeing in school.
- Deschooling lets you change your perspective on what learning looks like.
- Deschooling is an important period of time that is going to allow a child to detox, destress and deprogram from a highly regimented (or even traumatic) school experience. It will provide them with the space and time to rediscover their interests and find the joy in learning again.
- A deschooling period will allow you as a family to bond and learn about your new, different lifestyle together.
The benefits to deschooling are abundant, and for most (if not all) families, I believe deschooling is absolutely essential for a smooth transition to homeschooling, and will increase your chances of successfully homeschooling long term.
What is the Goal of Deschooling?
The goal of deschooling is to change the relationship that you and your child have with school and education and to allow a new way of thinking and a different approach to learning to form.
(Sometimes deschooling gets confused with unschooling, but they aren’t the same thing. If you need some more clarification about the differences between deschooling and unschooling, I wrote an article clarifying just that! Be sure to go check it out.)
If your child has been in any form of traditional school, be that public school, private school, or even a very structured homeschool program, they will need a period of time to “unlearn” and “deprogram” from the school system.
For the new homeschool parent, learning to trust both themselves and their child is a big part of deschooling. Transitioning into homeschooling after being in traditional school can be super uncomfortable at the beginning, as it can really challenge our comfort zones. Trusting the process can be scary, and building trust in yourself and each other takes time.
Keep in mind that you are not only changing how you are choosing to educate your child, but you are changing your entire lifestyle, on a day to day, intimate bases. Be patient, and give yourselves the grace needed to adjust.
Who Can Benefit from Deschooling?
The benefits to deschooling are vast! Here are just some of the benefits your family will experience through the deschooling process:
Benefits of Deschooling
- You won’t waste as much money on curriculums that don’t fit your needs.
- Your children will develop a genuine love of learning.
- Your connection with your kids will deepen.
- Power struggles will be greatly reduced (or eliminated entirely!).
- You’ll learn to trust yourself more and your abilities to provide the best education for your child.
- Allows your child’s brain and body to reset.
- Helps your kids to unlearn any bad habits they may have picked up at school.
- Gives your time to observe your child’s learning style (a crucial thing to know when homeschooling!)
- Gives parents time to research homeschool styles, methods and resources.
- Changes your perspective on seeing public schooling as the norm.
- Allows time for your child to develop interests in things they want to learn about.
- Improves your child’s self confidence.
- Improves your child’s decision making skills.
- Gives opportunity for parents to reconnect with their kids.
- Helps parents better understand their children’s interests.
- Resets your family’s schedules and routines.
- Establishes a fresh start to your homeschooling journey.
- Helps lay the foundation for a successful homeschooling experience.
Deschooling Helps You Settle into Homeschooling
The benefit of deschooling is that it allows you the space and time to slowly and gently transition from a public/private school mind set to a home based mindset.
Deschooling lets your let go of preconceived notions of what learning should look like. It let’s you change your perspective on what daily routine would serve you best. You don’t have to wake up at 6:30 am and start school at 8am. You can, but that isn’t the only option, and it may not be the best one for your family. That’s the beauty of homeschooling. You get to decide. You get to choose what is best for you, your child and your family as a whole.
Why Parents Need to Deschool, Too
Parents need to deschool just as much as children.
In fact, I might go so far as to say that most parents need to deschool MORE than their kids do. Like, waaaay more.
If you attended a traditional school while growing up, you need to deschool. You need to experience first hand just how much learning can really happen outside of school setting, and outside of the confines of a curriculum.
Don’t discount the importance of deschooling.
Time to “unlearn” and quite literally detox from public school is crucial. You have to learn to just “be”. How to be without a schedule, without an agenda, without an outside authority telling you what to do and when to do it.
Spend this time connecting with your kids. Talk, play and strengthen your bond. Do things together that have no schedule, no agenda.
Watch how you slowly begin to flourish, and how your kids respond to that. This is what makes the process of deschooling so beautiful!
How to Know if Your Family Needs to Deschool
Does every family that decides to homeschool need to deschool? Not necessarily.
Some families will do just fine transitioning into homeschooling without first deschooling. You’re unique, your kids are unique. Every family’s experience will be unique. And maybe you have been very minimally effected by your school experience.
I wrote a blog post exploring how long it can potentially take to deschool, so be sure to go read that when you are done here.
BUT…if you do decide to skip deschooling, don’t feel bad if you discover that you need to backpedal a bit.
Deschooling is a personal choice, and it’s totally find if you decide not to do it. But in my opinion, any family who has been in public school and been in the “school mindset” is going to benefit from deschooling. And if you want my honest opinion, taking your kids out of school on Friday and jumping into homeschooling on Monday is frankly, a recipe for disaster.
Seriously. Even if you decide not to do a full deschooling process, at least give yourself a little breathing room.
What if we have homeschooled from the beginning? Do we still need to deschool?
If you have homeschooled your children from day one, but YOU attended school growing up, you may still benefit from deschooling.
Deschooling is really about rediscovery…rediscovering the joys of learning and everything that goes with it.
Changing your perspective on something when you grew up being heavily influenced through societal norms can be challenging, and you may find your past experiences continue to influence you, despite your best intentions.
Be really honest with yourself, and if you find yourself still getting hung up on busy work, busy schedules, to-do lists and artificially imposed expectations, than give yourself the gift of deschooling!
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