When you start out on your homeschool journey, you have some sort of idea or picture of what your homeschool will look like. You might have envisioned your kids reading literature throughout the house, kids seated at the kitchen table with textbooks all around or you and your kids simply learning each and every day through the life experiences that come your way. All of these are “pictures” of actual homeschool families, but all of these scenarios probably won’t work for your family.
Every family is unique and each person in the family is unique as well. This fact requires a homeschool mom to determine what homeschooling method best fits her family. She must take into account her family’s lifestyle and each child’s learning style to correctly determine which homeschooling method is best for her family.
But, what happens when your homeschooling method quits working?
Perhaps, once upon a time your children enjoyed learning and now they drag their feet when called to begin school and tears are spilled over a well rounded math curriculum they used to soar through.
This is a picture of where I found myself in the middle of the 2014-2015 homeschool year. After 7 years of homeschooling I found that both of my children and I were dreading school every day. They had no desire to do book work and I had no interest in fighting the complaints and tears. I kept pushing on because my children’s education is my responsibility, but I knew something had to change.
What is a homeschool mom to do when her homeschooling journey is nothing like she imagined?
Change. When your homeschooling method quits working you have to change it.
Our children are constantly growing, their interests are changing and their abilities are increasing. We must be willing to change our homeschooling method in order to give our children the chance to reach their full potential.
Change can be scary. We are changing our homeschooling method going into the 2015-2016 homeschool year, but I should have done it 2-3 years ago. I was just too scared.
I like to have a plan, follow a curriculum, grade schoolwork at the end of the day, etc. Changing our homeschooling method meant letting a lot of that go. Scary.
Then I had a different word come to mind, one to replace the change I was so afraid of. Opportunity. My children needed to be given the opportunity to grow in their interests, at their own pace, in their own way and I had the opportunity to allow them to do so while watching them grow into the man and woman God created them to be. The question was, would I take the opportunity or let it pass by?
Every homeschool mom has this same opportunity and choice to make.
When your homeschooling method quits working, I encourage you to take some time to evaluate the following…
- When did our homeschooling method stop working?
- How do my children learn best?
- Why don’t my kids like school?
- What do my children want to learn about?
- Where can I make subtle changes to try different homeschooling methods?
If you’re not sure what homeschooling method might be right for you, my friend Marcy, has a great post here where you’ll find descriptions of each one. It was her book, Delightful Planning, she gave me the inspiration that I needed to change homeschooling methods even though I was scared of change.
Homeschooling is a family journey, full of many blessings. Don’t be so afraid of change that you miss out on all it has to offer you and your children!
Misty
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You are brave! And totally right, if it’s not working something needs to be fixed. I don’t foresee running into problems with my method, but I have run into problems with curriculum and textbooks. I’m getting braver and braver about changing up the curriculum, especially in leaving behind the scripted curriculum in favor of my own teaching. It’s both freeing and terrifying because now I can teach anything I want, I just have to know it! I hope you have much success with your new method this year, and you and your’s fall in love with learning again.
It truly is freeing to leave behind the typical textbooks for a more relaxed and enjoyable homeschooling method! Today I’m starting to plan for our new year and the kids can’t wait to help! Blessings Jennifer!