You folks who never wanted to homeschool because that is not what you went to university/professional school/graduate school for...but it's that or COVID?

I'm here to tell you if you are on the fence about homeschooling because you're afraid it will make you crazy... 1/

It will in fact make you crazy, at least for a little while. Yeah. I'm sorry. BUT you will get through that phase and it will be okay, and often it will be better than okay. Stay with me. 2/

Plusses: No packing lunches. No overseeing homework. No driving to or from school. No parent-teacher conferences. No tracking down esoteric shit on the student supply lists. No wondering how the day went despite the "it was okay" comment when they get home. 3/

Here is a thing I am burying in the middle of the thread: If you let your kids spend the next school year reading books for 6 hours a day, five days a week, they will still be okay. (This is not true for every kid, but most.) 4/

You can buy textbooks online for reasonable amounts of money if you're willing to get an older edition of the book. (Make sure they're rated VG or up) Ex: chemistry books I bought for my daughter are newer than the edition I used in university and older than what's used now. 5/

Also buried: yes, this has been career suicide. But I was pretty sick of practicing law and I've managed to keep a side gig of freelance research/writing going for the last 10 years. (Although nothing new since March. Go figure. Anyone need contract work done?) 6/

If you let your kids study what they love in depth, they will put the work in to learn the skills they need to understand it. (Related: let your children use this time to find out what they love. This is an amazing gift you can give them.) 7/

Don't be afraid to give your kid work above or below their grade level. Seriously, who cares? I am one of those people who has to learn all of a subject before it makes sense. (I can't visualize anything in three dimensions & have cried over organic chemistry homework.) 8/

I don't know many (any?) homeschool parents like me, so maybe I've got it wrong. I mostly see religious parents following a strict curriculum, unschooling parents (that is a different conversation), parents who are always schooling (they are exhausting to watch in action), and 9/

parents who have pulled their kids out to deal with behavioral/other issues. (Disclosure: I pulled mine because her first grade teacher told us in a conference she "couldn't learn" which resulted in one of the rare times my husband was the rude one in a public setting.) 10/

Resources: @khanacademy (I do have a crush on Sal) @thecrashcourse @TheGreatCourses @IXLLearning @duolingo @jamestanton (my daughter calls him the Mr. Rogers of math) @TheEconomist (yeah, it's expensive but it's the best source of world news I have) AND your public library. 11/

And the very best thing, if you made it this far, is that I have a daughter who teaches me new things every day and who loves learning new things. (The day she came to me and commented, "Mom, I really don't think people discuss the Quasi-War enough." Well.)

Set boundaries and distinguish your roles. The parents I've known who were public school teachers who were homeschooling (I'm not a teacher, just a lawyer with a background in humanities and science/tech) because there were no better, affordable options, often struggle with this.

Hard truth: if it's not working, it's because you're not doing something properly. It isn't the kid's fault. #homeschooling

My unpopular hack: I skipped spelling tests when we started homeschooling in 1st grade. My rationale was she read widely and would pick spelling up on her own. (She did; I know b/c her pronunciation is sometimes incorrect.) Also: Turn on closed captioning on TV/screens.

(We have, however, always had vocab words/workbooks/flashcards. Get a box of SAT flashcards, have kid pick 10 at random, see which one the kid already knows definitions to, put those aside, focus on the rest. Boom, and your kid now knows how to study with flashcards.)

There is a tendency to over-schedule when you start, especially if you were that kid who was actually excited about going back to school to learn stuff (I was that kid, although I hated school). Don't. The first day, do two subjects. Add more as you get used to it. It will be OK.

Remember how much of your education was spent listening to some moron ask if he was responsible for everything listed on the syllabus. And look, you turned out just fine.

Just because you are homeschooling does not mean you should skimp on buying school supplies. Nothing says September like a blank composition book.

You have to model how to learn, you have to admit when you make mistakes, and you have to let your kid laugh at your expense from time to time. You should fail, dramatically and loudly, to teach your kid what getting back up looks like.

Putting another couple of things out: @BitsboxKids and @littleBits are not inexpensive but are really fun.

Homeschooling tip #22 (I counted, but just for this thread):

Resist the temptation to turn everything into a teachable moment.

I am terrible at this! But I am not terrible at knowing when my daughter is tuning me out. It's better to shut up and wait for the next opportunity.

Continued:

[Ignoring the abuse from my childhood] it looks amazing: educated parents, a library that took 1/2 of a semi to move, frequent trips to sites of historical interest...and you know what I remember?

Pretty much just the places and things I was interested in.