Our Readers Share Their
Biggest “Oops” Homeschooling
Moment
My biggest “oops” might have been a
cup of coffee and a teacher’s manual . . .
hmmmm . . .
—Jennifer Lynn Avery Wilson
via Facebook
. . . Realizing I missed a whole section of
reading; it’s our first year. We made it up
fast!!
—Misty Robinson via Facebook
. . . Ordering a Grade 4 end of year test for
my daughter and once I was ninety percent done administering it looking at the
front and realizing it was a K5 test! Oops!
My daughter and I kept talking throughout the test about how easy it was but I
thought maybe I just expected too much
of fourth graders. Once we finished math
and all they really did was addition facts,
I checked the level. We were pretty sure
her scores would rank high for that test!
—Elizabeth Carroll Machado
via Facebook
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Things I WISH I Had Done Differently
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I ordered math curriculum for all of my
children at their new grade level for our
upcoming school year. When the box
came, everyone was very excited (like a
Christmas present!) to open theirs—
except for my pre-teen son, who simply put
his Pre-Algebra kit on the school bookshelf. My mistake was not checking his
books. Our first week of school came
and as it turns out, I had somehow mistakenly ordered all of the Pre-Algebra set
except his actual workbook! Ugh, not the
best way to start a new school year.
—Julie Rogers Sadler via Facebook
Train up a child in the way he should go and
when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22: 6
• schoolhouseteachers om/print-issue
Ha ha ha!! It was a science experiment
gone awry! I was supposed to plant some
kind of grass seed, but instead planted a
type of bean. Needless to say, what we
saw did not match what the book said
we should be seeing. This is why I now
leave the science experiments to the professionals! Better not to warp the kiddos
with my lack of science competence!
—Star Geisz via Facebook
This may not be my biggest oops but
my daughter (now 19) still talks about
it. Our daily routine was to have read-alouds after lunch. We would cuddle up
on the couch with a blanket and a book.
Fifteen minutes into the reading I would
fall asleep! She thought it was hilarious,
while I was slightly embarrassed. I still
do read-alouds after lunch with my three
little ones (under 5), but their squirmy
energy keeps my eyes wide open, and I
have ditched the blanket.
—Beth Gordon via Facebook
Our first week of homeschooling I was
doing a unit study with my 5-year-old . . .
[about] the sun. We made a sundial and
marked the first shadow. An hour later
we checked it again and she was amazed
that the shadow had moved. I asked
her why the shadow had moved and of
course she couldn’t answer. So in my superior “teacher” voice I told her, “The sun
moved!” Didn’t dawn on me for about 30
minutes what I had done. A very humorous yet humbling moment in which my
daughter learned I make mistakes too.
—Tisha Spencer Kirby via Facebook
. . . Moving from one state to another I
lost curriculum that I was using. Been
here five years now and I still have no
idea whatever happened to those books!
—Denise Phillips via Facebook
Mine was a simple slip of the tongue,
calling a mushroom a marshmallow. That
was years ago, but my kids still get the
two mixed up with alarming frequency.
—Emily Hopper via Facebook
. . . Skipping two entire units in our curriculum . . . and not even noticing for
three weeks!
—Tim-Melissa Williamson via Facebook
First month of homeschooling, I tried
to read to them while facing them in the
“teacher position.” Well that deteriorated
into bad behavior and me yelling. All was
good when I moved to “mommy position” between them. It seems all the big
mistakes are when I copy “school” and
not homeschool.
