When homeschooling gets tough, it’s not time to buckle down until you buckle in; it’s time to break free and have some fun!
As the mommy of 15 children I’ve gone through the drudgery times, and I’ve found a golden secret that changed everything. I would like to share this with you today—no need to sign up for any course, completely free and without any obligation on your part.
If you’re just discovering this series, it’s all about resetting homeschooling via these three concepts:
1. Enthusiasm
2. Knowing your purposes
3. Knowing your goals
My last podcast presented the general idea for each, but today we are going to focus on enthusiasm.
We are going to begin by exploring what enthusiasm looks like, then we are going to talk about trauma, healing, and regaining the joy in your homeschool journey.
First, I would like to tell you a story.
I once knew a dear homeschool mommy who also happened to be a pastor’s wife.
She was used to having people peek in and judge her every action, so this made her extra cautious when she told me the “secret” way she had been educating her four children.
She confessed that for the last year she had not used any curriculum—she had simply followed her own passion and cooked.
Together her little family sampled all the different cuisines of the world. No Scope and Sequence; no vocabulary lists and term tests. They simply enjoyed all the tastes and techniques.
I couldn’t help but imagine all of the amazing learning that went on.
First of all, they had to some research. What types of foods did the people of each region have at their disposal? Why did they choose to make their particular type of bread, or cheese, or vegetable dish? What type of oven did they develop? What historical events shaped their tastes? What sorts of festivals do they enjoy and why?
Then they had to discover the science of cooking. They needed to understand leavening agents and fermentation. They would definitely need to understand the biology of food-borne illness.
They would be reading and writing down recipes while practicing converting amounts as they would need to double and triple some of the ingredients.
They may even delve into some world history as they wanted to know the origin of spices such as cinnamon and turmeric.
By doing all of this they were touching on reading, writing, history, geography, and math.
And all of it started with one thing:
Enthusiasm.
This little homeschool family became enthused about cooking, and the rest came naturally.
(In case you are curious, all of these children went on to become helpful and productive individuals.)
What is “enthusiasm” anyway?
Britannica Dictionary defines it thus:
strong excitement about something : a strong feeling of active interest in something that you like or enjoy
The word comes from the Greek: en–meaning “in” and theos, meaning “God,” so “enthuse” is actually “God within.”
So, it is actually about having God in us (initially meaning to be possessed by God–or at least a god of the pantheon in that age).
This makes a lot of sense to me. I don’t think God is bland or boring. I believe He gets excited about His plans for us. In His presence there is fullness of joy–He is exuberant and full of life, not dour and brooding as we like to think.
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Romans 8:6
Homeschooling should never be boring drudgery. If that is what you are experiencing, then something is very, very wrong.
God is full of life, and His ideas and creation are full of life. This should be the hallmark of Christian homeschooling: a program that is brimming with the life of God.
This might include a worktext, but with verve and creativity, as the textbook is servant to the fullness of the life of God, and not the other way around.
Life-giving homeschooling should squirm too much to fit into a single volume. It should always want to blaze its own path and go in unpredictable directions. The bindings of most school books don’t allow for that.
It can, however, meander among and through numerous books, and websites, and documentaries, and movies, and outings, and concoctions in the kitchen and the backyard.
There can be some writing in the form of jotting down notes on things one reads or listens to, and these can turn into notebooking pages with illustrations, copywork, and essays.
It often turns into a family magazine or a poster or a diorama with trees and plants and dinosaurs.
It may mean a song is composed and sung. It may mean puppets are created and used to act out a part of history. It could look like a costume for a reenactment of the knights of the round table or Washington’s crossing of the Delaware.
But it is usually the coziness of a mother and her children reading aloud and talking for hours while snuggling warmly and watching the snowflakes fall outside.
Even when there are some books that must be gone through methodically, such as reading, math, and grammar, enthusiasm must be the fragrance that surrounds.
In long addition, or subtraction, or multiplication, or division, there can be excitement. Mommy must dig deep and muster enjoyment over getting a problem done—the realization that there is great order in the world because of a God who is not only involved on a macro level, but on a micro level. He is so intelligent that He not only comprehends the vastness of the universe, but every nuance of a fractal generation.
I tell my children that working math problems (especially algebra calculations) is like doing puzzles, and I love finding the solutions. They believe me because I do the problems right along-side them.
In fact, I have found that my own participation is key to getting my children to enjoy their learning. It’s my interest and their relationship with me that makes the entire engine move.
Norman Vincent Peale had this to say on the subject:
There is an extraordinary, dynamic quality about enthusiasm. It is permeated by a victorious attitude so powerful that it sweeps all before it. It brings the personality alive, releasing dormant powers…The difference between enthusiasm and faith is very slight indeed. Perhaps enthusiasm may be defined as faith that has been set afire.
This is the quality that will also set our homeschooling afire!
There is another thing I want to offer here.
If you don’t feel enthusiastic, don’t despair.
You might not be able to become excited about learning because you’ve never encountered it in this way. To you, schooling may stir up old wounds and feelings of failure.
This is something you need to hear:
It isn’t your fault.
You didn’t fail, the system failed you; it failed to consider your needs and shield your tender heart from rejection and ridicule. It failed to consider your creativity and the beauty God placed within you. While you must forgive all the people who were unknowingly responsible for your hurt, it is nonetheless real.
But things are different now. You aren’t in a classroom with people staring at you, ready to pounce the moment you make a mistake.
You are at home with your children, and you can let down your guard and look at learning from a new perspective. You can allow yourself to be happy in exploring and discovering, not for a grade or reward, but just because you are interested and want to know more.
You didn’t know this, but while you are homeschooling your children with understanding and love, you are being healed yourself.
It is a principle of God’s Kingdom; it is in giving that we receive. You needed compassion and reassurance; when you give these things to your child your own needs are being met.
You needed someone to notice you; when you pay undivided attention and give recognition to your child, you are also being acknowledged.
You yearned for the freedom to explore and enjoy; this is the season when you get to explore and enjoy with your children.
Maybe you aren’t excited about reading or math or spelling, or at least not in a healthy way.
That’s OK, you don’t have to be excited about those academics at first.
The first thing you need to do is to get back into your little girl self. Do you remember her wonder at the world?
Look through the eyes of your own child. Do you sense their wonder?
Let that lead you.
Let that be the place you start—not the long list of things you are supposed to be doing every day.
Make your own, new lists—lists of things you always wanted to know about. Things your children want to know about.
What sorts of books have you always wanted to read? Go to the library and let your imagination be stirred by what’s available there.
Bring a whole bunch of those books home and spread them out on the kitchen table. Start looking through them and reading them aloud.
Have fun.
After you get your wonder back, after you have established your enthusiasm, then, and only then, you can add in structure (which is also vitally important, it just must be the servant and not the master).
You can even become enthusiastic about bringing order into your explorations (miracles can happen!).
As you can see, this is not any laissez-faire operation where we allow our children to run wild all day and call it homeschooling.
We are talking here about allowing our enthusiasm to be a catalyst into a world of learning that far surpasses any expectations of conventional schooling.
We are, as Charlotte Mason said so clearly, developing education as an “atmosphere, a discipline, a life.”
You can listen to this as a podcast by clicking below:
Healing For Burnout (iTunes)
Healing For Burnout (Spotify)
“In fact, I have found that my own participation is key to getting my children to enjoy their learning.”
Yes, yes, yes! I think this is KEY to homeschooling well and I was just writing about this very topic yesterday. We must enter into the learning with them. My kids are taking a fabulous health class right now. They will write and draw what they are learning in a journal and so do I. The kids are also learning astronomy and I get psyched about the shooting star I saw in the early morning and I share that with them. The kids are listening to audiobooks and I am doing the same. I notice whatever I get excited for, they do too. This is a really important principle that is often overlooked. Thanks for sharing!
What sweet illustrations of this point–learning with our kids is one of the biggest perks of the whole process 🙂