Some Things I Wish I Had Understood When I Started Homeschooling
1. Lessons do not equal learning.
2. Curriculum does not trump real work.
3. My expectations about "who our children will be and what our children will do" need to sit down and shut up.
4. Most veteran homeschoolers don't do sit-down lessons until the child is six or older.
5. Some veteran homeschoolers don't do parent-initiated lessons.
6. Some children don't read until they're 10. Others, 13. And then they pick up and are reading at the same level as their been-reading-since-kindergarte
7. The years we did book learning like mad, our son tested really well. The years we did no book learning at all, our son tested better. Don't put much stock in book learning or testing.
8. No lesson, no video, no book, no class can substitute for a curious parent who is with her child and asking questions, exploring, reading aloud, making messes, making mistakes, facilitating, doing intellectual match-making, and explaining stuff. There's no substitute.
9. You must spend a lot of time with your child every day, intentionally, and open-heartedly.
10. If you focus on understanding the child's needs and capacities everything else will fall into place. Until you understand the child you have in front of you, nothing will fall into place and you'll keep going from thing to thing to thing.
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