There is a standard joke within the homeschooling world. “Why do they call it homeschooling when were never at home!?” Although the overall public tends to ascertain home education as bubbling our youngsters faraway from the planet , the truth is that there are many opportunities for our youngsters to learn out and about. Maybe, in fact, there are too many opportunities. Before you know it , you’ll easily be so caught up with lessons, classes, meetups, co-ops, sports teams, etc. How are you able to avoid letting activities overrule your days?
The Dont’s
Don’t fall under the trap that every kid needs an activity to be fair.
Kids are all different and have different needs. If you’ve got multiple children, it’d seem unfair to register just one child into an activity. But it’s not. You need to seek out what your children need, not just an activity for the sake of an activity. For example, if you’ve got one child who is extremely social and active – you would possibly plan to sign them up for soccer. But your other child is extremely introverted and more on the “geeky” side of things. Signing them up for soccer might be an enormous disaster, because they’re unhappy and don’t like sports. He would rather stay on the brink of home and hang around with one or two of his closest friends. Don’t look for fair. Look at each of your children separately.
Don’t do something because it’s “expected” of you as a homeschooler.
Signing up for something simply because you think that that’s what homeschoolers are alleged to do can cause some very burned-out kids and fogeys . You don’t need to check in for a co-op, or music lessons, or course , or the local gym days. You don’t HAVE to do anything. That’s the beauty of homeschooling. You don’t HAVE to sign up for anything. If you’ve been battling an activity because you thought you had to…. I free you from that right now. Cross it off your list.
Don’t pack your days.
Our area has numerous things available for homeschoolers: classes for cooking, art, gymnastics, dance, music, swimming. There are library clubs, snowboarding teams, field trips, meetups, and volunteer opportunities. We could probably be so busy a day that we might never be home and never do “school.” But we might be exhausted. Don’t fill your days with everything. It’s just too much. Create peace by not having to rush around all the time. Start with one or two and add more activities as wanted or needed. (Follow the “less is more” mentality!)
Mostly being in charge of our days and our time, we are able to decide what is important to us and what isn’t, and we are able to give ourselves space to breathe and relax. If you follow these guidelines, you’ll come up with an idea for all of your extra activities which will work best for your family and youngsters .
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
