Do's and don'ts of homeschooling the first year

I learned so much my first year of homeschooling a lot of things the hard way. I was pretty clueless at where to start, what teaching method or what to even teach. I felt like I got so much information online that confused me even more.

1. Do not feel like you failed if you ask for help or support. Get connected with a local homeschooling group or friends that homeschool. It's okay to not know where to start.

2. Have fun. Make it fun and keep it interesting. Children do not have to learn just from a textbook. Add cooking, videos, Bible, and songs to your lesson. My kids love when we add fun stuff to our lessons. Even take school outside.

3. Tell your children how well they are doing, not just their mistakes.

4. Take days off. Everyone needs a break, schedule days off or if something comes up and you need to take a day off do it. Do not feel guilty. That is the enjoy of homeschooling. I am thinking about doing no school on Fridays instead make it game day and test day for my older daughter.

5. It's okay if a curriculum does not work for your family. Do not spend tons of money on books or an online program to start out with, your kids may not like it or you may not like it. We learned this the hard way. My daughter lost interest in the homeschooling program she was doing online. We had to change everything up this year, in the middle of our school year and that is okay. If that happens just start fresh. I found out she does a lot better doing 90% of her school work offline. It's all about finding what works for you and your family.

6. Schedule, have a planner of everything you want your children to learn and when. Since my kids are at different grade levels I have two different planners one for each child. Do not over schedule. I do 30-45 minutes each for Math, Science, history and Language Art for my daughter since she is older. My son is at preschool age so we do about an hour. This does not include fun activities that we do.

7. Do not give up. Keep trying. Your whole year does not been to be planned out to start homeschooling. There are tons of helpful curriculum out there.

8. Most importantly there is no wrong way to homeschool. It's about what works for your family.

9. You rule homeschooling. Homeschooling does not rule you. Only you know the right fit for your family and how much time is needed.

Blessings,

April