Even though you may have decided to homeschool your child to allow him to learn at his own pace you may be worried that your child is not picking up all the core subjects as well as he should. Is your homeschooler lagging behind what you would consider age appropriate skills for his grade and age? Most children are able to read basic texts by the time they are five, and your homeschool student is already 8 and refusing to read. Or perhaps your homeschool student only wants to read story books and not write anything. Does that mean that you are not a successful homeschool teacher?
There is no need to panic
Having been given the freedom to learn what they would like to learn most homeschool students develop uneven skill sets in the formative years. Some may be fantastic at doing math sums but hopeless when it comes to writing an essay or a book report. This happens because they have been focusing on what interests them and practicing that more than the other skills. While you may feel that they are lagging behind in some subjects, the truth is that they are way ahead in another subject as well. The balance is there, its just not conventional. So when you compare them to peers in regular schools you feel that they are not learning all that they need to know in that particular grade.
Later is better than never
Your homeschool student will come around to the other subjects and skills at a later date. As they grow older and need to pass the mandatory exams based on your State’s rules, you can regulate their learning to accommodate the skills that they have not yet mastered. They will be more likely to pay attention to the skills that will be tested once they have understood what the syllabus of the exam consists of. Being motivated to do well in the exam will enable them to focus on subjects that they do not intrinsically find interesting. What counts in the end is that they learn what is needed, how soon they do this is not that important.
