You Can’t be Rocko the Homeshcool Clown
Hey Mom,
A lot has happened since I last wrote. Summer is officially over, we started school, and my son Sam (23) got engaged! It was romantic; she said yes, and you can hear more about it on this week’s episode of The Smiling Homeschooler Podcast.
Mom, have you adopted the kind of thinking that says, Homeschooling has to be exciting all the time?! We look at people’s posts and everyone seems to have bought into it. Moms are knocking themselves out to make their homeschool seem like a three-ring circus starring Rocko the homeschool clown.
We feel the pressure to make math thrilling, history captivating, Bible meaningful, and sentence diagramming…relevant. What makes it worse, is that everyone else seems to be capable of it. Take a look at Facebook or Instagram. With cute pictures of cute kids, Moms have presented their school day like a gourmet bagel stacked high with fresh salmon, homemade goat’s milk cheese, and topped with organic parsley just picked from the garden. It’s unsustainable and it doesn’t work!
Truth is: sometimes math, science, and reading is boring…and that’s normal. You can’t make it all as entertaining as the latest Pixar movie. And it’ll kill you if you try.
What I would go for is…ENGAGING, which is different than exciting. As a speaker and writer who tries hard to be engaging, here’s my simple recipe which will work in every homeschool:
1 – Keep it short. Length kills engagement and learning.
2 – Mix it up. By skipping a day, changing the order, or doing something different, you make the time spent more potent (plus it takes less time).
3 – Tell them a story. Read stories, watch stories, and write stories. Jesus used them…and they work.
That said, sometimes school has to be boring. Math facts are boring but important. Sounding out letters can be boring but it’s important. But if you…keep it short, and mix it up a little…it might be a little more tolerable and a little more engaging.
So put away your homeschool clown wig, the spinning plates, the rhyming flash cards, and…
Smile,
Congrats on your son’s engagement! I think it was Sam manning your booth at your first visit to our homeschool conference in Spokane, WA. I think he was about 16 or so. When I saw that he was engaged, I wanted to tell you and your wife Congratulations. My son got married 2 years ago, and I know the joy and excitement. Very special time for your family! Also, I think this newsletter is a great idea and will be a wonderful resource to homeschool moms. I will be spreading the word to get folks signed up. Thank you for your service to the homeschool community. In Him, Tambra 🙂