Baby Steps Work in Homeschooling, Too
As a Natural Health Professional, when I work with someone who has several serious health issues, they often want to make a lot of changes all at once. Anything so they can feel better asap.
I warn against doing this. I recommend taking baby steps. Make one change. Then two weeks later, add another change. And so on.
When one begins homeschooling, sometimes the parent wants to do the same thing. They have all these dreams for their child/ren that they want to implement everything at once.
Baby steps work wonderfully in homeschooling also.
In a previous post, I talked about deschooling for the new homeschooling family. This can work even if a family has been trotting the homeschooling road for a while.
Perhaps what they are doing isn’t working the greatest for their child with challenges. Maybe life is a bit hectic because of family changes.
Maybe a sudden illness has occurred and the plans for the year have been destroyed.
Maybe Joey/Susie has hit puberty, and all the other challenges now seem like play. (I remember that year.)
Whatever the reason, maybe the homeschool needs a reset.
And that is ok.
Here are some things I did when life happened.
- Used Boy Scout merit badges, 4-H projects, and youth group honors as the foundation of our schooling.
- Chose some topics of interest for the child and allowed him to watch documentaries. Then complete some type of project demonstrating what he learned. (Project-based learning is a wonderful way to personalize education.)
- Go to the library and check out books on a wide variety of topics of interest and have a reading fest. Then we discussed each book. What did we learn? What did we like? Dislike? How can we apply it to our lives now?
- Allow limited use of educational programs. (I would not depend on computerized games. Research shows that little retention happens through digital learning.)
- Allow the child to have unstructured time to do projects. My youngest taught himself how to create videos. He would use his Legos to act out scenes. He learned how to use background music, etc.
- Remember that life can be educational.
- Cooking meals.
- Learning how to bake.
- Making a shopping list and doing the buying, staying within budget.
- Planning a trip. (Stops, costs, creating packing lists, etc.)
- Remember, this too will pass. Love them. Talk with them. Help them learn how to process the events happening. Most of all, demonstrate your faith that God will bring good out of it all.
What are some ways you managed a reset when life happened?