When I started homeschooling, I was excited by all the possibilities. Quickly that excitement turned into fear as I was overwhelmed with the amount of options at my disposal. With the Corona pandemic we’re all facing, many have become homeschoolers overnight and may have never wanted to be. I wanted to write this blog post to offer some encouraging words and a few ideas to help calm the fears and hopefully turn it into excitement- both of those emotions actually cause the same physiological response in the body ;)
As an entrepreneur, I learned that it’s better to not recreate the wheel, but to model after someone who has already successfully done what you are hoping to do. As a new homeschooler, I heeded this same advice and found some great people to emulate. One such mentor is Julie Bogart from BraveWriter.com. I attended her conference and one thing she said really stuck with me and became my new motto. She said, “It's not that we think we can do school better at home, but that we can do HOME better than school. We must retool our understanding of home to support learning instead of replicating school.” It is my belief that humans are born with a love of learning. Babies are like little sponges. They learn to roll over, crawl, walk, talk and be in the world just by being themselves. Young children WANT to learn and they learn through play. It’s not until kids are in school for a few years that the love of learning is stripped from them through mind-numbing textbooks, limited real-world social interactions and decreased autonomy. Thankfully I know there are some truly innovative schools and teachers out there trying to change our school system, but for the most part public school has not changed since its inception during the Industrial Revolution. If you’d like to learn more about our personal reasons for choosing alternative education, CLICK HERE.
I believe NOW is a great time to reimagine and co-create a beautiful learning experience at home. Learning at home doesn’t have to look or feel like school. Julie calls this “enchanted education” and it’s not something that can be manufactured or coerced, but it can be fostered and encouraged. My invitation to you, is to take this time to reconnect with your families and allow your kids to do some things they love and don’t always have time for when they are at school all day. Does your child lose track of time when they are skateboarding? Let them. Does your child love to read? Let them read as long as they want. Is there a subject they are really interested in? Find an online class on Outschool.com and let them dive in!
For your kids to fully buy-in, they have to be involved in the discussion! My encouragement is to sit down with each of your kids and come up with a schedule/rhythm together that they have a hand in creating. You can give them your input, but make sure they feel heard and that their ideas are taken into consideration. Our kids' world was just ripped out from under them and their sense of security has been shaken. Research shows that having consistency and a predictable routine can help kids get back that sense of security. If you need some more insights on the topic, check out this blog post by Amy McCready called Why Kids Need Routines.
Before I list all the resources I’ve used personally with my kids, I also want to say don’t worry if you don’t use a single one. Give yourself and your kids some grace right now. Your world has also been turned upside down. If your kids don’t learn one more academic thing this whole school year, they will be okay! I think the most important thing we can do for ourselves and our kids right now is to just love them and spend as much time with them as we can. It really doesn’t take much time per day to accomplish academic learning especially when it’s focused (check out my friend Kalenna’s book The Five Hour School Week for more convincing of that). It also doesn’t take much time daily for our kids to feel our love. Parenting expert Amy McCready says it only takes 20 minutes a day of “Mind, Body & Soul” time to fill our kids attention buckets (so they don’t start seeking attention in destructive ways).
A great thing to know to help set up a great learning experience at home is how your child learns. CLICK HERE to download a free assessment to figure it out :) This may be a fun place to start. If you’re looking for some ideas of where to get started on the academic side, here are some websites/ programs we used when we were homeschooling or our kids use now at Acton Academy:
Reading and Writing
Math
Other Resources
I’m grateful for technology that can keep us all connected during this weird time of social distancing. I’m grateful for all the brave healthcare workers on the front line of this pandemic. I’m grateful that we live in a time with so many options and that many of them are free or discounted currently to help support parents making this shift to educating at home for the time being. I’m here to support you, if you have any questions, I’m easy to find in our Facebook Community :) Stay safe everyone!
In Gratitude,
Lindsay