One of the benefits of homeschooling my kids is that I get to
essentially learn or re-learn things right along with them.
When we first made the decision to homeschool, I had figured this
would be a nice bonus, but honestly didn't think I would be seeing
the benefits of it so soon. Let me tell you about three fun
examples of what I have been taught so far while teaching my kids.
I'd love to hear from other homeschooling parents if they have had
similar experiences.
One of the things I knew immediately that I wanted my kids to know
was how to read print. I planned to teach them braille as well,
but I also wanted them to know the shape of raised/embossed print
letters, like you often find on signs. There is just so much
practical benefit to this skill; I didn't want them to miss out.
I never learned this. I was taught braille very young but had no idea
about print letters. Well, here was an interesting problem. How
could I teach my kids something that I didn't know myself? The
only solution was for me to learn this right along with them.
Now, this probably sounds like a huge undertaking. But I've
realized something awesome about homeschooling and that is, I don't
have to know the whole of a subject to teach it to my kids. I
basically just have to be one step ahead of them in the learning
process. So I would have my husband, Luke, teach me a few
letters (we have various magnet letters and tiles that have raised
print on them) and once I knew those well, I would then teach the
kids. Once they were on their way to mastering, let's say, a
through d, I'd have Luke teach me a few more. This system
allowed me to teach them all 26 letters while learning it along with
them. It was actually pretty exciting.
After I had used this system for teaching Lexy, she and I had a very
fun outing. We went out and found embossed print on random
objects in our neighborhood and we were both able to read it
together! Although, I'll confess, she did better than me at
dealing with the different fonts. I wasn't even bothered by
that; I was just proud. And as for myself, it really felt
amazing to be able to read print!
Let's take a subject that I did learn in school, US geography.
I remember having to learn the US map by touch in fifth grade; I
worked really hard to be able to do that for the test. And I'm
pretty sure I promptly forgot it almost immediately afterward.
Mrs. Tallman, if you ever read this, I’m sorry. :) Well, I
had started to teach Lexy about states and capitals, but after a few
months of just memorization, I could tell she was quickly growing
bored. So, just to see how it would go, we got her a US puzzle
map. She really enjoys it and knows a good half of the US map.
But of course, I had to learn it before I could show her where all
those states are in relation to each other.
So, you guessed it, Luke teaches me a few states at a time and, just
like with the letters, it's working. I really am enjoying
re-learning the layout of our country. It just feels good to know
this simple thing again. I had always been hesitant about
homeschooling because I didn't think I had the time to raise kids
while learning an entire subject that was foreign to me. But
really, once I realized that I don't have to know the whole thing
before they do, it really opens up so many possibilities.
For example, as Lexy began to dive into her US map, we thought, "what
about expanding that knowledge base?" She already knew the
continents, so we found a Europe map puzzle. I’m very sad to
say that I’m a typical American and knew virutally nothing about
European geography. Now, thanks to teaching my daughter, that is
changing. It is seriously so cool, I mean, I now know that Spain is
east of Portugal or that Bulgaria is north of Greece. We are
learning and discovering together and it is just so interesting.
I love being a part of my children's education, while also learning
myself. It is another way for us to connect.
One last example is numbers. I don't mean arithmetic but simply
recognizing the shape of print numbers. That is something I did
not know either before homeschooling, having only ever known
braille. It has been fun to teach them the numbers and now we
can all recognize them in elevators or on hotel signs. The best
part is that these things have been just as useful for me to learn as
they have been for the kids. I don't feel like I am teaching
them useless things; we are all learning practical skills that we all
need.
Now, don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of challenging homeschool
days. Even so, I am glad to be the primary educator of the
family. It is a joy to see them discover the world and even
more fun to get to learn right along beside them.
