Types of Alternative Education

In this episode of Limitless Education Xchange, we dive into the diverse and growing world of alternative education models. As traditional schooling systems face increasing challenges, more families and educators are turning to innovative approaches that prioritize individuality, creativity, and real-world learning. We explore various types of alternative education, from Montessori and Waldorf to homeschooling and unschooling, and examine how these models are reshaping the future of learning. Join us as we discuss the benefits, challenges, and opportunities within this evolving landscape, and how educators and parents alike can embrace these transformative educational paths.

Transcript

Modernizing Homeschool and Alternative Education

Speaker 1 0:03

Hi everyone , welcome to Limitless edX podcast . Today we're really excited to talk about breaking free from the traditional education schedule , modernizing the homeschool and alternative education experience . My name is Jeanette Easton and I'll be your host . And Andrea Harris , take it away .

Speaker 2 0:24

My name is Andrea Harris , I'm from Bloom at Home Learning , and we're here to talk to parents all about how you can work smarter , not harder , designing your child's education day . So the biggest takeaway from this is going to be today that it does not need to look like what we think school days look like . So you definitely do not need to homeschool from , say , for example , 9 to 3.30 every single day , monday to Friday . It looks very , very different and we are going to explain the reasons why it looks different and how it might look in your home . It obviously depends on what suits every family best , and that's the best part of homeschooling and choosing alternative education is that you can design it to be what works best for your family and really it gives you the freedom and flexibility to do that . So if something works or it doesn't work , you have the freedom to stay with that or change it up to what works better .

Speaker 2 1:27

So one of the first things that I wondered when I pulled my girls to homeschool back in 2022 , after I resigned from my school board was I was thinking like a teacher . I was thinking , oh , my goodness , how am I going to fit in all these subjects and what am I going to make it look like , and we're so used to filling our day schedule to make it look like school . It took me a while to get out of that mode . Honestly , jeanette , it was kind of laughable because I planned way too much in the beginning . I was being a teacher and really you kind of have to get your mind out of that . So just to give you an example , when Jenna and I were teaching in the school system you typically have , anywhere from 20 would be the lowest number of students per classroom all the way up to oh , my goodness , I think I maxed out at 33 one year teaching kindergarten or full day kindergarten when it first came out , and it's way too many students for that reason , virtually .

Speaker 1 2:26

I got to 42 once .

Speaker 2 2:28

Oh my goodness . So yeah . So I think everyone agrees , even people who are in the school system , all educators agree you can do a much better job teaching children different ways to learn and really see them thrive in their learning with less students in the classroom . Obviously , the more you pack in , the more chaotic it gets , and especially with varying abilities of learning and varying special needs as well . So , for example , if you ever had a day where there was maybe a lot of sickness or flu going around in the wintertime and you were down to 12 students , everyone always remarks oh my goodness , I can't imagine having this number of students all day , every day , because you can get so much done . So think of it that way with your own children in your own home . So with myself , if I were homeschooling two of my children With myself , if I were homeschooling two of my children , it was so much more efficient , so much quicker . You can get so much more done when you are teaching to two or three or four or five children , say , for example , you have a learning pod versus the whole classroom full , so you can get it done a lot quicker .

Speaker 2 3:46

I always share with parents that you don't need to do it every single day either . We often take one day off a week to do field trips or just to do fun things , and there's a lot of alternative education models that have adopted that schedule as well . So , for example , you could do schooling , homeschooling . If you're doing it in your own home with your own children , you might want to start with like a half hour for kindergarten age students . A lot of people wonder . Parents freak out and think , oh my gosh , I'm not doing enough . Really , if you streamline and really focus on certain skill sets , you don't need to do more than 30 minutes a day . When they're four and five years old , that's their attention span , and certainly you can work in fun games and different ways to expand their learning .

Speaker 2 4:29

If you're doing outdoor ed , that's a great way as well , but you don't need to formally sit down and you don't even really need to do that . Right , you don't need to formally sit down , but for myself , I do about two hours a day , monday to Thursday , and then we also take Friday off . I've seen lots of different influencers as well , all over Facebook and Instagram , who replicate the same statement that they don't have to do it a lot with their children , even when you get to high school it's maybe three streamlined hours . Or what my oldest did when she was high schooling was she liked to stack her days , so take more days off , and she was quite happy working into the evening hours when she had days where she knew she could like kind of streamline her learning . So it really stack it on to a couple of days , and who doesn't want to do that ? Right , if you can work heavier on two days a week instead of all five . I think that just goes to show the way society is shifting right now .

Speaker 1 5:28

We used to do that in university , Remember pack our classes all in certain days . Who's to say we can't do it at a younger age ?

Speaker 2 5:37

technically , Absolutely , and it benefits the kids because it's so much more fun for them , right ? I don't think any of us really like to sit down in meetings where there's talking and somebody's talking and teaching something . I always found professional development days where we , as teachers , had to sit and listen to people teaching us were the most boring . I like it to be fun , impactful . You want the best bang for your buck . You don't want to sit there and listen to the fluff that we include in school . And if anyone was online with their children at that time in 2020 and 2021 , when we were online learning oh my goodness , that is the feedback you , um .

Speaker 2 6:17

We received a lot as educators or teachers , or even as a mom watching some of the things . It was a lot of time fillers and I think parents would get annoyed , right ? They don't want to have to sit there with their child making sure they're on task when their child isn't going to be on task because there's so many videos being played or silly games where it's tricky because you can only unmute one child at a time . So it just went to show everyone the efficiency or the lack of efficiency in the school day process and how we can totally modernize that for 2024 and beyond .

Speaker 1 6:57

Oh for sure . Actually , even I was doing that in the schools too , and the kids knew my goal . I was like if I'm teaching for more than 15 minutes then I'm talking too much , so trying to condense everything into smaller amounts to be efficient . When you explain to kids like efficiency , productivity , what that means , what it looks like , when you explain a process , it's actually quite helpful for them , because once they then we started stacking and I was like well , our efficiency and productivity through the week will determine our end of week , like what we do on Friday , and improve behaviors dramatically . It was like they get it . If you break it down Appropriately , totally get it .

Speaker 2 7:43

Even young kids really get it too . I actually wrote a whole sub stack on this . I think it was like back in February , about how , when I was teaching grade one , two , during 2021 and 2022 , that's what the kids started doing themselves and the parents would actually laugh , like I had a great relationship with everyone in my classroom and the families were just incredible and they would say , andrea , like this student started , or this child started like really getting all her work done , because I would give out our weekly work at a time and just outline what we were doing and they'd be able to do it themselves and they were , of course , like child appropriate levels for that grade , so it wasn't like heavy work , but they would get it all done and then they'd be able to take a day off or a long weekend or even do a three-day week . So kids adapt naturally when you give them the option for that .

Speaker 2 8:34

And I think honestly , thinking back on my schooling , I would totally have wanted to do that and eliminate a lot of the silliness that you feel like is superfluous . You don't need this extra material . Why are we doing this ? This is boring , and that's also when you start to see a lot of behaviors in the classroom and homeschooling as well . If you're teaching stuff they don't want to learn about necessarily , or if it's going on too long , if it's beyond their learning level , that's when you start to see a lot of resistance to learning and not enjoying it . Right , just not thriving .

Speaker 1 9:10

Well and just do a project-based result is also very , you know , interest-based . So if we reach our objective , then you get to work on certain tasks because you do have to . You have to appeal to their interests . But there are certain things you have to . Like a creative child will not be inclined to learn financial literacy . Or , you know , a numbers kid won't be as inclined to the creative side of things . Or you know right brain , left brain , how they work and we all work differently . But but it's also , it's just great to have that end of you know that like maybe an entrepreneurial project or . But when you're homeschooling you have that flexibility because you're just teaching the core so quickly and it's really beneficial .

Speaker 2 9:59

Absolutely , I completely agree . And to go back to parents wondering how the day looks like , my goal was always that I could leave out a lot of the things I maybe you know you can do art in an independent art class if you wanted to , gym time if they're doing sports after school or alternative education classes that may offer that . So you can definitely source in a variety of different ways and , for example , my daughter does private French classes as well , and so if you're able to organize that and afford it , it's a great way to streamline the subjects that you need to hit on . My opinion was always my kids are going to need to read and write and do basic level math , so that was always my priority . I prioritize the literacy and math , and there are a bunch of ways that you can structure your day so it goes smoothly , where you just develop different programs . Or like consistency of routine , where you might get a really great literacy online program that you can do 20 minutes four days a week and it's going to hit on the things that you need to , and that gives you the 10 or 20 minutes to work with your other child if you have more than one . So there are different tips and tricks that you can do and a lot of these things too , jeanette and I are experts in because we've taught for so long .

Speaker 2 11:25

There are free programs out there that are really awesome and beneficial . So if parents want to incorporate the technology , that's a great way to do it . A lot of homeschoolers are decreasing their tech , which is totally okay as well , because you can incorporate different fun games and puzzles and independent work . You can incorporate different fun games and puzzles and independent work . So that's where we can also come in and recommend hey , this like just off the top of my head like a letter bingo or this game was really quite fun and you can use it repeatedly throughout the week and it really helps hit on certain skills . So that's where it can be really beneficial to seek some support in structuring what your homeschool day looks like . Oh and , jeanette , we'll need to talk about the transition as well .

Speaker 1 12:10

Oh , transitioning from public to homeschool ? Yeah , yeah , definitely . And I think , bringing it down in the easiest way because I am homeschooling partially against my will down in the easiest way because I am homeschooling partially against my will . But I have two really young kids and , like Andrea was saying , it's like an unlearning process when you've been , I guess , indoctrinated for so long . But she is hands down right .

Speaker 1 12:37

So even with my oldest , who is five and on the spectrum I started , I started a reading program because I don't like , when I was in the school I had all the reading levels but at home I don't have all . I we go to the library and we have some access through there , and because I do like paper books as well . But the reading program we do 15 minutes a day and the beauty is just out of those 15 minutes when we're just kind of chilling and I'm making dinner or you know , whatever , it's , just we're doing our own thing . They will naturally start . He started writing words everywhere and copying words everywhere and it wasn't even prompted . He would draw like a monster and you see him writing letters all around the monster and it was just so natural . So that 15 minute reading program , you think , oh my gosh , this isn't like intense enough . The next thing you know , you start seeing them engage in learning opportunities , so naturally , and you start seeing the snowball effect

Creating a Flexible Homeschool Schedule

Speaker 1 13:42

.

Speaker 1 13:42

But maybe start with your home schedule . What does your day look like ? You know ? Just line it out . So , breakfast , what time do you have ? Breakfast , lunch , dinner Okay , boom . Then the in-betweens and then laid out for Monday to Friday , like you want to do Monday , tuesday , wednesday , thursday , friday , whatever . But essentially you can just create yourself a schedule on a basic level and start with one reading program and then maybe explore like a math program or incorporate nature . Just keep it very small and it'll start to snowball because you'll get experience with different programs and you'll hear from other people what works , what doesn't . So , um , start with your basic home schedule and then try one thing a week .

Speaker 2 14:35

I think that's great advice because then you can kind of try out what you like and what you don't like and maybe and this is the thing too what works for one child might not work for another . So my kids are very different . What they like and what you don't like , and maybe and this is the thing too what works for one child might not work for another . So my kids are very different . What they like and what they enjoy are very different things . So you just need to be creative , and that's where an expert not an expert , but it's somebody who has experience in different ways children learn can come into play and really help you out in terms of what's available for that type of learner and what they might like best . So , like Jeanette said , even a 15-minute reading program a day can be super helpful , and I know that it doesn't seem like a whole lot , but it makes a difference . What you want to think about learning like is playing an instrument . So if you or your child was learning to play the piano , they're not going to know how to do that just by osmosis . Obviously , there are child geniuses out there , so we're not talking about the anomalies , but just the majority of children would have to be taught the basics and you want to start out with the really easy ways to do it and then build upon that . So if you're learning to play an instrument , you need practice .

Speaker 2 15:46

I think that's where I find a lot of parents are struggling in the homeschool or alternative education systems right now , because they want to have that freedom and the ease and the flexibility of not having a schedule , but at the same time you do really need to teach children skills like math .

Speaker 2 16:05

They're just not going to know how to multiply if they don't have adding and subtracting down pat and they have practiced it and they're consistent and they are confident in their skills . So that is one of the main things that you can do to modernize your homeschool schedule is make it shorter , focus on certain tasks that you really want to accomplish and kind of work backwards . Another great way to incorporate children's interests is ask what they want to learn that month . So I've sat down with a lot of different students and my own kids and say what would you like to learn this year and just divide that out into different months . It really does help having a loose plan , even though it feels like you're losing some of the flexibility in going with the flow , but it helps to structure things and just pick out different learning goals that you want to learn that week or that month .

Speaker 1 16:57

Ooh , I love that and I want to tie it . I guess last point is tying it to motivation too . You can actually tie it to learning motivations . So , like my kids wanted to make a volcano , we're learning about volcanoes . But if we do all these tasks that might be not as exciting or more sit down , then you get to do the volcano . And remember smaller children . You have to appeal to their immediate gratification . So think , maybe not the best reference , but think like a puppy , they do something . You give them a cookie or whatever a treat , but essentially kids need something similar as well .

Speaker 1 17:42

When I worked with younger kids , I had a pinata and it was not full of sugar , because I would never want to give a room full of children an obscene amount of sugar . But we had , like pencils and you know , little exciting things or whatever it can be to your preferences , but essentially it's you complete this task , you get something to put in the piñata and there's just an action that shows immediate gratification . Right , like you did something , you immediately get a treat , but there's a long-term objective . For example , my piñata was tied to acts . Um , when you did an act of kindness , we had to reach a hundred , so we had something with a hundred objects in it and then , once we worked through the hundred objects , we all got to , you know , take our frustrations out on the piano .

Speaker 1 18:39

The kids really dug it and um , and I tied it to a story called um , bucket of kindness . Or I'm pretty sure I'm saying that , yeah , how do you fill a bucket ? Yes , how to fill a bucket , yeah , brain fart there , but , and they really liked it . So , and even if that doesn't work , just tie it to any motivation . You know , basically that's a learning . There's learning to that . You know , big cookies after we do this . So think about kids work for far less than adults do . So just find what works for you and what motivates your kids the best , because everyone is different .

Speaker 2 19:20

Definitely , and I think too , when you say cookie you don't mean food items as well . It can be different interests for kids . So , for example , in the month of September we would normally really focus on in school the seasonal changes , right , and there's caterpillars out there . So a really good book to read would be like the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle . And then something fun that you can do after the story is maybe you want to take magnifying glasses , or even you can make your own out of like paper towel rolls or toilet paper rolls and make binoculars where you go and find the caterpillars .

Speaker 2 19:54

So a lot of the things can be very quick paced , very fast paced . They can be like five or 10 minutes , keep it super short , and then you have kind of a reinforcement activity and then you can also springboard onto math activities and literacy activities along with that , so they might have like a science observation journal where they can just draw a picture and then they practice printing the word caterpillar . So there's a lot of different ways that you can like , really reinforce and include the things that they love . So , exactly like you were saying , jeanette , you always want to make it fast and you want to have that value in things that they love , included in the things that you were teaching to make it enjoyable for everyone .

Speaker 1 20:39

Yeah , even in like an incentive , for that would be once we completed everything , we go to a butterfly conservatory or you know , it's really fun and then the immediate gratification if they're on the younger side will be like these are the tasks , and every time they complete a task they put a sticker on the list or a check mark or whatever , so they know that we have this many things left . And so for the younger and neurodivergent just having , like you said , when , when the kid sees everything like for the whole week , they understand the process , they know where they're going and they understand when they will get that motivational piece of that carrot .

Speaker 2 21:22

Absolutely , and we as educators would always keep it super short too . So if there was a really fun activity that you were planning , it should be in the near future , not like a month away . So if you were doing like caterpillars and butterflies , that would be a really fun thing to include as like a field trip , or like you could do painting and include symmetry for ideas for that , Like there's so many fun things that you can include that kids would love . I think parents sometimes overthink the whole homeschool process and how am I going to organize my day Once you have all these little ideas ? It's really easy , like you said , to pull in one new thing a week that you can incorporate into your schedule and in the transition from leaving school into homeschooling or alternative education .

Speaker 2 22:08

I always like to stress to parents , like we've talked about too , Jenna , you want to release the guilt If you want to take a day or two or a week off and , my goodness , there are no hard set rules . I think it's really important to really preface the fact that you can do what you want as a parent and what fits your schedule best . So if you're going through a really busy week , you can totally tweak your schedule to fit what is necessary , but at the same time , you don't need to get overwhelmed that you're not covering everything . I do always recommend to write stuff down for parents , and that's where we can come in as well with help on to how to create a day schedule . It's really easy to record digitally , or I mean you can record it in a notebook as well , but that just keeps you on track as well .

Speaker 1 22:56

Definitely . And of course there's professionals like that is Andrea's peanut butter and jelly , so you can always reach out to her . I do it as well , but I do different . I'm taking a different approach to the whole education sector . So she is your guru on that one . And then , if you guys want to jump into , I guess this is more where I would jump in .

Building a Homeschool Community

Speaker 1 23:23

So homeschooling can be a lone journey , but it doesn't have to be alone journey , but it doesn't have to be . A lot of people are starting to develop homeschool co-ops , right . So then you can work with other parents and establish almost like a joint kind of schedule . So maybe you have two parents and one parent takes one day , one parent takes another day . You free each other up to be able to do things and you give each other a chance to breathe .

Speaker 1 23:59

If you have three parents , each parent takes a day , you know , and so on and so forth , and just connect with others for trips or group tutoring sessions if you wanted , because sometimes if you do a group activity , say you want to do like a tutoring session , but three kids and one tutor is a little bit more reasonably priced if you're , you know , in a tough spot and you're starting off because you are making sacrifices as a parent , so that's an option . Or doing a class , but doing it as a group and you can , you know , absorb the group cost . It's more incremental , so it's a little bit easier to . You know , instead of 500 bucks for the session , you're only paying a hundred bucks . Right , but you're paying a skilled individual that might be outside of your skillset , like robotics my kid digs it . I can do some , but not like I can't build a drone or anything like to that extent . So I would need to outsource that . But if I had enough kids that wanted to do it , I could .

Speaker 2 25:01

You know , everybody divvies the cost and you figure it out and also , like sorry , you're saying Sorry , I was just going to say sorry to interrupt . You hold your thought , but I was going to say the homeschool co-op ideas are amazing and often parents have not known about different discounts they offer for homeschool families . So for things like children's museums or science centers , you can buy the annual memberships and they offer it as a discounted rate and that can be something regular that you go to as a homeschool parent as well . Libraries are free . They have lots of different free resources where homeschool co-ops organize things in parks that don't cost any money . So there are a lot of really economical ways to approach scheduling your weeks as well with homeschool . Sorry to interrupt you .

Speaker 1 25:49

Oh no , that's perfect . That's the perfect segment . Actually into talking about locations , right ? Maybe if your home is ? I have young kids . It looks like a massive daycare in my house right now . But what if you wanted to not have it in your house ? That's okay too .

Speaker 1 26:10

Libraries actually have maker spaces . They have meeting rooms that are free . You can rent certain rooms for pretty cheap . You can also rent from churches . You can rent from an alternative school in the area , so they might be using it by day .

Speaker 1 26:29

But say , you wanted to all get together , a few of you , and engage in a forest school program outside of their day schedule . You could always approach an alternative education option and be like hey , there's a group of us homeschoolers , we wanted to use your space for the afternoon and maybe the owner can teach you about forging or something outside of your skill set . So they're adding value and supporting you with the location . I know Riverstone Academy is renting their space out for a hundred bucks Wow , right , so such a steal If you had like five homeschool parents . Amanda Bailey is amazing and they can offer some of their expertise along the way if you inquire . So put your wants and desires into the universe . Talk to people around you A lot of the alternative education . People want to help parents and maybe you'll give each other you know some cool new idea . It's amazing to see the direction things can grow once you kind of start having conversations with each other . So I really encourage parents to do that .

Speaker 2 27:41

I think networking is a huge piece in not feeling alone when you are entering homeschool for the first time and you are meeting new parents . I love that you mentioned different places rent out their space as well . Even annual animal rescue places would offer free tours . There are so many different things that you can do for free or for such a low cost or like a donation . Retirees are great to go to as well .

Speaker 2 28:08

I know for a learning pod that I taught at in London . They had different like experts in different areas . So like a personal chef could come in and show the kids how to safely chop veggies , they had a mechanic come in and show them all about the engine . So there are different ways to do it and , honestly , there are so many people who love sharing their knowledge with kids . Especially homeschool groups are really relatively low in numbers , so it's not so daunting booking somebody to come into a classroom full of 20 or 25 or 30 kids . It's so much easier to organize for a group of four or five different families and there are so many options available that I think we haven't even touched on the cusp of oh .

Speaker 1 28:56

I love that , actually , because I think intergenerational connection is so important . And if you go to the retired community , I saw the Lisa's daughter , Faith , from Faith and Sparkles World . She had brought her to this woman that taught her how to crochet and it was so cute . And some of them are actually . Some retired people are going into schools and teaching kids how to sew . So they're not working full time in the school , don't get me wrong , but they are going in and sharing their skill sets in the school . Don't get me wrong , but they are going in and sharing their skill sets and it's just great connection building for their souls and learning that we need to be connected . So , yeah , all the warm .

Speaker 2 29:38

Absolutely .

Speaker 2 29:39

What a great way to end off today , jeanette is just like really reinforcing the importance of community and expanding your options .

Speaker 2 29:47

I think sometimes when we get programmed with the idea of school is the only way like I was there for 20 plus years and I came from a family that really reinforced the idea of the school system when we step outside of it , we can really see the modern era develop of like a functional day that works well for everyone and it doesn't look like it had to look , you know , 50 years ago . So the idea of modernizing it and making things more flexible and really involving kids in their own learning , I think is the wave of the future . It's really going to be needed in society to have children that have the critical thinking skills and are adaptable and have different world experiences as well , as opposed to just being in the classroom day in and day out . So I am really excited about this shift and I look forward to chatting more about all the different issues parents are wondering about right now more about all the different issues parents are wondering about right now .

Speaker 1 30:56

Definitely and I guess part of my closeout too was a lot of these homeschool co-ops have formalized into schools but they're not really so . Essentially , some of these schools started as like homeschool co-ops but they increased in popularity . That means more kids , more numbers . So they still function like a homeschool co-op but they had to apply for to be a private school . But some homeschool parents will go there for two , three days a week and even though they have the label of private school , they still operate more with a homeschool alternative model . So I would encourage people to have those conversations with even some of these places that are labeled as schools per se . They are there and can provide supports to the homeschoolers that may need that transitional support with core subjects . So maybe you can take advantage of them when it comes to like one or two days to do core and then you can employ other homeschool things for the rest of the week .

Speaker 2 31:56

So I think that's a really good

Exploring Micro School Education Options

Speaker 2 31:59

point . Just to throw out numbers there , five or less kids can be a learning pod and anything over that really does have to be labeled as a micro school . I only know from experience of the pod that I taught in London ended up taking on families through word of mouth during a time where a lot of parents didn't want their kids in school , and she took on so many , including like little siblings , so the age range was really big and then she found herself at nine kids and really you do have two educators in that sense , but it's still such a low number . So I appreciate that explanation to Jeanette and to like , if we say micro school it's not really school school .

Speaker 1 32:43

And , yes , we'll jump into this into other episodes , but education is changing and we do encourage you to start exploring the options in your area ahead of time , because your life will be easier . So write a list every week , add three options that look super cool and ignite that excitement within your child of different options you can jump into and just show them and let them answer your questions for you , because they are really great about giving adults direction , because they know what they like and they'll help you figure things out .

Speaker 2 33:25

That comes with freedom , right . So thank you so much for joining us today on Limitless EdX and Jeanette , and I look forward , as always , to hearing parents' questions and thoughts moving forward as we go on to more episodes .

Speaker 1 33:41

Absolutely . Have a great day everyone .