The Johnson Crew!

Have you been considering homeschooling but are too scared and worried to actually take the plunge are you currently homeschooling and are considering quitting if you said yes to either of those questions then this is the video for you today I used to be so scared to homeschool and even five years in was still having doubts and wondering if I should just quit and send them to school so know that you are not alone and feeling this way this is the first video in a three-part series for anyone considering homeschooling or just starting out

So hopefully these will be really helpful to you here's the thing there's a large well-founded organization that's been going on for your lifetime your parents lifetime your grandparents lifetime that has been the norm that aims to have all kids be a part of it and that's the public school system so naturally you're going to have doubts and criticisms when you're thinking about doing something different than the norm you may ask yourself are these doubts my gut telling me that this is not the right thing for me

And my family or is this the fear of the unknown own and perhaps once we get into homeschooling and see what it really is and what it really can be for our family then I will finally feel at peace with my decision starting something new is always going to be scary I mean just that uncertainty we don't like it and I don't advise you making a rash decision by any means but I do advise recognizing where your fear is really coming from let's walk through some of the biggest concerns that parents have when they're considering homeschooling

And hopefully I can help squash some of those fears for you number one I don't think I'm capable to teach my kids so I would ask you do they know how to walk do they know how to talk do they know how to use the potty do they know some animal sounds and some colors who taught them those things you did you did all of that I think sometimes we put the schooling thing on such a pedestal when really we've been teaching our kids from the very beginning whether we really realized it or not we've been teaching them from the get-go

And what's really great about homeschooling is that you don't just go from learning their letters straight to algebra it's a steady learning curve and you'll be right on there with them you want to know something that might make you a little more confident have you heard the latest test scores that are coming out of public schools whoa Baltimore spent twenty one thousand dollars on average per student and yet zero of their students are proficient in math across 23 schools so that doesn't mean like oh they didn't score that

Well some of the kids they're saying zero of those children are meeting a grade level expectation not just that nobody like did Super well in the test that's kind of crazy they're not the only ones Minnesota not a single student proficient in math in 19 Schools Massachusetts it's zero students proficient in reading or math in 60 Public Schools I think you can at least do better than that trust me my husband once said this to me and it really struck me he said why do you expect the same system that failed you to be able to teach your child to do a good job teaching your child it doesn't make sense

And honestly the curriculum does most of the heavy lifting for you it's not like you're having to pull from your knowledge to teach your kid you know you're typically reading something to them or there are lots of video based curriculums out there we use several of those and love them and it's such a huge help to me and it does make me feel better about areas that I feel a little less confident teaching them in I'm like oh well I can use this video and obviously there's tons of YouTube videos out there on like essentially every topic that you can find to help reinforce certain subjects that you don't feel very good about number two the thought of my kids being home all day

With me and me just having to correct them constantly is overwhelming true it's true it's true I'm not going to sugarcoat it for you it's a lot and this is likely going to be an ongoing issue that you've got to work through but who better to do their correcting and their training than you even when I talk to friends of mine who have their kids at school they still have similar frustrations to me when their kids are home I think it's just more what you're used to

So if you do have a kid in school right now that you're considering pulling out then yeah it might be a bit of a shocker at first how much time you have together but I think you'll also shed a lot of that Mom guilt so you know pros and cons and I do struggle with this one a lot because I do see the value in having them home with me but I also really value my own alone time and want to have time to accomplish things without having to tend to them all the time

So I think there definitely needs to be very open and frequent communication between you and your spouse about scheduling in frequent and consistent breaks for you so that your schedule is broken up and you don't get to the point where you're just like exasperated I could do a whole other video on this this has definitely been an ever-changing work in progress for me and my husband I've been so thankful for his willingness to listen to me when I'm having a meltdown encouraging me to get back up

But also really hearing me and offering his help to make things easier for me and maybe taking something off of my plate here and there and I offered the same to him when he's stressed because we're a team right you and your spouse you're a team and that team becomes even more essential when you decide to homeschool we also run our own business together so lots of teamwork needed over here and that comes with plenty of head butting that we have to work through but even if you don't have a money making job

And your husband is the Only Money Maker he can still be on team homeschool in some way shape or form you just might have to get a little creative and I talk more about how we've scheduled our days and weeks and previous videos and even since then we've changed our schedule several times so it's just important that you and your spouse can be open with each other and flexible with each other thank you we always say Teamwork Makes the Dream Work number three it's gonna be too hard yep it is it's hard some things are easier

But obviously other things are going to be more challenging if you're already homeschooling and you've had bad days and weeks and you felt like it's time to just throw in the towel I just can't keep doing this and let me first be sensitive and say that like obviously every family is different different families can make decisions for yourselves that are good for you and someone can make a different decision that's good for them okay but if you feel called to homeschool and you feel like it is what's best for your family just know that sometimes the relief you're looking for is just over this next hurdle sometimes you just need to remember why you chose to homeschool in the first place

And remind yourself of all the good and then set out to solve that particular pain point so that you guys can move forward for those just considering homeschooling this is why it's so important to write down why you want to homeschool because it's something you're going to have to come back to on a hard day and talk it over with your spouse tell your mom why you want to homeschool tell your closest friends why you want to homeschool so that you can go to these core people when you're having a hard time

And they can help remind you and encourage you to get back on the horse and keep going worthwhile Endeavors are not necessarily easy parenting is hard but we keep doing it right we persevere seeking for ways to improve ourselves and therefore our kids and our family atmosphere it's the same with homeschooling homeschool is just extending your parenting into the realm of education and with all that extra time at home it's extending their opportunities to discover their own passions and pursue them what more could we want for our kids

And number four I am so overwhelmed by the number of curriculums that are out there I don't know if I'll pick the right one here's the cool thing you are in charge of your home school so you can change the curriculum anytime you want now obviously that's easier said than done and I know you don't want to just get one and then have to change it I totally understand that but what's really great is there are so many reviews online too you can look up how another family uses that curriculum

So that you can feel more confident in how you can use it in your home school and you can see if that seems like a good fit you don't just have to look at the website for the curriculum you can see how people are using it for real in their homeschool that's what I love about this YouTube homeschool Community is that there's so many people sharing how they use their curriculum and which ones they like I've certainly made several curriculum videos that I'll leave a link to the playlist below where you can see all the different curriculums that we've picked from preschool to fifth grade

And different curriculum reviews so you can check those things out and that's what I've done is I've looked up these types of videos and they make me feel so much less nervous about that curriculum because I feel like I've gotten a chance to try it out even though I didn't try it out I'm watching someone else do it but that's given me a lot of confidence in choosing particular curriculums and I'm actually going to be posting a video in two weeks about how I choose curriculum

So definitely hit that notification Bell if you want to see that and it'll notify you when the video is posted and if just not knowing where to start is keeping you from beginning next week's video is going to be about how to start homeschooling so definitely come back next Wednesday afternoon and check that out it is all in our mindset truly the war on homeschool is really between our two ears if we can squash those fears and tune out those negative thoughts we can accomplish our hearts desire

And God's will for our life take your worries to the Lord and ask him for peace around your decision I truly hope that you have been encouraged by this video today and already feel more confident and your own ability to homeschool your child I believe in you and I'm here for you say hello in the comments below feel free to send me a message on Instagram if you'd like I'll leave my handle up here and I hope that you have an amazing day and I will catch you in the next video bye thank you