A new homeschooler recently asked me, “What advice would you give to someone just starting out?” I thought about it for a moment, and out of all the advice I could give, one thing immediately came to mind. It’s something that would have saved me a lot of unnecessary stress as a new homeschool mom:
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It’s okay to say no.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There are so many wonderful opportunities available to homeschoolers today including co-ops, umbrella schools, micro-schools, music lessons, drama, sports, field trips, and so much more. Having all of these options is truly a blessing. But it’s also easy to overcommit. Before you know it, your schedule, budget, and energy are stretched thin, and the very flexibility that makes homeschooling so rewarding begins to disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My advice? Start small. If there’s an activity your children would genuinely enjoy, choose one or two that feel manageable for your family. Beyond that, focus on the homeschooling itself and building a schedule that works for you. So give yourself permission to move at your own pace. Don’t let all the options become overwhelming. Homeschool your way, do what works for your family, and remember that saying no<\/strong> to some good things often allows you to say yes<\/strong> to the best things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A new homeschooler recently asked me, “What advice would you give to someone just starting out?” I thought about it for a moment, and out of all the advice I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homeschool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.scholaright.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.scholaright.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.scholaright.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scholaright.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scholaright.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scholaright.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scholaright.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions\/159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scholaright.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.scholaright.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scholaright.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scholaright.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Don’t feel pressured by the moms who seem to be constantly running from one activity to the next. It’s okay to slow down, say no, and homeschool at your own pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don’t feel like you have to keep up with the homeschool mom who seems to be involved in every co-op, event, sport, and extracurricular activity. One of the greatest gifts of homeschooling is the freedom to create an education that fits your family’s unique needs, not someone else’s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n