When I first started, I thought there were two kinds of homeschoolers:
One was a sheltered family, holed up in a cabin in the woods where the girls weren't allowed to cut their hair, and no one was allowed to voice their opinions or watch TV.
The other was a pinterest-perfect home classroom with an expensive curriculum, well-behaved kids, and a calm mother who never lost it.
I was neither of those. So it seemed impossible for me to imagine what our home school would look like.
I knew I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a curriculum that Wolf would only fight me over anyway. So while I was preparing to take my kids out of school, I found some free sources. (Listed at the bottom) Then I planned my own lessons -based on the TEKS- and researched through Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers.
Sounds like a lot of work, huh? And it was. And guess what.
It sucked.
One or two weeks in and Wolf and I were butting heads. Sloth was sobbing through her math lessons. And Monkey just wanted to go play. I lost it. There was yelling, whining, and tantrums. And sometimes my kids would do those things, too.
They were NOT magically loving my homemade curricula! They were NOT miraculously keeping up with my projected lesson plans! My checklist became a mocking reminder of how I had fallen short every day.
Then I remembered a personal rule of my parenthood: However much time, energy, or money you put into anything is inversely related to how much your kids will appreciate it.
So we had a meeting. The girls and I talked over what worked and what stressed us out. Surprisingly, they didn't want to scrap everything.
Monkey: I like when you read books to us in the morning and ask us questions about it.
Sloth: I like when you cuddle with me during math.
Wolf: I like when you tell me what I have to do each week then let me decide when I do it.
I listened, we changed things. And suddenly, it was easy!
Aside from listening to my kids, I also changed the way I kept track of things. Instead of a checklist that didn't always get checked, I kept a blank planner and wrote down what we actually did:
-One day, Sloth found a dead, but intact dragonfly in the backyard and held a science lab for an hour. Then she conducted an online search for dragonfly-related information. I wrote this down as "biology lab"
-Wolf requested every library book on -you guessed it- wolves, including books from the adult section. I wrote this down as "researching for an oral report."
-Monkey counted the cards out when we all played a game. I wrote this down as "introductory lesson to division."
I found that homeschooling does not have to be controlled and pinterest-perfect. It can be relaxing and -dare I say- lazy!
So now, sometimes our schooling looks like well-behaved children who wake up early and attack their lessons and chores, finishing everything before noon. Sometimes it looks like everyone dragging their feet until I realize we need a lazy day, so we all watch a documentary and discuss it. Sometimes it looks like Wolf blaring her music at 9pm while she finishes 3 days' worth of work in 30 minutes!
So as you plan what your school will look like, remember that a cute home classroom with bookshelves, desks, and chalkboard walls are just as good as a couch and a kitchen table (or in our case, the living room floor.) What matters is that it works for you and your kids.
Your school will look different from traditional schooling, other homeschooling, or even what it looked like the day before! And when you accept and embrace that, you will find that homeschooling can be very successful, peaceful, and also lazy!
For further reference:
Teaching from Rest - a great book about not flipping out.
Easy Peasy All-in-One-Homeschool - free online, multiple subjects from K-12
Khan Academy - free online programs
Free Forest School - a free outdoor meeting with many franchises, meetings often include natural science lessons
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