Right about now is the time when many new homeschoolers start stressing, pulling out their hair, and thinking about throwing in the towel. Why? Because “this isn’t how I planned it.” They envisioned everything to go their way. They had everything planned out to the last minute. They knew this curriculum was perfect for their kids. They knew their children would be perfectly behaved from the start of the “school day” to the last 10 seconds. Well, you’ve had a month to try it out, and it’s just not working the way you envisioned it. What do you do now?
1. Relax! Take a week off. Yes, you can do this, you homeschool. Do some fun (and educational if you can slip it in) things. Review what you are doing. Look at things that aren’t working. Figure out why those things aren’t working and come up with a plan to adjust things to fit everyone’s needs.
2. Be flexible. When you start up again, be flexible with your new plans. If something isn’t working again/still don’t force it. Don’t try to make it work and get frustrated all over again. Review and change what isn’t working again.
3. Don’t use a band-aid fix for anything. Everything has an underlying reason. If you just put band-aids on the problems, it doesn’t fix the cause and the problems will just continue in different ways.
4. Enjoy your children. Have fun with them. Let them have fun learning. Watch them as they “get it” and their eyes get wide and the smile spreads across their face. If you don’t do lesson plans, allow them to pick one thing a month to learn about during free time and learn with them.
5. Schedule family time. A lot of times families are focusing on homeschooling so much that they forget family fun time. If this happens often, put it on the calendar. Pick a day that works for you every week and use that day as family fun day.
The Problems and Solutions of Delving Further Into a Topic