Homeschooling is amazing, it really is! I wasn’t raised homeschooled, so my homeschool journey is one I came to on my own. Now that I’ve been homeschooling for a few years, I have learned a lot! There are lots of things I wish I knew before I started homeschooling that would probably have inspired me to start sooner. But there are also a few things that, had I known, may have made me slightly nervous about starting. I’m sharing all of those things with you, right here in this blog post!
I will start by saying this – if you are still in the very early years of homeschooling, it’s possible you haven’t yet discovered some of these amazing things I’m going to speak about. It could be that you’re struggling to find your groove, and you feel like every day is a battle.
If that’s you, please know that most, if not all homeschool families go through an adjustment period. It took us awhile to figure out what works for our family, and we had some pretty rough days along the way! So don’t be discouraged, it’s not just you, and it will get easier!
For some extra help and encouragement, check out these posts:
- How To Set A Homeschool Morning Routine That Works
- Deschooling Vs Unschooling: What Is The Difference?
- How To Handle A Bad Homeschool Day
Alright, let’s get to it! Here are all the things I wish I knew before I started homeschooling!
- How much I would love being with my kids
- The freedom homeschooling provides
- How much it would refine me – as a person and as a mom
- That my kids would form such a close relationship
- How normal it is to be overwhelmed by curriculum
- How many people actually homeschool
- How to handle the questions from strangers
- Final thoughts
1. How Much I Would Love Being With My Kids
I remember before we started homeschooling, I asked a friend of mine who homeschools her two daughters, “How do you manage being with your kids ALL the time? Do you ever get on each others nerves?” She laughed and replied saying, “Yes, but it’s just what’s normal for us!”
Well, now that I have been homeschooling for a few years, I understand her answer. I can confidently say that being with my kids all the time is one of the biggest perks of this homeschooling gig! I love my children, and there’s nothing better than seeing them grow each and every day.
Are there rough days? Yes! Are there days where we all need some alone time? Sure. But, the ability to spend so much time with my children has been one of the biggest blessings I’ve ever experienced.
As a homeschooling parent, we are living life alongside our children every single day. We are given the opportunity to discover their different learning styles, watch them expand their knowledge banks, and see who they are becoming. We have a front row seat to everything – and it really is the best thing ever!
2. The Freedom Homeschooling Provides
One of the things I wish I knew before I started homeschooling, was the amount of freedom we would experience as a result of living the homeschool lifestyle.
What I really mean here, is “time freedom“.
For the first couple of years of my oldest child’s schooling, she was in the private and public school system. So I am very familiar with the morning rush of getting lunches packed, kids fed, and everyone out of the house by a certain time. I’ve also experienced the mad rush of beating the traffic and getting back to the school on time for dismissal, only to have to stand outside in the freezing cold weather to wait for her to make her way out of the building. (I really do NOT miss those days.)
However with homeschooling, those types of strict schedules simply don’t exist. Because we are in control of our child’s education, it’s up to us how the day is going to go.
One of the wonderful benefits of the homeschool experience is being able to customize everything to suit your family’s needs. This includes your schedule! I really never gave this much thought prior to homeschooling, and had I realized how awesome this is, I may have started much sooner!
3. How Much It Would Refine Me – As a Person and as a Mom
Before I started homeschooling, I did a lot of research on the topic. I read books about how to homeschool your kids, researched the different learning styles, and spent countless hours reading homeschool curriculum reviews. I was extremely focused on how I could effectively teach my children, and give them all the knowledge they will need to be successful.
Those are all good things! However, I never ONCE stopped to consider how homeschooling would grow and refine ME! To be honest, it wasn’t even on my radar.
Unlike traditional school where a parent is very removed from their child’s learning, a homeschooling mom is elbow deep in their child’s education every single day. We see it all – the good, the bad, the easy, and the hard. We watch our children learn things in their own way, and develop at their own pace. We watch them succeed and fail, and we are intimately connected with their growth and development in a very unique way.
But just as we watch them grow and learn, they also watch us do the same. They see us learn new things, and develop new interests. They watch us handle our successes, and navigate our failures. Being a homeschooling mom is like spending each and every day with a window into our hearts and minds that our kids can look through any time they want.
It can be a little nerve wracking….I’m not going to lie.
But let me tell you, God has used homeschooling to bring a lot of things to the surface in my life, and He has refined me in ways I never imagined possible. He uses that open window into my heart as an opportunity to remind me that what I say and do are extremely important. I’m reminded every single day that I need to learn the healthy way to handle the emotions of myself and those around me. And I am hyper aware of the effect that my attitude and mindset has on the attitudes and mindsets of my kids.
If I want happy, agreeable children – I need to be happy and agreeable. If I want my kids to enjoy the field trips we go on with our homeschool community, I need to show excitement for those field trips as well. I am not just the facilitator of their education – I have the privilege and responsibility of setting the tone for their entire homeschool experience.
Being aware of that fact has refined me as a person, and as a mother. And this is an impact of homeschooling on my life that I really never thought about prior to starting.
Has it been challenging and humbling at times? Yes. Has it been worth it? Absolutely!
4. That My Kids Would Form Such A Close Relationship
One of the other things I wish I knew before I started homeschooling, is how my kids would develop a much closer relationship than before. This is something nobody told me about, and it’s one of the hidden blessings of homeschooling.
There is a 5 year age gap between my two children, and when my youngest was born, many people told me how hard the age gap will be once they’re older. The popular opinion was that siblings who aren’t close in age won’t have anything in common, and will just fight all the time. Hearing this over and over again certainly wasn’t very encouraging!
And when my oldest attended public school, I did start to notice a dismissive attitude developing towards her little brother. It was as if she was being conditioned to only relate to other kids her age – which in fact, is exactly what happens in the traditional school setting. I didn’t like what I was seeing, but I also believed the lie that it was “normal”.
Fast forward to now, a few years into our homeschool journey, and the relationship between my children has literally blossomed before my eyes! And no, it’s not because they don’t have any friends, (as some non-homeschoolers tend to believe of homeschooled kids). Both of my children have healthy social lives with their own close friends. But their relationship with each other, truly is a thing of beauty.
Because of the homeschooling lifestyle, my children are just as connected to each other’s growth, experiences, struggles and achievements, as I am as their mother. Obviously, they are involved with these elements in different ways than I am, but they too have a front row seat to everything each other goes through.
They have learned how to cheer each other on and celebrate the other’s accomplishments. Plus, they have learned to be understanding and sympathetic when the other one is struggling. They see the good and the bad in each other all the time, and they know each other on a very deep level because of it.
I’m not implying that siblings who are in the public school system can’t be close, but I am saying that our choice to homeschool has been a huge contributor to the amazing bond between my children. Despite the age gap and the different grade levels, they are best friends, and each other’s biggest cheerleader!
5. How Normal It Is To Be Overwhelmed By Curriculum
Before I started homeschooling, I was very focused on finding the right curriculum for my kids. And that’s a good thing to do! If using a formal homeschool curriculum is something you plan on doing, than finding the the right fit for your family is very important.
But what many new homeschoolers don’t anticipate, is how overwhelming this process can be! There are so many options when it comes to homeschool curriculum, and I spent the first year of our homeschool journey feeling kind of like a failure in the curriculum department.
I had chosen what I thought would be the perfect fit for my daughter, only to end up ditching much of it half way through the school year due to frequent episodes of crying and frustration whenever we would pull it out. I felt like I had failed her by choosing the wrong thing, and I was worried that I was squashing her love of learning.
However, I now realize that what we went through is EXTREMELY common! Most, if not all new homeschoolers have to go through a bit of trial and error when it comes to curriculum. It’s very rare that anyone gets this right the first time! Maybe you’re not that into hands on science experiments, but the curriculum you chose seems to have one every single day. Or perhaps you just have some unrealistic expectations when it comes to how much school work your child can actually do in one day, and the curriculum you chose is simply too heavy.
There are alot of things to consider when choosing the right homeschool curriculum. If you are currently on the hunt for what will work in your own homeschool, check out my post all about How To Choose The Best Homeschool Curriculum. I’ve taken what I’ve learned over the years, as well as advice from other seasoned homeschoolers and put together the 10 things you need to consider before making your choice.
>>>Read also: How Morning Journals Can Transform Your Homeschool
6. How Many People Actually Homeschool
This is something that I really wish I knew before I started homeschooling! There are so many people who homeschool their children right now, which means it is so easy to find support and friendships within the homeschool community.
When I first started, I knew a handful of people that homeschooled. But very quickly, I discovered that there was a huge number of homeschoolers right in my area, and endless numbers of them online! Getting connected to other homeschoolers around us was such a blessing, and I encourage you to seek out the various groups in your area.
Not only does this benefit us homeschool parents, it’s also great for children. It allows them to find a community of like-minded kids that they can relate to and form friendships with, while we moms, often share words of encouragement with each other, and help each other through all sorts of challenges.
Many people also decide to attend a local homeschool co-op, which is where parents take turns teaching each others kids different topics in a group setting.
If I had known just how much support was there for me when I first started homeschooling, I would have really leaned into that at the time. Thankfully, it didn’t take me long to discover the people who are now some of my closest friends, but I wish I knew this world existed before I got started!
7. How To Handle The Questions From Strangers
The last thing I wish I knew before I started homeschooling, is that strangers will ask all sorts of weird and inappropriate questions when they find out you homeschool. It literally happens to us all the time! At this point, I’ve gotten used to it and my kids have too. But when we first started, I was not prepared for this!
One of the most common questions that people ask us, is the socialization question. You know what I mean…”How to you plan on socializing your kids?”
This used to get me all flustered, and I would immediately get defensive and start quoting all sorts of statistics on social skills, and how homeschoolers actually rank higher in that area than public school kids. (Yes, that’s true. There have been actual studies done on this.)
Now however, even though this question makes me cringe on the inside, I just smile and say it’s not a concern! My kids have lots of friends and are very happy! I have learned that less is more when it comes to answering these questions, and that most people don’t mean any harm by asking.
The reality is, if someone has zero experience with homeschooling, it should be expected that they also have zero knowledge of how it works. The best thing I can do as a homeschool mom is to smile, answer them in a short but informative way, and simply move on. If someone decides to push and act rudely towards our decision to homeschool, that’s not our problem to fix. In that case, I just smile and walk away. But most people who ask questions are genuinely curious about the lifestyle, and aren’t trying to be rude.
>>>Read also: Common Homeschool Struggles No One Talks About
Final Thoughts
Now that we’ve been homeschooling for a number of years, I can look back and see how much we’ve grown as a family. Things we started out doing, we don’t do anymore. We’ve discovered what works for us, what we enjoy, and what we like to avoid. Our relationships with each other have grown so strong and our family unit is tighter than ever before.
Homeschooling is an amazing journey, but it IS a journey. You don’t start out at your destination – you have to get there over time.
Have we arrived at our final destination? Absolutely not! My children are 11 and 6, and we have many years ahead of us that will continue to shape and refine us into who we will all become. But I truly love the journey!
If you’re brand new to homeschooling, or you feel like you just aren’t finding your groove….I want you to know that I understand, and I’ve been there. Be patient with yourself and your children. Homeschooling successfully takes time, consistency, and a lot of humility! Don’t be too prideful, admit when you’re wrong about something, and move on.
This life really is worth the effort, and the benefits that come from it are endless!
Blessings!
~Maryann
link building
Aw, this was an incredibly nice post. Taking the time and actual effort to produce a top notch article but what can I say I hesitate a lot and never seem to
get anything done.
Ernestina_Z
I like this blog it’s a master piece! Glad I detected this on google.!