For moms who are approaching homeschooling for the first time this year, September can look like a tsunami threatening to overwhelm you. I have spoken to many new teaching moms who have told me they want to have everything ready, everything in order, that they want to know just how their teaching day will be and to have complete control of their teaching situation.
But, my experience after seventeen years of homeschooling is that the homeschooling journey is more of an Easter egg hunt.
You begin with an empty basket and set off down
the path of all the curriculum, all the teaching methods, all the suggestions for how to organize your day until you find one of these eggs that looks interesting. You pick it up and try it. If it doesn’t work for your family you put it back. Along the way you will discover the right combination of lessons, methods and organization for your own particular family as you are filling your basket.
The interesting thing about this journey is that eggs that worked for one child may not all work for the next and so for each new student you set off on a hunt to find the right combination for that child. (Classroom teachers, by the way, don’t have the incredible privilege of doing this egg hunting thing, and so all children are usually taught in the same way regardless of results.)
I hope this analogy serves as a gentle reminder that the homeschooling journey is one of discovery and learning and love together with your children. It isn’t something you will have completely “in control” but rather it will be a living, changing education that brings not only rich academic progress but will prove to be rich in relationships as well.
Enjoy the journey even as you continue to daily search out the best for your children.
