How to stop worrying about homeschooling: You got this!

You can trust your children and yourself to do your best and that is good enough

Many parents are stressed out about homeschooling not only because it is so disruptive, but also because they feel so responsible for the success of their children’s learning. Even in this chaotic time, with constantly changing circumstances in the specter of the pandemic, parents blame themselves. We worry that our children will not keep up with their grade level or that our teaching at home will handicap them in some way.

Years ago, before the pandemic, I homeschooled my four children. Over time, they also attended public and private schools and took lessons after school in dance and drama. I learned a lot about how children learn from these experiences and I’d like to reassure other parents today, who find themselves homeschooling, but not by choice.

Children can learn without coercion

It wasn’t until I read the book, Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Childrearing by AS Neill, that I began to believe — for the first time — that children, that people, can learn, do learn all the time, without coercion. Some of the principles that Summerhill advocates, summed up in the forward by legendary psychologist, Erich Fromm, are the following: