Homeschooling Pit Falls

I read this on the Sonlight Forums. There are some great tips here.
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At my mom’s homeschool support group last night the topic was, “Things We Wished We’d Known……or what we’d have done differently if we could”

Please note, all of these are from moms with at least 11 years homeschooling, several of which have over 20 years.

I wish I would have had someone help with the boys’ grammatical skills. I thought I had to be able to do everything myself. If you need help – be it a tutor, a certain curriculum, whatever – get it.

It is not about me anymore. For this time of life, it has to be about them.

Realize that the kids are all different. What reading, math, etc. that worked with one may not work with the others.

I wish I hadn’t let meaningless activities (like television) take up my time.

I wish I had spent more time learning about my childrens’ different learning styles, and what made them tick.

Don’t push. Have fun. Don’t try to make them be the next Einstein. Even if she DID start reading when she was three……don’t take all those books about homeschooling families who send all their kids to Harvard to heart. Not everyone should go to Harvard. Some people should go to trade schools. The world needs all different kinds of people.

I completely underestimated how much my children would need outside friends. Even in a family of 9 children, there have been years of tears when there were no other girls the same age in our hs group. I took the position that our family was enough, but now I know it wasn’t always.

Don’t put your children on a pedestal. Your children may thank you, and rise up and call you blessed. They also may resent being homeschooled. They may end up angry with you. Families have been broken, and moms have walked away from the faith over a child who did not turn out the way we thought they should. Don’t put homeschooling on a pedestal. And don’t put yourself on one, either. Remember that the mom down the street who is fixing lunches and sending her kids to school loves them just as much as you do yours.