How Do You Know if Home School is Working? Here Are 5 Key Indicators
Here's what you'll learn in this article:
- When you home school it can be difficult to know if you are meeting your children's needs, but there are accessible options to give you perspective.
- Five indicators that will give you information on whether homeschooling is working for your children, taking into account for physical, mental, social, and emotional development.
- Answers to common questions about figuring out if home school is helping your children grow into their best selves.
- Key takeaways on what you can look for to know if home school is working for your children in key developmental areas.
- Where to learn more about upping your home school skills.
Crushing home school is about thriving children who are having their physical, mental, social and emotional needs met, so they can be their best self.
Chances are you home school (or are thinking about it) because you want to give your children something great. There are a lot of paths education can take, and home school is one that affords caregiver-educators a lot of flexibility to give their children something more.
"Homeschooling doesn't always come with the same feedback that traditional school does, so you have to gather this information yourself to figure out if homeschooling is working" - Lacy Fabian, PhD
The key to giving children that something more is to make homeschooling a priority today. Otherwise, homeschooling can create its own set of downsides that your children will have to deal with later in life. If it sounds like a big deal, that's because it is. Your children won't get these years back, and when you've chosen to home school you've also made a commitment to do your best, just like you want their best each day. But how do you know what is their best on any given day?
5 Indicators That Home School is Working and Giving Your Children What They Need to Thrive
What does it look like when home school is working? Home school is working when most of the time you and your children are engaged and achieving physical, mental, social, and emotional milestones. The achievement of these milestones is unique to each child.
1. Does It Seem Like It's Working?
The power of observation has led to many scientific discoveries and insights. It is an extremely valuable tool that is often underestimated. The key to making the most of observation is to leave your opinion out of it as much as possible. For example, if you go to the play ground on different days and times over the course of a month and your child never interacts with other kids, then that's a powerful observation that gives you a lot to work with in learning who your child is. They may loathe being dirty. They may have fears about talking to other children. They may prefer reading. They may prefer structured activities. The options are nearly endless.
When you observe these details about your children it creates an opportunity for you to explore it with them. What insights do they have about the playground? What can you tweak to ensure they are getting what they need? Observe your children's physical, mental, social, and emotional skills in varied settings, and take notes in your home school planner that you can reflect and act on later.
2. How Are Your Children Testing?
Tests aren't perfect, but they aren't all bad either. The trouble with tests is that they get hyped to suggest that they provide more insight than they do. Tests are simply one more piece of information to help you and your children.
Typically, home schooled children can still take their state's standardized testing. Taking these tests is valuable. It gives your children practice with a new experience, and it gives you information. While the role of standardized testing in college applications continues to change, standardized testing is still a significant part of adult hood whether getting a drivers license or professional license.
Giving your children more practice with these environments helps prepare them for what's ahead. Your role is making sure these tests are framed as sources of information to help you make sure you are giving them what they need from homeschooling.
3. How Do Your Children Feel?
Some children ask to be homeschooled, while others have the choice made for them. Regardless, deciding to home school creates another dynamic in your relationship with your children.
Ideally, homeschooling is another opportunity to build connection with your children and know them on a different level. If you engage their input from the earliest ages forward, then their emotional development will benefit. Being able to reflect and voice our likes and dislikes is a skill that has to be developed. Helping your children develop this skill, is a sign home school is working.
4. What Feeback is Your Home School Day Providing?
Learning is often thought of as only a mental activity, which is often what creates some of the challenge with traditional schooling. But, at its best, learning happens in a lot of developmental areas all at once.
We want our children to learn how to grow mentally, as well as physically, socially, and emotionally. Home school gives caregiver-educators the space to give attention to each of these domains. For example, you might have a child who is mentally gifted, but they struggle emotionally. Homeschooling presents the opportunity to let them excel at their strength, while also having a supportive environment to work through their emotional development.
When you reflect on your typical home school day, what opportunities are you giving your children in each of these domains? Are you helping them build on their strengths, while nurturing and working through areas where they have greater difficulty? Take the time to acknowledge which learning domains you are seeing each day. Look for balance.
5. What is Homeschooling Like For You?
No matter the age of your children, you play a pivotal role in homeschooling. How do you feel about it? It is important to listen to your instincts about what is working and what isn't.
If you know that your child does better with harder lessons in the morning, then account for that in your planning. Likewise, continue to help your child build stamina and awareness about working through challenging material, even when the time of day isn't preferred. You are helping prepare them for the day when they are making their own decisions and responding to what the environment throws at them, now is the time to be there providing the opportunity to learn.
FAQs: Assessing Your Child's Performance in Home School
What happens when you are avoiding developmental domains because they aren't a strength for your child?
We like to do what we are good at because it feels comfortable. However, if we only do what we are good at then it can start to hold us back. For example, someone who can pass all the tests and learn all the things, but cannot hold a conversation in an interview, is going to have a harder time landing the positions that they want.
When children are going through K-12 education now is the time to challenge ourselves because these moments are largely low stakes. Not being able to hold a conversation with a librarian will not have the same effects as in the job interview above. The key to doing hard things is framing the attempts as experiments. Trying to talk to 2-3 people a day is an experiment. What was learned? How can that help the next experiment? Build from these experiments to develop skills.
What if my child needs more help in a domain than I can provide?
This goes both ways--your child may be excelling beyond what you can provide or your child might be struggling beyond what you can provide. Consider exactly what skill you want to help your child with and list all the options you can think of to provide that. Often times money or time will be a limiting factor, so consider creative solutions too.
Community is an often overlooked resource. If your child is excelling in music, but more lessons aren't feasible, is there a neighbor who plays that can provide a practice buddy? If your child is struggling to focus because they have a lot of physical energy is there an older peer in the neighborhood who can exercise with them (e.g., a hard run or bike ride)?
Key Takeaways
- Home school is working when learning is happening. Provide opportunities for your children to grow in physical, mental, emotional, and social domains.
- Observe your children. Observation is a powerful tool that you can use each day to understand what is working for your children.
- Make use of standardized tests. Tests give you valuable information about your children that you can put into context to help them keep learning.
- Take time to reflect. Whether asking your children or reflecting on the day and your own feelings, use this information to guide you as you select experiences across the domains of learning.
Where to Learn More
If you would like more tips and resources for better homeschooling, consider becoming a member of Crush Home School. With our membership plan, you get monthly guidance delivered to your inbox with downloadable resources and much more. Learn more about becoming a Crush Home School member.