As homeschoolers, what were some of the mistakes you made?

Question

I'm looking into homeschooling my 2 children and constantly hear how wonderful many aspects are/were. Would like to hear of the mistakes.... if you're willing to share.

Answer 1

My biggest mistake was being homeschooled....

Answer 2

Same here with trying to recreate PS at home.

First year, we did the rigid schedule - regardless of how much progress we made.  We easily did 2-years of work in a year.

At the end of that year, we were burned out big time!

We've learned to relax and the learning and enjoyment thereof has improved tremendously!

Answer 3

My biggest mistake?

Trying to recreate school at home! Honestly, I was so totally against the cattle herding of public schools, and then I started off with a full box curriculum, seven hour schedule, and ridiculous expectations.We finished the entire years work in four months, and that was after one week of us doing the full day and realizing that it only took TWO HOURS to do the work for the day.

My advice is to take it slowly, figure out what works for your family, and trust that children are wired to learn, and will learn given freedom and respect. Everything you need to know for the ACT can be learned in less than a year, so taking a year or so to rebuild relationships, learn to be together, and build a strong program that everyone likes, is not going to hurt your child's education. That's all programming from public schools, so erase it!

Answer 4

We made a kind of foolish mistake in the beginning of 11th grade for me. I wanted to take Chemistry, so we ordered the textbook materials and just needed the lab equipment. We found what looked like a great deal. It was a boxed set of beakers, flasks, measuring equipment, test tubes, test tube rack, alcahol lamp, thermometer, PH test papers, eye droppers, stoppers, and rubber tubing. We thought "Perfect!" Now all we'd have to do is look ahead in the lesson plans and order the chemicals as needed (we were using a website that sold science equipment and mat3erials in small quantities specifically for homeschoolers.) We thought this would be the inexpensive way to go, but boy were we clueless! Not only did we find we'd need to spend TONS on small bottles of chemicals, we'd also have to pay for extra glassware we didn't have (more test tubes and stuppers, etc). It turned out okay though. While mom was trying to figure out what to do, I did some more shopping and found a great stand-alone lab kit with instruction book, student book/tests, and all of the chemicals a nd glassware needed to complete the 20 or so labs. And it went right along with the curriculum we were using. Problem solved.

Answer 5

My biggest mistake was ever letting them go to school in the first place!

Answer 6

My biggest mistake was  not trusting my own instincts when faced with criticism, and putting my son back into the public school system.  After facing some of the same problems we had  with the public school system the first time around I again pulled him out and home schooled.

Answer 7

I was homeschooled the last two years of  high school and feel I turned out quite well.  I am the manager of a retail store and am also a new small business owner.  My only regret (as the student) was not having the opportunity to meet new people.  I would have enjoyed more social events, even if just church related.  I came from a small church and didn't have a lot of young people there.  My parents now wished they had formed a co-op with other homeschoolers from larger churches to socialize with regularily.  That is the only regret they've ever mentioned and now that I am an adult, it's all fine anyway!!!!   :)

Answer 8

One of the big mistake my parents made with homeschooling me was not focusing enough on my creative writing. My grammar, spelling, and punctuation are flawless, but I have trouble putting my thoughts down on paper. Fortunately, I have a wonderful English teacher right now (freshman year of college) who's helping me through that, but it would have been better if my parents had worked it out when I was younger.

The biggest mistake, however, was having me try public school in 9th grade. I don't even want to get into that... let's just say that I stuck the year out and didn't go back there for 10th grade.

Answer 9

My first mistake was to send my child to public school in the first place. My husband and I both came through the school system as kids with ADD. We had hoped by the time our child was in school things had improved. They had not. I think they meant well for the most part, but the way they teach and the way we learn just do not match. Their answer will always be to modify the child, even pushing dangerous medications on them. The schools will not change to suit the student.

Once we finally began homeschooling my first mistake was to try to do too much too fast and to let doubtful friends and family interrogate us and even put us down about our choice. I stressed far too much and felt I had something to prove. I didn't and I figured that out. We take it easy now and things are going smoothly.

Answer 10

My biggest mistake was also herding my son into the school at home, fill in every blank on every worksheet routine.  I went through 3 full text and workbook curriculums (close to $1,000) the first year we homeschooled...for a 6yo boy who hates worksheets!

Since then, I've learned to follow his abilities and interests - to tailor his curriculum to him, rather than trying to tailor him to his curriculum.  Needless to say, the tears are gone (on both our accounts) and he loves learning.

Now my only problem is keeping him in resources, since he blows through them so quickly, lol!  (That's what the library and their lovely book sales are for :) )

Answer 11

As a homeschool graduate I feel my biggest mistakes were:

~Not learning another language (I know I still could, but with

   college and two jobs....)

~Not enough piano practice (It would have helped in college)

~Taking to few gen. ed. classes at the community college

   during high school

~Reading, but not finishing the 'classics'

~I don't know how to cook

~Getting my GED (What a waste of time)

~Getting a crappy score on my ACT

All of these things could have easily been fixed by me.  And it's not like I wasn't busy all the time, but if I could go back in time I would change these things.

Answer 12

I think my biggest mistake is not researching enough with experienced homeschoolers.   I just bought materials and ground my kids into the workbook routine.  I tried and discarded so many programs it was shameful.  (and expensive)

I also did not have a proper philosophy on how I wanted my children to learn.   I learned a lot by reading about the Robinson Curriculum.  (Check out their website and see how the Robinson family learned.  It is quite inspirational.)   I did not know about the Sonlight Curriculum, which is something that I think would be great to do. (another literature based curriculum.)

I also did not even know about the concept of Unschooling which I think is another wonderful means of learning.  I did not know anything about the teachings of John Taylor Gatto.

All of these things I learned from Y!Answers.  Right here.

If I knew then what I know now, I would have done the whole thing differently and saved us all a lot of grief.  I just did not know about the myriad of choices available.

And bang on, number ONE, I never would have made my kids do EVERY problem on the page.  It's a variation of "eat everything on your plate or no dessert".   So we never got to the fun stuff.   Life is way to short not to do the fun stuff.  Learning is supposed to be fun.  Make learning fun, make learning relevant.