What Does Homeschooling ACTUALLY Look Like
What does homeschooling actually look like? I have spent countless hours researching, planning and creating what I thought the perfect homeschool day should look like. The internet will bombard you with all the picture-perfect days filled with nature walks, elaborate crafts and math curriculums using nothing but the twigs and rocks you find as you quietly journey through an enchanted forest. No wonder us mamas feel inadequate and unqualified to teach our kids. Don’t hear what I’m not saying. If those things make up your homeschool day, incredible. It’s just not realistic for me and I would venture to say a lot of other moms.
The “Gram”-Worthy Picture Of Homeschooling
I will be the first to admit I wanted desperately to have that Instagram worthy homeschool day. And some days actually are, but I can count them on one hand. I bought curriculums that I thought I’d love because they were beautiful and everything revolved around nature. In my head, I would play out our days frolicking in the woods behind our house, barefoot, categorizing leaves, counting the rings of each tree and singing songs to memorize our multiplication facts. I know there are people who do this and for whatever reason, I felt I was doing my kids a disservice if I didn’t. I was forcing something that doesn’t fit our family. In the end, all that it did was create stress for my kids and me and feelings of inadequacy. I wish I could say I tried it once and then we moved on but to be completely transparent, I have tried incorporating this style of schooling multiple times over the course of the last eight years. Every time with the same defeated result. I can honestly say today, “I’m done.”
Remember Why You Started
I had to take a step back and remind myself of why we desired to homeschool in the first place. For our family, one of the biggest things was the freedom it provides and the time to see the world. The ability to do school and travel at the same time is such a gift. We can decide the morning of that we want to go somewhere, pack up our school things and head out. If the kids are having an off day, we just take the day off to reset and come back to it tomorrow. There’s a million scenarios where the freedom of homeschooling comes into play.
Another big thing for us is the time we have together. Just being home, doing school, cleaning the house, making lunch and dinner, playing outside, dancing, watching movies, folding laundry. All of these things we get to do together and I don’t take it for granted. There are days when we do school on the driveway and while I’m working with one, the others are riding bikes and playing with chalk while we all have homemade popsicles. That’s a perfect day in my opinion.
If you begin comparing yourself to what you see on social media or what other homeschool friends are doing, remind yourself of why you started homeschooling to begin with. If you are accomplishing those desires you have, then you’re doing amazing! Enjoy YOUR experience without the comparison to others.
You Know What Your Family Needs
Don’t let a perfect picture get in the way of what you know your family needs. In trying to create what you think the greatest homeschool life should look like, you’ll miss out on the beauty that’s happening all around you. Days don’t need to be perfect. Tears and frustration happen but that’s real life and I’m embracing it. With my shift to focus on what my family needs and away from what I thought looked so beautiful, the days of frustration and tears have gotten fewer and farther between. I wish I had someone telling me years ago to stop comparing myself to what I see online and just do what feels right. But I’m not going to live in regret of wrong choices I made, I’m just going to enjoy where we are now and the freedom that comes from real-life, not always pretty, homeschool days.
Be confident in your abilities to give your kids all they need and to enjoy it in the process.
Leave a comment below and let me know what your homeschool days look like!
