Deschooling Before Homeschooling

Homeschooling is a lifestyle.

What Is Deschooling? Deschooling involves a period where you do very little formal school work in order to re-calibrate your child’s natural love of learning. During the deschooling process you’ll adjust your understanding of, and approach to, how a child learns. –Time4Learning

I had a great time talking with William Honablew, Jr. in this interview about homeschooling. Watch the full episode here.

About Dr. Khadijah Ali-Coleman:

Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman, Ed.D. is a former homeschooling mother, cultural curator, community organizer, nationally recognized speaker, and writer. Her work centers the social and political life experiences, history, and culture of the people of the African diaspora. She is author of the children’s book Mariah’s Maraca’s and has poetry and short stories in numerous books, including The Fire Inside: Poems and Stories from Zora’s Den. Her academic work has been published in The Journal of Higher Education Politics & Economics, and the book Afrofuturism in Black Panther: Gender, Identity and the Remaking of Blackness. Her journalistic bylines have appeared in more than a dozen publications, including Ebony, Romper, The Grade, The Washington Informer and The Afro. She has been quoted in the media as a homeschooling expert, interviewed by Slate, Wired, The Washington Post, NBC and more. She is co-editor of the book Homeschooling Black Children in the US: Theory, Practice and Popular Culture. Dr. Ali-Coleman holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Studies (African American Studies and Mass Media) and a minor in Writing from the University of Maryland Baltimore, County; a Master of Arts degree in Mass Communication from Towson University and a doctorate in education from Morgan State University in Higher Education/Community College Leadership. Her dissertation research study was titled, Dual Enrolled African American Homeschooled Students’ Perceptions of Preparedness for Community College. Learn more at http://www.khadijahali-coleman.com

The Positive Impact of Homeschooling Black Children

When I made this short film two years ago, I was still homeschooling my daughter for high school and she was about to begin what would be her senior year. COVID-19 had put us in quarantine and the world was a lot different from when I had begun homeschooling. Since then, I released the book I co-edited, Homeschooling Black Children in the US: Theory, Practice and Popular Culture, earlier this year and I graduated my daughter from our homeschool in 2021. This past year has been a whirlwind of feelings and experiences, but, it has definitely affirmed the message I share in this video about the positive impact of homeschooling Black children.

Since starting university in 2021, my formerly homeschooled daughter has really come into her own. Yes, I still pretty much serve as her academic advisor and coach each semester when she registers for courses, but, now that she lives across the country from me, daily living choices are all up to her. And, I must say, she has been doing quite well in that department. She finished her first year making the dean’s list and having a friend circle that she cultivated from her first week in her new environment. She has traveled with her scholarship program, become adept at traveling through a new city that she now calls home and really finding who she is through her new independence. Homeschooling really gave her a blueprint on how that is done. I am so proud of her! I share this as inspiration to those who are just starting to homeschool. I am so glad that I chose homeschooling for our family.

---