Suddenly Homeschooling

I remember when I first decided we were going to homeschool, I was terrified! But you can take this decision to be suddenly homeschooling and make it not only work for your family, but make it the best thing that has ever happened for your family.

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I made that decision based on the needs of my child and our family, not based on a pandemic. Making the choice to homeschool right now because of the pandemic is completely different, and scary.

Take sometime to decompress. To process your feelings, and your child’s feelings on suddenly homeschooling. You child may be upset that they are not getting to see friends everyday anymore. Let them be upset and talk about ways you can get them together with friends, or make new friends.

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Reasons Why You May Be Suddenly Homeschooling

• pandemic
• bullying
• recent move
• bad school district/experience

Three Big Difference Between School and Homeschool

School does not take eight hours a day.

For your younger children, 40 minutes a day is more than enough formal learning. As your children get older, they’ll spend more time doing school work if you are following a curriculum or using lesson plans.

There is also unschooling which is not going to follow a lesson plan and then, yeah, eight hours of “learning” is nothing. Your children can learn from almost anything: Lego, books, documentaries, life (grocery shopping for example), and more.

Doing school at home is not the same thing as homeschooling.

Time management is important.

If you are following a curriculum or using lesson plans, or what have you, time management is going to be important for keeping on track. Whether you are planning to do this long term, for a year, or even just a semester.

Find a way to keep track of time, to keep track of what is getting done. Whether you are using a planner, or timers on your phone to remind you when you need to start your day. Find something that is easy to use for you to help you manage time.

Interests.

What is your child interested in? I’m often sadden by parents who don’t really know what their children are interested because kids are spending so much time at school, at after school programs and then working on homework.

Then there are the kids who are just following the popular interests, they might not even know what truly interests them.

Give them the opportunity to find what interests them, but don’t beat it to death! Don’t create a big unit study on the topic, that’s one sure why to have them decide they are interested in something else. But maybe find or create a small unit study around the topic.

Resources for Suddenly Homeschooling

• Taking A Homeschool Break and Getting Started Again
• Homeschooling and School at Home – These are very different things!
• Second Breakfast for Homeschoolers