Your ‘why’ for homeschooling – the reason you chose to homeschool – can sustain you through difficult days, weeks, and even months. And it helps to have goals – to begin with the end in mind. But sometimes, particularly in February, your ‘why’ might seem less compelling than usual and your goals can seem awfully far-fetched. This is when I think it’s important to focus on your next hour of homeschooling.
Forget about making it to the end of the school year. Focus on making it to lunchtime.
Last night, I was re-reading Anne Lamott’s book on writing, Bird by Bird. In it, she quotes E.L. Doctorow.
“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
E.L. Doctorow, Writers At Work: The Paris Review Interviews
Homeschooling can be very similar to writing. You have all these long-term goals – sort of like a complete novel you want to publish. You’ve (hopefully) discussed all of this with your child and you’ve both agreed on the ‘book’ you’re writing together – your mutual goals.
Your general long-term goals might be to master reading, math, writing, and more. But the day to day of attaining those goals isn’t always a smooth ride. Sometimes one or all of them seem ridiculously out of reach. Perhaps everything is off track with your student today – they’ve lost interest in reading, hit a wall in math, and maybe even regressed in their writing.
The Road in Front of You
First, it is important to revisit your ‘why’ – your reason for homeschooling. When you remember why you’re homeschooling, it helps you define the ‘how’ as you focus on the road in front of you today.
To continue with the driving metaphor, consider that maybe you and your child took a wrong turn, started passing in the face of oncoming traffic, or drifted over the line. So, now you need to perform the appropriate metaphorical corrections – back up, slow down, or get back in your lane.
Maybe you’ve asked your child to read a book they think is hard, boring, or even dumb. Consider whether they really have to read that particular book. I don’t think there’s any dishonor in letting your child ditch a book (even if you think it’s a great book). Can you and your child choose something else?
In math, would it be wise to go back and review some concepts they’ve already mastered? They might regain some confidence in doing problems they can understand and solve. It’s also possible they didn’t fully understand the foundations for what they’re covering now.
And writing. So often, I think this is the hardest subject. In math, the answer is either right or wrong. In writing, there’s always at least one more thing your child can improve on, if not ten more things. Get on track and find one thing you want to achieve today. Punctuation? Adjectives? Use of citations? Just one thing today. And let the rest go. You can work on that tomorrow. Or next week.
You get the idea. Regroup. Sort out what’s important to accomplish today and what’s not. Take your sights off the horizon and focus on the here and now, one step at a time.
Lamott says she keeps a one-inch frame on her desk to prompt her to focus on short assignments.
“It reminds me that all I have to do is to write down as much as I can see through a one-inch picture frame.”
Anne LaMott, Bird by Bird
Your Next Hour of Homeschooling
Take Doctorow’s and LaMott’s strategies and adapt them for your homeschooling. Consider your big goals and then… think small. Think incremental steps, whether you look at them through a windshield or a one-inch picture frame. Navigate what’s in front of you right now – your next hour of homeschooling. And then keep going. Lunch isn’t that far off.
