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7 Homeschooling Tips for a Successful Year-Keep these tips in mind as you plan and go through the school year.
Does anticipating a new homeschool year fill you with excitement or dread? Or maybe a combination of the two? Follow these simple homeschooling tips to have a successful homeschooling year.
7 Homeschooling Tips for a Successful Year
1. Identify what success is to you.
This is very important. Success for your children’s homeschooling year does not look like someone else’s success. One of the reasons you decided to homeschool may be because you wanted to tailor a program to meet the needs and interests of your children. The needs and interests of your children are not the same as that of other children; they are unique. So, don’t look at what someone else is doing and think that you should do that.
Look at each of your children individually: what are their strengths? What do they need more help with? What interests will they pursue this year?
Success for one child may be to learn to read better. For another, it may be to conquer math facts. For another, it may be to start learning the foreign language he has always wanted to know.
Ask yourself what you need to do this year for you to consider it a successful homeschooling year.
Success for you may look like keeping your cool with your kids when you begin to get impatient with them or frustrated when they give you attitude about doing their work. It may look like taking a day off now and again without feeling guilty so you can go on that awesome field trip. It may look like grading all of their work the day they do it.
When you identify what homeschooling success means to you this year (it may change from year to year), you know what you are working towards. It may be helpful to write it down so you can review it now and again.
Plan for success and look over your plans periodically to make sure you are on the right track.
Get the Homeschool Success Companion here: Homeschool Success Companion from Blessed Catholic Mom.
2. Stick with your plan (for more than two weeks).
Are you laughing? I hope so! It is true, isn’t it? You make all these great plans for the year and then something happens that causes you to doubt your plan.
Maybe little Henry will read better if you use the program that your friend is using (which you need to buy) instead of that program that you have been using for a short time. Maybe Sally will be more motivated to do her work if she has xyz that she is asking for. It can go on and on and on. Perhaps you ae thinking that a successful homeschooling schedule should look completely different than what you are doing.
When things don’t go exactly as you expect, you may begin to doubt your plan. Is it good enough? Should it be changed? Not yet.
Hold off making any changes until you have given it (curriculum, a schedule, a class, etc.) a good try. After that, try to analyze it analytically. What about it is working? What is not working? Can you adapt it in some way to make it better? Do you need to use something else?
Sometimes we need to give something more time. You don’t begin to dig a trench in your backyard and say, “The shovel doesn’t work!” after just digging for 5 minutes. It takes time and hard work to dig a trench. Make sure you are giving your plans the hard work and time needed to really see results before you drop them in favor of something else.
3. Know you can make changes in the future.
Although you do need to give your plans the time to be effective and see their positive results, sometimes you may realize a plan you have just isn’t working. At this point, it is wise to let it go and try something else. It does not mean you are a failure; it just means something else will be a better fit for your child or your homeschooling routine.
Scheduling the time to evaluate things one on one with each of your children can be very helpful in this regard. Yes, you work with them every day, but taking the time to step back to have a conversation about it together and look at how things are going can be very beneficial. This can also give you a different perspective that will be helpful.
It can be helpful to take time for evaluation at natural breaks in your school year, like at the half-way point of your year, before Christmas break, or at the end of the school year. These are natural breaks in your year where you can more easily take a step back and evaluate how things are going and determine if you need to make any changes to benefit your child, either for the rest of this school year or for the next school year.
Get the Homeschool Success Companion here: Homeschool Success Companion from Blessed Catholic Mom.
4. Look at the overall picture.
It can be so easy to get caught up in the day to day lessons and not pause to look at the big picture. Taking the time to do so will help you to see how much your kids have accomplished. This perspective can help you from getting too preoccupied with each individual day and this can ease the stress you may feel if you just focus too much on each day.
5. Let it go.
Remember that things do not always go as planned. It is important to let go of your previous expectations when you realize you may need to alter your plans. The reason for homeschooling is to meet the needs of your children. That is the most important thing.
It can be disheartening when the great plans you made and the awesome curriculum you picked out aren’t a fit for your child, but homeschooling is about doing what is in their best interests. Sometimes that means letting go of your expectations and plans and making new ones. It is okay.
It is also important to let go sometimes in order to fully focus on the next thing. When you are looking back, you can’t look forward at the same time.
6. Know that it is not ALL up to you.
Yes, you are the one who is homeschooling your child, but your children are the ones learning and studying. Success in school is up to them, too; it is not all on you. It is important to be partners in homeschooling, working together.
God’s got your back. He wants what is best for you and for your children. Ask Him for help and guidance. He will help you.
See How to “Pray About it” for some additional help in this regard.
7. Use your resources.
Resources is one little word that can mean so many things!
Resources are friends, local homeschool groups, the library, conferences, homeschool blogs, websites, magazines, and anything else you can learn from to help and support you in your homeschool journey.
You don’t need to struggle alone in trying to figure things out; tap into resources to help you out. It will make your homeschooling more enjoyable and less stressful.
Get the Homeschool Success Companion here: Homeschool Success Companion from Blessed Catholic Mom.
Summary of 7 Homeschooling Tips for a Successful Year
Here is a quick recap of the points mentioned. Pick one or two to start with as you begin your new school year. May it be your family’s best homeschool year yet!
1. Identify what success is to you.
2. Stick with your plan for more than two weeks.
3. Know you can make changes in the future
4. Look at the overall picture.
5. Let it go.
6. Know that it is not ALL up to you.
7. Use your resources.
Get the Homeschool Success Companion here: Homeschool Success Companion from Blessed Catholic Mom.
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