Me? Patient???

Received the following comment:

I think homeschooling is great for those who have the patience to do it. I am really afraid that I would not be diciplined enough to educate my children at home. We get off task with just the few little preschool lessons I try. I taught public school (6-12 grade) for 13 years and it was easier than teaching my teaching my 3 year old her shapes and colors.

Whenever someone says they don't have the patience to homeschool, I think either:

1. Their kids are disobedient and they don't like being around them, or

2. They are putting pressure on themselves to do too much at too young of an age.

I don't feel it's necessary to do any formal work with a 3 year old. I know there is pressure on mothers to do so, but children are perfectly capable of learning their shapes and colors without "preschool lessons". I only do preschool work with Jazzy because she asks to do school every morning, but even with that I am surprised at what she already knows.

Just enjoy your days with your daughter. Read, play, take walks, go on outings, let her help you around the house and talk to her about what you're doing. One thing I learned from my aunt is to leave interesting things lying around for them to toy with and ask about. We have an old keyboard in the playroom. Usually the kids just play the pre-recorded music and dance around, but yesterday Drew asked me if I wanted to hear "do re mi" and played it on the keyboard. Now I know I need to learn a bit about music so I can show him things when he expresses interest.

My favorite homeschooling book is How Children Learn by John Holt. It is not a Christian book, but it gives wonderful insight into how children absorb information. The companion book How Children Fail is also great and may be of interest to you as a former teacher. Raymond Moore also has some good books on the subject of early learning.

It is amazing how previous generations seemed to learn everything they needed to know without the push for early learning and constant stimulation through bright lights, vibrating chairs, loud music, videos, constant chatter and educational toys that we bombard kids with from birth. It seems they understood children needed a simple, peaceful environment, free time to play and explore, and lots of outside time. It is also amazing that there was no ADD back then and the literacy rates were higher than they are now.

I LOVE reading. I learned to read at age 4 and devoured books from then on. I started reading to Drew before he could even sit up. When he was a toddler I asked my mom a question about reading and she said, "I don't know. We didn't have to read to children so young back then." Now we must read to our babies in utero or they'll be behind, LOL!

So back to the topic of patience - you are probably putting too much pressure on yourself. Other than the fun stuff, only do what your daughter asks to do. If you leave some workbooks around she will probably ask to do them.

Now I must bust the myth that all homeschooling moms are patient. You should have seen me gritting my teeth while Drew was learning to read. It took everything within me to avoid yelling "CAT! C-A-T spells 'cat'. And if it spells 'cat' on page 1 it spells 'cat' on page 2." Poor child. He learned to read in spite of me.