Mom As Teacher

As a parent, you have some pretty high expectations for your children. You want the best for them. You want them to be challenged. You want to see them conquer challenges successfully.
When you take responsibility for providing your children their education, you realize that their degree of intelligence directly reflects your ability to teach them. Perhaps you push them a little too hard, knowing there are those who continually seek to criticize your decision to educate your children at home. Should measuring up to other people's expectations affect the way your children are taught, though?
I learned something from my dog trainer that has weighed heavily on my mind. She said that it is important not to let your puppy fail. If your puppy will only hold a sit for 15 seconds, keep the hold at 12 seconds and release him. Don't let him fail.
Why am I associating this concept with homeschooling? Because of the enormous amount of desire parents have to see their children perform above and beyond and excel in everything. We parents naturally feel disappointed when our children do not live up to the standards we expect of them. Most of the time, we tend to reprimand for substandard performance and neglect to praise them for what they are achieving. And, we set a mark for them that we only become satisfied when they reach.
As parents and more importantly as homeschooling parents, we should not let our children fail.
Homeschooling is a wonderful provision which allows parents to take control of tailoring our children's education to be specific to them. Therefore, our children need only measure up to their own potential. When we try to force our children to go beyond their potential, we make them feel like they have failed. Homeschooling is not about failure.
Sometimes children need a creative approach to learning. This is a great way for parents to use some imagination. Instead of pushing a subject until our children become frustrated and upset that they just can not understand it, take the opportunity to explore fun ways to reinforce the main idea behind the lesson. Use our world! When we have practical, hands-on examples, things become clearer and easier to make sense out of.
So, push your children to reach their potential. Recognize that everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Build upon, praise, and encourage strengths. Find creative ways to work with weaknesses while praising good efforts. Don't let your children feel as though they have failed.