Sibling Relationships & Homeschooling: 7 Ways to Make It Strong5 min read

So many families make the decision to homeschool in order to learn and grow together, at home, as a family. Each one championing the other and everyone together, giving and doing their best for the family. For parents with more than one kid, sibling relationships is an important concern.

All for one, and one for all!

When your family lives and works together, your children are learning many personal skills. They will learn how to empathize, to disagree respectfully, to sacrifice, to encourage, to celebrate, and more.

Is it actually so fairytale-like when you’re educating children of different ages, personalities, interests, needs, and goals? Or do you find yourself running around in ten different directions all at once?

That sounds very far away from our dreams of building a united and undivided family, doesn’t it?

So, what do you do?

How do you honor and celebrate the individuality of your children while simultaneously building togetherness as a family?

You need to be intentional about creating an environment of brotherhood and harmony.

Set out to create an atmosphere that allows a wealth of opportunities to foster and grow loving relationships within the family, especially among siblings.

7 Ways to Improve Sibling Relationships in Your Homeschool

Work towards common goals

Encourage your kids to work together towards common goals. You could plant a garden together. Or work on a family art project for the living room.

You could also do something together for your community or neighborhood. Grab some trash bags and gloves and clean up a park.

The important lesson that your kids should be learning is that they are strong individuals. They are pretty much unstoppable as a team.

Celebrate each other’s achievements

Celebrating each other’s achievements – both big and small is such a great practice to build and grow family relationships.

Learning to rejoice in another’s success is a wonderful life lesson to teach your kids.

Whenever one of your kids learns a new skill be intentional about bringing celebrating together.

You could have a family dance session, cook a favorite meal, or have another child make a card for their sibling. A brother’s victory is a victory for all.

Catch each other when someone is falling

Teach your kids to edify each other. Whenever a class presentation or a performance doesn’t go well, help your children to find ways to help keep each other’s spirits up.

Encouraging each other is so important, especially as a family. Anytime someone faces or feels defeat, the others should work with them towards reinforcement.

Involve each other in your efforts

Make a habit of talking to each other about goals, interests, and ideas. Having a sibling by your side in a learning endeavor is a great strength to have.

It becomes easier to be brave and take on a challenging task or goal when you know your sibling is cheering you on.

Knowing that you have someone right beside you to guide you and then to celebrate with you brings so much confidence.

Cherish and relive old memories

Sometimes sitting together and reminiscing about the old times is a great way to facilitate bonding.

Encourage your older kids to talk about their experiences to your younger ones. It could be something they loved learning, something they disliked, and more.

Having children of different age groups doesn’t have to be a cause for panic or chaos.

Practice trickle-down education

As a homeschool parent, it is normal for you to feel like the whole weight of your kids’ education rests solely on your two shoulders.

The truth is that if you have children of different age groups, you are blessed with the help you need right in your house.

Once one of your kids learns a new idea or a task, encourage her to share and teach it to her younger siblings too. You can have an older child read to the younger ones, or help out in a few math sums, and so on.

Your burden be eased. Your younger ones learn things from their older siblings. The older siblings will realize that every little thing they learn is a gift to treasure.

Care about others’ interests simply because you care about them

Your kids will not necessarily share the same interests and goals, and that’s okay! They are different individuals with unique personalities.

That doesn’t mean that they’re left on their own to pursue what they love. Every time one of your kids has a karate test, a ballet performance, or a presentation in Spanish, encourage everyone to take interest in it and cheer the person on.

Everyone else may not necessarily understand everything but the main lesson is that they care about their siblings’ interests because they care about them. When you care about a loved one, you don’t need a reason to be there for them and cheer them on; you just show up!

What Not To Do For Strong Sibling Relationships

Remember, forcing kids to be close to one another when they have issues between them may do the opposite of what you intend.

If your kids have a fight or a disagreement, help them sit down and talk it through.

Working on the fissures in sibling relationships is the first step to making it stronger.

As always, give your kids the space to understand it for themselves.