As the title suggests, this is the homeschool advice I’d give you if I was your big sister. Not the polished advice that is sure to get a lot of clicks. The raw, honest advice that is typically shared over coffee, between shouts of children. The kind of advice that comes from someone who’s been there and done that and has actually figured out.
Maybe I’ll make this a series….let me know if you’d like more posts like this in the comments.
Advice for Homeschool Moms From a Homeschool Mom
Something I wish I’d known when I first started homeschooling is that it’s okay to lean into what works for your family. In fact, not only is it okay, it’s likely the key to your success.
Let me explain.
I am not a morning person. One of parts about life as a stay at home mom — and now a homeschooling mom — is that we can ave slow mornings. Do I still sometimes have to get out of bed earlier than I’d like? Yes. That’s just the nature of raising children, it seems they’re almost always ready to be awake long before we are.
But at least I don’t have to jump in the shower and rush out the door. I can linger over coffee while they play, take a long hot shower, and begin lessons when I feel awake and ready.
The kids benefit from this by getting hours of free play (often outside if temperatures allow) before ever cracking open a book. As a mother of only boys, I can tell you this is highly beneficial to our day.
Our days didn’t always flow like this. I used to feel guilty for starting lessons “late” in the morning. This was likely because of the fact that just about every sample homeschool schedule I came across online tauted the benefits of starting early and finishing by noon.
I found myself constantly rewriting our schedule, absolutely determined to start the day by 8 and finish by lunch. And every single time it failed.
Then the questions came. Should I even be homeschooling? I can’t even stick to a schedule. How will my kids learn if I can’t get it together?
Over and over our lessons were beginning mid morning and I felt stressed. Then one day I said to myself, “What would happen if I wrote our schedule for us, instead of trying to do what other moms do?”
And guess what? It worked!
Suddenly we had a schedule we could stick to. Why? Because I finally chose to lean into what was already working for us.
We were naturally not wanting to start lessons until around ten. Rather than feel guilty about it, I made it our norm and our days thrive as a result.
And really, what is late? If ten is when it works best for us to begin lessons I wouldn’t really say that’s late, I’d say it’s right in time.
Now of course the lesson here is to lean into what works- and that can apply to anything in your homeschool or homemaking routine.
Observe how your family is operating, what are its strengths? What do you all naturally gravitate toward?
If everyone in your house is mostly ready for bed at 7:30 don’t try to stay awake until 9 because you read online that 9 is a good bed time. Lean into what works for your family.
If you prefer super early mornings because you’re a morning person that’s great! Lean into it and make it work for you.
I suppose you could see this post as permission to do what works best for you and your family- instead of trying to do something that works in someone else’s household.
Embrace the gift of autonomy! Even if other think it’s weird, or crazy, or “late” who cares? It’s your house and if your kids are thriving, isn’t that what’s most important?
