Beating homeschool burnout, part three

Previously: part one: adequate nutrition, adequate sleep
Part two: if you need a break, take a break

Less is more.

The third thing I did to avoid homeschool burnout is to reduce my workload by identifying the core components of a true education, which teach the tools of learning; teaching those components, and resisting spending time on the other stuff. The other stuff may be fun and interesting, and your rhetoric stage child can study them on his own, with nothing more from you than a list of books to begin his study. (More lists here and here.) In addition, anything can be learned in college and as an adult. The purpose of K-12 education is not for a child to learn all there is; the purpose is of K-12 education is for a child to learn well those things which enable him to go on independently (this means without you) to learn all there is, or all he will need. In essence, a true education teaches a child to recognize and identify truth, to analyze the statements of others for truth or falsehood, and to communicate truth to others effectively.

Piling on more to please a parent’s sense of accomplishment, to look good in front of others, or to assuage a feeling of guilt adds nothing to a child’s true education.

So what are those core components? Bible. Language (which is, grammar (English and /or Latin or Greek), logic, and rhetoric, or the art of communication, of speaking and writing). History. Mathematics. That is really it.

“All schools ... ought to teach far fewer subjects, and teach them far better.”
- C. S. Lewis

to be continued ...

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Update: part four continued in Solve family problems

You make it sound easy!

Untitled Comment

Thanks for this post!