Southeast Texas Homeschool Spotlight. Debbie Slaughter. A lot to Consider.

Today’s Southeast Texas Homeschool Spotlight shares insights from Debbie Slaughter.

Debbie is a popular Southeast Texas Christian blogger.

Her blog “A Million Skies” highlights Southeast Texas Christian women’s issues including homeschool, motherhood, good stewardship, and the challenges and rewards of living a Christian life in the modern world.

Last week I had the privilege of helping an old friend prepare for her first year of homeschooling and I realized something…….I’ve been doing this for so long, that it’s really hard to condense 16 years into a few short hours of time!

It’s kind of like teaching Math, I found – you know how to do it, but to teach it, is a whole different ball game!

Usually new homeschooling moms come to me and they may have a few questions, but for the most part, they don’t know where to start and that’s understandable.

There are so many choices now (too many) of curriculum, methods, learning styles, etc., that it is impossible to know exactly how to chose what’s best for your child, without some specific questions being asked.

For instance:
What kind of teacher do you want to be?

This is important because some moms have the time to be creative with lesson plans and projects and some just have time for the basics.

Moms have to decide if their role will be that of a step-by-step teacher or if they will take on more of an administrator type of role; guiding, but allowing their child to work independently.

What kind of learner is your child?

Does she like to read, do workbooks, work on the computer, listen to audio resources, or are they hands on?

It’s important to know what works for your child (to a certain extent) because this narrows down the type of resources you will look at, for your core subjects. Now, it’s always ok to challenge kids to use a different type of resource and expand their minds, because that’s just life. We all have to adapt to what’s available.

But, if your child has an aversion to the computer, then you certainly wouldn’t purchase a full course curriculum that is done on the computer. Likewise, if a child is a slow reader, I wouldn’t recommend going with a curriculum that assigns 50 books for the year!

In these cases, you might require 2 books per semester and one subject on the computer, until the child becomes more proficient in those areas. A little steady practice goes much farther than forcing the child to fit into a mold, they simply can’t handle.

For instance, if you plop down 6 huge textbooks in front of most kids, eyes will glaze over and resistance will begin!

But, mixing it up with a few texts, workbooks, a computer course, and plenty of natural learning, will create a little more enthusiasm toward the school day.

Once it has been determined what kind of time you have to devote and what kind of learner your child is, you can begin the search for what fits both of you, best.

From there, it’s a matter of knowing what your goals are for the year and what courses need to be taught, in order to reach those goals.

You also want to be realistic about the amount of work you choose. With so many great choices in the catalogs, it’s easy to buy way too much. It’s too hard to choose just one, so we tend to over buy and then saddle our kids with an overwhelming amount of book work.

As much as it pains you, to NOT buy that fancy book everyone has been raving about, don’t do it unless you know it’s what you need!

It’s always better to stick to the bare minimum for the core subjects and then add fun activities or extra resources where needed.

These are just a few of the things that have to be decided, when beginning to homeschool. There are many more decisions that have to be made, year after year, and especially in the upper grades.

I love helping new homeschooling moms and it’s always exciting to hear of someone else taking on the responsibility of their child’s education.

It’s definitely not for the weak, but just like motherhood……it’s definitely worth doing!

If you’re new to homeschooling or even thinking about it, feel free to leave me a question or two in the comments.

Otherwise – have a blessed day!

Thank-you to Debbie Slaughter for another wonderful guest blog. She is a wonderful resource for anyone looking for information on Southeast Texas homeschooling.

Her experience is valuable and can help those interested in homeschool save time and money.