children – Read Write Educate

Making the decision to homeschool is not easy. There are so many questions- from you, your kids, your spouse, friends, family. It was a decision that scared me so much, I shut down and refused to talk about it for any significant length of time for year. I told my husband I wasn’t ready for that. I said the kids couldn’t learn from me. At least not to read anyways, so we should send them to kindergarten first. I tried and failed miserably to teach my oldest how to read. Looking back, I was expecting too much of her too soon, but it left me so frustrated and defeated that I thought I couldn’t do it. I quit trying to teach her before I did “more harm than good” and figured her teacher could teach her to read. She excelled in kindergarten. She is now in second grade and reads entire Harry Potter books on her own.

Because of that experience, I wouldn’t even try with my younger daughter. She learned to read just fine in kindergarten. She also loves reading now, and is reading slightly above her grade level. In the 4 years that have passed since my failed first attempt, I’ve learned that I can teach kids to read. I’ve done it online for over 2 years now. My mistake with my daughter came when I was expecting her to sound out words, but she didn’t know all of the letter sounds yet. I forgot about the very basics, and was frustrated when she couldn’t get something that I thought of as easy. My takeaway from that experience is that the teacher has the benefit of knowledge. It makes sense to you and is easy to you because you already know it. It’s a foreign language to the learner, so it is imperative that the teacher break it down to the smallest concept possible. I’ll implement this when it’s time to teach my sons how to read.

Once I overcame my fear of teaching my own children, I had to ask if homeschooling was really best for them. After 9 months of them being home, and 6 months of me as their primary teacher I have to say it is. The stability and predictability we have found with homeschooling has been needed by all of us. My younger daughter has a difficult time with transitions. Morning routine- wake up, dress, eat, out the door, was often rough on her. She’d oversleep, which led to chaos, and well, you know the story. While I liked the school my children attended, I like our relaxed morning routine more. The stress of wondering if they made the bus is gone. I don’t have to anxiously watch out the window while feeding the boys to check for the bus. Or wonder if their bus made it to school okay. Mornings are less chaotic for all of us now. And we control our schedule. I can plan trips to family whenever I want, and we can take school with us, or take a break. We’ve adapted a 4 day book work/traditional schooling routine and a day of hands on learning. This has been something we all look forward to. We’ve visited local museums, parks, done science experiments, crafts, service projects and more. Having a dedicated day to step away from the books and continue learning has been a great application of our homeschool goals.

That all sounds great, but what about socialization? Well, if it weren’t 2020 I’d have a different answer. This is one of my biggest concerns too. The pandemic certainly affected our decision to homeschool. Public schools became too uncertain and too unreliable. My kids and family needed something predictable and certain. Unfortunately, my family has two medically vulnerable members. Public school, regardless of precautions in place, significantly increased our chances of someone becoming severely ill. We’ve had to say no to a lot of things this year. We’ve had to see less of our friends, as have many of you. Our normal social activities- church and playgroups- have been switched to online streaming or not happening at all. While we’ve been taking extra precautions, I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I expect we will be able to find new socialization routines in coming months. We will pursue homeschool groups, play groups, sports, community service, and church activities with a new vigor. My kids love people. Keeping them away from others has been the most heartbreaking part of 2020.

I expect to continue homeschooling for the 2021-2022 school year. Pandemic aside, we have grown to love being together. I enjoy being a vital part of my children’s education and watching them get excited about learning. I love watching them explore. I love when they share what they’ve created with me, or make a new connection about a concept we’ve been discussing. I love making opportunities to connect to learning after the school day is “over.” The three hours we had between them getting off the bus and bed time just was not enough. We stopped the hamster wheel, and I don’t intend to get back on it.

What does your family value? How do those values translate into your children’s education? This free goal planner will help you start implementing your family’s goals today!

It’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? It at least feels that way. So much seems to hang in the balance of our children’s education. The anxieties and doubts this question raises are enough to make you say no before you give it an honest thought. How do you answer this question? How do you make any decisions about your children’s education?

Matt and I have a vision for our kid’s education. We know what we want them to gain, pursue, study, and the end result of those studies. It sounds too simple, but it’s our guide post as we ask the hard questions.

We want our kids to want to learn. We want our kids to pursue their interests- piano, soccer, horses, astronomy, art- if they love it or show a talent for it, we want to nurture that. We want our kids to know history and apply it to today. We want them to experience other cultures and read a map. We don’t want our kids to hate math. We want our kids to know how to think. We want them to be independent, critical thinkers.

If I had to summarize it, I’d say our goal is for our kids to enjoy learning, to pursue their interests, and to know how to think critically.

Can’t this be achieved in public schools? Yes. To some degree. But not to the degree that we are aiming for. The general attitude towards learning in public schools is unfavorable. Most kids dread going to school. The ones who are excited for class (not for seeing their friends) are “weird.” The pressure on teachers to create “bigger, better, newer” lesson plans that will excite and captivate students is unimaginable. Have you ever tried to get a seventh grader eager to learn about prepositional phrases and adjective clauses? No amount of engaging material will alleviate the moaning and groaning. At some point, it is necessary to learn things that are not “interesting” or “exciting,” but I don’t believe those are worthy of moans and groans. Buckle down, learn the concept and gain a new appreciation for your native tongue. The general attitude of “Can we have a free day?” that is prevalent in public schools is something I want to keep my children away from. I want them to approach their lessons with a “What new thing can I discover today?” attitude, rather than a “Are we done yet? Will this be on the test?” attitude.

I also believe that we can avoid the “learning because I have to” attitude by tailoring the material. I can teach prepositional phrases from any content. My son likes firetrucks right now. Great! We’ll read your favorite book and identify all of the prepositions. When we’re done, you can write a story about firetrucks and use at least one prepositional phrase on each page. By tailoring it to his interests, the boring prepositional lesson just became interesting. Any teacher will tell you that a child’s attitude towards learning is half the battle.

My daughter gets grumpy and frustrated very easily. If the lesson moves too fast, she shuts down. When we had her in public school, she kept these emotions inside, then unleashed a fit of fury when she came home. She often couldn’t tell us about her day because her memory was clouded with the negative emotions. At age 5, she struggled to speak up and ask for help. That has been less of an issue since homeschooling. Obviously I know my child best. I can tell when she is overwhelmed. I can make her laugh, and we’re ready to go again. Or I can slow down, and break the concept up even more for her. By catching the learning difficulties as they happen, it saves us all a lot of time and frustration.

When we made the decision to homeschool for the 2020-2021 school year, I asked my daughters what they wanted to learn. They each gave me their top three interests. I created a Google Doc for these, then added to it. I began to create units centered around their chosen topics. It has been so much fun! The kids are engaged, learning about a topic of interest to them, and I’m enjoying planning the units and teaching my kids. Because my girls are only 18 months apart in age, I decided unit studies would be best for us. I’m able to scaffold and adjust the assignments as needed for each child, but it is significantly less work than if I had followed state standards for each grade. My three year old even jumps in on the fun! I’m enjoying learning at our pace, together.

It’s a challenge for me to let go of the teacher in me that had assessments, benchmarks, and data driven goals and performances to analyze. Sometimes, I miss the clear expectation of having taught x by x date. However, the freedom I have found is rewarding. My girls are learning every day, and I have seen them bring the skills and ideas we have talked about into parts of their day outside of the school room. Sometimes, their imaginary play becomes more realistic. “I’m a green anaconda….I’m going to get you!” “No M! I’m a scarlet macaw in a tree, and green anacondas can’t climb trees because they are too big.” Other times, my daughter helps me in the kitchen and claims that my measuring cups show a fraction. Or she looks at the night sky and wonders about the moon and how bright it is…only to realize on her own that it reflects the sun’s light (My girls are 6 and 7, for context). We’ve come a long way in the few months that we’ve started this journey. I know we have a long way left to go. I need to remind myself of the little victories. When I see them applying academic concepts outside of school, I know we are on the right track to fostering a love of learning, pursuing their interests, and cultivating their critical thinking.

What are your educational goals for your child? How will you pursue those goals? Use my free goal planner to get started! Download it here.

Tag: children

Is homeschooling the right choice for your family? Part 2

Is Homeschooling the Right Choice for Your Family? Part 1