You Need to Think Outside the Box for Homeschooling
“School-at-home” is not really homeschool. At least not what homeschool could be. The pandemic forced the whole world into distance learning, and many thought that that was what homeschooling is all about.
They couldn’t be more wrong.
With everything going on in the world now, more people, who would have never thought of it before, are seriously thinking about homeschooling. Do you know someone who is? Or maybe that person is you!
There isn’t one right way to homeschool.
Just look at my five boys. I thought I had it down with my oldest three. We were doing a classical education type homeschool with lots of sit time. They were eating up all the information we were learning. It was great!
And then my fourth son turned 5. His birthday is in January, and he insisted that he start homeschooling immediately. No reason to wait until September! So we did.
He didn’t sit still easily. We had to move from the table to a mini-trampoline very quickly. He learned his math facts and spelling while he was jumping.
But it still wasn’t working well.
I had to be willing to change how I did homeschool.
I started looking and eventually found information about the Leadership Education philosophy, and we completely changed the way we homeschooled.
I worked harder to individualize each of my sons’ educational experiences. Once I started individualizing things, they started loving what they were learning.
That love of learning is what homeschooling is about.
When your kids love what they are learning, they WANT to learn. You don’t have to push them or pull them or threaten them. (None of those work well, by the way.)
You would think that after FOUR sons, I would have figured it out. BUT NO!
Number five is completely different again! He is over seven years younger than his next sibling, so his big brothers haven’t much influence.
I thought for a while that he didn’t like reading. His brothers are all voracious readers.
Nope. He likes reading NON-fiction books. I have an entire library full of fantasy and science fiction. He has no interest in them. He loves the business, education, organization, and psychology books that I listen to. The last book I bought for myself is actually in his room right now. I didn’t start it soon enough so now I have to wait for him to finish!
Homeschooling can be a very humbling experience.
You naturally want things to be organized in a certain way and fit into the boxes you feel comfortable with. It doesn’t always work that way, and it shouldn’t! This is your child’s education. Make it about them. Not the curriculum, standards, or your expectations.
We tend to default to what we are familiar with. Most of us grew up in public school, so that is what we do for homeschool.
If you want to get out of the “box” but need some help, email me at info@realizinggenius to set up a complimentary coaching call.