Inspire a love for learning

Homeschooling is a huge endeavor, but it doesn’t have to be frustrating. When it comes to getting your children to actually do their work you may meet some resistance. You may even face some tears and find children hiding under the table or sharpening their pencil for the 100th time in less than 30 minutes. You may even find yourself avoiding school altogether just to keep the peace and sanity. Trust me I can totally relate. In our first few years of homeschooling we dealt with reluctant writers, hesitant readers and so many other issues. However, we were able to overcome these issues with a bit of grace and a few simple steps that I’m going to share with you today. If you can’t seem to get them motivated to actually do their work and you need help, keep reading.

Identifying the core issue

While there may be several variables causing the reluctant learning problem, 9 times out of 10 there is an issue which has been overlooked. Find that issue before you start brainstorming creative ideas to try. Some examples of core issues could be the curriculum you are using, the order you are teaching the subject, or your child may just not be interested in the subject. All of these examples can cause frustration for the parent who is teaching the child and also cause the child to not want to do school at all. When this happens it makes homeschooling harder than it has to be. It is best to look at these core issues first before moving forward.

Figuring it all out

Choosing curriculum that fits both parent and child as well as fitting your current lifestyle and season is so important. Not all boxed curriculum is going to fit with everyone and that is perfectly okay! You may need to take math from one curriculum, reading from another and history from something entirely different. If you have tried that you may just need to try switching up the order of each subject. They may need some downtime between spelling and grammar or writing and reading. Try to take a break when you see signs of a frustrated child or a frustrated parent for that matter! Providing a time of refreshment such as 30 minutes in the backyard, can really help in between subjects. There were many times when I needed a break. Sending the kids into the backyard or into their rooms for some downtime for 15 to 20 minutes gave us that buffer time to recharge before going into another subject right away. A child who shows little interest in learning can be challenging to teach. Let’s go into a bit more detail for those who may need some extra help in this area.

Our struggle

At the age of seven we had a really hard time getting our son to write. Even writing one word was brutally frustrating. He would cry and tears would drop on the page then he would write something down and erase it. This happened for more days than I care to admit. We had already switched curriculum several times and changed up the order that we did lessons. I was really at my wits end. Maybe you are there right now and need a little hope. Even though I added more outdoor time and field trips with friends, none of it seemed to help. This one particular issue of getting him to write words down on paper was so frustrating. One day out of nowhere I had a brilliant idea and I tried it. That idea is the entire reason I wrote this blog post. I wanted to let other parents who may be experiencing similar issues that if they try this it may work for them too.

The simple answer

The idea I implemented was so simple. I grabbed a composition notebook and sat down with my child. With a pencil in my hand I began to ask him about his favorite thing. He answered basketball. I began writing down every word he said that had to do with basketball. I wrote them all down on one page of the notebook. Within just a few minutes we had an entire page filled of basketball related words. Coach, score, goal, run, team, and so on! Each day he would create a sentence with one of the words and write it down in the notebook. I also allowed him to draw a picture that helped to describe the sentence he wrote. Before we knew it he had started to get the notebook out on his own and would pick a word form the page and begin to write! This was so fantastic. I saw a shift in his behavior towards writing and ever sense then we haven’t had any issues with actually getting the words down on the paper. Whats even more amazing it has been 2 years since we first tried it and he is still writing without issues! He is still writing without frustration even when having to write about other subjects not including basketball. No more stalling by sharpening the pencil 99 times. No more crying about writing. This was a total win for our homeschool!

Connect with us

I know it can be hard finding out how to get a reluctant learner to actually desire to learn. But with a little patience, lots of grace and a dab of creativity I promise you can make it work. I hope this post has helped and encouraged you to keep homeschooling even when it seems like nothing is working. Please email me and let me know what you have tried and how it helped you in your homeschool. If you need fellowship, encouragement and other adults to converse with, consider joining our online sweet savvy mamma’s community here.

You can contact me at iamkrisscoon@gmail.com or sweetsavvymamma.com

I hope to hear from you soon!

XO- Krissy Scoon