Blake Hannah

To many parents, home-schooling is a daunting task that can only be accomplished by scholars and the very rich.

However, Barbara Blake Hannah, mother of Makonnen Blake Hannah, the young whiz who was appointed Government youth technology consultant at age 13 in 1998, is challenging that notion. And, through her new book, she is attempting to convince parents that they, too, can successfully home-school their children.

The book, HOME: The First School ... A Homeschooling Guide to Early Childhood Education, chronicles Blake Hannah's experience of home-schooling her only son, and explores the approaches she engaged and the resources and tools she used.

Makonnen's homeschooling began in the womb and continued into his teenage years when he enrolled in an online CISCO training programme. He was the only child being taught by his mother, who describes him as her "only beloved son in whom I'm well pleased". She realised when her son was still very young that he had an avid interest in technology and started to feed this interest. She advises all parents interested in home-schooling to take this approach.

Blake Hannah highlights the computer as a key tool in the home-schooling process, and in her book she explores how technology has made learning easy and fun. She also stresses the belief that the traditional idea of certification is slowly becoming obsolete. She told The Gleaner, "There is so much that you can learn and do on the computer. Nothing ever needs certification. The ability to do something is the best certification these days. Makonnen proved that he didn't need a degree to be successful."

In keeping with this belief, her son sat only one CXC subject - English.

Using the environment around the home as a classroom is another approach that is endorsed by Blake Hannah. In her book, she describes her use of different elements of nature to teach her son various subjects. Instead of trying to recreate the rigid atmosphere of traditional schools, she says she tried to make learning fun for her son.

Using tutors

She also says parents can use tutors to help teach material that they may not be very knowledgeable about. While traditional school curricula may be used in cases where children are being prepared for formal exams, Blake Hannah says parents should not be slaves to the traditional ways of teaching and should use unconventional methods to teach various subjects. In the book, she explains how she used animals and plants around the home, for example, to teach her son about biology.

Teaching aids in the home

As it relates to the actual teaching environment and how it should be designed, Blake Hannah says this depends on the size of the family home.

"It depends on how big the house is. Our living room was our school room where he had his library, TV, radio and toys, but some people may have space for a table and a computer. There's nothing wrong with having a set environment but, of course, it depends on the age of the child."

Though her home was not very large and teaching was concentrated mainly in the living room, she says his teaching aids were all over their home.

Social interaction

Many skeptics believe that homeschooling will make a child antisocial, but Blake Hannah disagrees. She says her son had the opportunity to interact with children from their neighbourhood and had many friends. She said, "Parents must be sociable with kids in the neighbourhood. You can enrol your child in ballet classes or karate classes or take them to the library on a Saturday evening. It's so easy. You don't have to force your child to integrate, just allow them to socialise with other children."

She says Makonnen always felt privileged to be home-schooled, and all his friends envied him. "They told him that they wished they were like him. They hated school," she said.

Although the Jamaican society is still not very accommodating to home-schooled children, she said foreign universities like Harvard have made provisions for them, where home-schooled children go through a special application process.

Blake Hannah told The Gleaner that the decision to home-school a child is a sacrifice, but one that is well worth it. She argued, "It is not an impossible task. It can be done. I did it with little or nothing."