When we first decided to homeschool our two kids, I went a bit crazy with all my curriculum shopping. I bought curriculums, books, art supplies, and science experiments galore. I read up on how kids learn (especially through play). As nervous as I was to be responsible for teaching my kids, I was also excited to go along with them on their journey of exploring, discovering, and learning.
As someone who thrives on routine, I also wanted a school routine of sorts. I wanted a morning basket, every morning, which the kids would get excited about and which just about every homeschool blog I read talked about. I wanted circle time, like they had at school. But, let’s be honest, little went as planned. At least not for long. (Affiliate links included).
Homeschool Routine? HA!
My weekly planner helped some, but with juggling what a three (now four) year old was learning with what my six year old was learning often got tricky.
Our “routine,” very early on, went out the window. That’s when I started questioning myself:
What if I’m failing my kids?
What if they fall behind?
What if they’re not really learning?
The questions, I’ll be honest, haunted me. They kept me up at night, and I tried to make adjustment after adjustment with the way I approached the day. But after I read (while copy editing) the book School, Disrupted: Rediscovering the Joy of Learning in a Pandemic-Stricken World by Emily Greene, I took a step back. I watched my kids at play. As Greene recommended, I paid attention to what activities they gravitated toward and what they talked about. I watched as they found ways of learning through play.
How My Kids Learn
My youngest, Buster, has become obsessed with LEGOs – and not the Duplo kind.
At four years old, he can spend hours putting together LEGOs, and then flying them around the house. In fact, if it has anything to do with building and assembling things, he’s hooked; he’ll take blocks — or a marble run — count out the pieces and get building.
For his birthday, we got him a snap circuit board with 100 electricity projects. Two months later, he’s done nearly all of them (with a bit of help).
As for Little Miss, she constantly astounds me with her creativity, imagination, and drive to learn.
She convinced me to help her start a YouTube channel (more on that in another blog post). She writes constantly (compared to the spring when she flat out refused); for example, she staples paper together and then writes her own books. She regularly sets up a shop made out of boxes where she sells her artwork and insists we pay with pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.
Our Homeschool Approach Now
They’re learning – just not in the ways I expected or planned. Do we still do lessons?
Oh, for sure. Both of them are currently enjoying their Star Wars workbooks; granted, after I realized how much Buster loved ABC Mouse, I set up a “ticket” system. One workbook activity equals one ticket. They can then turn those tickets in for things like sunglasses or Oriental Trading crafts.
Even the tickets have presented us with a learning opportunity; after all, at 4pm when tickets can be turned in, they only have so many tickets to use. Sometimes, I’ll admit, I feel a bit like Chuck E. Cheese.
So why do I share all this?
Because what we have all been through over the past year wasn’t what any of us planned. We’ve all made decisions we never thought we would have to make, and not just in regard to schooling. But we are all doing the best we can. And our kids? They’re resilient. They’re learning to adapt – just like we are.
Do I still question my parenting and our approach? Do I still wonder if they’re falling behind? Yup, on the regular. But I’m working on it.
As Greene recommends in School, Disrupted, it’s time to change our mental model. The 19th-century view of school has long been outdated, and it needs to change. Learning happens in SO many ways.
As I continue to work on my own mental model of school and learning, I keep reminding myself that if my kids end the “school year” with a desire to question, explore, discover, experiment – and the list goes on! – then they’ve found a joy in learning, and that is a beautiful, wonderous thing.
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