Let’s start with two pictures; one of what school in my home looked like a year ago, and one showing what it frequently looks like now.
If I were you, I would look at that image and assume a few things right off the bat:
- She really let standards slip, BIG TIME
- Those poor kids, I bet their grades reflect the downslide of organization
- Too much screen time
- Paper and pen would provide a better education
- Technology has taken over everything
Of all five of those assumptions, only one and a half would be correct.
So what was assumed correctly? Number 5: because technology has taken over everything, and partial credit to number 4: paper and pen can sometimes provide a better education.
I used to think that the older picture was the correct way to homeschool. I thought that the kids needed separate desks in quiet corners of a well organized school room, filled with books and resources. I thought I would be able to be in there overseeing everything and ready to jump in and instruct at a moments notice.
So that’s what I tried to do.
And it went really, really well!
….for about 15 minutes.
But you see, that model is only sustainable in a traditional classroom setting. A setting where the kids are all in the same grade, on the same subject, and the teacher is dedicated to serving one focused concept at a time.
In my classroom, I had 3 students on 3 different levels, going at 3 different paces, in 3 different subjects and the only thing they had in common is that they always needed help at the exact same time.
How do you deal with that? How do you keep up with three separate hurricanes of questions? Maybe there are supermoms out there somewhere that can. My mom did it in the pre-technology age, and I have no idea how in the world she made it work. But for me and my hurricanes, it wasn’t working.
It was becoming a normal event, for me to collapse on the couch in tears after bedtime and bemoan the trials and failures of the day to Michael. I couldn’t keep up the planning, I couldn’t keep up the grading, I couldn’t keep up all the subjects on pace, I never got to the “fun stuff” because we were barely covering the “important stuff”… I was frustrated and feeling inadequate.
The only reason I began homeschooling is that I felt like I could offer my kids a higher quality environment, tailored to their individual needs, in which they could not only learn, but learn to love learning.
But it was failing and we were miserable.
Fast-forward to today, and we are thriving!
It isn’t perfect, not even close, but we love school now and the kids are happy. We are covering more subjects and projects than ever before while still maintaining a healthy pace!
So what changed?
I did.
I had to let go of my pious and antiquated ideas about what school should look like.
The way that people access information and learn has changed radically over the last 20 years. People now carry access to more information in their back pocket, than entire libraries used to hold! So why am I sticking my head in the sand, and rejecting the help of superior instructors when they are literally at my fingertips?
We now we do a hybrid of online and traditional learning.
I rely on a fantastic program called Acellus Power Homeschool for most of the foundational subjects like language arts, math, science, and social studies. I love this program because it responds to the kids depending on how well they are performing. If they get quizzes correct, they move onto the next step. If they do poorly on a quiz, it triggers an automatic review and additional help videos. This makes it possible for my different learners to use the same program and still thrive in it at their own pace. Of course, I’m always on hand and keep a close eye on their progress reports and can intervene at any point to help.
We also do traditional group studies with traditional paper and pencil curriculum for creative writing, history, handwriting, Bible study, reading, and anything else that we are interested in. Right now, we are doing a study of Botany with friends and loving it!
We are not perfect and we still sometimes struggle with bad days, lazy days, and busy days; but on the whole, we are doing better than we have ever done before and we are all so much happier!
Letting go of the responsibility and control of some of the core subjects has freed me up to be able to do library days, themed weeks, and help with one on one time when needed without the others being left on their own.
Letting go of some control, and getting out of my own way, has enabled my kids to have the homeschooling experience that I always hoped they would have. They are learning in the comfort of their own home, without the social pressure, secular influence, and pace restriction of traditional schooling. They are free to explore their interests deeper and develop self-motivation skills.
It may not work for everyone, but we love it.
