Quality Over Quantity in Homeschool

I don’t know if we accomplished anything today.

How many times has this thought crossed your mind? You only got through three subjects in the time that it usually takes to complete seven. You feel like a failure and are sure that your kids are going to get behind this year.

We’ve all been there, but this line of thinking is deceiving. It leads you to believe that quantity in homeschool is what counts. It is not. We have all given our kids page after page of the same work in hopes of them finally getting it, only to discover that later the concept still eludes them and we struggle to know what to do differently.

The answer is simple (isn’t it always?): quality over quantity. One quality lesson can achieve far better results than twenty of a lesser value.

A Successful Approach to Education

I remember learning this truth with my son. He was struggling in math, and I was concerned that he was getting behind. One day I just decided to forget about where we were in our book and focus on ‘did he learn something today?’

Just Focus on Today

We sat down and step by step, little by little, we began to learn the process from the ground up. I discovered that he had missed a step and that was the only problem. When we approached it this way, it finally made sense. The result was, as I initially feared, the lesson took us twice as long as usual. The payoff was that the next day he was finally able to move ahead in his book. It stuck. That one quality lesson did what all of those previous ones couldn’t do: it taught him.

The Illusion of a Homeschool Quota

As homeschoolers, we often feel like there is a quota we must meet, a certain number of pages we must complete, or a book that must be finished this year.

This is not a successful approach to education.

This method will not give your child the quality of education that you desire. Focusing on what’s right here in front of them with all of their attention and slowly allowing it to sink in will work far better than the light skim of the knowledge that schoolwork usually gets.

Just Finish the Page

What we should be thinking is was there a certain amount of learning happening today? Oh, if only learning could be gauged and counted as easily as pages! If we could truly see when our kids learned and when they just completed work, I think that we would be completely surprised by it. Then there would also be times that we weren’t even trying to teach them anything that they learned the most.

We often shove this so-called “quota” onto our children, as well. They start to think, as we do, that finishing these three pages will satisfy Mom. How many times have you allowed them to just finish the pages knowing full well that they didn’t actually connect with the lesson and that there is little hope of them retaining it?

The example we ought to be setting for them is that learning what’s in front of them is the goal for today and that life isn’t about the pages in front of them, but the knowledge that those pages contain. Finishing the pages is not the equivalent of learning the pages.

Less Is More: A refreshing philosophy of education

We tend to confuse facts with education. We think that if facts are presented to our children that they will automatically learn. Therefore, the more facts that are presented to them, the more they learn, right?

The truth is that generally, quality lessons are shorter than many of their lesser counterparts. When the focus is on the basics and making sure that the concept is learned rather than completed, there is little need for repetition, cutting down on actual time in class.

If I would have given my son one focused math lesson from the beginning, he probably would have never had trouble with it. If I would have made it interesting and relevant to him, he would have even carried it through to the next lesson and built on it.

That day with my son taught me a valuable lesson. Now, my focus is on the quality of the time we spend and not on the amount covered in that time. I feel like we had had a successful day when my kids were inspired and enjoyed the day.

If there is something that is particularly hard for one of them, we take it slow and deliberate, making sure not to rush for the sake of “not getting behind.” This is paramount when you find a subject or concept that your child continually struggles with. I strongly advise that if there is a subject that your child is having trouble with, to find a way to make it interesting to them. Try a different approach, maybe even a different curriculum, but keep quality in mind. This doesn’t have to take a lot of time, remember?

One way to ensure that quality lessons become a habit in your day is to start when you’re not in class. That’s right! Think about the rest of your life. Do you have a tendency to rush through things paying little attention to the quality of your day? Do you find that you never slow down and really pay attention to life?

The habits we model for our children become their habits, too. Talk to your children about living a quality life wherever they go and then hold yourself accountable.

Do you realize that one synonym for quality is excellence? Shouldn’t our homeschool days be filled with excellence? I like the sound of that.