We believe learning must be more then rote memorization and good test taking skills. True education must be relevant to the intellectual, physical and spiritual aspects of a person's life and individual growth. Each child as well as each adult has unique learning abilities, styles, motivations and interests. Learning is ALWAYS going on, thought often nothing tangible is seen. In order to develop a love for learning we must respect a child's ability and desire to learn. Education is a way of life and thus we prepare our children by using real life, everyday learning experiences and encouraging thinking skills beyond textbook/grade levels.
Often the downfall of a family attempting to home educate is directly related to the structure that is forced upon the student. We must not bring school methods, tactics and standards to the home. Since we have seen how the public schools fail, we should not attempt to copy failure. This does require the parents to be very aware of what the chld is wanting to learn, is ready to learn and making sure the materials are available or field trips planned or projects encouraged. As parents we make sure the home has books of all types, games that encouarage thinking and learning in areas of history, science,vocabulary and math. We must also allow lots of free time for the child to develop their interests and have time to "do stuff" they feel is important. Younger students need very little actual academic time and lots of free time. Older kids need more structured time but still need to pursue their individual interests.
There may be times when a parent will want to insist on a certain subject being done in a particular way within a given time and that's ok. Some kids do well with structure, some dont. Each child is different and it's the parents responsibility to find out what their child needs. If your child is coming out of the public school system, some down time will be needed to adjust to the family and this whole idea of home education. If you feel burned out, stressed, frustrated, look to the curriculum or method of teaching first and the child second. Often we pick instruction methods based on our own learning style but fail to match our child's learning style. Listen to your child, look for another way to learn, be open to other avenues, even ones that seem controversial.
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