I recently received a question from a homeschooling parent whose children were being resistant to being taught. Her older child was six years old and using California Virtual Academy (A school-sponsored homeschool). She was at grade level in three subjects and almost two grades ahead in Math. Her son was 4 years old and knew some times tables, and a bit about other subjects. Both kids were resisting being taught. My advice to her was to back off and give the kids some space. They were both likely overwhelmed and in no danger of falling behind.
As homeschoolers, many of us are nervous about not doing a good enough job. We feel like because we are approaching education in a different way than others then we have something to prove. Our kids must show extreme advancement over kids in public schools. We must be able to show that homeschooling was extremely successful. The facts are it is extremely successful. At one point or another, your homeschooled child will show extreme advancement in one area or another. Your child will have an easier time figuring out what he or she is good at and therefore have an easier time choosing a profession. Your child’s success will prove that homeschooling works. (This is very true in most cases such as the case I am discussing.)
The thing you do not want to do however is to push that child to excel when the child is not ready. Children excel at their own pace which can be very slow in come years and very fast in other years. For example, my daughter did two full years curriculum her first year out of public school, and a half year of curriculum her second year out of homeschool. She was still ahead, but during the second year, her emotional development was more important than her academics. While as homeschooling parents, we are responsible to make sure our kids are learning on par with public schools students, we must also learn to be flexible enough to keep learning enjoyable. If a child resists learning, we must take a break or move on to something else. If that child is ahead in their studies, that is even more reason to take a break for a while and get back to it when that child is emotionally ready to learn more.
If you find yourself caught between a strong desire to teach and your students strong desire to be left alone, you need to evaluate the situation and see if there is space in your child’s program to slow down, or take a break. If there is not time, as in the child is falling behind, perhaps you need to find a way to make learning more fun and less monotonous. When all else fails, create a system where you reward them for getting their work done. A good example of this would be an hour of video games or TV for every two or three hours of learning time.
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*Words a homeschooler Should Know