What if I miss something?

I’m blogging all week about our fears and how to fight them. From my own fears as a homeschool mom and my experience as a homeschool graduate, I’ll be sharing insights and reflections on these tough questions. It’s going to be a great week of getting vulnerable and gaining victory. 

• What if I fail?
• What if I get into legal trouble?
• What if I ruin my kid’s life? (Part 1)
• What if I ruin my kid’s life? (Part 2)

I battle with this question constantly. Every time I feel we need to make a change, I face this haunting fear. Honestly, the fact I have to face is that I probably will miss something. In fact, educators are continually struggling with this themselves—changing curriculum, adding required subjects, adjusting core standards. It is absolutely impossible to cover every topic exhaustively all the way through twelve grades. We’re human.

The best way to maneuver around this hateful reality is to provide our kids with the tools for learning and not just the facts to memorize. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a huge believer in memory work. Our children have a giant capacity for learning; a capacity that is all too easy to take for granted. But to think that I will always have exactly the information they ought to memorize is setting myself up for failure. Instead, I want my children to know how to memorize, how to learn, how to study. I want to teach them to be independent learners, to know how to find and absorb the information that they need without depending on me (or any teacher, for that matter).

Nevertheless, there will be things your child needs to know, and there are a few different resources that can help with this. First, check your state’s educational standards for each grade. (These standards are available on the internet. Just google: [your state] educational standards.) Most state’s are following what is called the Common Core standards, which are available as a pdf and include information by subject and by grade. You can also purchase a series of What Your [Kindergartener, First Grader, etc.] Needs to Know, or check your local library for these titles.

But remember, the most significant lessons are not the lists of facts but rather the tools for learning.

“The most important thing is not that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn.” — John Lubbock

Be sure to check out all of the other great bloggers at the Homeschool Crew.