How Do You Teach the Hard Stuff?

This week I have been mentoring a few moms with their high school plans. We email back and forth and although it may seem as if they are the ones benefiting from my words, I realize that with each email I am refining my own homeschooling philosophy.

They challenge me with their questions: How is this like Charlotte Mason? Why do you give exams and grades? How do you make narration seem like high school? Where do you find time for nature study, art, poetry, music appreciation, and PE? Why don't you use TOG's Worldview selections? How do you decide on resources? Why aren't you finishing the four year cycle of history in high school? How do you teach the hard stuff?

These are the tough questions that I have wrestling with for the last few years and I will continue to be challenged by in the coming years. How I answer each question is as individual and unique to our family as you can imagine. The question isn't always answered in the same way with each child either.

I thought I could take each question and answer them one at a time on my blog for anyone who is interested in reading my responses.

Here is the first one:
How do you teach the hard stuff?

So why is teaching high school hard? I will illustrate.

Think back to when you were teaching your child to read. It was difficult and took some effort to find ways that helped your particular child get the hang of phonics and sounding words out. You played games and practiced and modeled, eventually they learned to read. Now, think about teaching a subject like physics. You may or may not have taken a physics course in your lifetime and even worse, you may not even *like* physics or science. Now you are faced with offering a physics course to your high schooler. Where do you even begin? With teaching a child to read, you had a base and an understanding to get you going and lots of age appropriate materials to choose from. Better yet, you had lots of other moms teaching the same thing that could offer loads of advice and direction. Physics, not so much. There are several programs out there that will help with DVDs and great materials, but if you are like me, you are feeling a little like you are shooting in the dark as far as helping them with the nuts and bolts of physics.

Sigh.


The saving grace of the whole matter is if you have taken your time and diligently set in place good study habits, your children will not need you to "teach" them anymore. I am so glad that my boys are able to read, process, and grapple with hard topics all on their own. I am more of a mentor and a coach when it comes to the hard stuff. Not surprisingly, I think they are actually better students when I stay out of the way and keep my opinion about how "hard" things are to myself. They have become better researchers and find information all on their own when necessary.

Here I am three years down the road in our high school years and I am becoming less stressed about my feelings of discomfort about teaching the hard stuff. I know now that it does not all depend on my skills as a teacher or even my interest in a course that will make it successful. My job is different than it was when I was teaching reading skills all those years ago. They needed me to hold their hand and lead the way back then. Now, I am on the road with them as a fellow student for the majority of subjects. How exciting is that?

My best advice to those that are facing the high school years: Smile and take a deep breath! You can never anticipate all the great things that will happen as you adventure into this new chapter in your homeschool. The pages are blank, the opportunities are endless, and together with your children you can create a wonderful experience.

For families that are striving to stick with a Charlotte Mason style high school program, I read on the Simple Charlotte Mason blog that they are coming out with a whole series of articles on how to do just that very thing in a few weeks! Boy do I wish they would have written those four years ago!

Tackle difficult subjects as they arise and remember that there are lots of great materials out there to help you find the way. Don't forget to work on good study habits along the way!

Barb-Harmony Art Mom