Around this time every year, while I\u2019m unboxing the new textbooks for the coming school year, the non-homeschooling moms I know wrestle with the question of their children\u2019s education.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d love to homeschool, but I\u2019m not you.\u201d I\u2019ve heard more than once.<\/p>\n
So, you don\u2019t have ADD, a lack of natural organization, and you\u2019re not lazier than snail snot? CONGRATULATIONS!\u00a0 That should make it easier for you.\u00a0 You do struggle with all these things?\u00a0 CONGRATULATIONS!\u00a0 Me too, so I know you can do it!<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not a paragon of anything, I\u2019m a deeply, deeply flawed human being and am living proof that even slacker moms can homeschool.\u00a0 If this is something you choose to do, you CAN do it.<\/p>\n
So here\u2019s a little advice to get you started:<\/p>\n
*Pray.\u00a0 Pray. Pray.\u00a0 And when you\u2019re done, you might do one more. <\/p>\n
*Be kind to yourself.\u00a0 God doesn\u2019t expect perfection from you and neither should you.<\/p>\n
*Recognize that if you do this, your house may never be up to your current standard of clean again.\u00a0 You have to decide to be okay with that or you will drive yourself crazy. <\/p>\n
*Realize that you are not making the commitment to teach your children yourself for the next however many years.\u00a0 You\u2019re making the commitment for THIS year or even THIS semester.\u00a0 Twelve years or more of schooling is too much for anyone to undertake all at once.\u00a0 You only have to teach a semester at a time.<\/p>\n
*Know that you can re-evaluate at any time the decision you have made.\u00a0 You haven\u2019t signed any contracts in blood or sold your soul (have you?), so you can always opt for a more traditional education for your children if this isn\u2019t working.<\/p>\n
*Don\u2019t beat yourself up if it isn\u2019t working.<\/p>\n
*Give yourself and your child a chance for it to work.\u00a0 Don\u2019t give up after 1 week, or even the 4th week when the honeymoon period is over.\u00a0 Be patient with yourself and your student(s).\u00a0 This is new for everyone involved and there will be a learning curve.<\/p>\n
*Don\u2019t belittle yourself for \u201cnot being patient enough\u201d to homeschool.\u00a0 I\u2019ve learned that patience is like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets.<\/p>\n
*Don\u2019t belittle yourself for \u201cnot being smart enough\u201d to homeschool.\u00a0 Some of the most brilliant women I know never went to college, that diploma doesn\u2019t prove intelligence.\u00a0 Can you read?\u00a0 You\u2019re smart enough.\u00a0 We\u2019re talking first grade letters and math here\u2026if you can\u2019t do that\u2026you should sue the school district that graduated you.<\/p>\n
*Remember that you will own the manual.\u00a0 (Breathe a sigh of relief here.) Teacher\u2019s manuals are like magic, they have the answers, the explanations, and very often a script.\u00a0 Did you know they had scripts of how to teach?\u00a0 I didn\u2019t either until I bought my first one.\u00a0 I\u2019ve taught Latin for years without being able to speak it myself.\u00a0 How?\u00a0 There\u2019s a script.<\/p>\n
*It\u2019s okay to teach your children at home even if you hate the mess of painting, the thought of arts and crafts make your skin crawl, you actually detest play-doh.\u00a0 It\u2019s okay to hate the mess and limit it to Friday afternoons at Grandma\u2019s house, as long as Grandma agrees to it.<\/p>\n
*No teacher will care as much about your child\u2019s success or failure as you do.\u00a0 No teacher.\u00a0 There are great ones out there, heroic even, but they don\u2019t love your child the way you do.\u00a0 That means you have the bigger incentive to see that they \u201cget it.\u201d\u00a0 This is definitely in your favor.<\/p>\n
*Not every child is going to \u201cget it\u201d as quickly as every other child or using the same methods.\u00a0 Flexibility is in your corner.\u00a0 Realize ahead of time that that \u201cperfect\u201d math program may be completely useless for your child.\u00a0 Be willing to switch to something else.<\/p>\n
*Remember that all children are created equal but different.\u00a0 Completely different. I have a completely literal child who loves<\/i> worksheets, and a completely creative child who would wither and die if that was all I gave her.\u00a0 Both are thriving on completely different curricula.\u00a0 There is no cookie cutter approach to a child\u2019s brain.\u00a0 This is where homeschoolers excel.<\/p>\n
*Don\u2019t be afraid to ask for help.\u00a0 Veteran homeschoolers will usually be happy to help you get started.\u00a0 I can\u2019t tell you how many people who were considering teaching their own kids have spent a day in my kitchen to see \u201ca day in the life.\u201d\u00a0 Some decided it was for them, others didn\u2019t.\u00a0 You have to be willing to be honest with yourself.<\/p>\n
*Realize that it doesn\u2019t take all day to teach a young child.\u00a0 Kindergarten may only take 30 minutes to an hour, and First Grade will only take marginally longer.\u00a0 It takes the teachers in school longer because they have to teach things like standing quietly in line and how to take turns at the water fountain.\u00a0 My children already know how to hold my hand and how to get themselves a drink from the sink.\u00a0 We learn standing in line at the grocery store and the post office.\u00a0 Life skills are taught in the schools, but they can also be learned in real life.<\/p>\n
*Never, never, never judge one child\u2019s progress by the accomplishment of another child, especially if that child is not in your home.\u00a0 One of the things I\u2019ve learned about other kids\u2019 progress is moms lie. <\/p>\n
*You can\u2019t teach them everything, and you won\u2019t.\u00a0 (The schools can\u2019t and won\u2019t either.) I often tell people that my job is not to teach my children information, but to teach them how to learn.\u00a0 The information is out there, it\u2019s my responsibility to show them how to find it, analyze it, and figure out what it all means.\u00a0 If they can recite Plato but don\u2019t know how to use the library, then I will have failed them.<\/p>\n
*Set realistic goals for yourself.\u00a0 What is your purpose?\u00a0 Do you want to raise mini-geniuses who go on Letterman or do you want to raise and educate kind, faithful, caring human beings who have the skills necessary to succeed in life?<\/p>\n
*Recognize that they don\u2019t need to know all of those things at 5 years old.<\/p>\n
*Did I mention that you need to pray?\u00a0 Yeah\u2026you might want to do that again. <\/p>\n
Our goal from the beginning has been to raise children who know and love God, are faithful Catholics, and are independent thinkers.\u00a0 We have not found a school in our area which contributes to that end.\u00a0 The bottom line for us is that God has entrusted these children and their upbringing to us and we will ultimately be responsible for it.<\/p>\n
That said, we still take it one year and one child at a time.\u00a0 We reevaluate constantly and are honest with what we see.\u00a0 I\u2019ve learned that I don\u2019t have to be a rigid disciplinarian to teach them, or stick to an unbreakable schedule.\u00a0 We are more flexible than some and less than others, but we do what works best for us.\u00a0 This is what works best for us for now, and I\u2019m working on that snail snot laziness of mine.\u00a0 So far my educational efforts have produced 4 scholars who like to learn, ask questions, and look for answers.\u00a0 Thus far, I\u2019d call that a success.<\/p>\n
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Around this time every year, while I\u2019m unboxing the new textbooks for the coming school year, the non-homeschooling moms I know wrestle with the question of their children\u2019s education. \u201cI\u2019d love to homeschool, but I\u2019m not you.\u201d I\u2019ve heard more than once. So, you don\u2019t have ADD, a lack of natural organization, and you\u2019re not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1979,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n