I admit that when I first began homeschooling I fell for every single one of these pitfalls!
It’s so easy to get caught in them, and it keeps you from enjoying the freedom that homeschooling allows each unique family to experience.
Here are my top three tips for avoiding the Homeschool Pitfalls! If you have more that you think should be added to the list please share them in the comments below, I’d love to hear them all!
1. Do NOT compare yourself to another homeschooling family!
This is probably THE single most important lesson that any homeschooling mom can learn.
You can cause a lot of damage to both yourself and your children when you do this. God made each one of us totally unique, so why would we want to try to be like anyone else.
This just stifles who we are intended to be. I think I finally learned this lesson for the first time last year, and it has changed the entire atmosphere of our homeschool fr the better.
2. Don’t get upset if your child isn’t the next Mozart, Einstein or DaVinci.
If you are homeschooling, for this reason, you may be setting yourself up for disappointment. I’m not saying that your child won’t be smart. In fact, I do believe that homeschoolers are super smart about the things they are passionate about.
But as homeschoolers, I don’t feel that we need to make this our priority. Learning will happen, but more importantly, are the relationships that will grow stronger every day!
3. Don’t seek outside approval.
There is absolutely no way that you are going to please every single person who looks at your homeschool. There will always be at least one judgmental person who is going to raise an eyebrow at what you are doing. I am so guilty of wanting to please other people.
In the first couple of years that we homeschooled, I felt myself always defending my decision to homeschool. I wanted to make every person I talked to agree with me that this was the ideal situation.
Since I learned to avoid this pitfall altogether, I have felt so much freedom to do what I know is right for us since someone is bound to object anyways.
If you learn these pitfalls early on, you’ll be much better prepared for abundant homeschooling experience. Remember that God has created each and every one of us unique.
This means that he also must have a unique plan and direction for your homeschool and your family. I know I wouldn’t want to carve out my own path because I saw someone else doing it, and miss out on the plan the Lord has already carved out for us.
This is a time for the Lord to prepare your children to become the people he has chosen them to be for His Kingdom and not yours.