Life Skills in Your Homeschool

Wow it's been almost three months since I took up the challenge to blog through the alphabet!  Time flies when you're having fun.  I've had my head in the books.  I've recently decided to pursue one of my other passions that of Aromatherapy and started a course to be certified with the aim of becoming a Clinical Aromatherapist.  I love that God has placed within creation things to heal and support our bodies!  To that end I started a new instagram account and would love for you to pop on over and follow me.  I've called it Nature's Pharmacy Aromatheray. 

This weeks letter of the alphabet is L and I would like to talk about life skills.  My co-host is sharing a post from memory lane - L is for Legoland.  I can't wait to pop on over and read it as I've always wanted to go to Legoland!  

Life Skills

As home schoolers it's so easy to become focused on academics to the detriment of other just as important skill sets for our students.  Without life skills our children are going to flounder no matter how well they are equipped academically.  

Some life skills like banking will make navigating life easier however some life skills could literally save your life like learning to swim or first aid.  No one needs to have the proficiency of an olympic swimmer however being able to preserve ones own life and help another really does need to take presidence over academics.

 

Life skills are fundamental skills for daily survival. It is our job as parents to equip our children to enter the community as well rounded and capable adults.

What Every Child Should Know Along the Way is a must have book for reference regardless of whether you home educate or not.  Gail does a wonderful job of explaining which practical skill sets to focus on and at which age as well as the why behind the skill set. 

 

There are many blog posts and lists online so I'm not going to reinvent the wheel and list them here.  For more information take a look here: 

On the web

• 22 Skills Every Kid Should have by the time they are ten by Fatherly
• 10 Life Skills to Teach your Child by Age 10 
• I Did it All By Myself! An Age-by-Age Guide to Teaching Your Child Life Skills by Lindsay Hutton. 
• Basic Life Skills for Teens by Marcy at Ben and Me. 
• How to Teach Valuable Life Skills to Your Teen with ADHD by Marcy at Ben and Me
• I have a Life Skills board on Pinterest with more ideas.
  

Do you do life skills with your children?

Blessings 

Chareen

Find the other ABC posts in this series here:

1. A is for Art Lessons at Home
2. B is for Books Where do You Purchase Yours? 
3. Charlotte Mason a Round Up of Posts 
4. Delight Directed Education
5. Encouragement for Weary Homeschooling Mothers
6. For the Children's Sake  
7. G is for Geography
8. Homeschool Bloggers  
9. Instagramers to follow who are homeschooling
10. Joy in Your Homeschool Journey
11. Know Yourself - Stop the Comparison Game  
12. Life Skills in Your Homeschool
    

Featured from Week 10 all things 'K'

• K is for kitchen and K is for Kitten (a card game) over at Our Homeschool Notebook
• ... over at A Mom's Quest to Teach.
• Discovering K Rabbits of the World over at At Home Pets
• Key Books for Middle School over at A Net in Time
  
• Homeschooling Tips from A to Z: the Letter K over at Homeschooling Highway 
• Kern~ Composer ABCs  and Kell House and Kemp Center for the Arts by Lori at At Home: Where Life Happens.
  

 This Week over at Our Homeschool Notebook the topic is L is for Lego Land. 

 

Please link up your posts starting with the letter L for this weeks ABC Blogging

Know Yourself - Stop the Comparison Game

Welcome to week 11 of  Blogging through the Alphabet 2021! This challenge has stretched me a little more than I anticipated it would.  Some weeks it's been difficult to find a topic to talk about.  This week the letter is K.  

My co-host Desiree is sharing K is for Kitchen in her Lego ABC. I'm looking forward to seeing what the family will build.  I had no idea that lego made some of the sets that Desiree has showcased over the last three months.  

Today I would like to encourage you to Know Yourself and STOP the Comparison Game.

 

  This is far harder than it sounds.  For some reason their is a secret fear that seems to lurk within the homeschool journey. That secret fear is that we will do something wrong and then do a disservice to our children.  This in turn drives us to constantly be watching other homeschooling families and comparing notes with what they are doing.  This in turn results in taking on more and more thing that are unnecessary.

Knowledge is Power. That power is either in your hand or in someone elses. If you don't know what you think or what your goals are then there will be someone out there who is only too happy to lead you a merry dance and convince you to spend your money with them.

Knowing why you are doing something 

is the first step in being empowered 

to follow through with your choices.

Even if you are a seasoned homeschooler and you don't have your thoughts and focus set, then every single time you see something new or meet a new homeschooler and hear what they are doing you will feel as though you are somehow failing your children or they are missing out which in turn will drive you to choose to add more to an already busy homeschool.  The danger of this is that soon you will be doing a great many things with mediocrity and become overwhelmed and exhausted.

STEP one form the cornerstone of your homeschool by Knowing What You Think & Why.

Unfortunately Covid and Quarantine Schooling has really put a spanner in the works and add a pressure we've never had to experience before. 

Remain committed to being true to yourself. - Stop comparing what you are doing to what other homeschooling families are doing.  

Remember social media and blogs are not a true reflection of what others are doing nor are they a a list of "I need to do this in order to succeed..." It is better to do a little with excellence than a multitude of things incompletely.

For Further Reading and Tips on how to cope each day 

1. Become Equipped: Know What You Think and Why.
2. Finding Your Rhythm  and keeping to it.
3. Buy some Ice Cream - Dealing with difficult days.
4.  Tip FOUR - One Step at a Time 
5. Dear Mom Who is Feeling Overwhelmed
6. IF you are a new home educator and have just brought your students home then I encourage you to read: From School to Homeschool
7. House Cleaning and Home School ? Just how do you balance the two??  
8. Homeschool Daily Schedules Sally Clarkson says: "There are many varieties of personalities and possibilities of home organization, Each of us simply has to find the combination of routines that suits our lifestyle and desires." -  The Mission of Motherhood.
9. Our Rhythm - Year Round Schooling 
10. How Important is Alone Time and Home Schooling ?  
11. A little Word on Homeschool Record Keeping  
12. Homeschool Burnout
    
13. Take a Break when YOU need it ... Do not underestimate the power of rest.  Rest at night, rest from school and mini rests throughout your day.
14.  The Busy Homeschool Mom's Guide to Daylight.
    

Be TRUE to yourself and who He has made you. When He formed you He placed within you all you would need through Him to succeed at the task He has placed before you.

Blessings 

Chareen

Find the other ABC posts in this series here:

1. A is for Art Lessons at Home
2. B is for Books Where do You Purchase Yours? 
3. Charlotte Mason a Round Up of Posts 
4. Delight Directed Education
5. Encouragement for Weary Homeschooling Mothers
6. For the Children's Sake  
7. G is for Geography
8. Homeschool Bloggers  
9. Instagramers to follow who are homeschooling
10. Joy in Your Homeschool Journey
11. Know Yourself - Stop the Comparison Game 
    

Featured from Week 10 all things 'J'

• J is for Jurassic and J is for Jenga over at Our Homeschool Notebook
• J is for Johnston  over at A Mom's Quest to Teach.
• Discovering J Rabbits of the World over at At Home Pets
• Joy in Listening to Books over at A Net in Time
  
• Homeschooling Tips from A to Z: the Letter J over at Homeschooling Highway 
• Joplin and Janáček ~ Composer ABCs  and J is for … Joy by Lori at At Home: Where Life Happens.
  

 This Week over at Our Homeschool Notebook the topic is K is for Kitchen . 

 

Please link up your posts starting with the letter K for this weeks ABC Blogging

Take a Break when you need it ...

 I recently joined LinkedIn (if you are on there do pop on over and connect with me) and saw this post this afternoon which has had me contemplating my daily rhythym.

As homeschooling Mothers how often do we hear the catch phrase "I'm so tired...  I'm exhausted..." or we have children who are really tired and strung out. 

One of the questions I'm often asked by homeschool Mom's is "My children keep on zoning out and I can't keep them on track.  What must I do?"

 Dr Mark Hyman shared this insight "Take natural breaks when you are tired. Our bodies function best on ultradian rhythm cycles of 90 minutes of activity punctuated by a few minutes of resting or zoning out!"

Our brains need time to process the information we are working on and zoning out is the way in which we accomplish this.  

Concentration spans vary with the age of the child.  A general rule of thum is twice the child's age.  So for a six year old that equates to twelve minutes.  Maxing out at around 30 to 40 minutes.

There was great wisdom when Charlotte Mason encouraged short lessons for the students.  This safe advice is just as valuable today as when she gave it over a centuary ago.