I’m new to teaching my children at home. Whenever I’m new to something I read a lot about it and observe those who are sucessful at it. My philosophy is: “Don’t reinvent the wheel. Find out what those ahead of me in an area have done (and succeeded in doing!) and follow that.” In my research on teaching at home, the books by Ruth Beechick were recommended as foundational for anyone embarking on the homeschool journey. I’m now reading her book “The Three R’s.” The way she presents teaching is simple, natural. It coincides with something I observed in my two year old:

Children are natural learners.

Many times, I don’t need to “push” a concept or a habit onto my children. Meaning, I don’t have to sit there and “do school.” Children are naturally curious. They love repetition. They have great faith (Meaning, they believe what you say). And they are copy cats (They mimic what you do). As a parent, I just need to be mindful of what I present to my children and exercise diligence in showing them the same information or activity over, and over, and over again.

This requires a commitment on my part.

For me, this commitment begins in infancy. I aim to consistently feed my four month old at close to the same times (emphasis on ‘close’) every day so she can acquire a sense of order and routine. As the babies grow into toddlerhood, I teach them to put things away when they are finished with them (over and over and over again). Say grace before meals. Say ‘please’ when asking for something (We’re still working on this one!). Remove clothes from a dryer. Dry swiffer the floor. And talk, talk, talk. Talking a lot naturally increases speech and vocabulary.

It’s simple, but hard.

I’ve learned that a lot of what they learn (and not learn) depends on the direction and the tone I set (or don’t set) for them.

But my God given positional authority over my children has helped through the rough patches. (That and prayer!)

I didn’t need to feel insecure in my decision to do preschool at home (something I’ve wrestled with) because, despite my inexperience, God had uniquely created me to be my children’s mother. He also uniquely created my children to be my children. In His design, we will draw on one another’s strengths and be challenged to work on our weaknesses. Becoming a mother has shown me how strong I am. It has revealed hidden gifts and skills which lied dormant. And it has also exposed my character flaws. For example, I have a tendency towards laziness. I have had to be conscious not to model laziness to my children or else they will follow suit.

For the mindful parent, home life can provide a rich learning environment.

In the family, life is brought not only to our doorstep, but into our kitchens, bedrooms, and dens. In the family, life is happening all around us, and it begs to be questioned, evaluated, interpreted and discussed. There is no more consistent, pregnant, dynamic forum for instruction about life than the family, because that is exactly what God designed the family to be, a learning community. (Paul David Tripp)

Children can learn life skills, engage in developmental activities, practice language skills and form a belief system all without a formal education.

As my children grew older, I repeatedly read the same stories to them: Bible stories, Dr. Seuss and other classic children’s stories. I also shown them selected educational videos. When they seemed ready, I added in alphabet flash cards and sight word cards. If it was too much, I put it aside and waited until they matured.

Thankfully, all this “preschool” takes about ten to fifteen minutes a day.

I was surprised that it didn’t take much time or effort on my part. Since we’re together all the time, life has offered many natural opportunities to reinforce the concepts taught in that ten-fifteen minutes of “preschool” each day. However, the chore training may take longer because little ones are easily distracted.

Over a period of time, my two year old began to talk to me about the stories we read (reading comprehension) and mimic some of the simple chores he saw me do around the house. Of course, he didn’t perfect those chores, but perfection wasn’t my goal. I simply wanted to get him into the mindset of helping around the house and developing a basic work ethic (i.e., avoiding idleness).

As my children’s minds mature, we’ll move onto more “complex” activities like learning to read and learning to budget money. But this too will be presented according to their personal readiness and ability.

Children are sponges. At this early stage of life, I plan to fill them with good stuff (good habits, good Bible stories, good children’s stories) which they can later draw on as adults. The toddler may fumble with taking clothes out of a dryer today, but I know he’ll thank me later when he’s living by himself for the first time and there’s no one else to do the laundry but him

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Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he keepeth the law, happy is he. (Proverbs 29:18)

My husband has contributed to today’s post on developing a vision for homeschool. Although in many cases, mom does a lot of the day in and day out work of homeschooling, it’s a joint venture. I hope hearing his thoughts will provide a different perspective.

Teaching children begins at birth. Whether informally or formally, a child is always learning and absorbing information from their environment. When we considered how we’d like to shape our children, we needed a long term perspective. We needed a vision. A vision for the men our sons would become; a vision for the women our daughters would become. That’s where we started.

The vision for training our children is for them to have a Spirit of power, a Spirit of love, and a Spirit of a sound mind.  We believe that our children are precious and that God has given them to us in order to nurture and train them to be the best that they can be.  First and foremost, before any academic training, we would like to impart the knowledge of God through the regular reading and memorization the Word of God.  We also want to teach them about the world around them: the local, state, national, and international governments as well as other cultures.  By providing an environment where education is fun and enjoyable, we hope they will grow into lifelong learners. We also want to show them how to become critical thinkers, as opposed to passive absorbers, of information presented to them.

That’s our vision for homeschooling. Have you developed a vision for how you’d like to train your children? A vision, or mission statement, for this important aspect of life will help ensure that you stay the course during those precious years before your children leave your home.