I met with a lady and her daughter on Sunday who are going to start homeschooling and just needed some advice and help filling out the paperwork. This is a situation where one of the sweetest, brightest girls you've ever met has been getting lost in the shuffle of public school and even though she is in 8th grade she reads on a 2nd/3rd grade level and does math on a 3rd/4th grade level. Can we all say - no one on one attention. The sad thing is that the teachers have told the parents that if she stays in public school that they will send her on into 9th grade. So Mom and Dad are going to bring her home as soon as the paperwork goes through and then Mom will work on getting her caught up to speed. After spending some time with them I have no doubt that this will be a good fit for them. It was exciting to see their enthusiasm and excitement for this new adventure and I wish them all the best. I gave the Mom a couple of tips and thought I'd share them with all of you...
1) If at all possible - don't miss out on the support of your local Mother's Meeting - networking for homeschoolers... you never know what Mom out there has already walked in your shoes and will have just the right encouragement or advice for you when you need it :-)
2) Write down your mission statement (reason for deciding to homeschool) and post it so that on those frustrating days when nothing is going right - you don't forget what made you decide to homeschool in the first place!
3) Don't lose sight of the big picture - many homeschoolers get so bogged down in details that they forget about the big picture (to raise Godly, smart, functional, fun adults)
4) Remember that Bible, Reading, Writing and Math are the basic building blocks and everything else is icing on the cake!
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