Your home is not a school: though it would appear that is what you’re after since, ya know, it’s implied in the word, homeschool?
The most important aspect of homeschooling is the relationship between the parent and the child. A sure sign that your home is not a school.
Our goal is to listen to our kids so that we can learn what they need. Our goal is not only to teach our high ideals. Though the high ideals are commendable, they are only so useful if the relationship is not connected.
If you need to do this, you need to deschool your homeschool…
Deschool your homeschool to that you can look into our kids’ eyes and actually see them in real-time as they’re sitting right in front of us.
This is difficult. I have never done this seamlessly. I have never done this without skipping a few beats.
In fact, it took me a long time to understand this was even valuable.
- The process is messy.
- The process is challenging.
- The process requires us to look into the mirror and observe ourselves.
The process is for parents with their kids, not for teachers with their students.
Because of this parental relationship, the home is not a school.
As parent learning facilitators, we look for learning opportunities to facilitate. But we aren’t bringing a school institution, or the appearance of it, into our homes.
Bring all the elements of a school into our homes and discover a push-pull challenge.
Then we discover our own version of self-torture too, as we encounter child-parent power struggles.
There is an art and science to an education.
- Instead, think of games for different school subjects.
- Instead, think about following each child’s interests.
- Instead, think about sharing your interests with your children.
Instead, get curious about the learning opportunities that your home enables.
- What learning opportunities are in your kitchen? (Chemistry reactions through baking sourdough, fractions through measuring…)
- What learning opportunities are in your backyard? (Building a tire swing? building a raised bed? growing a garden? backyard birding?)
- What learning opportunities are in your craft basket? (Recreating impressionist renditions?)
- What learning opportunities are in your garage? (Electricity units? Does simple machine build count? Painting a room and learning about volume?)
You get to decide what an education is anyways.
Deschool your Homeschool Journaling Workbook
Deschool your homeschool journaling workbook that aids in your self-exploration, to get clear on how you can bring freedom & individualization into your homeschool.
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Teresa Wiedrick
I help overwhelmed homeschool mamas shed what’s not working in their homeschool & life, so they can show up authentically, purposefully, and confidently in their homeschool & life.
Love this post and totally agree with your ‘looking them in the eye’ comment. I don’t feel like I connected with my kids properly before home ed. I was always making sandwiches and trying to get them someplace.