New to Home Education? Step Three – Learning
Categories: New to Home Education, Léo’s Insights 2021-2022
Tags: learning
Assuming you have RELAXED by claiming your rightful place as the authority over your children and their education, and hoping you have found a simple yet thorough program to follow such as ACE or CLE, we will now proceed with a few more details to make your home education journey less disconcerting and more exciting.
Let us first review what we have discussed so far:
• RELAX – nothing good is accomplished when panicking.
• Find a program for the interim. ACE or CLE are both good starter programs. You may not follow these programs forever, but they will give you a comfortable starting point.
• Memorize the three cardinal rules for home educators:
◦ Don’t Push
◦ Don’t Hold Back
◦ Don’t Compare
◦ … and remind yourself daily to follow these rules.
Most parents want to arrive at the destination before actually departing! This is understandable, as deciding to do something new is indeed to have a new destination. But nobody arrives right away. Few families, if any become “overnight unschoolers”! In fact, IF unschooling is the goal, one must follow a pathway that leads incrementally from “schooling” to “unschooling”. It goes from school at school to school at home, followed by home schooling which eventually leads to home education which may end at unschooling. Some people may skip a step or two or move through the transitional steps very quickly, but rarely does anyone jump directly into unschooling. It is something that develops with time. Be patient.
We all want to do the best job possible so we don’t handicap our children’s futures. However, as the saying goes, one can only eat an elephant one bite at a time. “Do not worry about tomorrow,” Jesus said, “for each day would have trouble of its own.” We all know this to be true! The best way to prepare yourself for the future is to do the best you can, today.
Don’t expect everything to go well, all the time. There will be times you question why you decided to take your children away from the “professionals” in school so they could be home with you every day. This, of course, is nonsense, as even on the worst of days you are still God’s first choice for educating your children. What is required is a true “commitment to the cause of training and teaching your child(ren)”. Stick to it, no matter what. If you need support or encouragement, contact your facilitator.
As you get to know your children better, it will become more and more obvious what works, what doesn’t, what needs to change and what can be left alone. This is part of learning to take control and to be at peace with your decision to home educate.
Don’t be afraid to change your program midway through the year. If something is too easy, which is indicated by your child being bored, or too difficult, indicated by your child being frustrated, get something else. If you are frustrated, re-evaluate what you are doing. To continue to do what is not working is the Einstein definition of insanity!
Curriculum is necessary, but mostly for parents. Children will learn with or without it. However, it is important to initially have something for mom’s sake, especially until the family becomes more familiar and comfortable with home education. With time, you will gain more control over things educational, leading to greater freedom, comfort and peace. This is what unschooling is all about!
Or maybe there is another way to describe home education: How about being in control of your child(ren)’s education simply by being a loving family, learning and growing together?
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