“You and your child are partners. You are walking through this journey together,” explains Aubrey Hargis, Montessori Parent Educator. In today’s episode of The Momologist™, Aubrey sheds light on the ins and outs of homeschooling and the Montessori system.

Aubrey discovered that she wanted to be an educator through her own experience in both Montessori environments and traditional public school environments. As a parent educator, Aubrey helps guide parents through the world of homeschooling, dispelling myths and instilling confidence as she goes. Homeschooling is as much of a learning experience for the parents as it is for the child. 

Tune into this week’s episode of The Momologist™ for a conversation about different modalities of education and what it takes to homeschool your child. Join us as Aubrey pulls back the curtain on homeschooling and shares firsthand experience as an educator and a mother.  

 

Quotes

• “I kind of grew up in a Montessori environment. My mother was a Montessori teacher, and so were all of her friends. All of my friends went to the little Montessori schools in our small Texas town. Mostly, it was a very homeschool-like situation, because the schools were not big, fancy, Montessori private schools. They were little home-like environments. I went to several of them until I transitioned into public schools in my area around 4th grade. From there, with this grounding in Montessori, being able to see how different my own education was in those early years compared to the education that I received when I joined the public schools in my area, which were very traditional type of teaching, I knew that I wanted to go into education myself.” (5:31-6:43)

• “I’ve been a homeschooler as long as my kids have been born. So, that’s about 14 years now.” (8:09-8:16)

• “I started out blogging. That was a time when I think a lot of us were out there trying to find community in the online space, where it didn’t really exist previously. What I found when I started interacting online with other parents was there were so many misconceptions about Montessori out there and so many people who were trying to capitalize on Montessori education and make money from it in ways that were less than authentic or genuine. My journey really started there.” (9:55-10:47)

• “Most brand new homeschoolers try to replicate a classroom environment at home. This can work to some extent. Children need a space to do their work. But when children are at home, they want to be relaxed. They have a relationship with you and other family members. They don’t want to be ‘at school’ while they’re at home.” (18:46-19:21) 

• “I think a lot of new homeschoolers come into homeschooling thinking ‘I have to be the teacher. I have to do this whole extra job. I need to micro-manage and document every single minute of my child’s day so that I know they’re receiving a quality education.’ And that alone makes parents feel super overwhelmed. It’s a path to failure.” (19:23-19:50) 

• “The truth is that most homeschoolers don’t homeschool all day. It just doesn’t take that long to educate your child or do the kind of direct teaching that they need. If you think of a child in school for 7- 7 ½ hours during the day, not including after-school programs, you’re thinking that child must be in top brain activity learning for 7 hours a day. That is not true. There’s so much downtime that happens naturally at school that parents aren’t aware of. It is actually happening in the classroom. The teacher does not stand in front of the classroom and talk to students all day. There is place for you to be inside this homeschool environment and to be just as you are, the parent that you already are. You and your child are walking this education path together. You’re gonna be learning together but you don’t need to be so uptight about it. It doesn’t have to be like a school. It can be an alternative form of education.” (20:25-21:43)

• “We mostly don’t spend a ton of time at ho