We all have them. The days when the lessons seem…flat. When the kids motivation level feels like you are slogging through molasses in February. When you feel overwhelmed by all the rest of life and it’s so hard to concentrate. Days when it seems your little students have forgotten everything they’ve learned thus far this year. Every. Thing. On those days, we congratulate ourselves just for getting it done. Just get it done. Check those boxes off. Fill out the worksheets. Go through the motions of education. Never mind passion. No discovery today. We’ll skip art because we want to cut to the chase, toss all the “bells and whistles” and be done.

Do you know that kind of day?  Me too.

I’ll tell you what, though. We are so blessed in this age of technology! We have abundant-to-overflowing resources right at our fingertips. For example, our “flat” subject yesterday was science. Reading about fossil fuels. *yawn*  I prayed for a little creativity to help my 4th grader to continue to love learning (which is #1 in my mission statement). I found some cute videos on youtube about fossil fuels and how coal is formed. We detoured a little in discussing fossils (which are cool ANY time) and exoskeletons (and she was inspired to build one for her teddy bear out of toilet paper rolls and a tissue box). I showed my girl some photos of a dear friend in Alaska, who regularly harvests coal right off the beach in front of her house. That is so unusual and VERY cool. And I searched for my free coal samples that I’d sent away for last year…to no avail. They are “in a box somewhere”. I have aspirations of visiting a nearby coal mine soon. That will be fun!

Anyway, you get the idea. Google (or whatever your preferred search engine is) is your best bud. I’ve found so many neat things just by typing in a topic and “free printable” or “free worksheet” or “free lapbook”. Don’t be afraid to stray from the text book. Kindle that love for learning. Yes, you’ll hear that a LOT here!

You are writing lesson plans. You are also planning meals. Planning field trips. Cooking meals. Shopping (usually with all the kids in tow). Picking up (again and again and again…when you homeschool, your home is continually occupied, so it is never really “together”). Vacuuming. Perhaps you “work at home” (on top of the other work, that is!). Dishes. Snacks. You might rarely see other adults. More snacks. Art lessons (with glue and glitter…oy). Maybe you are also a soccer mom, or you have piano lessons to drive to. Maybe you are dealing with a chronic illness, or you have children challenged with a disability. You may have even more “hats” that you wear. And you still need to “save the best of your energy” for your husband, on top of it all.

And now you have that stack of curriculum before you. You wonder if you have the best. You wonder if you’re covering it all the way you should. Are you missing something? Is your child being cheated in his or her education? How will you get the whole book done by the end of the year? What if you skip a page in that workbook, or you don’t have the whatchamacallit for that experiment? What if that cool thing that other family is doing is something you should be doing too? Before you know it, life is one big “Squirrel!” moment.  Oh dear.

More isn’t necessarily better. It has been helpful for me to think of the educational experience as a smorgasbord. In the process of meeting the academic requirements for your state or region, you place SO much before your child. All sorts of literature and writing resources, maths, sciences, history, social studies, health, physical education, and electives. This is about so much more than grades. This is about paying attention to your child’s niche. We expose them to all of this varied disciplines and directions, but purposefully. We are trying to get their pulse. Some subjects they will tolerate, some they’ll barely survive sometimes. But then we’ll see it. The sparkle. The passion. Dissections. Still life painting. Persuasive speeches. Story writing. Foreign language. Whatever it is. There will be that something that is it. We can give that thing the direction it needs. “All” is not the answer. People simply don’t excel at “all”…why would we expect a child to?

So, now what?

Remind yourself why you are doing this. Write down those reasons. It’s important. Because when the “I simply can’t do this anymore” days come along, you can go back to those grounding truths. Why did you decide to homeschool?

Then. Step back from the noise. Believe me, I know what this means. I have a group of 4,500 homeschoolers on Facebook, and they are repeatedly listing what they do, what they bought, what they are planning. It used to really jangle my nerves and cause me to question myself. I had to find my own groove.

How do you find a groove for yourself? First, know your kids. Know what their learning styles are. Know what yours is. If those two things don’t jive, you will have to re-educate yourself on how to teach them. Find out what your kids love. What are they interested in? What weaknesses need to be developed? What strengths have you seen? Math whiz? Writing genius? Artistic or musical flair? We have the luxury of tailoring our educational approach in order to nurture these things! How great is that??

So, that’s enough homework for now.

1. Know why you are doing what you are doing. Write it down.
2. Understand how you learn.
3. Find out how your children learn best.
4. Spend time observing your kids, and investigating what makes them tick. Let it influence your teaching and materials. We’ll talk more about this in a later post.
5. When you step on another Lego, get yet another request for a snack, and struggle to juggle laundry loads –how many have I forgotten? Too many to count!–between creating timelines, mummifying chickens, and compiling bug collections, stop. Realize what a blessing it is that we still have the freedom to DO this in our country. You don’t have to miss any milestones. You get a front row seat for ALL the “Aha!” moments. You get to watch every bit of the blossoming process.  Is it hard? Yes. Is it worth it? Positively.

Before I get too involved, I hope to be moving this blog to a new host that will allow me to have more flexibility to do what I want to do. I didn’t realize my hands would be so tied here on WordPress, and I want to be able to control and actually own my content.

So, don’t be deceived by the quietness around here!  I’m working on some great giveaways to kick start the new venue. Stay tuned!

My name is Diane Heeney, and I’ve been homeschooling for over a decade. We have three children, aged 18 (just graduated), 15 (our 10th grader), and 9 (in 4th grade). In the course of our homeschooling journey, I’ve experimented with many different types of curricula and methodologies to find just the right “fit”. We’ve done everything from K12 Virtual Academy to Charlotte Mason, BJU, Abeka, Rod & Staff, and lots of things in between. I’m not an expert by any means, but I have learned a few things and hope to encourage you as you try to educate your children.

In April of 2012, I found myself mid-semester and really hating what we were doing for our homeschool. So, I pulled my kids out, gave them a reprieve of a few weeks (just reading and basic math) and spent hours on the internet, scouring for resources. I needed free or very low cost. I found many wonderful things to use, but in the process I also found lots of great stuff not suited for our needs. I couldn’t stand to let all those sites and freebies just vaporize…and that is how Schoolin’ Swag was born. We are now nearly 4,500 members strong.

This blog is a new extension of that group. Here, I hope to share more of our own personal journey, and helps beyond just the posts and links I share at the group. I was inspired to try this, after meeting with a few new homeschoolers this past week, and realizing that, even though I’m not “notable”, or an expert… what I can share might still be of some value to others. 🙂

So, welcome! Bear with me, because it will take a bit to get this rolling!