5 Ways This Blog Will Help You Homeschool Your Kids Better
Have you ever thought about homeschooling your kids? Perhaps the answer to that question is a resounding, “No way! I can’t homeschool these kids. I’ll lose my mind.” Or perhaps you’ll answer as I did, “I went to public school and I turned out just fine. Why should I homeschool?”
Do you already homeschool? If the answer to that question is ‘yes’, then I’m so happy that you are here. I love when homeschool parents get together to collaborate and share ideas and resources. There is strength in sharing the journey with others – a strength that you just can’t get if you’re walking alone.
Anyway, here we are. Whether you started to homeschool because the pandemic hit us hard, or because you live in a state where vaccinations (non-covid) are mandated. Whether you’re a long-time homeschooler looking to connect with other homeschoolers or you’re brand new, here are 5 ways I would like this blog to help you homeschool better.
Give You The Confidence to Start Homeschooling
Although this blog is new, I’ve been on Instagram for a few years. One question that I get is, “How do I start? I just don’t know how and where to start.” This is a legitimate question, to be fair. It’s always difficult to know how to start something new. So much grit and research is invested into figuring out how to start. If I could only figure out how to start things, I would have been a rich genius by now. How about you?
Anyway, when we have trouble starting, we all love when some hero(es) come along blogging and vlogging their way into our brains, thus helping us to conquer the mountain of fear of starting. These are the heroes that have brought me to this point; this point where I want to create my own blog (and vlog) to help others. I want to pay it forward. Therefore, I would like this blog to teach you how to begin your homeschool journey. How do you get started? How in the world do you fill out and submit the required documents? Must you keep reporting to your school district for the next 12 years that you homeschool? Do you have to test your kids? The questions are numerous. Trust me, I’ve helped many moms start, and I am willing and able to help you too. I want you to be able to find all the information you need on this website, so I’ll do the ‘dirty work’ and research it all for you.
Motivate You to Keep Homeschooling.
Alright, so let’s stay that starting is not your beef (problem). You’ve already started. You are already actively homeschooling. If you’re like me, and every other homeschool mother that I know, you’re always looking for motivation. I’m sitting here in February – probably one of the worse homeschooling months (if you started at the end of August like me). It’s cold outside; we’re barely getting out to play; we just got past our 100th day of school, and I can see the end far insight, but it’s so frustrating that I have 70+ more days of school to go. There are days that we wake up and neither my daughter nor I feel like doing homeschool. What now? I’ll walk you through those ridiculously tough days with fun ways to change up your homeschool so that you can keep pushing.
Help You Homeschool
Is this the right curriculum? Will my kids know as much as the kids who go to the school next door? (FYI, I live next door to a school – so much pressure) How can I make Math more interesting? How can I tweak my curriculum to keep my kids more engaged? I want this blog to be a place where we can share resources. Do you have a worksheet for mental math? Well, I have many spelling worksheets. Let’s trade! How do you teach feet and inches? I’ll tell you how Jana masters spelling. I will share with you practical ways we teach and check for understanding.
Not only so, but let’s talk freebies…..I can’t wait to share with you some of the freebies I create (in Canva of course).
Share With You Our Homeschool Days (Yes! Your Family is Normal, just like Mine)
I must admit, this might be tough for me to do. As you can imagine, our homeschool days are crazy, and taking either a mental note (or a video note) of what we did/are doing would not be the first thing on my mind in all the craziness. But can you learn from our daily homeschool strategies? I’m sure you can. And I can learn from yours. It’s always nice to know that others are going through the very same things that we are going through. By sharing what we’re doing daily, I’ll normalize the craziness that usually goes into homeschooling. By the way, RANDOM, but do y’all do second and third breakfasts too? I get a workout walking between my schoolroom and my kitchen because my daughter somehow thinks homeschooling means that she needs to eat every hour on the hour.
Build A Homeschool Community
I am from the Caribbean. One of the biggest differences between the Caribbean and American culture is the value of existing in a community. While communal living is central to Caribbean culture, in my experience, there is pleasure in individuality in the American way. However, it is my goal to create a blog that encourages community. As you would have noticed before, I wrote a lot (above) about sharing ideas and resources. Sharing is what the community does. So the purpose of this blog is to build a community of homeschoolers who can share ideas and resources so that we can all contribute to one another’s successes.
If these ideas sound like ideas you can get on board with, then this is the place for you. Welcome to JanaDoesHomeschool.com.
