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Changing the World One Family at a Time Shay Seaborne Interviews Linda Dobson Originally published in the Virginia Home Education Association Newsletter |
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Linda Dobson is a well-known popular author of 6 homeschooling books, the "early years" advisor for Homeschool.com, and is a longtime columnist for Home Education Magazine. In addition, she serves as vice-president of the local library board of trustees, and on her town council. Linda was also the inspiring keynote speaker for the Virginia Home Education Association's inaugural Conference & Curriculum Fair in April 2001.
Shay Seaborne: First, would you please give the readers a little background on your family and what made you decide to homeschool? Linda Dobson: I started in 1985 with three children, the oldest of whom had gone to public school kindergarten in New Jersey. He was doing fine with the Kindergarten academics, but we were noticing major changes in him as a person that were alarming. We didn't know what to do about it until John Holt, thank goodness, was doing a segment on the Phil Donohue show, and it was one of those "Aha!" moments, and we knew this is what we needed to be doing. SS: Did you ever have doubts about homeschooling, and if so, how did you respond to them? LD: I only had doubts about 5 times a day. All I had to do was remember what it was we didn't like about what was happening to our son in public school and that was certainly enough incentive to keep going. Just watching how much he was learning, if I took the time to focus on what was being accomplished as opposed to what wasn't being accomplished. It can really turn around an attitude because you can see that although it may not be moving in the same way it would have moved in public school, it was definitely moving ahead in leaps and bounds. Then of course you have the factor that the younger kids are picking up by osmosis whatever you're doing with the older child. In fact you can see that you're saving a lot if time down the road. I'm one for efficiency. SS: I've enjoyed reading your Homeschoolers' Success Stories. The remarkable accounts and self-created paths taken by these young people gave me a feeling of great hope for the future. What is it you wanted most for homeschooling to give your children, and what do you think it did give them? LD: A guiding principle was a very simple one. I wanted them to grow up to be happy individuals. There were a lot of things that fed into that. Probably the most important being what was actually the title of a book that was around that time, Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow. I didn't want them to spend their adult lives following the almighty dollar. I wanted them to be happy with themselves, their lives in general and their spouses and children. Volunteering was an important aspect of their homeschooling, because you don't just take from the community; you give back, and that would be part of this happiness: a balanced whole life. I'm reminded of the Ralph Waldo Emerson poem about what it means to be a success, how you make a change in the world. It's very much the same way that homeschooling parents are changing the world. It's very difficult to go out and make major changes. What we can do is create a different lifestyle for our own children and collectively that is going to make a major difference. SS: What was the most surprising benefit you found for yourself in homeschooling your children? LD: I found a personal empowerment. I'm not certain if it came from going against the conventional wisdom of the time, or if it came from actually receiving what I would call my first education because I certainly learned more doing it than I did in all my school attendance or if because it was so much fun, or a combination of all those things. It gave me incentive. I clearly remember sitting in front of one of my very first computers thinking "I've discovered something very, very wonderful here: homeschooling. And I'm going to tell as many people as I can. How am I going to do that sitting in the middle of the Adirondack Park?" It hit me that I can write about it. That is what spurred me to write about it and send out articles to anybody who would listen. In return I got at least enough rejection slips to paper a bathroom. I kept going and going and wound up teaching myself something that a lot of people will spend 4 years in college doing. All the while doing it at home, with 3 kids. A lot of reporters ask, "what is your degree?" A lot of them are shocked that I don't have one. My degree is a M.O.M. They might ask, "where did you study public speaking?" I tell them "I went to the library and they had 3 books. I checked them all out." SS: It seems that discovering a child's learning style is important in figuring out the most effective approach. What about your children's learning styles? What helped you to discover those styles, and how did you facilitate learning with children who have different styles? Which of your books include further information on learning styles? LD: I'll answer the easiest question first. "The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child" covers learning styles. It's not like the whole book is about it, but in some depth. I discovered their learning styles simply by trial and error. There were not a lot of options available then, and all of homeschooling was a trial and error kind of thing. Adam's was the easiest to figure out. When we used to gather on the couch and I would read out loud, Adam would grab a blanket, use the dog as a pillow on the floor and throw the blanket over his head. So I knew he was not a visual learner. I realized he was closing his eyes, shutting off that input, so the energy was going to another sense, probably listening. I'd like to add here too, that while discovering your children's learning styles is important, it's not something you have to be a scientist to accomplish. What I always recommend parents do is simply observe their children when they are active in things that they have chosen to do. Because they will reveal the answers. It's our job as parents to watch and discover those answers; the kids will naturally provide those answers. Stop doing what you're doing and watch them for an hour. You'll be amazed at what you learn that way. The watching should be done as unobtrusively as possible don't sit there with a pad and pen and take notes in the middle of the pile of LEGOs. SS: You have a new book in the works, which you intend to be the "ultimate 'learning ideas' book," with tips and ideas contributed by homeschoolers from all over. When is it scheduled for publication? LD: My understanding is its due to be out September, if all goes well--land it doesn't always all go well. [Update: the book, The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas: 500+ Fun and Creative Learning Activities for Ages 3-12, was released in November 2002.] SS: Would you give us one of the tips you especially like? LD: One I particularly like is one I contributed. (Soft laugh.) We had so much fun with it! That's what I wanted, the stuff they had fun with. This was a writing process called "clustering" that I found in a writing book for adults called Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg: Get a blank piece of paper in the middle you put a very broad idea, like "winter." Draw circle around the idea, then for brief period of time and that would depend on how old the children are, how long you allow for this, anywhere from two to five minutes they brainstorm and throw out whatever thoughts and words that one word in the center conjures up for them. You just loosen up and throw it all out there. Then from that one word you draw spokes to these new words and circle them. And if those words inspire other words you draw spokes from them. The important part of this exercise is there is no editing occurring either internally or externally; just whatever comes to mind is put down on that paper. Then when you're done you can take a look at what you've got. What the kids and I found is that you had just about everything you needed to put together a beautiful poem or wonderful story utilizing these things. You're not going to use everything that was put down on the paper, but the kids were very impressed by how nice their final product was based on this method and were therefore inclined to write more stories and poems because it came out so well. That's the kind of ideas we'll be sharing on all subject matter. And the interesting thing I'm finding about putting this book together is that its very, very hard to put it into different compartments because so many things homeschoolers do don't focus on just a single subject, as schoolwork would do. So there is a very broad interpretation on subjects. I had to add another chapter called "Across the Curriculum," because some could not be compartmentalized. SS: What motivates you to continue to help homeschoolers, to write, and to speak at conferences now that your kids are pretty well grown? LD: The answer goes back to what I was talking about with the community and homeschooling changing the world one family at a time. I want to see that change happen and I know that it will only happen one family at time. And I guess I've made it my life's work to bring this message to families because, even though homeschooling has supposedly gone mainstream, there are too many parents out there who aren't getting a true picture and therefore don't understand what homeschooling is truly about. I want to give them a real picture of what homeschooling is and what it can mean for their child, their community, and themselves. © 2003 Shay Seaborne. All rights reserved. Re-printed with permission. Originally published in the newsletter of the Virginia Home Education Association. |
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Shay Seaborne writes about a variety of homeschooling topics, including legal issues. Her articles have been published by Home Education Magazine and the newsletter of the Virginia Home Education Association. Read more of Shay's articles via her homepage. | ||
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