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3 Causes and Cures for the Homeschool Blues

November 8, 2014 | 2 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Whether it’s the change in the weather, the humdrum days of every day school, or if you are just questioning the decision to homeschool, I am hoping by sharing 3 causes and cures for the homeschool blues that you will be rejuvenated and inspired to put the spark back into your day.

Look at these 3 causes and cures for the homeschool blues:

  • Cause: Feeling Unproductive.  Have you ever had one of those days where you poured out every ounce of teacher know how into teaching your kids math or maybe sight words for the past few months only to have them act like they have never received any instruction before?

Of course, it always seemed to happen to me when the Mr. was interrogating questioning the boys about our “”productive” day.  In the beginning of our homeschool journey, the Mr. was like a lot of new homeschooling dads and that is they want to see instant results. The frustrating thing is that I too wanted to see homeschool progress.

It just feels like your time has been wasted and it’s enough to kill your homeschool joy.

  • Cure: Slow Down or Take a Break Altogether.  Whether your child is struggling with learning what you have slaved over the last few months teaching him or whether you have tears over your lack of creative ways to teach him, everybody can benefit from a break.

Many years, I realized that no matter how hard or creative I tried to be in teaching something that was not clicking with one of my sons that progress eventually comes.

It is very hard to be patient and wait on that time period, but it was harder on me to question my teaching ability and then to drain my enthusiasm for teaching my kids afterward.

Nobody like the teacher mom that showed up the next morning after I had one of those I-am-going-to-do-it-anyway days.

Though the problem won’t go away, taking a temporary breather will bring some relief and sometimes my most creative moments came out of a change of pace.

  • Cause: Waiting on “Normal” Homeschool.  A time consuming and endless hunt is waiting on the perfect circumstance or routine to school.  If you think about it procrastination really is a pursuit of perfection.

Sure, I would love to have all things organized in my home before we started for the day.  But what I have learned is that waiting on things to settle down or waiting for perfect circumstances never really happens.

What can happen is that we can get further and further behind in what we want to accomplish for the day and then discontentment sets in along with the homeschooling blues.

  • Cure: The Secret is Contentment.  Sometimes circumstances won’t change for a while and it can be tough to stay contented during an extended time.

Maybe you have a long term illness or are taken care of a sick child or aging parents.  Life happenings and the every day life of a homeschooler can’t be separated.

During my journey,I have taken care of my mom who has a long term illness now, have taken care of my sister and her kids while she recovered in a long term care facility after getting out of ICU, cared for my husband in ICU after he had his heart attack and other wise cried alongside other homeschoolers who had very devastating circumstances.

{Because I love my sister, I would prefer you see this picture of her when she was out of ICU and on the road to recovery.}

{Though we spent much time at the hospital, our children learned lessons like the preciousness of life, family and that being together during times when things weren’t “normal” is what counts.}

Through it all I realized that I was the one learning.  Learning to be content with making homeschool work for my circumstances.  Sure, some years, a lot of my homeschooling years have gone much like I planned, but many did not.

Benjamin Franklin said: “Contentment makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor” and there is value in adopting that quote.  By not waiting or striving after a perfect homeschool day, then progress happens.

Unpleasant circumstances can strike at anytime, but being happy and grateful for the privilege of homeschooling and being with my children has always helped me to dwell on what I have and no worry about what I can’t control.

Whether we schooled later in the day, listened to audio cds I grabbed while traveling back and forth to the hospital each day or whether we simply set up school in a hospital waiting room,  I have learned that consistency and learning flexibility is the key to contentment.

Homeschooling is the pursuit of progress, however measured it comes, and not perfection.

  •  Cause: Physical and Emotional Drain. We probably don’t talk about this part of homeschooling enough.  But the physical and emotional drain of homeschooling is enough to want us to lose the battle.
  • Cure: Sometimes we need others to help.  By nature, we homeschoolers are an independent bunch and might feel vulnerable when asking others for help.   We may need help with the house or help in our school.

What I found though is that at times when we need help the most that we tend to isolate ourselves.  We may think somehow by getting off someplace by our self, it may be just what we need.  It may be, if we just need time in the day to catch up on rest.

However, I have found that an emotional drain seems to intensify when I am alone to fester it.  By including my husband in on those feelings, he has been able to take the boys away for an afternoon so that I can find time to physically rest.  Too, though sharing with him my fears and frustrations somehow eases the load.

By nature you know men want to solve the problem and though I do a majority of the teaching like most homeschoolers, he always has great gems of advice to share to keep my negative thinking in place.

Too, don’t underestimate the value of true homeschooling friends.  Sometimes we just need a sympathetic listener.

When I have unloaded my deepest fears, which I have kept pushed way down, to my closest dear friends, I realize they too have the same homeschooling struggles.  I am not so alone anymore.

Beating the homeschool blues is inextricably tied in to how you view your homeschooling circumstances.  Don’t hold back tears when needed because it just shows that we value our job as homeschooling educators and we need an emotional release.

Through tears comes strength and a renewed determination to put one foot forward and try it again.

Though we are not completely able to block out the homeschool blues because it is part of the homeschooling journey, we are more prepared in not allowing it to steal our homeschool joy.

You know I love ya,

2012Tinasignature Taking a Hit Doesnt Mean to Quit– Homeschooling Through Crisis

 

Grab some more go juice to flame the dying embers.

Biggest Challenges to Homeschooling

Taking a Hit Doesn’t Mean to Quit– Homeschooling Through Crisis

Cultivating the Desire to Homeschool

Easy Ways to Break Out of a Homeschool Rut

Have You Learned the Secret to Homeschool Joy?

Making Each Day Count When Homeschooling

Linking up @ these fabulous places:

2 CommentsFiled Under: Avoid the Homeschool Blues

Cultivating the Desire to Homeschool

October 28, 2014 | 3 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

You’ve probably come across the type before. Those homeschoolers that knew always that they were going to homeschool and they knew before their first child was conceived.

However, if you are one of those that just fell into homeschooling or came to it kicking and screaming, then cultivating the desire to homeschool has probably been a learned art for you.

Whether you always had the desire to homeschool or hopped on board later, we all need to rekindle and cultivate the desire to homeschool so we can foster our growth.

Let’s just face it too, the world we live in today doesn’t engender finding tranquil moments in our day to ponder our desire to homeschool and fill up our reserve.

On the other hand, each day that we homeschool can empty us of our eagerness to keep on homeschooling.

It’s essential to maintaining the pace of homeschooling to tap into homeschool resources that will stir you to action and to avoid certain mind-sets.

Avoid the Weight of Burdensome Negativity.  Sometimes we are our own worst enemies because we have a set standard unreachably high for either us or our children.

For example, do you need to adjust the time that you begin school so that you have time to get more house chores done, or just to soak up more time in the morning to wake up?

Between me and you, I had several days early in my journey where I missed taking a shower and skipped breakfast because my schedule said it was time to start. Why do we do that to ourselves?

I never did get any homeschooling mom of the year trophy award either.

What I did learn was that day in and day out schooling at a grueling pace only sets a homeschooler up for burn out.

The end of the journey is all that matters. Mr. Senior 2013 remembers more about the quiet moments we had at home together doing simple things like reading aloud and playing board games than he did large homeschool projects where we were all stressed out.

Maybe you feel your child is not progressing as fast some other homeschool children that you know.

Could your child be at a learning plateau or is he getting enough rest and exercise?  Look at The Dos and Don’ts When You Hit A Learning Plateau in Homeschooling.

Change Your Homeschool Approach.  I changed my homeschool approach three times until I found one that suited my children and my teaching style.

When we are fighting a switch to a new homeschool approach, it can have devastating effects on our desire to continue homeschooling.

Look at Stop Switching Your Curriculum, Switch Your Course of Study.  I use to think if only I can change my teaching methods at the end of the year that it would be less stressful.

What I finally realized was that like a parched and sun scorched plant that is drying up and shriveling, my children’s love of learning was the same way.

I needed to take quick action to inject a love of learning by changing either my approach, curriculum or schedule.

Just Can’t Avoid it – You Need Other Homeschoolers. Before I formed our co-op and field trip group, I use to think I was too busy to be meeting with other homeschoolers.  Ask me now about how I feel and I cringe about my thinking then because homeschooling and meeting with other homeschoolers are inextricably linked to homeschooling staying power.

When you are tired with several small children, it’s hard to see how fellowship with people you barely know will help you. It just seems like one more energy zapping exercise.

And to make matters worse, if your personality is like mine where you are perfectly happy with just your inner circle of friends, it can be hard to overcome the thinking that you are just fine.

But what I have learned is that the homeschooling spirit is contagious when you have a crowd around.  Instead of draining your time of one more lack luster thing to do, interacting and sharing tips, techniques, and venting about the the ups and downs of homeschooling with other homeschooling families bolsters our desire to keep on homeschooling.

Not only are we encouraged to keep on homeschooling, but we meet other families who have similar circumstances as our own.

Some of the most significant homeschooling changes that I have had the conviction to do came directly after mingling with experienced homeschool moms.

Stoke the embers of homeschooling by fueling the desire to homeschool through being consistent each day and being quick to take advantage of opportunities to be encouraged by other homeschoolers.

The end will be here before you know it.

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T

To go from exhausted to exhilarated, look at these posts:

The 3 R’s for Homeschoolers. Part 3

5 Ideas to Kick-Start Your New Homeschool Year By Including Others

Easy Ways to Break Out of a Homeschool Rut

Have You Learned the Secret to Homeschool Joy?

Look at some of these homeschooling books that will stir you to action!

3 CommentsFiled Under: Begin Homeschooling, Homeschool When Nobody Wants To Tagged With: fearless homeschooling, homeschool, homeschool challenges, homeschool joy, homeschool joys, new homeschool year

Treasure the Moments of Homeschooling Testosterone Armed Teen Boys

October 25, 2014 | 5 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I don’t want to sound cliché, but I treasure the moments of homeschooling testosterone armed teen boys. Thinking back when all the boys were real young, my sis came over to my house one day with her girls, which are about the same age as my boys. We were not only discussing how to homeschool boys, but also how we could join forces to homeschool our kids together.

How to Easily Homeschool Boys

When we looked up, my boys were outside in the yard with tree branches fighting and her girls were inside coloring pages, inside the lines no doubt.

(Boys to …………..

I didn’t speak out loud what I thought of her girls, but she did later about my boys.

She discussed with me about putting my boys on medication and I silently thought she had beaten the life out of her girls to the point they had no personality or energy either one.

I didn’t really speak out too because deep down I had a nagging fear that something might actually be wrong with my boys.

We both had our first glimpse of the opposite gender of which neither one of us had any experience handling.  Fast forward many years later, I never put my boys on medication because I knew as the mom that they were boys.
What does that mean? It means they learn differently than girls when they are young and it means more noticeable differences happen in the teen years.

Much of my work in disciplining my sons did come when they were younger because I was trying to teach them to sit still when they really needed to wiggle.
When my sis and I would meet together, I would be the one with my hands full as my time was spent beating my boys, mmmm, I meant settling fights and prodding the boys to complete their work.

As my sons have morphed into the teen years, my work as mentor has not stopped.  It has required more finesse, patience and respect of the fact that they are born with an inward need to exercise authority even over me and a some lot of days that set my not so laid back personality in a frenzy.
Because homeschooling is not just an adventure for my boys, but a journey in learning year by year for me too, I want to share a few things that worked and did not work for me as I homeschool teen boys.

……. Men)

1).  Embrace the differences.  As my middle son, Mr. Awesome approaches completing his high school years, his relationship with me is different than Mr. Senior 2013.  Unlike Mr. Senior 2013, Mr. Awesome wants very clear cut guidelines as to what is expected of him in high school for each year.  So I changed the way I prepared his high school curriculum without giving up some of what his father and I required of him in high school.

For example, with Mr. Senior 2013, we planned his high school together each year.  With Mr. Awesome, I planned for two years and he is taking an online school for the next two years.

I still have some classes we do together like geography and some history, but he wanted an outside source.  I admit I was a bit disappointed, but then I have to remember that I have hopefully modeled the art of reasonableness and more importantly considered his needs and differences in high school.

Some things have not been different than Mr. Senior 2013 like my middles son’s need to also question my decision making ability now.

Mr. Senior 2013 and I had many head butting sessions, which only ended with me physically and mentally exhausted.  Having gone through the rooster syndrome with my oldest son, I was a bit more equipped this time with Mr. Awesome.

Blessing and Challenges of Homeschooling Teen Boys

Instead of taking his questioning my authority as a personal assault, I realized his need to start exercising his thinking ability to make good decisions.  If he does not start learning when and how to question decisions now, then how will he be able to make good decisions on his own and then to care for a family later?

Understanding this has helped me a bit more to have patience when I am questioned about every school subject.  It is on the job training for the preparation of the challenges of manhood.

2.) Figure Head of Male Authority a Need.  I sympathize with those single moms, but even they can provide a positive male role model.  It may be their father, uncle or other close friend or family member.  Men just have an unspoken word among themselves when it comes to male bonding time.

It is not that a single mom cannot homeschool a testosterone packing teen, but it sure makes her job easier to have a male figure to turn to.

In all my worry, both of my sons lapped up the influence by my husband and his time as he models the kind of men I want my sons to become.

Too, my husband is able to help my sons to accept the fact that as mom, they need to learn how to accept my authority.

Applying this to homeschooling has not always been easy, but I try to do my part in always listening to what each of my sons have to say no matter how trivial it may seem.

Admitting that I too make mistakes and want them to learn to make capable decisions independent of a woman (though always listening to sound advice by either a man or woman) has always been a good stepping stone to them completing assignments or subjects that my husband and I have planned for them.

This goes back to appreciating the fact that they are a different gender and their need to exercise domination and independence is such an intrinsic part of homeschooling each day.

It is hard to separate the parenting from homeschooling during the teen years.

3.) Create A World Separate From Yours.  Again I noticed the slight differences between my teen boys when it comes to having other teen friends and have had to adjust to their needs.  Mr. Senior 2013 was more content with just a few friends though he still needed a sphere of friends outside of our family.

Mr. Awesome on the other hand has a stronger need for more socialization with teens.  He has a more-the-merrier attitude when it comes to other teens and even other people.

Creating opportunities for both my sons to interact with both teen boys and girls has been some of the hardest work on my part beyond academics.

Our homeschool co-op, church activities, fun sports and group field trips just for teens have been some of my best life saving tips to fill my boys need for the right kind of association.

Coming up in more articles about how to homeschool teen boys, I will be sharing specific curriculum that clicked better for us and more specifics as to how boys learn.

Your turn. Have you hit a brick wall when homeschooling your tween or teen boy?  What tips work for you?

Hugs and love ya,

Want to brush up on some more tips for homeschooling teens?

Guiding Older Children

Homeschooling Middle School Doesn’t Always Mean Middle Way

Homeschool Writing Program for Middle and High School

Homeschool High School Readiness?

 

5 CommentsFiled Under: Homeschool Boys, Homeschool Teens _ From Teen to Graduation Tagged With: boys, homeschool, homeschool challenges, homeschoolchallenges, middleschool, teens

Making Each Day Count When Homeschooling

October 19, 2014 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Beginning the journey of a lifetime when starting to homeschool, we seem to have superhuman strength and a dogged determination.  But then, each new year rolls around and we are faced with making each day count when homeschooling.
It’s not the starting homeschooling that makes us feel defeated, but it’s the constant stopping and starting throughout the year that is sabotaging a school day.

Some things are out of our control like a sick baby, a sick momma and sometimes dad’s crazy work schedule that throws us off our pace.

Let’s not beat ourselves up over things that we can’t control, but sometimes even those days are not a complete loss in making some headway for the day.

Don’t Put It Off to the Future

Homeschooling with Challenges.  One of the things that held me back from attempting to cover something for the day was to realize that perfect circumstances don’t really exist.

Waiting for the perfect day to happen, I missed out on seizing challenging moments because I couldn’t do everything in my curriculum planner.  I felt I was doing half-hearted homeschooling.

Accepting what I could do for the day when a circumstance threatened the day would have caused a few less bitter homeschooling days for me.

Accepting the Circumstances.  When my idea of what a homeschooling day should look like and reality collided, I see that I could have adjusted more easily if I had just simply accepted the change.  This is hard to do for a scheduler type of personality.

For example, when my husband worked a crazy work schedule or had to be out of town for a long period of time, I could have simply had a read aloud day.  That would have been the perfect time to catch up on some reading.

When both the kids and I were tired trying to keep up with my husband’s changing work schedule, we could have slept in and planned a field trip for the day.

Meeting the Challenge

Avoid All or Nothing Days.  Another key to not completely stopping and then starting up again is to lose the mind-set that each day has to be an all or nothing day.

If your personality is more laid back and you are a respond to the moment teacher, then you may have an easier time accepting changing circumstances.  Again, because I like to plan, it was harder for me to accept those things out of my control.

Looking back now, though you can’t see it at the time, I was my own worst enemy.  It’s just that you realize that being organized allows us to make good use of our time.

However, setting unrealistic expectations and not accepting the present moment sets you up for burnout too and homeschool disillusionment.  It’s that feeling of being disappointed because we think homeschooling is not as good as thought it was.

Soon we may regret homeschooling and that is where the bitter homeschool days come in.  As you can see, if we don’t accept what we can’t control, it can have devastating results.

Homeschooling When Sick.  I think the hardest times, once I determined that my days were not a complete loss when something unplanned came up, are homeschooling through sicknesses.

When I had more than one child sick, then I called off school. But I have found that when one child is sick or if I am sick that homeschooling for the day was a relief.
Having activities lined up for sick days beforehand is essential.

Back before Netflix (I am not real ancient I promise), I would buy tapes about history or science at the homeschool conventions. Too, I would look for museum quality educational coloring books like Edupress or Dover and buy board games.

Special art projects and art supplies were also part of my arsenal that I stocked up on.
But I would hold all of them back, in what I call my Mary Poppins bag only to pull them out when I needed them throughout the year. Keeping all the goodies a surprise from the kids is key to them being something that will keep their attention for the day when you need it most.

As soon as I purchased those things, I would hide them and put them away when the kids were occupied.  It’s sounds crazy, but it’s almost like they looked forward to the days when I was sick because they would get something new.
One year at the end of summer, I stocked up on games that were meant to be played inside during the long hot summer months. Of course that is not the reason I bought them.

For example, I bought an indoor mini croquet set.  All of the pieces, the balls, mallets and stakes were lightweight and made to be played indoors. When I had morning sickness when pregnant with my third son, I pulled the set out for my two sons and they played indoors while I was hanging out in the bathroom.

They had no idea they didn’t miss a day on strengthening their gross motor skills and I got my much needed rest.

Buying a pail and shovel at the end of summer that is suppose to be used at the beach made for great indoor play in a plastic pool that I filled with rice, beans or indoor sand during the winter.

Your imagination is the only limit to creating hangouts at your house when you need them.

Taking the kids to the park to study so the Mr. could have the house quiet to sleep in are some of my fondest memories of them when they were little.

Of course grabbing some of their favorite food at the time like hotdogs, which we ate on special occasions made it more special too.

Seasons of Adventure

Now with iPads and tablets, finding an activity is much easier.

I still prefer activities, like board games, where my children have to interact with each other instead of an iPad.  But it’s a relief to have options from our iPad too because you can purchase board game apps, like Monopoly for a group to play too.

Though it took me a while to expect the unexpected, some of our best homeschool moments of learning were ones that I have not planned. I learned that the constant stopping and starting was sabotaging my teaching efforts.

And despite what I thought at the time, I could push on through the interruptions. Besides, I would have missed out some of our fondest memories so far in homeschooling.

Don’t pass up the opportunity to make each day special in homeschooling, you won’t regret it.

Hugs and love ya,

Keep on Going!! Check out some more tips!

How To Fake Homeschooling

Biggest Challenges to Homeschooling

Looking Back To Stretch Forward.

Helping our Homeschool Children Find their Inner Drive When We are Not Sure We Have It

40 Reasons I Homeschool

 

Leave a CommentFiled Under: Homeschool When Nobody Wants To, Schedule/Balance Home & School Tagged With: homeschool, homeschool challenges, homeschool crisis

What If I Choose the Wrong Homeschool Curriculum

October 13, 2014 | 9 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

What if I choose the wrong homeschool curriculum is at the top of the list of worries for new and seasoned homeschoolers alike.

However, I think on the flip side of worry is getting a shipment of new homeschool curriculum. It can be one of the most pleasurable moments in homeschooling. Don’t you just love the smell of new books? It just feels like you have it all together now.

But then, worry sets in. Will this be the right curriculum for my child? Will this year meet my expectations? We spend hours reading every catalog and website that we can as we pore over curriculum choices.

Many times we still are not sure if we have the best curriculum. Then we read those emails or posts on groups where one mom used something that is working so “perfectly” for her and her children.

And then we wonder what’s wrong with us. Doubt sets in about the choices we made at the beginning of the year and we have a gnawing pain at the bottom of our stomach.

If you are teetering about making a huge change, there are a few things that I have learned about choosing the wrong curriculum. Look at these 5 tips below that I hope will help you.What If I Choose the Wrong Homeschool Curriculum

(Incidentally, I love ALL the curriculum in this picture above and highly recommend it.  It worked beautifully for me in the years that I needed it.  But, what works one year for me, may not work for you. That is the key to determining if it’s the wrong choice for you.)

1.  There is no PERFECT curriculum.  Some years it is just about trial and error. There will be times when you pick something that is not what you need for that year or does not meet your goals. You will make some mistakes. That is okay because at anytime during the year you can switch.

Before you switch though, be sure it is the curriculum that is not working and not issues of scheduling, discipline or being overwhelmed. We might mistakenly think that the curriculum is the culprit of our day when in fact it could be other issues in our homeschooling. So give new curriculum a fair shake so to speak.

The opposite of that thinking is sticking with a curriculum no matter what. I have tried to stick to a curriculum because I begged my husband that I just had to have it, so I felt guilty in not using it.  What I have learned is that this can have detrimental effects on my kids.

It is not a waste when you switch because this is a lesson well learned in how your child learns best.

I am not encouraging you to not be frugal and make the decisions you and your husband make work, but balance that thinking with the hundreds and hundreds of dollars you would have spent in public school on school supplies not used, countless clothes purchased and otherwise frivolous things like a school fund raiser.

Too, if you keep your curriculum neat and clean you can resale it and recoup some of your husband’s hard earned dollars.

2. Don’t forget to read homeschool curriculum reviews.   iHN, which I am a proud member of reviews homeschool curriculum.  So be sure to check out the reviews because in reviewing curriculum, I try to give an objective summary of each one.

This means that I try to recommend which group of homeschoolers that a particular curriculum will work for and what you may need to consider if you end up using it.

Look here at the homeschool curriculum I have reviewed so far.

It is important to read homeschool reviews that are informative instead of biased.  Why? Because what may not work for you this year may be the “perfect” curriculum for another year or different circumstance.

More importantly, try to determine why or why not a certain curriculum worked for a family and see if you have similar circumstances.

3.  Take advantage of talking 1:1 vendors at curriculum fairs or either on the phone.  They spend thousands of hours tweaking their curriculum to meet our needs and most vendors want you to understand how best to use their curriculum.

Too, companies like Rainbow Resource, which has been around for a long time have staff that is well educated in the differences between curriculum. Use these free resources by asking them questions when you can’t find the answer in your own research.

Just the catalog alone from Rainbow Resource is an education in the differences between curriculum with their mini-reviews or write ups about various curriculum.

4.  Children are pretty hardy. Homeschooling in fear is not a good place to be at.  So don’t fall prey to the idea that we will have huge gaps in learning.

The truth of it is, everybody has gaps in their learning unless we all learned at the same school at the same time with the same teacher and we still would come away with differences in our education.  Our educational background and differences are what makes each of us unique.  Embrace it.

If you use a curriculum and feel you are somewhat behind in what your goals are, just remember children have a great reserve to pick up at a new point in learning and move forward.

I have done this more than I can remember. I made a bad choice with Mr. Senior 2013 in math beginning his middle school years and he got behind.  By high school, he was well ahead. Why? Because having made a better choice with math, he was highly motivated to move ahead because he loved math.

The same thing happened with Mr. Awesome with a spelling program in his elementary years.  One spelling program was not clicking with him, but after I changed he went up two grade levels because he now had a much better fit with the way he learned.

Not seeing tears, but a return of their love of learning was well worth any money I had spent previously. Just remember, your time is well spent investigating another curriculum if the one you are using is not making sense to your child.

sharing homeschool curriculum

(One mom in our group ready to share her homeschool curriculum with the group.)

5. Look to your local homeschool support.  Many times in our local support group, we would plan a park day for the kids, but it would be a curriculum swap or show and tell for us as the moms. Don’t you wish you could just rent curriculum for a week or two to see if it will work for your family?

As long as you respect copyright laws of publishers, you can take the curriculum home and give it a test drive. Many of my favorite programs I first put my hands on at a park day with my group.  Looking it over for a week or two gave me a much better picture if it would work for my family or not.

Curriculum is our blue print to see how we want to build the education of our children, but it is not the final building.  There are always changes and adjustments to any construction job. Sometimes the adjustments are huge, sometimes they are trivial.

Most important though is that when you are enthusiastic about learning and teaching any subject, that is contagious and rubs off on your children.

It is your attitude toward learning that matters more than any curriculum you choose. Your children will adopt the attitudes and examples you set.

Share your enthusiasm and passion for learning and your children will remember their unique educational heritage and not the wrong curriculum you chose.

Check out the other stuff I have to say about choosing curriculum:

Stop Switching Your Curriculum, Switch Your Course of Study

 How to Choose Curriculum Other than the “Looks Good” Method.

The A, B, C’s of Picking Curriculum + {part 1}

The A, B, C’s of Picking Curriculum + {part 2}

SaveHugs and love ya,

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Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for more AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.


Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

 

9 CommentsFiled Under: Choose Curriculum Tagged With: boxedcurriculum, curriculum, freehomeschoolcurriculum, homeschool, homeschoolcurriculum

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