Written by Amida of journey into unschooling.
Homeschooling should be a piece of cake. Spend time with the kids. Surround yourself with books and educational materials. Go places. Learn together, every day, 24/7.
But sometimes, let’s face it — filling in all those hours is a drag.
Kids have the uncanny ability to drive you nuts, the laundry never seems to end, and the house is never clean enough. Add to that the pick-up and drop-off schedules of every person in the family, the inadequate food supply (because teenagers eat everything), and the never appropriate question of what’s for dinner (just stop asking and eat).
And oh yeah, you are totally responsible for educating them at some point in the day. No pressure.
I find that the hardest part of homeschooling is the expectations, real or otherwise. In addition to all the other household responsibilities, I feel I always have to be in learning mode, especially when someone directly asks me “what did you do for school today?”
The truth is, we don’t “do school” every day and I rarely have a plan that I actually follow for more than a week.
At this very moment, I have one kid whining about being bored and nibbling on my arm, while the other is flipping through a comic book.
Sure, it’s summer, but still. This happens on more occasions that I care to let on during the school year.
When I’m in a slump, this kind of thinking gets me deeper and deeper into the abyss of failed homeschooler and I sometimes counter with big plans of intense/awesome/creative/above-grade-level work.
Of course, that never lasts long. I eventually come to my senses and realize that kind of structure doesn’t work for us. Homeschool is just going to happen when it happens, and that is fine.
But for the days I really do want to get school logged in, but would rather not spend too much time prepping, I’ve got a couple of tried and true tricks that I know I can fall back on:
Photo by Maya83
Go back to basics
The 3Rs — Reading, Writing, and ‘Rithmetic — are fundamental to any school experience. If I can’t figure out what to cover for history or science, I know we can always make reading a priority.
You can touch upon just about any subject through storytime. One of my favorite ways of sneaking in more stories is through audiobooks. All that time spent driving in a car is totally educational. In this way, we’ve discovered so many fantastic stories and series which I never would have gotten around to otherwise.
Writing is my other go-to assignment. “Read about [insert subject] and write about it.” It could be a review, a summary, a poem, journal entry, a letter — anything. I love writing assignments.
Most of our math is covered through reading as well, with the Life of Fred series or assorted math-based story books we find at the library. When even that becomes a drag, I hand over the iPhone, where I’ve installed a handy math fact app so my daughter can practice and quiz herself.
Normally, I’m not a fan of electronics for schoolwork, but sometimes, it’s the best invention ever!
Photo by grace_kat
Break out the art supplies
One of my favorite activities is to cover the huge dining table with butcher paper and doodle the day away. The kids love it (who wouldn’t want to scribble on the table all day?), and it’s fantastic stress relief to just mindlessly doodle words and pictures and squiggles.
I like to add all sorts of markers and crayons to the middle of the table and a few drawing books for inspiration.
Stop overthinking it
The best piece of advice I have to offer you (not to mention my over-stressed self) is this: stop overthinking it.
Some days the house is spotless, some days it’s a tornado zone. Some days, there will be lamb chops for dinner, some days, it’s everything-in-the-fridge salad.
Some days, award-winning poetry will be written; some days, it’s a sad simple sentence.
Some days, homeschooling is a piece of cake. Some days, it’s tough.
It happens to the best of us. It happens to all of us.
And I guess that is the best thing to remember the next time we feel the unrealistic pressure to do it all.
When you feel the pressure to do it all, what brings you relief?
This post is part of our Hardest Part of my Homeschool Year series.
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I can so relate to this post. Thank you for addressing the expectations aspect of it all – I feel encouraged to again, lighten up, loosen my grip, and let go.
Also, just added “butcher paper” to my school supply list. Thanks!
Cara Thompson’s latest post: #Back2School in #31Days: Day 5 – Creating a Book Nook
Butcher paper is the best. Happy doodling!
amida’s latest post: Summer 2015 :: The County Fair
Thank you so much for this!!
I’m going to print it and put it up on the wall in my kitchen, somewhere I can read every time I get discouraged!
I’m so relieved to read I’m not the only mum who feels this way!
A huge thank you 🙂
Thank you. I should pin it to my wall as well. We all could use a friendly reminder sometimes (especially now that school is about to start in a couple of weeks!).
Unfortunately, math cannot be learned by reading books. Math takes study and practice, practice, practice. Life of Fred is, at best, enrichment. It cannot possibly be called a math curriculum. Homeschooling is all about setting goals and priorities. And homeschooling doesn’t work for everyone.
I think of Life of Fred, Irene, as math inspiration. Inspiration that can lead to further study easily. And there are actually many ways to learn math, something I talk quite a bit about in this post and series: http://simplehomeschl.wpengine.com/out-of-the-box-math-inspiration/
And we here at Simple Homeschool definitely don’t believe homeschooling is the right path for everyone, which is something I write about here: http://simplehomeschl.wpengine.com/afterschool/
Thanks for reading, Irene!
Yes, thank you Jamie. Math inspiration is a good way to put it. I like to use a multitude of methods in teaching math, including games, music, and yes, stories. This is especially useful for the younger years, when I’m more interested in introduction and exposure to concepts, rather than mastery.
amida’s latest post: Summer 2015 :: The County Fair
My kids use Life of Fred, and we love it. It’s really a bit of a myth that constant drilling is the only way to learn math. In our experience, drilling is a great way to kill any interest my kids may have in math at all. If a child understands how to add, is it really necessary for them to complete 50 problems doing just that? And to be honest, our Life of Fred is limited to only 2 days a week because math is everywhere! It’s in board games, cooking, measuring, game apps, shopping, budgeting- everywhere. Real life math is going to be so much more useful if it’s learned while it’s actually happening. No text book can do that.
“Stop overthinking it.” Yes!
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Thanks for this! I often feel stressed that we are such slacker homeschoolers, but I can’t keep my sanity/temper and do too much formal schooling. My kids don’t spend much time on electronics either and spend so much time reading and doing (my six-year-old daughter is dancing right now), and they know so much and think so well. My husband keeps telling me they are going to be just fine and that I’m doing great (not that it’s about me). I still need reassurance, though! And I laughed at “a sad simple sentence.” Poetic, that.
Slacker homeschooler, yes! You are so not alone. 😀
amida’s latest post: Summer 2015 :: The County Fair
Oh, I SO needed to read your post. I’m glad to know other homeschooling mothers struggle with expectations, which leads them to feel like they are failing (I can sometimes get into an unhelpful all or nothing way of looking at things). Love your honesty in bringing this up!
I secretly suspect most homeschooling moms feel the exact same way at some point. There’s a lot of pressure to be constantly learning new and exciting things, though I don’t think it realistic to always be in school mode.
amida’s latest post: Summer 2015 :: The County Fair
Hi Amida! I know what you mean. I homeschooled my son from 7th grade through high school. Expecting to have ‘real school’ everyday puts a bit burden on you and on your student. One of the most important things to know about math is the basics, adding, subtracting, multiplication, and division. Everything else is built on these four. Now that my kids are grown and homeschooling their own children, math basics are covered by having the kids play a math game. The game is free for the first levels, and really the rest of the levels are just different graphics and story lines. It’s available at http://www.bigbrainz.com/index.php. No, I am not an affiliate of the site, but I do wholeheartedly endorse them.
By the way, my homeschooled son was offered a full-tuition four year scholarship to a state school soon after he graduated from homeschool. Even though I seldom had everything under control. Teaching your student how to learn on his or her own is much, much more important than covering all the subjects. That way, he or she can learn what is needed as they go through life. Best wishes.
I’m glad you found a method that works for you. I’ve actually tried that game many (many) years ago with my son. I can’t believe it’s still around! Congrats to your son’s achievements. It’s awesome hearing about life after homeschool graduation!
amida’s latest post: Summer 2015 :: The County Fair
No matter what’s actually going on, I always try to remind myself that living and learning cannot be separated. It has helped me so much in ridding myself of the schoolish mindset and seeing learning in EVERYTHING.
This is a great post, thank you for sharing your ideas. I wish I knew what to do when the high (unreasonable I think) expectations come from my loving husband, who thinks the more academics the better. If he came home to a day of doodling on butcher paper, I’d be in big trouble. Expectations are so hard to work with. Your own, your kids’, your husbands’…if I can’t find realistic expectations in myself, can I be upset when my husband is unrealistic at times? And how in the world do you figure out what the expectation should be? How do you tell your husband, “You need to tone it down man!” without bringing contention? If two people both vacillate between “Are we doing enough?” and “This is too much!” how can they learn to vacillate in synchronization??
Could you get him to sit down with you and work out a plan? And then would he agree to take responsibility for some of the schooling?Maybe if he was responsible for at least part of it he would either change his expectations or at least take some of the burden off you. I feel for you. Homeschooling is hard at the best of times but so so difficult when you and your spouse are not on the same page. Hang in there – and do try if you can to get him on your team.
We supplement with IXL math. You can get specific goals for each grade and it’s great for extra practise , esp summer or when you need a child to do stuff independently.