You wake up one morning excited and anxious to start your very first day homeschooling your 14-year-old daughter. You make breakfast, brew a cup of fresh coffee, and smile as you think of the beautiful journey you plan to start as a homeschool mom with your child. As your daughter skips down the steps towards the smell of scrambled eggs and blueberry pancakes… IT HITS YOU.
How on earth will you teach the subjects you don’t know?! Art, Calculus, Music, Physics.
Well, have no fear new homeschool mom. Luckily, in this post, I tell you how homeschool moms can teach subjects they just don’t know. If you really struggle with teaching your child a subject you aren’t great at, give these a shot before throwing in the towel.
1. Refresh Your Memory
Sometimes homeschool moms get so overwhelmed and stressed that they give up on everything. Every single thing. Teaching the calculus, spreading the bed, cooking dinner, etc. Don’t give up. You may be underestimating yourself and your knowledge. If your child has to learn it, then chances are, at some point in life you knew it very well. Take the time to try a few calculus problems, or answering a few physic questions.
If you have an idea of what you should be doing, but can’t complete the full problem then you might have a winning chance. Jump up and pop open your internet browser. Take the time to do a little research on what it is you need to teach. Sometimes all it takes is a few hours browsing through concepts and ideas and you can learn an entire subject all over again. Try browsing through free sites like Khan Academy to get good quality refreshers on math, science, and more.
2. Let Someone Else Tutor Your Child
“Tim, I tried refreshers but it’s just not sparking anything!” you say.
Well, I say…look around you. Not literally, but figuratively.
As a homeschool mom, you are surrounded by one of the strongest teaching assets you can ask for…Community. Let your friends and family pick up the slack where you left it off. Take a second and think of all your genius friends, acquaintances, homeschool parent friends, and family. They are all one call, email, or tweet away from being at your doorstep to teach your child that macroeconomics or intro to engineering. And all you have to do is help them help you.
So jot down a list, go to your co-op meetings and be humbled by the community that will empower your child to be strong and confident as a young adult. (Find homeschool coops near you!)
After all, as a homeschool parent, you must know… It takes a village…
3. Sign Up For A Online Program
“And what happens when my village is a 2-hour commute away!?”
You can still get it done. You will just need to be open-minded. Open-minded to the future of learning…E-learning.
When you can’t teach a subject for the life of ya, and your community is too far to even help teach your child art. Then you have the power of technology.
There are many courses, programs, communities, lessons, and more popping up on the web every day. And while you may be skeptical, you have to keep an open mind. You can sign up for an online program and have all the guidance, knowledge, and even testing you need to come right through your computer screen.
For example, if your child wants to learn art but private art tutors are too far, too expensive, and too strict. We build creative online art courses for 10 – 18-year-olds every single week. Every. Single. Week. For the many homeschool parents that are not very good at art(besides the occasional amazing doodler homeschool mom) they can still provide art learning to their child.
It’s as simple as signing in and setting up your child to do a course according to your homeschool curriculum schedule.
This can be your answer. Don’t knock it until you try it.
It might be frustrating and at times depressing trying to teach a child what you don’t know. However, don’t give up. Be determined and creative. Think outside the box of traditional learning. You must be committed to giving your child the best education they can get. And that requires a resilience that all homeschoolers build over time. A resilience to quitting and throwing in the towel. Because where you struggle and see an obstacle there was someone who came before you and saw a way.
Keep learning to be the best homeschool parent you can be, day in and day out, by sharpening your skills, letting others help, and embracing the evolution of technology.