for now, the only thing we're growing on this farm is kids - not the goat variety

Homeschooling Nuggets from an Empty Nester

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Last night, our local homeschool group had a mom’s meeting. Our special guest, who let us pick her brain, was a mom of 4 who started homeschooling 25 years ago. She had met Raymond Moore (author of Home Grown Kids and Better Late Than Early) and was friends with the home schooling developers of the Konos curriculum. Here are some of the highlights of what she shared:

  • Parents, guard your alone time. You need time by yourself for refreshment, for planning. Read adult books. Educate and stimulate your own mind.
  • Don’t neglect/sacrifice the things that are important for a healthy lifestyle: your exercise, a healthy diet, adequate rest. “If mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” Plus, it is important to model (rather than talk about) a healthy, balanced life.
  • Slow down. Don’t do too much or have your children involved in too many activities. It is better to do a few things excellently than a myriad of things with mediocrity.
  • Don’t stoop to the level of how our culture thinks children should spend their time. Instead raise your children to the adult standards that you and your spouse have adopted. Involve them in your conversations, in your activities, in your interests.
  • Don’t do for your children what they can do for themselves.
  • The statement was made, “I’ve heard that education is not filling a bucket but lighting a fire. What do you think of that statement?” Her response: Education is both filling the bucket and lighting the fire. Use the fire (the child’s own interests) as much as you can, but the discipline of “bucket filling” needs to happen as well.
  • All the happy, smiling, “I love learning so much” pictures you see in homeschooling catalogs are an illusion. Homeschooling is not all fun and games. It has it’s ups and downs; it’s hard; but it’s worth it. Don’t get discouraged if you feel your family is not homeschool-family-poster-child worthy. Those images are not real life anyway.

4 Comments

  1. willa

    Those are such great points of advice. The one that I’m currently AGONIZING over is:
    “Slow down. Don’t do too much or have your children involved in too many activities. It is better to do a few things excellently than a myriad of things with mediocrity.”

    I totally agree with the concept, but in our case, I’m finding that if we allow each of our five children to do even one activity, that means we are juggling 7-8 activities, since we must juggle each of our children’s activities, along with the activities which are part of our normal adult life (ie, Bible Study, housework, paying bills). This also makes the first point (parents, guard your time) that much more important and simultaneously that much more difficult, and consequently, the second point, about neglecting exercise, etc, becomes almost unrealistic. It’s basic economics, really. All resources are scarce, and it’s a constant battle to figure out the best way to use our resources in such a way that we glorify the King.

    Great post. Great thoughts to ponder.

  2. Milkmaid

    Willa,
    I hear you! And mind you, our speaker said that saying too busy was her biggest weakness. Her talk was basically, “These are the tips I wish someone would have told me when I was on my parenting journey.” And I think the busyness problem has only gotten worse with our generation.
    I wonder if it could work for the kids to do an activity but only for part of the year. So, maybe you could have 2 kids in activities in the fall, 2 in the spring, 1 in winter….you get the idea. Just a thought.
    Isaac had a recorder class last school year, and though he’s not officially in a class now, he’s been able to keep up with the recorder and music in general by continuing the practice guidelines he had learned in class. Maybe some of your kids’ activities could be continued at home in a similar way?
    Concerning exercise….I’ve taken up running 3 times a week with the kids (I’m slower than Sudoku!) and playing family soccer in the evenings. With Marathon, everybody around here is going to get exercise.

  3. Stephy

    You never cease to amaze me! I didn’t see you writing anything down! Your brain cells are amazing! I just feel as if I revisited our homeschool meeting! Thanks for the posting!
    Stephy

  4. Milkmaid

    Steph,
    If you think of anything I forgot, please mention it.

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