A Mom & CEO's Advice For Home-Schooling Kids — In Case You Need Tips

Here, we learned her best advice, no matter how your family is dealing with back-to-school this year:

"The biggest challenge I faced was breaking my own mental model of what a school environment should be. Even though we were clear on our goals and the skills we wanted to foster in our kids, I found myself slipping into the patterns of traditional school that were so familiar. I had to consciously break these patterns and constantly evaluate whether there might be a better way," says Wells. "I realized that most classes at school are created to fill a certain time period each week and a certain amount of classes throughout the semester or year. With home schooling, we weren't bound by these constraints and could focus on mastery instead of completing a book."  

This step will really require you to think about what is important information you want your kids to understand. "It's easy to fall into the trap of beginning with the syllabus in mind and following the knowledge outline for each grade, but begin with the real end result in mind," says Wells. "Think through the most important skills and values you want to pass on to your child and that will best prepare him or her for future success, and work backward from there. You'll likely find that it makes your job in home schooling much easier and their experience much more fun!" 

Think about your family's habits and hobbies: What sort of lessons can your kid glean from the activities you do together, and how can they work toward your greater educational goals? "Home schooling allowed us the most flexibility and control in moving toward these goals," says Wells. "We really value travel, and home schooling allowed us to work and school from anywhere in the world. Travel also offered some great teaching opportunities." But, of course, this can be applied to almost anything: watching sports, playing cards, being outside in nature, and so on. 

So how does this apply to her teaching, day to day? "We identified skills that would benefit our children no matter what they decided to pursue in the future: critical thinking, creativity, love of learning, embracing the lessons of failure, and the ability to evaluate information," she says. "As entrepreneurs, we also hoped our children might pursue their own business endeavors and wanted to give them the foundation to do so by teaching them to problem solve, help others, and think outside the box." 

Grades, while important for practical reasons, don't necessarily add up to real-life value, says Wells. "In many learning environments, scores start with 100, and students lose points for 'wrong' answers. I understand the convenience this offers in grading but don't feel that it is an accurate representation of life or learning. It subtly reinforces the idea that there is only one correct answer to a problem and that you lose points for failure," says Wells. "In life, the creative solution is often the most beneficial. A 'wrong' answer can lead to a big pivot that produces great results. And often, some of the biggest and most important lessons come from failure."

"In my experience, much of the stress parents face, especially when adding new variables like home schooling, stems from the stress of open loops or from trying to manage the emotional responsibility of everything that needs to get done," she says. "It's important to get all family members actively involved at an age-appropriate level and hand off tasks so not only are you not doing them, but you aren't emotionally responsible for making sure they get done at all."

"There are, of course, many times that kids don't want to work. There are also many times I don't want to work. But kids don't stop being hungry, and the household doesn't stop needing certain tasks done just because I don't want to work," she says. "We've established a clear expectation that household responsibilities and school responsibilities are required and made sure the kids have the tools to get these things done without frustration. We have if/then charts to remind them of these things and answer the potential questions: 'If I finish my morning responsibilities, then I can go out and play.' This way, they have clear motivation, and it reduces the questions and decisions I have to make.