Homeschooling Boys with Lots of Success

There is something about a mom homeschooling her daughter that seems natural. Mom runs the home and teaches her daughter to do the same. But boys want to be like dad, who leaves the house everyday. It can feel less natural to keep boys at home in order to educate them.

When I was young I spent my childhood playing with dolls. I had a toy washer and I would play by copying my mom cooking and cleaning the house. When I had children of my own and they were boys, I discovered that their play was different from mine and it seemed strange to me.

Boys play differently from girls. They like guns and weapons. They like to fight and to save their world from the “bad guys.” They like to get messy, destroy things, be outside and build with hammer and wood. In fact, the biggest problem with mom raising boys is that you weren’t one yourself.

When it comes to homeschooling, boys don’t like to sit still, don’t enjoy filling in workbooks and usually don’t enjoy writing. In school, if anyone is behaving badly, chances are they are male.

I had three boys and then a girl all of whom were homeschooled. When they were young they seemed to have endless energy until, that is, I mentioned chores or schoolwork.

So how does a mom homeschool boys? In my case I had to get creative. We went to the park every day first thing in the morning in order to get rid of some energy, only then could I get them to sit down and write. Also every day we had an hour’s break from each other. After lunch, everyone would go into their own rooms and lie down or read. After that rest they were often less hyper in the afternoon.

My ADHD son wouldn’t read because he hated to sit. We solved that problem by having him read while walking slowly on the treadmill. In fact, I learned that if they did more PE and exercise then their concentration with their schoolwork improved.

Moms want to nurture their children, but boys struggle to be independent. It is that balance between security and adventure that is what parenting is all about, and especially parenting while homeschooling.