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Homeschool Beginner Tips

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So my boys are still quite young at 3.5 and 2 years old. So, I feel fortunate to know that homeschooling is the path, albeit not the easiest one, that our family is going to take early. For me, homeschooling will take YEARS to hone and to organize, let alone to feel good about my competence as a teacher/administrator/mother/guidance counselor.

This morning, for example, I had a lovely “plan” for the day but my preschoolers took that plan on a ride. They wanted to explore other things. I introduced a new work but we didn’t have time for the project that accompanied that work because they wanted to play trains and go “shopping” in their kitchen.

I let it go…they were playing independently…so I took a shower. Bliss.

homeschoolertips

How to Start Homeschooling

The good news is that the learning curve is very steep. I learn something new about our {future} homeschool every day.

Here are a few of the lessons I’ve learned over the last year and a half plus a few from some of my readers.

Age Matters

Think about the age of your child. My boys are 3.5 and 2. So, unstructured play is pretty vital in their development right now. When they are 11 or 12 and want to “play trains”, I might have another opinion. Thoughts?

Be Organic

If you or your child, no matter what age is “not feeling it” that day or morning or afternoon, take a break, maybe even a long one. This flexibility is one of the great, underutilized, and underestimated luxuries of homeschooling. Use it.

Chores

This point was a huge pain for me. From what I have learned over the past year is that we homeschoolers need to work chores into your home school “curriculum”. I began to get overwhelmed with trying to simply keep the house “picked up” let alone actually clean.

I panicked a bit and then one day a few weeks ago, I said to my sons, “I have to go change the laundry around, I will be right back up.” To which both my sons said in their own special way, “Let us be involved, mom.” So they helped me. It was fun and they learned something. I love Sarah Dees’ from Frugal Fun for Boys recent post about how to organize chores with your children.

So there you have my top three pieces of advice…so far…what are yours?

Warmly,
Marnie

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