What I wish I knew Then

It has now been five years since our homeschooling journey began. In between,among other things, Allah has blessed me with one diploma, an M.Ed,a baby and of course the joy of seeing my children grow before my eyes- something that not many of us now are given the opportunity to. To mark this event, I would like to look at some things that I wish I knew or have done when I first started out, in no order of importance. 1. It's okay not to have a school of thought behind everything you are trying to do. Montessori helped me a lot in building that approach to help my children learn and it has had a great influence eversince. I have gone on to learn other approaches like Waldorf, play-based learning and even (gasp!) formal school curriculum and instruction. In the end, as a homeschooler, we should make use of that great flexibility that is available to us and the personal knowledge we have of our children to decide what's best for them and sometimes this simply means following your heart (and of course your children). 2. You don't have to follow the school time-table As much as I think of myself as a creative and open person, I keep falling into norms and routines I have always known as a child and when I was growing up and this included following school hours and terms. Again, make use of that flexibility as a homeschooler and build school around your family's needs. For example, if you are working part-time from home in the mornings, you can teach in the afternoon when things are more settled and you have got your chores covered. Your children can also do work or projects that you have assigned to them the day before when you are working/ doing chores and make use of that time in the morning to stretch their minds instead of trying to absorb new information. 3. Use varied approaches Sometimes in trying to cover the syllabus (especially when your child is expected take the national exams), I get caught in a textbook-workbook rut. At this point, stop, stand back and look at your child who is looking at you with a blank look on his face and who keeps taking toilet and snack breaks when assigned a piece of work. It is not worth it. The truth is, learning through a multi-dimensional approach could even help him or her better. So, go explore that Horrible Science book with your child, watch Frankenstein and still have him go through the workbook to get him acquainted with this exam formalities. 4. Delegate If you have older children, let them pass on their knowledge to their younger siblings. They'll be more than happy to, most of the time. I also noticed that sometimes, children can relate to each other better and this helps to facilitate the process better than when Mummy does it with her adult-child relationship status. It also helps to build that community of learning, where we learn from each other about anything. This also relates to household matters. Children are never too young too young to learn to help around the house (except maybe the baby/ toddler); from putting the laundry into the basket to cooking lunch. 5. Prepare, prepare,prepare Although I am all for the idea of spontaneous learning, this cannot happen all the time as children should have some structure in their daily life that will contribute towards their future discipline. As such, I have to constantly remind myself to prepare by at least understanding the content of my lesson and to add; deciding on my approach, having the learning materials ready and eventually assessing the child's understanding. Into this, you can build in the flexibiity of following related interests shown by the child or doing alternative approaches as they come up. There are of course many other areas I wish I could have done better, but 5 is my magic number (any longer and anyone who reads this will fall into slumber), and I am past the time I've allowed for myself. This topic can always be revisited and I am, of course, eager to know what others have learned from their homeschooling journey.