Encouragement For Homeschool Moms: From Someone Starting Their 22nd Year

Encouragement For Homeschool Moms: From Someone Starting Their 22nd Year

I started homeschooling in 2004, a year after we adopted our three older children. At the time, I didn’t know much about homeschooling. My first impression was that it sounded like something from the pioneer days!

We had moved from Brooklyn, New York, to Florida in 2002, and we were fortunate to find a small homeschool community right where we lived. We began meeting other homeschooling families, and eventually, I started my own local group, which is still active today.

My original reason for homeschooling was simple: I wanted more time with our children. They had only been part of our family for a year, and I realized how much time school took away from our family life. When we adopted them, they were 5, 8, and 11. The older two were already in school, and the youngest was just starting.

As we settled into homeschooling and learned more about the public school system, we decided to keep educating them at home.

We mainly unschooled, without following a formal curriculum. There was plenty of intentional learning, but it came through exploring interests and introducing our children to a wide variety of experiences, topics, and people.

These days, I homeschool our two youngest children, who are now 10 and 11 and have never attended school. They are our grandchildren, whom we adopted after gaining custody.

I don’t follow a formal curriculum with them, either. We do use Miacademy, but on our own terms, as one resource among many, rather than something we use daily or follow as a complete curriculum.

My youngest two have far more resources and opportunities than my older three did. That has both benefits and drawbacks. More choices are wonderful, but I sometimes miss the creativity that came with fewer ready-made options. Finding ways to explore a topic or meet a need was part of the learning, too.

Through it all, I’ve tried to keep our homeschool simple, leaving room for interests, creativity, imagination, problem-solving, and time to be alone with their thoughts.

I’m a big believer in learning through the world around us. I want my children to have experiences they can draw on as their understanding grows. With our homeschool group and on our own, we visit museums, science centers, and historical sites. We organize and participate in classes on a wide variety of topics and meet interesting people in our community.

Encouragement For Homeschool Moms

As we begin another year of homeschooling, I want to offer some encouragement for homeschool moms, especially those just starting out or still in the early years.

Finding the “right” curriculum—or deciding whether to use one at all- is only a small part of building a successful homeschool.

Before focusing on materials, take time to get to know your child as a learner. Notice what sparks their curiosity, what helps them understand something new, and when they need a different approach. Those needs will look different for each child and will change as they grow.

You do that by interacting and observing. Not as a one-time task, but as an ongoing way to connect.

Also, take time to deschool yourself. Give yourself room to question the ideas you may have carried over from your own school experience: what learning should look like, when it should happen, and how to recognize progress. It takes time to see learning beyond lessons, worksheets, and completed assignments.

You don’t have to figure everything out at once. Leave room to learn alongside your children and make adjustments along the way.