Hey Friend! I know some of you’ve suddenly found yourself in unknown territory…you are homeschooling your child because of the coronavirus closing your child’s school down. For some of you this may actually be exciting and something you’ve sorta kinda wanted to try. For others, you are terrified and can’t wait for this to be over. Whatever you’re feeling is valid, but I hope I can give you some encouragement in this blog post.

So who am I? What do I know about homeschooling? I’ve been homeschooling ever since our oldest daughter began kindergarten. She’s now a seventh grader and we’ve added two of her younger siblings in the mix and they are in the third and first grade. I’m not an expert, by any means, but I do think I can give some tips to help you out and encourage you…I hope.

1. Talk to your child about your day. This is something we just recently started doing in our family and I’m planning on writing a much more detailed blog post about this soon. But I can tell you that this is something we should’ve been doing in our family from the get-go. I’ve always been sorta lazy when it comes to our day. Because…let’s be honest…when you are at home and have the same things to do every day, you begin to think that routine and schedules are a waste of time. So one day I’d wake up and think, “I really need to work on this pile of laundry” and school would just wait until the afternoon. There were other days where I got up, ready to attack school, and my kids weren’t mentally ready because they had no idea that I was planning on doing school first thing in the morning. Kids like to know what to expect from their day just as much as we adults do. I would encourage you to start your day and discuss with your child what the plan is. Do you need to work on some emails first and then plan on doing school with your child? Talk to them about it. Make plans on when you are going to allow electronics time for your child. Talk about when you are going to break for lunch. We actually sit down and write it all down and we allow the kids to give their input on things they’d like to incorporate into the day.
2. Give both you and your child grace. I’m betting that some of you are dealing with kids that maybe don’t have the best attitude. And I get it…that can be frustrating. You’re trying to do your best. You are stressed out too. And the last thing you need is your child giving you an attitude over math. But they are feeling the same feelings you are. They are dealing with the uncertainty of not knowing how long they are going to be cooped up in the house. They are feeling lonely from not seeing their friends and teachers every day. They miss the stability of school. Talk to them about these feelings. Instead of yelling that they need to adjust their attitude, suggest taking a break to watch an episode of a tv show together or have a bowl of ice cream.
3. How to Have School With More than One Child. Some of you aren’t just suddenly homeschooling one child…it’s two or three. I can imagine that’s pretty stressful. My suggestion would be have your older kids do as much independent work as possible. While they are working on their math problems, you do the teaching that may need to be done with a younger child. A sixth grader should be capable of doing most of their work, with a little help from you. You second grader will probably need much more hands-on time from you. But one suggestion….check over to make sure your older kids have done what they are supposed to do and didn’t just halfway do it. If they can get away with it, they most likely will.
4. Homeschooling Isn’t Normally Like This. If homeschooling has entered your mind on occasion and this sudden opportunity had you excited, you may have ditched that idea and I wouldn’t blame you. But I promise this season is even hard for us normal homeschool moms. We are used to going to libraries and zoos and play dates and homeschool co-op groups. We are pulling our hair out at times too. Don’t let this discourage you from the idea of homeschooling.
5. Make it fun. This is especially true if you have little kids, like kindergarteners and first graders. Use this as an opportunity to explore things that interest your child. Does your child think mummies are really cool? Find a kid-appropriate YouTube video on Egypt and mummies. Tornadoes? Learn about tornadoes together. Read some books together. Learn about measurements by baking a cake together from scratch.
6. School shouldn’t last eight hours. Well, not for little kids, anyway. It may take high school kids that long (but I wouldn’t think so). School normally takes us 2-3 hours at our house. When your child is getting one on one instruction, school doesn’t take as long. You are quickly able to teach what you need to teach and then help them or watch them do the problems/examples on their own.
7. Your child is learning. I just want to leave you with some encouraging words. You may be worried that you are failing your child. That you have royally screwed up 3rd grade for your child. I promise you, you are doing just fine. Like I mentioned above, even if you are searching out documentaries on YouTube for them to watch…they are learning. They will review these concepts at the beginning of the next school year.

I haven’t talked a lot about curriculum here because I’m assuming most of y’all are using school work that your school has sent home. But if you are in the need of some help, this is a wonderful website that has free resources and curriculum. We haven’t personally used it, but I’ve heard great things…and, hey, it’s free. I’d be happy to share curriculum we’ve used now and in the past in a separate blog post, if that’s helpful.

And I’m also happy to answer any more questions that you may have during this season. Feel free to leave questions in the comments, DM me on Instagram (@thefrontporchfarmhouse), or email me at hello@thefrontporchfarmhouse.com. And if you feel like this post may help some of your friends out, share on social media!

You’ve got this, friend!!

Sharlie