When you decide to homeschool, it is clear that there are some things in your life that you will need to change. You have to adjust how you spend money. You may have to stop or cut back on working. You will have to be more flexible with your schedule. You will have to change a few priorities. Most homeschoolers handle these changes quite well. There are also some things however that you may not realize at first need changing.
You need to change your relationship with your child. The parent child relationship is a bit different from the parent/teacher child relationship. As the parent, you are able to take care of your child’s emotional needs, and even their spiritual needs, but you are able to leave their educational development to “professionals”. Taking on that extra responsibility can muddle the waters of the normal parent/child relationship and it will take time for both you and your child to find your footing.
You will need to adjust your personality. I am a sarcastic person by nature. My sense of humor is also very dry. My kids knew the words facetious, rhetorical, and sardonic before they understood the difference between “eat” and “drink”. While it can be great fun to be witty and a bit of a jokester, to homeschool, I had to put that part of my personality in check and be more purposeful about saying exactly what I meant, especially when in “teacher mode”.
You need to eliminate your bad habits. Kids learn more when you are not teaching than they do what you are. Being a parent alone means that you need act out of a morally mature place as your children are more likely to do what you do than what you say. As a homeschooling parent, you are essentially doubling the amount of time your child spends with you. This makes it quite impossible to hide any parts of yourself from your child. You will se many things that you may not like about yourself in your children if you don’t make some changes.
You need to change your philosophies about education. This is very difficult to do as it is more natural to teach a child in the way that you were taught. Homeschooling parents have to learn that they don’t have to transform themselves into a teacher any more than a school teacher should have to transform themselves into a parent. Sure there will be moments where you need to go into a “teaching mode”, but you will need to explore ways to make learning less rigid and more natural in order to foster a life long love of learning.
Read:
Great Ways to Start off the Year
Planning to Homeschool in the Fall? Attend a Fair!
Getting Started in Homeschooling: Resources & Ideas for the Novice