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Life With Joanne

#FloridaBlogger | Photo-taker | Native New Yorker | Wife, Mom to 3, Mom-Mom to 2, Pet mama to 4 cats + a 22 yr old iguana | #RealLife

You are here: Home / An Unschooling Life / My Five Best Homeschooling Tips (That Actually Work)

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My Five Best Homeschooling Tips (That Actually Work)

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In 2005 I created An Unschooling Life, a blog detailing our unschooling experience after adopting our three children. Over time, An Unschooling Life became a hub for unschooling support and advice. The blog has been featured in print and digital media and was home to the popular Unschooling Carnival. I’m in the process of updating and moving all the posts to this blog where they will be housed under the An Unschooling Life section. This post was originally published on May 20, 2007.

I’ve been a homeschooling mama since 2004. I’ve made some “mistakes” along the way, but I always tried to look at them as a learning experience. Getting advice and ideas from other homeschooling moms has been tremendously helpful and I wanted to pass along my five best homeschooling tips with you!

1. Give yourself some time to deschool
Letting go of preconceived notions about school and learning is a gift you can give yourself and your children. My own deschooling is a work in progress and the more I see unschooling first hand, the more I question what I once thought about education and learning.

2. Expect a period of deschooling from your children
It’s been said that one month per year of school is common. As I said in a previous post about deschooling, “your child has probably their natural desire to learn squashed and will need time to recover from that. With a parent’s help, they can gain back most, if not all of what they lost and begin to see the world as a place where learning is enjoyable, and all around us”.

3. Let your children feel your energy and passion for life
Light a fire for learning in yourself and let it burn bright so they see it! What are your interests? Is there something you’ve always wanted to learn? Do It! Let them see YOU learning and living life to the fullest. Be curious. Be interested in life.

4. Don’t make the mistake of duplicating at home, what you didn’t like about school

Sometimes we just automatically repeat the same patterns, without even thinking about it, just because it’s all we know, it’s what we’re used to or it’s what we’ve always done. Replace school with a full and interesting life. The public school system can not compete with that. They can’t even come close.

5. Don’t make cookies to teach math.
Make cookies because they taste good. šŸ™‚

Best homeschooling tips

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Filed Under: An Unschooling Life

About Joanne Greco

Joanne Greco is a wife, mom to five and pet mama to four cats + a 24-year-old iguana. On her family lifestyle blog, Life With Joanne she writes about Florida living, adoption, unschooling and more.

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Comments

  1. Tamra Elizabeth Cater says

    June 24, 2019 at 7:47 pm

    Good tips. I feel like the idea of homeschooling my child is a bit overwhelming. We have thought about it before, but just not sure if we should or not. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  2. Ashley says

    November 18, 2015 at 3:48 am

    Yes, children must be given time to overcome all the difficulties undergone and again we should not create a replica for traditional schooling at home. Your tips are really awesome!!

    Reply
  3. Keylla says

    September 4, 2015 at 8:45 am

    Hello! I’m happy to have stumbled over your blog cotreusy of the neighbourhood walk link-up. I also have a 5 year old (and 3 and 1 year olds) and am about to launch into the world of homeschooling in Denmark (unofficially, of course). I lean towards unschooling and Montessori too, so I will be following your learning adventures with great interest!Sincerely, Fiona

    Reply
  4. Ashley says

    July 2, 2015 at 8:19 am

    This is really a great blog discussed the tips of homeschooling which will be helpful for many of the homeschooled children and their parents. The points discussed here are awesome.

    Reply
  5. Anne Gregor says

    September 28, 2014 at 11:05 pm

    May I just add, always keep your schedule flexible. There is no need to complete one thing in a set amount of time. If you find that your children are enjoying a particular subject, stick with it. There is plenty of time to teach them what they need to learn. Staying flexible will reduce the levels of stress that can be incorporated with homeschooling.
    Anne
    http://HomeschoolingOption.com/

    Reply
  6. Maria says

    July 30, 2009 at 3:48 pm

    I love this site! And the 5 tips? Awesome! We have been unschooling since 2001.

    Reply
  7. Dawn says

    June 19, 2009 at 12:25 am

    Great quote about the cookie. What a beautiful, beautiful blog!
    Dawns last blog post..Finished with Anne!

    Reply
  8. LuAnn says

    May 21, 2009 at 12:21 pm

    I remember doing a full breakfast as a chem lab once.:p
    LuAnns last blog post..Mr. Snugglebutt – The Mighty Hunter

    Reply
  9. Deborah says

    February 4, 2008 at 2:55 pm

    This article has been included in the 4 February 2008 edition of Mom’s Blogging Carnival

    Reply
  10. JHS says

    January 27, 2008 at 7:00 am

    Thanks for contributing this post to this week’s edition of the Carnival of Family Life, hosted at Confessions of a Novice. The Carnival will be live on Monday, January 28, 2008, so be sure to stop by and check out all of this week’s excellent submissions!

    Reply
  11. Fairion says

    January 24, 2008 at 2:07 am

    Thank you for reminding us how easily it is to replicate the mistakes of the past without ever intending to.

    Reply
  12. KentuckyGal says

    January 21, 2008 at 3:38 pm

    Hey feel free to post a link to your blog in the HUMM group on Maya’s Mom. šŸ™‚

    Reply
  13. Joanne says

    January 20, 2008 at 6:21 pm

    Yes and I think that’s the most difficult part of it all. My girls took to unschooling like a fish to water…me, I’m the one who had all that crap to work out.

    Reply
  14. piscesgrrl says

    January 20, 2008 at 4:03 pm

    This a great post! And all I’ll say about math lessons and cookies is that as soon as I try to make something wonderfully fun (baking) about something horribly dull (a lesson), my kids stop wanting to help! The little buggers can sniff an ulterior motive a mile away.

    And that takes us back up to #1, doesn’t it? Deschooling ourselves.

    Reply
  15. River Plate says

    January 19, 2008 at 9:19 pm

    Hi.. i agree with the comments before..

    PS: Greetings from argentina!

    Reply
  16. Joanne says

    June 27, 2007 at 2:40 pm

    Hi Tracy…yes, I totally agree. šŸ™‚

    Reply
  17. Tracy says

    June 24, 2007 at 3:20 am

    LOL. I was once teasing my daughter about eating her cookies. I said, “If I take one of your cookies how many will you have left?” Then I asked if I took two. Then I asked if I took all of them. She said, “You’ll have a tummy ache!” … Now that I think about it, maybe it was M&Ms. But I loved her answer. And that was back before I figured out you are right… there is no need to teach math at all, the math just happens, cookies or no! It’s a small distinction, but a worthy one.

    Reply
  18. Joanne says

    June 23, 2007 at 1:15 pm

    Hesheys!! M&M’s!! Now I’m craving chocolate AND cookies. šŸ™‚

    Your welcome Kelly-it was fun. šŸ™‚

    Reply
  19. Kelly - PTT says

    June 23, 2007 at 12:19 pm

    It has been so interesting to hear all the different thoughts on homeschooling. Thanks so much for chiming in for the Homeschool Tips and Advice project!

    Reply
  20. midwifemom says

    June 23, 2007 at 4:09 am

    No save the Hershey bars for fractions and the M&M’s for graphing.
    http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/midwifemom/

    Reply
  21. Joanne says

    June 23, 2007 at 2:06 am

    Oh yeah, it goes something like this…if I eat 1/2 the cookies before the kids get home, I’ll have 1/2 to share with them. LOL!!

    Reply
  22. Brenda says

    June 23, 2007 at 1:33 am

    Joanne–there’s fractions in there, right? Surely you can squeeze some math out of the break and bakes? šŸ™‚

    Reply
  23. Joanne says

    June 22, 2007 at 11:09 pm

    I’m no baker-the closest thing I come to baking cookies is those squares you break apart and throw in the oven. LOL

    Reply
  24. Alexandra says

    June 22, 2007 at 10:45 pm

    I can’t get my nine year old son to help me make cookies, but he’ll sure eat them!

    Great tips.

    Reply
  25. My Twenty Cents Keeps Moving says

    June 22, 2007 at 5:21 pm

    LOL! I love cookies, but if a math lesson sneaks in, that’s ok too šŸ™‚

    ~Leslie

    Reply
  26. Joanne says

    June 22, 2007 at 1:00 pm

    LOL…who are we kidding? We make the cookies for ourselves. LOL

    Reply
  27. Stephanie says

    June 22, 2007 at 12:07 pm

    Good tips. Except #5 can’t we teach math and get something good to eat?! šŸ™‚

    Reply
  28. Kathy at Brokenhomeschool says

    June 22, 2007 at 12:06 pm

    Here’s to more cookie making and less math obsessing!

    Reply

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