How To Fake Homeschooling

Mouth the words fake education and whatever issues homeschoolers disagree about are quickly forgotten as they mount a united assault.

Good thing I will only be sharing tips today about how to fake homeschooling.  No, I am not talking about counterfeit homeschooling, but about improvising when you need to. You know, those days when the public school is looking really good is when you need to dig deep to find a solid routine.

Fake Homeschooling

Improvising or creating homeschool days spontaneously without preparation is an area I struggle in constantly.

Admiring artists who improvise and create while painting and musicians who have mastered the art of improvisation, I think about them often when I have to homeschool through times when my plans might not work.

I have learned that my love for lists, planners, schedules and well-laid out lesson plans can be more of a hindrance than help at times when homeschooling is challenging.

Reminding myself of homeschooling beliefs that I hold dear to my heart and wanting to fend off any feelings of being defeated as we get ready to embark on our huge move across the continent, I want to share a few of my tips today.

Improvise = At One’s Pleasure

Too,  I am hoping you come away armed, encouraged and with a real can-do attitude if and when you have big changes in your homeschool routine.

Nobody does it better than you.

While easier to combat later on in your journey when you have tiny little successes along the way, the thinking that returning your child to public school is the solution can haunt you at anytime in your journey.

At first, I didn’t even have to have a hard year before I thought somebody else could do a better job of instructing my child.  Along the way I learned that when I stopped “talking shop” or worrying all the time about curriculum, quit researching on all the material to cram in a year to avoid big gaps in learning and being behind, I could focus my energy on asking other homeschoolers how they found a curriculum that fit their family, how to use my time wisely to strengthen weak academic skills and to accept the level my child is on.

Yep, nobody does it better than you.

Learning is not a small window of time that quickly closes.

Accepting the fact that I will not be able to school many days in the upcoming months or that it may not look like it does now, I have learned that learning is not a small window of time that is permanently sealed and all is lost.

Avoiding a common pitfall that children will not learn or pick up material previously not mastered is the release to beginning a creative and individualistic education.

For example, as we leaving our co-op and friends here in Texas, my heart is heavy on one hand because Tiny will not have the same homeschool experiences my older sons have had in our group.  However, I am sure my older boys will not experience to the same depth the rich culture, very individualized, extensive field trips and hands-on learning we plan for Tiny in South America.

As mom, I hope all my sons will appreciate the uniqueness of the country, but as a homeschooling teacher I know Tiny’s time for learning more is a wide open window.

Be patient with yourself as you learn how to create out of the box lesson plans and plan on the spur of the moment.

Even the most organized loving homeschooler needs to embrace the wild side to homeschooling.  There is no denying that our children can be powerful learning machines.

Sometimes we overthink the process of learning instead of accepting teachable moments that come up in life.  When I moved away from scripted lesson plans and embraced more of a unit study approach my homeschooling year came alive.

Thinking now as we prepare to move overseas, which is something I never dreamed could happen, I have those same feelings I had when I left scripted lesson plans.   Excitement, mixed with worry, mixed with a huge dose of anticipation have to be all normal feelings.

Even if things only work out for just a few short months due to the Mr.’s health, I will not have regretted this change in our homeschooling adventure.

I’m still working on mastering the quality of patience as I hope to add more spontaneous and spur of the moment days as I learn how to fake homeschooling during our move.  But right now, I say: “Pinch me, am I dreaming?”

Look at these other tips:

• How to Use Summertime to Put a Foot in Homeschooling
• How to Get Homeschooled Kids to WANT to Learn?
• Is Homeschooling Making the Grade? It’s in and the Grade is ALL Fs!

Hugs and love ya