Much like the Fall is for the farmer, the summer is a time for the homeschool parent (you) to harvest the crop and take some time to review the past year of work. For many of you this becomes a time of pride and excitement as you watch your children grow and expand their horizons. You started out with a plan and found it to be good and the results were within your expectations. For others, you will spend the summer wondering what you did wrong or if you even want to continue in the Fall. Let's take some time to muse over some of these questions and concerns.

First of all let's answer the question of "should I continue to homeschool?" Our immediate answer is YES! But for you to say YES requires some serious soul searching. Have you clearly defined why you are homeschooling? As homeschoolers we need to be very clear as to why we are willing to sacrifice our time and income to home educate our children. Most people center their reason on either religious, family value or quality of education issues. Lately we have seen families come to homeschooling because they felt there were no other options available. A likely example would be where a child was subjected to excessive violence, negative peer pressure or a victim of "zero tolerance." The parent in these cases most frequently homeschools out of economic considerations and does not have a strong conviction. For those families we highly recommend that you take a step of faith and redefine your reasons. Look into the long term benefits to you and your child that proper homeschooling can provide. For those who have strong heart felt reasons please take the time to review, if necessary redefine, and re-commit to your worthy convictions. In either case create a "vision and mission" that is stronger than anything negative that may come your way.

Great, now that all of you have decided to continue to homeschool for the next year, let's see how we can improve over last year. One of the biggest problems that we see is that many of you do not participate in enough group activities. Our staff at EIE go to great lengths to provide park days, field trips and special events that allow families to complement their academic studies as well as interact with others. Do not underestimate the value of forming friendships within the homeschool community. Nowhere else will you find a group of people that truly understand the dynamics of your chosen lifestyle. For example, problems you perceive as being unique to you are in actuality very common. If you were a regular participant in activities chances are that a more experienced mom would guide you through the difficult time and you will discover that the situation is really a minor ant hill easily conquered not some 15,000 foot mountain. Participating in field trips and park days adds a whole new dimension to your success as homeschoolers. Think about it, would it not be better for your child to see a real jet engine, observe the size of a live shark, smell the fresh fragrance of newly baked bread or experience the wind propelling a square rigger boat than to just talk about it or see a small 2" x 2" picture in some text book. Think about it this way, would you rather experience the fullness and satisfaction of a gourmet meal at a nice restaurant or look at a picture of a great steak. For the 80% of you that do not participate in anything you are basically looking at the picture.

On the other hand, there are those of you who are so busy going from place to place that your children are exhausted. Don't forget what the first four letters of homeschooling spell! When EIE decided to offer classes it was not our intention that a parent drops off their children in the morning and picks them up in the afternoon 2-4 days a week. Utilize our classes for areas that are difficult for you but do not fall into the trap of having your children attend classes every day. Have the confidence in the fact that YOU are a very capable teacher and can successfully teach your children almost any subject. Most of your time should be spent at home with a balance of outside activities. Believe it or not, both you and your children need time at home by yourselves. Allow the children to pursue their hobbies and interests as well as their academic pursuits. Allow yourself the luxury of quiet time with a book or the baby. Everyone in the family will appreciate this, especially your spouse. How can you develop the wonderful friendship with your children if you are constantly on the go never taking the time to smell the roses?

Basically we are talking about balance. You need to find the blend between outside activities and support systems with staying at home being homeschoolers. The perfect blend will be different between each family and will change with time. Do not expect this ratio of in-out of home experiences to be constant. Be flexible on this basing your ratio on the various parameters that life presents to you.

Let's spend a few moments on the academic issues. Were you totally satisfied with the progress your child made this year? If not, the question becomes why? The very first consideration should be to determine exactly how you and your child learns. This can be done in one of two ways. The easiest way is to access our website (www.excellenceineducation.com) and link to the "assessment" section. This will take you to a website hosted by Mariaemma Willis and Victoria Hodson who have developed a wonderful assessment tool. The other option is to buy the book Discover Your Child's Learning Style by Willis and Hodson at our Resource Center. Either way, you will be able to zero in on how your child learns and modify your teaching methods to meet his learning style. You will be amazed how much easier homeschooling will become once you master this concept. It is also good to know how you learn because we tend to teach in the manner by which we learn. The true fact of life is that each member of your family probably learns in different ways.

Are you in the BOX or out of the BOX? Asked in a different way, do you tend to school at home or are you a true homeschooler. Many homeschoolers, especially new ones, tend to teach in a manner that is familiar to them thus default to a "school at home" attitude. Strangely enough we have observed that families that are hard core "school at home" types tend to burnout quickly and send their children back to school. With the time freedom a homeschool family (especially long term homeschoolers) has why would we want to resort to the proven failed techniques of the classroom environment? Have the courage to have faith in your ability to teach and allow your child the pleasure of learning at his own pace. Face it, if you are going to homeschool for 12 years, what is the hurry? Most elementary children learn in 2 hours what it takes a classroom teacher 6-7 hours to accomplish. High School does not have to take the full four years. Just this year we had one of our graduates received his diploma at the age of 15. Again, think out of the BOX, throw in some courage and imagination and go for the gold. Become familiar with the different types of educating your child and find the best solution for your family. If you know the differences between a text book, workbook, classical, delayed, unschooling or Charlotte Mason approaches to homeschooling, the better off you will be. Be informed and make the proper decisions. If you are confused please discuss these issues with us, that is one of the benefits of belonging to the EIE family.

Lastly, at this point I want you to evaluate your marriage. On a scale of 1-10, 1 being the pits of hell and 10 being total ecstasy, where does your marriage fall? If you are not at least a 7 or higher then you have to try to improve your relationship. All the great homeschooling in the world can be easily destroyed by a marriage that is in trouble. Children can be very sensitive to any negative behavior that the parents might display. If the child senses that the marriage is not good then their perception of security and safety is violated. As we all know, real learning cannot take place when a child does not have a perception of a safe and secure environment. We suggest that each couple go on date nights, or what we call our Board of Education meetings. Restaurants are an ideal place to hold these intimate board meetings. Take the time to understand what is going on in your lives and to ask and answer questions about your homeschool. Don't forget that many times the father's perspective can be somewhat different than yours in that he does not see what you are doing and can only judge the success of the homeschool based upon quick observations when he gets home tired and hungry. Your objective here should be to provide as much information that is needed to minimize any confusion your spouse might have. Don't forget, both of you love your children and want to do what is best for them.

In summary, we encourage you to enjoy the summer and take the time to muse over the upcoming year. Plan on doing the right things in the planting period of the season so your harvest next year will be a bumper crop that will provide you with pride and a great sense of accomplishment.