With our move to South America, I had two suitcases to pack with what was absolutely essential to living in South America. Included in our two suitcase maximum for each person was not just clothes, but homeschooling books.
Non-Essentials In Homeschooling
Eliminating non-essentials was utterly crucial to making a smooth transition. The line between absolutely vital and unimportant became very clear.
Homeschooling is similar because there are just some things that are not required to raising life long learners. Instead of a homeschooling help, some things can become a hindrance.
Look at these Tips to Eliminating 3 Non-Essentials in Homeschooling.
Assigning a Book Report – Non-Essential. I did it too. I assigned my boys books reports in the beginning of my homeschool journey only because that is what I did in public school.
Like most new homeschooling teachers I associated books reports with good readers and writers.
The longer I homeschooled, the more I realized that my strategies like reading aloud, practicing writing each day, acting out stories, creating puppets with the boys when they were preschool age and debating an author’s viewpoint in the high school grades was incredibly more powerful.
It has been my experience that forced book reports do not fuel the love for reading and especially with wiggly boys.
Also, I learned that if I just had to assign one for the language arts teacher inside of me then assign a book my kids don’t like. Who really wants to be forced to use literary analysis on a book they love?
Instilling the pleasure of reading or lingering over vocabulary for the love of words has to be cultivated with other equally pleasurable tasks.
When you are doing copywork with your children, talking orally about the plot or rising action of a book or researching about an author, information in a book is then absorbed and retained.
More important reading is associated with pleasure and not drudgery.
College Degree – Non-Essential. As you homeschool longer, you realize that all that is needed is the ability to learn alongside your children.
Here is a little secret I learned while conducting my homeschooling workshops.
Quite a few of the public school teachers in my workshop didn’t want the other moms in the workshop to know they were teachers.
Of course, I was elated and enthusiastic to have quite a few public school teachers in my workshops because I savored our time together as we shared teaching tips.
However, many (not all) of the public school teachers turned homeschool educator felt that their college education hampered their ability to think outside the box.
Appreciating their candor and vulnerability, I realized we all struggle with things that make us feel inadequate.
A parent’s degree or lack of it has very little bearing on the success of their journey.
Check out the article The Myth of Teacher Qualifications by HSLDA.
Knowing All the Answers – Non-Essential. We may think we need to know all the answers, but when I have been honest with my boys by letting them know that I don’t know all the answers, they appreciate that I am human too.
What I have found is that knowing where to go to find the answers or how to connect with other homeschoolers has been more essential.
Too, a dogged determination, willingness to work hard and an unwavering dedication to your children's education have been the keys to successfully homeschooling.
Eliminating the clutter as I packed and weighed each bag carefully for our move, though stressful at the time, allowed more room for what was really important.
Only so much will fit in a bag and only so much will fit into a homeschool day.
Looking back now, unloading all that clutter and eliminating the non-essentials has allowed me to maximize the time we have together by savoring what we brought with us.
You'll love my other tried and true tips through they 20+ years I've homeschooled.
- How to Mesh Your Personality With Homeschooling When They Collide
- 100 Reasons Why Homeschooling is a SUPERIOR Education
- Homeschool Critics: How Do You Know You’re on Track?
- Top 10 Tips for Maximizing Space in (Really) Tiny Homeschool Spaces
- How to Survive Homeschool Sick Days
- How to Cope Successfully With Homeschool Mental Stress
- 3 Ways to Instantly Gain More Time in Your Homeschool Day
- 3 Foolproof Ways I Cope When I Can’t Homeschool (or Blog)
What about you? Have you overstuffed your day with non-essentials?
Hugs and love ya,
Patience, Confidence, Knowing all the Answers – NOT Required to Homeschool
I am a degreed librarian that taught virtual library and art lessons when Covid kept us out of school. What I realized in all lessons in all grade levels is that we didn’t have to do every single aspect of all content areas everyday. We had parents saying their kids were spending 10-12 hours a day on school work. It was not meant to be that way.
I also learned that when I retire from school and teach my grand babies. I will do so many things differently so that they will learn organically not limited to grade level content.
Thank you for your blog! I enjoy it so much.
Hey Rebecca,
I’m SO happy to have you here..Yes, yes you’re so correct. Learning is a delight and not chore UNLESS as parents we make it that way for our kids. I loved your comment and love that you’re here..
I agree. I have never been a fan of book reports but we do reenactment and what if this happened instead with our books. This makes the lessons so much fun. I have a college degree and still have doubt in my ability to teach them due to math being my most hated subject of all.
Natasha recently posted…Candy Cane Slime Dough
Hey Natasha,
I LOVED your idea about reenactments, so fun!! I hear you about your college degree, it doesn’t help me love math either..lol I’m right there with ya’!