Homeschooling When You Don't Think You're Good At It

Do you fear that you’re not very good at homeschooling? Have you been led to believe that it takes a certain kind of person to be a good homeschool mom. Maybe you’re intimidated when you see how other homeschoolers are doing school and you think that their style or personality just doesn’t fit you. Or maybe struggled in school, so you don’t feel adequate to teach your own children. How do you move forward in homeschooling when you don’t think you’re good at it?

I want to encourage you that you are the perfect person to be teaching your children. Homeschooling has a lot of variety and it looks different in every family. There’s not “one way” that it is supposed to work. God gave these children to you which makes you the ideal match to understand their needs and to help them excel in every way.

For more on this topic, you may also enjoy reading Can I Homeschool My Child?

Video: Homeschooling When You Don’t Think You’re Good At It

Homeschooling Is An Extension of Parenting

Remember that moment when you first became a parent? I remember it like it was yesterday. When they put that little boy in my arms, my whole world changed. In that instant all other life pursuits faded and I cared about only one thing… doing the best job I could to love and care for my son.

There was only one problem. I had no clue what I was doing! Can you relate? As new parents, none of us really knew what we were doing in the beginning, but guess what? We figured it out!

It’s the same with homeschooling. Homeschooling is an extension of parenting. By the time your kids enter Kindergarten, you have already taught them so many life skills: potty training, how to sleep through the night, how to eat with a fork. The basics of reading, writing, math, and understanding the world around them is just the next logical step in their process of growth.

Qualifications for Homeschooling

Allow me to share with you the two qualifications needed to homeschool your kids.

You have to…

Be a parent.
Care

That’s it! No special skills required! I’m convinced that a loving, curious mom will outperform the “experts” in every way possible, hands down! No one knows your child like you do. No one has a personal, life-long investment in your child like you have. There is no one who will work harder or search more diligently than you will to find the resources your child needs for their struggles AND their gifts.

When along the way as parents did we start believing the idea that we are incapable to teach our kids basic skills?

You Get Better as You Go

You know what the hardest part of homeschooling is for most parents? Going through it with their first child. With our oldest who is now a graduate, I had to learn (and sometimes relearn) everything! Whenever he got to a difficult place in math, I would get nervous because I couldn’t remember how to do some of the problems. Sometimes I had to ask for help from a friend with math skills or look up a YouTube video or really study the textbook, but with a little work, I found answers. Then with all the rest of our kids after that, it became easier and easier for me to teach them.

When you work at something everyday, you become better at it. It’s fresh in your mind and you can more clearly break it down in a way for others to understand.

Change Your Thinking on the Homeschool Day

Over the years as I have talked to other homeschool moms, I can not tell you how many times I run into moms who are worried that either they aren’t doing enough or that their kids are behind. We need to change our thinking on this.

There is no behind or ahead with children. There is only progress.

The goal is for your child to move forward and make little chunks of progress every day. As moms, we need to remind ourselves of this over and over again.

Learn Along With Your Kids

One of the best things about homeschooling is that you can learn right alongside your kids. For me, homeschooling has been an education in itself. I have learned more from homeschooling my kids than I have from anything else in life, including my college education!

No matter how incapable you think you are to do this job, there is no standard to which you need to attain, you are just learning along with them. Anybody can do that! Maybe you weren’t a good student in school. Or maybe you are studying something with the kids that you never learned in school. Let go of any intimidation or pressure to be an expert on what you are teaching. You are very simply learning with your kids.

Raise Kids Who Love to Learn

When we raise kids who love to learn, we give them an advantage in every life circumstance in every way because they will teach themselves anything that they want to know. When you think you’re not very good at homeschooling, shift the focus from you to them. Help them to love learning about the world around them. “I’m bored” should not be a word in their vocabulary when we are surrounded with such an interesting world in which to live!

Has this ever happened to you? You catch wind of something another child is doing in school who is in the same grade as yours and you begin to panic because you haven’t covered that yet. Immediately you think you must not be doing a good job. This often happens to us as homeschool moms.

Remember there is a. big difference between memorizing information for a test or having a head knowledge about a topic and actually understanding a concept. When you have been forced to learn a subject that you have no interest in, you reach only as far as is necessary to meet the demands put on you. However, when you love to learn, your capacity is boundless. Your drive can take you anywhere.

Make the focus of your homeschool to raise kids who love to learn.

You’ve Got This!

I want to share a story that illustrates perfectly why you should remind yourself everyday that you can do this.

With these hot summer days, our two year old daughter loves getting in the pool. She has an appropriate fear of the water, but yet is gaining courage to get in deeper to try swimming with her puddle jumper. Once she can do this, she will have the freedom to follow the rest of us around the pool rather than staying on the steps. Sometimes I help teach her by taking her out with me. When I do this, I tell her, “You’ve got this! It’s ok!”

Other times, I give her freedom to be alone and attempt it by herself. As she slowly descends to the next deeper step, I can overhear her saying to herself under her breath with her two year old lisp, “It’s ok. You got this!” She is giving herself a pep talk! It’s so adorable.

Moms, we need to practice this. Give yourself a pep talk if you need to. Remind yourself, “It’s ok! You’ve got this!” If you know that God has called you to homeschool, remind yourself that with His help, YOU CAN DO THIS!