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Homeschool Confession – My Homeschool Mistakes

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Homeschool confession my homeschool mistakes. Besides mistakes are part of learning how to homeschool. Do you want to hear about some of my blunders?

Homeschool mistakes are part of learning not what to do when homeschooling. However, in the beginning it’s hard to view it that way.

Too, nobody wants to do the trial and error method with their kids.

We have a few short years to homeschool our kids and we want to maximize our efforts.

Homeschool Confession - My Homeschool Mistakes

If I share just three of my mistakes maybe they can save you some grief.

Not leaving the public school mentality.

Isn’t that hard to do? Especially because I was the product of public school.

For example, I never questioned why I needed to test, I just blindly followed the masses.

I realized that leaving the public school mentality didn’t mean not using some of the practical tips that did work in public school at home. 

It just meant to leave behind what I didn’t need because I was not teaching my kids, not a classroom.

New Homeschooler

Because we live in this world, it’s hard to not be affected by the pressure of test, perform and out do.

My sons are just normal boys who have been privately tutored by me. That’s all.

I left public school because I didn’t want to model it at home, not just change geography.

Comparison to other homeschool moms, dad and oh yes their children.

I am guilty. It seemed like some other mom had this whole homeschool thing figured out.

Then I find out later her beginnings were as humble as mine.

I thought other dads did more of the teaching until I realized that statistics show that about 85% or more of the teaching is shouldered by the mother.

I guess it just sounded good when dad did a science experiment with their sons. My science experiments were not that exciting in the beginning. Can you say boring teacher?

Boring and now a show off. Yes, I thought I had to “show off” my progress to my mother-in-law who was not supportive of our decision to homeschool in the beginning.

I had to prove her wrong and was humbled in a lesson I won’t forget.

Trying to show off my teaching skills to her, I asked Mr. Senior 2013 who I was then teaching to read to show us the long i sound. Yes he did.

He promptly went and got the longest piece of white butcher paper he could tear off the roll.

Laying the paper down on the floor, which was twice as long as grandma, my poor baby proceeded to draw the longest i I had ever seen.  I shuffled off in shame.

What to Expect from the Homeschool Kickstarter

From my struggle, I created a curriculum for new homeschool educators. And taught this course in person to new homeschoolers. I’ve now put my course online for all new homeschoolers

More shamed at the fact that I was trying to show off instead of what really was funny at the time though I didn’t feel that way.

Humble me for I needed it for the road ahead.

With the 6 modules and 29 workshops, I walk you step-by-step through beginning homeschooling, understanding the homeschool lifestyle, choosing curriculum, and understanding how to fit it all in a day.

Look at what you’ll learn.

  • Learn how to identify what is and what is not homeschooling. It can mean the difference in succeeding or succumbing to the mindset you want to leave behind.
  • Choose curriculum wisely instead of using the oh it looks good method.
  • Organize the areas of life that collide when you begin to homeschool.
  • Identify and create the right schedule for your family’s rhythm.
  • Understand what is important to teach from K to High School. (Oh, did I tell you I have kids well past 10 years old?)
Not investing more time in my education as a teacher.

Like many new homeschoolers, I too focused solely on my children and their need for a support group, curriculum, socialization and field trip.

It took me a few years before I realized that the best way to help my children was to become the best teacher I could be.

A public school teacher is required to take continuing education classes. Why shouldn’t I?

If I didn’t take time to read blogs, join support groups, buy teacher helps and attend homeschool conventions I couldn’t say I was schooling for my children.

Feelings of guilt that I had associated with longing to interact with other homeschool moms had to be left behind.

Association has to be a vital part of my everyday teaching. Online forum groups were not a waste of time but needed for refreshment and encouragement.

New to Homeschool

Like all things, the time I took for educating myself and camaraderie had to have a place in my life to be balanced.

Your turn: Do you have a story we can learn from? I hope you can learn from my mistakes.

Homeschool Confession - My Homeschool Mistakes

I thought about this quote today because after many repeated failures, pursuit can turn to passion for homeschooling.

“Life is filled with so many exciting twists and turns. Hop off the straight and narrow whenever you can and take the winding paths.

Experience the exhilaration of the view from the edge. Because the moments spent there, that take your breath away, are what make you feel truly alive.”

~ Stacey Charter ~

You’ll also love these reads for New Homeschoolers:

Homeschool Confession - My Homeschool Mistakes @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

The Dynamics of How to Homeschool Easily and Smarter

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

The dynamics of how to homeschool easily and smarter takes time, but you’re sure to find plenty of support and help here at Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus.

You’ll find tips and resources on how to homeschool on this page. Too, here I’ll share how tos on making school fit life.

Too, your homeschool journey is dynamic or constantly changing. What worked this year may not work next year.

The Dynamics of How to Homeschool Easily and Smarter

After celebrating the graduations of three homeschooled children, you’ll love the tips I share based on my 20+ years of homeschooling.

In addition, many homeschoolers begin homeschooling by trying to follow a public school schedule.

This is your home not a classroom so you’ll love understanding the dynamics of how to homeschool easily and smarter.

How to Transition from Public School

Begin first with your public school mindset. You need to change from thinking a classroom to a family living room.

In addition, look at my book Homeschooling 31 Day Boot Camp for New Homeschoolers: When You Don’t Know Where to Begin.

Education for the First-Time Homeschooler

How to Plan Your Schedule & Lesson Plan

Homeschool Language Arts

Next, look at the tips and helps for teaching language arts below.

Homeschool Science

Summer Homeschooling

Homeschool History

ORGANIZING HOMESCHOOL AREAS

How To Determine Grades

Not Back to School Crafts for Homeschoolers

Homeschoolers Teach Life Skills Not School

Teaching Multiple Ages Tips

Deschool – Get off the Public School Treadmill!

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Deschool get off the public school treadmill is about freedom. Also, you’ll love more tips on my page The Dynamics of How to Homeschool Easily and Smarter.

When teaching my new homeschooler workshops in person, I tried to use the term deschool right away so that new homeschoolers or those that are thinking about homeschooling have time to wrap their mind around the concept.

Though there are many facets about deschooling that you will want to embrace over the course of your journey, I want to put it down in layman’s terms for the new homeschoolers.

Deschool - Get Off the Public School Treadmill @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Running and burning energy but not really traveling anywhere is what it is like to be on a treadmill.

Are Deschooling and Unschooling Two Very Different Terms

Deschooling is about getting off that public school treadmill and transitioning to a new life.

For some homeschoolers it may include some rest time.

For others it may be defining what their family educational goals are.

Each family will have different goals during their deschooling period.

Have you ever done a toxin cleanse?  I love the feeling afterwards because I have a new pep in my step.

Deschooling is a period of time to shove back from rigid thinking and adjust the pep in your step to a new way of life.

That is how some homeschoolers define this time period.

More Resources for Why My Kids Are Homeschooled

This time period allows you to re-train your mind and body and to make drastic life changes.

You want to make changes that will be permanent and to start fresh and motivated.

Letting go of preconceived ideas and notions of what education is suppose to look like and defining what you want your children to learn is what deschooling is about too.

It is a time to adopt your definition of education, to discover that you may want to be more self-educated than to be handed curricula, to join home school support groups, to meet and incorporate new homeschooling friends into your lives and the ability and power to say no to labels.

Say NO to Uniform Standards Set for the Masses

Furthermore, it could include saying no to standards by the state.

Why spend so much time trying to figure out where your child is SUPPOSE to be and what other children his age are doing? 

Forget what everybody else is doing.

Spend your time and energy focusing on where your child is NOW and move forward!

Deschooling is knowing that we have homeschool freedom but it’s also utilizing that freedom to suit our family.

Some think deschooling means doing nothing. It might for some. 

And we don’t want to be critical of those families who may need physical rest now.

The rigors of getting up early to catch a bus, having long school days complicated with an enormous amount of homework is physically draining. 

The truth of it is that we really don’t know what another homeschool family has been through.

For all of us it does mean transitioning to a new lifestyle.

Think about huge transitions in your life up until this point. 

When we transition to a different lifestyle whether that significant change was having a baby or switching careers, our schedules changed.

We allowed ourselves time to adjust to a new schedule and we let go of ideas and goals that at the time seem realistic.

We now see that some of our ideas may have been idealistic.

It is quite common for even seasoned veterans to not have taken a period of deschooling and they may be headed down burnout road.

The Power of REST

Deschooling can be a period of few week to a few months depending on the level of stress your family experienced.

Take time to deschool and get off the public school treadmill.

One of the very best books to bring reality back to our lives, renew your passion for homeschooling or just to propel you forward on the road to homeschooling is Deschooling Gently.

Not only is it a great read, but the encouragement you receive from it will last years.

Have you let go? How is your deschooling coming? What activities and goals are you including to deschool?

Homeschool Organization – Preschool/Kindergarten Free Morning Routine Flip Cards

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Homeschool Organization

Homeschool organization is something that should be fun. Even the sweetest littlest homeschooler deserves fun and cool organizing tools. Look at my other tips for how to homeschool kindergarten.

And this is one organizing tool that I wished I had when my boys were in the preschool and Kindergarten years.

It is only after training them that I can look back and see what would have worked and teaching homeschool organization starts from the very beginning.

Guess what? You get the benefit of what I know now and I am so excited to share these morning routine flip cards.

Mr. Senior 2013 following his rouinte @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus. Homeschool Organization - Preschool/Kindergarten Free Morning Routine Flip Cards

{I surprised Mr. Senior 2013 as I caught him following his routine and hanging up his shirt. He was 3 years old here.}

The printable is based off the chore or routine that my boys did or that I was training them to do.

Too, I moved away from calling them a chore chart because it was more of training my boys to follow a routine. 

I wanted them to see what came next in the morning and learn to follow it.

Though I used many chore charts on the wall, a flip card on an “O” ring was a much better idea because they flipped the card as they were finished and were ready for the next day.

Hang the O ring cards on a hook in their room and not much wall space is required.

Homeschool Organization Preschool Morning Routine @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

23 Things that can be included in the Morning Routine for a Preschooler or Kindergartener

Look at these things that a preschooler or Kindergartener can do to help around the house and create a routine too.

It’s the best way to start teaching homeschool organization. This is the age that most kids love to learn new things and want to help you around the house.

Again, all of these are based off my chore charts I created through the years and I have added my list here for you.

  • make their bed
  • toilet paper call or refill the toilet paper roll or add more underneath the cabinet
  • get ready for the Bible read aloud
  • hang their clothes up
  • water the plants
  • computer time
  • feed the dog/pets
  • practice or listen to music
  • brush their teeth
  • empty trash baskets
  • fold their clothes and put away in the drawer
  • eat breakfast
  • put their books away in their bookshelf
  • put their toys away
  • sweep
  • set the table
  • take their dirty clothes to the laundry room on wash day
  • fold clothes
  • help wash dishes or work outside
  • change out the hand towel in the bathrooms
  • dusting
  • unload part of the dishwasher
  • wipe down counters, walls and/or baseboards

With all this being said, I did make the mistake of making my list too big each day.

I learned that 5 things to do each day was enough to help train my boys.

So I created these flip cards with only five spaces on each day.

Creating Routine Flip Cards for the Littlest Homeschooler

Here is how to use them:

  • I created 2 sets of flip cards so that the days can be mixed and matched for more than one child.
  • There are 7 days with the names of  the days of the weeks.
  • At the top of the card for each day is a happy face for them to mark off if they completed the routine.  There is a sad face too but hopefully you won’t need to use that picture.
  • There are two pages of pictures for you to cut out and glue on the correct day.

One reason I didn’t add the pictures to the flip cards is because the routine changes each day. 

Also, when my boys were that young and ready to climb in my lap, we would read aloud first.

Bed making didn’t come until after they ate breakfast and brushed their teeth.

Each child is different and your routine is different from mine because you know your child.

So you choose which 5 things that you want your child to do each day. One day they may begin with watering the plants and the next day you may want them to take their laundry to the laundry room on wash day.

  • After you print out how many of each page that you need, glue them on each day of the week and laminate it.
  • Then punch a hole and put it on a O ring. The beauty of this is too that your child can hold it and walk around with it. Then flip it to the next day and they are ready for the routine of the next day.

This is what I have found ideal after I trained my boys and it is what I would have preferred.

I was only able to do this with my last son but then again, my printable skills were not so hot then, but I still created it.

I hope you can use the printable I have now made and will enjoy many years using them.

Download the free printable routine flip cards here.

Hugs and love ya,

Also, check out:

The Great Homeschool Hoax – Public School At Home?

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Like a lot of new homeschoolers, I too just copied the public school system in everything from keeping a similar schedule, to curriculum selection, and even testing my first child, Mr. Senior 2013.

Public School at Home

You see, I was doing public school at home.

I hadn’t embraced the freedom that homeschooling offered. I was afraid.

I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to lesson plan, to teach all of my children at one time, that my children were going to be behind, that I needed testing for grade placement, that my kids need other children their age and that I would totally fail them as an educator.

The Great Homeschool Hoax – Public School At Home. Understanding the two COMPLETELY different approaches is key by Tina Robertson

Did I mention I even had feelings of guilt questioning myself if I was a good mother?

Why do we do that as moms?

I agree that today is so much more easier to homeschool because of all the resources available to us.

However, in one particular way homeschooling was easier way back when because homeschoolers then grasped the full meaning of homeschooling.

About 10 years or so ago, public school at home providers popped up and became popular.

The meaning of homeschooling has become obscured because these companies tout that they support homeschooling. They may or may not.

Can You Really Have One Foot in Homeschool and One in Public School?

Until you let go of the public school at home mentality which models everything after the public school and where you are only assisting your children at home while somebody else teaches them, you will never embrace the freedom homeschooling offers.

Public School at Home Characteristics

  • biggest difference – government controlled
  • normally offered online
  • have testing required
  • have parent and teacher conferences
  • maintain a public school schedule
  • curriculum is put together by educational consultants even though public school at home touts that you as the parent choose readers or have some choice. You may or may not.
  • can be accredited
  • tout they are free because they are public school and public school is free
  • have a teacher assigned to your child
  • a curriculum is one grade level straight across the board a/k/a boxed curriculum or one size fits all.
  • mostly uses textbooks. Some online school use only textbooks while others throw in a few classical readers.
  • schedule is set up to complete on their timetable. Though many programs offer flexibility because they are government controlled, schedules have to be maintained.

If this sounds like the arrangement you just left, then why would you want to repeat it at home?

Homeschool Characteristics

  • biggest difference – parent controlled
  • you can choose all online curriculum, part physical books or mix and match
  • testing becomes the right of the parent who knows the child best and understands that a test is nothing more than a tool
  • conferences are not needed because as the tutor of your children you know what they’re learning. Even if you just begin to homeschool, it doesn’t take long for you to know exactly which subjects your child excels in and which subjects he will need support for.
  • your schedule is adopted based on your family’s needs and not based on an outdated school schedule, which was set up based on a society that was much more agricultural than our society is today.  If schooling year round suits your family, you simply begin and don’t need approval by a governmental agency.
  • curriculum is put together by a parent because she knows the child the best. If the curriculum is not working, it can be changed on a dime. Being in control doesn’t mean you can’t use something laid out by another company, but then that is your choice.
  • accreditation is no longer a term which homeschoolers fear because they know it doesn’t have anything to do with the value of an education. Be sure to read my article, Accreditation – Removing the Shroud of Mystery.
  • homeschoolers know that public school at home is not free. It may be cost-free, but given up freedom like control, having stressful deadlines for testing and parent teacher conferences cost.  Many homeschool educuators give up well-paying jobs because their desire to stay home with their kids is greater than their desire to pursue a career they may even be passionate about.  They know that homeschooling for excellence doesn’t always mean having the most expensive curriculum though they are willing to sacrifice other things if a pricier curriculum is better. Be sure to read my article, Is Homeschooling Expensive? Check out this Essential Guide in How to Homeschool Well on a Budget.
  • children are tutored one-to-one by their parents. Reports show that parents play a major role in their child having above normal intelligence when tutored.
  • the parent stays in control of whether they should purchase a grade level in a box or mix and match grade levels adjusted to the child’s natural abilities.
  • homeschool families don’t have to settle for a few well placed classical or living books placed into a curriculum, but can choose living books consistently.
  • the homeschool schedule is completely flexible to adjust to the needs of the family each year.

There is not anything that the public school at home approaches offers that an informed and hardworking educator at home can’t overcome.

If it’s structure you crave, then choose a laid out program where you are not having constant interference from an outside source.

If you need a more budget friendly curriculum be sure to check out my post Digital Homeschool Curriculum – Big Ol’ List.

Pursuing sports, music, art or any other extra curricular involvement is done easier when you set up your schedule to fit your children’s passion.

Being in control of my children’s education is one of the most satisfying and fulfilling jobs as a mother and parent I ever could have.

We were never promised it would be easy in raising our children, but they are blessings.

What we are assured of is that we will be provided with what we need to aim our children at their targets.

I have been blessed over and over many times, but not without some tears shed, lots of elbow grease, lots of prayers and a dogged determination to stick to what is best for my family. You can too!

Don’t forget so easily what many homeschoolers who homeschooled in the past knew, which is that homeschooling is a precious and extraordinary way of education that doesn’t mix with any other approach.

Look at some of these other resources that will help you to stick to the homeschooling approach.

Hugs and love ya,

The Great Homeschool Hoax - Public School at Home @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus