You have made the biggest decision already which is to homeschool. Doing so ‘from the beginning’ is a lovely way to build your home culture to weave fully with a culture of education, building a library in your home as you collect books, and blend learning with life throughout the day.
However, we are happy to have you join us at any age for support along the way. Your sweet 3 year old would not be the only wee one in our community. This would get you plugged in, gain access to our newsletter, and allow ongoing conversations with your Faithful Scholars’ hand holders.
Our family began formally teaching our first child at age 3 and it was heady stuff to say the least. Mountaintop days and exhausted nights. Reading lessons, math stories with manipulatives, explore/discover science, read aloud everything- including history, art, poetry, grammar, etc. By our third child I was allowing them more time to just be little ones, enjoy playing, exploring, nattering about. By the 7th one, she was created in such a way as to watch the modeling all around and began teaching herself with very little input from me- because that was her nature and the culture of our home.
Hindsight has taught me that all of the children are balanced, happy, faithful, content, self-controlled, and successfully following their interests and passions. Did I have some magic formula? Not at all. Each child had a very different early experience outside of the basics.
What I call the basics:
Knowing they are/were loved and welcomed into any situation that might be going on within our home.
Knowing they are/were expected to be obedient with a good attitude. As in, “you have 2 choices in this situation- to have a good attitude or a bad attitude, but you will complete the task at hand.” OR “Mama has decided that as soon as you complete that task we should go outside for a picnic/other.”
Being consistent in our parental (team unit- always!) approach and expectations. A no was a no and a yes was a yet. We wrote down our lists of if/thens and posted them on the fridge to remind myself to address/confirm good and bad behavior each and every time and not just when I had the energy or was frustrated (translate- mad with no on hand consequence ready).
We never told our children they were smart because we knew that at some point they would struggle with something and want to hide it from us if we equated our joy in them with their being smart. A child translates ‘smart’ as knowing everything easily.
Instead we told them what hard workers they were, and they rose to each challenge with confidence.
And so on- mindful, purposeful, consistent child training. One of my favorite books was Don’t Make me Count to Three.
We defined our goals as to why we were homeschooling. My husband wanted them to be highly educated and I wanted them to have a full and extended childhood where they could free-range, use their imaginations, and learn resiliency. We found a balance by focusing (early childhood) on math facts, grammar facts, and reading. This meant 15 minutes of sit-down reading lessons time, 45 minutes of snuggled read aloud time, and math stories/science exploration/discussion throughout the day as we moved, worked, and played alongside. 1st grade extended that time to 30-45 minutes of sit-down time, and so on as they grew up and into extended curiosity and learning wants/needs.
Define your goal and then work backwards to where you are. This will help you discern what steps to take moving forward, day by day. Homeschool is a day by day endeavor otherwise it is like eating an elephant in one bite. You do know how to eat an elephant?! -One bite at a time.
Please do not read into this that we did a perfect job, we did not. But hands were made for loving, anger meant we had not thought through something nor created a ‘system’ with which to respond, and raising/educating our children was my main job (for which I needed my husband’s support, so I learned not to tell him how to do something I asked of him, but simply to ask for help and allow him to do it his way with my full support).
Boxed curriculum seem dreamy and wonderful. With one child they are able to be accomplished. However, they were created to keep a classroom of children busy for 4.5 hours each day. Homeschool is a 1 on 1 situation akin to tutoring. When they ‘get’ the concept you can close the lesson and move on, but with a boxed curriculum it has busy work and worksheets to keep the students busy for the full period without regard for if/when the student gains understanding. Most homeschoolers begin with a ‘safe-I-won’t-miss-anything’ boxed curriculum until it overloads and overwhelms at which time they either throw in the towel or go rogue (eclectic) choosing their own books from hither and yon to create their own curriculum. See if this post will help you see what I mean. https://sandbox.faithfulscholars.com/self-government-as-the-success-to-our-days/ . Note below that we have HEAPS of free resources, manipulatives, books, texts, and curriculum. If you are able to drop in (Fort Mill home/office) any Weds 10am to 2pm, you could fill a carload for free!
My final word of encouragement is to consider how many years our children have to be children vs. how many they have to be young people vs. how many they have to be adults.