All of my children are very different people; as well they should be. They have different interests, different talents, different playstyles and different learning styles. I truly love all of these differences!
Does it make things a little more difficult, yes, sometimes, but it ALWAYS makes things more interesting! Homeschooling is no exception.
A Little Homeschooling Background – I’ll Tell on Myself
I have been a homeschooling mother for many…many years, and it hasn’t all been roses and sunshine, as with anything in life. I recall our first year of homeschooling; I thought we would all pull our hair out, but I knew how important that it was and kept pushing through. Luckily, we survived!
The problem, in the beginning, was really an exercise in testing…everything! (My patience included) You see, I had naturally fallen into the path that I believe most Americans probably do. We live in a world where the government says that every child must meet certain milestones at a specific time (all simultaneously).
The problem with that is that all children are not the same! When I finally realized this and calmed down, my children began flourishing!
Fast forward many years and I am now working with my youngest children. I am seeing all of this over again…but through the lenses of the much needed experience that benefits my children so much.
Specifically Targeted Homeschooling
I’ll give you a very good and poignant example of that which I am speaking. To give a bit of background, though, I’ll tell you that my children’s father and I are divorced. When I deployed to Afghanistan, he put them in public school, which ended up causing many more problems with which we’ve had to deal. (…but I digress.)
Their father is now married to a public school teacher and after all of the years that we homeschooled, he is now ‘against’ it. He dogged me for over a year about the fact that Mason, our youngest, wasn’t reading yet… “because he should have already been reading at that age”. I don’t really mind the criticism, however, it really bothers Mason, causing even more stress, which led to less ability to complete that specific task.
Mason is currently in the first grade, not that I give a great deal of weight to ‘grade levels’, but just to give you an idea of where we are. We have been back to homeschooling for a little over a year now, after my return from Afghanistan.
Natural Progress
Mason is my numbers guy. He loves math and is naturally good at it. He even speaks in numbers; for instance, he will tell me what ‘percentage’ of happy or mad he is at any given moment. However, until recently, he really didn’t like reading at all; didn’t want to have anything to do with it, in fact. Anytime I brought it up, he revolted.
So, I made the decision to continue with a few basic drills, alphabet, phonics, just a few tidbits here and there that wouldn’t completely stress him out and lay off the push to read. This approach has been proven to work in so many ways and it isn’t any different here.
Once he was ready, he began paying more attention to reading and all of the sudden, he was excited by it! Now he loves it and I couldn’t be happier! He knew when he was ready and, without pressure, he was able to do it in his own time and without stress. Each child is different and we need to cater to those differences for their benefit.
Find Ways to Make Homeschooling Fun and Interesting
The same idea goes for using fun teaching moments throughout their days as well as their lives. For instance, last week we doubled a batch of chocolate chip cookies for a little lesson in fractions!!! Fun and learning with cookies! As another example, we are studying birds in zoology and they go on scavenger hunts and nature walks to add more fun to that subject.
Children Know What They Need, But You Have to Pay Attention to See It
Children today are under more pressure than ever before to push and to achieve and go as far as they can as fast as they can. At the same time, there are more children taking anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds than ever before. I fully believe that those two things are linked. In our home, we believe in fun and that doesn’t exclude education.
Learning should be fun for children. If they are excited about what they are learning, they tend to dig deeper into it, learning more – and retaining it even! Children absolutely know themselves; they know when they are ready to learn and ready to move forward in anything they do.
If adults (and the government) would just get out of their way, I believe we would see more children striving and reaching their own potential, and that would be truly wonderful!
Don’t Miss a Thing!
Be sure to check out the rest of our homeschooling section!
MORE WAYS TO CONNECT
We also, as a homesteading family, have three additional blogs that might interest you.Two Oaks Farm Talkconcerns the more technical side of homesteading. We discuss subjects like gardening, food prep, and farm building and construction with lots of tutorials!
Farm Raised Familyis basically a hub for everything under the Two Oaks Farmstead umbrella. You can learn a great deal about all parts of the farmstead there. TheFarm Raised Family blogfocuses on financial matters such as budgeting, saving, and more and on current events affecting families.
You can also have a more in depth look at all that we do by visiting ourTwo Oaks Farmstead YouTube Channeland be sure to subscribe so that you don’t miss a thing!
Farm Life and Freedomis the new podcast we are in the process of launching! It is going to be so much fun!
Two Oaks Farmsteadis the farm store… the one that holds the umbrella! Check us all out and join us, not only on our blogs andFarm Life and Freedom podcastbut come join the fun on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter… wherever you get social!
