The following is a post from contributing writer Tabitha.
Where’s the WOW?
What do we do on the days where we do not have something fantastically creative or tremendously exciting planned? Is it a WOW day every day?
Almost all the cool homeschooling ideas show big projects, long involved processes, and huge AHA moments where they learn a concept they’ve been struggling with or where everything goes JUST right….
So what about all the other days? (You know, the days where we found out about the struggling, saw the need for the creativity, found the idea for excitement, and planned for it…)
Every day is not going to be a picture perfect homeschool family day. We’re not all going to get up, get our family together and everyone dressed perfectly, and have an adventure. We’re not all going to be Einsteins. We’re not all going to have fun EVERY SINGLE DAY while we are learning.
For one, there are too many variables. Depending on the size of your family, each person has a chance to get sick or just have a bad day. This can throw the whole family dynamic off.
Weather isn’t always conducive.
There are always emergencies.
Errands. ‘Nuf said there.
Appointments.
Paperwork.
Bills.
Housework.
Day to day troubles.
Changes in plans.
Power outage.
Family issues.
And that’s just household stuff. What about the educational stuff?
Backtracking through material.
Tests.
Schedules.
Review.
Speeding through some things.
Different levels.
Different learning styles.
Internet outages (ugh, this happened a couple times this past week to us…)
Lost books.
Out of paper.
And so on and so forth.
What works when this is LIFE and LIFE is homeschooling?
Above the clouds, we forget what gets us up there…
Consistency… day in, day out, just keep on doing what you are doing. Let some things go, but keep at it. Today we ran out of time between taking care of all the “life” stuff. I was out of town over the weekend for a family funeral, and we were doing catch up. Spelling was not in the cards today. However, this only works when spelling IS a priority all the other days.
What is it that you want to accomplish each day? Do that. What can be done no matter where you are? Do that. What can a missing older child catch up on later or a younger child skip entirely? Do that when they aren’t there. Is missing Math for a day going to keep anyone behind? Nope, but that’s only if we make sure we keep going on the other days.
Don’t give up. We’ll get there. We push on through the bad days and do what we can to keep a learning atmosphere in our home, even when it seems like the day is a total loss.
My family knows what to expect each day. They know what to do even when I may not… and that’s because when I do, we keep things consistent.
The WOW is possible because we set the background with our day to day learning.
About Tabitha
