Do you remember your first years in school? How excited you were when you grabbed your cartoon lunchbox for the first time and headed off to school? For some of us, it was the beginning of an adventure; for others, the beginning of a nightmare.
If you did not fit the mold of the perfect student, you knew it very quickly. A well-meaning teacher set up fun bulletin boards where students could put their name when they met specific goals. I remember one of my bulletin boards - a bare tree. When a student achieved 100% on a spelling test, he or she put her name on a leaf and posted it on the tree. Can you imagine how those students felt week after week when they could not add their leaf to the tree?
Others were told that their creative way of writing an assignment, drawing a picture or coloring outside the lines was wrong. There were set ways to do things and we needed to learn them.
School hasn’t changed much since then. Students still struggle to meet expectations and some fail day in and day out.
Is this the environment that we want for our children?
Absolutely not! When we choose to homeschool, we want our kids to grow up to be confident in themselves, to have strong character, and to know that they are valued. For a student who is unable to learn through lecture and sitting still, a classroom is simply a place where they will fail. Consider how long would you last in a job where you knew that every day would be a struggle and that you would more than likely fail to meet expectations?
Our kids should not have to face that kind of struggle every day.
The beauty of homeschooling is that you can cater your instruction to the needs of your child. How do they learn? What subjects intrigue them? What are their strengths? What skills need more repetition and review? These are the questions that you must ask yourself as you work to find the right homeschooling program for your children.
If you are considering homeschooling for the first time, expect the road ahead to have some bumps, but let me assure you, it will be a wide-open road filled with many exciting adventures.
As you consider the right curriculum for your child, be sure to ask questions before you buy. If you are looking for a hands-on approach to science, don’t hesitate to ask your provider how many experiments are included in the course and how do the illustrations help the process.
If your child needs a lot of repetition and review to solidify concepts, look for ACE, Horizons, or Saxon Math. If he needs something more visual, consider Math U See or Miquon (uses manipulatives) or ACE Math (uses pictures). If you have a student who is very analytical, consider Singapore Math.
As homeschoolers, we have the freedom to fit the curriculum to the needs and learning style of our children. This is what gives our students the advantage over their public school counterparts. Be sure to take advantage of that freedom!
