Homeschooling your children has a lot of benefits to it. You can ensure your children are learning what they need to, teach them from your own bank of skills, and you can educate all year round, which is great during times of uncertainty. However, running a homeschool can be an untraditional setup.
Kids can find it hard to adjust, especially if they’ve been in external school settings for most of their life. Helping them to settle into this new way of learning is an essential stage when you first get started, but if you’ve noticed any of your children still struggling months or even years later, it could be a sign something’s wrong.
They Miss Having Classmates
If you’ve pulled the kids out of a public or private school to educate at home, the change can be a big one. A new environment with far less people in it – their world can soon feel much smaller. Even if homeschooling is all they’ve ever known, kids can get bored and lonely in the classroom and find it hard to make friends later on in life.
And as a parent, this can be hard to watch. It’s why school trips and days out, arranging playdates, and encouraging extra curricular clubs is such an integral part of the homeschool experience. Children are there to learn when in the classroom, but they can still form friendship bonds outside of educational periods – they may even make stronger relationships because of this!
They May Have a Learning Difficulty
A learning difficulty can really put the brakes on your child’s development during their school years. Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, ADD and ADHD – they’re all hard to deal with at any age, but especially when you’ve got school work to do on a 5 day basis. And children tend to be far less disciplined and self motivating than adults, so staying focused is a skill they may never quite pick up on.
If you suspect your child may have a learning difficulty or even a mental health issue that’s making homeschooling much harder for them, talk to a professional. Share your thoughts with them ASAP, as there may be pyschological testing available! Indeed, identifying a neurodevelopmental difference right now could be the key to unlocking future academic success.
Their Teacher is a Little Exhausted
And no one could blame you – it’s hard to be parent and teacher both! You’re burning the candle at both ends to do the best for your children, and that can take its toll in the classroom. Your lesson plans may become more sparse, and you may get easily frustrated at various points.
Understanding this is a possibility is halfway to fighting it. So assign days when you need to work on lesson materials and only work on those days. Similarly, when the kids take a break, make sure you do too. Enjoy your lunch – don’t work through it!
The homeschool struggle isn’t permanent! You can soothe it with methods like these.