Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

How can I have such different kids in the same family? Michael Farris talks about working with your kids' strengths and weaknesses today on Home School Heartbeat.

Mike Farris:


This week on Home School Heartbeat, we're focusing on the idea that each of our kids are very different, and we need to accept and work with this fact if we're going to be successful in our homeschooling. With me this week is my favorite expert, a woman who has been homeschooling her 10 children for over 22 years, my wife Vickie. Vickie, welcome back to Home School Heartbeat.


Vickie Farris:


Thank you very much. It's good to be here again.


Mike:


Vickie, we've been told that our kids look an awful lot alike. Despite these similarities, do you find that they're different academically?


Vickie:


It really is amazing how different kids from the same gene pool can be. Some of the big differences I've noticed-some of our children are actually very self-motivated. In fact a couple that I can think of are somewhat on the perfectionist side, and that actually can have a downside to it also. Some of our kids are more on the lazy side. We also have some very creative and artistic children who seem to really excel in some things, but then they really struggle in other areas.


Mike:


How do you approach homeschooling in light of these differences?


Vickie:


Well, obviously I have to be a little flexible, try some different approaches sometimes to help different children. But because I have so little time, we use the same curriculum for everyone; they just have to fit in to that framework and we just make some minor adjustments, and everyone does fine.