Often, as a homeschool parent, we ask ourselves, “Am I doing enough?” We feel we need to be doing more, more, more! More hands-on activities, more classes, more life skills! Of course, thinking these thoughts cause one to pause and reflect:
- “What should I be doing?”
- “Is what we are currently doing effective?”
- “What should we be prioritizing in our homeschool?”
- “Is my child retaining what he or she has learned?”
- “Is learning fun?”
And there is certainly no one-size-fits-all answer.
To help me figure this out, I decided to make a list of everything I remember learning (and retained!) from K-12. I went to a private school, and honestly, that list wasn’t very long. Try it! Make a list of everything you remember learning in school, and see how long it is. Most of what I remember learning were in subjects that I was naturally interested in, projects or activities that were more hands-on, and books that were favorites.
Then I made a separate list of what I thought were essentials for my child to learn before leaving the nest. For me, this list was not overwhelming. Making this list made me feel a bit better. I can totally tackle that list in the next 10 years! (We can see that making lists makes me feel better!)
Make a Plan
I feel better and we get more done when we have a plan for these lists. My personality works best with “loose plans”. For homeschool planning, at the beginning of the week and month, I’ll write down some general goals, topics, and activities that we want to accomplish. This is besides the regular daily and weekly stuff. At the end of each day, I’ll write down what we learned and what subjects were covered. Instead of having checkboxes of what we need to get done each day, I write down what we actually did. I also log outside time, sports activities, and books read.
For some reason, doing it this way seems less stressful. And when I look back at the week or the month, I see that we do a lot! And whatever we didn’t get to, we’ll just add that in for the following week or month. Maybe I’ll change this as we get older, but for now, I’m happy with this system of tracking what we do.
Hands-On Parenting
In general, I feel like homeschoolers are very hands-on in their parenting. Meaning, we’re doing plenty. I feel like this is the antithesis of how some of us grew up in the 90s. Take a moment to reflect on what you remember learning when you were your child’s age. I’m a 90s kid, and I don’t know about you, but I feel like 90s parents were a whole lot more hands-off (less worried) and perhaps not as concerned about what exactly we were doing or learning about all day (or maybe that was just my family!)
Maybe they just trusted that their kids are going to grow and learn and figure it out. Maybe the internet wasn’t around yet, to have all these comparisons or ideologies to share what we all should and shouldn’t be doing. If you’re interested in creating valuable learning experiences for your children, you’re probably doing more than the previous generation of parents who didn’t yet have the internet.
Reflect on What You’re Doing Right!
Lastly, take a moment to realize everything you’re doing right! Getting outside time, reading quality read-alouds together, making time to play with friends, spending quality family time, and making memories are all important things that often aren’t on “the list” of daily things to accomplish, but these are the things that matter most.
To the homeschool parents out there who are planning the field trips, who are researching what topics to learn next, who are scouring Pinterest for materials and ideas, you’re probably doing enough.
Read Next: Why I’m Not 100% an Unschooler
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