One day, I was feeling especially proud of myself during another smooth, well-structured and on-schedule day of homeschool. But then my kindergartner sighed and admitted to me she didn’t want to do anymore homeschool that day. This took me back for a minute. She was usually so interested and curious about the world around her, so why was she so dismissive now? As a teacher (and of course, her mom), I took this like a stab to the heart. But, as much as I hate to admit it, this is what I needed to hear. It was a stark realization…I didn’t quite know how to motivate my homeschooler.
When I decided to start homeschooling my oldest child, I thought my years of teaching and formal training had surely prepared me for homeschooling. My impeccable professional evaluations and a Ph.D. in educational psychology had certainly deemed me highly qualified to homeschool a kindergartner, right?
My child was 5. She hadn’t yet learned to manipulate the system, and she isn’t a defiant or otherwise unwilling child. So, I had to look inward for answers. What was I doing that she didn’t like? After only a few weeks of homeschooling, however, I realized that what I thought was my best attribute–a veteran teacher–was perhaps my worst characteristic. I was trying to recreate school at home. No wonder I couldn’t motivate my homeschooler!
Tip: Stop recreating school at home!
Why, I asked myself? Why did I make the decision to homeschool if I was only going to recreate school at home? If that was the case, I might as well just have sent her back to school! I know, I know…it didn’t make sense to me either. Homeschooling provides so many more authentic and engaging opportunities for learning than the traditional school environment. Why wasn’t I taking advantage of those?
I thought about this long and hard. The best answer I came up with is because the traditional schooling environment is all I knew. That’s how I was educated, and that’s all I ever taught. Homeschooling was unknown territory to me, so naturally, I converted to the only thing I knew. This equated to taking a space in my house and converting it to as close of a classroom as possible. Then I used this space to teach my child the best I could with “teacher” tools. These tools consisted of a blackboard, a student desk, some manipulatives, books, and of course, worksheets. Yuck. No wonder she was unmotivated!
After getting past the initial disappointment in myself, I thought rationally about the situation. I slept on it, contemplated it over the weekend, and decided to try something different the following week. I made a conscious decision to
“uncreate” the school environment. Yep, a deliberate effort to back off (not walk away from completely) the books, worksheets, and videos and use the resources around me for our learning.
What I saw was an amazing transformation! She was engaged again, excited about learning, looking forward to homeschooling for the day, and no longer reluctant to discuss academic anything as we were doing other things around the house. I’m not suggesting “unschooling” (that’s an entirely different post I’ll perhaps tackle one day) per se, but moving away from the traditional schedule and structure of school seemed to motivate my homeschooler again.
So what exactly did we try that week? Well, here are a few examples.
- We worked on teen number fluency using ten frames that we created in PowerPoint. I created them and she had to drag and drop the dots to represent the correct number that was on the slide. For added effect, we cast the computer to the TV. We did this all first thing in the morning, in bed, while I was drinking coffee. It was great and she loved it!
- We read “The Three Billy Goats Gruff” and retold the story by creating it outside. She made a bridge out of some decorative bricks we have, and we used some toy figurines for the three billy goats and the troll. She was able to re-tell the beginning, middle, and end, and identify characters, the setting, the author, and the illustrator.
- We watched a short video about different cultures around the world and then pointed out the places to which her daddy (active duty military) had traveled. We made an African hut and talked about what culture is while we were assembling it. She got way more from our conversation than she would have ever from reading a book.
- We went outside to look at our shadows and talked about the shadow’s position relative to the sun. We also talked about the sun’s functions as we walked through our garden. If you really want to motivate your homeschooler, try anything outside!
- She wrote a short, sweet letter to her daddy as she practiced her handwriting.
Here are some pieces of advice I can offer as you move through your journey to finding the degree of structure in your homeschool, too:
Tip: Mesh life and academic skills
Initially, I felt defeated at my attempt at homeschooling and wondered if it was even the right choice for us. I had no problem motivating my students, so wouldn’t couldn’t I motivate my homeschooler? I felt as if all my years of teaching and education had gone to waste and that maybe I should go back into the workforce (a short fleeting thought, but it still appeared).
But then I realized that I can offer more to my child than a review of numbers 1 – 10 or handwriting mastery. While both of those are certainly important, so are life skills, and life is ultimately what I’m trying to prepare my child for! Homeschooling gives me the opportunity to teach academic skills through life skills, and in my opinion, the two categories should mesh, not be mutually exclusive.
My advice to you is to look closely at what skills you have to offer your child and make a thoughtful decision to teach academic skills through those life skills. Keep reading for suggestions on how to do it!
1. Take a look around
Instead of trying to sort through books and worksheets and videos and other various sources of curriculum for your next lecture-based lesson, stop for a minute and take a look around you. Learning opportunities are literally everywhere! Fractions? Bake some cookies and half or double the recipe. Slope and y-intercept? Graph the relationship between time of day and temperature. Sensory writing? Sit outside for 20 minutes, no electronic devices, and describe everything using your five senses. Culture? Make a simple musical instrument from a different culture. Number patterns? Use sidewalk chalk to make fill-in-the-blank sequences. Plant life cycle? Grow something from seed and keep a journal of it as it grows. Grammar? Fix grammatically incorrect Facebook posts from friends (those are abundant!).
Learning moments happen in our kitchens, in our back and front yards, in our neighborhoods, and in our conversations. They can be about the weather, about our toys, about our tools, our gardens, our homes. They surround us and can be used anytime to motivated your homeschooler! Homeschooling breaks the chain of a set curriculum and standards-based blah, blah, blah. You are preparing your child for life, so start now with authentic learning experiences. Those are the kinds of things he or she will remember!
2. Find your child’s interest
Great news, in case you missed it–homeschooling is super flexible and we, as parents, have the authority to ask our children what they are interested about and to build upon those topics! We have power, people! That should motivated your homeschooler (and you!)!
Believe me, flexibility rarely happens in public schools. From experience, I can tell you that teachers are given a curriculum with no chance to add their own influence; an unreasonable timeline to teach it in overly crowded classes; an ultimatum to test, ready or not; and then told to move on, even though 80% of the students didn’t get it; or better yet, remediate in their own time (but I digress….).
Take advantage of your position as a homeschooling parent to let your child choose topics that interest him or her (here are some ideas on how to help your teen find a hobby), and create activities that will motivate your homeschooler in those topics. Remember that the goal is not to recreate school at home, but to provide academic skills through life experiences the best you can. Learning will occur when the child is motivated simply by being interested in the topic, I promise!
3. It does take a village…
Our homes are full of learning opportunities, but don’t be afraid to use resources outside of the home to provide a well-balanced education for your child, too. If your child loves dance but you have two left feet, maybe you can sign him or her up for dance classes. If you struggle to provide artistic connections for your child, perhaps you can connect with a homeschool co-op or a local library that has an art group. See, no need for videos and worksheets!
Other outside resources include the more obvious ones, like zoos, museums, and libraries, to motivate your homeschooler. But if you do some searching in your area, you may find that educational opportunities exist at local farms, factories, small businesses, grocery stores, food banks, animal shelters, or churches. Also, search for specific educational events that may interest your child. For example, the town we live in hosts an annual STEM day for children ages 4 – 12, and I came across a Touch-a-Truck event (full with hands-on experiences of all sorts of rescue trucks, construction vehicles, farm equipment, etc.) a few weeks ago that my oldest son absolutely loved! Even our local farmer’s market usually has a booth dedicated to teaching children something about farming or a children’s activity/craft.
A few closing remarks
Moving to a less-structured homeschooling environment was definitely a big change for me as it went against all the teaching philosophies that have been so deeply rooted into my mindset for quite some time. And there are times where we do still sit down for a more formal type of lesson or for skills practice, but these times are fewer and further between. Start by deciding what your child should know by his or her age or grade level (one place to look is in the common core standards or your own state standards), and then work those academic skills into everyday life. They’ll get the best of both worlds and a much more comprehensive education that public school could never offer.
What is the structure of your homeschooling? Have you had to change your structure mid-year, and how did your child respond? What are some activities that really motivated your homeschooler? I’d love to hear your comments!