Unexpected Homeschooling Challenges
If you're struggling, you're not alone!
Let me start by saying that, as previously stated, I really love homeschooling. It's been such a blessing to all of us. We are thriving. However, for the sake of total transparency and to give you a realistic and full picture of what homeschooling for us is really like, I would like to share with you the challenges that I did not foresee when we made this choice.
Always together can be hard
It's nice to always be together, but also, we are always together. Naturally, that means we will rub each other the wrong way sometimes. It's bound to happen. We also live in a 1,300-square-foot home, so when we need alone time, we have two places to go for about 3 minutes before we are discovered. It can be challenging. This is also the case for my kids. Some days, I have to carve out time for each child to be alone without any siblings bothering them.
Whining
Every parent who homeschools talks about how their children sometimes whine about doing their work; this is true for us. I am navigating the difficulty of letting them voice their feelings but also not allowing them to whine all the time because it's such a bad habit. Our family motto is, “We can do hard things together.” So, we often reinforce that and start most days with prayer. Those little things have helped, but whining is still an ongoing issue.
Motivation
Some days, we just want to phone it in and be lazy. Homeschooling is all self-led and self-motivated, so just know that you alone will be the driving force for that, and it may require a lot from you. I get ready daily and try to stick to our routine/schedule as much as possible so we don't lose steam. If I don't get us going, no one else will.
Non stop snacking
I feed my kids hot breakfast, full lunches, and dinners every day...AND YET, they love to snack all day, every day. This is hard because 1. It's expensive! 2. I must constantly explain why they can't have a snack 10 minutes after meals. I am also learning to navigate this because a hungry kid cannot learn new concepts or review old ones. Having healthy snacks on hand like fruit, cheese, and nuts helps.
Constant messes
The constant mess may take a toll if you're a type-A person. I'm not type-A or a perfectionist by any stretch of the imagination, and the messes drive ME crazy. I've worked hard to better deal with it, and it's gotten better. It just takes time. It's difficult not to let homeschooling supplies like books, crafts, paper, and writing utensils take over your home. As I mentioned, we live in a smaller home, so we don't have a designated 'homeschool' space. All our supplies for school are tucked (or shoved) into any free nook and cranny I could find. Even still, some days, the messes can be overwhelming.
Chores are in between teaching
Due to having the kids home all the time with me, I have had to build a structured schedule to get chores done during school. I'll load the dishwasher during math or fold laundry during quiet time. This isn't necessarily a challenge, but it did require me to be more creative and efficient with our time.
It's hard to take the teaching hat off sometimes!
It's very tempting to make everything into a learning opportunity. Or constantly read about the newest curriculum, teaching strategy, or homeschool book. I have had to approach this carefully because burnout is real, and this is something that can lead to that. So don't be like me; try to have times where you are just mom and be in the moment.
Breaking the traditional school mindset!
I had a tough time envisioning what our days would look like because that 8 am to 2 pm schedule was so ingrained in me. I would subconsciously imitate my favorite teachers and try to run our day like a classroom. That did not work (OBVIOUSLY). Shifting that mindset and changing my expectations was a significant mountain for me. I never felt like I was “doing enough.” Things like giving up social media and reading about other people and their experiences helped me form a new way of thinking and managing my expectations.
I'm sure every parent has unexpected difficulties as they approach homeschooling. These are mine. I hope this helps you mentally prepare. It helped me to hear other, more seasoned homeschooling parents share their struggles. No family life is perfect, but God can use our challenges to sanctify us if we let Him.
Books that helped me:
“Teaching from Rest” by Sarah Mackenzie
“Catholic Education: Homeward Bound” by Kimberly Hahn & Mary Hasson
“The School of the Family” by Chantal R. Howard
I want to hear from you:
What are some challenges you foresee?
If you have homeschooled, is there anything you have been surprised by?
What do you do with clutter? Advice, please.
3. Our homeschool classroom wasn't Instagram worthy by any means, but what helped keep the clutter down a little bit was having binders for everything. All of our completed work that wasn't in a notebook would go into a binder. Once we reached high school, we needed to get individual binders for each course, and we'd keep everything for each subject in its dedicated binder. We didn't have room on a shelf to keep all the binders, so we'd just lean them up against the leg of the desk or against the wall in our classroom.
For book storage, my sister and I each had kiddie backpacks from Lands End. We had these leaning up against the leg of the desk or against the wall, and we'd stand our books up in them. We had so many books, we couldn't close the backpacks, but at least having the backpacks kept all the books together, which was helpful. Not sure if any of this will be helpful for your particular situation and needs, but I wanted to share just in case!
We don't have a homeschool classroom, just our living and dining rooms, an art cart for art supplies, shelves, and one of those magazine display stands for workbooks. At eight and ten, clutter is mostly handled by either me reminding them to come back to put things away, or just handling it myself throughout the day. Chores happen when they're working. I don't need to sit with them as much as I used to.
I am perennially trying to back off from external motivation so my kids can develop their own internal drive, while at the same time, via lecturing and limits, inculcate some sense of you need to *practice* music daily, choose more difficult math work, and pick up a book--any book--instead of watching whatever grandpa has on TV. And go outside and play with the dog!
Seriously, I start most days having them write down their plan for the day (including math, reading, and writing). I have a schedule for meals (7:30, 11:00, 2:30 snack, 6:00) that we roughly follow. Computer gaming time is limited to one hour per day, and otherwise TV is limited in time and to educational content. We don't get out of the house enough, though we finally have a group of fellow homeschoolers to meet with once or twice a week. We don't do enough (?) science and history reading or lessons. I'm looking into curricula for those as they get older.
Biggest surprise: My wife no longer thinks she could do it better than I do. Whether that's because I've gotten better at it, or she's realized how challenging it is after a few days of trying it herself, I don't know. After all, it's not day one that's hard, it's day twenty-one, and twenty-two, and twenty-three...