The curriculum was mapped out, my daily schedule was humming along nicely, household chores were getting done regularly, and I was feeling confident in my homeschool mom skills. Then, the testing happened. I received a surprise dose of reality. The information that I thought my child was absorbing was completely forgotten. At least, that is what the assessment made me believe.
Knowledge retention and progression are key indicators that I can use as guideposts in homeschooling. They are not meant to be indicators of my child’s success though. In my homeschool journey, I have realized that I cannot hold so tightly to our planned schedule or grade level that I lose sight of the goal: my child’s retention of information. When I see a learning gap on an assessment, showing that my child needs to stay right where they are, I view it as an opportunity to slow down.
If this happens to you in your homeschooling journey, it can feel like defeat. Your child must relearn; you have to reteach. It just feels like moving backwards. But I am here to tell you some surprising news: slowing down may promote your child’s success!
Slowing down in education is not popular. In these fast-paced, time-blocked days, forward progression feels like the only option to success. However, slowing down our pace has always led my children to making large academic leaps.
I know that is contrary to how humans like to operate. We think that if we rest, we lose. But this is not true in reality, and most definitely not true in homeschooling.
Because my husband is in the military, we can flex our homeschool schedule around dad being away on deployments or working long hours. We can take days off to spend time together as a family when dad is home. And that same flexible schedule works for closing learning gaps too.
The first time I had to slow down and teach my child the same information all over again, it was scary. Deep down it felt like I failed. My child did not retain the information at a pace I thought they could. So, we changed our curriculum and went back to basics.
How to Adjust Your Homeschool Pace
A child needs to read and do math well, since basic reading and math skills are essential to getting a job and living life as an adult. When I saw my children needed remedial learning in these main areas, we slowed down and focused on them.
During that time, I adjusted the time we spent on subjects like social studies and science. (We’re able to do this because we live in a state without subject requirements, but please check your state’s homeschool law before cutting subjects from your curriculum). Creatively including science and social studies into read alouds and field trips helped us focus our school time on reading and math.
Last year, we focused on reading and spelling every day, this year, we’re focusing on math every day. We do our core subject every day without rushing. The secondary subjects are woven through in unit studies, but most of our time is spent on closing the learning gaps in the core subjects. The goal is thorough retention, and that can mean slowing down and doing less each day during some school years.
The End Result
When I took a deep dive into focusing on one academic subject as our primary learning goal, it was a concrete reminder that my child is not competing with anyone. It is stressful when a child is not comprehending, but we know in homeschooling that we have complete freedom to slow down and reteach. There is no set timeline. (The parable of the tortoise and the hare is relevant here!).
My children each work at different speeds, but they always get to the end point of understanding a concept. When we slow down and relearn information that we covered before, we fill in the gaps to create a solid foundation of knowledge. A consistent—and sometimes repetitive—focus on basics like reading and math solidifies learning in their minds.
Every time, this has led my children to leap to a much higher level than I am even shooting to reach. With this approach, I have seen my child increase reading levels by four grades in one school year and witnessed another child discover math is their number one subject after initially struggling to understand it.
Slowing Down Creates Deeper Understanding
The beauty of homeschooling is that our children are always on their own custom grade level. We can guide them to work at their unique pace. They are not racing anyone else. Since we are present with them daily, we more readily notice the learning gaps that can occur.
When we step back and slow down our pace of learning, we can adjust the teaching to the child. Then, the child is not the one with the learning problem because the information being taught is delivered at a pace to help the student succeed. Next time you notice teaching and learning are colliding, slow down. The school years where you slow down to fix what looks like a learning problem may be preparing your child to launch beyond your expectations.