I love homeschooling my children, but you know I would be lying if I said it was perfect.
No education method is perfect, each has its own drawback.
While I write about plenty of aspects of homeschooling I adore, the truth is there are some features that drive me crazy.
5 Dislikes About Homeschooling
1. Constantly Thinking About Curriculum – I know this is more of my personality flaw than something that ALL homeschoolers do. I wish I could one of the homeschoolers that picks a curriculum in Kindergarten and just sticks with it. However, that’s not me.
2. Second Guessing Myself – I guess this goes with #1. It’s hard for me not to wonder “would this work better for so and so?”. All the time. I would be better off to just make do with what we have rather than peering over the fence looking for that greener grass.
3. Being the Boss/Knowing all the Answers – There is a great deal of responsibility in teaching our children at home. We have to know your states requirements, know requirements for graduation and keep up with our children’s individual interest as well as strengths and weaknesses.
4. Expense – Now believe me, educating my children is money well spent! I just wish I didn’t spend so much 
5. Teaching Kids to Read – Wouldn’t it be nice if they just showed up knowing how to read? Now, if you have never attempted to teach a struggling reader you don’t have a clue what I’m talking about. My first three were super easy to teach to read. One was reading before Kindergarten and I don’t even remember teaching another one to read. I think she just woke up one morning and magically started reading. They didn’t learn to read easily because of the awesomeness of my teaching skills either. My last three have been a different story.
What would you change?
iHomeschool Network – Likes and Dislikes
I love homeschooling. But I do dislike a few things:
* Fighting the urge to compare our family’s homeschooling experience and results with that of others.
* Battling “curriculum-itis” when the catalogs roll in every summer, the misguided thinking that if I could find just the right mix of materials, all issues would magically disappear.
* Having a hard time switching between Teacher Mom and Just Mom.
* Feeling continually behind on my housework. And now, I’m off to dust at least one room before school!
(Thanks for your encouraging blog!)
Yes on the first 4! I actually enjoyed teaching my boys to read. I hated teaching them to tie their shoes though!! I found that very frustrating, lol!
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Oh my goodness, tying shoes! We’re still not there with my 7 year old. He gets multiplication, can explain more about grammar than I knew before high school (he reads it for fun), and impresses my sister, who’s a doctor, with how much he knows about the human body…but trying to teach him to tie his shoes makes me want to pull my hair out!
LOL!
Oh my gosh yes on the first four but reading is fun to teach. But tying shoes? Ugh, I’d send them off to school to learn that any day, lol! Sometimes I fantasize about sending the kids to preschool then bringing them home to homeschool at 5/6 when they’ve learned all those little practical skills and how to write and their alphabet sounds and such. Heck, and potty training for that record 😉
I much prefer teaching the older kids
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That is exactly why we chose to homeschool, my 5yr old daughter didn’t know her alphabet or how to count to 10 when she finished Developmental kindergarten (young 5’s) My oldest (8) knew how to read by the time he left kindergarten, but then they changed the program and went to “play based” and my 7yr old going in to 1st grade still can’t read…. i just dont understand it! And that is why with 5 kids and one on the way (august) we chose this year to start homeschooling. If they are going to “school” they should be learning at least the basics!
(i think this ended up as more of a rant than a comment, sorry)
Yes, yes, yes, yes! I can completely relate to this post. I would like just one day off from worrying about any of items 1-4. As for reading, I taught Lilah to read before she went to Kindergarten during Grace’s ice skating lessons and Grace seemed to just teach herself. I would title my #5 Teaching Kids Math!
I have a child who is “low-functioning” so everything is a challenge and then it’s hard to remember after it’s learned. I wish I had more help.
Oh, and I wish I had a maid to come clean once a week so I could concentrate more on school!
Point #1. Thinking about curriculum – I love looking at curriculum and pondering its benefits and whether it will enhance our educational progress. And yes that seems to be in my thought processes daily, but even for a longer time each day, this time of year. I spend hours looking at curriculum catalogs.
And yes to the other Kris, a maid would be wonderful, because then I would spend all day immersed in
teaching/learning and music with my sons. Having to split my time between household and teaching is what I would change – if I could – to all teaching and learning
Me too. I’d so love to have a housekeeper!
One of the things I’d change is the automatic assumption that if I’m stressed/frustrated/etc, it HAS to be because of homeschooling and therefore I should immediately stop it.
The other thing I would LOVE to change is teaching handwriting. Sweet Jesus, mercy! It doesn’t help that I’m left-handed and my only kiddo old enough to write is right-handed. She does have good doctor handwriting, maybe I should prepare her for medical school. LOL
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Kim – that’s a great point – I get that too 😉 Yes, just start doing a bunch of dissection!
Another very true posting. I agree on ALL five points especially #5. I think I should get an Olympic medal if our little one finally becomes an accomplished reader. However this thought may be related to my personality, since I would prefer to be dealing with dangling frog dissection parts instead of dangling prepositional phrases.
HA! Those would be my five too! Well, I have always been intimidated about teaching reading. My oldest taught himself and my second son took a while to take to it, but, my littlest one loves it. I am always second guessing myself, thinking about curriculum and ways to make things better. I think it’s just our nature as Moms 😉 If I had to pick something I dislike it would be teaching math three times a day, but, that is nothing compared to all of the good fruit that comes from the labor
I wish I had more time to do all the fun things I envision for homeschooling! To be always out exploring, on field trips and doing science experiments-that’s the picture in my head. I’ve been wanting to do these great educational packs( especially science ones!) that has everything in each bag that the kids need to do it. But alas, we have 6 kids, 3 of which are a toddler, a special needs child and a 5 month old who I am nursing. So our day usually is just trying to get the bare minimum done usually.
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Amen, amen, amen to every one. Well I don’t spend much on curriculum but have paid a price on books and as middle school starts I might be buying more. I’m struggling with second guessing, wanting something to stretch them but still b fun and engaging. Oh the joys lol
Being in a rush to get it done! I seriously wish I could have enjoyed the moment more especially now that I have one finishing 10th grade. I wish I would have just been in the moment more instead of trying to get the day done in order to mark another one off the calendar.