What is this secret weapon, you ask?
Here’s a hint…
All moms and dads have this parenting tool in their arsenal. But homeschooling offers the advantage of significantly more time and freedom to use it!
So, what is this thing that makes homeschooling so effective, even when it’s used by average Jane’s and Joe’s teaching their kids in their kitchen?
Drum roll, please…
”Do you ask a fish how it swims? Or a bird how it flies? No sirree, you don’t! They do it because they were born to do it!”
– Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Just like Willy Wonka was born to invent new candy bars, kids were born to learn!
This isn’t the first time I’ve written about why homeschooling works easily for kids of all ages. They’re even learning on sick days. And, on our recent trip to the lake, I was reminded (yet again) how kids are always learning – even on vacation!
I was asked again recently if homeschooling really works.
For some reason, I’m always caught off guard when I hear this. After all, I see home education work everyday!
My own kids… my homeschooling friends’ kids… students I see at our co-op… they’re all growing and learning and turning into capable young people.
Does it work? Of course it works! It’s been working in one form or another for millennia! Homeschooling is an amazing way to learn!
But only ten short years ago I actually asked the very same question.
I love autumn. The older I get, the more I prefer autumn to my previous favorite season, summer. Apple picking, cider donuts, colorful scenery, veggie garden harvests, and cozy sweaters on crisp fall days…. yes, there’s a lot to love about this season!
Except, of course, the inevitable cold or flu that someone catches and brings home to share with the family.
This past summer, I was looking for ways to keep the kids involved in something productive but not too formal (that is, no 24/7 Minecraft allowed… but nothing that would require too much work on my part, either).
Among other things, my plan included intentionally setting out interesting activities for my kids to find and explore if they wanted to (aka “strewing”). If you haven’t yet, check out the prequel post – Our Homeschool Summer Break – Year 5 – for a little more context and my original summer plan. In that post, I promised you an update on how it went and here it is!
I’d like to start this post with an apology for any neck injuries you may have sustained by following this series of posts. It’s been like watching a tennis match!
Back and forth I’ve gone, trying to find the sweet spot for our summers. More academic? More relaxed? Over-scheduled? Lazy days? Seems like we’ve tried it all.
We’ve finally caught up to real time in this series – we’ll be heading into our 5th official homeschool summer in less than a month!
In the last post, I promised you a summer on the other side of the continuum, so here it is! The summer of our mega home renovation! When all bets were off, plans were non-existent, and I was living way, way outside my Type-A, Planner-Person comfort zone.
You can see more about the renovation, including before and after pictures, in this post.
I didn’t try to plan a more relaxed summer. I didn’t decide that we needed less formal school-ish work. By the time I had my head far enough above water to think about our summer homeschool plans, it was already August.
Parents of kids with math phobias are in a tricky spot. They know their child needs extra help with math but the more they try and work on it, the more the anxiety builds. The more anxiety builds, the worse their kid performs at math! And the vicious cycle continues.
I don’t want to overstate things but… the LeapFrog Letter Factory DVD taught my kids to read!
Well, ok, maybe I overstated things.
But in all seriousness, I can’t think of any other single educational DVD that has been so effective or so requested in our household.
