5 Things I Wish I Had Known Before I Started Homeschooling
As you think about the upcoming school year, I just want offer some encouragement and share some things that would have made my homeschooling journey a little smoother along the way.
#1 – There is a difference between homeschooling and doing school at home
I wish I would have understood that there’s a difference between homeschooling and doing school at home.
There are many options out there for taking someone else’s materials and literally doing school at home. For some people that really works well and it’s a great option.
I felt pressure to recreate a classroom in my home but I wanted it to be more of a lifestyle and a way that we learn as we’re living our lives. I didn’t really want all those primary-colored calendars, seasons and days of the week all over my walls. That didn’t feel like me or the environment I wanted.
It took me a long time to learn that it’s totally okay. When you are homeschooling, you get to call the shots. You get to decide how that looks and works for your family.
For some people it may be literally creating a classroom environment in their home. And for others that may be just sitting on the sofa and not having any designated school space. Wherever you’re living, you’re learning.
Or you might prefer something in between, which is what I’ve created – an environment that I love to be in whether we’re schooling or not.
It also houses all our school resources and there are things out to inspire curiosity and get the kids thinking and touching and feeling different things. We have lots of resources available but nothing feels too schooly.
I wish had understood that it’s okay not to fit into any boxes.
#2 – Resist the urge to compare
I say this every time I give any type of homeschooling advice. Resist the urge to compare. Keep your eyes focused, put your blinders on, run your own race.
It doesn’t matter what your friends are doing. It doesn’t matter what curriculum they’re doing. It doesn’t matter what science class they’re taking. It doesn’t matter what extracurricular activities their kids are in. Do what works for you and your kids.
I wasted so much time forcing my kids to do things they didn’t want to do and weren’t interested in, just for the sake of saying that they were taking extra classes.
Everyone’s homeschool is going to look different. Have a look at some of the videos of my other homeschooling mama friends:
If you watch their channels you’re going to see a vast difference in the way that everybody does things.
It’s so beautiful to see that we’re all loving our kids and homeschooling and loving our journeys but doing it totally differently.
Resist the urge to compare. It’s so hard in nearly every aspect of life, but when it comes to our kids and their education, it’s even more tempting.
#3 – It’s going to be way harder than you imagine
Be prepared that it’s going to be harder than you thought it would be. In some ways it will be easier, but it’s also going to be a very refining journey.
When you have a baby, your motherly instincts kick in and you just know what to do when they’re born. I thought the same kind of thing would happen with homeschooling but that wasn’t the case and I wasn’t totally prepared for that.
I really struggled a lot the first few years. I wish I would have been more prepared mentally and emotionally for the hard times. There were days where I felt like I didn’t know if I could do it another day, let alone another year. Am I failing them? Is this all wrong?
There are going to be days where you feel like What was I thinking? But those definitely don’t outweigh the good days in my experience.
Just remember that it’s all part of the learning process that helps you create your homeschool into the best it could possibly be.
#4 – Take it every child, every year
Our mantra has always been we take it every kid every year. We decide what’s best for every child every year.
That said, there also needs to be some level of commitment with it. If you constantly say well I don’t know, we’ll see, then it’s easier to quit.
I definitely think you need to evaluate and decide what’s best as often as you feel you need to. But when things got really hard or I was feeling uncertain, I sometimes used that as an excuse that to justify wanting to quit.
It’s important to have some resolve to stick with what you started at least for a certain amount of time. Sometimes the goodness is right on the other side of the kinks that you’re trying to work out – the things that you’re not sure are figureoutable.
It’s all figureoutable. The goodness of it all is on the other side of those hard times. So when you feel the most tempted to quit is when I would say push through a little longer and make sure that’s really how you feel.
#5 – Homeschooling can be a really magical thing
I wish I would have know that if I let go of the need to control every little thing, homeschooling can be a really magical thing and a beautiful time of bonding between you and your children.
There are absolutely going to be frustrating moments but there can be so many magical experiences in the time that you get to spend together. There is something beautiful about going through life and just living and learning together.
My friend Syreena’s mantra is We live and we learn and that is really it. We’re all just doing life together and we’re learning along the way.
One thing we’ve done differently this year that I feel has upped the magicalness of homeschool is choosing to read aloud to my children. Not school books that we’re supposed to read, but just reading together for the love of reading.
It has just transformed so many things in our lives, I can’t say enough about it. I have been reading [this book] and it has is so inspiring to help me understand how important it can be to read aloud with my kids. I would highly recommend that you check it out!
So those are my five things that I wish I would have known before I started home schooling that could have made my journey a little smoother. Hopefully you can glean a little something from them as well.
I’d be interested to hear what you wish you would have known before you started homeschooling. Share in the comments below!