Top 5 Mistakes New homeschooling families make and how to avoid them

5. Overloading the Schedule

When you start homeschooling, it is usually pretty easy to see all the freedom that comes along with that pretty quickly. RESIST the urge to overload your schedule. This can happen in a couple of ways.

First, resist the urge to plan lots of field trips. While on hands learning is especially beneficial, not everything has to be a field trip. This can be especially difficult to avoid though once you are plugged into a local homeschool community. You just need to set a limit for your expectations of what field trips look like for your family.

Tip: 2 field trips a semester. One fun, learning opportunity and one fine arts opportunity. (This is what we do, and it is working wonderfully so far.)

Ok, second, you do not need to homeschool for 5 days a week, 8 hours a day. Even the kids in public school aren’t “doing” school for this long. Because of the sheer number of children to manage, public schools have to have 8-hour days. There is a lot of wasted time going on. 

Most homeschooling is going to be learning how to be a part of the home "business" with drops of curriculum in between. John Taylor Gatto says that it only takes about 50 hours to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic. After that, a child can learn by themselves. Our jobs are not to make our children think, but to create an environment that encourages learning for themselves. If daily schedules get overloaded, our children are not free to pursue their own learning, just ours.

Tip: Create a flexible daily routine that includes breaks, physical activity such as play, and time for interests outside of academics.

4. Not Tailoring the Curriculum to the Child’s Learning Style

Every child really does learn differently, even within the same family. It can be easy to make the mistake of choosing a one-size-fits-all curriculum that doesn’t take into account their child’s individual learning style—whether it’s visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or something else.
 
I have 2 main thoughts here: 

• Beware of picking out a curriculum that fits YOUR learning style. A lot of us can get super distracted by curriculums that we would've loved in school. But that doesn't mean your child will thrive while doing it.
• Don't be afraid to change curriculums if the one you picked isn’t working. You will not set your child back and, especially early on, there really isn’t any virtue in pressing on in this tough situation. If it’s not working, stop and find something else.

Tip: Research different learning styles and choose or adapt a curriculum that suits your child. Check out the HSLDA article that tells you all about children's learning styles and why understanding these are important. Remember, picking a curriculum doesn't have to happen TODAY. Simply reading, writing, and working on math skills is more than enough to carry your child's learning while you search for a curriculum. 

3. Neglecting to Establish Boundaries Between Home and School Life

So many homeschooling families can often struggle with maintaining a clear separation between school time and family time. I really think this is because so much learning can come from just doing life together. Just to try to avoid making every single moment into a learning moment by constantly quizzing them. Your kids are learning. Simply correct incorrect information as you go while avoiding turning living life into a schoolroom type lecture.

Tip: Set up a designated learning space, even if it's just a small corner of a room. Avoid the urge to constantly “test” your children to see if they are learning while doing life together.
Create a schedule for your day that includes a clear balance for school education and regular family time. This isn’t a schedule to live and die by. But just to help you get the feel for how a regular day can go. Click here for an example of a daily schedule designed for elementary age kids.

2. Feeling Isolated and Not Seeking Support

Homeschooling can be lonely, especially for those who don't know any other homeschooling families. It can be hard to see the need for community and support when you don't even know where to find it. This lack of community and support will not make homeschooling impossible at all, it will just make the long hard days feel harder and you to feel more isolated and lonelier. 

Tip: Find community! Join a local or online homeschooling group to connect with other homeschooling families. Whether through social media, forums, or local co-ops. The HSLDA website has a fantastic resource for finding local and state support groups. Click here to head over to that page.

1. Focusing Too Much on Bringing “School” into the Home

 At the end of the day, educating our children is simply a continuation of us parenting them. This is why public schools themselves are not necessarily the bad guys. ( Although, I say that ignoring the conversation about the amount of propaganda and bad morals in state run schools. That is an important conversation for another day.) Schools are simply the tool a lot of parents use to educate their children.

Avoid trying to duplicate “school” within your home. The school and how they do things isn’t the end all be all in education and it simply wasn’t designed to be replicated in the home. You are in charge of designing how to parent, and educate, your child. You are their expert, and you know what it is they need best. Create a learning environment that is tailored to your child so they can thrive and grow!

Tip: Cultivate what education in your home looks like. One way to do this is determine what YOUR education philosophy is and apply it to the way you educate your child. There are many curriculums designed to cultivate help you cultivate your family rhythm. Go over to the curriculum page to start exploring the different learning styles to see what fits best for your family!

My Final Thoughts:

Chances are you are a brand-new homeschooling family and probably don't know very many other families who do homeschool. Try to not let that intimidate you or discourage you. It is so ok to not know what you are doing at first and adjust as you go. As I said before, you are your child's expert, and you are going to know best what they need to be educated well! You are doing a great job!

Lori

To Know God and to Make Him Known

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