Things
that I wish that I had known when I started homeschooling.
1. Home Education
versus Schooling at home: The goal of homeschooling isn't to emulate or
reproduce what is done in a regular school. Home education is creating an
environment of learning, growth, discovery, imagination, creativity, and
personal development. No bell is needed. No formal classroom is needed.
Modeling your home after a regular school will probably only bring frustration
and disappointment.
2. Observe:
Take time to simply observe and notice what your child needs. How does he
learn? About what things does she like to learn? What are his strengths? What
are her weakness? Does he have a talent, hobby, or interest that he loves? As
you focus on these things, you can create your home education around things
that excite and fascinate your child.
3. Do what you
LOVE: Do you have hobbies, talents, or interests that you love? Share these
with your child. If you love music, engage him in your world of music. If you love to cook, share that with her
(cooking is a great way to easily understand fractions). Do you love the outdoors? Make it a part of
your family's educational life. Have
your child draw, write, hike and explore nature(that is Art, Language Arts,
P.E. and Science for those looking for course titles).
4. Don't Worry:
Worry makes you unhappy, which makes your kid unhappy. So don't worry about
finishing a curriculum, scores on state testing, living up to other's
expectations, and being the fairytale of the "perfect homeschooling family" . It doesn't
exist.
5. Spiritual/Ethical/Character
Development: One of the many advantages of home education is that you can
teach your child to be a GOOD person. Incorporating spiritual, ethical, moral,
or character concepts into your learning is essential to inspiring your child
to be a well rounded, contributing member of society. As you read together,
take time to discuss and ask questions about what you are reading and how it
fits into your family's world view. If you are a spiritual person, make time to
pray together in your homeschool. As a homeschooling parent, pray daily on your
own and pray to know the needs of each individual family member.
6.Play and Learn:
Your child learns best through play. Mindful play (not entertainment by
electronic media) is a child's form of work and how they understand the world. Use
this attribute to teach your child. So many games are available to teach your
child, for example Boggle and Bananagrams for Language Arts or Monopoly and Life for Math. Beyond board games and computer games that teach,
creating play in all aspect of your home educating will be rewarding. I
remember helping my youngest child learn subtraction using a truck to take away
Lego pieces from a pile of Legos. It taught the concept much better than flash
cards.
7. Trust yourself:
Know for yourself what works for your family. Trust your "gut", not
your fears. The "experts" don't know your exact family situation. Advice
that may be generally good for most people may not work for your family. Also, if you need help along your journey,
seek out mentors who you trust and respect to guide you in this adventure.
8. Take care of
YOU: Too often, you may spend so much time taking care of your child that
you don't take care of yourself, which always ends up backfiring. If you are
not feeding your own metaphoric "fire" , you won't be able to give
light and warmth to your child. Take
time to keep yourself physically, emotionally, and spiritually healthy. Also, a
child learns the most from example. If you demonstrate a thirst for learning
and growth, your child will emulate that example.
9.Read, read,
read: Read with your child, no matter what the age. Do it daily for at least 20 minutes. Especially when a
child is younger, because so much is
gained through reading aloud. It is a time when you can share your interests
with your child, but also a time for them to feel comfort and closeness with a
parent. Also, a child needs to hear words read aloud so that they know how to
pronounce them. (My example; as a child I loved Greek Myths and read them often,
but I never heard the words read aloud, thus I didn't learn how to pronounce
the name Hephaestus until I was an adult. ) Audio
books are also a great tool in the home educators tool kit.
10. Start Slowly: Pretty self explanatory. If you plan to do
five different subjects for one hour a day on the first day of school, everyone
will end up in tears. Slowly build up the amount of time that you spend each
day, but also remember NOT to equate it to public school. You usually don't
need to spend the amount of time at home working on a subject that you would in
a regular school setting. This leads into the next subject...
11. Realistic
Expectations: This is for your child and for you, expecting more than is
possible will lead to disappointment and frustration. That means that certain
things in life need to be dropped in order to make time and energy for what is
most important. For example, if your child is struggling with reading, right
now wouldn't be a good time to try to teach Latin.
12. Make it
joyful: Homeschooling for me is not always easy nor is it something that
comes naturally, yet, I have seen the joy and peace that it brings to my home.
When I choose to be positive and joyful in home educating, it is contagious and
makes learning so much easier for all of us.
13. Don't bind yourself
to a curriculum or lesson plan: Home education is so much more than
finishing a text book or fulfilling a lesson plan. It is assisting your child
in "learning to learn" and learning to think. If the curriculum or
the lesson plan get in the way of real learning, drop them and do something
else. For those involved in state sponsored homeschool programs, if the student
learning plan is stressing you more than it is helping you, then change it.
14. Involve your spouse: Make home learning a
family affair that includes the parent who is away from the home the most. Weekend
projects or evening story telling or music practice are just some terrific ways
to involve your spouse. For example, in my home, I am the teacher and my
husband has taken on the role of the principal. When there are discipline
issues, my husband takes care of those problems when he gets home.
Additionally, my husband will purposely create "challenges" and
projects for our children to complete that are fun and educational.
15: Decide which hoops are worth jumping through: Certain state requirements are necessary
to homeschool. Beyond those requirements, you need to do a "cost benefit
analysis" of what hoops you are willing to jump through in order to get certain
benefits. You may want your accountability
to the state to be as little as possible. Or you may be a person that wants
more direction, curriculum, classes,
etc. that can be provided by state run programs. So before you enroll in any
state run programs, be honest with
yourself as to whether you are willing to commit yourself and your child to the
additional "hoop jumping"
required to participate in these programs.
