Hey Reader!

The realization that your homeschool isn’t quite working out the way you’d planned isn’t a fun one. You might look back at your last few curriculums and see that the lessons weren’t the kinds your kids learned from best. Or you might not have any past happy lesson moments with your kids to look back on and feel like you’ll never create a consistent homeschool happy day.

I’ve been there. We’ve all been there.

It’s a scary feeling, but know that there’s always a way to improve and start turning your homeschool into what you want it to be.

Over and over again, I see the same mistakes with moms and the way they’re teaching their kids. These mistakes are attracting the wrong reactions and keeping you from making an impact your kids deserve. So today we’re going to go over 4 mistakes that are keeping you from dream days and consistent homeschool happiness.

1. lack of balance

This is one you might not expect and honestly something I never would have embraced without fighting through it myself and that is having a lack of balance. This includes balance in homeschooling, in life, and between the two.

When I think back to my last few big inspiration strikes, none of them came while sitting in front of a whiteboard or my laptop. My most creative idea ever came on my drive home after going grocery shopping, walking around inside the grocery store. I’m very confident I wouldn’t have had that idea if I would have used the grocery pickup option from my phone I usually use so I could save time (which I’ve done far too many times).

To have the ability to take a step back and have “ah-ha” moments about improvements that can be made for your kids or changes you’d like to see within the family harmony, you need to give yourself space to do so. And space comes as a result of balance.

If you need more balance in your life and homeschool, be sure to check out Holly Doherty’s workshop called “Time to Flourish: Time Management Strategies for a More Fulfilling, Less Stressful Life” and Lisa Shipster’s workshop “Balancing Structured Learning with Child-Led Exploration in Early Childhood Homeschooling “ in the Homeschool Mom Summer Summit,

2. poorly planned lessons and days

The next mistake keeping you from dream days and consistent happiness goals is when you don’t have your lessons planned properly. The biggest offenders here come in when you:

1. Don’t have a homeschool schedule
2. Have too many homeschool schedules
3. Have homeschool schedules that aren’t focused on complementing subjects or perking up your day

Without schedules, you’re asking your kids to not really worry about working towards anything when in reality, they are just now learning what perseverance and accomplishments mean. They’re looking for structure from you, the mom who can see their progress and tell them what they need to do next to achieve their goal.

If you have too many schedules or routines that aren’t helping your entire day flow from one thing to the next, your kids are going to be overwhelmed with aimless directions and underwhelmed by pointless time spent.

To learn more about schedules and making the most of your homeschool day and time, tune into Terri McKee’s “Circling the Airport” summit workshop as well as Natalie Burns’ “Managing Multiples: How to Combine Multiple Ages So You Can Juggle Less In Your Homeschool”!

3. too many eggs in the [morning] basket

Selecting a curriculum for your kids is tough. It’s difficult to use just one curriculum for your entire homeschool and all your kids. That’s why so many moms make their own - to fit well with their own family. But, creating lessons all the time and then planning them out is hardcore. I used to make a curriculum for any and every subject, for every concept my kids were learning that year.

Crazy, I know. I was making interactive notebook lessons, piecing together creative history projects, making supplemental math activities with manipulatives, and so much more. Truth time: I had this stubborn homeschool ideal of what kind of homeschool mom I wanted to be. And it was exhausting.

The problem with thinking only you can do best is when you're splitting your attention for so many subjects, you can't put enough effort toward what actually matters. Hi, kids. Mommy’s busy all night making tomorrow’s lessons.

When I realized that I could be more than happy with piecing together already-made curriculums to fit our family, I totally dropped everything else. Almost. I still find great pleasure in making interactive notebooks and my blogging products. ;)

To learn more about choosing curriculum for your own homeschool, check out the summit workshop called “ADHD Homeschooling with Success” by Jeannie Fulbright and Stephanie Irragi’s “How to Plan Your Homeschool Curriculum and Schedule for FREE Using Trello!”

4. Boring homeschool days

As a mom, you should get a large portion of your fun from homeschooling. After all, homeschooling is a large portion of our days since we school at home. When your kids have a great experience in a lesson, they're going to talk excitedly about it and look forward to more lessons like that.

So what does it mean if that's not happening for you? It doesn't mean that your teaching isn't amazing. It means that you need to create a better experience for the kiddos. Give them something to look forward to!

Your kids’ homeschool experience includes everything from how you start a new lesson to what kinds of resources you use for your lessons. And even the result of those lessons after it’s all said and done!

To create a fun homeschool experience that your kids can't stop chatting excitedly about, tune into the summit workshops from Shanda Smith called “Field trips to Enhance a Rigorous Education” and also Kelly Dowd and Sue Wenger’s “How to Motivate a Teen: Six Strategies for Success.”

choose 1 and take action

Look back at the 4 mistakes we went over, choose the one that is currently affecting your homeschool days the most, and take action on it!

And for a whole lot more help empowering your homeschool with creative solutions like these, check out the online Homeschool Mom Summer Summit. We've got 50 experts lined up and ready to teach you everything from using homeschool resources more effectively to creating an amazing kid-friendly experience every day.

Some speakers you might recognize include:

• Amanda Schenkenberger with Homeschool Family Legacy
• Richie Soares from Homeschool & Humor
• Kelly Dowd & Sue Wenger with The Field Trip Academy
• Corinne Schmidt with Wondermom Wannabe
• Jennifer Roskamp with The Intentional Mom
• Susan Santoro with Organized 31
• Joanie Boeckman with Simple Living Mama
• Dianna Weibe with Grapevine Studies

...and a whole lot more! I wish I can list everyone on here, but you can see exactly who’s part of this summit right here.​

We kick off on Monday June 24th and this is one homeschool summer summit - just for moms - that you can't afford to miss this summer season, especially right when Back To Homeschool kicks off!

You need to know what’s up this year and joining the summit will tell you exactly that since we have workshops specifically for Back To Homeschoolers and specifically for year round homeschoolers (along with life skills workshops for moms and faith/encouragement workshops)! Click here to learn more!

Can't wait to see you there!

xo,
Richie

(Yep, that's me! 👇 And yep...that's true 😏)

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