5 Homeschool Regrets

On this blogging journey, one of my big goals is to be a resource for all the questions and things that homeschoolers go through and nobody else really understands. I had so many questions in the beginning that nobody could answer unless they went through that specific scenario. I want to be very open about this homeschool journey and help anyone who may need it.

In doing this I thought sharing some regrets might give a good look into some things to avoid. Even if you just need someone to relate to because you’re going through these things, I’m your girl. You are not alone I have made all the mistakes lol. So here are 5 homeschool regrets I’m going to share with you.

1. I Didnt Plan Ahead

I am not a planner yall! I’m am not going to tell yall to pre-plann your days in 15 minute increments. For me I am talking about an overall plan, a yearly plan to be more specific.

Simply getting a count of the amount of days we plan to homeschool and compare that to our curriculum or goals was so helpful. For instance we will be homeschooling 180 days and our math curriculum has 140 lessons. Just having those numbers in my head tells me how often we need to do math if I want to finish this curriculum by the end of the year.

Yearly is enough for me now but you may work better with weekly or monthly planning. Do whatever works for you, but I definitely advise some kind of planning to be able to see the bigger picture.

2. Stop Their Play to do “School”

It’s hard, like really hard to see playing as learning. But there have been so so many studies telling us how important play is.

In my attempt to not “fail” my children and make sure they got in schooling every day I would interrupt or cut short their play. Though there were clear skills being built inside of this play. I learned not to do this pretty quickly but I wanted to include this because I feel this is hard for a lot of parents.

Honestly its STILL hard for me to know what is a good balance. I allow a lot of play/ free time now though. Dont get me wrong I still have to interrupt them sometimes to get started on different things, but I put play high on the priority list.

I have taken our bookwork down to bare bones in order to allow maximum playtime possible. I fit in extra subjects I want to hit when the opportunity presents itself and when it makes sense. So…let them play!

3. Not Having Patience

I used to feel a lot of guilt about that first 6 months when I was trying to build my patience and learning what in the world I was doing. My child had some reading trouble so there was a lot of frustration from both of us. Though I was good at keeping calm my daughter could see my frustration. Although I wish I could have had immediate perfection that’s not real life and we both learned a lot.

A big turning point for me was when I read somewhere someone say “what if you ALWAYS assume your child is actually doing their best.” and ” No child WANTS to get the answer wrong” This is so true! In our frustration, we assume they are being lazy or stubborn but that is almost always not the case no matter how the struggle presents itself. Once I realized that, I was able to give us both so much more grace.

4. Following the Curriculum too Closely

I have learned that no curriculum will ever fit a child perfectly. The first math curriculum we used was not a good fit for my first child and I had no idea what to do. I don’t know why it was such a hard concept to tweak this curriculum. I ended up switching to another math curriculum and that, I do not regret because the second one was a great fit. Though not before suffering with this first curriculum for a couple of months.

Incidentally I now use parts of that first curriculum with my second child and it is a great fit for her. I only use what we need though and do not follow it exactly and pick and choose what will benefit her. I wish I knew how to do this early and didn’t stress so much trying to make it work.

5. Made Unachieveable Goals

By this I mean, be realistic with your goals. I watched lots of homeschool youtube videos, read lots of vlogs, and followed lots of homeschool Instagram accounts. While all of these things were amazing resources, it made me want to do all the things.

I would put too much pressure on myself (and lets be honest sometimes I still do, but I’m now more aware of it) to do everything. All the things everyone said were “must-do’s”. The essentials will be different for every family.

While other homeschool moms and families are great resources we have to take what works for our family and leave the rest. Unachieveable goals take the joy away from homeschooling.

Comment down below and let me know if there are any homeschool things you would do different if you knew what you knew now.

Thanks for coming by guys. Dont forget to come by our Instagram at lilyandleis_littlefarmhouse to see what we are doing daily.