Who do they complain to now when they want to whinge about their awful teacher and the awful work? Make sure everyone knows when you are teacher and when you are parent again – for some kids, you might literally need to have a different hat on! You’re their parent, their champion, their shoulder to cry on. They know you’re not a teacher, you know you’re not a teacher. Even when there’s no choice, try to find the choice (it might be as lame as: what colour pen do you want to use?) We all thrive when we feel we have some element of choice. Remember what you hated about school and do it better.Ĥ) Try to be a coach working alongside them, rather than a dictator. Our school system hasn’t changed much since Victorian times. Can you protect that by ring-fencing homeschooling to be a particular time, or a particular space, or a set number of tasks? Boundaries are vital, so they know when they are working and when they aren’t.Īnd please, please don’t make it too much like school. We want them to call us when they get into trouble and learn to apologise when they lose it.ģ) Agree on the rules, so you aren’t constantly renegotiating. In turn, it will help them to be honest with you and should preserve your relationship in such stressful times. Be honest and talk about what went wrong. It’s exhausting to be relentlessly fun and sunny, but please consider apologising when you ‘lose your chilli’. Every kid secretly wants their parent to praise them. Try three positive comments for every negative one, it really works. We all naturally notice bad stuff and it takes some real practice to see the good – but the science of gratitude has amazing results. Here are my top ten tips from more than ten years teaching and tutoring (and too many days of emergency home schooling):ġ) Force yourself to look for the positive. I find teaching my eldest, Conrad, ten times harder than any of my other pupils! But each day I am better than the day before, I am learning what he needs and how he learns best. Emergency homeschooling is HARD! Let’s get that out there, first of all.

Choosy homeschooler