What I Wish I’d Known

Don’t you often think back on different beginnings in your life and reflect on what you might have done differently? Homeschooling is definitely one of those areas of reflection in my life. I thought I’d share some of my hindsight with you.

I wish I’d known that…

…my homeschool doesn’t have to look like a public school classroom. I will give myself some credit and say that I started with unit studies, so I was at least a little in tune with the right approach for our family and I did incorporate a lot of games…but, boy was I rigid. We had time slots for everything and heaven forbid that we might have an interruption to that written-in-blood schedule!

These days we have a routine that can be forgiving on the days when things aren’t quite going as planned or a great opportunity comes up that wasn’t on the calendar. And, though we do try to maintain a fairly regular weekly routine, flexibility and spontaneity are two of the biggest blessings that homeschooling can offer.

… my homeschool doesn’t have to look like my friends‘ homeschools. I wish I’d realized that there are many different styles of homeschooling and that I didn’t have to pick just one! From the beginning, I’d have read lots of different books, about lots of different styles and I would have begun to define our own style, rather than wasting the first few years trying to fit our family into molds that weren’t quite right.

…there is more than just a little benefit to learning through play. My oldest was in second grade when we began homeschooling, so she was already in the formal-learning mindset, but I wish I’d read more articles like this one before I began homeschooling my younger two. We’d have had so much more fun!

…it takes the average homeschooling family about three years to find their niche (no, I can’t quote a source on that statistic, but experience tells me it’s true). I wouldn’t have worried so much, in those early years, that I still didn’t seem to have it all together.

…homeschooling was going to be so stinkin‘ fun! I wouldn’t have wasted two years of my older daughter’s life sending her to public school. Homeschooling just seems to give parents (me, at least) a whole different mindset. I think we’d have enjoyed the toddlers years a whole lot more if I’d known, from the beginning, that we were going to homeschool.

What do you wish you’d known?

photo by Gracie and Viv

Kris can be found sharing more reflections from her homeschooling journey every day at her blog, Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

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