Written by Jamie Martin, editor of Simple Homeschool and founder of Steady Mom
Haven’t you ever wished you could have, as a new homeschooler, a mentor for the journey? Someone who would share her successes, her advice, her struggles, her regrets? Someone who would allow you to learn from her mistakes?
As editor of Simple Homeschool, I receive plenty of emails from moms who have an inner nudge that bringing their children home to learn is the right decision for their families.
Often, though, they desperately fear making a mistake–maybe choosing the “wrong” curriculum, allowing their kids to fall behind, or not giving the child a chance to socialize appropriately.
Guess what? Mistakes come with the territory. We’re not perfect and not every decision we make will be the right one. Still, it’s nice when you don’t have to make a mistake yourself to learn a lesson.
Throughout October at Simple Homeschool we hope to serve as a mentor for you. This month all of our contributors will be sharing, openly and vulnerably, about the mistakes we’ve made along the way.
We hope this series will encourage and remind you that you can do this, that mistakes are not irreparable, and that perfection is not a prerequisite to the role of homeschooling parent.
I hope you’ll join us for each post during this series – we’ll kick it off on Wednesday!
What mistakes do you most fear making? What would be helpful to read about during the month?
I fear that my boys will be upset at me when they get older because they did not be as smart as they could have been. I fear that we will miss something that is really important.
I also fear that I am going to be so focused on school…..that I will miss out on enjoying being a mother.
Martha Artyomenko’s latest post: My project- Busy Bag Swap
I am just getting started, so hopefully I can learn a lot this month. Thanks for sharing with us!
Melissa’s latest post: The more I think about unschooling…
Love the idea of this series and can’t wait to read it. I’m sure there there will be lots of “mistakes” mentioned that I don’t even realize I’m making.
I suppose the two things I fear the most are 1) social issues (i.e.My daughters feeling awkward around kids their own age and not having enough opportunities to overcome that. My oldest daughter is very shy and I can tell that how painful it is when her friends who are in school ignore her at birthday parties…or maybe it is just painful to me! ) 2) My daughters resenting my heavy involvement in their education when they are older. I guess I fear hearing, “I really wish you would have just let me go to school, Mom.”
Oh and I just thought of a number 3!….worrying about mistakes I may make or about what they will resent in the future instead of just enjoying the fact that for the most part, things are quite beautifully right NOW. 🙂
This couldn’t come at a better time. My husband and I have recently agreed to homeschool/unschool our toddler (currently 18 mos) through kindergarten and perhaps beyond. Needless to say I’m looking forward to a little advice.
TheActorsWife’s latest post: learning french
This is my favorite homeschool site, and this series is a testimony as to why : ) My greatest fear is that I will forget to teach them something dreadfully important. I am a teacher by trade & taught for 7 years in a public school before becoming mommy. But, now that I am mommy AND teacher, I fear that I will be so caught up in trying to plan dinner, clean house, bandage boo-boos, settle squabbles, etc…that I will forget to teach them something they NEED to know!
Paula @Motherhood Outloud’s latest post: An Uncomplicated Life: Cleaning
So don’t teach them any school subjects at all- teach them Communication, Access, Research and Maths. Those can be combined with household activities. And if you DO miss something else they need to know, guess what? It won’t matter. They’ll have the power to find it out themselves. How to use Internet connections, how t use library cards and how to learn are all the lessons they’ll really need to learn. Anything else is just applying those skills.
I was reading Simple Mom and had to click over here when I saw the title of this post. I have a 2 1/2 year old and a 10 month old so we still have some time, but I am thinking about homeschooling. Here are some of my fears :
1. Growing up it seemed like the kids I knew who were homeschooled didn’t fit in and were maybe a little “backwards.” I feel bad writing that but often that stereotype surrounds homeschooling. People often attribute this to being “sheltered” and having few social outlets.
2. Missing out on field trips, Christmas parties, etc. Will they feel left out?
3. Homeschooling in high school. Can I teach algebra? What happens if the kids have been homeschooled through eighth grade (or any grade really) and then start public or private school. Would they transition well?
Thanks so much for this series! I am looking forward to it!
I know some of those kids, but I have to say that I knew some of them that are and were in public school too! So, that relieves me some! I always wonder if I was one of the backwards ones at times and did not even know it!
As far as field trips, my mom took us on so many field trips, we visited every place in town pretty much and if there was a home schooled child in town, we knew them.
Martha Artyomenko’s latest post: Reclaiming Lily by Patti Lacy with GIVEAWAY!!
So, I’m curious: Did you smash a glass for photographic purposes to illustrate this post? 😉
Just kidding. I look forward to all the honest sharing that this series promises. I’ve certainly made mistakes myself and it’s comforting to know I’m in good company!
Hannah’s latest post: Homeschooling: The Six-Week Exhale
Jamie,
I love this series! It’s been such a support to me (as have so many other previous posts).
On a similar vein, I recently stumbled upon an essay, which fits right in with the series. I don’t know if you’d want to see if the author would mind if you re-posted it on Simple Homeschool, but either way, I wanted to share it. It’s a wonderful reminder of what matters most in homeschooling: the relationship of love and trust, from which the understanding and love of truth can grow.
Anyway, here’s the link to the essay:
http://blog.heav.org/general/crisis-in-homeschooling-exposing-major-blind-spots-of-homeschoolers/
Jamie,
I pop in to this space as time allows. I love it! I have a question for you and the other moms who write here. How would you handle this situation…….we moved to a very rural small town in Montana last year. Homeschooling my 7 1/2 and almost 6 year old boys while trying to give enough attention to their almost 3 year old sister is a struggle. Mostly because there are no other homeschoolers here. The closest family ( and yes we do as much with them as possible) is on a ranch an hour away. Travel is difficult here from November until March due to harsh winters and poorly maintained roads. I feel like we have little to no social support. No homeschooling kids or parents. No support from the general community since homeschooling is frowned upon. We don’t even have a community to worship with since there is not a church here that is of our religious beliefs. We do church at home and school at home. There are not many good activities for the kids to participate in either, so they really don’t have many friends here as hard as we have tried. And, a lot of the kids are poorly parented. Their parents are rarely home and the kids are often exposed to a lifestyle we do not prefer….alcohol, meth, inappropriate media, etc.. We are here for my husbands job and don’t know how long well be here. Another year or five? We don’t know. So, we need to make this work. The trouble is that I am very burned out. Any suggestions wuld be so appreciated!
cooolll…………