Taryn's Story

Our family is very new to homeschooling - we're only now coming to the end of our first school year doing Pre-K schooling with my eldest daughter. It's been quite a journey and so far I've learnt:

1) It's okay if things don't go according to plan! Go with the flow and get back on track as soon as possible. Some of the best learning moments happened outside of "school".

2) How you handle the baby and the other kids who are not being formally schooled is just as important as how you handle schooling those who are old enough. The eldest will learn from your example. And when your example is not so great, apologies go a looong way to teaching them about grace, forgiveness and starting afresh.

3) Include the littlies as much as possible. It teaches the kids about sharing - the difficulties and the joys.

4) If the book/curriculum is not working - toss it! My eldest was dead keen to learn how to read from an early age, so we started early. 3/4 the way through our year she started to hate her reading lessons. She's a perfectionist and when she can't do it right, she doesn't want to do it at all. For a while we pushed on through with the lesson, all the while Kiera became increasingly frustrated and despondent. The temptation was to keep plugging at it because we'd bought the reading book / because we "have" to finish etc. Eventually, we tossed it. I wrote my own little stories for her to read and illustrate. It's given her a whole new lease on learning and now she is excited to read again and loves being able to illustrate her own stories.

5) Every moment is a learning moment... whether it's a bug to be examined on the pavement; a character trait to be developed; a song with an interesting word or meaning ... day or night, seize the opportunities around you in normal conversation.

We're still learning lots and I appreciate the forums at Sonlight.com for the support and ideas I get from the homeschooling moms there. Real life help is great too and I'm grateful to be able to have friends to share this journey with. Ultimately, though, I know that this journey would be that much more difficult if I didn't bring it to the Lord in prayer. So, my last word of advice is to KEEP praying!

You can read more about Taryn's homeschooling happenings at her family blog: www.hayesfamily.co.za

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