If you could tell your new homeschooling self one thing, what would it be?
This is a toughy because there are a thousand things I would tell myself as a new homeschooler…(not to worry, let them play, READ READ READ to them, get outside EVERY DAY, draw, paint, don’t EVER buy a game system!)….see, I’m already breaking my own rule!
To narrow it down to ONE thing I would have done when I started homeschooling…I really wish I would have utilized more free resources, limited the books I collected and kept things SIMPLE! Is that three things? Well, they’re all related, right?
It’s so tempting to purchase materials that get great reviews, especially since many homeschool titles aren’t available in libraries. Fortunately, I think that’s changing. I was lucky that my library carried a lot of titles related to homeschooling generally, like whether to do it and how others do it. Certainly, with the increase of open source content like Khan Academy and this incredible resource, you could design an entire K-12 education without purchasing a single curriculum-style homeschooling book.
I bought both new and used curriculum and books that looked great even if I knew I wouldn’t use them immediately. If, for example, I came across one title in the “Childhood of Famous Americans” series that I thought the kids would enjoy, I’d buy a bunch of them. When the kids enjoyed the first volume of Story of the World, I scooped up the others, as well as the audio CDs. We used them, but not all in one year.
This is painful to admit, but I turned into a homeschool hoarder. When I saw a title that I’d heard great things about for a great deal, I’d buy it. Sometimes we got around to using it. Sometimes not. As a result, I have multiple bookshelves bursting with books that I may never use.
Not only did I waste money, time, energy and space because I accumulated too many books, I often forgot what what I have there and discover something jammed on the shelf long after the kids interest in a subject fades. Boo that.
So, new homeschooling me, “Resist the temptation to buy materials, no matter how great they look. Use what you have. Use the internet and the library shamelessly and don’t buy things until you have to.”
I’d love to hear about one thing you you would tell your new homeschooling self.
Leave a comment or link to your own blog post about it.
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Written by BethPhillips