I love having conversations with other home educating parents, we don’t always agree about everything but there is an understanding of what you are trying to achieve and an understanding of some of the issues. During one of my recent chats with a home educating dad he said the following – “Home education is suppose to be difficult. There is no good educator out there who finds every day easy.”
hmm that struck a cord with me. Even after our conversation I was still thinking about the phrase he used “suppose to be difficult”. I will admit that I find home education time consuming, I always have. It does not matter what stage the kids have been at I have always done a lot of reading and research. And yes there is normally always something that I am thinking about, wondering if I could do it better, if we could have done it differently, if I am doing enough, if I am even doing too much. It takes up a lot of my “thinking time”. And even though we have been doing this for 10 years now it does not feel like it gets easier, yes there are lots of things I have figured out, but each new stage of their learning requires me to do even more reading and research and brings a whole new set of things for me to worry about.
But having said all that I have never thought that it is “suppose to be difficult”, in fact I have often felt like a failure because I do find it challenging and there is part of me that thinks surely after all these years it should be easy. But is the fact that I find it challenging possibly a sign that actually I am doing it right? The fact that we (home educators) spend so much of our time worrying about what we are doing, how we are doing it, the fact that we are always talking to other home educators, trying to pick up suggestions or ideas, the fact that we are constantly trying to improve. Maybe that actually means we are on the right track. Maybe the simple fact that we are finding this challenging is a sign we are actually okay. It’s sign we are focused on providing our kids with the best that we can.
An interesting thought.
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Hi there – loved the article – made me think 🤔 – I agree that home education is supposed to be ‘challenging’ but not necessarily difficult – I think one of the positives about home ed is that you do change if not working or can find a better way – that is is adaptable – the world is changing all them time and the school system/ethos hasn’t changed in 100 years – which is why it doesn’t currently work for many people. Home educators are not the ‘oil tanker’ that takes years to change direction – we can change immediately, today or tomorrow if need be based on a better method, idea or direction based on our research and we are constantly improving – definitely skills for the workplace that will separate us from the rest. Thank you for the food for thought. Warm regards – Fran
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I totally agree one of the benefits about home educating is the fact that you can change whenever you need too. For me the comment that the dad made just helped put into context that those moments when I do find it difficult/ challenging does not equate to me doing a bad job. If I think of it as it is a difficult, challenging thing and it is normal to have difficult/challenging periods then I will not end up being so hard on myself.
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