I am so glad you are here! I want to share from my experience to help ease your worries and concerns as you go into this fall and what may be your first year homeschooling. I have been hearing in groups, forums, and discussion posts across the internet that parents are not feeling confident in their choice to homeschool this fall. 

Can I educate my children? I'm not a teacher.

Should I keep my kids home, what about socialization?

What if I fail? What if they fail?

How do I know what curriculum is right?

I have seen these and many others over and over again. Don't feel bad if you have asked some of them yourself. It is only normal to feel unsure in a new situation. Do you remember when you brought your first child home? How unsure and scary those first few days were? It makes sense that you would be feeling a bit uneasy as you start this new journey...when so much is at stake, I get it. I hope that you will take my suggestions for building up your homeschool self-esteem as coming from someone who never planned to homeschool and yet all five of my children have only ever been educated at home and my oldest just graduated! So let's jump into a few things you can start doing to help build your homeschool self-esteem. 

The first thing I am going to suggest is establishing a home routine separate from your school routine. The reason I am going to start here is that you may be working from home or you may have noticed that having the kids home all day makes messes and you need to set aside time to get chores done that infringe on your homeschooling time. When my kids were young I had a morning and evening routine chart for them. We woke up, prayed, bathed, or changed into daytime outfits, tidied up our assigned areas, while I did the kitchen and dishes, and then school happened. I always felt better with a clean house trying to school the kids then when I could see the pile of dishes or the mountain of laundry. Now you may feel like morning chores should wait till after breakfast and coffee and a quiet time of reading or what have you, that's fine! Put some thought into your morning and evening routines so you can establish something that works for your family. 

I bet you noticed that I broke the first rule of homeschooling...my kids don't wear pajamas all day. *Gasp* don't tell my local co-op For me, if I don't get all the way dressed in the morning then I never feel like I have started my day. Just remember that your routine needs to establish expectations for yourself and your kids. It is easier to have a transition into schoolwork from morning cartoons when you have sent them to get dressed for the day or school, etc. 

Keeping a positive attitude is probably the most difficult for us new stay at home parents. We have our own disappointments and expectations that have not been met added to the constant care children need and we often find ourselves loosing our cool and wanting to throw the towel in. One of the most important things to remember about teaching your children is that this is a marathon, not a sprint. You know when you are fed up and you know when your child is too frustrated to keep going.  Give yourself permission to take a break; to declare free time, screen time, outdoor play, when frustrations are high taking a break is not quitting it is being mindful of the emotional health of your family.

Studies have shown that the most learning takes place in the first and last 15 minutes of a study session...this means that the ideal study session should run 20-30 mins. If you plan your school routine to have these breaks, these short reset moments, you may find that you and your children aren't worn out at the end of the school day. 

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