The following is a post from contributing writer Angie.
In June, we’ll be wrapping up our fourth year of homeschooling. When I reflect back on the time when we decided to homeschool but hadn’t yet begun (because it was during a school year), I realize that there are things that I wish I had done in that period of time before starting that I didn’t.
Since I know some families are gearing up to start homeschooling for the first time after this school year ends, here are some tips that might help you on your journey.
Things I Wish I Had Done Before Homeschooling
Attend a Homeschool Convention or Conference
One of my favorite things each year for preparing for the next school year is to go to a homeschool convention and look around at a vendor hall. It makes all the difference in my decisions when I’m able to get my hands on items and really check them out beyond just online descriptions. It’s a wonderful way to see what I think will actually work for my family and what won’t.
In our first few months of homeschooling, we decided to abandon almost everything that we had originally ordered. It would have made a huge difference if I had originally seen all of those items in person to make a better decision.
Wait Until The End of the Summer to Start
Like many people, we thought we should give it a trial run during the summer, so we started officially homeschooling on July 1st that first year. Although this wasn’t the case for us, I think this gives people the opportunity to get too nervous about those first kinks and struggles of homeschooling, and then enroll their children back in school before the school year has even started.
For us, this was an issue because it was a transitional period for two of our children, since they were leaving public school. By the time we had been at it for several weeks, they felt lonely. I hadn’t taken into consideration that all of our extracurricular activities with other people wouldn’t begin until August (when the schools start here). My kids needed to know in a very concrete way that they really were still going to be around other kids.
Join a Local Homeschool Support Group
I actually did do this one. But, it was so important to me, that I didn’t want to overlook adding it to this list. It can be easy to feel alone while homeschooling if you don’t have people in your life that understand and support your homeschooling.
I joined my local homeschooling support group approximately six months before we started homeschooling. It was through that group that I have found many of my now closest friends, as well as where my children found many, many friendships and opportunities to be with others.
Be Open Minded to Changing Plans
As I shared earlier, I changed almost all of our curriculum in the first couple of months. As quick as that sounds, I actually wanted to get rid of it all even more quickly. However, I was so wrapped up in the idea of how much we had spent on it, that I made us miserably trudge through it until I decided that it was destroying our view of homeschooling.
I wish I had gone into homeschooling knowing that I would probably want to change things from my original plans and been okay with that.
Read About Many Homeschooling Styles
I will admit that I just didn’t really know very much about the different homeschooling styles when I began homeschooling. As a matter-of-fact, I mostly thought of homeschooling as doing school at home. I wish that I had read about many different styles of homeschooling in order to better zero in on what would work best for our family.
If you’re already homeschooling, what is something that you didn’t do before homeschooling that you wish you would have done?
photo by jimmiehomeschoolmom
Oona says
I wish I would’ve joined a group sooner! (I’m just joining one now, after 2 years!!)
For checking out various styles, a great book is Lisa Whelchel’s “So You’re Thinking About Homeschooling”
I read it before we had decided & it was great to see there are all kinds of ways to do it!
Tabitha says
Thank you! I’m new to homeschooling! Started in Feb with my 1st grader. Next year we’ll add our other son who will start kindergarten. I’m a little lost as to what curriculum to choose for them.
Annagrace says
I agree with everything you posted. We had decided even before we had children that we were going to homeschool. However, I wish I had gone to a conference, joined a homeschool group (which I eventually did) and done more research about the different styles of education. I didn’t even know there WERE different styles!
We have since changed everything that I originally started doing- that was hard for me. I was pretty insistent when we started that we were going to use certain curriculum and it ended up that NON of them worked for my children!
We now do Classical Conversations and are schooling classically. Again, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as “classical” education! Haha! I am very grateful the Lord opened my eyes to something greater than what I thought was best. We also do Spell to Write & Read and Right Start Mathematics. I hadn’t even heard of any of any of these before beginning – and I had been home-schooled myself (all 13 years)!
Thank you very much for sharing your experience! It’s helpful to know I wasn’t the only one floundering for a little while 🙂
Angie @ Many Little Blessings says
Can I admit that I am still floundering from time to time? 😉
I’m glad to hear that you agreed with the things on my list. I thought they were just some really basic ones that would fit nearly everyone.
Blessed beyond a doubt says
The on line homeschool community is fabulous, too!
Thanks for sharing1
Amy says
This is just what I was looking for! We are about to start homeschooling, and I wondered it there was any thing that I should be doing, also about start dates, etc. Thank you for your honesty
Shonda says
I have a 3 year old and I plan to homeschool. I want to join a co-op after he turns 5 and I found a few in our area. Also, I think I might visit the homeschool convention in our area so I can get a feel. I’m anxious, nervous and excited. I was a school teacher for 12 years, but this is a whole new game for me. Thanks for the tips.
Bridget says
Still floundering? I grew up homeschooled, and have been exclusively homeschooling with my 6 children ages 11 and under. I’m still floundering!! I would say something like “it doesn’t get better” but actually it does, its just floundering in a new sea with each new age and new phase of life and new personalities etc. But thats how we continue to grow alongside our children and leave them in (hopefully) a more advanced place than we were and thus promote from our humble center and increase of joy in the world. Keeping perspective of that giant picture helps! Thank you ladies for your comments!
Traci says
Hi, I’ve been reading your blog for a while and we finally decided this week that we are going to homeschool our 1st & 3rd grader. Everyone says we should try online public school, such as connections academy. What do you think? I’m concerned that it will be too much like public school and make it hard to bring Christian values into the curriculum.