10 Beginning Homeschooling Errors to Avoid

More people are beginning homeschooling with their children for a variety of reasons. Some choose to start homeschooling due to a concern for their child's spiritual, academic or physical well-being.

My primary focus for educating our children is for spiritual and academic excellence, in that order, too!

I don't aspire to create "Bible-breathing" robots but children who love God, love their family, and love to learn. Ideally, they should exhibit a Christ-like character and be eager to learn.

Whatever your reason may be, I hope to share some common mistakes I have made or seen in others while teaching our children. Perhaps you can be on the lookout for them and try to avoid them if possible.

What NOT to Do

This list includes errors that were made mostly as our home schooling journey was just getting started and others were made along the way.

1. Not being in agreement with your spouse about teaching the children at home. This friction will be counterproductive and really should be resolved prior to starting to teach.
2. Being unaware of the homeschooling requirements for your area and failing to withdraw children from school or notify local educational agency of intent to home school, if required.
3. Failing to order the necessary homeschool curriculum to arrive in time to get started with your homeschool lessons.
4. Attempting to use too many homeschool materials and resources and getting overwhelmed by it all.
5. Not preparing ahead of time with homeschool lesson plans or objectives for what you will be teaching and having to make it up as you go along.

Now, for the second half of the things that you should try to avoid:

6. Not arranging play dates, field trips or home school activities with other families so the children have a social outlet and never feel as though they're missing out on the recreational things their peers or neighbors do.
7. Becoming too involved in homeschool activities and other extracurricular engagements that deprive them of precious instructional time.
8. Not choosing to make time to get with others for homeschool encouragement and support when you need it.
9. Senselessly comparing your child to others as though home schooling was a competition with room for only one winner. How silly! All children are different and possess different strengths and abilities and should never be compared, inside or outside of families.
10. Lastly, a very serious mistake is when someone loses sight of the primary reason they chose to homeschool in the first place...their children!

I truly honor the many people who have gone before me that I could observe when I was beginning homeschooling many years ago. I hope this list helps you avoid some of the real pitfalls that seem to overwhelm home educators.

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