March 17, 2020 / Amanda Johnson

I home educated my five daughters for 15 years. It wasn’t always easy, but it was the most fun and fulfilling work I have ever done! During this time of crisis and upheaval, with circumstances changing almost daily, I would like to offer some suggestions and encouragements for parents who have been thrown into this phenomenon and responsibility of teaching children at home.

HAVE REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

Home educating took a lot of thought and planning before I ever attempted to crack open a book. You have not had this opportunity. Perhaps you feel overwhelmed. Take heart! You can do this

Don’t try to duplicate the traditional classroom setting. One of the advantages of home education is that you have a one-to-one tutorial relationship with your child(ren) vs. the restriction of the traditional classroom spiral where you have to repeat material with the intent of capturing everyone in your classroom. Your children are experiencing linear learning. That means once they master a concept you can move on to the next level of learning at their pace. Because of this reality, you will find that your children are able to accomplish tasks in a fraction of the time. This leads me to…

YOUR SCHEDULE

Your day may not be traditional either. I always started the day with a family breakfast meeting. During this time I attempted to set the tone for the day, allowing the children to chime in with their personal goals and objectives and any concerns they had for the day’s coming attractions. We called our meeting time Wisdom Search because one feature included reading from the book of Proverbs in the Bible. Proverbs talks about how to live and work successfully with people. There were mornings where the children acted bored, sleepy… I had a few that told jokes… Yet, it became obvious to me that the time was well-spent, and I frequently overheard them apply the things we discussed during our morning meeting.

Your day may start earlier than what you are accustomed to, or you may want to start with your children later in the morning. Perhaps you want to utilize Saturday for learning and do school on a reduced schedule during the weekdays. This may be helpful if you are working from home as well. Having a specific schedule is important but feel the freedom to make it uniquely your own to accommodate this unique opportunity and responsibility. There can be flexibility once you establish some consistency but flexing without organization can quickly become chaos. Been there. Done that. Got the T-shirt!

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF BEING AT HOME!

Take advantage of the home-based setting. When my children and I were learning about the amount of water in the human body, for example, we took empty milk gallon containers and poured 10 gallons of water into the bathtub.

There are numerous learning activities in daily tasks. Cooking offers numerous opportunities for math lessons. Counting for younger children and fractions for older ones. Doing laundry with little ones presents the chance to learn/review colors and sorting.

This situation, as uncomfortable as it is for many of us, presents a unique opportunity for us to model character for our children in an unprecedented way. Patience, endurance, flexibility, diligence, temperance, self-control, consideration for the larger community and kindness are just a few of the qualities that we can discuss and model with our children. I am convinced that I was blessed with children to imbue these qualities in me. Being a conscientious parent has been more about me being authentic and learning the things I’ve wanted to teach vs. making harsh, unyielding demands of the children.

Spending so much concentrated time with my children taught me the value of quickly admitting when I was wrong, and healing offenses quickly. This type of humility conveys sensitivity to the needs and feelings of the children. A sense of humor is very helpful too.

Finally, I always had the goal of giving 10 affirmations for every 1 correction. I never accomplished that, but I realize there is power in visualizing success and a special future for my children. Children tend to live up to our expectations.

I hope that these tips are helpful and that you will find pleasure and fulfillment in this opportunity to work with your children. May God strengthen the work of your hands!