None…

None…

Children are by nature curious. If he is not curious about what he might learn that day in home school then the method of teaching she is using is not working for that young man. In fact it appears to be having the opposite effect of de-motivating him to learn.

I remember when my first child was born. All of these well meaning people would come along and never fail to point out to me how I could be the perfect mother if I followed their advice. They about sent me insane trying to keep up with their idealistic views of how I should be doing things from the perfect diaper change to the perfect way to interact with my own child. they almost ruined my relationship with my own child and I daresay just about every new mother can relate.

I think new home schooling parents feel much the same. They feel a need to be perfect at teaching, finding the right curriculum, keeping their child on track with their perceived ideas of what other children of the same age are doing. Like somehow home school educators are held to a higher standard. So they run out and buy the perfect curriculum and make the mistake of bringing their former public school teaching ideas to the educational table such as grading and testing. An anxiety builds up, then comes the frustration.

I think number 18 but top of your list should be, ignore the advice of others and listen to your child. Let him show you how he learns quicker. Throw the darn curriculum out of the window. It’s when we listen that we learn what they need. Don’t set him a task, merely introduce him to an idea and let him explore it his way.

I home school my child and I can honestly say I have never once felt the need to get away from him, take a break or go to Applebees or anywhere else for some down time from him. Our learning environment is so pleasant it hardly seems like learning to either he or I. He awakes each morning eager to see what idea I might introduce him to next and off he goes to explore it running back to me excited to share with me what he has learned so far and from there I fill in the blanks for him.

I think its the idea of structured learning and the feeling of needing to be supermom that is ruining your friends experience. Rather than give up, she needs to feel more secure in herself and rethink the entire idea of structured lesson plans which are obviously causing her little one to rebel against the idea of education. We can all make them do it merely by putting our foot down which is the idea behind authoritarian teachers and principals in mainstream education but thats only ever going to get you as far as the next lesson. The real trick is making them want to do it and that really is easy once you know how:)

Oh yes as for household chores….no one is going to care in 10 years time if the laundry or dishes were done on time. They are however going to care about the quality of time you put into raising your children when your child enters adulthood and is foistered into their world. Start thinking disposable lunch plates and cups. Put the laundry in the machine on your way out the door to the library. Find alternative ways of cooking i.e don’t stand there cooking a steak on the stove when it could just as easily have been braised slowly during the day in the oven with no human assistance. Throw the veggies in with it too. When you streamline and save time, you save stress. Applebees’ is overpriced frozen, preheated junk anyway. Why feel guilty when you can feel splendid:)

Responding to a troll comment is what is known as “feeding the troll”. It is advised to not feed the troll, lest you attract more (they are attracted to responses, you see). Kindly ignore the troll and they will eventually go away due to lack of attention.

Repeat: Please do not feed the troll.

Thank you.

On the flip side - my 5 year old hasn’t had a nap in 2 years (oh, believe me, I’d love it if he did!) and he starts school next week, and they tell me he will be having nap time. Good luck!