Let’s talk about what school really looks like. Not pandemic schooling, not recreating school at home, but real homeschooling. The kind where you make the plans, the schedule, and the fun. Here is what homeschool moms want you to know about homeschooling in real life.
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7 Things Homeschool Moms Want You To Know
I want to let you in on a few little secrets of our homeschool life. Stuff you may not have realized actually happens in homeschools. This is the real stuff not what you may have heard from someone who knows someone who knew someone that homeschooled.
We don’t all do lessons in our pajamas.
I have a strick no PJs rule, because Pjs seem to make us more relaxed and not get our homeschool lessons finished no matter our good intentions. Some people are all about pajama days and that is great. Homeschool is about freedom to learn as you learn best. We just happen to learn best, dressed.
We don’t do tests.
Yup, that’s right, no tests. I teach my kids to master skills not to memorize facts for a test. We do the occasional placement test if we a going to use a new curriculum but that’s it.
Full disclosure: Teaching Textbooks does have quizes through out their curriculum that my kids do.
I don’t force my kids to write.
When we first started homeschooling I thought writing was going to be the end of homeschooling for us. It was a fight to get it done so I stopped forcing them to write. It turns out homeschooling is a lot better without forced writing.
And my kids enjoy writing on their own. Creating stories and songs that about things they actually care about.
We homeschool moms don’t need to teach our kiddos every single thing. Instead, we need to teach them a love for learning, and how to learn, and why, and then kick them out of the nest and let them fly.
Socialization?
Because putting my child in a classroom of children the same age is the best way to socialize a child.
My kids talk to everyone. It doesn’t matter their age, my kids will hold a conversation with anyone. And I have seen these from all homeschoolers I have met, I haven’t seen too many that are quiet, shy types, though I know there are quiet, shy homeschoolers.
Schools out early.
We are finished our lessons by noon. With the ability to move from lesson to lesson without waiting for a whole class to catch up we move along quickly and are finished by lunch time.
We finished school inthe beginning for June opposited to the end of June when local public schools are out for summer.
We take whole days (and sometimes weeks) off at random. Wednesdays? No school here, we take a day off in the middle to break things up, to hang out with friends, that kind of thing.
Homeschool moms know there is more to learning.
This past homeschool year we did very little in the way of book learning. My kids did math (Teaching Textbooks and CTCMath) but that was basically it. But boy did they learn a lot!
We have been raising chickens, quail, and turkey for the past year. From hatching to eating, do you know how much learning happened in that time frame? My kids know exactly where food comes from, there is no disconnect there.
Homeschool kids learn from pitching in around the house, around the homestead. They learn from cooking and baking, and from growing food in the garden vs growing food in a greenhouse.
I think this one is the most important thing that we want you to know…
We don’t think less of you, because you don’t homeschool.
I know homeschool because it was what was right for my kids at the time when we started. Now we homeschool because it is what is right for all of us. You are doing what is right for you and your family, which is all we’re all trying to do.
I hear all the time “I don’t know how you do it.” Guess what? I don’t know how you do it! You parent, you get your kids to school on time – dressed, fed, etc. – and then go to work yourself -dressed, fed, etc. How do you do it?
Stealth Learning During Off Days