Our homeschool is over. I am officially done! My four kids are all adulting today. They have moved on from our homeschool years.
As I write this, my oldest is working at her job in Utah, a college graduate, and taking care of all her finances, room and board, car maintenance, etc. My next two daughters are in college and are both living in their own apartments. Today the older one is starting her senior year in college and she is taking Instrumental Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Chemical Writing Seminar, and Biostatistics. She also is a scribe in the local hospital’s emergency room and had her first overnight shift this week. My 3rd daughter is taking Advertising Research/Insights and Analytics, Intro to Photography and Image Culture, Foundations of Graphic Communication, Art Installation, and Health and Wellness. My son just walked in from taking two engineering classes this morning at Kennesaw State – Engineering Graphics and Intro to Engineering. On other days he has PreCalculus and American Lit and an online Chemistry for Engineers class.
I tell you all this to show you that you CAN homeschool your kids, graduate them, and help them to launch successfully. And it will look different for everyone – some kids might not go to college but instead go straight into the workforce or into missions work.
When I see pictures on Facebook of our early homeschool days, a flood of memories comes to my mind.
I remember having circle time where we would read aloud the history lesson, sing hymns, practice our memory work, play a game, and start our day.
I remember field trips where I would pack a lunch and we would meet our group for a tour of a museum or a farm and then have a picnic together afterward.
I remember teaching them how to read and grading papers and math work.
I think about listening to Adventures in Odyssey at lunch, turning on an Audiobook after lunch, and listening to a British guy read The Hobbit or The Penderwicks. So many memories of such an awesome time in our lives as we grew and learned together.
Yes, it was HARD. I definitely had hard days and days full of overwhelm. I sometimes was so worn out at the end of the day. My husband would come in and take over and I would head to Target and walk around in a daze. Literally, IN. A. DAZE.
But when I look back at those times, I am grateful for all the time we had together and how they have turned out. Yes, we are not perfect by any stretch. God is always sharpening us and moving us back toward Him when we stray.
I also think about my regrets. I do have some regrets about things I would do differently.
6 Regrettable Mistakes aka Things I Would Have Done Differently In Our Homeschool
Indoctrinate Them
I would have spent more time teaching my kids the doctrines of my belief system. I did teach them some things, but now I’m convinced even more of the urgency of preparing our kids for this world and I would have spent a lot more time on this. I have several books I recommend on my Resources page, but probably my number one book is this one: Training Hearts, Teaching Minds by Starr Meade. We started this book and got through maybe one-third of it, but then the kids were growing up and we were busy and we never came back to it. If I could do it all over again, I would start earlier and finish the book. Maybe go through it twice!
Explore, Immerse, Devour
I would have read even more books. Despite the fact that reading was one of our top activities, I would have pushed for even more. I would not have grown tired of reading out loud and skipped so many days as I did. I would have switched to audiobooks earlier so we could keep the momentum going. I especially would have encouraged more reading in high school. Even though during those years when we were in Classical Conversations, we had a lot of literature, we could have added more books that were interesting to them at their level. I didn’t push as hard as I think I should have.
Keep The Pace
I would have not allowed us to get behind in math for some years. It took me a while (too long!) to realize that most math programs require 5 lessons and a test in one week or you will not finish the curriculum during a standard school year. I would have us get 4 or 5 days’ worth of math done, but 6 was probably not happening. Thus, we would not be finished by the end of the school year and we would have to do math all summer to complete it. I wish we would have had more lazy days of summer to read more and pursue our passions more.
Penmanship Power-Up
I would have stressed better handwriting when they were younger. It is really hard to fix or change handwriting as you get older and I think some of my kids would have benefitted from me being stricter on neat handwriting. It is really helpful to be able to read your own notes or work math problems if you can write legibly!
Slow Your Roll
My husband and I both think we should have held off longer on giving them devices / iPods / phones. Even though, we were pretty slow about it. Even slower would have been better! The stats on how devices are hurting our kids are mind-boggling. The longer you can postpone that, the better.
See The Sights
I would have kept up the field trips longer in middle school and high school. Even though it’s a sacrifice of time and energy, those days are now over for us and I truly miss them. I’m thinking about chaperoning a group just for the fun of it!
Anyway, these are some tips on how to homeschool from me. I hope you can learn from my mistakes and make better decisions!
