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Homeschooling for the first time is a wild ride — one filled with excitement, doubt, and more learning than I ever imagined. As we reach the 30 day mark, I’m looking back on the journey so far, and let me tell you—it’s been both rewarding and humbling.
An Exciting Start
After years of researching and talking about it, we dove into homeschooling head first. I had a plan, a schedule, and a Pinterest-worthy learning space. It was pretty great. My 11 year old twin boys were excited and ready to dive into this new adventure, putting their unnecessary but ever present wrestling matches on hold for the day. I was SUPER excited! We’ve got this!
On day one it was beautiful and sunny outside so we decided to be creative and have school outside on our deck.
One of my boys built a fort and the dogs came to join us.
As you can see in the picture, he is ready and willing to learn LOL We had drinks, snacks and jumped into our first lesson on Reptiles from GatherRound Homeschool.
We flew through all the material, moved onto math and finished our day out within about 3 hours.
Who knew homeschooling could be so easy? (Famous last words of a very naive homeschooling mama LOL)
Side note: If you’ve never heard of Gather Round Homeschool, it is a unique, unit-study-based curriculum designed for families to learn together, regardless of age or grade level. Each unit focuses on a central theme, with all subjects integrated, allowing parents to teach their children using the same material but at different levels of complexity. There are so many topics to choose from – Reptiles, Space, The Human Body, Ancient Civilizations, you name it. The only thing you have to do separately is math. You can check it out HERE 🙂
Back to day one: It was easy breezy.
Day two not so much.
The second day started with everyone arguing and ended with everyone arguing and I’m pretty sure I threatened to send them back to normal school multiple times that day. The eye rolls and snarky comments were abundant and wrestling matches were back.
As the month went on, it became clear that what works in theory doesn’t always play out so smoothly in real life. Kids get moody, distracted, and the lessons I was so excited about just didn’t land.
Flexibility is Key
I had to keep reminding myself that the reason we’re homeschooling is to do life and school differently and it’s not always going to go as planned.
Time management was a little bit of a challenge. Homeschooling isn’t like a traditional school day with a strict timetable. Some days, we’d finish early and feel accomplished, while on other days, it felt like I was all over the place and we barely got one thing done. We had to figure out a flow that worked for our family and learn to be flexible with our time and expectations, adjusting our approach as needed.
The curriculum I had chosen from Gather Round Homeschool didn’t go as planned either. Interest led learning has always been what attracted me to homeschooling and this felt like the perfect way to start. My boys didn’t agree. One felt like he already knew a lot of the information and was bored (he knows everything and I’m always wrong) and the other has more interest in football than a Gila monster.
We used it for the first week and a half and decided to put it to the side for now and possibly revisit at a later date.
For math, I’ve been using The Good and the Beautiful which seems to be going well (except they don’t like the woman on the video lessons LOL). I told them to suck it up.
I started them at Math 4 after doing the initial assessment and realized they needed a review from last year.
(Reminder: There is no “behind” in homeschooling. Start your kiddos where they’re at, not where you think they should be)
After dropping our set curriculum from Gather Round, I’ve been having them work on several projects including learning the US States/Capitals (see cute coloring pages below!) creative writing stories that we are going to compile and turn into a book by the end of the year, and life skills like cooking and gardening.
We’ve also done weekly spelling, vocab and handwriting (because I’m raising a doctor by the looks of it).
Our method has pretty much gone from unit studies to Charlotte Mason to unschooling in the blink of an eye.
If you want to learn more about the different homeschooling methods, I HIGHLY encourage you to read the book, The Call of the Wild and Free by Ainsley Arment.
It is life-changing in the way you see education.
I’ve also got more book recs if you’d like them! 😉
Winning 🙂
For all the challenges, there have been some pretty amazing wins.
We’ve spent a ton of time outside exploring nature, doing multiplication flash cards while they jump on the trampoline, baking together to practice fractions and measurements and having deep conversations about the world around us.
I feel like I’ve gotten to know my kids even better – their likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses – and we will continue to develop an even stronger bond as the year goes on.
So much learning happens outside of books and worksheets. These experiences are ones we wouldn’t have had in a traditional classroom setting and I cherish these moments together.
Lessons Learned
The biggest lesson I’ve learned this month is that I’ve had to let go of the idea of perfection. Some days will be smooth, some days will be a dumpster fire and that’s okay. What matters is progress, not perfection. Take breaks, go outside, start over again tomorrow. Just keep moving forward, go with the flow and take it one day at at time.
The other major takeaway is that every family’s homeschool journey is different. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, and it’s okay to adjust as you go. What works for one family might not work for another, and it’s important to be patient with yourself and your kids as you figure out what works best for your unique situation.
Looking Ahead
As we head into October (my favorite month of the entire year), I’ve got a ton of ideas to bring into our homeschool day.
I’m looking at doing an Abundance vs Scarcity mindset project because this topic is super important to me. I want to make sure my kids are well aware of the differences and importance of an abundance mindset as they grow up.
It’s a game changer 🙂
Also on the list are:
A Historical Study of Halloween from the Homeschool Historian
A timeline of historical events that we can put on our wall ( Homeschool in the Woods has some really cute products and resources on their site too!)
Some travel planning LOL
Before we started homeschool, we all agreed that travel was something that interested ALL of us. I’m having each of the boys plan a hypothetical trip where they have to plan flight information (if applicable), where we stay, and an itinerary all while they stay within a certain budget. I’m pretty excited about this one.
I’ve found some really cute printables on Etsy too for our State/Capitals project (Or if you have the time, you can also make something up yourself on Canva!)
We’ll continue to tweak our routine, experiment with new learning methods, and embrace the freedom that homeschooling offers. I asked both boys what they would like to see more of in the next month and they came up with field trips and science experiments so we will definitely be adding more of those this month.
This journey is not an easy trek, but it is SO worth it. Hands down, one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Here’s to the next 30 days of fun, learning and crazy chaos!
If you’re interested in homeschooling, online business, or making money from home, I encourage you to sign up for my email list HERE or the form below 🙂 I’ll be sending a daily email that include some of my homeschooling favorites, new ways to make money from home and resources that will help you build an online business.
Thanks for reading! Would love to hear your homeschooling experiences too!
Chat soon!
~ Kristin