I have been a professional educator for 21 years now. I have served as an educational consultant, student evaluator, teacher and parent trainer, behavioral consultant, and staff leader as well as a teacher during those 21 years. I have been a mother for 11 years. But I have only led a homeschool program for 9 months at the time of this writing. It is a very different world in so many ways compared to my experience as a professional educator.
Yet, the principles of learning I have been taught as a professional educator are the same. What I have found to be overwhelming is the freedom! I can choose any curriculum we want and can afford. I can structure our days any way we see fit. I am grateful for every bit of training I have, but choosing a home-based system has still been more overwhelming than I anticipated. The pressure is all on me as the sole teacher as well.
The best advice I can give any new or prospective homeschooling family is to take a deep breath and de-school. Even though you know your child or children better than anyone else, and even if you are a professional educator, you will not find the perfect approach on your first attempt. My son, for example, loves his iPad, and I believed that he would love online schooling. I was wrong. He asked to go back to books for everything we did formally. Our days are a blend of videos, labs, very structured Direct Instruction, and student-led learning. I think we have found our ideal system, but I was very loose with this initially. He needed to learn that we weren’t going to be schooling the way he was accustomed to in public school, and that he would have lots of time to de-stress from that experience. Many homeschoolers call this “de-schooling.” It is essential if your child’s experience in public school was traumatic or stressful, and helpful even if that was not the case. Homeschool isn’t going to be done in an identical manner to the public school schedule, and even the most well-adjusted child needs time to adjust to that.
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