Family and Faith Magazine August-September 2015 | Page 14
W
hen Family and Faith Magazine visited
the beautiful home of Michael and Lynier
Watson, one of their three children,
5-year-old Michael Junior, was keen
to tell us how much he loved learning
and proceeded to list all 14 parishes of
Jamaica with ease. The bright-eyed, affable, caring little man is
homeschooled by his parents and from all indications he couldn't
be happier about it. His sister Michaela, who achieved mastery in
her Grade 3 Diagnostic mock exams, agrees. "I like when mommy
teaches; I like the poems and bible verses," the outspoken
8-year-old beamed, who was also eager to point out that
“the whole school is one class.” No doubt, their 7-month old
brother, Matthew is enjoying the warmth and excitement of
seeing learning at home.
“
I was having a prompting (from God)
to do homeschool ...
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The Decision to Homeschool
The Watsons started to consider homeschooling a few years ago
when they had some concerns about how the system supported
the educational development of their children. "What I found in
the system was that they would speed ahead whether or not she
(Michaela) grasped a concept and I found that I was still doing a lot
of teaching at home for her to be able to understand the concepts,"
expressed Lynier, who is a graduate of the Edna Manley College
having studied Drama and Education and has previously taught
at the St. Jago High School and Liberty Academy. Nevertheless,
the system wasn't the only reason the Watsons took their children
home.
"I was having a prompting (from God) to do homeschool before
and then Michaela started to listen to an artiste called Jamie
Grace and she was homeschooled and she got interested in
homeschooling and started asking me about being homeschooled,
so we were considering it and we started to pray about it," Lynier
explained. As time went by, the family started unexpectedly
coming across several homeschooling parents and “I realised
that there was a large support group and a lot of people were
doing homeschooling" here in Jamaica, Lynier said. The family
decided to 'test the waters' by first pulling the children from their
traditional school for a few days per week, then for a full term and
the rest is history.