Seven Years, Seven Lessons - Lesson Four

I got a bit sidetracked with summer.  Two girls went on a missions trip to Alaska.  One of my older daughters just graduated college and will be getting married in a couple weeks.  My fifteen year old has spent the majority of this week fighting strep throat, and I have been doing all I can to ensure it doesn't spread to the other members of my family.  Needless to say, I haven't been faithful in blogging.

I wanted to finish my series, "Seven Years, Seven Lessons", that I began way back in April.  The series was put to the side with the busyness of finishing up the school year.  Lesson One discussed how it is perfectly fine to use school materials, despite the fact that they are often vilified at times with various homeschooling methods and beliefs.  Lesson Two discussed the importance of giving experiences to our children and how that can impact learning.  Lesson Three talked about the importance for Christian homeschoolers to make sure that God is the foundation of our homes and homeschools.

In Lesson Four, I wish to discuss Simplification.  I can make anything complicated, and then I stress myself out.  When teaching more than one child, homeschool can overrun a home.  Clutter and books and projects can take over, leaving a very chaotic and unorganized mess.  Over the years, as I tried this method and that method, I often found the chaos to be too much on me.  I had this idea in my head of what "learning" was supposed to look like, when the truth is that no one curriculum is going to meet the ideal in my head.  I often would overschedule, trying to make sure my child had the best of all worlds.  UGH!  What a mess!

I keep it simple now.  I purchase what works for us.  At times, what worked for one student is a total failure for another.  If I can't afford to purchase something else, I simply make do.  If I can afford to purchase something else, I do so prayerfully and carefully.  I have spent a LOT of money on various curricula over the years.  Many times, it only adds books to shelves, but is only partially used before I realize that it isn't what we need.  I have simplified our schedule, cut down on the amount of "topics" and "subjects" we learn.  I have simplified the materials we use. 

I've learned to keep the basics and add what I think enhances learning.  For example, I use a school text for history, adding in biographies and documentaries if I believe they will give a better understanding of what is being learned.  I overdid the documentaries this last year, and my teenage daughters began to dread them instead of looking at them as fun.  Movie day on the schedule was no longer an exciting break from bookwork, but instead became a dreaded hour.

cave drawing

I love hands-on work, but have learned that it can be overkill if a project is assigned every week.  The impact is soon lost and it becomes busy work.  The girls remember things like making wampum beads when studying Native Americans, or dying paper with tea to make cave drawings, or making Hamantashen cookies when we studies Esther and Purim.  However, when the projects got to be too many, they simply lost the impact they had when I was choosy.  Plus, it became stressful for me, making sure I had all the materials week after week for all these projects that eventually got tossed. 

I've simplified a lot of our learning, cutting out what is unnecessary.  As a result, my daughters have much more time to devote to personal interests... which is where most learning happens anyway.  Also, they are less stressed. I am less stressed.  School gets done with only the typical complaints about subjects they don't like.  It's refreshing to feel we are making progress, and not to feel like we are drowning and school isn't getting completed.

Jasmine playing piano

I'll be honest, simplifying meant using curricula occasionally that is sometimes unpopular in homeschool articles and blogs.  Text and workbook programs aren't the most popular.  They are classified as boring and ineffective.  And... sometimes they can be.  However, most of the time, this hasn't been the case.  My children have gained a lot of skill by the precept upon precept method.  They have done well with this method in math and English lessons.  While I want them to know more about history than a bunch of dates, history texts are easily supplemented with other resources that have more engaging lessons... such as biographies, the occasional documentary, and field trips!

Many parents find it helpful and simplifying to teach everyone the same thing for history and science when there are multiple students of multiple ages.  I tried that, and didn't like it.  For me, the age gap was so huge that I felt that I was teaching completely separate lessons anyway.  I do attempt to stay on similar topics for Bible, because we study together.  Every family is different, however, and this working together is successful in many families.  I would encourage any parent that is stressed with all the different topics and grade ranges to try to unit study method and see if it helps with the chaos and parental stress level.

I have also found that computer classes are a great simplification for me, especially in the upper grades.  I caution parents to have balance in this area.  Every public school in the area where I live now issues iPads for the students.  I have resisted the urge to do so.  While I think they can be a great tool to learning, I hesitate to do everything computer based.  Retention rates tend to be better with print than with digital means, and a lot of computer time can be rough on the eyes.  However, the interaction in math has helped my daughters "see" math better on the computer.  My high school students have used Teaching Textbooks for the past couple of years with great success.  My youngest learner has used various math games online to help cement math facts.  We've also used Rosetta Stone Spanish on the computer, and it has been a great addition to our schooling.  Both Teaching Textbooks and Rosetta Stone keep the grades for me, which lessons the workload on me and lets me focus on other areas.  I know some parents use Switched on Schoolhouse by Alpha Omega, and I could see it for a subject or two, but not for the whole of learning.  I just don't want my children on the computer that much. 

I have found that simplifying our schooling has been amazing for us.  My children and I, with the stress level down, actually learn more and get more accomplished.  We relax a little and don't feel so burdened to "get it all done."  It was a process, still ongoing, to learn simplification in our school.  After seven years, this could have been one of the lessons that has not only changed my homeschool, but also changed my life.