It’s easy to overthink how we might homeschool. It’s easy to overplan and overworry and overreact. It’s easy to get in a muddle and lose direction.
But it’s also easy to enjoy homeschooling. I’ve got a short list of things to do and things to avoid which will help you to enjoy homeschooling.
- Do have a small group of homeschool friends you can rely on. Even when you know a lot of people who homeschool, it’s important to have your personal support team of just a couple of people that you can rely on. And you can be part of others’ personal support teams, in return.
- Don’t waste your social time online. A lot of online social time is unproductive and it’s a bad use of your time.
- Do go to your children if they say they need you when you are on the computer.
- Don’t put long hours into preparing lessons or get your children to put in long hours in their book work. Long hours won’t guarantee that they will be smarter or happier. It’s better to do a smaller amount of good quality work and cut out the masses of low quality worksheets and workbooks.
- Do remember that you can’t please everyone. Someone somewhere will be unhappy with what you are doing. So just don’t worry about it and get on with doing a good job of enjoying life with your children and enjoying teaching them.
- Don’t forget that you don’t have to know about every homeschool option, program or style to be enjoy homeschooling successfully.
- Do it! When you have decided what you want to do, just do it. Then stop looking at all the other programs that are out there and make the one you are using work.
- Don’t threaten the children with school or offer this option to yourself when you reach a hurdle. Once you have decided to homeschool, go for it! Be confident and focused on the goal of homeschooling and find a way to get through that temporary difficulty.
- Do be thankful. Always be thankful and appreciate what you have in your family and in your daily life. Never take anything for granted. Always show gratitude to others, even for small things. This will also set a great example to your children.
- Don’t compare yourself to others. You and your family are unique and you will have your own strengths and opportunities, successes and failures. Focus on enjoying your time with your children and on having the family life you want for yourselves.
- Do take care of yourself. I recently heard a saying that I thought was very helpful in encouraging appropriate self-care: “Do something today that your future self will thank you for.”
Sometimes homeschooling can be more challenging than you ever expected. But you can be empowered to find ways to homeschool painlessly. Join me for 26 weekly lessons at Successful Homeschooling Made Easy and get practical tools to enjoy homeschooling successfully.