Tips for Homeschooling and Motherhood

These tips are things I’ve learned from four years of homeschooling—the advice I would give to anyone who is just starting to homeschool or who would like to learn more. My son is currently in third grade and my daughter is in kindergarten. I’ve never actually bought a full-fledged curriculum. Instead, I’ve just used what I had and what I could. If you have internet access, there are lots of free resources for homeschoolers, which I will tell you about in this blog.

Here’s my advice to you…

·    Ambleside Online (www.amblesideonline.com) and Librivox (www.librivox.org) are great FREE resources. Ambleside provides a curriculum outline that can be used for the entire schooling process (Kindergarten through High School). In addition, they use primarily books in the public domain, which means you can read most of the schoolbooks for free on your computer. Ambleside uses the Charlotte Mason Philosophy of teaching, which involves a lot of learning from real books and reading, and narrating or writing the summary.

Librivox is an online audio library of hundreds of books. For some of the books I am teaching this year, I found the audio books on Librivox, and downloaded them to CD. If you use Librivox CD’s one or two hours a day during downtime, you will find you fly through books.

·    Set your goals at the beginning of the year based on what is important to you. Each year I sit down and think about what I really want my children to learn. I want to cover all the core curriculums taught in school, but I also want my children to learn things beyond the basics.
Some of the things on the list this year include 10 Spanish core words a week, my oldest to read through the Bible, diagram 150 parts of the human body and explain what they do (lungs, veins, heart, etc.), and a few other things like that.

·    Trust that the important things will get done—basically if your children just learn only what you know (if you graduated from public school) then they will have only learned as much at school. I don’t stress out too much over homeschooling.

The best way to insure your children wont miss out is to teach them the basics (how to read well and understand what they read, math, science, etc.) and then teach them how to teach themselves. Although I was mostly public schooled, with a couple years of private school, my parents did an excellent job of teaching me how to teach myself. My dad would do science projects with me on the weekends that he would make up and things like that.

Now, to this day, I am an avid learner. I read non-fiction books with a passion. If I can just teach my kids how to teach themselves, and love doing it, they will always have the tools to learn anything and everything they need to learn.

·    Find resources that cut out busy work. This is probably more just my strong personal preference, but I’m not a fan of busywork. I like things that get to the point and teach the material quickly and well. For that reason, I love Hooked on Phonics.

I started to teach reading with a book of 100 lessons. Some of my friends have used this book with all their kids and loved it. The book wasn't working as well for us, so I needed to find another option to teach reading. I next tried Hooked on Phonics and loved it. Costco was selling the entire Kindergarten through Second Grade set for $99, and I sometimes still see a similar deal when I go to Sam’s Club. When the second grade level was complete, we got the Hooked on Phonics Master Reader program, which Austin was able to complete quickly, mostly on his own.

The Hooked on Math program made by the same company as Hooked on Phonics quickly teaches kids the basics of math: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. This can supplement another math curriculum, and make math seem easy to your child, which helps create a love of math.

·    Set a basic daily school routine. Establishing a daily schedule of events keeps your house running even if you get an important phone call or other interruption. Your kids can start on penmanship, reading, or any other scheduled activity or assignments and not sit waiting for you. If they know what to do, they can keep doing it even when you can’t be there to help.

·    Teach your children during non-school times. Use every opportunity you have to teach. When your children are curious about something, use those opportunities to teach them all you can while they want to learn.

Also, you don’t have to homeschool on a strict 8-3 schedule. This really has more to do with personality than anything. Some moms flourish under a strict schedule. I admire those moms so much!

But in my own life, I’ve found that I do better when I teach more stressful subjects (such as beginning reading and blending sounds) when I am more relaxed, like at night. In the morning I want to get as much done as I can, while I have the energy to do it. But by nighttime I am drained. I can be the most patient person in the world when I’m tired--like sitting on the couch and explaining a concept repeatedly--since I know I wouldn’t be getting much else done anyway.

·    Have fun learning with your kids. I barely knew history when I started homeschooling, and though I’ve increased my knowledge, I still would love to know more. My favorite things to teach are the things I love to learn about. Those fun times of learning are also valuable times when you get to connect with your kids and build deeper relationships.

My very favorite thing to do with my kids is have a prayer meeting with just us. We will take turns sharing our prayer requests and then take turns praying for those requests. These times together give me the best glimpses into what is going on in my children’s minds and hearts.

·    Remember the point of homeschooling. This primary reason can be different for each person. When I first started homeschooling Austin in Kindergarten four years ago, I asked other homeschooling moms, “Why do you homeschool?” I wasn’t sure yet why I was really doing this. I knew I wanted to, I just didn’t know why I wanted to. After much thought and some reading, I’ve determined that the number one reason why I homeschool is to train character.

I am going to conclude this post with a long excerpt from my (currently unavailable due to revision) book, “In Pursuit of Praiseworthy Motherhood,” explaining why I homeschool…

“Studies have been done on children and adolescents, and they say that overall, by the time children are teenagers, peer influence is stronger than parental influence. That is why it is so important now to CONNECT with your child, ENCOURAGE your child, and SAFEGUARD your child from negative peer influence. I’m not for total isolation of kids or anything like that. But I do think it is wise to protect your children from kids who will negatively influence them.

And I have talked with a lot of moms who have said similar things. One lady told me that her 7 seven year old daughter has severe ADHD. But during Christmas break, she seemed to do much better. My the end of Christmas break she was much more respectful and polite toward her mom. But when she came home after just the first day of school, she started back-talking to her mom again. Just one day of peer influence changed her that drastically.

This is what the Bible also says. Proverbs 13:20 says “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.” (ESV) In the KJV this says, “a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” The New Living Translation says, “whoever walks with fools will suffer harm.” This seven year old daughter had suffered harm by her exposure to other kids who were unwise. She had picked up the disrespect of those kids who were disrespectful around her.

Understanding this verse has changed my approach to parenting! This is another one of those things I talked about at the beginning [of the book] that has really changed my life.

The Bible also says there are a group of people who are more likely to be foolish. Proverbs 22:15 says “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.” So children have foolishness bound up in their hearts. Undisciplined kids are going to be foolish. And if you are not carefully safeguarding your kids, undisciplined kids can potentially become the foolish companions of your children.

We need to protect our children from harmful influences, which includes unsafe situations, untrustworthy people, even kids their own age sometimes when they are bad influences.

Even though I wanted to be naughty as a teenager, practically every bad thing I did as a teenager could have been prevented if I had no one to do those bad things with. It’s something to remember as your children grow older.”

In addition to keeping my kids from the possibility of having their character corrupted, I want to diligently train godly, upright character. That is my number one reason for homeschooling—to fulfill Malachi 2:15 and raise godly children.

My Friend Nicole Shares Her Best Tip

My good friend Nicole has shared her best homeschooling tip on this blog for us. She has 12 years of homeschooling experience and is the mother of 5 children, ages 17 to 4 months. She lives with her husband Mike and their 5 children near Fort Worth, Texas. You can find her at www.sotraintheyoungwomen.blogspot.com.

The Ultimate Homeschooling Tip
by Nicole Volmer

Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is inspired  by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.

   Discipline and Discipleship- First and foremost, be diligent to teach your little ones the Word of God. As they learn to submit to God’s Word and the authority He has lovingly and providentially placed over them, they will gain a heart of wisdom and understanding. It will be very difficult, to say the least, if our children cannot obey us, to educate them as God has called us. We must make first time obedience our highest educational priority. Our greatest goal should not be high test scores, prestigious colleges, degrees, or even to merely complete the curriculum. For what will it profit these little ones if they gain worldly wisdom and have not the wisdom God will impart to their very souls by the implanted Word? Instead, our greatest joy should be that our children walk in truth. If they know and love the Lord Jesus Christ with all their heart then He himself will be their sufficiency. By all means we are to educate our children so they may be productive adults who can do all that the Lord has called them to do. Sow the scriptures in their life and reap a harvest of a Christ-centered home and education. This of course cannot be accomplished apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in our life and in the hearts of our children. But let us make this our aim, to be well pleasing to the Lord, as we discipline, and disciple our children. For to this, we have all been called, homeschoolers or not!