Micro-Managing

When my older kids were homeschooling, they were insatiably curious. They needed to find out how things worked. They needed to know the treasures hidden in the pages of books. They needed to talk and ask questions and look up answers. If I wanted them to learn something, I could find a book at the library, leave it lying around on the couch, and the kids would inhale it.

Last night I was bummed and looking at a magazine for a bit. (What? Wasting time selfishly like that? What's up???) An article on Ken Hendricks mentioned that he found success by (in part) allowing his employees to fail. He said that if they're not allowed to fail, they won't think. And when they don't think, then it takes a whole lot more work to manage them.

That's why I'm having so much more trouble homeschooling these days.

My two youngest aren't insatiably curious. They will do the schoolwork I require of them. Sometimes they do it begrudgingly and none of it sinks in. Sometimes they do it well. But I have to tell them what to do every step of the way. I can't say "read this book" and have them do it. I have to remind them each day to read it, and tell them how many pages, and ask them questions to determine if they understood or retained any of the information. I can't say "do your math" and have them figure out that they should do the pages following the pages we did the previous day. I can't put "German" on the to-do list and expect them to figure out what I've told them repeatedly: listen each day to the 15-min tape until you know it, and then go on to the next tape.

Like Ken Hendricks said, it takes a lot of work to manage people when they don't want to think for themselves. When the kids want nothing more than to veg out with video games and tv and comic books, it's nearly impossible for one mother to micro-manage one student and still manage to get dinner on the table and get the laundry done. And I have more than one student.