As a first-time homeschool parent, middle school freaked me out. As a result, neither my oldest child nor I enjoyed her middle school years. I’m now older and wiser and can tell you what you really need to know about how to teach middle school at home.
One of my favorite parts of homeschooling is when we randomly stumble into a lesson. I like the joy of learning about something that was not part of the lesson plans and the wonder it creates for my kids. Found lessons involve taking a risk, setting aside plans and learning what life has brought into your day.
Math education has almost ruined math for more kids than we can count. Kids today are pushed to do math skills that their brains aren’t ready to do. So they think that they are bad at math when, in fact, they need to learn the way kids are supposed to learn. Through play!
Art is an essential part of a good education. Experts and teachers all say that we should be teaching art, both appreciation and the actual creation of art. And while I agree, this isn’t easy for every homeschooling parent to do. Books and videos are all great help. But at the end of the day, if you can’t draw, it is easy to feel overwhelmed trying to teach art to your child. But it doesn’t have to be scary.
There are a lot of reasons we all have mom guilt. Parenting is a minefield of opportunities to “fail”. For those of us who homeschool, that list can be twice as long. When you have multiple children, there are even more things to do and worry about.
Co-ops are popular. They can provide you and your children with a sense of community and give children an opportunity to experience group learning. But, they can also create a different kind of stress in your homeschool and stop you from having your own best homeschool year possible. Are they worth it? It depends.
When you homeschool a child who has a learning disability, developmental delay or other challenges that make them different, homeschooling is much harder than it is for other parents. It is like we are all playing the same game but the game is set to “hard mode.”
Auditory Processing Disorder is when a person’s brain has trouble making sense of words and sounds. When you speak to them, your child’s brain may not catch every word. Here are my tips for how to adapt your homeschooling to help a child with auditory processing disorder.
Several years ago, I had an addiction to playing puzzle games, like CandyCrush, on my phone way too much. So, I deleted all the games and made myself start crocheting instead of gaming. But recently, I added a game like that back to my phone and it is helping me homeschool my kids better.
Most of us remember exactly how we spent our sick days as children. I’ve thought about how my children will remember sick days when they are adults. The way I teach them to think about their bodies now, and how I show them they are cared for, is by establishing patterns they will have as adults.
