I wish I would have known....

Have you seen this video? I suggest you watch it if you are a seasoned homeschooler or a new one just starting out. If you aren't new to home schooling, are there things you wish you had known or done differently?

For me, I wish I would have known that homeschooling isn't necessarily schooling at home. The public school is set up for facilitate a 20-30 child classroom of the same age with no time left for individualized learning plans so it wouldn't make sense to bring the public school setting home to a home with only a few children of varying ages. When we first started homeschooling I did the only thing I knew- I set our schedule up as a public school schedule- a strict timetable throughout the day with scheduled recess and lunch, a mandatory set of learning subjects each day, lots of worksheets, quizzes and tests.... we were miserable.

Once I let that go and realized that homeschooling can be tailored to exactly whet your family needs and wants, our homeschooling experience just got better and better. I do still follow a scope and sequence, which is each lesson building on each other in a systematic way and we did volunteer for standardized testing this year but these are personal choices that I was free to make rather than feeling as if it was something that was mandatory. Our days are very flexible and I have learned how to combine subjects so that lessons in each subject can be tied to one or two assignments. I also have found the importance of teaching outside of the book- life experiences, relationships and socialization is just as important as multiplication and homeschooling allows me to help facilitate those experiences for my kids. We also got rid of all of the busy work. My kids may complete a worksheet that specifically pertains to assignments but the never ending busy work has ended because I am not a teacher in charge of 20-30 kids who cannot possibly sit down with each child to make sure they grasp the lesson, instead I am one mom with three kids who is able to sit down, teach and observe my kids and know exactly where they are at in their lessons. I don't need worksheets to tell me that. Instead we focus our free time on free writing, educational games, lots of reading, play, conversations and traveling!

What is one thing you wish you would have known before homeschooling?