What if I fail to prepare my child for the world outside of my home? Do I have what it really takes to inspire, teach and train my children? How do I prove to my extended family that my children will soar with homeschooling when I am not even sure they will?
A New Homeschooler’s Greatest Inhibitor
Whatever your fears are, you are not alone.
You are looking for what every other new homeschooler needs at the beginning of their journey.
Confidence, patience, curriculum information, how to build character in our children, understanding how to balance a day and not get stressed out in the meantime, homeschooling toddlers while the older children don’t get behind and what to do when the high school years approach are questions you want answered right now.
While you absolutely need all the details about each of these topics, it might make you run the other way because of information overload.
However, giving you some practical tips now and tools for the journey that come from my many years of helping new homeschoolers will help you to avoid common mistakes of the first year homeschooler.
Homeschool Tips and Tools for the Panic Stricken
1. Education First for the Educator.
I know you are on the great curriculum quest now, but it is hard to make decisions on curriculum when you don’t take time to understand the differences between them.
Making time to carve out a niche so you make better decisions for your family takes time and when we are new, we feel the new school year breathing down our neck.
The truth of it is the public school year of schooling from August to May has very little with how you determine to set up your school year.
2. Blessed Are the Flexible.
Though you will hear many times in your journey that others admire the patience of homeschoolers, it is actually the quality of being flexible that a lot of us pray for.
When you set expectations too high and want to right all the wrongs, perceived or not by public school in just a few months or even your first year, you are heading for a breaking point in your journey.
Burnout follows and the public school, which you just left behind, seems now to be your solution.
3. Extra Curricular Activities – Extraordinary?
What sometimes follows the thinking that purchasing curriculum by August is a must-do before we pass out is the thinking that our children must join every possible homeschool group or activity known to our area.
Keeping the kids busy so they are happy, or at least we think they are instead of finding time to read all we can about homeschooling can do the opposite of what we are trying to achieve and that is surviving joy.
Taking time to be home the first year and getting to know your children instead of signing them up for too many outside activities, even the best ones, is a tremendous pay off in capturing your children’s heart and understanding their struggles the first year too.
For now, keep it simple by doing one or two outside regular activities total, not per child. As you get more experienced, others will marvel at how you do all those outside activities. I promise.
4. Connecting Equals Comfort and Support.
When I first started homeschooling, I was perfectly content, or at least I thought so at the time, to connect or do activities with my one or two friends. That lasted as long as my children were real little, which, by the way, goes by real fast.
I found myself scrambling to make connections both online and in real life with other homeschooling families because my children needed the experiences.
I needed practical tips on how to teach multiple ages and what to do with my terrible precious toddler. I realized soon the power and benefits of outsourcing.
Connecting with other homeschoolers both online and in real life also brings comfort and a sense of camaraderie. Even if you live in the far-fetched quiet woods or the hustling hopping metropolis, you need others. Simply put, we all do.
Of course you don’t have to turn into a social guru, but you want to connect through homeschool blogs.
As you can see, balance is key in not planning too many outside activities or finding yourself to be a homeschool hermit either.
5. Homeschooling is a LIFESTYLE change.
Take time to mull over those words because when you adopt the lifestyle of a homeschooler, it becomes more than a method of educating our children.
This is something hard to appreciate at first when our only focus is on how we are going to get those little desks to line up in our school room.
Understanding that you are switching from a public school driven schedule to a family centered lifestyle you realize that we do not need to copy the public school model of how children should learn.
Learning is a natural process. Trust your mommy instinct to teach your children at any unplanned moment.
It doesn’t mean we don’t have a schedule for formal learning, but it does mean we seize teachable moments each day. Right now, shed the weight of guilt for past mistakes because it is never too late to adopt the homeschooling lifestyle.
Do you really think that I am going to make you wait too long for all that detailed information you want?
Learn the Homeschool Lingo – Then Go
Wheels on the Bus Go ‘Round and ‘Round – So Get off
Homeschool Hangouts & Socialization Situations
Okay, maybe I will make you wait just a little bit on the next 5 tips. After all, I don’t want any overwhelmed homeschoolers here.
So for Part II of the Top 10 Tips For New Homeschoolers – Curriculum, curriculum, curriculum – Isn’t that how to begin homeschooling, I will be sharing 5 more I will survive and thrive homeschooling tips.
Your turn, what is your greatest fear about homeschooling? I care and I’m listening.
Read the second part of this post here at Top 10 Tips for New Homeschoolers, Part 2.
Hugs and love ya
