The 7 Ways to Ensure Homeschooling Success
Thinking about homeschooling? Want to avoid the homeschooling mistakes that most people make? Here’s what we’ve discovered by homeschooling our 5 children from birth through college.
In 1987, homeschooling was as newborn as our first child. We looked at homeschooling for a number of reasons that were primarily related to our academic goals. And yet our first son’s cerebral palsy tipped the balance. The simple nature of having a young and impressionable soul around active and undiscerning “friends” made it clear that we should homeschool. We really didn’t want our son to get confused about what he was capable of. So we decided to give it a go until he was old enough to function well physically with other people who were his age, but not his friends. We thought it would be until third grade, it lasted until he went to the University of Texas at Austin.
Now, these more than 23 years later, we know seven things that we make sure all of our home training students begin to understand, inside and out. If you want a successful homeschooling, adopt these seven (or violate any of them at your own risk).
- Define homeschooling success for yourself
- Use a curriculum that matches your definition
- Don’t compete with public or private schools
- Find a support group or network
- Learn to use systems for success
- Make discipline a nice word
- Find a coach
Here’s a quick summary to get you started:
Define homeschooling success for yourself
Definitions determine everything. If your definition of “learning math” is “reading the book,” then things will turn out very different from the family, whose definition is “learning to do math.” The definition of homeschooling success we use is our basic understanding of education. Education is learning to learn. We want our students to develop learning skills so that they are prepared for anything. How sad when people think that knowing information means education … especially when information changes and you are obsolete because you did not keep learning.
Use a curriculum that matches your definition
There are as many study plans as there are people (it seems). Each curriculum is based on some set of assumptions or educational philosophy. Some writing curricula (falsely) believe that we learn to write by studying grammar, while others show students the power of learning to write by actively writing (for example, see http://www.advanced-writing-resources.com ). Whatever the curriculum for any subject, make sure it matches your own definition so you don’t get caught wishing for an outcome while using a process that takes you in the opposite direction.
Don’t compete with public or private schools
One of the big mistakes is competing with the schools. A homeschool does not have large buildings, massive funds, and a variety of specialized teachers. Therefore, trying to produce the results you seek will simply exhaust you. Homeschooling can actually produce greater skill and knowledge, but trying to match all the subjects a school offers is chasing the wind. By the way, students don’t always leave a school system as polite as you think!
Find a support group or network
It is the height of arrogance and the height of inefficiency to go it alone. Why not benefit from the wisdom and knowledge of others? Why not let others benefit from the knowledge gained along the way? There are online groups, groups in your part of the world, or groups waiting to be started by you and some like-minded families. You’ll never be like the people you don’t hang out with … so get busy and connect for your own good.
Learn to use systems for success
One of the great ideas in life is how things work by cause and effect. Good cooks can reproduce the same quality food over and over again because they follow some kind of system (recipe). The practical results you see in life are largely the result of the systems we use. Homeschooling itself is a “different system” of education that aims for a slightly different outcome (including character, sense of family, etc., which it often delivers). If you don’t have a general sequence of steps that you are following, you can be sure that your results will be as bad as your system.
Make discipline a nice word
One of my favorite mentors, Robert Fritz, offers a helpful definition of discipline: “Discipline is when you itch, but you don’t scratch.” The truth is, it takes some discipline to learn. Very few children naturally gravitate toward the desire to learn in all areas important to education. So it turns out that we need to help them do what they don’t “feel” like doing, so that they can finally benefit. External discipline tends to lead to internal discipline for life. We all need help to do whatever it takes. Homeschooling (or any school) just won’t work without making discipline a nice word that’s often practiced.
Find a coach / mentor
In many ways, it is the ultimate hypocrisy to ‘guardian’ our own children without having a ‘guardian’ for ourselves. There is something powerful when we discuss, interact and learn from someone who is ahead of us in any field. Sports coaching knows the value of coaches because the competition and economics involved are great. Without a coach you cannot compete. If you find a voice or two you trust, a person or two whose results you want to see in your life, find them, pay them, beg them for advice. Nothing will save you more time and heartache than learning from someone wisely.
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