Come To Terms With It | 5 Days of Homeschooling Twins

5 ​Days of Homeschooling Twins – Part of the 5 Days of Homeschooling Blog Hop

Monday: Come To Terms With It

5 Days of Homeschooling Twins a contribution to the 5 Days of Homeschooling Blog Hop hosted by my friends at the Homeschool Review Crew.

Taking The Leap Into Homeschooling Waters

When my husband and I decided to take the leap into the deep end and homeschool our children, the first hurdle I had to face was that I was qualified. I grew up in a world that tells us all that the ‘experts’ know best. It took me a long time to realize that anyone with a will and unending love for their child can teach them better that an ‘expert’.

How was I going to teach my twins? Where would I get the curriculum? Wasn’t there an agency somewhere that would come check up on me and discover I was only schooling for 5.5 hours each day and not 6? I was actually terrified the first day we started.

And it was rough, really rough going. I had decorated half of our front room as a classroom and outfitted it with two desks. We began with a curriculum that provided online activities and content, as well as workbooks and readers, so I had a computer set up for each child on their desks. The first day began well. For about the first 10 minutes. My kids were overjoyed that they were now homeschooled, and that happiness over-powered a lot of the annoyance generated by my missteps.

Did I mention that it was rough going? I was not a total newbie at teaching. I had taught for years in university, had taught at high school level, and had spent 3 years volunteer teaching in my children’s classrooms working with small groups on children on specific lessons. While I was terrified, I thought I was ready for the teaching part.

Enter The Twin Paradox of Homeschooling

Oh boy was I in for a shocker! The first day I encountered the twin paradox of homeschooling. It was terrible. I was not prepared for it. We slogged through schooling from 8am to 6pm with two 3rd grade twins for nearly four weeks before all three of us adjusted to each other and settled into an arrangement that accommodated homeschooling.

What is The Twin Paradox of Homeschooling? It is the constant struggle between each child’s need to learn as an individual and separate person tugging forever at the need for each twin to be treated equally. How do you teach spelling to both twins at once when one has no trouble learning her word list and the other needs to write them over and over and over? If your children, like mine, insist on being taught the same thing at the same time then you all have to develop a good stock of patience.That is the twin paradox of homeschooling. When I write it out like this, it seems so trivial and inconsequential to homeschooling. But believe me, it was the hardest bugaboo to conquer.

The Key Is To Come To Terms With It

What does this mean? You have to face up to reality. Homeschooling is not easy. A lot of the time your job as your childrens’ teacher is not fun. In fact it may be the hardest and sometimes even the worst job you have ever had.

How do you conquer the Twin Paradox of Homeschooling? You must help your children to develop respect for each other, in the face of discovering weakness. That respect is what kept my children from competing or fighting with each other. Twin A might have a really hard time learning to spell, but he is great at math. So Twin B learned not to feel bad that she was not as good at math and instead spend time helping Twin A with spelling.

The Start of Your Homeschooling Life Can Be Like Having Twin Babies

Those of you with twins remember that first six months with your babies. You got no sleep. Really and actually none. You were a deranged moonbat for much of the time and your husband had to dig deep into his well of patience and understanding. You were terrified that you would not be able to raise two babies at once. They ate and slept at different times and woke each other with their crying. Your life was one long continuous stream of feeding, bathing, and laundry. Remember how you survived that and the three of you figured out how to make life as a family work?

No one died from crying (even you). Police did not show up out of the blue for a room inspection. Your children were not scarred for life because you gave up on the concept of folding laundry and just piled it all on the daybed – for months…. maybe that last one was just me. And luckily I had a mother-in-law who came to visit and between baby holding, she folded the laundry for me.

Those first months with your twins are a lot like the beginning of homeschooling. You survived once, and you will again. And the joy and beauty of your life now that your twins are no longer babies will be replicated once you get past the initial settling down phase of homeschooling them.

The Gifts of Homeschooling Will Shine Through

It will settle down. If you keep at it and stay the course, you and your children will settle into your new life as a homeschooling family. You will learn more about each of your children than your ever thought possible. Your lives will intertwine and your family will strengthen until nothing, nothing can break it. Your children will blossom and surpass you in many, many ways. And this will provide you and your husband joy and amazement.

The goodness and the blessings of homeschooling are innumerable. And they are there for anyone to enjoy. All you have to do is jump into the deep end and tread water until you learn to float. You may have to tread for a while, but don’t ever lose your faith. You will succeed.

What Is On Deck for The Rest Of This Week

Tomorrow I will continue sharing the lessons I learned from homeschooling my twins. Next up is “Breaking Through The Noise” (if you have twins, you probably can guess what that is all about). Later in the week I will talk about how to become the authority figure in your homeschool, the joy of cooperative learning, and the blessings of homeschooling your twins.

See you tomorrow!

Want to read more ideas and tips about homeschooling? Hop on over to the next wonderful blogging homeschool mom and read about a different aspect of homeschooling!