What is Real Life Homeschool?
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Real Life Homeschool.
Just what does it mean?
Like so many aspects of life, homeschooling your children can be something that you feel inadequate at doing. I know that I certainly fall into pitfall more often than I want to admit.
Why might that be?
Well, social media has opened up the flood gates for people to show their BEST side of life which gets some of us (myself included) thinking about all the things we aren’t doing or are ‘failing’ at doing.
Whether this is what the Schoolhouse Review Crew leaders had in mind when they put together this week long Real Life Homeschool hop, I can’t say.
But, I can say that this is my time to show all the ‘fails’ and ways we’ve adjusted carefully laid plans during the school year.
So…what is real life homeschool to me?
Real Life Homeschool is living authentically with your children as you help them to acquire the knowledge and skills they will need for a lifetime.
Like the more traditional approaches to schooling (well, of the last 100 or so years), this does include needing to learn basic skills like reading and committing certain facts to memory (e.g. 1 + 1 = 2) However, how it all comes together and the schedule of how it happens is unique to each child and homeschool family.
Guess what? It often is NOT pretty. Well, unless you consider a chaotic environment pretty.
Does that mean I don’t gain something useful from visiting other blogs and seeing how they are teaching their kids? Not at all.
I dream of the day when the house is orderly. My ‘ideal learning environment’ for the kids would be a much more comfy version of a classroom with everything in its place.
However, the boys are not so cooperative with this and the school room is such a hot mess at the moment that I can’t bear to be down there. Instead, I do my work at the kitchen table, sit on the couch with my pre-K son to do his work (or the ground if it is messier stuff), and allow the teens to work in their chosen environments amid the chaos.
I also recognize that sometimes learning happens OUTSIDE of a ‘classroom’ setting. So, in essence, the world is our classroom. This is especially true in the younger ages when time spent outdoors observing nature can help them learn so much more than reading from a book.
What does Real Life Homeschool mean to you?
What are some of the challenges you have with homeschooling? Is falling into the comparison trap one of them?
Day by Day in our World is joining other homeschool bloggers from the Schoolhouse Review Crew in sharing glimpses of our real life homeschool. Here are just a few of the bloggers participating this week.
Every Bed of Roses
Ben and Me
Footprints in the Butter
Mountain of Grace Homeschooling
Raventhreads
Counting Our Blessings
Homeschooling for His Glory
Ozark Ramblings
Chestnut Grove Academy
Only Passionate Curiosity
Farm Fresh Adventures