The Perfect Class Size

The best defense I've ever heard for home schooling has come from one of my best friends.  She also happens to be a teacher by trade.  Also, she is married to a high school science teacher.  Together they have four children whom they home school.  Together they also rub shoulders with a lot of teachers, teachers who sometimes question them, understandably, about their decision to home school.



Here's the answer that my friend says always leaves the professional teacher without a rebuttal:  "The schools can't beat my class size (or teacher to student ratio)".  It's a great response.  Partly it's great because it sets the teacher at ease.  Class size is not within the teacher's control.  It's great because it's true and it's a well known fact.  Kids do better the more individualized instructional attention they receive.  Small class size is something all parents look for when choosing a school.  And home school beats all. It's 1:1.

But is it possible that one on one is not always best for all types of instruction?  I've been wondering that as I'm walking through the Phonics curriculum with my youngest.  Don't get me wrong, she has been learning her letter sounds and names wonderfully.  And I know right away if she's having trouble with something, say like rhyming sounds, because she can't just copy a classmate for the right answer.  That individualized information makes for great lessons and practice.

The problem has come when she is actually reading.  She is so nervous.  So nervous that she will sometimes curl into a little ball and cry.  I began to think about how her environment is different from her two siblings before her.  When my oldest began to read it was so exciting.  It opened a world to her that was still locked to the two coming after her.  It's not that way for the youngest.  She lives in a house full of fluent, vibrant readers.  Could it be that she's so nervous because she never hears anyone else read like her?

I think you know what I mean when I say "like her".  She's six.  She's sounding out her words, decoding.  Everyone starts out like this, but she doesn't know that because our class size is so small.  I've invited other home schooled kids to read to us, and I think this will help.  But I wanted to share with you something that seems to be helping that is so easy.  Once a day, when she is faced with the list of words or sentences to read, I take the first turn.  I will read the first sentence, but not in my adult proficient way.  I decode.  I go slow.  I model for my daughter the process going on in her own head.  This seems to put her at ease.  It's okay to read like that!  There is much less gnashing of teeth when it comes to the "read aloud to the teacher" portion of our day.

 making models of atoms with our science co-op

Schooling at home* is a great opportunity for our family.  The kids get a chance at such an individualized and excellent education.  It is a great eye opener for me to realize that there are some skills that kids learn well together and they get some comfort in knowing that others struggle and work for those same skills, too.  This is why we look for opportunities to cooperatively teach with others in our area and invite lots of kids over.  It's also why I'll be looking for skills to model, not just in reading, but math skills like estimating and long division.  There may be some drawbacks to an extremely small class size, but I'm so willing to adjust for the many benefits it offers.


*Our family doesn't traditionally home school, we use an online, public, virtual school.