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How to Mesh Your Personality With Homeschooling When They Collide

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Today, I’m sharing how to mesh your personality with homeschooling.

We bring our view of what is education to the homeschool world based on our experiences. That’s not the shocking part. How to mesh our personality with homeschooling when they collide is the painful part.

If you’re like me, you’re a product of public school or maybe you fit in the category of being a public school teacher much like the ones I’ve mentored through the years.

When your idea of schooling is constant testing (without being state mandated), over technical lesson plans, and giving daily grades, it can collide with the relaxed homeschool approach.

How to implement the relaxed and successful approach of homeschooling while maintaining much needed guidance for your structured personality is not easy, but it’s possible.

Having started my journey being severely structured and then learning how to implement a delight-directed approach was a gradual process.

How to Mesh Your Personality with Homeschooling

I didn’t take years to adjust to a relaxed approach when I saw that the delight directed approach worked.

However, the organized part of my personality knew that some guidance was needed so important skills like math and writing did not get left out.

Using strengths to shore up weaknesses in my teaching style was the key for me.

Look at how I started slowly until I lit a fire in my kids for learning.

Tip 1: Start with a content subject.

It takes time to move away from segmented subjects and understand that all bodies of knowledge are connected.

So when going from structured to relaxed, start with history, geography, or science to get your feet wet. Look at Skill Subjects vs. Content Subjects: What’s the Difference.

The content subjects don’t have to be introduced or mastered in an exact order like skill subjects, which are the three Rs – reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic.

For example, if you choose to cover the American Civil War in 4th grade or 7th grade, there will not be any big gaps in your teaching.

You obviously would expect more research, writing, and maybe map work from a middle schooler than an elementary-aged kid, but that is the only difference.

Tip 2: Field Trips, Living Books, and Projects.

The next thing I had to quickly learn was that tools matter. You can’t expect a talented artist to create masterpieces with lame tools.

Kids are the same; learning tools don’t have to be expensive, but kids need relaxed and unstructured time to use them.

Throwing in a field trip as a second thought instead of being the major learning experience does not stir passion or kindle in the slightest a love of learning.

Surrounding your kids with living books, which are books that explain topics in story form, taking regular meaningful field trips and pursuing projects your kids are passionate about stokes the creative juices.

Look at 5 Steps to Choosing Geography Living Books Your Children Will Love and 13 Living History Books about Ancient Greece.

Also grab some tips from 22 Awesome Homeschool History Field Trips.

Tip 3: EVERYONE is passionate about something.

I hear it all the time.

My kid is not interested in anything. He just wants to play games or ride his bike, or ___ (insert anything here other than “school”). Even games can have educational value.

Turn fun into learning. This is the hard part for personalities who want to stay structured, but I have many examples to show you how. Here is one. Look at my post Screen-Free Educational Activities for Kids Who Love Video Games.

If you fill up every bit of time with scheduled activities, a child has no time to linger. He needs time to investigate, explore, and discover.

Lingering can produce laziness, but it can also produce a lively, energetic kid IF you provide opportunities.

Between you and I, it can be easier for a structured personality to do this because you have a natural bent toward wanting to be organized.

Look at the list below to provide opportunities:

  • introduce a totally different subject or course that your family doesn’t know much about like marine biology, interior design, or forensic science. What kid doesn’t want to learn about crime. Don’t focus on grading or completing, just introduce and whet your child’s appetite.
  • trade reading for doing. This is not so easy for structured folks who feel that reading a book completely equates to learning sticking. Reading recipes does not make an elite chef. Trading reading for doing looks like this: Instead of reading books only about being interested in pets or animals, volunteer at an animal shelter. If a child is too young, start an easy pet sitting business. When a child wants to learn about music, he plays a piano or guitar. When a child wants to learn about math, he bakes cookies, plays board games, learns by dominoes, learns by a card game, learns by hopscotch and can still read a book. When a teen wants to learn about law, call a law office and have him volunteer for a day or two a week.

The Difference Between Lazy and Relaxed Homeschooler

Tip 4: Turn your weakness into a strength.

One fear of relaxed homeschoolers is not covering everything. It’s the same fear for home educators who have a more structured approach.

Turn your weakness into a strength by creating organizational systems which align with a more relaxed approach.

Hear my heart when I say to let go of all organization is not the answer. It never worked for me. Find your balance by using what your gifts are for your kids.

From my struggle, I created the wildly popular 7 Step Homeschool Planner. It’s a powerful tool for relaxed organization.

More Transitioning to a Relaxed Homeschool Lifestyle Tips

A few key points to take away about my planner is that it’s UNDATED. That is huge for folks who feel once they’ve planned they are behind when the first sick day comes.

Not so with my undated planner. You simply stop schooling and pick up on the next lesson number.

In addition, my drive to do worksheets only turned to creating lapbooks for our unit studies for my kids. I have dozens of them for you here on my site.

I took a strength of organization and aligned it with a hands-on tool like lapbooks.

Finding the Non-School Homeschool Teacher Within

Look at these other ways you can use your strengths:

  • create a simple checklist of subjects for the day. Don’t tell the exacts if you want to add more delight-directed learning to your day. Simply put down your subjects like math, spelling, and vocabulary for the day. Challenge your kid to find a way to satisfy one of them with a non-traditional way to learn. Of course, don’t be like that lame artist or chef I mentioned earlier by not providing enough tools. Provide the tools and books and resources.
  • alternate subjects that you want covered like science and history instead of covering both on one day. This gives your child more time to research and delve into a topic.
  • provide visual communication of what you expect for the day. Visual communication like charts and calendars equals a powerful communicator.

One of the most important things to remember about relaxed or child-directed learning is that it looks different for each family.

One weave that is common among all families is that the parent is more of a facilitator. Tihs will help you to learn to blend your personality with homeschooling.

Think:

  • of your role as guiding instead of dictating,
  • how can you give more choices while still meeting your expectations for the day, and
  • how can I add other tools in my home so that passions are fed or discovered.
How to Mesh Your Personality With Homeschooling When They Collide.We bring our view of what is education to the homeschool world based on our experiences. That's not the shocking part. How to mesh our personality with homeschooling when they collide is the painful part. CLICK HERE if you want to go from structured to relax! #homeschool #homeschooling

Do not over complicate the process; use life happenings or natural things to be the teacher for you and your children.

Tip 5: Expand the definition of homeschool curriculum and use life happenings.

For example, use the seasons. Use springtime to make a garden, use winter to learn about winter birds or hibernation, use summer to learn about the ocean and ocean animals and used fall to learn about the cycles of life or the tides or moon.

Here are a few more of my units to help you get going and find the teacher within you and more important to mesh your personality with homeschooling.

The key to relaxed learning is use everything around you and everyday to teach.

The last important point to share is that you need to expand your definition of curriculum so your kids are not always sticking their nose in a book to learn something.

You know we love reading. A lot of homeschoolers are passionate about reading, but learning goes beyond that.

Look at 45 Ways to Define Homeschool Curriculum.

You’ve got this! Go now and conquer!♥

Hugs and love ya,

Top 5 Homeschool Approaches New Homeschoolers Need to Know

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

After deschooling, a new homeschooler’s first step is to get a basic grasp of the top 5 homeschool approaches.

Having a basic grasp of the top 5 approaches new homeschoolers can conquer overwhelm and tame the curriculum beast.

First, understand these two basic clarifications to dispel misunderstandings about our lifestyle.

  • Deschooling is a process, not a homeschool approach. It’s the process ALL new homeschoolers or homeschoolers should do initially or from time to time if they struggle. See my link below.
  • Unschooling IS a homeschool approach. While we’re ALL homeschooling were NOT all unschooling. Big difference.

A colossal mistake is to focus first on curriculum instead of a homeschool approach. Too, taking time to read this article all the way through will put you ahead miles.

What is a Homeschool Approach

Top 5 Approaches New Homeschoolers Need to Know

Also, before jumping into homeschool approaches, you need to understand the curative power of how to tap into your teaching style and your child’s learning style. They may not be the same and from the start you may unintentionally cause problems.

Simply put, a homeschool approach or homeschool style is an educational philosophy which is implemented or followed through by using curriculum as a tool.

Besides, there are no right or wrong, better or worse, or smarter or dumber approaches. I’ve seen success stories and failures with each approach.

An approach is a method, goals, and values that are important to you. Part of deciding a homeschool approach is to determine what are your families priorities. That is why there is no right or wrong, just what is best for your family. An approach is how you will implement what you want your children to learn.

Secret Revealed: Homeschool Approaches Essentials

For example, on a history topic, a Charlotte Mason homeschooler will look for a living book on the topic while a Classical homeschooler may look for a book from the great minds of the past.

That is just one simple example.

Whether you intentionally or unintentionally chose it, EVERYONE has a homeschool approach when they begin.

It’s better to pick it for your family’s needs. So, don’t jump in and choose curriculum that is fitted for a homeschool approach that is opposite of your child’s learning style.

There are a few things for you to know so that you make an informed choice.

Next, look at my video on YouTube How To Easily Choose and Distinguish between Homeschool Educational Approaches.

Additionally, understanding these 6 fundamental points will help you to increase the odds of success. Below are the first three points.

  1. Did you know that just about ALL curriculum falls into one or more of the homeschool approaches? By narrowing down to an approach that fits your family’s values and your children’s needs you have tamed the curriculum hunt. Reduce overwhelm by choosing the method FIRST.
  2. It’s NOT necessary to know EVERY approach just like it’s not necessary to understand EVERY ingredient in a homemade dish. The most used ingredients are key to understanding the big picture. Homeschool styles or approaches are similar. You don’t need to know EVERY single one, but only the most popular one. Some styles are not as popular. Not that they are unimportant, but the top 5 homeschool approaches are what a majority of homeschoolers use. As you’re more experienced, you can delve into the others.
  3. There is NO need to choose only one. If you see that one or two follow your goals, then pick and choose the teaching points and combine them. It’s called eclectic. Eclectic is not really an approach, but a type of homeschooler.

And then look at the next three points.

Best Homeschooling Approaches

  1. With that being said, DO choose one that fits MOSTLY with your goals because it cuts down on frustration. By having one that is your dominant one, you can find curriculum that fits it first and then delve into curriculum that fits other approaches that comes in second. It REALLY reduces teaching fatigue to have one major approach that you can rely on.
  2. You can change on a dime if one is not working. There is no harm done. Maybe you’ve not accomplished what you’ve set out to do because you chose a homeschool approach that doesn’t really embrace how your child learns. He probably has still retained some of the information. Just switch approaches, chalk it up to being inexperienced, and move on.
  3. One more HUGE point to remember and that is NOT every homeschool approach has a plethora of planned out curriculum to choose from. There are more choices now than used to be, but remember you’re following an APPROACH and using curriculum as tools. Bottom line: An exceptional teacher will be able to use what she has to tweak to fit her students. Yes, it may take a bit more work, but it can be done. Be sure to see my post at the bottom where I used a textbook to do our unit study.

Moreover, here are some of the most popular homeschool styles and I’ve listed a few curriculum suggestions as examples of each.

5 Homeschool Approaches

Traditional Textbook Homeschool Approach

Characteristics

  • textboook driven
  • worksheets
  • test driven
  • follows a sequential scope and sequence
  • record keeping/grading services
  • often been called “conveyor-belt” education

Textbooks and workbooks are used. This is what a lot of us used in public school and the approach most of us are familiar with. And this is the way most new homeschoolers start out. Ask yourself why you would want to repeat the same approach that is not working in public school.

Many online public school at home providers have popped up in the last 10 years. Even online schools which may not necessarily use printed material may still under this approach because it’s based on textbooks.

A graded textbook guides teaching, and subjects are covered in increments over the course of a school year.  Textbooks may be supplemented with worktexts or books.

A few curriculum providers (both secular and Christian)

  • Abeka
  • Acellus
  • Bob Jones
  • Calvert

Unit Study Homeschool Approach

Characteristics

  • where all subjects are covered by being focused on one topic
  • child-led or parent directed
  • emphasis is on mastery-based learning instead of ages
  • natural real-life approach to learning
  • students can see the whole picture
  • creating self-learning

Unit Studies take a specific theme or topic and delves into it deeply over a period of time. The emphasis is on integrating language arts, social studies, science, history, fine arts, and math together while focused on one unit of study or theme.

The unit study philosophy emphasizes that all knowledge is connected and remembered longer when taught in an integrated fashion.

A few curriculum providers

Charlotte Mason Homeschool Approach

Characteristics

  • oral narration
  • written narration
  • copywork
  • nature study
  • journaling
  • use of living books
  • form habits

Homeschool Approaches

Charlotte Mason was a turn of the century British educator whose approach was to teach children skills such as reading, writing, and math, and then expose them to the best sources of knowledge for all other subjects.

This means taking nature walks, visiting museums to view art up close, or reading what she called “living books.”  Textbooks are viewed as dry and dull and to be avoided in favor of richer sources of knowledge.

A few curriculum providers

Classical Homeschool Approach

Characteristics

  • intensive language arts focused
  • emphasis on Latin, Greek and Hebrew
  • progression through learning based on child’s development
  • reading great books as a way to connect to great minds

In Ancient Greece, emphasis was place on learning the tools of learning. 

These tools could then be applied to the study of any subject. 

This classical” approach would have students study grammar, the dialectic or logic phase, and finally rhetoric. These tools were known as the “trivium.”

Following the study of these subjects were arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music – called the “quadrivium.” The approach is to teach learning in “stages” according to the child’s development.

The book by Dorothy Sayers’ The Lost Tools of Learning is a reference  for this approach; Susan Wise Bauer’s The Well Trained Mind was the first book of its kind to lay out curriculum suggestions for this approach.

A few curriculum providers

  • Institute for Excellence in Writing
  • Veritas Press
  • Memoria Press

Unschooling Homeschool Approach

Characteristics

  • learning is directed almost entirely by the child which is where unschoolers differ from other homeschoolers
  • instead of teaching being at the center, the child is at the center of learning
  • children should not be forced to learn something against their will
  • more access to the real-world
  • creating self-learners
  • to provide an environment with rich resources

Homeschool Styles Are Homeschool Approaches

John Holt was a twentieth-century American educator who believed that children’s natural curiosity and desire to learn were destroyed by traditional schooling. 

He is generally associated with the unschooling approach, which focuses on nonstructural learning that allows children to pursue their own interests and believes that children should be included in a meaning full way in the life of adults.

The approach has the child at the center of learning and subjects revolve around his interests.

The child is exposed to a rich environment of resources, including an adult who models a lifestyle of curiosity and learning.  Formal academics are pursued when the need arises or when the child indicates willingness.

A few curriculum providers

  • Because learning is child-led, homeschoolers will have many resources in their homes from living books to games. Also, every day learning experiences are used to teach every day. Many curriculum resources are unschooling friendly.

Look at some of these posts The Big List of Unit Study Hands-on (and Hands-off) Curriculum and Big Ol’ List of All-In-One Homeschool Curriculum (a.k.a Boxed) which will help you with curriculum.

I hope these tips give you a starting point.

Top 5 Approaches New Homeschoolers Need to Know

You’ll want to read these other tips.

Hugs and love ya,

After deschooling, a new homeschooler’s first step is to get a basic grasp of homeschool approaches. Having a basic grasp of the top 5 approaches new homeschoolers can conquer overwhelm and tame the curriculum beast. CLICK HERE to read this SUPER helpful list!
After deschooling, a new homeschooler’s first step is to get a basic grasp of homeschool approaches. Having a basic grasp of the top 5 approaches new homeschoolers can conquer overwhelm and tame the curriculum beast. CLICK HERE to read this SUPER helpful list!

3 Biggest Problems with Homeschooling an Auditory Learner (And how to solve them)

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3 Biggest Problems with Homeschooling an Auditory Learner (And how to solve them) @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

(Even when Tiny was little, he would have to set things to music to learn.)

Tiny was my first baby I had while homeschooling and I spent many days on the couch with morning sickness when I was pregnant with him. While resting on the couch, I used music to teach my older sons because they were preschoolers. I am convinced that hearing me read books to his brothers and playing music for them while he was in my womb made Tiny an auditory learner.

Homeschooling An Auditory Learner

It didn’t stop there. The Mr. loved carrying each son in his arms; he spent many days and nights with each son on his chest, humming to them directly in their ear. Like me, the Mr. loves all kinds of music, but you wouldn’t want either one of us to sing to you. But we have music at some time in our day.

Do you know to this day Tiny hums while he does his school and while he does other things?  I knew early on that I had a strong auditory learner and it’s not easy to school him when your other kids need quiet as they work.

On top of all that, I am a visual learner and need silence when I work. That wasn’t going to work as I taught Tiny.

Look at a few of the problems I’ve encountered and a tip or two to help you.

Problem One: They need to work with you one-to-one longer in a subject they struggle with. For us, it’s spelling.

The most important thing to remember is that your child advanced as fast as he did (or if he hasn’t) because your voice made all the difference. Your child’s strength is that he needs to listen to learn and if it’s been your voice, you need to be careful to not take that away so fast, like I did.

Don’t be quick to let him work independently on all things even if he is in middle or high school.

I learned this the hard way when I tried to let Tiny do his spelling independently too soon.

With auditory learners, pitch and pause modeled by you are everything whether it comes to spelling or reading.

Because I let Tiny do spelling independently at the same age I did my other two boys, he has struggled with it.

I have had to go back and work with him on it because he got use to the way I called out the spelling words when he was younger.

It made a difference in how he advanced in spelling. Unknowingly, my teaching method for spelling was spot on for his auditory need.

Here is one way I teach spelling to my sons. I call spelling words out by saying the name of the word first and give a definition of it. Pretty normal there.

But animated teacher that I am, then I hold my hand up in the air and bring it to the right side and say the first sound of the word, then I move my hand to the center and say the second sound and then to the left and say the last sound. Each sound is over exaggerated and very clear and distinct.

I taught all of my boys this way to show them how to break words down into sounds or their smallest part.

But this is exactly how an auditory learner learns and it lines up with his strength. When he hears me say the word broken down into sounds, his spelling is solid.

Problem Two: I call this a problem or a challenge at the very least, which is reading aloud.

The reason it’s a challenge is because if you have younger children, reading aloud with your auditory learner is not just about pleasure but they need your help to get the meaning from text.

Now, this is one thing I’ve done right.

I have never been a fan of reading aloud to my children only when they are little. The rewards change at they grow older because it’s now about discussing with boys the different view of the characters in the literature.

We still read aloud through to high school.

In addition, I haven’t realized until this year that I have been strengthening his reading ability further because he is an auditory learner. He is still learning from me as I read. I know this because as I change the pitch and power in my voice, he gets the point in the literature. This teaches him how he needs to read to himself.

My other two boys just got it when they read alone. The challenge here is that when you have younger kids and an older auditory learner they may not necessarily find delight in the same material.

I’ve learned that if you keep the younger kids interested, the auditory learner can learn from any book as long as he hears your voice.

In addition, audio books for the older learner fills that need they have because it can be exhausting to read each day with a lesson in mind. I try to focus on the enjoyment of reading aloud.

Problem Three: Along with being an auditory learner, there may be a need to wiggle, which can be a distraction.

This is also a challenge because it can make teaching them seem like a 3-ring circus, which I don’t have a problem with now, but may have been a problem in my earlier days of homeschooling.

For example, even in middle school, Tiny would throw a football while spelling a word out loud.

Also, Tiny turns grammar rules that he needs to memorize into musical jingles. If I’m not looking, he will add in a dance move.

He also has a need to recite things more to me than my other boys. He is constantly interrupting me with what he is learning or thinking.

Before I understood about his learning style, I thought he was just not putting effort into something. For example, he wouldn’t study his vocabulary very long or spelling before he brought the book to me to go over with them.

Instead of being lazy about it, it was quite the opposite. He was doing his school and applying his strength of learning out loud and with others.

He learns best by discussing things he learned with me and moving around. At first, it was very distracting for me, but having another son who learns by moving, I recognized the behavior.

When he exhausts me, he is more than willing to go into another room, shut the door and read out loud.

I’m still discovering new ways for Tiny to learn while listening, but to also teach him how to absorb information when others are not around to listen to.

Do you have an auditory learner? Have you recognized the signs? And what do you do?

Also, look at these articles: Homeschooling: Learning Styles – What’s the Difference anyway, Day 16: Practical Tips for Learning Styles and Day 15: Discovering Learning Styles.

Hugs and love ya,

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Homeschooling a Left-Brain Child a/k/a Socially Awkward and a Bit Nerdy

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Homeschooling a left-brain child has been a joy, but a bit of an adventure.

For example, right when the minister said we are assembled together in this funeral home for this sad moment of the passing of our dear sister, my left-brain child burst out in laughter.

Then, right before Kindermusik classes started, he asked the homeschool mom sitting beside me if she ever changed her baby’s diaper because he sure stinks.

Besides being moments where I wish I could crawl under the seat, I realized early on that I was homeschooling a child with a quirky personality.

Back when I started homeschooling, I didn’t fully appreciate the power of being informed about learning styles or personalities.

Homeschooling a Left-Brain Child a/k/a Socially Awkward and a Bit Nerdy

What I didn’t know immediately was that I was homeschooling a left brain child.

What I did know was that he had some of these traits:

  1. He was perfectly content to be alone and was truly happy;
  2. He preferred to read an encyclopedia for knowledge instead of a fiction book;
  3. He read early and was advanced for his age and it was hard to tell others how advanced he was;
  4. He had a hard time expressing his feelings in a gracious manner and he felt that unless he spoke his mind in a direct way that he was not being sincere;

And he had these 5 traits as well.

  1. He thrived with details and did not like being rushed;
  2. Routine was a comfort to him and he needed to be “warned” if I changed our routine suddenly;
  3. He didn’t like loud noises or a lot of people talking at the same time;
  4. He preferred his school area neat, cleaned up his room without me asking him and his written assignments were even neater;
  5. He was seen by others as being aloof or “different”, which really meant a bit weird.

Knowing that my son preferred adult interaction or older children over friends his own age, I knew that I would have to educate myself to help him to be well-rounded .

One thing I am glad that I did not succumb to even at the coaxing of my family was thinking that something was wrong with him.

Having family members who are more laid back about deadlines, prefer to be outside or lap up music, art and craft activities, they just knew his behavior was not normal.  Well at least to them anyway.

It was not easy, but I had to find a common ground to not change the way my son came wired. But i wanted to help him see that certain behaviors are seen as rude and uncaring.

Homeschooled Child’s Learning Personality

Do you know your child’s learning personality? Let me help you through my self-paced online course at my sister site How To Homeschool EZ. Here is what you’ll learn.

  • How to understand the way your child prefers to learn so that you can teach him in a way that he enjoys learning;
  • How to pinpoint your child’s learning personality;
  • A starting point in understanding (barring any special learning challenges or disabilities) and accepting your child’s preferred way of taking in information;
  • Understanding when the learning personality emerges; and
  • Teaching tips for each learning personality to stop the head-butting.

Socially Awkward to Socially Acceptable?

I was not only concerned about helping him to over come social difficulty but to challenge him because he had an amazing memory and vocabulary.

Look at some of these things I did to help him socially and at curriculum I used:

1. I switched to a mastery based math to align with his strengths.

First, I switched from a slower pace math program, which is good for a lot of kids, to the mastery program of Singapore Math Practice, Level 1A, Grade 2. 

This fed his love of math early and as he got older I added in a spiral math program to help with review because I just wanted to be sure I covered all learning bases. 

However, as he grew older, it was evident that Math stayed as his favorite subject and a subject he stayed advanced in. He stayed with a master program through to high school.

2. In addition, I gave up an all-in-one program.

Moreover, I gave up boxed curriculum because my son needed to move to higher level chapter books.  But not just any chapter books. I had to feed his desire to expand on his knowledge and research skills and still read living books.

I came across a series call the Whole Story with books like The Hound of the Baskervilles (Whole Story) which were literally a life saver at the time. 

Each book has generous pictures, notations, diagrams and extra information throughout the side margin.  He could both read and research within the book and it kept him off the computer when I couldn’t supervise him.

3. Keep the social circle limited to a few persons.

Next, when he was younger, I limited the number of kids he played with. 

This allowed me to intervene when he felt that a kid was being “childish” (he was). 

I was able to use a fight as a teaching moment to teach my son how to be a friend and to give in to his friend even if my son was wrong. 

Being wronged builds character and more important, I wanted my son to learn to be peaceful and to relate to the feelings of his friends. 

For the sake of precious friendship, it is okay to not have to prove your point all the time.

4. Hone in on weak subjects to reduce a perfectionist mindset.

As he got older, I realized he needed help with creativity and particularly with writing

Unlike a child that loves creative writing, he did not. No, it wasn’t because he struggled with penmanship. Quite the opposite, he could write pages and pages.

The problem was he wanted specifically what I wanted from him in terms of content and form. 

I followed what Susan Wise Bauer said about giving kids concrete examples of what to write about and models to follow. I found Classical Writing Aesop and other similar type of beautiful copywork.

And again had great success with it because it used a model for my son to follow as he learned to write.

5. In addition, give your child an outlet for strokes of creativity.

Not only was I interested in his academic development, but I wanted to foster a love for his imagination through art.

He took art lessons, but I chose a teacher that would not only give him art, but would add crafts to his day.

Determined to help foster the creative side of his mind and to deepen his love for people, I organized a homeschool co-op.

I was not going to just invite friends over to our house but I was going to be sure he had interaction on a regular basis.

These are just a few things that I could change right away.

How did my left-brain son turn out?

Not only does he love people and they love him, but I feel he has matured with a deep fellow feeling for people and a love for learning that he is feeding on until adulthood.

Focus on having your left-brain child accept himself and to be the kind of person that you want him to be and not whether other people will socially accept him.  Then, your parenting will be well worth all the effort.

Other Posts About Socialization and Tips

Homeschooling a Left-Brain Child a/k/a Socially Awkward and a Bit Nerdy

Homeschooling a Left Brain Child - aka Socially Awkward and a Bit Nerdy @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

5 Signs That You Need to Switch Your Homeschool Approach

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Sharing 5 signs that you need to switch your homeschool approach, maybe I will spare you my same stubbornness struggle.

5 Signs to Switch Your Homeschool Approach

Switching from a strictly classical approach to a more unit study approach with an eclectic twist was not easy for me. However, there were tell-tale signs.

Unless you have a public school teacher background (I did not) when you first started homeschooling, you probably were unaware of a homeschool approach. I wasn’t even able to define the term.

First, being able to define a homeschool approach helps to sort through what will work for your family and what will not.

5 Signs That You Need to Switch Your Homeschool Approach
A simple definition for homeschool approach would be the techniques, style, manner, and beliefs as to how you will educate your child.

1.You now understand that you may have chosen your current homeschool approach by default not choice.

Being able to understand and articulate that simple, but powerful definition of a homeschool approach was my first prompt in realizing now that I had homeschooled a few years, I needed to research more carefully the best way to teach my children.

When I started homeschooling I almost felt like I chose a homeschool approach by what I call default.  Classical approach was the homeschool approach my brain was drawn to; it made sense to me.  By default because I was the teacher, I chose that homeschool approach for my children.

2. Regardless of your teaching preference, your children learn better with another style.

My second sign was that although the classical approach worked most of the time for my oldest son, my middle son learned best by more hands-on activities.  I truly was not going to leave any child behind.

3. When you’re losing your homeschool joy because you want something to be successful.

The next sign was one that was real important to me and that was that all of us, including myself, were losing the joy of learning.

Although the definition of homeschool approach in its simplest form means your individual style of teaching, it has to be something you enjoy doing each day too.

Losing a bit of my joy in teaching, I knew the classical approach wasn’t exactly a perfect fit for my teaching style.

Constant moans when we got ready to homeschool played a part too.

You know they weren’t the normal I-am-not-in-a-mood-today-for-school moans, but major moans. The I hate to read now were words spoken in my house. 

My heart was heavy because my push and my drive for a heavy language arts focus was stealing our joy.

Although I can’t all together blame the classical approach because I could have added balance, it certainly started feeling like a noose around my neck.

I could easily move past not having such a great day teaching, but young children don’t have the same ability to reason that sometimes things are temporary.

4. Your day is getting longer and longer because you’ve been focused on following the curriculum instead of the lead of your children.

Another negative sign was that I started making our days go longer and longer, which is beyond anything that I preach tout for teaching kids in the younger years

5. Knowing that when we added in something else other than what our curriculum called for, my kids were more engaged. In our case, it was hand-on activities.

Also, we were finding delight when we took time out of our reading and writing.

For instance, we added a volcano activity, outside geography hunt in the yard or made a themed history meal. They were indicators that we needed more hands-on activities.

Careful Stubborn teacher that I was, it still took me another two years before I changed.

Also, I knew that I had to adopt a homeschool approach that fit my whole family and not just suited me as the teacher.

The good thing about homeschool definitions that you adopt is that they can be expanded.

Now, my expanded definition of homeschool approach would be this:

A homeschool approach would be the techniques, style, manner, and beliefs as to how you will educate your child AND it is the way a teacher nurtures a love of learning recognizing and accepting how a child learns best.

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5 Signs That You Need to Switch Your Homeschool Approach

Do you have any of these symptoms signs?

5 Signs That You Need To Switch Your Homeschool Approach @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus.

Hugs and love ya,