Advice For New Homeschool Moms
If this is your first year homeschooling, you may be feeling excited about having made the choice but a little overwhelmed at the task and maybe a bit doubtful as to whether you can really do this. I know because last year was our first year homeschooling and that is how I felt. It took me months to get past the “Did we make the right choice?” phase. I am no expert, but I want to offer some advice for new homeschool moms:
- First, if you have not done so yet, find a homeschool group (a virtual option is the Hip Homeschool Moms Community). Check out yahoo groups for a group in your area. Check your church. Look for museums in your area and other educational type places (like your area Audobon) for homeschool days or homeschool classes and make plans to attend them. Meet other homeschool moms there, network. Make friends, for yourself and your child. Having a support system of people who are also in the trenches is vital.
- Second, Spend time getting to know about your child. Their learning style. Learn about visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners. Read about Cathy Duffy’s outline for learning styles. Figure out which fits your child. What your child is interested in, what they want to know. Spend time just cuddling and reading with your child. If they are older, just set some time aside to just read in the same room together.
- Third Book a day to just relax and be with your child, after all, at least part of the reason why you are homeschooling is because you love them. Go on a nature hike together, go shopping together, make something together, whatever is in your hearts.
- Provide a rich environment and have faith that they will learn. Leave books you think they may like lying around. Plan trips to museums and plays. Just don’t make yourself crazy trying to do EVERYTHING.
- Pray. Pray for wisdom, peace, patience. Pray that you will have the right words to explain something to your child. Pray for focus.
This is our second year of homeschooling and I don’t worry about most of the things that I worried about last year. In fact, I hardly worry about homeschooling at all. I have faith that everything will work out. But that faith comes with experience. Last year I spent HOURS reading blogs, days perusing curriculum. Everything sounded great and I bought so much stuff, more than we could EVER even hope to do! I was all over the place trying to do this and that and go here and there and worrying that I was not doing it right. I stayed awake at night worrying that my girls were not learning enough.Eventually at some point things just came into focus. I can’t say when or how or why, they just did. By the time I was ready to purchase our curriculum for this year, I knew what worked and what didn’t (we went through 5 different math programs with my older daughter last year!). I knew what areas my girls needed to focus on and what areas they wanted to focus on. I knew what school supplies we needed and which we would never use. I felt confident that while my girls may not be learning all of the same things they would be learning in school, they were learning A LOT.
We have sort of fine-tuned our homeschooling, but I don’t fool myself, there will be bumps and what works now may not work a few months from now, but we will work with it, we will work with each other every step of the way and we will figure out what works for our family together. And so will you.
Theresa Bond blogs at Our Life in Words and Three Thinking Mothers. She is a former teacher who is now a full time wife and mother. Theresa and her husband brought their girls home to learn last year, after 5 years in public school. Theresa works part time as an Assistant Children’s Librarian. She lives in New Jersey. She sees God at work in her life all the time and she enjoys sharing her many blessings with others.
Well said Theresa. I also tell parents who are removing their older children from school that it is sometimes helpful to have a year of school detox. A year where learning is very unschooled and all the regimen of daily school is allowed to detox from their thinking. During this year I’ve encouraged their parents to focus on a core subject like math and then provide lots of reading and activities that interest the child. This relaxed year also allows the parent to spend time reading books that will enhance the learning process. This approach for the first year seems to help keep the parents from being overwhelmed as they determine learning styles, the skills of their older child and choosing curriculum. Thanks Theresa…great post.
Thanks, Savannah. I was nervous about taking a whole year to deschool last year. Now I kind of wish we had at least taken some time. I was completely ineffective in the beginning of last year but with time I feel very confident in our decision to homeschool.
Theresa, thank you so much for this post. This is our first year homeschooling, my children are 9,8, and 6 and it was a difficult decision to pull two of them out of their private school. I am excited, but also feeling many of the things your described. I really appreciate this post. It is very timely for me.
I am going to check out your blog now.
Peace.
Good luck to you and your family, Joy. We love homeschooling. It has been a wonderful experience for our family and I hope it is for yours as well. Do you have a blog? I would love to follow along on your journey if you do have a blog! And if ever you need someone to listen, please don’t hesitate to email me! My email address is on my blog 🙂
Theresa, this is such a wonderful post and full of good advice. I think we are still going through this at my house, or at least I am. I am always second-guessing myself and wondering if I’m doing “enough.” I think, as a former teacher, I spend so much time trying to “de-program” myself from the “training” I received in school and while teaching. Real teaching is so unlike what we were taught, isn’t it? There is SO much more to learning than how many pages they complete and in how many days they complete them. But, it is difficult to keep from going back to that “school” model sometimes. I find myself praying a lot and am continually working on it! :-)))
I have always home-schooled my children even without the fear of pulling my kids out of public school I still stress about are we doing enough. I only check the ” regular grade level expectations” once a year because it seems pretty subjective about where my kids really are. I mean I have a four year old that can read pretty well and an eight year old that struggles with reading, but is a whiz at mathematics. I wish that I could have read this post about three years ago, it is very informative. It took me these first years to realize that I was over scheduling my sweet girl. This year we schooled through the summer at a much easier pace and life is much better and there is not the catch up review.
Not a newbie but really needed this post! I was trying to make sure they learned and learned and more that I forgot that I need and they need to enjoy this time. okay back to the drawing board and back to my knees…gotta relax and get refocused.
Theresa, great post! I struggled with my decision for the first year too (and now, I’m struggling with HER decision to attend a public high school!) I love the advice about spending a day together. Our day was Fridays. She would do 1/2 day of school work until 11:00 and then we would go out for a girl’s lunch and then shopping. We both loved our Friday girl time!
Great tips, Theresa!! I can tell you that each year you learn more and more too. I’m 12 years in and I’m still trying to get it figured out! 😛
Great post Theresa! I love how we still can learn so much from each other. I learn something from a HS Mom everyday. Great advice….
Thank you so much Theresa! This is my first year homeschooling and it has been a difficult road for me and my 10 year old. I am also schooling a 4 and 6 year old and then a toddler in tow of 2 yrs. old. I have been overwhelmed by the amount of attention my supposedly “gifted” 10 year old requires. I know it is the detox of the public school, but it has been a struggle. Taking the year to relax more and unschool may be what we need. I keep feeling like I don’t want her to loose a whole year of learning and you’ve reminded me to take another look.
Very good tips to keep in mind this is our first year I am trying to relax about it but that is hard at times.
Having a support group for homeschooling is vital, but make sure it’s really a support group and not a competition group! Sitting there, feeling guilty or lying about how well you’re doing, while others discuss baking their own bread and how their six year old is starting calculus or their seven year old is doing Greek, is not helpful-especially to newbie homeschoolers! We all struggle and even those of us who have been doing it a long time encounter bumps along the road. Being real with each other is so important!
I love the cuddling on the couch part, so very intrinsic to a homeschooled education. Just being near our kids is why we’re doing this crazy thing in the first place, is it not?
Oh my goodness, YES! Sometimes I feel like homeschoolers are competitive with academics. If the group is not meeting your and your child’s needs, find a new group!
Thanks for the pick me up! I am a first time homeschooler. I took my 8 year old out of public school and have a kindergartener, a 4 year old and 2 year old – all boys. I also care for 3 daycare children full time. So I struggle with prepping my own preschool program for the little ones out of obligation to my job as a caregiver as well as keep my 3rd grader going. He is struggling and not wanting to be home with all the little ones. There isn’t much time in the morning for him, so he becomes bored. He LOVES about half the curriculum and HATES the other half. We enjoy our time together, so I will keep plugging away at it. And I spend last night fretting over language arts. Reading this just gave me permission to NOT FRET!! Thank you! God knew what I need to hear. =)
Hello, I am new to homeschooling my kids. I have an 11 almost 12 year old going through a tough time in public schools. not because he is not smart, but because he has an issue with social disorder, in other words, he only wants to make friends. So we were supposed to move out of state and so I withdrew him from fifth grade public school, in march. so I started getting and printing the work associate with his grade level. He does very well with most subjects. I focus on reading and writing more than I do math. I am not sure what I HAVE to teach him, so this is what I feel will help him most. we also do lots of extracurricular activities to boost his sense of wonder for life. Anyway, my questions is, what do I do? I am not social, I can be, and I try to be, but I am very comfortable at home, I still attend school myself (college) but it is at home online. I have gained all my success due to online programs. My son has all the same options, but my main goal is to have him pass the fifth grade. when I found out we were no moving out of state, but instead out of town, I decided to homeschool, because he had already switche dschools during the same school year. I felt bad, and felt it was my duty to help him pass fifth grade since it was my fault he was so behind. What can I do to get him ready for sixth and seventh grade? please help, I have no resources, and we would love to try any website or group that can effectivly communicate about everything invovling homeschool, as well as give advice. I can use it, thanks
Sara, you might want to start by reading articles on this site that relate to homeschooling and to getting started homeschooling. After that, HSLDA (the Home School Legal Defense Association) might be able to help you. They can definitely tell you the requirements for homeschooling in your state, and they offer help for kids with special needs too (if your son has a learning disability). You can find them at http://www.hslda.org/a/5387589. (aff)