The Homeschooling Mindset
One of the hardest things about starting homeschooling is taking on the homeschooling mindset. If you were like me, you went to public school. So, naturally, as your child’s new “teacher” you want to exemplify all of the best teaching styles and methods that have been modeled for you. The problem with this is that public schools typically teach in one way – with books, paper, memorization, report cards, grades, etc.
Everyone sits in a room, with their own desks, only speaks when spoken to, learns from a chalkboard, and the teacher gives a lecture that the students are expected to listen to and then understand well enough to do the assignments afterward. The parents are expected to pick up the slack in anything the child doesn’t understand, which is hard because they weren’t there for the lesson. This is expected, and oftentimes needed, for your child’s success. And, as parents, this is certainly our responsibility, even if it isn’t easy.
We have been trained to think of a school room as our idea of a classroom when we think about school. Anything outside of that mold is going to seem odd to you. After all, this is how teaching in many countries has been done for a couple hundred years now. I believe the school system, as a whole, has adopted these processes as a school because it may be the best way to teach such a large number of students in the shortest amount of time. So I’m not saying it’s wrong… What I AM saying is that as homeschooling parents, staying in the mindset of the traditional school classroom for schooling is putting yourself and your child in a box. You are limiting yourself by doing this. Homeschooling is built for FREEDOM, and we need to learn how to tap into that!
What It Looked Like
When I first started homeschooling, I created a classroom of sorts. I wanted everything to be in ONE room. I wanted school desks for each child. I painted a chalkboard wall, created a bulletin board made out of cardboard to pin ideas and decorations to. I had pictures and letters and headers and borders pinned and tacked with our theme all over the room, inspirational quotes, Bible verses, handwriting guides, counting helps, you name it, I had it! I had totes and systems and papers and binders, a teacher’s desk just for me.
I scanned everything into my computer, I shared my children’s progress and assignments with family members through e-mail and uploaded them into nice, pretty little files by name, age, grade, and year. My children had bins, and supplies and totes just for them. I had thought of everything. But the reality of it all is that as the years passed, what I realized is that I don’t need NEARLY that amount of things. Not only did I not need MOST of those things, but I finally realized a hard truth – these things were actually HINDERING me in my homeschooling.
How It Played Out
Over the years, I started to notice some things. One of the first things that I noticed was that we got to the point where we rarely used the school room. We were always doing school at the kitchen table. The school room was often a hot mess when it came to finding things, and the general clutter of so many things was distracting and non conducive to teaching.
The second thing I noticed was that the children were never taught to organize their things. And I wasn’t good at holding them accountable. We still weren’t able to locate what we needed and when. Their school supplies were oftentimes taken from the school room and scattered across the house when my children wanted to do other projects.
The third thing I realized is that my children didn’t learn well from me standing at the front of the class and using the blackboard. They needed me to sit with them. They needed me to show them HOW with my own hands and feet. They needed me to put my hands on top of their little hands and guide them as they learned how to write their letters. They needed more hands-on experiences to truly understand the things they were learning. They needed tactile activities, different textures, games, and projects to help them really understand some of the concepts we were learning. They needed play!
What It Looks Like Today
Today, homeschooling my children looks way different than it once did. If you come over to my house on a school day, it looks like children spread out all over the house with tablets. It looks like older children reading to younger children, books all over the house, kids running excitedly from one room to another to show each other the new things they’ve done. It looks like a kitchen table full of markers and crayons and cut up papers all over the floor. It looks like origami pyramids and pinatas and arguments about anything you can think of.
Every child has their own binder for worksheets, their own material to read, and their own lessons to learn. It looks like lots of corrections and re-working and a whole lot of yelling (not that I’m proud of that) to keep them on track. They have incentives they can earn for completing extra work and lots of life skills lessons worked into their chore time. They help with cooking, cleaning, and doing their own laundry. And we have an hour and a half to do Bible, history, art, PE/health, and all of the other electives and projects together as a family.
The Hard Truth
Homeschooling is not “public schooling at home”. Homeschooling is educating your children, every day, in every circumstance, in what real life is all about. Homeschooling is equipping your children to survive in the real world, no matter which direction they take in life. Homeschooling is allowing God to lead you in the direction your children need to go, adapting to their needs, and helping them grow in the areas they struggle in.
First and foremost, you are their mother. Their father. Their PARENT or caregiver. As a parent, you are already called and equipped by the Lord Almighty to teach your children. Nobody can teach your children better than you. You were chosen for them, and they were chosen for you.
In the mundane, we tend to lose sight of this. For me, I lost sight of me being their parent and instead tried to insert myself into the role of ‘teacher’. I AM their teacher, but it doesn’t look the same as it does in a school room… It looks better. The first step to making this your reality, is realizing this for yourself, too. Your homeschool, your children, and your sanity will flourish as you allow your own ideas of “school” to fall away and embrace the freedom you have in homeschooling.
Happy Homeschooling! May all of the forces of God be with you and guide you as you start this new school year! In Jesus name.
Still Need Help?
For those of you who need more help, I’m excited to share that I finally created a FREE course to help new homeschoolers get into the homeschooling mindset and start homeschooling today.
If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, check it out here! I’m so excited to share this new endeavor because I know it’s going to help soo many people! If you’re one of them, check it out!
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