No two homeschooling situations look the same. Maybe this is hard to understand because public school classrooms tend to be very cookie-cutter. If you walk into one elementary school you’ve walked into them all. Maybe you’ll find that one eccentric teacher that breaks the mold with couches in her classroom or the desks set up in a unique position but for the most part you will see the same type of set up wherever you go.
Enter a homeschooling home and this is not the case. At least it shouldn’t be. Each family defines “school” differently. Some might have a separate schoolroom with desks and the whole nine-yards. Others might have dozens of bookshelves in their living room where most of the schooling takes place. Some families are organized. Others not so much. But it doesn’t seem to matter. The kids are learning and that is what does matter.
Sometimes I walk into a homeschooling home and I have to fight off the green-eyed monster. Beautifully-crafted wooden bookcases from wall to wall for displaying all of their homeschooling materials. A gorgeous printer that seemingly never runs out of ink and prints the pages perfectly without fading or jamming. A neatly organized space with a place for everything and everything in its place. I then have to remember that people might get that same feeling when they walk into my home. I don’t feel like I have anything great but then again, neither do these friends of mine. Jealousy can tear friendships apart. Choose not to be jealous when you see what other homeschoolers have but choose to be thankful for what you do have!
You are home with your kids. You are spending time with them, training them, and teaching them how to love the Lord and each other. This is what is important and this is not what they would be taught in the traditional classroom setting. Every child has a different personality. One might be motivated to get up early and get all of their school done right away so they can go and play all afternoon. Others may procrastinate knowing that as long as their school work is done before dinner then they are good. Others may be a bit more manipulative and try to get away with doing as little as possible in the schoolwork department. I have all three types in my home. Which means I need to deal with each one accordingly. The first one might get all of his schoolwork done early, but did he do it well? And if so, how is he spending his free time? If he is simply goofing around or bothering the others then I need to teach and train him how to spend his free time wisely. These are things that our children need to be taught more than what is on those worksheets.
The procrastinator needs goals set for them. They need prodded and reminded to get things done. If not, there might be some late nights ahead for them. With this child I need to teach time management skills, although that is something I need to work on myself as well!
The manipulative child is the hardest to train because it is hard to point out to them exactly what they are doing wrong. With this child, I need to be fair but stern. I need to watch myself and not let things slide and not let them walk all over me. They need to be taught that “yes” is “yes” and “no” is “no” and I need to be the one that is consistently teaching that to them.
We can’t compare how we do school or what our space looks like with others because homeschooling simply means we are not using a public or private institution to teach our kids, we are doing it ourselves. What we choose to teach them and how is entirely up to us, as it should be, so why try to be like someone else when you have the freedom to be you?
