Homeschooling is now becoming a progressive pattern worldwide. The rate at which parents are choosing to educate their children at home cannot go unnoticed. Of course, some of the reasons behind homeschooling range from dissatisfaction with educational options available or natural pandemics like Covid-19, amongst other reasons.
But, whichever the reasons, homeschooling can still prove to be a daunting process, especially for single moms who have to juggle between their family responsibilities and planning lessons for their kids. It demands extra hours as there’s so much to contemplate and learn. Sure it can be overwhelming.
In this article, we plan to discuss some of the experiences homeschooling moms have, plus what it takes to be a greater homeschooling mom.
Here is what you must know as a homeschooling mom.
You don’t have to be an expert to teach your child
In many situations, you’ll find a parent worried about giving all the answers to their children. No, you don’t have to prove your expertise. Not even the teachers have all the answers to every question. As a mom, what your need is to avail the required resources and know when to ask for help.
You only need resources and manage the content and your delivery—all of which you can do best by following some prescribed rules or organizing a flexible lesson plan. Besides, you need to get curious, explore, and experiment with different resources. Also, you can use online quizzes to improve your content delivery or teaching.
In other words, you must not confine your mind to a specific, predictable teaching tool or equipment. But, instead, practice active learning, ask questions, make adjustments, and try out different ideas that could help improve your teaching.
Better still, you can homeschool yourself before teaching your child. You can do this by reading books, listening, or watching audio and video lectures on specific topics. This helps you gather more content.
Also, you can learn everything you want by yourself without a degree, and that includes learning to be a better teacher.
Teaching isn’t a race
Like the ordinary public and private schools, you may be compelled to start homeschooling from Monday to Friday, covering every subject. But, if you can, kudos! The truth is, it’s impossible to cover every topic for the day if you have to juggle them with your other responsibilities as a mom. Learning gaps are inevitable even to traditional professional teachers.
To that end, you must know you can’t teach everything at once. Besides, you must know when to give tests and examinations to your child. You don’t have to rush things through to complete your course. Your goal should be to inspire your child to desire to learn more rather than to jam everything up for them.
Homeschooling must not look like the traditional school
Most homeschooling moms are conditioned to think that everything must resemble the traditional setup for learning to take place. And that they have to have their children sit on a chair in a specific room for some numbered hours. It’s not necessary and can never be realistic for a home setup.
Get this right, learning can happen in many places and may look different from what we’re conditioned to believe. You don’t necessarily have to segregate home and school. But if it works for you then, explore the chance. However, if it doesn’t, you don’t need to force it to work.
You can always make your house, a home, and a school simultaneously, where learning happens anytime, anywhere, so long as you have the time. Let your kid feel free to discuss their problems and concerns or even have experiments done at dinner or lunchtime.
Also, you can sometimes allow your child to initiate the learning. You don’t have to dictate everything like in most traditional schooling situations.
Decide what’s worth
Most moms would bury themselves with every responsibility to the extent they forget about themselves. You must understand that self-care is group care. There are some days, you wake up motivated to work. Other days you’ll struggle to complete your task. It’s normal, and you don’t have to be hard on yourself.
As a mom and a teacher, make your priorities right and think about yourself. Take a day off from some duties for the sake of your quality of life. It’s not selfish or greedy. It is about self-care, and any bit of it would add to your homeschooling. You’ll be able to teach your child from a place of delight rather than a defeated state where you’re exhausted but still want to prove you can.
The curriculum is a guide
When you feel stuck, and you don’t know what to teach your child. You can always follow a curriculum for directions. It dictates what to handle and when you have real-time testing and classworks.
Remember, some people have done homeschooling before you, which means there are many resources for you online. Just google for more information.
Conclusion.
Being a homeschooling mom can be challenging. However, with the right approach, one can always find a way to prosper as a mom and a teacher. Therefore, to succeed effectively, you must decide what’s worth fighting for. Understand that homeschooling isn’t a race. Neither must it be like the traditional school where learning must follow strict regulations and procedures.
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