WHAT I'VE LEARNED IN 11 YEARS OF HOMESCHOOLING
After over a decade of homeschooling and years of sharing our family's homeschool journey on Instagram, I often get homeschool-related questions from moms and homeschool families from many different walks of life. From new homeschool moms who want to know where to start. From tired homeschool moms who want to know how to press through when things aren't going the way, they had planned. From lonely homeschool moms who don't have a support system in place and often feel completely alone.
I hope that these 5 points will help each and every one of you, no matter what stage of this homeschool journey you are on. If you found these helpful, head to the link below to read 5 more tips!
Click Here -> 10 Things I’ve Learned in 10 Years of Homeschooling
1. Let go of anything that is not bringing you AND your children joy. It may be a curriculum that you thought you would love. It may be a unit study that you planned for weeks. Whatever it is, if it's taking the joy out of learning set it aside.
There have been so many times that I have had to do this very thing. And even though it's been hard at times, my children & I are so much happier when our lessons & days consist of the things that fill us with joy.
2. Know your why. We all have different reasons for homeschooling & I have found that it is so important to write down what those are. Your life's circumstances will change. Your children's needs will change. You as a mother will change. Your why may even change too!
But on the hard days, when I have felt overwhelmed and been tempted to ship them off to the closest school (yes, we all feel that way at times) I have found that by going back to my whys I am able to re-center and to focus on the most important things which for me are spending my days learning alongside my children.
3. Never allow someone else's light to dim your own by comparing your homeschool with theirs. Okay. Read that again. Friends, this one is so important. No one's homeschool is as pretty as it looks on social media. There is a lot of encouragement and wisdom online but as soon as you start to look at someone else's homeschool and feel inadequate, it's time to step back and remind yourself that all your child really needs is YOU.
4. Don't panic if your child isn't where you think they're "supposed to be" in a subject. They each learn in their own way and at their own speed and our job is to cheer them on along the way. In our home we've had children start reading at 3 and at 10. I have children who excel at history, science and nature study but who may take longer to grasp a new math or phonics concept. No matter what their learning journey looks like all of them are extremely bright and well-rounded but even more importantly they are kind and compassionate human beings. And that, my friends, is my goal. 🤗
5. Hard days and even hard seasons will come ... and that's okay. It's okay to not have it all together every day. It's okay to cancel school & have a movie day once in a while. And it's okay to admit that some days are hard. This does not mean you are failing. It doesn't mean that your children would be better off in a regular school. It means that you are human & since you are raising little humans it's probably okay for them to know that hard days happen to us all. And when they do happen they will see firsthand that it is okay to be gentle with yourself, it's okay to redirect & it's okay to take a break.
I hope that these tips are helpful! If you would like to follow along with our family’s homeschool journey you can follow us on Instagram @thisgrowinglife or join our For the Love of Homeschooling @fortheloveofhomeschooling
Samantha
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ABOUT Samantha from FOR THE LOVE OF HOMESCHOOLING
For the Love of Homeschooling was created from my desire to share the beauty that homeschooling can be and to encourage others along the way! Our family has been homeschooling for 11 years now! This year we had a 9th grader, 6th grader, 4th grader, 1st grader, and our rainbow baby who was born in May 2021.
Over the years, as our family has grown and walked through different seasons of life our homeschool style has changed a ton. We've done the heavily structured homeschool schedules, completely unschooled & done a mix of the two. But no matter what our days look like I've found that a present and loving teacher or parent is truly all our children need to thrive!
Aside from homeschooling and running For the Love of Homeschooling, we are homesteaders at heart who love to raise as much of our own food as possible and always have an array of baby animals to keep us busy and smiling. We are also very new tiny house dwellers (yes, a tiny house with 7 people) and are currently building our off-grid home in northern Canada! It's definitely been a learning curve and I've had to drastically downsize our homeschool supplies but we are loving the peace and restfulness that this simpler lifestyle has brought us. I share about all of those things and more on our family's personal Instagram account over on @thisgrowinglife
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