Practical Tips to Consider Before Homeschooling

Dear TEAMS, 

I was speaking with A the other morning about her thoughts concerning homeschooling her kids.  She and J have discussed it, but since A is the first person who was homeschooled who J thinks is normal, she’s not sure he’ll be into it.  However, after 16 years (as of this writing) of teaching multiple children at home, I thought it would be good to have a reference point of things to consider before even approaching homeschooling as an option. 

1. You need to be in agreement with your spouse.  Homeschooling is demanding, complex, and even a thankless job as it is.  If your spouse has reservations about it, or even a “whatever” attitude towards it, it will make it even harder.  Daddy and I talked about homeschooling when we were engaged, me telling him I really wanted to do it and that it was the best for our kids.  Mistake.  Daddy needed time to understand what homeschooling was, he needed to figure out how he felt about it, and he needed to not be overwhelmed with what we were doing with our kids before we were even married.  I’m not saying your spouse has to be actively involved with it, but he/she does need to be convicted this is what’s best for your family. 
2. Homeschooling is about the student, not about the teacher.  I think every parent (except those who are exceptionally mature, which I wasn’t) goes through a phase where they think having children, homeschooling them, etc. somehow makes their identity or even makes them a good Christian.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Homeschooling is a tool to help a child, not a badge to be worn. 
3. Curricula serves you, not the other way around.  If the main educator and students of your homeschool detest worksheets, then I think it’s pretty obvious your homeschool curricula needs to not be worksheet based.  But there’s a corollary to this:  the child’s needs supersede the parent’s.  So the educator needs to be prepared to suck it up and find something he or she can live with if little Johnny or Janie thrives on auditory learning but mom or dad are visual learners. 
4. There is no one right way to homeschool.  As much as you will hear that at a Curriculum Fair or in curricula catalogs or from well-meaning friends whose lives have been simply changed by x, y, or z practice, you need to find what works best for you in that moment of that school year.  We have switched curricula in November that just didn’t work.  We have skipped whole sections of books.  We have taken 60-day breaks because of personal issues that had to be processed.  We have had 3 different students learning the same concept in three different ways at the same time.  Naturally, if you live in a State that has certain requirements for homeschoolers, those have to be tended to.

I imagine I will write future posts with other suggestions, but this is a great litmus test to get you started considering if you want to even go there.

Love,