Helpful Advice for a New Homeschool Mom from a Veteran

My best advice for a new homeschool mom is GRACE and patience. Be gentle with yourself and your kids. This homeschool gig is not easy. Expect an adjustment period.

I’ve been homeschooling since 2012 if you include pre-school. And we still have days it’s really hard.

I’m a veteran educator with 17 years in the classroom. I often joke that teaching one unruly 4th grader is a million times harder than 150 high school students ever was. And I’m kind of not kidding.

Teaching your own child involves many different dynamics, like obedience and discipline have to be balanced with family relationships and math.

You and your child(ren) need time to mentally and emotionally adjust to new roles.

Give yourself and your children some grace to adjust to the new normal.

You and your children are not used to this new routine. Start slowly. Homeschool doesn’t have to look like school school.

Ours does a little more than some because my child needs the structure. We tried a more laid back approach for a couple of years and she struggled. She needed more organization.

But we get up late somedays. We stay in our pajamas somedays. Today was the trifecta – slept in, still in pjs, and skipped a lot of the normal chores and routine, but hopped right into reviewing the metric system over breakfast.

It doesn’t have to look any specific way.

Take a few days and see what works for you and your family. And understand that everyday might look different until you find just the right routine for your family.

I am IN LOVE with how we start our day reading and discussing the Bible together. Read more

But whatever routine you establish, try to keep to it fairly well. Even on days like today, we kept the basics to our routine, just a little later and less hurried start.

Generally, kids are most productive first thing in the morning. But it can take awhile to figure out how to balance getting everyone breakfast and started on school.

If you have children old enough to help with breakfast, assign them tasks in the morning. Younger kids learning to read can read their lesson or book to you while you supervise pouring juice and cereal.

Planning ahead will be your best friend.

I hate making breakfast in the morning. I’m not awake, have not had caffeine, and now I have to cook too?!? UGH. I have to take my attitude about cooking to Jesus OFTEN.

But it has made me creative.

I cook large batches of waffles and pancakes. They keep in the fridge for a week or more. We make a large breakfast casserole which will feed our family for several mornings.

By planning breakfasts ahead of time (and sometimes making them the night before), our mornings run a little smoother.

The same is true of lunches. Invariably, we are clicking along in a lesson and getting a lot accomplished when everything grinds to a halt with, “Mom, I’m hungry.” 

Somedays, we take a break and cook something together as a family.

But often, taking too long a break destroys any flow we had going. I try to have a plan for lunch so I can heat something up easily while she reads her next science or history lesson out loud.

Lesson planning is key.

I spent years in college learning how to write lesson plans, but in homeschool, you’re kind of thrown into the deep end without much instruction.

Start with objectives for each day. What are your goals? (It’s okay if your objectives are just to survive at first. Establishing a routine and daily expectations can take awhile.)

But each lesson should have an objective or purpose, like learning about our galaxy. What do you expect her to learn? The definition of a galaxy, the name of our galaxy, how we study the galaxy?

By prioritizing the purpose of each lesson, you can focus your attention on covering those things. And keep the lessons simple.

Decide how you will assess learning: oral questions? a worksheet? a quiz?

We do a lot of oral discussion. One idea is to make her teach the subject to me if it’s really tricky because teaching something requires the highest level of understanding.

I try to end every school day by planning what I want to cover for sure the next day and what subjects we will cover in the morning and after lunch.

I use a little planner and write down what the plan for each day on the monthly calendar, and later I write down what we actually accomplished on the planner page for each date.

My most important educational advice for a new homeschool mom is to adjust how you look at learning.

Not everything we need to know is in a school book. School books are foundations for the knowledge we need to function. We can teach kids how to use what they are learning in their books in real life.

For example, cooking lunch together is a different kind of learning. It’s learning to measure, use fractions, and read/follow directions. Cooking and cleaning are lessons in adulting.

It’s not wasted time to teach your kids how to do laundry and prepare healthy meals.

But what about school work?

Teaching our children school work is not really different from what we do everyday, but being responsible for their education can feel terrifying.

I had to get over this idea that it was my job to make sure she knew everything, at least everything the public school children were learning.

It took me awhile to realize that all kids will have learning gaps. Every school makes choices about which books to read, which portions of history to cover each year, which math system to use.

All kids will have gaps in their learning!

Trying to keep up with everyone else made me feel overwhelmed and panicked when my kid couldn’t do x, y, or z. Your kid isn’t every kid. Your job is to teach your child. That will look different from what I do for mine because our kids are different.

My perspective changed when I realized my primary job is to make sure she learns HOW TO LEARN.

Which as a Christian homeschool mom, means spending a lot of time on the condition of our hearts as sinners and followers of Christ. Learning how to be a humble learner takes a lot of heart work. Learning to work hard in your chores and school work as part of glorifying God doesn’t come naturally.

It doesn’t come naturally to ME! I’m still a work in progress. My biggest struggle is my temper, and I have to take that to God often.

So before we focus on school work, we focus on character: obedience, respect, patience, self-control.

Somedays, go completely sideways and we all end up in tears, but those are the days we take to Jesus. He can do the most work in our hearts and lives on those days we recognize how great our need is for Him.

Then we work on the building blocks for learning: how to read for information, organize her thoughts, answer different types of questions, do research, and perform basic math functions.

My advice to a new homeschool mom is your priority is to teach your children how to learn more than what to learn. #Homeschool #Quarantine #HomeschoolTips Click To Tweet

Beyond that, she is going to learn different information at home than she would at the local private school or the local public school or the Christian private school.

Knowing how to learn is the goal because once she knows how to learn and think for herself, she can fill in any learning gaps she might have.

Some practical advice for a new homeschool mom.

Balancing parenting, homeschool, housework, maybe working from home, and being a wife takes skill and practice. It’s juggling a lot of balls. It’s okay to drop some for a time.

Multi-task and triage.

The new normal (at least for now) is going to throw you for a loop. Keep your expectations reasonable.

The house may not be as clean. You might need a new laundry schedule. Learning to prep dinner and use your slow cooker or instant pot, will help you spend less time in the kitchen in the afternoon.

A friend of mine, the AweFilled Homemaker, has complied a great list of beginner recipes for your instant pot or pressure cooker! 

My best advice for a new homeschool mom?

Make the most important things the most important things: family togetherness and faith.

Use this time to read some faith building books together like Keeping Your Kids on God’s Side by Natasha Crain and the Bible.

Let God use this homeschool journey to grow you and create strong family bonds that will last always.