The School Year Is Underway! Now What?

Congratulations! You figured out the year’s curriculum, procured awesome and amazing school supplies, and carefully planned your weekly schedule. You’ve oohed and aahed over the new science topics and soon-to-happen experiments, you’ve lined up extracurriculars specifically tailored to each child’s favorite interests, and you’ve gotten past the review lessons.

And then, reality sets in.

One child doesn’t like the reading assignments; another still doesn’t understand 8 x 7 = 56 (and yes, I did just use my calculator because it looked highly suspicious and is a huge reason why I chose a writing career); and another child complains all the way through piano practice. And then, when someone asks your child if they’re excited about school this year (after what you thought had been a great start to the school year), they answer, “No, not really.”

I was homeschooled K–12th grade. Now I’m a homeschooling mom of a fifth grader and a seventh grader. I have many friends who were homeschooled or are homeschooling now. You’d think by now I’d be a pro when it comes to this homeschooling thing. But every day, I feel like I’m still figuring it out. Every day feels different and has its own unique challenges. So while my friends and I send encouraging text messages to each other or I have a brief parent/teacher meeting with myself in the corner of the kitchen as I chug yet another coffee, I rummage through my toolbox of tips I’ve gathered.

Have something to look forward to. Settling into a routine can be a great thing for many families. For others, it’s not (and that’s okay!). But in the midst of routine, either have a surprise or a planned event (or both) to look forward to. Maybe it’s an afternoon in the park, a field trip or adventure day, starting a new book or video series, or trying a new restaurant (bonus points if it’s cuisine from a country you’re studying in history or geography). For those of us who have long-distance friends and family, we might plan a video call to play trivia, math games, Battleship, and Guess Who (bonus art project: create your own Guess Who cards based on a topic being studied and send them to long-distance friends and family).

Do a subject at a “weird” time. Is history more enjoyed during a family dinner? Or is art appreciation or apologetics more dynamic after dinner or (gasp!) on the weekends? It’s okay to adjust subject schedules. This provides an opportunity for family-wide discussions and more time to linger on the topic instead of being rushed from one subject to the next.

Celebrate the big and little things. Finish school early for the day? Celebrate! Get the chores done in record time? Celebrate! Find a way to make spelling fun? Celebrate! Your child counts by fives? Celebrate! Your child decides to do two lessons in handwriting? Celebrate! You and your child connect the dots in science? Celebrate! Do I remember the math topics from the lessons that ended in tears? No. Do I remember how to spell “receive” because my mom gave me a high five the first time I spelled it correctly with the “i before e except after c” rule? Yes!

For this next one, brace yourself. It surprises me every year!

Know that not all subjects will always be thoroughly enjoyed by everyone all the time. And that’s okay. No job, not even my dream job, is 100% thoroughly enjoyed all the time. We live in a fallen world where work is required to grow and move forward. And as character building as homeschooling is, a character lesson to build along the way (and sometimes multiple times a day) is doing the task that needs to be done with a God-honoring attitude and quality. Can you find ways to make the task fun along the journey? Sure. Are there ways you can make finishing the task rewarding at its completion? Absolutely! But some subjects will just not be adored as much as others.

This is not to be a personal offense to us parents as teachers. It is an opportunity for us to encourage dedication and a stick-to-itiveness that will be a lifelong application.

Just because it’s not a favorite doesn’t mean you get to skip it or not do your best work. Just because it’s challenging doesn’t mean you’re failing; it means you get to grow. Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s bad. And yes, I may have said something along these lines to my kids and myself earlier today.

And last but not least . . .

Pray. Pray with your spouse, pray with your kids, pray on your own. Pray before you start school. Stop and pray when the lesson gets overwhelming. Pray as you end the school day and anticipate the next. Homeschooling and parenting sure make it easier to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).