Things that I wish that I had known when I started homeschooling.

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.