Homeschooling Advice
by sumpteretc
For Sonlight’s March Blog Party, the question is, “Share the best homeschooling advice you have been given. What would you advise new homeschoolers?”
I haven’t been given a lot of homeschooling advice, and most of what I’ve read, I’ve discarded. However,I guess one thing I’ve learned and taken to heart is how little information tests give you about what your student has learned. If you’re interacting with your student deeply every day, you don’t need tests or grades, because you already know where their strengths and weaknesses are. I’m sure that, as they get older, I’m going to need to come up with methods for documenting to others how well my children, are doing. But, at this point, my kids don’t even know what grades are, nor do they really need to. They know where they are doing well and where they are struggling. They don’t need a letter grade to reinforce that to them.
My piece of advice to new homeschoolers, though, would be on a completely different topic. (And I’m sure many would disagree with this advice.) Find a curriculum or approach that works with your kids, and stick with it! I’ve seen too many homeschooling families who are constantly on the hunt for something better. You’re never going to find the perfect curriculum. Find one that works for you, and persevere. Go to homeschooling conventions if you must, but limit the time you spend in the vendor section. It will quickly lead you to a place of discontent. And the constant changes leave your kids with a great deal of uncertainty about what’s coming next. They spend more time getting used to the new approach than they do actually learning. If this was restricted to curriculum choice, this might not be so damaging, but I’ve seen this “constantly searching for the perfect” approach bleed over into other areas of life. So I find homeschooling families who won’t commit to a local church because they’re always looking for a better one. It’s dangerous. That’s my two cents’ worth.
Some of the best advice I’ve gotten is from blogs, articles, and book about homeschooling where they remind you that it’s okay to homeschool differently than other homeschool families. With all things, people tend to feel the need to impose their views and their ways on everyone else. I started homeschooling my daughter when she was just a toddler, and I had some guilt about how we’d sleep in late and not start any school work or crafts until lunch time. And we would sometimes wait until the evening to do anything productive, because we had a lot going on during the day. As time went on, I had to realize that this is what works for us, and I shouldn’t let others make me feel bad because we don’t wake up at the crack of dawn to start our homeschooling day. It’s okay to be different and do what works for us. Part of what makes homeschooling so great is being able to do things our own way, and individualize our child’s education. If your child is busy being involved in activities during the day and you don’t do school work till the evening, that is fine. It’s all part of homeschooling. 🙂
“Find one that works for you, and persevere. ” YEEEEESSSS! I cringe when I hear some mamas talk about what they are doing for next year. Always looking at the next thing, never happy. I think about all the holes those children will have from all the curriculum hopping. I actually spoke with a woman (who was asking for my advice about an “English” curriculum) who said “I don’t want to use ____. It’s too popular. I don’t want to do what everyone else is doing.” My response was, “Well maybe it’s popular for a reason…it works!”
Great advice! I found the part about knowing my kids strengths and weaknesses to be true. A few times when they actually were tested I wasn’t surprised at the results. I already knew how they would do. That helped build my confidence in teaching my kids. Thanks for sharing!