Shirley's Advice to New Homeschoolers
Practical tips, advice, encouragement and homeschooling information for beginners.
Home education is an exciting and rewarding journey, which you will embark upon when you make the choice to home educate your children on a long term basis. It requires sacrifice and commitment but most of all a strong conviction that this is the right choice for your family. If you are Christians, it should be your conviction that home education is God’s will for your family. Some practical advice to consider: 1. Since home education is a journey, don’t expect it to end the way it begins. Things change. Your first year might possibly be your worst year – and that does not mean that it will go badly. Quite the contrary – it may go very well. However, in my experience home education only gets better. You, the parent become better organised, more experienced and confident. Your children learn what is expected, become more capable and mature and together you establish new habits and routines, discover new interests, talents and new ways of learning. 2. Don’t think that the choices you make today are “cast in stone”. We all begin with pre-conceived ideas of what curriculum and materials we need, but these tend to change over time as we listen to advice, become more experienced and better informed. 3. Initially, buy just the basics in order to give yourself time to gain practical experience and to become better informed about different options. At the least, begin with preschool activities that develop a range of different skills and just spend time establishing routines in your home where you read aloud together often until you are sure about what you need to buy. Research your options, seek advice and attend curriculum fairs where you can view the products before you buy. 4. Join a support group – there are online e-loops, local support groups and larger provincial home education associations in most areas. Since home educators are a minority of the general population, you may often feel like the only fish swimming upstream. It is comforting to know that you are not alone. Support groups also provide great opportunities for sharing ideas, getting tips and advice from veterans, arranging group outings and socializing with like-minded families.
By joining a provincial or state home education association, you will also be giving them more political leverage as they will then represent a larger homeschooling community. 5. Educate yourself continuously. Home education is a new career and you need sound advice for this high calling, so spend time and money preparing and equipping yourself for the task to which God has called you. 5.1 Sign up for my free e-zine, The Whole Child which will give you five easy preschool activities to develop different aspects of your child's brain each week. 5.2 Read home education parenting resources, books and internet articles, attend seminars and workshops and ask for advice when you need it. (You can contact me if you like.) If you would expect your child’s school teacher to keep informed about new trends in education, you should require no less of yourself! Begin with Better Late Than Early 6. Explain your decision about home education to your children in a way that they can understand. Especially as they grow older, they need to understand your vision and the reasons why they are being educated differently from the majority of the population. Our children understand that this is a decision that we, their parents have made, based on our better judgment and that it is not negotiable. At times when our eldest has thought that she was missing out on opportunities and experiences available at school, she has questioned our decision. We re-assured her that we have our children's best interests at heart and we point out the different opportunities and privileges that they have experienced which school-going children have not. That usually ends the conversation abruptly. (The grass is not always greener on the other side!) The same advice applies to sceptics and critics outside the immediate family. When questioned about our decision, we simply point out that any educational choice has advantages and disadvantages and that we believe that home education is the best choice for OUR family. Then we try to use the opportunity to make them better informed about the benefits of home education.
Spiritual Advice and EncouragementIn our experience, there have been days where I have cried with frustration and wished I could just bundle my children off to school and be alone at home, in peace and quiet. I have wished that I could hand over my responsibilities to someone else and not have to face the mess, the bad attitudes and deal with disciplinary issues but, in my heart, that small, still voice has reminded me that that is not the path that the Lord has set before me. I have had to calm down, refocus and ask the Lord for forgiveness, for renewed patience and a His advice. I have discovered that "...God's initial goal for Christian homeschooling families is not the raising of godly children. Instead, God's wonderful, but subtly hidden agenda is that the homeschooling experience be so challenging for the parents that they feel the need and hunger for a closer walk with their heavenly Father." (Kyle Miller) I can testify that many times I have come to the end of ‘myself’, so to speak, and that He has lifted me up from my despair, filled my heart with joy and that consequently, we have been blessed with many happy times, even too many to remember.
Homeschooling is not just about the academics of education. It is a lifestyle that a family chooses, putting their family values as a high priority. Family relationships develop and deepen and a great sense of unity develops as you spend time together, working and sharing ‘growing-’ and learning experiences. "The very word 'homeschooling' can cause us all to forget that what we are doing is not about home-SCHOOLING but about creating that context in which we assist God in raising the little ones in our homes to become His men and women who are truly prepared for what is going to happen in their own generation. To be like King David whom God did not identify as a man 'with a good job,'but as a man who 'served his generation well.' " (Chris Davis) There is nothing more satisfying than seeing a child virtually ‘devour’ good literature and know that you have taught her to read and helped her to discover the pleasure of reading books …or to hear another child begging you to listen to her trying to read on her own … or another tell you about his observations and discoveries out in the garden… to see your children enjoying drawing, writing poems and doing spontaneous narrations about what they have learnt. In spite of some struggles, these are just some of the many heart-warming and happy moments that home education has brought me.
A final word of encouragement: Be strong and courageous - you will not be alone on this journey of home education. Many others have gone before you and if they could succeed, then with your Heavenly Father as your Counselor and Guide, you can succeed too. “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion…”
Philippians 1:6
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or Homegrown Kids by Raymond and Dorothy Moore, Ruth Beechick’s 
