Every year, the goal is to become “life learners”, who learn year round and don’t really follow the traditional school year schedule. But every year I find myself needing to re-evaluate our Homeschool. So we find ourselves having a “back to school” affair anyway. Old habits die hard I suppose. I hated public school, hated that I had to waste my entire childhood doing things I wasn’t interested in, but the routine of it all must still be somewhat ingrained in my brain. I’m realizing (after 6+ years of homeschooling) that de-schooling can be a very slow process.
In previous years, we have tried set curriculums and styles. We tried official Waldorf curriculum one year, packaged Charlotte Mason curriculum the next, and tried doing basically nothing during 2020. All of them failed. Don’t get me wrong, they went fine at the beginning, but inevitably they all failed once the glamour of something new wore off. Then I spent the rest of the year fighting to un-do the damage that was done. This year I am finally determined to embrace what I’ve known was right all along. I want life learners. Unschoolers, child-led learning, living life, whatever you call it. I am officially there. Finally.
A different start to this year
So to start, I am focusing on healthy habits (small tidbits at first) that can hopefully grow as my children grow and continue with them through adulthood. Many of these ideas are from Nicole Shiffler’s “Empowered Homeschool Club”. If you haven’t heard of her, you should check her out on Instagram. She will change your homeschool forever, in the most positive ways possible. Nicole’s “daily habits” are where I am starting. Another great thing about this idea is that I am doing it along with my kids! I can show my kids my own chart, like theirs, and that we are all in this together. Rather than it feeling like mom bossing the kids around, expecting them to do things the parents wouldn’t actually do. Isn’t that the mindset of public school again? Yuck, not here, no more.
Using charts & journals
This chart is for my 8 year old to assist with developing those habits. The chart for my 12 year old is similar. I created them in Canva, printed them and laminated them. Then I presented them to my kids this morning and asked them to hang them in their rooms in a spot where they would easily see them each day. I also made a journaling page that walks them through each step and then bound a bunch of them together with my spiral binding machine (One of the best homeschool purchases ever!). These “habits” are designed to help my children learn personal responsibility, spiritual growth, emotional and mental health, physical health and hopefully writing skills too. I have told them (especially for my oldest who hates writing) if they do this each day, I won’t make them do “official writing assignments” for the school year. which is also part of my attempt to get away from arbitrary assignments left over from my public school mentality and teach them skills through living life.
I made this chart for my youngest who can’t yet read or write. This way he can still be developing good habits from a young age and his habits can grow as he does. If you are interested in the PDF journaling page, you can download it below. Hopefully this has inspired you to begin the journey of raising life long learners. And if you are already on that journey, hopefully you’ve enjoyed reading a little bit about mine. I would love to hear about your journey!
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