Is Your Home Schooled Child Bored To Tears?

“Mommy this is boring, kids at a ‘real’ school don’t have to do this!” Sound familiar? Same tune, different refrain perhaps? Maybe add some squirming and fidgeting. We have heard variations of this sad tale from different home schooling parents who have visited our booth during the homeschool conventions. Their common solution has been to try to force the child to do ‘it’ anyway, followed by a lecture on obedience. While it is a God-given command that children obey their parents, and therefore is vitally important, it is also important that parents try to understand the reason behind their child’s behavior and attitude. Here are three suggestions we have found that may help bring about a change in the child’s attitude and the parent’s response toward the child’s behavior.

First, examine your attitude towards your child’s education. Ask yourself where the part of homeschooling that involves sitting down and spending time with your child ranks on your daily priority list. If you find yourself telling your child, “Well, lets hurry and get your school done today so we can….. (you fill in the blank)”, then this will certainly foster the same unenthusiastic attitude in your child. This tells your child there are more important things in your day than ensuring he receive a quality education. Instead, try to change your child’s behavior by changing your attitude towards school. As you sit down with your child tell yourself to put this day in perspective by realizing that, with an enthusiastic and gracious attitude on your part, this could be the one day your child remembers most fondly about being homeschooled. Turn off the phone, if possible, for two hours every day during school. Put on a smile and just revel in being with your child. Tell yourself this time will never be counted as wasted. You’ll be surprised how quickly your new attitude transfers to your child.

Secondly, look at what you’re offering to your child as far as variety in their school day. Do you do the same thing day in and day out? What does your child have to look forward to? Do the things they have to look forward to relate to school or something other than school? School can be fun when you add variety and enthusiasm. One of the best ways to so this is by including hands-on activities during the school day. This can be done during the school lesson or after the sit down portion of the school day is over. Many research studies have shown that children who do hands-on activities learn faster and also retain the information longer. Not only that, hands-on activities help ensure that children with any type of Learning Style are performing at their fullest potential. That is one reason we at ABBA Homeschool Academy, have included Project Boxes, with numerous hands on activities, every quarter that correlate to the concepts being taught. These Project boxes contain almost all the materials needed to complete the projects, as well as, detailed instructions for the parents. Most Project boxes have enough activities to last from 3-12 weeks.

Thirdly, check to see if you or your child might be burnt out. This could be part of the attitude problem with your child and, fortunately, is something that is easily remedied. One of the main culprits in homeschool burnout is a boring routine that is imposed on the child by a parent who has the misconception that learning can only take place when their child is seated with pencil in hand. This is an especially common mistake that first time homeschooling parents often make, especially if they have pulled their child out of a traditional school. Their expectations of academic achievement have been colored by a peer-segregated system, in which order and control of a classroom often have to come first, thus sitting at a desk takes up a large portion of the day. As stated above, research has shown that children actually learn better when exposed to a variety of experiences and activities. Take your child on a field trip on a regular basis and incorporate it into their curriculum so that it is not something that happens ‘outside’ of school. Research your field trip with your child before you go, so they will get more out of it and will appreciate it more. Look up your states homeschool website for a list of suggested fieldtrips in your area. Most importantly, don’t feel guilty for having fun. After all, school should be fun and you have been given this once-in-a lifetime opportunity to make these home schooling years the best ones in our child’s life.

Copyright 2005 by Connie Wollenhaupt, ABBA Homeschool Academy