Evaluation is part of life. If I ask the children to make their beds or clean the bathroom, it would be foolish of me not to inspect it to teach them how I desire for the task to be completed. Even the best products in your home have been thoroughly scrutinized. The same should be true in our Homeschooling. Evaluation should be part of your homeschooling.
Now that we all have several weeks under our belts, it is a good time to assess what is going on and make changes as necessary. We don’t evaluate to pat ourselves on the back or to make ourselves frustrated. Assessment helps us to become better, to produce a greater impact, and to make sure we are hitting our goals. “But where do I start?” you may ask. Here are some essential questions to ask yourself to help in your evaluation of the first few weeks of homeschooling:
1. What are we doing well? What is running smoothly?
I love starting with these questions in my homeschool evaluation because even though I tend to dwell on the negative in our homeschooling, there ARE things that are going well. List them on paper. There is something about writing them down that helps us see all of the good things that are already happening. Thank God for these things. If you are struggling to name things, start small. Are you starting at a good time? Have the children had good attitudes? Are you getting meals on the table each day? Is everyone relatively happy and healthy? Write down the good things about your homeschool and be encouraged that even though it may feel like a total failure, it really isn’t.
2. What parts of the overall day frustrate you?
Our homeschooling days do not only consist of the actual schooling part. Our days are busy because we have laundry, dishes, feeding the infant 10 times per day, and food preparation. Are those things bringing frustration into your day? Is there a way you can be more efficient? Could you find ways to make homeschooling less frustrating by handling the housework more effeciently?
There are a few things that we do in our home to make the day go more smoothly.
- Meal plan. Know what you are going to have for every meal in the week. Grocery shop before the week begins so you know that you have all the things you would like on hand as the craziness starts. EVEN PLAN THE SNACKS… trust me. This is important! Take the meat out of the freezer and enjoy knowing at breakfast that you already know what is going to be for dinner.
- Put a load of laundry into the machine first thing in the morning. This will make sure that you are getting at least one load each day. You will be encouraged that at least that one task is being done — and being done so early in the day! Having the load washed and dried before lunch gives me ample time to sort it and give it to the children to put away.
- Give the children chores to help with the housework. (They make most of the mess anyway!) Enlist them to help and count it as one of the items that they have to do for school: home economics! Are they old enough to load the dishwasher or put the dirty clothes in the machine? Each little bit helps. These are jobs that they will have to learn sometime… why not now?
- Schedule meetings or appointments in the afternoon so you can get most of the schoolwork done before then. Try to limit the distractions to your homeschool by keeping those things in the afternoon. The rhythm of school is worth it!
- Start each day with a walk. This has been a great addition for us to get out in the sun and fresh air before we even sit down for school. Our kids want to be outside anyway. Our morning walk with our dog gets us time together before the pressure of school. We can just have fun together while getting exercise, fresh air, and vitamin D.
- Designate Bible time as the first subject of the day. Read the Bible, discuss it, and pray together to start the day. It gives you all a great foundation for the day. (For ideas on that, click HERE.)
3. What needs a little tweaking or organization to make it better?
Some of my homeschooling friends can literally fly by the seat of their pants, but I can’t. I need schedules and routines and organization. That is why I always create charts that tell my kids what to get done each week. These schedules keep us very organized. But even with those in place, are there things that need tweaking? One child may need a couple of weeks to review multiplication before proceeding in her math lessons or another may need to focus on spelling fewer words at a time each week. Your homeschooling plan may need to be adjusted slightly now that you have seen the abilities of your children. That’s ok. That does not mean you have failed… let them grow at their own pace. A few weeks into the school year will show you some of those weaknesses in your children’s schooling.
4. What curriculum is just not working?
When we lived in Zambia, we had to purchase our curriculum for the next school year (starting in August) in January. We order it online, sent it to our home office, put it on a shipping container, loaded it onto the freight ship, floated it across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and then drove it to our headquarters in Lusaka. There was no way I was to know all that I needed to know before ordering. There were MANY times our curriculum didn’t match what we really needed. While we didn’t have the luxury to easily switch, I did, in fact, have times that we changed what we were doing. Now is the time to have a homeschool evaluation of your curriculum, too.
AND YOU CAN CHANGE, TOO! Admit the defeat. Wave the flag of surrender. It is ok. If your children don’t like it, if it isn’t meeting your needs, if it is too challenging, if it is ruining our relationship with them, THEN CHANGE THE CURRICULUM. If that just isn’t an option, pause the plan, and regroup. You have permission. You are the teacher. Do what is best for your child, your relationships, and your school.
5. Is there a character issue that I need to address in myself or in my children?
If homeschooling was only about the schoolwork, it would be relatively easy. But homeschooling is considerably more than that. Homeschooling is about character development. We desire ourselves and our children to become increasingly more like Jesus and that takes daily, intentional discipline.
Oftentimes, the beginning of the year reveals an area that I need to address in my child’s life. For example, if I am working with a child on Handwriting but he is whining and racing through it, that may be a sign that I need to address his attitude, laziness, diligence, or self-discipline. It may not be a sign that I need to quit Handwriting. Another issue may be that my daughter is leaving her school things all over the table and the floor, which is causing problems at mealtimes. I may need to address responsibility and her organizational skills that are affecting the whole family.
Let’s be honest. Some of the biggest character issues, though, are with ME! I need to be more disciplined in my preparations and more patient with my children. My heart and attitude spill over onto my children. If I am not showing the fruit of the Spirit, they are going to see that and copy from my example. Now is the time to repent… to see the Truth and turn to it.
6. What do I need to add or subtract from our day to make it better?
After the first several weeks of school, I finally come up for some air. Sometimes, I am able to see things that need to be added or subtracted from our school day to make it run more efficiently. That math program looked like it was going to be a perfect fit, but it has been more of a headache than a blessing. It has to go! OR I have discovered that our children are really lacking in geography. When I asked them where France was, they just stared at me! Oh, no! We must address some basic geography ASAP! So… instead of buying something, I just added a 15-minute “lesson” where we sit around the coffee table with a world map or US map and look at its features, memorizing places and landmarks.
In either situation, it was beneficial for me to add or subtract from our day to be more productive. Some moms will find that Co-ops or lessons outside the home need to be subtracted for a season to create more peace. Those are always hard decisions, but with your homeschooling goals in mind and the Holy Spirit’s prompting in your heart, you can make the changes necessary for this time in your home.
Now it is not just up to you!
Homeschool evaluations are not all up to you. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom as you ask yourself these questions. He will reveal things to you and show you areas that you had not seen before. He is gracious like that. Since He knows you and your children better than you do, He is able to help you and give you feedback that is invaluable. Once you have some answers, make changes. You may not have all the answers to change everything at the same time, though. Pray. Ask friends for advice and slowly and courageously make calculated changes. But don’t wait too long. If your tire is flat, don’t keep driving on that rim! You’ll be so glad you made these improvements!
DOWNLOAD THIS HOMESCHOOL EVALUATION FORM TO HELP YOU PROCESS THESE QUESTIONS:
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