Homeschooling FAQ – Part 1

I get asked almost daily at least one or two questions about homeschooling.  Most of the time it is while out and about with kids running errands making it very hard to really answer the question posed.  I decided to ask my Twitter followers and my Facebook friends what their biggest questions about homeschooling were.  Now I am going to attempt to answer these all as honestly as I can.  However, I want this to serve as the disclaimer that this is my first year homeschooling and I am still figuring out what works for us as a family.  I can only answer for myself and my beliefs….and well, if you don’t like it…sorry. 

OK….The first question I got asked was:  How do you keep from butting heads with a strong personality kid?

Good question as I have one (two or three) of those kind of kids.  My easy answer is:  You don’t.  Honestly, I can’t sit here and tell you that our day is all sunshine and roses.  There are days that don’t run so smoothly.  There are days that the personality conflicts take over.  The biggest thing I am learning it to just breathe and take a break.  If we are butting heads so much that nothing is getting done then it is time to step away.  This usually means the kid goes and rides his bike or jumps on the trampoline and Mommy goes and gets a cup of coffee.  Then we reconvene.  More often than not this works.  Some days we just need a Mulligan.

Next question:  Do you school Monday-Friday, the same hours everyday?

In a word, NO!  I didn’t choose to homeschool so that I could replicate school in my house.  This was a HARD urge to fight in the beginning.  I was in the public school system and my boys started there.  IT is all we knew to begin with.  But, my goal is to teach my children that learning is not confined to periods of time between bells and daylight hours.  Learning happens ALL THE TIME and in every part of our lives.  I seek out the teachable moments.  We do however, have a daily schedule that is loosely planned out.  VERY loosely.  If we don’t stick to it, that is ok.  At least we had some where to jump off at.  My kids are pretty good about getting up at roughly the same time everyday.  Both the older boys tend to like the schedule of let’s get our actual book work done in the morning so we can have th afternoon to do as we like.  Works for them, works for me.  If I had to put a value on it I would say we “do school” Monday-Thursday for roughly 2 hours of actual “school” time a day.  Fridays the boys go to homeschool co-op for four hours.  However, “school” is never out for the day.  You would be amazed at what you can get done without all the distractions that are present in a traditional school format. 

How do you stay consistent and know that your child is on track with their public school counterparts?

The consistency is hard for me.  But it is hard for me in life, not just when the schooling is concerned.  However, homeschooling allows for such great flexibility that it is hard to not be consistent.  The kids lead the way to be quite honest.  I am not really interested in keeping them in lock step with their public school counterparts.  In fact, I couldn’t care less.  I do make sure their basic math and language skills would be such that should they need to return to public school for whatever reason that they could without any problem.  The truth is most homeschool kids are ahead of those in school merely due to the fact that they don’t have to wait on the rest of the class before moving on.  Once they understand a concept we can move on.  No time table holding us back.  Conversely, we can also spend more time on anything that is particularly confusing to that child.  I am not interested in a checklist.  I am interested in raising my children as whole human beings that love to learn and to educate themselves.

Is there any guilt involved?  Such as from spending more time with one child vs. another.

There is guilt in anything you do as a parent.  Homeschooling is no different.  However, everything has a season.  There are seasons of life when one child will demand more attention than the others.  Toddlers and babies obviously demand much more of me than my older children do.  However, my children are getting MUCH MORE time just as a by product of  not being locked in a school for 7 hours a day away from their family.  There is no getting around that.  I strive to spend at least 10 minutes of completely uninterrupted alone time with each of my boys at some point during the day.  I use that time to see if there is anything that he needs to discuss.  The truth is, the boys all love being with each other.  Not to mention my older boys are wonderful at helping out their little brothers….joyfully…without being asked.

How do you handle it when you need to get something done during the day?

The same way any mother does with small children.  I just do it.  Don’t get me wrong.  My Saturday morning grocery store trips completely alone are wonderful.  But, I really don’t mind most of the time having all of my kids with me while running errands.  WE have math lessons in the grocery store, civics lessons while driving, and many other teachable moments that present themselves while out.  My kids are not perfect so I often lose my patience, but it is a work in progress.  We just make it work.  Sometimes it also requires sacrifice….totally worth it.

Part two coming soon…featuring the “S” word…..SOCIALIZATION.