How to Not Struggle with Homeschooling

Oh man. I took a few days off from writing. Although, I still did do some journaling, I did not have a chance to sit down at the computer to write. We went on a wonderful camping trip up by Kern River. That was exactly what I needed. It wasn’t easy, I don’t particularly like being sweaty, and dirty or even sleeping any where besides my bed, oh and I like having a toilet close by me. Yet, camping is a freedom to just relax and enjoy the beauty that is around me. 

I was planning on writing about homeschooling, since I have had a bunch of messages with questions on the how’s of homeschooling. During this time of quarantine a lot of people are looking at homeschooling as the only option. In my opinion this can either be a blessing or a curse. You can enjoy this time with your children or you can make this time super hard. Now, I am not sitting on my high horse of enjoyment. I struggle with enjoying the time with my children at least once a day. The thing is, homeschooling is hard, a real labor of love. 

I am going to take some time to tell you what I am normally doing when I struggle with my children. The first area is comparing. If I am comparing my child to other peoples children, or what grade they are supposed to be in or how the other child of mine learned something and its not working for the next child, I mean any kind of comparing, I will be in trouble it will be painful and my children reject me and my need to change things because they aren’t cutting it. If you find yourself stressing over how your child is not matching up to the other kids or grade level, STOP, I promise this should not be something you stress about. Your child can totally sense this and it is NOT good for them and it will not help them do well by you comparing them to their sibling or the neighbor or what you see on TV or Social. 

If I am not completely looking at the child in front of me, we will both struggle. EVERYONE is different, and that is the beauty of homeschooling, you can custom things for that child, and yourself. The possibilities are endless. Homeschooling to be successful will not look like school. I will repeat this because I really think this is important to understand. Successful homeschooling does not look like school, heck sometimes it doesn’t even look like learning is happening, it could be fun and messy. I know this is a huge and foreign concept for most but the fact of the matter is education and schooling are two different things. Schooling is gaining skills in test taking, getting facts, and doing busy work, like school work pages. 

Parents typically want to see their children hitting the check boxes, they need to be  sitting at a desk, and keeping in pace and making sure no lesson is left behind. When I first started homeschooling people asked me if I was worried that they would have gaps in their education, and yes, I was completely terrified. Heck, I dropped out of high school, and when I went to high school I barely paid attention or even made it into class. How was I going to be a good teacher to my children? Now, I just want to say before I am completely derailed in this topic is that I love check boxing. I love lists and routines and all my children have expectations that have been listed out in a notebook, or printed out, we have done it all. This works for me and my sanity, but I can absolutely toss that all out the window when it is not working and try something else. I am always piloting, and adjusting and that is just the fact of life. We all have different situations, kids get older, you have another baby, you move, etc. You can always guarantee and expect that things will change, and your children’s educational needs will change and so will yours if you make it part of your job to learn and grow right along with your children. 

I am sure you have heard this before but I am gonna say it again because it is so important. Model for your children. How do you want them to behave? What habits do you want them to have? Do those things, and do them so your children see you doing it! They do what you do way more than they do what you say. So, live the life you want your children emulate. I will tell you a little story to illustrate this. When my oldest was little the Harry Potter books were just gaining popularity. Every weekend, I would babysit another little boy his age and I would read Harry Potter, while keeping an eye on them, well sort of, I would look up if it was too quiet or too noisy. When I made it to book 3, and Gabriel, my oldest was about 2 and a half at the time, I would look up from my book when it was too quiet and I would always find the boys either asleep with books in their hands or wide awake looking at books. They were just doing what they saw me doing. I never really noticed this as a thing until my 3rd was little and he was obsessed with my smart phone, it was a new thing, I was still reading my books but they had moved to my phone. When I realized that, I switched to reading quietly everyday with my kids playing near by. I love reading, escaping into a book is a favorite of mine. It is easier to read from my phone as it is with me wherever I go but this taught nothing to my two youngest. My two oldest on the other hand are HUGE readers, they prefer books, real ones. And even though my 3rd, was a late reader and it was definitely more work to get him to be a happy reader, it took me changing the way I modeled my actions. 

I hope this gave you some tips on what to do as a homeschooler, or even parenting. I will probably do more blog posts like this so if you have any questions or requests let me know. I do think that stressing with your children and pushing past a happy place with their education is the wrong way to go. Instead of diving into buying all the things, like workbooks, curriculum or some other program I would invite you to take it slow, read lots of books on education and homeschooling. Find some fun and educational Podcasts, enjoy doing lots of walks and talks with your kids. Read out load to your kids from all sorts of books, like Adventure, History, and Science. Spend time quiet reading together everyday. Cook food together, and pack picnic lunches and explore nature. Talk to your kids, listen to what they like or enjoy, tell them stories of your life and lessons you have learned. Teach them about saving, spending and giving. Show them how to clean and organize. It is never too early or late to show your children how to do all the things, like laundry, dishes, dusting, and taking care of your body. 

A few of my favorite books to get you started on Education, Parenting and Homeschooling are How Children Learn by John Holt, The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise, The braver Learner by Julie Bogart (I love Julie Bogart, she is so awesome, I love almost everything she says!), and Parenting with Love & Logic by Foster Cline and Jim Fay. Oh and one more, I wish I had read when I was a teenager, its call the Teenage Liberation Handbooks, How to Quit School and Get a Real Education. 

With the libraries currently closed it maybe a bit hard to get these books. I will admit that I am still listening to audiobooks via my phone using my library card. And when I just have to own the book, I have gotten pretty lucky at finding most books I want on Ebay for usually for less then 5 bucks. I use the Libby App to get my audio books via my library cards. I also love listening to podcasts, the ones I have listening to recently are 3 in 30 Takeaways for Moms, 101 Homeschool Ideas, Homeschool Connections, and the Unschooling Life. If you have books or podcast you recommend, please put them in comments below! I am always on the look out for new things to listen to or read. 

And until next time, I will do me and you do you! 

Much Love, Becca the Bad

My Heaven

I took my oldest son to King Fish in Glendale, and spent $97.45 on sushi grade fish and all the fixens for some sushi.

My son spent a few months last spring in Colorado with his Grandpa, who taught him how to make some basic sushi. I had meant to take him to purchase all that was needed to make some for us once he had returned but I just never made it go right or took the time to take him shopping. But, today the itch came and I scratched. 

Once we got home he went straight to work to prep for dinner. I went to nurse my youngest to sleep for his nap time. When I came out Gabriel (the oldest, 13 years) and my middle child, Alabama (9 years old) were getting along - a rare sight - and cutting and prepping for dinner TOGETHER. I walked away, hoping not to jinx this moment. 

When I returned after a relaxing shower, I found my daughter at the dinning room table, working on a math page- don't even remember asking her to do that, and Gabriel finishing up the most amazing spicy tuna, which he promptly had me try. 

This is Gabriel posing for the camera, with the spicy tuna he just made. 

This is my heaven.

As I type, my daughter is constructing a board game for later play. My house is not clean, but my children are happy and creating. I still have an hour before my husband should be home from work so my house will be clean soon. I <3 "unschooling," it is night and day to being a "homeschooling" teacher/mother. It is so nice not to stressed out about how many lessons got done. My kids are growing a learning and RETAINING their education. 

Best, Rebecca on Cloud 9

P.S. To top it off my baby boy, Payton, just woke up from his nap and angelically came out of his room  with a book in tow to read with me. 

Shower Thoughts

In the shower where most of my brilliant thinkings, writings, and ideas happen, today was no exception. Of course once I am dressed and ready to put it all down it has almost but disappeared. When will a "pensive"recorder be invented? I don't think a hand held tape recorder would do the trick as my thoughts are more like a symphony then one stream of words that would come out fast enough. You know what I mean?

I have recently unplugged the TV in my house. It only gets plugged in so that my husband can watch football. This came at the same time I heard about unschooling. I have been homeschooling my kids for the past 6ish years. I was pretty sure I was on the right path with my kids. I always had the notion that I needed to keep learning when it came to helping my kids grow and learn. I have heard the term unschooling via people's twitter discriptions. They were "unschooling" their children. It was on my list of things to check out. The idea seemed crazy, my kids would not learn if I stopped making them do their school work. Right?

But, then I went to a parenting seminar with my husband. Her name is Joke (Yo-ka) Reeder. She spoke straight to my being. She did not use the word "unschooling," I mean she works at a boarding school. What she did say made me view the term "unschooling," in a whole new light. And so, I turned off the screens in my house and ordered "unschooling," books from the library.

It wasn't like the TV and video games were a constant in my house. There were rules. They had to get their school work done, and their chores. We stayed busy enough that the TV was rarely on anyway, but the weekends and evenings came at my house and the TV was on. especially in my room. My husband would come home from a long day and he would be tired and he would go lay down and flip on the TV. Also, my youngest (2 years old) would wake up in the morning asking to watch Cars or Cars 2 or some such movie, and I would comply. Why? Cause I liked my mornings, I liked heading to the gym for an hour and get "me" time. I had been justifying why it was okay to hypnotize my kids. It wasn't like I didn't do a ton of things with kids to enrich their lives. But, I needed me time. Turns out that I can have me time and still not have the TV on. It took some adjusting but we are on our 2nd week with no TV.

Eventually, they just stopped asking to watch. They started playing together, by themselves. Reading more books by choice and my daughter (9 years old) has restarted writing a book that she started a year ago after we finished listening to all the Harry Potters during our 6 week road trip across the US. Anyway, we have our moments but I have been able to put my time back in. My kids are happier and they are remember their dreams and starting to go for them. Especially, now that I have stopped being the enforcer of school. I still don't have all the answers about how to "unschool" my kids but I do know that I am heading in the right direction. I am not pulling my hair out trying to get through the day. I am seeing my kids happy and pushing themselves to do what makes them happy. Which in turn makes me happy.

Which is why my shower thoughts were so awesome today. I was brain-storming how this whole "unschooling" was going to happen and I was thinking back through my kids drives. Meaning what drove them to learn something new. Surprisingly, enough I saw a common interest running through both my older kids (13 year old boy and 9 year old girl). That was animals, animals of all kind but, they both love the idea of Africa. I have a friend from South Africa and she has shown us lots of great photos of her African Safaris. I love the idea of traveling and seeing the world, shit, I spent months planning the road trip across the country. But, the idea of being out in the middle of wild Africa with 3 kids does not appeal to me, but if it does my kids then hey why not. And so it begins. We plan, ask questions, and budget this trip.

I told the kids that, Payton, the 2 year old, needs to be out of diapers. We also needed to do all the research to go. This was their trip. I asked the questions, how can we get there? Who do we know who has gone before? What questions should we ask to make out trip smooth and get the most out of the trip? What would we need to pack? What do we want to learn while we are there? What do we want to see? How much will it cost? How much do we need to save up for? How can we raise the money to go? Are there programs for people to go there? Where would we stay? What parks should we go to? What animals do we want to see and study? I mean the list can go on and on. Is Africa the place you want to and see? What time of the year is best to go?

And so it begins... Real education. :)