Homeschool Expectations

Yesterday, I blogged about expectations and new moms. "Never have expectations" is my advice to new moms. In other words, don't have pre-conceived notions about parenthood and children, and you'll be more pleasantly surprised by how things turn out instead of being stressed because the reality doesn't fit the expectations.

I find that the same thing applies to homeschooling. I had planned on homeschooling long before I even started dating, much less got married. I'd known that's what I wanted to do, and planned my life accordingly. So when the Kiddo came along and was just so bright - reading at 3, writing at 4 - I was just thrilled that I'd already made these wonderful plans about how our academic life would be. I envisioned pleasant hours of learning at the table, worksheets and books piled up, crafts galore on display through the house, and kids who would surely be on-track for the national spelling bee or the national young inventor's contest. Kids who sat enraptured while I read to them from history books and expounded the mysteries of multiplication and grammar on the white board.

Again, God laughed.

Instead, I got an oldest child who - while extremely smart - hates school work of most any kind, especially math, and will do just about anything to get out of formal learning. And a younger child who seems to absorb the knowledge of the universe through some sort of weird mental osmosis, coming up with things we've never even taught her, especially in math, and who loves to do schoolwork. This, of course, leads to all the parental angst and anguish of dealing with how to keep the younger child challenged and happily learning without showing up the older one. How to get the older one to actually do work and learn things, when formal learning seems to be a challenge. How to keep the younger child from getting a swelled head while at the same time keeping the older one from feeling bad because he doesn't "get it" as easily as his three years younger sister does.

No, our days are not at all what I envisioned all those years ago. But I think it makes a better parent and a better teacher of me. Just as I needed to have a clingy, dependent child in the beginning to teach me what parenting is *really* all about, so too did I need these challenging children to teach me that not all homeschooling can or should be just alike. That I don't have all the answers, and that not every person learns alike. They are constantly stretching my wings as a homeschooling parent, and while some days it's pretty tough, I feel so blessed to be a part of this journey.

Goals and expectations are fine things to have, but we have to remember that sometimes reality steps in and wipes those things away. Instead we may find ourselves on a completely different path, and we shouldn't be scared to take that path, because while it may not be at all what we expected, the journey may turn out to be just exactly what we needed - and more importantly, it may be just what our children need.

posted by Homeschool Help Web at 1:48 PM |