A Homeschooler’s Best Advice for Homeschooling in a Pandemic
By: Lisa Renee
Tags: Life Lessons, Education, Pandemic, Parenting, Homeschooling

A Homeschooler’s Best Advice for Homeschooling in a Pandemic

Trust me

I homeschooled four kids for about a quarter century and have lived to tell the tale. The tale is long and messy, with twists and turns, ups and downs, like any good tale. There are no real villains (no interesting villains at least) and most characters are minor heroes. Homeschooling is, essentially, parenting and parenting is just life. It’s hard, it can be fun, and it’s usually worth it.

I’ve started essays about why you should homeschool and then realized that the arguments are mine, the decision is personal. It’s a fluid decision with endless flexibility. Homeschool this year, and not next. Homeschool elementary, but not high school. Or vice versa. Homeschool forever, or never. It’s a personal choice — it’s all yours, meant to find the best path for you and your people.

It’s been easy, in this ugly world, to justify not sending kids to school. Guns, bullies, cheating, unhealthy competition. The truth is that there are terrible things about public education in the US, things that fill books already; and there are good things, too, if you get lucky. The same can be said about homeschooling — the poorly homeschooled have likewise written books to scare us away from the project. And there are great rewards there, as well. The landscape of homeschooling is lush and varied, filled with wonders (and terrors) and largely built by you.

But now — the upside down NOW that none of us could have predicted, no matter how closely we’ve watched the national unraveling — school is not even a choice. And it shouldn’t be a choice this fall, either (an opinion, yes, another essay). If you have school-aged kids, you are homeschooling, whatever that means to you. And that’s kind of the beauty, right? You get to decide what that means. Daunting, exhausting, and confusing — maybe. But also: Thrilling, fresh, and full of possibility.

Glass half empty or half full? It’s up to you.

I’ve written a fair amount about this particular adventure, learned a lot in our homeschool, mostly about myself and my kids. To boil it down for those of you forced into it, here is my very best advice:

Relax.

I wish someone had pressed this upon me in the panic days. Breathe. It’s going to be fine, really. School is a construct, a part of the modern world that, in the grand scheme, is fairly new. Leonard da Vinci didn’t go to school, Mozart didn’t go to school. Einstein dropped out. The examples are heartening. As long as you’re kind to them (usually), as long as you love them (always), if you feed them and show them the world, they will be fine.

Give them all of the books, lots of art supplies, go outside. Read to them, cook with them, watch movies, play games. Make things, laugh, dance. LIVE. Little humans learn from the big ones, just as little animals watch the big animals. Model curiosity. Special buildings and structured activities are not necessary and, it can be argued, even destructive. But if those things help you feel better about the process, embrace them. Make a school space, use workbooks, assign essays and projects. Most of us have access to endless resources online. Either way — structure or no — they will be fine.

I know that this is different for everyone. Many of you have to work while homeschooling, most of us are are managing high levels of stress in the current madness. The world is sort of closed at the moment, which makes exploring a challenge. So much sucks, so much, right now. But, if you can, relax. Video games are fine. Daydreaming is excellent. Movies and podcasts, puzzles and microwave pizza bagels are all good. Look at a tree, dig in the dirt, study the dead fly you find on the windowsill. Make tea, grate cheese, paint sneakers. Your little people are learning all the time, even if it’s not visible or quantifiable. Give them space, give yourself space, and love them.

Smile.

It will be fine.