Some things I've learned along the way... not every curriculum has to be an exact perfect match for my kids. They will still gain something from a curriculum even if it isn't tailor made for them. Obviously something that is completely a bad fit isn't good but I had to learn to stop nit-picking everything we tried, the perfect curriculum does not exist because they all have faults.
In a loving home with parents who are available to answer questions, spell words when asked, help research questions they can't answer themselves, expose the kids to new ideas, talk to their children throughout the day and make available things like paper, pencils and other "creative supplies", THEY WILL LEARN. I know it's hard to see sometimes, I remember being just few years into our journey and people telling me the same thing and thinking "I can't see how that can work, if I don't "teach" them, how will they learn?" But they do, you can't stop them from learning. All you need to do is facilitate by answering questions and making materials available and maybe make a suggestion or two if things get stagnate.
They might not follow an outlined progression developed by someone with a PhD in Education but they will follow their own timeline which IMO makes things easier for everyone. I tried to make sure they were up to par with the public schools but I only accomplished the same thing the public schools seem to do, suck the fun out of learning. When I relaxed and let them take things at their pace, they made giant leaps. Literally sometimes they would jump a grade level in understanding in just one day. Not everyday mind you but just when I'd start to worry they were dreadfully behind, they would make a giant leap and be on level or ahead. It took a while but I've finally become comfortable with the fact that learning at their pace does not look the same as learning at the public school pace and not only is that ok but it causes less tears and frustration. (Notice I didn't say "no tears or frustration" just less.
)As for how to teach without planning, that's easy, I don't teach.
I facilitate their learning. I make available the supplies for them to teach themselves. I have a big cabinet in my den full of every imaginable art and science supplies, everything from paint, pencils, crayons and a dozen different kinds of paper to a microscope and supplies, magnets, dissection tools, wildlife identification books and glass prisms. Did I have all this stuff when my oldest was 6yo? No. Did I need all of it then? Not at all, I've picked things up here and there as I could afford them or could find them for free. Do I always have exactly everything I need for an experiment? Usually, but not always. But the anticipation of a much awaited science project hasn't killed anyone yet. And they are now pretty good about when we go out shopping to say, "Mom don't forget we need xyz to do that science project."I know it's hard but relaxing and letting things go might be just what you need to do. Think long and hard about why you choose to homeschool. Most people don't choose to homeschool just so they can mimic school at home. Set priorities, for your homeschool and for each child. For instance, in K-3, my goal for my children is for them to be reading, writing and able to do basic arithmetic. Everything else like history and science sit on the back burner. We get them here and there but the 3r's are our priority. Manners and character are things I would teach my children no matter how they were schooled, public, private or at home. I teach those the same no matter what, I use teachable moments throughout the day. No one can do everything and do it well. Set priorities and re-evaluate them every few months and change them as needed. If you focused on reading for a few months and now your child is doing fairly well with it, change your focus to math for a while. If the child is still struggling, work on reading for a little while longer or if you seem to have hit a wall, change focus anyways and come back to reading in a few months.
No one is going to ask your child as an adult when they started reading, how old they were when they first wrote a sentence or if they were reading chapter books by second grade. You have more than 10 years to teach these basic skills. As for knowledge subjects, like science and history, no one knows it all and everyone has certain subjects they know more about that others. They will have gaps and they have a lifetime, their entire life time, to learn everything there is to know. Think about it, how much have you learned since you started teaching your own children? Were you limping through life without that information before you starting teaching them? You can't teach them everything there is to know but you can give them the tools for learning so they will be learning for a lifetime.
This was a response I wrote to someone on a message board asking about how to "do it all".
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