Homeschool is fun because I don’t try to keep up…


A few months back a revelation hit me so hard I just about fell over. Ok, not really…but I love being dramatic 🙂

I was so caught up in what my kids needed to learn!

“What if they aren’t able to do add fractions like other 5th graders?”

“What if the other 3rd graders are doing lessons on the mating rituals of caterpillars and my child doesn’t know anything about the mating rituals of caterpillars??!!”

“WHAT IF MY KINDERGARTNER DOESN’T KNOW THE ABCS IN ORDER! WHAT IF SHE STILL SAYS ELLEMENOPEE!!!”

OH THE HUMANITY!!!!!! THERE’S NO HOPE FOR THESE CHILDREN IN LIFE!!!!

Dear goodness gracious take a pill or something.

How in the world are we to have an enjoyable homeschool experience if we’re always in a state of comparison with other children? The children that go to public school are learning at a very different rate than children who are homeschooled. We can’t possibly keep up…so why are we trying to? (And if anyone thinks I’m knocking public school, then you’re not hearing what I’m saying.)

Just take a second and think about that question… are you trying to keep up the same pace of learning as other children? Are you molding your homeschool experience after someone’s magical rules of what they need to learn by when they need to learn it? If you answered no, then awesome, you’re a huge step ahead of a lot of us. If your answer is yes, then I encourage you to take a step back and just rest. Examine each of your children and at what point of the learning process they are in.

Now taking what their friends are learning and creatively incorporating it into your homeschool day or month is a great idea! So they may read out of a textbook of the mating rituals of caterpillars, but you’ve decided to actually go find caterpillars and witness the mating ritual. Ewww. Gross. Scratch that example. Anyway… you get what I mean, right?

I have always said we’re taking homeschool one year at a time. Only God knows the future education of our children. But I’m not educating my kids so that they will be ready to go to 6th grade at a public school…I’m educating them so they can be amazing God loving people in their life…right now.

photo credit Todd Wilson

 

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