Whether your children do all their study at home or attend school and continue their study at home, there are some common threads that can help make your place a simple, stress-free learning environment for all.
Children appreciate when we respect and encourage them individually. Every year involves challenging growth and change for a child that adds something new to their identity. Kids are asked in public,"What grade are you in? Do you like your teacher? What is your favorite subject? What do you want to be when you grow up?" Many positive and stressful situations can take place in one school day. For example, children deal with the joys and challenges of friendship, the discipline of difficult subjects, the everyday routine, family life, handling failure, growth spurts, and on it goes.
As a teacher, I was sympathetic to the ups and downs of school life. My goal as a teacher was to be organized but flexible, to set the expectations and routine, be firm, fair and friendly, respect each child, understand their learning pace and encourage good effort. Whether I have taught a classroom of children or a one-room schoolhouse at my dining room table I have carried the same principles for each school year.
Children need quiet, creative outlets. We try to carve out time for this during the school week. Whether it is writing, music, or art, these can be personal and enjoyable times of learning. One of the ways I encourage this at home is to have art supplies on hand in special bins, cabinets, and drawers that are accessible to older children and easy for me to get for the younger ones.
A good rule of thumb from teaching preschool is only put out as much as you are willing to clean up. In other words, put just enough paint, water, glue, and glitter in little cups for someone to work with on paper. Expect the mess and enjoy the result. Each child should have their own set of materials and space where they can work on their own.
Some children do better with a few guiding ideas to get them thinking what they would like to make. All children are creative in mind and should have the opportunity to develop their creative skills one project at a time. Providing a blank paper and a few materials is far more exciting to a budding artist than a "pre-fab, color-in-the-lines project." We break up the day or the week with some form of creativity after our subjects are done. Rainy day projects keep a week humming along in our home.
After teaching in school for several years and doing the same at home I can tell you we have never had a "normal year." Do not set the bar too high for your children, expecting to have an "amazing year." School is important but it is only one part of our life, so try to relax and aim to keep it at a happy, supportive pace.
We learn from books but we also learn from daily life at home. Life comes at us in all kinds of venues. Sometimes families move, have a long-term illness, mom has a baby, we lose loved ones, we lose a job, we have relationship stresses, financial difficulties cause us to pick up more duties, a parent goes back to school, both parents become employed, the list goes on and we ourselves have experienced all of these over the years.
Each year we look ahead and prepare the best we can and know the Lord is not wringing His hands. Your children are always learning and you are their guide, but know that the Lord is your sovereign guide. You also are along for the ride so be open to the lessons you all will learn each year.
Believe it or not I am not the most organized person when it comes to school. Go ahead and gasp, friends, but I am partially organized for a reason. This means I know what needs to be organized and I know where to breathe so that I don't drive my pupils crazy with unnecessary stress.
There is a happy line somewhere for you between rigid and chaos. For example, do we have to have everything neatly lined up everyday? or can we place items in a designated place to be sorted later or found when needed?
The first day is always nice with the fresh books, pencils sharpened, and that lovely new box of crayons. But our goal is to learn, so we roll up our sleeves and use our books, we work on papers, toss out a lesson and start over, circle items to be redone, erase, star, and smudge along the way. By the end of the year I have a drawer full, files full, and books full of young peoples effort. It isn't pretty but they all worked and hopefully somewhere we enjoyed the ride.
There will be times in your year children have tears, times of "I can't do this," and the old shut-down because the work caught up from half-effort. This is where you as their guide breathe deep and know it is all part of the learning process. Not everyone learns at the same pace. Did we all take our first steps at 12 months? We adults have learning struggles in the work place too. Pray for a heart that is sympathetic to your student. Expect these times to happen along the way and know this is a great time to have a one-on-one with your child so you can assess what is going on and encourage them along the way. Keep these precious struggles in the home and build a loving, trusting, growing place as a family. Nothing is sweeter then a child keeping at something with effort and having a moment of "Okay, I got it."
Children need clean, well-lit, comfortable, and happy places to work. We have the blessing of two cats that join our work place at their leisure and sometimes conveniently try to lay on top of an open math book. Occasionally, I will play classical music in the background and allow some time of chatting during the day. We make sure everyone is well-fed and well-rested. Any time a test is taken children need a quiet place to focus. Reading for leisure is encouraged every day. Weekly trips to the library are a treat on Friday afternoons. I have children read aloud to one another while studying shared subjects and enjoy reading to them as a group.
Every year I provide blank notebooks simply for creative writing. These notebooks are not graded or edited. They are simply to get the writing process flowing. My beginner writers start with drawing pictures of their story in a sequence and I write in front of them as they dictate simple sentences to me. We read their titled, stapled story together at the end. Having a young child speak and draw out a story on a series of stapled, blank pages helps their story ideas flow with more ease. I would guide simple writing concepts as they dictated the sentences. This activity for eager pre-writers helped supplement the language arts process from the start.
Holidays create a nice break throughout the year. We plan out a general calendar at the start of the school year and include these times as a highlight. Each holiday we include art, food, music, decor or traditions to help brighten our home and our daily routine. One year we had a "leap year" party with friends and enjoyed frog-themed decor and green punch just to keep the dull days of winter a little happier.
Children are not called to raise themselves. Children from the youngest age are always learning from you in your home. Our most important duty is to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. All parents are called in Deuteronomy to teach their children about the Lord in their everyday happenings (Deut 6).
Pray for your children as they begin a new year. Where do you hope each child to grow this year? Do they need a gentle push or a firm guide in a specific area? Are they striving to be honest, respectful and trusting? Are you helping them to develop good habits and manners? Is there a balance in your home where you all can get your tasks done and have times to just be a family? Do your children strive to be respectful and kind to friends? Are they serving others or just themselves? Do you and your child communicate in a healthy way or are there some hidden areas that need healing?
Children are living life right along with you and they know you are not perfect. All of us need God's loving grace and guidance. Each day is a new day to learn, to work, and to be a better family. For example, taking the time to have dinner together, to have family devotions, to take the time to tuck everyone in at the end of the day, to pray for and with each other, to communicate well, to encourage, to hug and to honestly challenge each other will help you support your sweet family through another growing year.
