There’s more to homeschool support than curriculum tips and tricks. Learn why all moms need support from their homeschooling friends.
At the pace many of us run our homeschool lives, making time for support can feel nearly impossible. There is so much to teach, so many places to drive & so much to clean! We may even have ourselves convinced we can run this journey without support. Maybe you can survive without finding a group of homeschoolers to connect with, but it is a lot harder!
Fighting Against Homeschool Support
As a young homeschool mom, I made excuses for years why I couldn’t make time to get involved in my local homeschool group. It was too hard with babies, my husband worked too many hours, but at the root of it, I didn’t think I needed the support. Because I’m a second-generation homeschooler, I didn’t think I’d be prone to struggle with doubt or fear in whether or not I can survive the homeschool life. Of course, I can do this! I’ve been a part of the homeschool community since I was five years old.
Thankfully after a few years into homeschooling, I started a homeschool group right out of my home. We meet a few times a month and simply discuss a few chapters of a book on homeschooling or motherhood. Sounds pretty simple, but I was pretty intimidated at first.
When I started that group, I had no idea that I would hit some real struggles that year with my third born child with dyslexia. Through the concerns, testing, and trials there was a place I knew I could discuss these struggles without judgment of my educational choices. As it turned out, all of the homeschool moms kept saying how much they needed that support as well. After experiencing the support from other homeschool moms, I’ve found it has significantly helped me battle certain struggles we commonly face.
Homeschool Support: 4 Struggles Homeschooling Moms Battle
Disillusionment
Most homeschool moms start the year off with such bright expectations! We have our book stacks, art plans, nature journals, and children all set for the first day of school. Our hope is that maybe this will be the year it finally all comes together flawlessly! I still haven’t had a year where it all comes together quite so perfectly and the disappointment can really burn.
When we surround ourselves with other moms going through the homeschool life with us, we learn we aren’t the only ones with a year that didn’t quite fall into place the way we expected! Sometimes we can simply laugh over our lofty aspirations of perfectly unpleasant school days. When we voice these disappointments aloud, we learn we aren’t alone with our too high expectations. There is always someone in the homeschool support group to remind us that somehow at the end of the year, we will have learned so much despite that.
Boredom
Let’s face it, we’ve all had subjects we don’t enjoy teaching or we just get bored with the curriculum we might be using. We pay attention to the boredom of our kids but don’t always notice when we are bored as homeschool teachers! When teaching becomes mundane, it can be a struggle to get motivated to get started each day. Maybe you know you need to change things in your homeschool but you don’t really know where to start.
Ask a group of homeschool moms to share their favorite resources or tips for just about any subject and you can hardly get them to stop sharing! It can be a helpful way to get ideas to keep things interesting; changing the schedule, game schooling, serving treats with poetry or having an end of the homeschool year party. There is nothing like a group of homeschool moms to help keep the homeschool monotony away.
Doubt
When first I began to realize my daughter was struggling with dyslexia, huge doubts began creeping in. I’m a pretty dedicated homeschooler, but my confidence was so shaken I was considering enrolling her in our local elementary school. Just a single reading lesson with my daughter left me wondering if I could teach any of my children well, despite the fact that I’d already raised two very strong readers.
As homeschool moms, we’ve got to have our team of supportive homeschool moms ready to remind us what our educational goals are. It’s easy to find people who will tell you that you can’t teach your kids, so be sure you’ve got friends reminding you to keep doing the hard things. Having other moms you can be honest with can help manage worries that may otherwise nag you daily. When these doubts begin to quake the ground beneath our feet, those moms are there to encourage & help us find the resources we need to get the job done well.
Isolation
So many homeschool critics worry about the socialization of our kids, meanwhile, us moms hustle our kids from activity to activity in isolation. So often we are craving the very same friendships we are so busy helping our kids build. If we allow ourselves to live isolated from having these relationships because we are too busy, we aren’t setting the example for our kids that maintaining those friendships is a priority. Homeschool moms tend to spend nearly every waking minute with our kids, then feel guilty for leaving them for a few girls’ nights away each month. We need to strike a better balance than that.
These friendships are important to refresh our souls, we were created for relationships. It’s important to have close friendships so we can give & receive encouragement. Supportive friends are those who help carry us through hard times & rejoice in the victories.
Our families are important, but someday our kids will fly from our nest. We’ve got to have something other than driving them from one class to another when they are gone. A homeschool mom with an empty nest can lead to next level loneliness, we need to be prepared to have other meaningful relationships in our lives.
Take it from a second-generation homeschooler, your kids want you to have friendships with other moms, even if they don’t know it yet!
Get Homeschool Support from a Local Homeschool Group
I had deep friendships before I started the homeschool moms group. I didn’t fully realize how much I needed the ladies I grew close with through the common journey of homeschooling. At the beginning of the year, I was hesitant to nurture these new relationships, yet by the end, I couldn’t imagine my life without these awesome ladies.
If you are looking for support, I suggest searching for local homeschool groups. If your area doesn’t have one, get brave and be the one to start a group! Many homeschool moms are craving that community, sometimes it just takes one person stepping out and getting connected with others.
