Well, it’s that time of year again for most homeschoolers, to begin a new year of school.  At our house, it’s a pretty exciting event with new books, new school supplies, a great breakfast and lunch and good attitudes.  After that first day, mom is tired!  I’ve managed to fit everything in for the day and wonder how I will do this for another 179 days!  My schedule usually needs some tweaking, which is okay.  For the first week, I tweak a lot, until it fits.  There have been years I have completely eliminated something, as it would be impossible for me to do this year.  (I’ll just save it for another.)  You may even find that a particular curriculum isn’t working.  Feel free to sell it.  I’ve been known to do that too.  You don’t want to use something that your child totally dislikes.  It’s better to lose some money, than have your child lose their love for learning.

Our job as homeschool mom is very challenging, I won’t mislead you about that.  To get them to learn and have fun, is a hard thing to accomplish, but it can be done.  If you have just begun homeschooling, you may have to take some time to find your child’s learning style (how your child learns best).  Once you find how they learn, teaching will become easier.  You will also find, that you probably don’t have the same learning style as your child; therefore, you will have to teach totally out of your comfort zone.  Don’t fret or panic.  Just take your time and find out what works best.  I will be talking more about learning styles, curriculum and give teaching tips in the future.

But for now, I’ll give you some very good advice.  Make sure to enjoy your child!  Let them know that you love teaching them and you wouldn’t want to do anything else.  Time flies and they are so very precious!  Another very important thing to do is praise them far more than correcting them.  Find several things right with their work and only correct one item at a time (especially when young).

Enjoy being a homeschool mom!  Our calling is a great and worthy career!