5 Tips for New Homechooling Moms

Are you sitting on the fence about homeschooling your child or have you taken the leap of faith into what is going to be the most fruitful journey of your life?

Wherever you find yourself today, I want to share with you my tips for new homeschooling moms! If you're the mom who has taken that leap of faith I hope you'll find these tips helpful as you begin your homeschooling journey. If you're still sitting on the fence, I would encourage you to continue to pray about your decision and pin this post away for future reference.

Tips for New Homeschooling Moms

My son is finishing up his 8th year of homeschooling (notice I didn't say 8th grade) and although I am no expert, these are the tips for new homeschooling moms that I feel are most important to you as you begin your own journey.

Tip Number One: Don't Overspend on Curriculum

I made this mistake when I began homeschooling my children. My son was seven years old when I began homeschooling him, and my daughter had just finished her ninth grade year at our local high school and asked if she could be homeschooled for the remaining time she had as a high schooler. I had no idea what I was doing and I ended up spending well over $500 for curriculum! To make matters worse, the curriculum wasn't a good fit for my children. I was in tears over this one friends, but it was a mistake I did not make again...trust me. That was a tough year as we plowed through the curriculum as best as we could. Oh, by the way, my daughter did graduate high school as a homeschooler! The graduation ceremony provided at the NCHE Annual Homeschool Conference was absolutely beautiful! I still have my red rose my daughter presented to me before I presented her with her high school diploma. Sweet memories!

Tip Number Two: Don't Keep Public School Hours

This was another mistake I made as a new homeschooling mom. I thought we had to keep the same hours as the public school to be considered "official". I stressed out both myself and my kids over trying to keep public school hours. I learned over time that it wasn't necessary to try to fill every hour from 8:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. with schoolwork (are those still public school hours...lol). As I became more relaxed in this area, my children and I began to enjoy our time together as we eased into our own daily schedule for homeschooling.

Tip Number Three: Don't Let a Grade Level Define How You Teach Your Child

This is a big one for me even now as I am still homeschooling my son who is on the autism spectrum with Asperger's Syndrome, OCD, and ADD. I pushed him for so long in the beginning of my homeschooling journey with him, trying to get him to do things that he was not academically ready or even capable to do. As I stated in the beginning of my post, he will be finishing up his 8th year of homeschooling this year. I have had to totally lay aside grade levels in my teaching with him, and give him the extra time he needs to learn, which leads me to tip number four.

Tip Number Four: Teach to Each Individual Child

Your children are wired differently (like you didn't know that already, right?!) so find out how each one learns best. Does one need more one-on-one time in order to grasp a concept? Does the other prefer computer work rather than handwritten work? If one curriculum approach works for one of your children, that doesn't necessarily mean it will work for another - and that's okay! Take the time (and it could take some time) to find out how your child learns best.

Tip Number Five: Attend Your State's Homeschool Conference

I love my state's homeschool conference! There are workshops with fellow homeschool speakers, vendor workshops, general session speakers focusing on different aspects relating to the homeschooling community, and a HUGE bookfair. It's a great place to get information about starting up your homeschool, information on how to homeschool high school, getting motivation and inspiration for your journey, checking out the curriculum choices in the bookfair, and so much more! If you live in my home state of North Carolina and you are thinking about homeschooling, I highly recommend attending this year's NCHE Annual Conference and Bookfair May 21-23, 2015 at the Benton Convention Center in Winston-Salem, NC. The Early Bird Registration is going on now through February 26. Trust me, you don't want to miss this!

I think I'll stop here with my list of tips. I'll be back with more posts in the future sharing tips from what I've learned along my homeschooling journey. I hope these five tips for new homeschooling moms were useful to you!

Walking in His Grace, 

Laurie