Written by Crystal Terry, homeschooling mama of 3 (soon to be 4!)
Believer | Fitness Lover | Family of 5 | Homeschool | Originated in Texas | Live in NorCal | Love to Travel | Living the Simple Life
@road2simplicity
Hey Mommas, have you ever thought about homeschooling and are now pushed into it because of the stay-at-home order? You are probably thinking, “woah, this is too hard. How could someone want to do this full-time?”
Let me encourage you today....
I am a homeschooling mom of 3 (with another one on the way). This is my 3rd year of homeschooling. PLEASE...don’t let what you are doing right now with all the packets from your child’s school deter you from exploring homeschooling! What you are doing right now is basically trying to recreate the classroom at home. It doesn't work. It is not homeschooling!
Homeschooling is about so much more. You see, I have so much FREEDOM with my kids' schooling.
I get to choose what they learn based on the curriculum I choose. I get to teach them at their pace - whether that is faster or slower than how they would be learning at school, it is *their* pace. My son went to regular school for kindergarten and he was ahead in math. I still have him a grade ahead of what he *should* be. Last year he was struggling with memorizing multiplication facts, so we put a hold on his curriculum until he got them down. That isn’t something you can do if they go to school, and are learning at the pace of everyone else. He also likes certain subjects so much that he asks to do more than one lesson a day, bonus1
Another freedom we have is how quickly we can do 6-7 subjects in a day. Both of my older two kids are finished with school in 2-3 hours. The youngest is almost 2, so we read lots of books right now. They all have plenty of play time using their imaginations, creating, and building. Let us not forget that a child’s learning is play.
But don’t get me wrong, it's not all rosy. We still have distractions at home...little sister has to go potty, everyone is always hungry or thirsty, outside is very appealing on nice cool mornings!
So in order to limit some of these distractions, I have implemented a few things:
We do do 2-3 subjects before getting a snack in the morning
Before they go out to play, they do all their school work. This is a great incentive!
One child will play and read to their little sister, while I focus on the other, and then we switch. This allows me to focus 1:1 with each child.
I encourage each of them to do what they can on their own. This helps them to feel empowered, and also helps me be able to help all of them! Some things that they can do other own are: handwriting practice, cursive, write spelling words (my oldest is in 4th grade, so he can accomplish quite a lot on his own now, thank goodness!)
Another freedom that we truly love is taking breaks when we want to, or need to. And let me tell you, we do not do schoolwork on birthdays or holidays - no way, that is our opportunity to be flexible with our time and our focus!
We will also be taking a break in the fall when I have the baby. We do school through the summer, (with breaks), so we never feel bad about unexpected breaks during the year. It also helps the kids to not lose their learning momentum, and get out of the habit of learning.
My kids continue to tell me how much they enjoy doing school at home and they love our homeschool group. If homeschooling is on your heart, I hope you will explore all the options and not let this quarantine change your mind. You can do this momma. You are equipped - after all, you were your child’s first teacher.
Thanks for reading along, Crystal
