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5 Top Mistakes of New or Struggling Homeschoolers

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

No matter how long you’re homeschooling, it is only natural to want to go back to change something done in the beginning or readjust your strategy after struggling a year or two.

By sharing some of the common mistakes I made in my journey, hopefully, I can prepare you and spare you some of the stress, fatigue, and feelings of guilt I encountered.

5 Top Mistakes of New or Struggling Homeschoolers

5 Top Mistakes of New or Struggling Homeschoolers

Mistake 1. Setting Unrealistic Goals and Standards.

To best explain what unrealistic goals are, it’s better to explain what is the definition of realistic. It means to see things or be aware of the way they really are. Not the way we imagine they should be.

After having a newborn, it’s not realistic to believe we are going to hop right back into a normal schedule no matter how much we feel our children are behind.

It is it realistic to believe in one year of homeschooling we will accomplish all that we set out to accomplish? No.

Goals are a must, but measure your circumstances realistically and you will not be deterred when things don’t go as planned.

Mistake 2. No Written Plan.

It does not matter if you lesson plan by writing out your plans, track lesson plans on a computer program, check off activities done in your boxed curriculum or journal after your day, write it down.

Why? Because if we can’t see what we have done, then how can you see what has been achieved?

How can you measure and see where adjustments need to be made? How clear can it be in your mind what your goals are?

See it written and follow it!

Mistake 3. Modeling our school after the school we left.

It sounds crazy, uh? Fear is a gripping force. At times, it can make us set up our educational system by following one that has failed because we are afraid of failure.

I won’t bash the public school system because there are many caring compassionate teachers.

However, if the system was not working for us – why do we want to pattern our day after it?

Get off the public school treadmill and feel homeschool freedom.

Mistake 4. Comparisons.

If we are not careful, our whole homeschool journey is filled with comparing our child to another child. Sometimes it can even be siblings.

If we are not comparing our children to each other, then we might  be comparing ourselves to other mothers. If we can’t find some problem there, then we even examine our husbands. Does Suzy Homeschooler have a better or more supportive husband of homeschooling than I do? After all he does teach the kids sometimes.

Those types of negative emotions robs of the true enjoyment of being satisfied. We need to be content with the circumstance we have been given and not fall victim to the competitive spirit of this world.

Education is as UNIQUE as each family.

Mistake 5. No education for the Educator.

Many times I’ve heard and have seen parents will go to great lengths and great costs to make sacrifices for their children’s education. But the greatest gift besides life we can give our children, is OURSELVES.

From the smallest piece of knowledge like tying a shoe to the most significant issues like the existence of a magnificent Creator, we have the privilege of teaching our children.

No matter how long you're homeschooling, it is only natural to want to go back to change something done in the beginning or readjust your strategy after struggling a year or two. By sharing some of the common mistakes I made in my journey, hopefully, I can prepare you and spare you some of the stress, fatigue, and feelings of guilt I encountered.

Do not underestimate or cheat yourself of the time, knowledge, and resources you need to do this. We can’t pass on to our children what we do not know.

Strive to become a better educator, better teacher, and better student. Use some of the resources you have each year to empower yourself with education, information, and knowledge.

You’ll also find these articles empowering:

5 Top Mistakes of New Homeschoolers

8 Colossal Pitfalls of Homeschooling in the WHAT IF World

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

When I imagine how things are going to be, I tend to be dramatic. Is that a nice way of saying I can be delusional? The pitfalls of homeschooling are plenty if you let them sidetrack you from your vision. Instead of losing vision, hone your goals.

For example, when I started homeschooling, I had visions of children eager to learn each day around our little public school desk. My house would be kept tidy every day. And laundry would never get more than a load or two behind. Supper would be on the table at 5:00 p.m. on the dot. Delusional I am telling you.

DELUSIONAL HOMESCHOOLING OR DELIBERATE HOMESCHOOLING

High levels of confidence, conviction, and fortitude wane easily and can be completely sucked out of us if we enter the what if . . . world of homeschooling.

Look at these potential 8 colossal pitfalls, if you let them.

What if

. . . I start to homeschool and my children get behind?

Guess what? They will. That is what catching up is about. Look at my article, Am I Doing Enough When Homeschooling.

. . . I choose not to test my children. Will I be doing them a disservice?

Look here at my tips about how to measure progress at my article, Narration – Telling Back or Testing? Books that Make Teaching Narration Easy Peazy.

. . . I’m not a creative person? I might be the most boring teacher.

You may, but you can change and learn too.

Look at how I did it at my article, Easy Hands on Homeschooling Ideas When You’re Not the Bomb Mom and 7 Homeschool Lies I Want to Tell My Younger Self.

. . . I can’t find friends for my children?

Unless you plan to homeschool your kids under a rock, there will be so much interaction over the course of your journey.

Look how we did it at my article, Socialization – A Homeschool Hallucination and I Am Homeschooling Because I Want My Kids Socialized.

. . . I decide that I want to put my child back in public school?

Before you do that, look at my tips at It’s a New Homeschool Year and My Child Wants to Go Back to Public School and Why My Homeschooled Kids Are Not Given the Choice to Go to Public School.

. . . my health or my children’s health prevent me from homeschooling?

Yes, that may happen. Look at how I dealt with in my article, Taking a Hit Doesn’t Mean to Quit– Homeschooling Through Crisis.

. . . while I’m pregnant I may not do my kids justice because I am too sick to teach them?

Hopefully, you put your health first if that time comes and realize that you’re teaching your kids way more than academics.

. . . I am not prepared for the upper grades?

All the preparing in the world won’t matter if you don’t have you teen’s heart. You can learn academics right alongside your teen. Focus on the relationship too.

And look at my articles in my blog category How to Homeschool Teens to Graduation.

COMBATING HOMESCHOOL PARALYSIS

We resist the urge to homeschool in the what if . . . world by applying these C tips.

Commitment.

Having practical teaching tips is important, however, that can be gleaned over any period of time.

Commitment is attached to an obligation. In some ways, I view my commitment to homeschooling like the marriage vow I made to my husband 23 years ago.

It is a guarantee that I will do everything in my power to make it work. Is a long term commitment for “just a year”?

View your homeschooling journey as a long term commitment.

Instead of bringing stress by applying pressure on your child to perform, start thinking of milestone markers. We plant certain milestone markers we want to reach for the long term.

Camaraderie.

Even though we can be consumed with the “nuts and bolts” of how to lesson plan, or how to teach writing, how to teach reading, or how to prepare a top notch high school transcript, it is the companionship of other homeschoolers that is the true glue that makes us stick to homeschooling.

In the camaraderie of our local homeschool support groups, summer homeschooling conventions, blogs and on line support groups, there is always somebody who understands our similar circumstances.

Conscientious.

Though many of us may live in states or countries where we do not need to test or keep attendance, our being attentive to our duties as parent and teacher keep us principled.

We do not adopt laxed attitudes about our house, our school, our worship, or our families. Again, we let go of the what if . . . world because our heart and conscience are stronger forces than any test score and they can motivate us to keep going.

My dramatic idealist person has not completely left, but my sons have done their work on many types of desks.

We eat meals close enough to 5:00 and there is always a load or two of laundry I could do.

The homeschooling what if . . . world is full of worry and guilt. Resist the urge along the way to re-enter it.

What counts in a journey is the ending!

The pitfalls of homeschooling are plenty if you let them sidetrack you from your vision. Instead of losing vision, hone your goals. High levels of confidence, conviction, and fortitude wane easily and can be completely sucked out of us if we enter the "what if . . ." world of homeschooling. Look at these potential 8 colossal pitfalls, if you let them. Click here.

Hugs and love ya,

What You Must Know to Teach High School Unit Studies

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

Until my sons reached high school, I didn’t know if my unit study approach would meld with tracking credits and courses. Check out my how to homeschool high school page for awesome tips.

Also, there didn’t really seem an abundance of prepared high school unit studies.

Between determining if unit studies were a good fit for high school and understanding record keeping, it was a lot to wrap my mind around.

Until my sons reached high school, I didn't know if my unit study approach would meld with tracking credits and courses. Also, there didn't really seem an abundance of prepared high school unit studies. Click here to read these 3 must know tips!

Sorting out myths from truth, I hope these 3 tips will help you to easily homeschool high school with unit studies. Or at least give you a beginning place.

3 Tips for Teaching High School Unit Studies

ONE/ Understand first that high school is just a continuation of the lowers grades – really!

Yes, it’s true that you’ll need to track credits and courses, but before stressing out about them, plan high school subjects like you’ve done in the lower grades.

That’s right. Begin with what you know.

In my article How to Choose the BEST Homeschool Lesson Planning Pages for THIS Year, I not only give you tips on how to do that, but each lesson plan form lists subjects by general categories; math, language arts, science, history and electives are the framework of well-rounded out high school courses.

It’s not hard to plan when you understand that you’re covering the same basic subjects albeit in more depth analyzing views instead of just a question answer format like your child did in younger grades.

TWO/ Look for resources which teach 2:1 or two-fer resources.

A two-fer resource is another secret tip to homeschooling teens.

Using a resource which teaches two subjects is vital when your child enters high school.

You don’t want your time wasted and neither do teens.

More important though is the reason that unit studies rocked in the younger grades is the same reason which holds true for high school.

Learning makes more sense when subjects are tied together instead of studied as separate subjects. Additionally, unit studies have always been a research-based approach.

This is a skill which is needed on into adulthood.

Living Books for Unit Studies

Resist giving up your unit study approach because it may require a bit more time to put together.

Sure, it’s easy to assign a text book and move on, but you and I know that high school is just hard sometimes. It’s a challenge to plan but still doable.

Begin again with something you know. Look at these things you may already know how and are doing with your kids in the younger grades.

  • Reading history living books and having your child choose writing topics based on history.
  • Reading science living books and choosing writing topics based on science.
  • Reading math living books and having your child choose writing topics based on math.

Now that you understand that high school courses fall into general categories and understand to look for two-fer resources, here are some examples of how to put it together.

We love the book Undaunted Courage.

Just a side note here.

When I look at a book which can serve as a springboard for high school unit studies, I note 3 things:

  • that it’s a living book,
  • that it’s high school level so that I can legally note on my high school transcript that it’s a high school level resource,
  • and I mull over how hard it will be to add external resources to enrich the study.

Not only is your teen covering part of his credit toward history when reading Undaunted Courage , but he is covering credits for literature too. Writing is part of a literature credit.

So your teen is covering 2–3 subjects at once depending on what credits you’ve lined out for the year.

Because covering literature in high school means more than just reading, you’ll want to have a variety of resources for analyzing literature and for guiding your teen how to write well.

A literature-based unit study which has a history setting has been the easiest to start off with at the high school level.

For example, I find it a challenge to round out a history book with literature analysis than a great book suited for literature analysis.

How to Put Together High School Unit Studies

It’s been easier to add history and science of a time period to a great read.

One super helpful resource we only discovered this year and that is the Thrift Study Editions by Dover. 

Not only are the books for high school level, but each one comes with a study guide in the back. 

For example, while reading A Tale of Two Cities, we studied about the culture of France and England and learned about the issues of the French Revolution.

With a resource like that, doing unit studies are a cinch at the high school level. This brings me to the third point you want to know.

THREE/ Fill your teacher nook with specialized how-two books for you and your teen.

Tackling how to teach a subject with out a curriculum can be daunting, but you can go from research to reward if you choose specialized teaching books.

Here are a few of my favorite resources. You don’t need all of them, but I’ve used them at one time or another to round out our unit studies.

Literature Unit Studies

  • The Design-A-Study series are timeless. This series of books about science, history, and composition gives an overview of what to cover in each grade.  Instead of giving you subjects, it’s helpful because it gives you the big picture of what your child needs to know from K-12. A resource like this is especially helpful if you want to cover a skill or topic that your highschooler may have struggled with in the earlier grades.
  • Warriner’s English Complete Course. This set of books have been around for years and helps to hone writing. Christine Miller of Classical Christian said, “This excellent reference can be used throughout all three years of the dialectic to teach writing. It thoroughly covers grammar in detail, which provides a nice review for those children that need it, or for those children that missed some grammar instruction in the grammar stage. It also covers writing in detail, with a complete section on writing mechanics, usage, writing correct and clear sentences, paragraphs, and papers, the research paper, using references, and even public speaking.” Read the rest of her review here. Before we started using Rod and Staff high school levels, we used Warriner’s. Rod and Staff’s Communicating Effectively I liked one year because I felt like it was more streamlined. It helps to.understand that I used Rod and Staff in the younger grades and their grammar is very rigorous and by 8th grade formal grammar is completed. When you click the link above you can see the sample of their English and what is covered in the high school years.
  • Home Learning Year by Year: How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool Through High School. Don’t get overwhelmed by this book. There is no need to have to read all of it. Focus only on the grade level for this year. Having a handy reference like this will guide you to subjects for each grade.

In an upcoming post, I’ll show you how I plan credits now that you can see how easy it is to satisfy two to three subjects using carefully selected resources.

What You Must Know to Teach High School Unit Studies. Click here to grab the tips!

Also, check out Diving into Homeschool Unit Studies: The Dos and Don’ts and 10 Days of Diving Into Unit Studies by Creating a Unit Study Together and Homeschool High School–How to Log Hours for High School.

Hugs and love ya,

4 Undeniable Reasons People Hate Homeschooling (Keep It Real)

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

After homeschooling for about 19+ years, I've given up thousands of hours of free time, a lucrative career, put my health on the back burner, and some years I regrettably spent way more time with my kids than my husband. I felt like quitting homeschool many times, hated homeschooling more times that I can count, and many times I've felt like all I was doing was arguing with kids. If I wasn't debating with one of them, I felt like my brain cells were being agonizingly sucked out!After homeschooling for about 19+ years, I’ve given up thousands of hours of free time, a lucrative career, put my health on the back burner, and some years I regrettably spent way more time with my kids than my husband. I felt like quitting homeschool many times, hated homeschooling more times that I can count, and many times I’ve felt like all I was doing was arguing with kids. If I wasn’t debating with one of them, I felt like my brain cells were being agonizingly sucked out by doing another mind-numbing math algorithm.

I’m pulling back the curtain to reveal the ugly side of homeschooling. Today, I’m sharing just 4 undeniable reasons people hate homeschooling because you and I both know there are more. In the spirit of keeping it real and because I want you to know that I’m not a supermom, I hope by exposing to you the overwhelming struggles that homeschooling moms endure, you’ll be prepared to confront them head-on.

I need to tell you a story first. It won’t take too long, I promise. But you need to know where I’m coming from.

In my last weeks of pregnancy with Mr. Senior 2013, he was breech. The doctor told me he wanted to perform a version, an external procedure where the doctor turns the baby. With both hands on the surface of your stomach, one hand is by the baby’s head and the other by his butt. The doctor pushes and rolls the baby to a head-down position.

Is Homeschool Fatigue Really Okay?

With my husband beside me and a staff of doctors ready to do the procedure, my doctor gently reminded me again that this procedure is one of the most painful procedures in childbirth. By not sugarcoating it, I could somehow prepare my mind and body or so I thought.

Though the experience was one of the most agonizing of my life, the result was that my son was born healthy and headfirst after the procedure. Nothing could of prepared me for the pain. No mindset even came close.

Some years of homeschooling are similar. No amount of mental preparation seems to make you ready for the fact that homeschooling takes over your life.

Like that procedure, I needed to have my mind and body ready for the task ahead.

Homeschoooling is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done and there are more times than I can count that I hated it.

I’m hoping by sharing these 4 not so glamorous things about homeschooling and a few ways of how I coped that you’ll also be ready when you have times when you flat out hate homeschooling.

►You’re never alone. You can’t even hide out in the bathroom.

Oh sure, homeschool moms will tell you to hire sitters. I did. And when my extended family live closed, I got help. The truth of it is that a lot of homeschool moms don’t have the luxury of family living close or knowing a lot of people in the beginning that they would trust with their kids.

Homeschooling is pretty much about being around your kids most of the time. From the time they were babies, even getting a shower for the day was a major feat. Many days, I cried in frustration because I was not able to homeschool, let alone clean my house. Those years were very hard. They didn’t equal to anything I had coming up though in the preteen years. More on that in a minute.

However, the time did come when my sons were old enough to respect my alone time. At first when they were little, I used a timer. I set it for 25 minutes. The rule was they couldn’t come into my room to talk to me. Like all moms that love their kids there is always exceptions for emergencies and fighting kids, but for the most part they knew to leave me alone. They thought it was a game and I didn’t care. But making a plan for self-care propelled me through that time.

Now, when my young adult sons throw their big hairy arms around me as young men, drive me to places, cook food for me and tell me how much they’re glad I homeschooled them, the hard years seem like a fading mist.

Words can’t even express the love I have for them and how very, very grateful I am that I didn’t get bitter, give in and send them to public school.

No, but homeschooling is not easy.

►Kids are unmotivated, lazy, back talking, and disrespectful.

I’m not talking about other homeschooler’s kids, but about my own kids. Yes, I’ve experienced all of those things.

At the time when those things were happening, I thought it was because we were constantly around each other. It wasn’t.

Instead of being a homeschool issue, it was a discipline issue. It’s hard to see that at the time because homeschooling gets blamed for everything.

I learned homeschooling brings out not only the good in your kids, but the ugly too. When habits haven’t been formed for learning, then you can’t go forward. Homeschooling gets blamed because that is how we spend most of our day.

The truth of it is that negative behavior exhibits in homeschooling because it’s hard work.

The easy thing in parenting is to not deal with the disrespecting at the moment and to blame homeschooling because our kid’s attitude toward any work is much pretty crap all the time.

First, I had to correct their attitudes and save my energy for those upheavals in our day. No amount of homeschooling or excellent and superior curriculum will correct that.

Homeschooling is not for the faint of heart. When you have to diligently parent and meticulously homeschool in the same day, it makes for many rough years.

Because I did both parenting and homeschooling at the same time instead of sending my kids away where bad behavior may possibly be nurtured or overlooked, I’m grateful that I could deal with it as it came up.

I won’t win the parent of the year award now that two of my sons are adults, but I have won their hearts and have a wonderful relationship with them. It’s built on mutual respect, dignity and love for each other.

►People are going to think your kids are “weird” regardless of what you do and how well-rounded out your kids are.

Although two of my sons have graduated with high grades, are successfully pursuing their interests, and have tons of personality, people still look at them and me weird.

And no, we don’t milk goats, raise chickens, or homeschool my kids under a rock. But I don’t have a problem either with people who choose to do that.

It’s important for you to know that I’ve never cared much about what people think about me or my choices. And I’m PROUD that my kid’s don’t get their chains yanked by people who are mindless and bend to every current whim or ideology by the masses.

What will not ever go away is the stigma attached with homeschooling kids. That they are awkward and social misfits. Some days you just don’t want to see the eye-rolling or hear the muttered, “Ohhhh”.

What are the Benefits of Not Quitting Homeschool?

► Many times, the house just doesn’t get cleaned. Easy to deal with when it’s not your home.

I’ve heard a lot through the years about the house cleaning thing. In the beginning, I didn’t have the right attitude either or I thought, again.

As a neat freak, overbearing, critical about the details person, I had to do a lot of soul searching if I wanted to survive homeschooling. Balance is not easy when you already don’t get any time to yourself or have hormonal teens.

Looking back now, I’m so glad that I didn’t give up the need to have clean surroundings, but learned that I was not balanced in how much I needed to do.

All that matters is what you and your husband want when it comes to a clean house. Now, a lot, but not all of our friends are homeschool families like us. They understand books strewn about, projects growing on the counter, and science projects with foul smells in the refrigerator.

The most important thing I learned was that unless I was feeling calm about the house mess, I couldn’t be at my best while teaching. However, I too had to compromise. Instead of doing everything I wanted to do on my house cleaning day, I learned to do the important things to me, like a clean toilet, clean linens, and clean floors.

House cleaning is about compromise and that means it will never be done your way as long as you homeschool.

I’m not finished yet, do you want to know a few more things that you will face in your homeschool journey? Have you encountered any of these things so far?

Look at my 31 free Boot Camp for New or Struggling Homeschoolers where I keep it real, Why My Homeschooled Kids Are Not Given the Choice to Go to Public School and Homeschool Quitters, Dropouts and Wimps (Want to Join Me?).

Hugs and love ya,

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3 Ways to Instantly Gain More Time in Your Homeschool Day

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

With the growing amount of digital curriculum and multiple devices that most homes have now, you’re supposed to get more time in your homeschool day. But I find the opposite is true.

More than ever homeschoolers are stressed to the max with growing to-do lists.

When I read that some homeschool days are 8 hours or longer, I’m shocked. And all I can think of is how every bit of learning is sucked out of a day. I shudder to think if the homeschooled child will grow up loving to learn.

I started homeschooling where we only used the computer for after school time. I’ve also homeschooled where things have changed to family members having multiple devices each. That doesn’t always equate with more time.

3 Ways to INSTANTLY Gain More Time in Your Homeschool Day. Read the tried and true tips at Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I have 3 ways to help you instantly gain more time in your homeschool day.

Minimalist Game is not for Mindless Morons

ONE/ I talk many times how everything we needed for living overseas had to be packed into just two suitcases per person.

One small thing that gave me big time-savings results instantly without overwhelming me in ridding myself of clutter in an almost 4,000 square foot house was to play the minimalist game.

On the first day of the month throw away one thing. It can be anything, a homeschool book or something in your kitchen.

On the second day, chunk two items.

On the third day, pitch three items and so on for every day of the month.

What works best when you’re overwhelmed in the day is to have a solution that is easy and simple to implement.

Solutions that require tons of energy just don’t work because of our homeschooling lifestyle.

The return on the minimalist game is that less to organize and less to clean in your day frees up time in your day for other things like spending time on yourself, on field trips or just resting.

In addition, instead of feeling like you’re paralyzed before you start a project like sorting through all of the books at the end of the year and deciding whether you need it or not, it becomes a doable and easily conquerable project.

TWO/ Set up your children’s learning area where they can manage it, not you.

Another mistake I’ve seen which wastes value time is rounding up the curriculum for the day.

Even preschoolers can be taught to take and return their learning toys to the right places. By training my sons from the time they were young that everything has a place, I’m spared stress in the morning.

For younger kids, use rolling storage. True, you may need to roll it out in your learning area, but they learn to put it away and learn from a young age to not leave things out.

It takes time to set up a learning area, but it’s so worth the effort. I start by measuring every book and every item that each child will need for the year. Then I decide the storage containers.

Some years, we used stack of drawers and other years, I used baskets on bookshelves.

Start slowly, again, by measuring every item so that it fits into a storage container.

Your day should start by your children getting their own supplies while you enjoy some last minute time to yourself. Your day gets off to a much better start and you don’t waste time collecting curriculum.

THREE/ I’m not saying switch your homeschool approach, but I am saying to tighten it up.

I’d like to tell you that there is one homeschool approach that works better, clutter wise, than the other, but there is not.

Each homeschool approach brings its own amount of curriculum clutter. And then add to that enthusiastic teachers and we can over teach. We’re just doing too much for our student.

In addition to your children having their own learning space setup to suit them, you need to see ways that you can slash your teaching.

There simply is no need to do every math problem or to assign homework in homeschool.

Look at these practical ways that have worked for me through the years.

  • Never cover one subject when you can cover two subjects at one time. If you’re going to survive and thrive in homeschooling, you must abandon the thought of keeping subjects separate. For example, if your child loves science, then his reading assignment or literature should be about famous scientists and how-to books. Forget trying to cover the extra reading of literature if you can get a two-pher out of it. The same idea applies for history. Leave the reading of literature that you couldn’t work into your day to your child’s spare reading time or for leisure. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that readers don’t need to be channeled to read literature that you have removed from your formal day. It’s okay to not leave all the choices up to the kids for what to read during leisure time.
  • At a certain stage, my boys always seemed to want to start to fighting when our day began. One remedy was to have one or two of them do their chores while I worked with the other one at the table. This not only worked off a bit of energy, but it kept them from not being around each other constantly. The added bonus was that chores got worked into the day and made my day shorter.
  • If your child is steadily doing math, which should be done every day, cut back some lessons to half.
  • In addition, if you have a strong math guy like I have, then focus on reading a living math book for the day and move on to another subjects that requires attention. Sure, my math lover didn’t mind doing extra lessons and he could from time to time. But also, as the teacher, I needed to guide him to using his time to investigate other subjects and strengthen in skills in them. So if covering a subject orally can be reinforced that day through a book or audio book, do it.
  • Give each kid his own printed schedule. Teaching your kids to stick to a routine helps them to move through their day quicker too. Are you using my teacher and student schedules?

Expect the Unexpected – Roll with It!

THREE/ School like you live life. Plan for the unexpected.

I have a method for cooking each week. I cook a bit more at the beginning of my week. If I cook chicken, I make a bit more in the beginning so that I don’t have to cook at the end of the week. I already have my chicken cooked for my chicken tacos at the end of the week.

Homeschooling is the same. Unless you need to, quit trying to balance the days.

My advice is if you can squeeze more school into the beginning of your week before it gets busy, then it’s less that needs to be done at the end of the week.

Homeschool from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m for three days and then for the last two days quit by noon.

You’ll gain way more time in your schedule by pushing a bit in the beginning and the best part is if that something unexpected comes up, you’re still rocking on fine.

Let go of stressful homeschooling because I’m telling you in the end what matters most is the time spent together. Make room now for more of it.

With the growing amount of digital curriculum and multiple devices that most homes have now, you're suppose to get more time in your homeschool day. But I find the opposite is true. More than ever, homeschoolers are stressed to the max with growing to-do lists. Having started homeschooling where we only used the computer for after school time and homeschooling now where things have changed to family members having multiple devices each, I have 3 ways to help you instantly gain more time in your homeschool day. Click here to read these tried and true tips!

You’ll love these other tips!

Hugs and love ya,

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