I remember my misgivings when I first decided to homeschool. Could I keep up? What lessons would I forget? What about the subjects I wasn't proficient enough to teach? But the pros outweighed the cons and I pushed through. I opted for a charter school that sent a teacher to my house every 20 days. I felt that this was a good safety net. And so here I am 10 years later. I have pulled my oldest from the charter school but my other two still participate. The pros still outweigh the cons. I am not any more proficient at the subjects I was worried about when my oldest was 5 than I am now and he is 15 but the Internet and the library are awesome resources. Here are some of the lessons I have learned along the way:
Keeping up is not the goal, keeping consistant is. If you are consistant with the reading, writing, and arithmetic, you will keep up. In fact you will likely surpass in many ways. Just keep at it. I work at school all year long. There are many reasons for this. One is, if I stop for too long it's too hard to get them back in the groove. That does not mean that we never stop. Lots of little breaks keep us from burn out but even during the summer months, at least once a week, we are working at something. It's not really that much of a stretch. We are homeschooling, and we are on a ranch, daily work happens. There is always that day where they are driving you to distraction, so I give them an assignment. They are occupied, and there is peace.
Of course there are lessons we forget. Think about all the things you didn't learn in traditional public school. They didn't have it all either. The difference is that I am with my kids more than most parents with kids enrolled in mortar and brick school. We listen to a wide variety of audio books in the car and when subjects come up, we stop and talk about them. You can't do this if you aren't with them.
Of course there are lessons we forget. Think about all the things you didn't learn in traditional public school. They didn't have it all either. The difference is that I am with my kids more than most parents with kids enrolled in mortar and brick school. We listen to a wide variety of audio books in the car and when subjects come up, we stop and talk about them. You can't do this if you aren't with them.
That leads me to books. Yes. Books are the key. Lots of them, all of them. The first task I set out with all my kids was to teach them to read and them give them the love of reading. This is key. My goal is not to teach them everything but to give the the skills to learn everything they want. Show them how to find the information and make sure that the interest that they are showing for that subject gets thorouly explored. Now we have learned about that subject, retained that subject, and learned that we don't have to wait to have information handed to us on a platter but we can go find it for ourselves. This lends itself to every other subject. It doesn't matter that I\'m not great at math and science because my kids can now go read the lessons and figure it out for themselves. I cannot think of a better skill to pass on.
Classics are required reading and then the fluffier books get interspersed to keep the love of reading fresh. I don't see fluffy books as fluff though. There is a lot of great reading out there and all of it increases their vocabulary, imagination, and helps appreciate the older books. All three of my kids are usually listening to an audio book, have books on their iPods and a hard bound copy of something for when electronics are not allowed. Reading is key. Reading the older books introduce that our language evolves and the vocabulary is so rich. This pretty much negates the need for spelling words. Oh yes, by reading they are learning spelling because they are seeing those words over and over again.
Make your kids work. If they ask you a question make them go look up the answer. You are not the answer machine. If they go look for the answer that information will stick with them better and you have reinforced the skill to go find answers.
My oldest is now helping with his younger siblings school work. This has been instrumental too. He now sees why I pushed and fussed about showing his math work and all those grammer lessons are being reinforced. He is also more patient about explaining to his siblings why we show work. They see him have to do it and they are less resistant to it. Yes, let them help.
When they are dragging their feet through a subject be ready to change course and do what does interest them. (this does not apply to math) If they are not interested they are not really learning, you are wasting your time. That doesn't mean you don't do that subject it just means you need to change the lesson. Not interested in middle ages? Ask them what part of history would they like to study and use that as a jumping point. Trust that as history progresses, as their personal reading carries them on, middle ages will come back up with a renewed interest and learning will happen. That science lesson about weather has them staring out the window? Change the tactic. Time to learn about the Wright brothers and now wind current takes on a different meaning.
Don't sell yourself short on those bad days. By the very nature of homeschooling your kids are more likely to ask questions and be more inquisitive than a counter part that has been trained that asking a question might make them seem dumb or call unnecessary attention to someone feeling shy. This means that even on bad days, your kids are learning.
Other important lessons I learned: screen time should be limited, food should be healthy. Yep. No sugary snacks. No wondering into the pantry when you feel peckish. It's an easy pit to fall in when you are home all the time. It distracts from getting work done and establishes bad habits. If they are "starving" there is fruit but otherwise lunch is a firm 1:00 appointment with few exceptions.
Screen time is limited to 2 hours in the evening and only if the school work and behavior warrants such a priviledge. That is any screen time, TV, iPod, computer. If it has a screen and it\'s being used for entertainment it is limited. I even have an alarm set on my electronic device to make sure I am consistant about making sure that at 9:00 all devices are turned off and on the charger. The charger is in my room so no cheating. For the times that a computer is needed for research, cd roms, and typing papers, obviously this does not apply but it is monitored. Why? Why am I so strict about this? Because it changes their behavior. There is a definite corilation between how much screen time and snack foods they have and the way they behave. More of the latter and I have more fights, more disrespectful verbage, and just general anger. When I limit these things they are more focused, and better able to make good choices when they respond to me and each other. It's magic. It also means that when they finish their work and they ask for iPods, etc and I say no, that when I look for them they are engaged in building forts, playing board games, outside playing, or reading a favorite book. Oh yes, I am a mean mom and I do not hand out instant entertainment when I hear "I'm bored."
Let me tell you what I have really learned that may surprise a few that are just starting out. If you are constantly trying to keep up with State Standard school protocol, you are failing your children. Why did you start this journey? Go back to the beginning. Are you doing this so that they can turn out just like all the other kids? Or did you have something better in mind for your kid? A life with more cerebral activity as well as the freedom to just be the person they were meant to be and not what peers and society pressure them to be. Right? There is no doubt in my mind that my children would be different people if they were in a public school setting. There would be more bitter, more anger. The creativity would be stifled because someone would tell them that what they were doing, thinking, was weird. The availability to express those thoughts, drawings, music, would be pushed off possibly forever.
My kids are not all bound for college. This is a fact. I know this. Rather than force them into an education that will not serve them I am learning how to make sure that no matter where life carries them they are capable of educating themselves to suit their needs. Then, at some point if their path leads them to extended education, I know they will have the tools for success.
Make your kids work. If they ask you a question make them go look up the answer. You are not the answer machine. If they go look for the answer that information will stick with them better and you have reinforced the skill to go find answers.
My oldest is now helping with his younger siblings school work. This has been instrumental too. He now sees why I pushed and fussed about showing his math work and all those grammer lessons are being reinforced. He is also more patient about explaining to his siblings why we show work. They see him have to do it and they are less resistant to it. Yes, let them help.
When they are dragging their feet through a subject be ready to change course and do what does interest them. (this does not apply to math) If they are not interested they are not really learning, you are wasting your time. That doesn't mean you don't do that subject it just means you need to change the lesson. Not interested in middle ages? Ask them what part of history would they like to study and use that as a jumping point. Trust that as history progresses, as their personal reading carries them on, middle ages will come back up with a renewed interest and learning will happen. That science lesson about weather has them staring out the window? Change the tactic. Time to learn about the Wright brothers and now wind current takes on a different meaning.
Don't sell yourself short on those bad days. By the very nature of homeschooling your kids are more likely to ask questions and be more inquisitive than a counter part that has been trained that asking a question might make them seem dumb or call unnecessary attention to someone feeling shy. This means that even on bad days, your kids are learning.
Other important lessons I learned: screen time should be limited, food should be healthy. Yep. No sugary snacks. No wondering into the pantry when you feel peckish. It's an easy pit to fall in when you are home all the time. It distracts from getting work done and establishes bad habits. If they are "starving" there is fruit but otherwise lunch is a firm 1:00 appointment with few exceptions.
Screen time is limited to 2 hours in the evening and only if the school work and behavior warrants such a priviledge. That is any screen time, TV, iPod, computer. If it has a screen and it\'s being used for entertainment it is limited. I even have an alarm set on my electronic device to make sure I am consistant about making sure that at 9:00 all devices are turned off and on the charger. The charger is in my room so no cheating. For the times that a computer is needed for research, cd roms, and typing papers, obviously this does not apply but it is monitored. Why? Why am I so strict about this? Because it changes their behavior. There is a definite corilation between how much screen time and snack foods they have and the way they behave. More of the latter and I have more fights, more disrespectful verbage, and just general anger. When I limit these things they are more focused, and better able to make good choices when they respond to me and each other. It's magic. It also means that when they finish their work and they ask for iPods, etc and I say no, that when I look for them they are engaged in building forts, playing board games, outside playing, or reading a favorite book. Oh yes, I am a mean mom and I do not hand out instant entertainment when I hear "I'm bored."
Let me tell you what I have really learned that may surprise a few that are just starting out. If you are constantly trying to keep up with State Standard school protocol, you are failing your children. Why did you start this journey? Go back to the beginning. Are you doing this so that they can turn out just like all the other kids? Or did you have something better in mind for your kid? A life with more cerebral activity as well as the freedom to just be the person they were meant to be and not what peers and society pressure them to be. Right? There is no doubt in my mind that my children would be different people if they were in a public school setting. There would be more bitter, more anger. The creativity would be stifled because someone would tell them that what they were doing, thinking, was weird. The availability to express those thoughts, drawings, music, would be pushed off possibly forever.
My kids are not all bound for college. This is a fact. I know this. Rather than force them into an education that will not serve them I am learning how to make sure that no matter where life carries them they are capable of educating themselves to suit their needs. Then, at some point if their path leads them to extended education, I know they will have the tools for success.
