1. An ounce of planning is worth a pound of “just getting the basics done” homeschool days.
2. All lesson plans start out on paper.
…and contrary to what many want you to believe, it’s OK if they stay there. It’s more important to do the work than have a “system” of organizing your lesson plans. I use paper, then I do data entry and add my lesson plans to a LP Schedule in Homeschool Tracker so I can use them again for an additional student… but that isn’t necessary for successful homeschooling. Do what works for you – and don’t fret if you are a pen and paper girl.
“Do we really need to learn how organisms reproduce?” ~ 14yo
3. No matter how well you plan or how enthusiastic you are while “teaching”, you will always have at least one subject your child isn’t interested in.
[Teach it anyway.]
4. ALL of life is learning.
You are always teaching them something, no matter what you are doing. No matter how old they are.
5. The teacher’s tone is just as important as the instruction she’s giving.
(hat tip to Barbara Frank
6. Music is your friend.
This sounds kind of strange on a homeschool truism list, but music is a huge mood and attitude adjustment boost for my children and it helps direct my mindset toward focusing. I will usually listen to music while doing mindless work, but when it comes time to study or read, the music goes off. I find that instrumental music at a low volume in the background doesn’t bother me when I’m paying attention to what I’m reading, but songs with words are a distraction. My kids LOVE music. You can sing hymns together, listen to classical music together, and even jam out and dance to techno, 80’s retro or whatever kind of music your family enjoys as a treat when the hard work is done.
7. The world won’t end if you don’t follow the public school system’s calendar.
[Get outside & enjoy the weather! Take off time to enjoy the outdoors. For example: Take a longer break in spring and work through the zillion degree Texas summers. Do your own thing.]
8. You get out what you put in.
[Reap what you sow. Just as true with homeschooling as anything else.]
9. You can never have enough books (or bookshelves) or reading nooks… and you can never read enough.
Seriously. Start early. Read every day, every time you get the chance. In front of your kids. With your kids. To your kids. READ, READ, READ!
10. You can never spend too much time with God – and He wants you to succeed in teaching your kids MORE than you do.
Be encouraged. He’s got your back.
In Him,
Heather
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Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate link to Barbara Frank’s books on Amazon. She rocks. Go read her stuff.
I love this. You spoke some awesome truths with this entry.
Blessings, Dawn
I love this! Thank you so much for sharing.
My children are older and I only homeschool my 8th grader right now, but this spoke volumes to me. Thank you!
So true! Every single one! I’m a music person. I love it. I used to have music playing ALL the time… and then it just stopped. I don’t remember when or why, but I stopped turning on the radio or a CD during the day. The house is dead silent… which may be one reason why we all end up so blah… Time to get some good tunes going again, even if it’s just instrumentals. Those don’t interfere with anyone’s thought processes when they are reading or writing. Thanks for the reminder! I needed that.
Love this, just what I needed. I’m off to read a chapter or two to my boys.
Wow what a great list. It’s so funny how different everyone’s schedule is. The things we decide to keep or throw away. Since I work outside the home I don’t get to be as creative with my kid’s curriculum as I’d like. Using an out of box makes it rather easy to plan lessons – most times I don’t. But I love the way you break down all the do’s of planning. Who knows one day I may get wild and just change everything up 😀
Hi,
I stumbled across your blog via google (not sure what I was even searching now lol) but I saw that one of your pictures was of a book that had some underlined writing in it about kids asking a lot of questions. — what book was this from?
I think you are talking about the Barbara Frank book I was reading — The Imperfect Homeschooler. Her name linked up there in this post will take you to it.