Posted in Issues and Encounters

Typically, the term micromanagement is used in a negative sense.  Usually, it refers to the nit-pickey, often "nosey," interference of a manager into one's job and responsibilities.

However, in many ways, micromanagement is an apt description of what homeschool parents do regarding their child's education.

But, is this a positive or negative thing? 

Of course, one of the parental benefits of homeschooling is the ability to tailor your child's studies to suit his or her needs, abilities, and interests.  Your second grader may read at a fourth-grade level, but need math skills at a low-second-grade level and be learning cursive handwriting (typically a third grade skill). 

You can study science in kindergarten, if you choose.  The curriculum choices and their levels are entirely up to you.

But, sometimes the level of detail that you gain through homeschooling can lead to frustration or even a sense of failure on the part of the teaching parent.  I think this comes, primarily, from the closeness one develops with a child through the teaching process.

For instance, you know what topics you've covered and what level of detail you hope your child has retained.  Yet he or she cannot answer a basic question about the topic at hand. 

Or an assessment of language arts skills reveals that last week's work on contractions "didn't stick" - and the word contraction has become a foreign concept.

Or, despite weeks of online practice, your child's math drills take a dip and seem to be slower, rather than becoming more solidified.

Parents, homeschoolers or otherwise, know their children's strengths and weaknesses.

Repeatedly, homeschool parents report that standardized tests don't reveal anything to them that they didn't already know - their child is good at math, poor at spelling, etc.  No surprises. 

But, this is where the "micromanagement" of homeschooling can seem to be a real curse to the parent. 

Not only do we know that Susie is strong in geography and enjoys science. But we also know the minute details.  Susie has problems with figuring her +9 addition facts.  She confuses -ant and -ent word endings in spelling.

It's this level of detail that can bog-down the homeschool parent.

It becomes the time when, if asked, the "grade" we would give our homeschool would be about equivalent to the grade our child received for any of the above-mentioned activities. 

This is a *trap* that we must guard against - equating the product of one assessment, or even one brief period of our children's life, with the entirety of our efforts at instilling a love of learning into our children.

What one needs to keep in mind at these times is the overall goal of one's homeschooling efforts. 

It's helpful, especially when things seem a bit less-than-optimal, to be able to review your reasons for homeschooling.  Keeping these reasons in writing makes this even easier and I believe is an exercise that all homeschooling parents should do at the outset.

Think of it as your "mission statement" for homeschooling, if you will - a "statement of homeschooling."

A second exercise that can help the "micromanagement blues" is journaling.  Aside from being a good thing to model for your students, a homeschool journal lets you chronical those "micro-moments" that are extreme positives, or negatives, and move on. 

Later, when things are going better, or if things take a turn toward difficulties, a journal can help you get an accurate picture of what's really been happening in your homeschool.  You can read about the progress your child has made in certain areas or note concerns that *may* need to be tracked in the future. 

And it can make for and excellent addition to a child's portfolio or records that will make great reading in the future.

However, it won't make your child's math drills come any easier, nor will it prompt them regarding their history narrations, nor reinforce their grammar skills.

But, it should remind you that there is a bigger picture.  You're in this for more important reasons than blog-perfect history narrations or complete mastery of multiplication facts at age six. 

Micromanagement in the homeschool setting need not be a curse if we are willing to accept that its revelations are not the totality of our homeschool experience.  It's simply one more aspect of the responsibility we accept when we choose to educate our children at home.

The details may not always be pretty, but the goal is a positive one.

And the closeness that you develop and maintain with your child through homeschooling probably creates more beauty than anything else.