It’s an exciting time of year! For some of you, you’ll be starting to homeschool for the first time this fall. Congrats on the beginning of an amazing adventure! For others, you’ll be continuing to homeschool as you have been for years. Here are five tips from us oldies to the newbies that we wished we had figured out in our first few years as homeschool moms.

1.    Don’t recreate school! 

I know. For most of us, traditional schooling is all we really know, right? But think about it. You pulled your kids out of school for a reason: it wasn’t the right fit. Don’t try to recreate a classroom at your dining room table. It’s a waste of time that will ultimately make you all frustrated! Do- figure out what everyone really likes about being able to do school differently. That could be sleeping in and working in the afternoon, sitting on the floor or in the backyard to work, focusing on just one subject a day, listening to music while everyone works, a field trip every week, doing the work at Grandma’s, making it a lot more hands on, or anything that makes learning more engaging, productive, and fun!

2.    Don’t try to finish it all.

Those curriculum packages have a lot of problems in each day’s worth of work. You know why? So the kids who need more practice have the extra work already there in the books. Just do the evens or odds, or even every 5th problem. If your kids remember it from the previous year, just do enough to refresh their memories and call it a day. Focus on doing more work only when they need it. That is one of the major benefits of homeschooling. Tailor the work to what your kids actually need. And if they burn out, you don’t need to finish the whole book by the end of the year. Most teachers don’t complete the whole textbook. They pick and choose. So should we!

3.    Don’t stick to only one curriculum for everything.  

So you’ve purchased a whole curriculum set and you’re all ready to get down to business. Keep in mind, though, that three weeks into the school year, you’re going to see that not all of it works for all of your kids. You don’t have to stick with just that one program! If it’s not working, go find something else that fits better. For example, most kids are not at the same grade level in every subject every year. Nor do they all learn the same way. Most programs focus on teaching in a specific style that may not match your kids. Start tailoring the work to their needs. You can find used curriculum on eBay and other places to play with as well as searching Pinterest and even Google to help you find what you need. Start with one subject that isn’t working well and play with different things. It’s more fun to find stuff yourself than you think!

4.    You don’t have to go through the curriculum at the pace that’s set up for you.  

If you can whip through the early chapters and take more time off at Christmas to go visit family, do it. If your kid is super excited about science in the fall, go through that whole years’ worth of work first and move on to other subjects later. If taking a vacation in October is what you all want to do, move things around and start a week early, double up for a while, or skip some things that aren’t necessary. This is one of the major perks of homeschooling. Enjoy it! You set the schedule!

5.    Listen to your kids.  

This is ultimately about your kids, right? They know what works for them and what doesn’t when it comes to learning. Ask them. Ask them about what they love to do, and read, and study, and be curious about. Ask them what time of day is the easiest for them to get through their work. Ask them what gets them excited. These are the clues to creating awesome, fun-filled, and productive learning days! For more ideas, download our free workbook, 5 Keys to an Awesome Homeschool Day.

Homeschooling can be the most rewarding, meaningful, and frustrating thing you will ever do. Remember, thinking outside the box, or classroom in this case, is why you decided to do this in the first place. Experiment and do more of what works!

If you know that homeschooling is the answer but you find you are not sure how exactly to create the experience or education you want to give your kids, the cart is open for a limited time for this fall’s session of Homeschool with Confidence, The Ultimate Homeschool Teachers Training. Watch for emails to get early bird pricing and bonuses!

Here’s to an amazing homeschool year!