How to Create a Battle Plan to Overcome Homeschool Obstacles!

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Have you and your child ever hit a learning road block?

You know, one of those instances where….

• your child is in tears because they feel overwhelmed
• you are tears because you feel overwhelmed
• they’ve worked and worked on their lesson and still just don’t get it
• you’ve taught and retaught the lesson and you don’t try why they don’t get it

We all have those days mama!

When my oldest was in 3rd grade, the creative writing curriculum we were using at the time seemed to be for more gifted writers. He was told the writing process, and then told to write a paper on a particular topic.

This was so stressful to him, that he completely shut down.

I could relate to him, because I struggled with the same thing when I was a child. But my husband, wise man that he is, suggested that we let him choose a topic from his interests. My son picked the Battle of the Alamo. Like magic, he quickly wrote his paper, and beamed with a look of success and pride when it was completed.

(As you can tell my son is into all things Army:-) )

Letting him pick a topic he was interested in to use for his writing assignment changed the whole writing process from a dreaded task to an enjoyable adventure! The end goal should be to create a love for learning.

NOT…..

To keep up with the Jones (aka the public school system.)

The Public School System:

• Teaches to the test
• Is Focusing on dangerous doctrines such as the Critical Race Theory
• Embraces a Godless Worldview
• Does not teach phonics
• Is failing to produce graduates who can read and write
• Does not instill moral values into the hearts of children
• ETC

We know the public school is failing to provide quality education, so why try to mirror their approach to learning?

We also know their end goal is to look good on proficiency tests. What is your end goal for your child? Is it:

• helping your child master the math sums they’ve been struggling with?
• helping them achieve their dream occupation by providing them the learning opportunities they need to accomplish their life’s goal?
• Learning to write creatively?
• mastering the skills they will need to be a good provider for their family?
• Teaching them how to be a good cook and house wife?
• raising strong men and women that will stand for their faith?

Or a combination of goals that make up one big picture?

The beginning of the school year is a good time to make a list of your child’s strengths, weaknesses, interests, and abilities.

Then, when you and your child have seemingly hit a brick wall and progress seems to be coming so slooooooowly, (and this will happen at some point!) you can pull from that list of interests and create a list of activities to put the spark back into learning and thereby help them to master their academic struggles.

Creating a visual assessment of each of your children can give you a very powerful tool to help identify areas in which they are excelling or struggling. In addition, this assessment may provide valuable insight as to why some subjects seem to come more naturally to them than others as you see their academic successes and struggles compared to their interests and abilities.

Say your child is struggling with elapsed time. No matter how much you explain the problem…..

IT JUST DOESN’T CLICK!!!!

What do you do? Yell at your child and tell him he is a COMPLETE IDIOT if he can’t figure out what time the cake started baking if it was finished at 5:55 pm, and it baked for 45 minutes?

Or do you create your own story problems using his interests as the basis for your story?

I’ll use my son as an example.

Let’s say he has no clue what time the cake (mentioned above) started baking. Maybe I’ve tried explaining it different ways, pulling out the manipulative clock, etc. No success.

Since I know Jonathan loves army, especially the air dog fights that occurred during World War I or II…. or both (I have no clue, but he could tell you all about it!) I can use this as a basis for my elapsed time story problem.

My new problem could sound something like this…. during world war 1, the Red Barron German plane shot down a British Camel plane. The Camel plane finally crashed into the mountains at 5:55, after a 45 minute fall. Jonathan, the ground army sergeant, needs to record all the details and report them back to his army head quarters. What time was the plane shot?

I now would have his l full attention. He gets to pretend he has an important job in the army. He has a mission to accomplish, a task that needs finished. He forgets this is really a math problem.

The pressure of having to figure something out dissipates now that it has become a fun challenge!

HE MAY EVEN WANT TO DO ONE EVERY DAY!

(He may still not get it right away, but with time things click. And he’ll have good memories of how he finally learned elapsed time!)

If it was my daughter, she would find more enjoyment writing the elapsed time problem herself!

What matters is that they are learning and making progress. How they learn or master a lesson isn’t important. The beauty of homeschooling mamas!

Not every child is going to write like Shakespeare invent like Thomas Edison, or do Calculus like Albert Einstein. What if all were doctors? Who would raise food for the world?

I’ve observed that children often reveal what they will become as an adult by what they are interested in as a child- as early as 3-4 years old! It’s a little insight into what God’s purpose is for them in this big wide beautiful world He’s created. So don’t stress too much if your child has a weak area or two. We don’t excel at everything, and they won’t either! Study your child, and find ways and strategies to help them learn to do their best, even if the task at hand is difficult.

They will get it. Even if it is a year later. No big deal!

I know, it can be hard to think outside the box when trying to come up with a solution to your child’s struggles. Believe me, do I know!! But when you go into your homeschool year knowing what learning road blocks may be looming in the future, finding creative solutions will come a whole lot easier!!!

Even if you do not have the time to create strategies for learning that are tailored for your child, knowing their strengths, weaknesses, abilities, and interests will help you while searching Pinterest for a quick solution.

Coming soon is a worksheet I’ve created to help you with this important step in your homeschooling journey. It is designed to help you on those trying school days to turn lessons fromBORING meaningless material into EFFECTIVE learning experience for your child!

To be notified of this coming freebie, sign up for my Newsletter below!

You are your child’s best teacher mama! You can do this homeschooling thing!

Also, if you haven’t already done so, check out my “7 Secrets to a Successful Homeschool Year” for more tips and tricks to making learning an enjoyable journey!