Parent. . .and. . .Teacher
Learning how to wear both hats at once takes experience and thought!
Parenting
Parenting changes our life.
For years, it required every bit of heart, every brain cell, and much of our energy. Here are two foundational elements to consider that I’ve discovered may help.
Courage
First, it takes courage to parent, to love wholeheartedly and sacrificially as you raise a child.
Why courage? Well, frankly, because it may often seem like a thankless job, with no visible reward. Few will notice our work, and kids don’t recognize the effort it takes—even though they love their mom.
Courage helps us keep going, even when it’s hard.
Time
Second, consider the necessity of time in parenting.
Why time? Because it requires hours, days, weeks, months, and years of intentional attitudes and actions to be an ongoing nurturer of our children:
- Listening with both ears as they tell us their ideas or dreams or questions or. . .takes time.
- Thinking about how to bless our kids—and then doing it—requires us to take time.
A home that spills over with fun food, hilarious laughter, lively discussions, and a riveting book read aloud (to name a few examples) is what most of us wish we had had as children. To make this dream a reality for our families takes time—lots of it!
Time is a choice we make for the long-term benefits to our family.
Teaching
In one sense, homeschooling our children is just a continuation of what we’ve already taught our kids—how to make a bed, wash hands, say “please”—but it’s also much more than that.
Now, we’re taking on what most parents hand off to trained educators—teaching reading, writing, arithmetic, plus science, history, music, art, and more—but because we’re doing it at home, we’ve added the pressure of requirements, expectations, and our own experiences in school (whether good or bad).
So, it’s both a natural extension of parenting and a whole new world.
It’s got its own vocabulary, its unique demands, its wide-ranging possibilities of scheduling, structuring, and finishing. . .Here are two foundational elements of teaching our own kids that I’ve experientially learned will help.
Safe Environment
First, create a safe environment for learning.
What does that mean? Well, what is the difference between being outside during a thunder storm and being inside a warm, dry, enclosed shelter.
Braving the elements when you’re caught out in a storm leaves you vulnerable to buffeting winds, freezing rain, and potential for injury as branches break and fall. It could be a struggle to survive, depending on the strength of the storm.
That’s what it can feel like for a student struggling to learn.
If a child is mocked (by teacher or other students), it is no longer safe to try. If a student asks too many questions, and is shamed for it, the take-away is to keep silent. If one is compared to another—“your brother memorized this without any problems!”—it crushes the heart.
We can create a safe place for our kids by being careful of our own words and attitudes, and by teaching our children that it’s not okay to mock, shame, or belittle each other.
Honoring Different Types of Learners
Next, we can create an atmosphere of honoring different types of learners.
If I asked you to choose between a Michelangelo sculpture and a Rembrandt painting, it would come down to your own personal preference because BOTH artists were brilliant, even though their work was strikingly different.
What we often don’t realize is that there are strikingly different ways to learn. Exploring this concept in more depth will be a focus over the next several posts.
But, for now, consider that the child who baffles us may be a Michelangelo—and we may have preferred to have a Rembrandt.
Finally, if you ever feel conflicted between these roles, remember that we are first and foremost, a mom to each child in our home. It is ALWAYS more important to attend to our child’s need than to finish the lesson.