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Advice to the Homeschool MomHere are just a few comments that I wish someone would have told me when I began homeschooling!I started homeschooling thinking that I would somehow just add homeschool to my life. It didn't take long to realize that is impossible. There are only so many hours in the day! I came to the realization that in order to give my children a good education, it would have to be my first concern during "school hours". I had to commit to the priority of educating my kidsãto turn off the phone, to avoid interruptions. People seem to respond to the subject of homeschooling by commenting that they don't have the patience for it. I wonder, when do they intend to learn patience? If families can be forever, it seems like a good idea to begin right now. Patience is a skill developed through practice and homeschooling gives you lots of practice. I've learned to abandon too difficult learning tasks until the child is more ready or until household confusion and noise level dies down. Organization and preparation will really diffuse a lot of patience problems. With a difficult child, it helps me to think: "If I feel annoyed, I, who love this child, who suffered and sacrificed to bring him to earth life, who have his future and well being as my central aim, how would a school teacher feel? I have a vested interest, he is better off with me." Get organized. In homeschool, routine is incredibly helpful because everyone knows what to expect. We have an opening exercise that begins with a pledge, patriotic song, prayer, fun oral quizzing, and Mom reading aloud. There seems to be a security to my children in having school start with the same pattern everyday. I don't try to do every subject every day, nor do I think it is wise to break a child's concentration by changing subjects every 30 minutes. That is not the way you and I enjoy learning. We would rather pursue our interests uninterrupted until our curiosity is satisfied. If you keep getting interrupted, you begin to wonder if it is worth starting anything interesting. Set some ground rules. Some of ours are:
I think one of the most important lessons your child will learn in homeschool is to submit to you. Obedience is a hard lesson for all of us, and yet an unbridled person (child or adult) is of no use to anyone, not himself, others nor God. Learning to be the master of your own self (self-control) begins by learning to obey your parents. Home schooling, unfortunately and fortunately, compels us to come to grips with the issue: who is in charge? Since God gave parents the rightful stewardship, you really can't escape it even though it is a burden to teach children to be compliant. I tend to be overly tender towards my children, as many mothers are, but children learn best when we are consistent in helping them to be obedient. I do think you need to listen and make allowances. Sometimes children are truly tired and need a break or a change of program but repeated choruses of "I don't want to do my schoolwork" at my house are met by my response, "And I don't feel like changing diapers today, but we all have our work that must be done". Flexibility is so important! We drop everything if there is a sunny day in winter and go hiking by the river instead. There is a lot to be learned from visiting the neighbor horse's new foal. Working on a Gospel in Action award, an Eagle Scout project, a 4-H project, baking or sewing are all very valid learning experiences. If you are just coming out of the public school system, expect a detoxification period. Usually kids are pretty burned out by the regimentation and busywork routine of school. When I brought my children home, my 5th grader could be turned into tears instantly by the thought of reading. I finally decided to totally forget reading for awhile (for that child) and just read aloud to all the children so he could begin to enjoy reading again. Within a year, he was an avid reader who really couldn't remember ever hating it. Choose your activities wisely. You can't do everything! Field trips can be fun, educational and overly exhausting. Developing cooking skills needs a lot of supervision. Messy art projects are best reserved for days when Mom feels unrushed and cheerful. Some homeschool moms seem to try to make up for the lack of public school activities by setting up a dizzying round of choir, soccer, scouts, art, gymnastics, etc. . . . rush, rush, too much time driving here and there. You brought them home because you want them home and near you. Remember? One trip that we do deem important is a regular trip to the public library. I ask each child to consider what they want to learn about and any fiction books that they are interested in reading and make a list. Once in the library, we go to the computer and get the titles and numbers so each child can get their own stack of interesting nonfiction and fiction reading. Obviously, this is difficult to do with if you have several little ones. In that case, I prefer to take one older child per trip to help and then get boxes of books that I think would appeal to the others. What to buy first? As a new homeschooler I think I made up for lack of confidence with stacks of books. Now, I try to encourage homeschoolers to begin with the very basic necessities: a journal, scriptures, a hymnbook or songbook, a good phonics program, a language arts program and a math program. Basically, that is all you need. There is so much on the market that really can make homeschool easier and more enjoyable but you can also use library books for reading, history, science, health, etc. and buy other things you may want as you have the money. Take care to choose carefully at the library. Much of the library's current science, history and health information is worldly, evolutionary and debasing. As your first year progresses, you will see what is working and be able to buy the things that are best for your children. Finally, and most of all: love your kids! There is nothing so precious in memory as the time you spent together, nurturing, enjoying, learning, and especially. . . loving! |
