While today is a designated day to give thanks for all the things we are blessed with, don’t forget that we can and should be thankful on a daily basis. Why not start your homeschool day each day by having everyone say what they are thankful for? It starts the day off right and everyone will be ready start into their work, grateful for the life they have.

Enjoy your day and have a great time with friends and family.

Part of homeschooling is raising our children in the manner we want them to grow. It doesn’t matter if you’re Christian and raising them in a godly manner or if you are an atheist who wants their kids to behave respectfully, this is the time to teach them. Homeschooling provides us with the perfect opportunity to guide our children on the right path and there are a few things you can do to help curb those bad attitudes.

1. Identify the source. Kids tend to have bad attitude for a reason. Maybe your middle child feels he’s not getting enough attention. Maybe your youngest wants to be given more responsibility while your oldest feels she has too much. Or it could be something like the fact that something has changed in the house, dad’s away on a business trip, a new puppy came into the home or a baby was added to the family. Whatever it is, that attitude has a reason behind it.

If you can find out why your child is acting out, you can remedy the situation. It might be that you need to change some things around. While we can’t always accomodate our kids and their wants, respecting how they feel is a good way to teach them to respect others.

2. Set a good example. If you’ve got a bad attitude yourself and are complaining about things, don’t expect your kids to do what you say and not what you do. I recently experienced this first hand when I muttered something about lost keys and my 2 year old went up and yelled at his father for losing the keys! I realized then that I’ve been scolding my husband quite a bit about his tendency to lose things and I had a pretty bad attitude . . . something that was picked up by my kids.

Modeling a good attitude can bring about amazing changes in your homeschooling day. If you are eager to start school and study, your kids are going to pick up on that.

3. Talk it out. Not everything can be fixed by reasoning, but giving your child a chance to air his side of the story and then explaining why things are the way they are can mean a lot. Your kids will feel like they are being treated respectfully when you listen to their opinions. They might not be right, but hear them out and they may lose some of that resentment they feel.

Bad attitudes in homeschooling need to be addressed quickly. Since everyone is in the same house all day long, things can turn bad very quickly. Deal with the issues promptly and you will tend to live a lot happier.

Everyone is different. Some families feel that early education is best, so they might start their children off at 3 or 4 with early childhood education activities. Others will prefer to wait until the child is ready and interested, which might not be until 7. And a huge number of families will start the school year closest to the 6th birthday, which tends to be the “traditional” time to start.

You’re the parent and you know your child best, so let your gut tell you what to do. If you KNOW your 5 year old just isn’t ready to start really studying, then wait. If your 3 year old is clamoring to learn to read and you feel great about it, go for it!

Personally, I’ve chosen to do some schooling with my young sons. The oldest is nearly 4 and since kids around here head off to nursery school at 3, my husband was pretty adamant that we start at 3. We’ve kept it pretty low key though and things are going well. Apart from my husband wanting to do this, I was a child of parents who waited for the “right” age and I recall being horribly frustrated because I wanted so badly to read, but my mother told me I had to wait until the September after my 6th birthday . . . which was in April. I think I could have easily begun reading two years earlier because I wanted to so much, but as it was, it literally took just showing me the concept and I was off! I don’t want my own children to be that frustrated with NOT being able to learn.

However, it really is up to each family to make that decision. Your own experiences and the differences in your children will help you make the decision.

Where Does Childhood Stress Come From?

Kids nowadays are exposed to a lot more at a much younger age than ever before. While homeschooling can help limit some of the things they are exposed to, chances are you won’t be able to block it all. Absorbing information before they are ready for it can be very distressing.

Sometimes, the source of stress is the parents themselves. I know a woman who feels her son just isn’t stimulated enough at home, so she fills every minute of every day with activities and lessons for him to go to. Her son is five and he is exhausted at the end of each day from going to school, then gymnastics or art lessons, then to swim lessons and the like.

In other cases, the stressor may be something far more serious, such as bullying at soccer, marital issues between parents, or sickness in the family.

Signs Your Child May Be Stressed Out

How do you know if your kids are feeling the pressure? They might not tell you, but here are a few signs that they need to relax.

• Nightmares
• Frequent stomachaches or headaches, especially when they have to do something.
• Overreactions to little things
• Trouble sleeping
• New habits such as chewing on hair, nailbiting, etc. which may be methods of coping with stress.
• Extreme anxiety or dislike of activities they used to enjoy.

You know your child best and you will notice if something is off. Could it be stress? You are the best judge of this.

Reducing Stress

When a child is running on too little too long, they are going to have difficulties. You can do quite a bit to reduce the anxiety a child has and remove some of the pressures.

1. Quit some extracurricular activities. While lessons and activities are great for social interaction and learning, sometimes kids need time to just be themselves and just hang out at home. They don’t need to be occupied every minute of the day, so let them just relax sometimes.

2. Talk to them. In some cases, your child may be stressed by things they are keeping bottled up and talking about them can help. If they are worried about their parents not getting along, it can be useful to reassure them that you still love each other, for example and that you love them.

3. Hang out together. Kids need parental interaction and not just the kind that comes from explaining math problems. Spend fun time with your kids, too. Go for a bike ride, have a picnic or take them fishing. Teach them how to relax by doing it with them.

How do you deal with childhood stress in your family?

Beach Trips

While at the beach, you can see tides and currents in action. Let your kids dig in the sand and mention how the sand is made up of tiny bits of stone. Have them collect shells and water worn glass that you can study back home. Tide pools offer a wealth of learning opportunities, too. Take pictures and you can look the animals up back home.

Visiting Relatives

Whether you go to visit relatives or they come to see you, summer is usually a favorite time for this. You can use this time to learn a little about the history of your family, family trees and also to reinforce manners.

Road Trips

While in the car, take advantage of this time to play family word games, listen to books on tape and discuss the scenery. You can also let the kids take turns navigating, putting map reading skills to use, and learning the rules of the road. It’s never too early to learn!

What are you doing this summer? How can you turn it into a learning experience for your kids?

Family Fun: A great site for all sorts of age appropriate games and crafts.

Kids Craft Weekly: An awesome online magazine chock full of simple and fun crafts for kids.

Kids Craft Blog: A blog that covers various craft related activities and news.

Fem Manual: In Spanish, but the pictures speak for themselves . . . or you can always use Google to translate.

Zakka Life: Lots of super easy, very cool ideas for little ones.

Dollar Store Crafts: Sick of paying the big bucks to make nice things? This site has ideas that are not necessarily meant for kids, but can be made by any age.

What do you do to keep your kids busy during the summer months?

1. How to research. It might be tempting to just tell your children what you know or look it up yourself and then recount it, but the ability to find out what you need to know is something that is invaluable at any age. Make sure your kids know how to use a dictionary, thesaurus and encyclopedia, as well as the internet.
2. How to speak in public. Just about everyone is called on to do a little public speaking from time to time, even if it is just in front of a small group. Unfortunately, this is an area that many homeschoolers miss out on. You can work on this skill by having your homeschool group do small public speaking events or look for other opportunities, such as through 4-H groups.
3. How to manage time. If you go to school, you learn to schedule things like homework so it all gets done on time, but this might not happen in homeschooling. You can build this skill by having your children work on the school schedule with you and by giving them tasks that they need to complete by a certain time or date and then let them figure out how to get it done in time.
4. How to get around. When you are studying at home and driving places with a parent, it`s easy to just never learn how to ride a bus or use other forms of transit. Yet nearly all of us are going to need to do this at some point in our lives. Kids should know how to read a bus schedule, take the subway, etc.
5. How to play sports. You might argue that this isn`t a required skill, but trust me, when you`re 14 and going to hang out with a youth group and discover that you have NO idea how to play basketball, it matters. While sports don`t need to be a major part of studies, it`s a good idea to learn the rules for the most common sports. This ensures that your kids won`t end up at a staff picnic 10 years from now, confused about how to play volleyball!

Do you have other essential skills that homeschoolers might miss out on but need to know? Let us know in the comments!

I was homeschooled my entire life and there were times, entire years, in fact, when I did NOT want to be homeschooled. I pleaded with my parents to let me go to school, I complained bitterly about having my mother as my teacher and just generally made life unpleasant. It`s important to mention that this started when I turned 11 . . . a notorious age for being difficult!

However, while I, and my sisters, did pass through stages where we wanted to go to a “real” school, it did all work out in the end. Three of us did end up going to high school, I was the only one who finished school at home, and the truth is that my sisters ended up hating the public school, with it`s long hours and strict schedule.

So, what can you do if your kids are against homeschooling at some point in this journey?

Understanding WHY Kids Don`t Want to Homeschool

If you know what is setting your kids off, then you might be able to address the issues yourself. I`d recommend talking to your kids and finding out just what their concerns are, but here are a few common ones.

They want something that the school offers. In my case, this was the drama program. Obviously, acting out a skit with one sibling just isn`t the same as participating in a school play.
Possible Solution: Find out if your local school allows part-time students, your kids might be able to attend just one class. If not, look for alternatives, in my case, this was a church drama program and acting lessons.

They want more social interaction. This often happens as kids get older. While they may have plenty of loving siblings, hanging out with your brothers just isn`t the same as having friendships outside the family.
Possible Solution: Make sure your kids have ample access to others their age at church, a homeschool group or extracurricular activities.

You and your child are in conflict. It`s hard enough maintaining a parent/child relationship, much less a teacher/student relationship on top of it. Often, kids will wish they were in school just to get away from you.
Possible Solution: Try to work it out with your kids, but also consider their need to be away from you sometimes and find ways to let them get away from the house sometimes.

They want to graduate. For older students, this can be a driving motivation behind their wanting to attend school. After all, it isn`t very exciting to end your high school career with a fancy dinner with Mom and Dad!
Possible Solution: We`ll be looking at graduation options for homeschoolers next week, but you might want to look at national groups that offer ceremonies for homeschooled students or find out if your child can participate in the local graduation somehow.

Again, your child will be the best person to talk to about why they want to attend school. Find out the reasoning, make your reasons for homeschooling known and then see how you can come to a solution together.

Most parents read to their toddlers, but what you read is important. Charlotte Mason referred to quality books as “twaddle-free” books, meaning books that actually have some substance to them and that are worth reading. As opposed to mindless junk.

Toddlers are constantly learning and it makes sense that the books you read to them and expose them to will make an impression on them. So what kind of books are great for teaching your little ones?

Numbers/ABCs

Books that make counting fun and display the letters or numbers in bright, easy to see illustrations are great for the littlest kids in your home. They`ll enjoy “reading” the books on their own. It`s not uncommon around my place to hear my boys reciting numbers or letters as they flip through a favorite book.

Common Concepts

As adults, we take for granted things like  big and small, rough and smooth. Kids are still learning these concepts and while you can certainly teach them this in every day life, why not reinforce it with books?

There are plenty of books on opposites and such, so look for ones that your kids can relate to and enjoy.

New Vocabulary

Well-illustrated books not only keep toddlers interested, but will help to illustrate new vocabulary. At this age, little ones are learning very quickly, so you want to encourage that. But let`s face it, not all of us have giraffes in our back yard or live near a train station. That`s where a book can come in handy for introducing new things that children wouldn`t normally be exposed to in their every day life.

Most vocabulary based books are themed, so you`ll likely end up with a lot of them! My kids particularly liked transport and baby animal books, but yours might prefer something completely different. The idea here is to get them learning.

Books that Encourage Thought

You might not think that board books encourage a lot of thinking and you might be right. But just because your children are little doesn`t mean they can`t enjoy books that boost brain power. Some of the best books for this are ones where the child has to find things . . . like Where`s Waldo. The Waldo series is probably a bit too advanced for a toddler, but there are some excellent “I Spy” books that let children search for specific objects within the pictures.

This is great for teaching kids to focus and for helping them to use their imagination. They need to think of what the object would look like before they can find it on the page and that`s great for their brains!

Story

Of course, some books are just for entertainment. But even here, you can exercise your homeschooling right and look for books that are not only entertaining for your toddler, but also informative.

For example, a story about a bunny learning to work his way through feelings of jealousy over a new sibling can be a great way to teach your little one that it`s not bad to have feelings and that you can learn to control how they affect you.

One thing that many parents do is underestimate what their child can handle. You might be surprised at how long your two year old can sit still to listen to a story with fascinating illustrations. And don`t worry if you think the vocabulary is too advanced . . . it`s just another learning opportunity!

For example I have long wanted to work for myself.  “And then what?”

Oh, then I would have control of my time and could work when I wanted.  “And then what?”

Well, then I could spend more time with my family and my kids.  Wait…

Why do I have to wait until I’m financially independent, working for myself, all before I decide to spend time with those I love?  Instead, I could make the final goal my goal.

This is why we homeschool.  We have decided that no one will parent like we will.  No one will hold our kids accountable like we will.  No one is as interested in our kids welfare as we are (no matter what other well-meaning entities tell you).  So I could commit to having an impact on them before they’re all grown up.

I was reminded of this poignant thought:

“A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove…but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.” — Forest E. Witcraft