Dear New Homeschooling Moms,
Welcome to homeschooling. I want to congratulate you on your decision to homeschool. You are a mother of wisdom and courage. It takes wisdom to see that your children need homeschooling. It also takes courage to stand up and choose to do what your children need. This is especially, in our day when most children are sent to school. I want you to know that you can do this! I have been homeschooling for a long time. I have had a lot of experiences and benefited from the experiences of others. I want to share a few tips to navigate this journey.
Tip # 1: Pray
I suggest you pray and write down the guidance and impressions you receive. It is a great comfort to know God is guiding you. His vision is greater than our own. We know we can trust in Him.
Tip #2: Detox
Help your family detox from going to public or private school. This can take about one month per year they were in formal schooling including pre-school. They need time to re-orient themselves and develop a love of learning in a different way than in the school classroom. They are used to doing things a certain way, the way schools with a large student-to-classroom-teacher ratio need to function. They are used to waiting to have permission to learn, waiting for instructions, and doing busy work, as a classroom-management device. They may make the mistake of thinking that the purpose of busy work is the essence of learning. They may even gravitate to workbooks and worksheets because it requires little of them and they have a paper trail.
Moms too need a detox. The tendency is to try and recreate the classroom in the home and move through the motions of "playing school." Please consider taking time to detox your children and yourself.
Detox does not mean checking out, sucking into the screen, and doing nothing. It means simplifying routines and establishing new ones that will support your homeschool journey and ignite your children's love of learning.
Here are some things to consider adding to your routine:
- Quiet time. It can be used for naps or doing quiet occupations such as reading, writing, puzzles, building drawing, etc. While the household gets quiet time, this is a great time for the mom to read and learn about how homeschooling is different and can use different methods than the classroom.
- Read the Bible together as a family if you are not already doing so. They should be well acquainted with your standard of truth.
- Read Aloud Time. Enjoy great literature together and discuss what you read. take field trips!
Tip # 3 Simplify
Go through and streamline your home and routines. The family routines that worked when all the children were in school, may not work now. Pick times for meals that support homeschooling. Pick a bedtime and rise time that works with homeschooling. Choose the time of day to learn and a time to work. Make appointments with your rhythms in mind. Consider tidying before bed and doing dinner prep for the next day, so you can wake ahead for the day.
Tip # 4 Family-work
I suggest you work together to do the general cleaning, meal prep, and meal clean up. Fold laundry together. Be cheerful and patient. Listen to them as you work. While they work with you they learn valuable skills, develop good habits, and set life patterns. There are lessons in cleaning that go beyond vacuuming, cleaning a toilet, or polishing a mirror. The work in the home which is necessary is but a canvas or stage where life lessons are taught and learned. When children work with you it helps develop their work ethic, quality of work, attention to detail, follow through, systematizing, initiative, a joyful heart in well-doing, self-control, the discipline of habit, finishing a task, and so much more. Dishes, laundry, picking up, and making meals are the wrappings these cradle gifts come in. A cradle gift is the valuable lessons your child learns from living in your home. You probably never thought about chores being much more than something to get done. I invite you to look deeper and embrace.
Tip # 5 Support
Our modern world has kind of separated women from each other, but throughout time, moms supported and encouraged each other. Women in the past gathered for quilting bees, the church bazaar, helping each other in childbirth, and making charity baskets for the needy.
Consider having an open-ended park day, no commitment, come if you can. What happens if no one shows up? Do not belabor the point, jump right in and play with your children, make park time something they look forward to, and let them know you still know how to have fun! What happens if families show up? Enjoy each other and be attentive to the children. This is not the time for a class or for moms to be so involved with mom time that they are not watching the children.
If moms need more time together, consider a once or twice-a-month support group in the evening, when children can be with their fathers. Find support in your community and online. If support is not available, consider posting a notice online or at the local stores and library, and then host a group. That is what I did! Gather to gather, learn from each other, learn together, be there for each other, and encourage each other. This does not need to be a co-op and this does not need to be really formal. Meeting together can be once a month in the evening. I have also been in mom groups which meant once a week. It depends on what the moms need and the logistics of children's needs during the time moms meet.
Lastly, I invite you to check out many home education resources in our catalog, blog, newsletter, events page, and mentoring through Power Membership. All are designed to assist moms in navigating this new world to them of homeschooling.