Choose the “Mom Friendly” Homeschool Method
It is that time of year where everyone is looking ahead to next year. Yes, I said next year! We are all looking forward to nicer weather and winding down with school for the year, but our thoughts are with what to do for next year. With all the homeschool conventions, curriculum fairs and giveaways it is hard not to get lost in the swim of it all. New and old homeschoolers alike ask themselves questions like: How do my kids learn best?
Is this the right curriculum for us?
Does this fit into my schedule?
Can I really teach science?
How do I choose, when there is so much out there?
I offer this food for thought, choose what is the most “mommy friendly homeschool method” for you. I have this theory (however unpopular it may be, especially with my children), that learning does not always have to be fun. Sometimes you just have to suck it up and learn it. Anyway you slice it, at some point they are going to need handwriting that others can actually read (unless they become doctors of course!), they will need to learn to add, subtract, multiply, and divide, and I am thinking that learning to read is pretty inevitable as well! But does it always have to be fun? I say “NO, not all the time.” We all have to do things in life that are not fun, like have a tooth pulled, stand in line at the DMV, pay our taxes, etc. We as homeschoolers do not have to make everything a blast. I am not saying we should just sit at a table and pound out work all day, I am simply saying that sometimes you do the not so fun stuff so you can get to the fun stuff. Schoolteachers work hard to make things fun and engaging as much as possible because they have the kids tied up in chairs for 8 hours a day with little to no free time! We have the advantage of being able to cover a whole lot more material in a much shorter period of time. Thus leaving so many more hours each day for the fun things our children want to engage in. We can take time for hikes, multiple museum trips, extra science projects and art endeavors, good old fashioned playground fun and time with friends. All of this, along with the not so fun stuff, and in less time then other children are in school!
How many times a month, a week, or even a day for that matter, do I say to my children, “Could we just finish this so we can move on?” or “The sooner you focus on this and just complete it, the sooner we can move on to the things you really want to do!” Many would cringe at the thought of doing anything that might infringe on the child’s free will. Children should be free to play and learn and set their own schedule? Not quite. As the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
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a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
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a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
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a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
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a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
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a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
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a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
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a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
As you are attending conferences and sifting through curriculum at the local homeschool sale, you of course need to keep in mind your child’s learning style, their ability in a given subject, and both their academic and physical strengths and weaknesses, but after a certain point the chosen curriculum can only go so far, and the bottom line is they just need to work with it and learn the material. So as this season of looking to next year rolls on and you are looking for that perfect curriculum, remember that no curriculum can work if you don’t use it. Pick something that will not burn you out from requiring so much of you, and something that will allow your children to develop their own imaginations, as well their own problem solving skills.
I am Type A as well, and I have such a hard time with this! I have come to realize the exact thing you say here, and am trying not to be a curriculum hopper. Thanks for the post Heidi!
Great post! I will keep that in mind while looking this weekend at curriculum 🙂 So true…Mommy friendly material. If I don’t like it, I don’t use it and if I don’t use it, what a waste of time that could have been spent on maybe a “not so well known” curriculum.
I love this! As new homeschoolers I’ve been overwhelmed with the choices out there. And I really love your “Sometimes you just have to suck it up and learn it.” stance.
Great post Heidi! One way that I make things easier “for me” is by using the same science and and history program for all my children. Apologia science and The Story of the World are awesome options for multi grade curriculum.
I totally agree Heidi! Earlier this year I said something similar on my blog. http://winecupchristianacademy.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-do-you-know-curriculum-isnt-working.html
So often I see parents switchhing, switching and switching when really sometimes we just need to “suck it up” as you said and just git’r done!
Mary
This is great !
I agree! We do lots of fun things all the time, but everything I present to them does not need to come with a bunch of bells and whistles. Great post!
Oh, I so completely agree! I hear myself in your words, ““Could we just finish this so we can move on?” or “The sooner you focus on this and just complete it, the sooner we can move on to the things you really want to do!” …. Right there with you.
I use to feel guilty about some of the things I chose not to do in our purchased curriculum because I just did NOT want to do them… and then I realized we didn’t have to do every hands-on project listed and if my daughter wrote 3 of the 8 suggested writing assignments for the year that would be just fine. And choosing to skip a book as a read aloud because I just am not interested in it… thats okay too. We do LOTS of other learning activities in our everyday family life that more than make up for the things I choose not to do or to do in limited amounts.
Wonderfully written and well said. Thanks for sharing!
I’m not a curriculum-y homeschool mom, but Teaching Textbooks is my nod to a Mom-Friendly Homeschool Method! I tried to teach math in a relaxed, real-life way, but it just stressed me out. (My son liked it that way though!) So I keep my relaxed ways for everything *except* math. It helped my son to realize that colleges require certain math courses for admission. He sees that doing math (even though he hates it) is a part of working toward his bigger goal of going to college.
What levels of Teaching Textbooks have you used? I am looking it to it for my 7th grader this coming year as the Singapore is now too “Mommy intensive”! 😉
I’m an eclectic homeschooler – I pick and choose bits that suit the program that I have created for my kids. One of things I love about homeschooling is that we don’t have write everything down; we read, we discuss, we type, we dictate. And mostly that works for us. But we still have to do things that the kids would prefer not too. I tell them to “suck it up”. Perhaps they would prefer being back at school? No? OK, then just let’s work through this exercise/worksheet and we can move on.
Great post!!
Speaking as one who is in the home stretch of homeschooling,(one more year to go), your post was perfect. Sometimes it is not about the fun, but about learning the material and the only way to do that sometimes is to just do it! I must say I miss those days of more hands on schooling. To be quite honest my son has surpassed me in intelligence this year! I even have a science and math degree and the stuff he’s doing I believe has been invented in the past few years, its all new to me. He is very motivated and really only needs me for our Bible class time and some grammar stuff. Otherwise he and the textbooks are working well together. So somewhere along the way he managed to learn how to learn! Its exciting to be on this end and see that choices we made with God’s help were the right ones! Keep that in mind as you fight through the curriculum maze, there is a blessing at the end!!!
I appreciate this perspective reminder. I too miss days of hands on learning, and have personally struggled to just let them learn like I have reared them to do!
Great post! Love these thoughts…trying to find the balance of creating good learning memories but yes, there is just stuff ya gotta do! 🙂 I’m thinking it’s a rhythm- somedays we have a better groove than others.
YES! Sometimes we do just have to “suck it up” and learn it! Love this post. Will be sharing it with my homeschool groups!
Thank you Donna. I am flattered you think it is worth sharing! It has been a personal struggle of mine feeling guilty for not making everything fun, but I know in my head that life isn’t always that way.
AMEN! I counsel many new homeschool moms to pick a curriculum that they enjoy and understand – then they can easily translate it to their students no matter what learning style or challenges. I think it is important to give the homeschool moms the “OK” to stand firm and “make” their students do the work. As moms, we just have to keep a close watch on the hearts of our children and also make sure we are not being unreasonable – but finishing 3 math problems before you get a snack is not unreasonable!
I agree and would add that it has to be fun for mom! If it drives you crazy, even if the kids like it, you won’t do it.
I agree so much! I used to think unschooling and delight driven school was great. I used to have a goal that my kids would all love to do school and Learn … Notice the past tense! I now believe that sometimes, you do have to do the unpleasant tasks in life. Your attitude has alot to do with the level of unpleasantness, and life isn’t always great and wonderful. I have never heard of unhouseworking, or delight driven cleaning. Sometimes you do just need to get it done. Having said that, I do try to choose things that they will enjoy, sometimes the lesser of two evils. I pick curriculum that works, if they aren’t learning, or it just isn’t working, I will look until I find what works. If there are two or three that would work, then I’ll let the kids pick, just to give them some ownership. It took us forever to find a math that works. The math we use is their favorite out of all we’ve tried, but they still complain and cry when it is time to do math. I don’t want to raise my kids thinking that life is about doing what you want to do, or what feels good at the time, or they’ll never grow up! They’ll turn into adults living on somebody’s couch playing video games all day, eating junk food, never showering or changing their clothes!
And I also want to know, what do these unschoolers plan to do about college? They have no transcripts, or how do they get transcripts? Maybe they don’t do college? I guess then they wouldn’t care.