Do you have a subject that isn’t your favorite which makes it difficult for you to teach? Well, you are not alone. I am not a master of every subject that I teach my daughters. Honestly, I have a hard time with history. It’s not that I am incapable or that I despise the subject, it’s simply not my favorite subject therefore it makes it a bit difficult for me to teach. Although I have this struggle my daughters still learn history, and I am the one who teaches it to them. It wouldn’t be fair to them to miss out on learning simply because the topic is not my thing. I just recently accepted the fact that I have my weaknesses. This was hard for me to admit initially; I had placed too much “homeschool mom” pressure on myself. Luckily for my girls, I am owning it and now I have come up with a few solutions for teaching subjects that are not my strengths.
How to Teach Your Weakest Subject
Invest in curriculum. This may be the most freeing and simplest solution. Last year was the first year we used a history curriculum. Before then we read lots of historical fiction and nonfiction books. This worked well for the early years, but when they decided they would like to know more about specific topics in history I knew that I would have to incorporate a curriculum because it would be overwhelming for me to create a well-rounded unit for them. Using a prepackaged curriculum reduces this overwhelming feeling, and it still allows for me to add additional resources that I find fitting for my daughters.
Make it the first subject of the day. I am sure of you have heard of “eating the frog first”. If you really don’t enjoy or are not comfortable teaching a particular subject, then you probably will push it off until it isn’t done. I have found that teaching my weakest subject earlier in the day allows me to be a more consistent teacher for my daughters. I don’t want my weakness to become theirs therefore I approach it first thing after we have our morning gathering opening. The girls are engaged and so am I. When we are all engaged then we actually learn and aren’t begrudgingly working through simply to get it done.
Incorporate your own style. Yes, we use a curriculum to learn subjects that I don’t feel as confident teaching, but that doesn’t mean that my teaching style goes out the window because I am using a curriculum. It actually is the opposite. The curriculum helps me to feel confident in the subject material. It helps me to make sure that I am not missing something. Since history is my weakness, I don’t have a timeline sketched in my mind to ensure that we hit each topic nor do I know every event that has happen in the world. If I teach based only on my knowledge, my girls will be missing a lot of information. Now that the curriculum helps me to ensure that I am not missing something important, I can take that information and incorporate other resources. This allows me to put the textbook aside if I find a better way of teaching it to fit my learners.
Think about your weakest subject. Are you teaching it to your children or have you allowed it to fall away from your daily plans? If you aren’t enlisting help from an outside teacher, I challenge you to take a moment to figure out a curriculum or resource you can use to guide you in teaching your children this topic. Challenge yourself to fit it into your plans before this school year ends if it is something they could be learning this year. If it can wait, start making a plan for including it in your plans for next school year. Don’t forget curriculum and resources are here to help you and not mute you, so don’t forget to incorporate your natural teaching style.
