Over the last couple of years, I have made my fair share of mistakes on this homeschooling journey. Most of these mistakes where because I was stuck in the mindset that homeschooling needed to replicate brick and mortar schools. I wanted to share these mistakes that I have made to try and save you all from the headaches that I have suffered. These are the top five homeschool mistakes that I have made over the past couple of years.
1. Comparing Myself To Others.
When we first started homeschooling I spent a lot of time on social media, Pinterest, reading blogs, and watching youtube videos. While this can be a really good thing for inspiration, it can also lead to a terrible downward spiral of doubt if you start comparing yourself to the perfectly posed photos and stories of homeschoolers who you think are doing everything better than you.
2. Need For A Homeschool Room.
The want for space to store all the supplies is a dream of every homeschooling parent, but when I first started homeschooling I thought that we needed a special room set up like a miniature classroom in our house. While the miniature classroom can work for some families it was absolutely insane for us, we enjoy moving around the house and being comfortable, so the homeschool room became a prison. I was so set in having the room work that it actually prevented us from doing the things that we wanted to do.
3. Letting Go Of Things.
When choosing curriculum we spend so much time researching what would work best for our children and then we spend so much money buying the curriculum that sometimes it can be hard to admit that what you decided on just isn’t working. What I found out after struggling through a curriculum that wasn’t working for us, nothing is worth that much pain and struggling when you can just simply switch.
4. Let The Kids Lead.
We are by no means “unschoolers”, but there are a lot of great learning opportunities that happen when you follow your children’s lead. Our first year of homeschooling I spent a lot of my time struggling through things that my children weren’t interested in just because I thought those were the things I thought we needed to be learning. Through that whole year, we could have been learning about what the children were actually interested in and the journey would not have been such a struggle.
5. Forgetting Learning Happens Everywhere.
There are still times that I think that we are not doing enough, not learning enough, or there is something that we are missing. Then something amazing happens, we will visit a museum and I get to watch my children light up with learning or I walk into the room when they are watching shows and find them watching educational shows. So, when I find myself questioning our impromptu field trips or the children’s screen time I step back and think about all the amazing things it leads to instead of what we might be missing.
You can find tons of other great posts by other homeschool moms here:
http://schoolhousereviewcrew.com/homeschool-collection-second-edition/
You’re amazing as are K & E. Me walking along, while reading your blog, makes me feel a part of your journey. ❣️
I’m glad that you’re enjoying them! I’m excited to share our journey!
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