Failing at Homeschooling? Your 7 Steps to Success
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First off, I’m going to start by saying YOU’RE NOT FAILING HOMESCHOOLING. As long as you’re making an effort, homeschooling isn’t something you ace or fail. Throughout the process you will learn how you learn, and once you’ve mastered that, there’s nothing you won’t be able to do!
BUT if you’re here because you’re struggling with the learning process, read on. There are ways to make everything smoother.
If this is an environment that doesn’t come naturally to you, putting the work in now is CERTAINLY worth the effort because the skills you will develop are priceless. Throughout the process, you’ll master the skills necessarily to tackle any job or educational system in the future.
Here are 7 steps to success when you feel like you’re failing homeschooling
1. Set a schedule.
While it’s wonderful to think you’ll just sit down and work whenever you’re available, not many people are wired to be able to do this easily. Make a plan for a daily and weekly schedule that will ensure continued progress in all core areas.
There’s nothing wrong with straying from the schedule, either. Just realize that you’re accountable for any hours lost. If you’re really enjoying something and it’s going well, there’s nothing wrong with doing your whole week’s worth of work on Monday. Aim to be caught up and evened out again by the end of the week.
Also, while you’re creating a schedule, make sure to work in time for breaks and even some activities that are quasi-educational (but more about having fun).
Why schedule fun, you may ask? I thought school was supposed to be SCHOOLY and HARD all the time!
When you’re having fun, your brain is much more receptive to tackle future challenges. If you’re stuck in a pit of THIS IS HARD, THIS IS HARD, THIS IS HARD, do you really think you’ll be able to get yourself out quickly?
Cooking’s always a great activity that can be fun and sneakily educational. If you want to make it even more challenging, change the recipe amount and do all of the conversions in your head. Things like art and music are also educational and can certainly be presented in a way that can be fun if they’re your jam!
If these activities are still too much on the educational spectrum to give your brain the break it needs, don’t be afraid to get creative! There are tons of educational video games and strategy-based board games that are fantastic. If you’re more of an active person, perhaps a workout is more up your alley.
2. Break up your day
If you’re trying to do school work for a full day, it’s easy to feel like you’re falling into a loooooong monotonous pit. Avoid this by adding breaks and switching topics whenever something becomes overwhelming.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with you if something doesn’t make sense the first time - you’re human. You are, in fact, learning something you didn’t know before (shocking, right?). This means you might not get it on the first try. Do yourself a favour by not giving up as soon as something doesn’t make sense.
Perseverance doesn’t mean you can’t rest until you get it right, though!
If something is frustrating, put it down and walk away for five minutes. If it still doesn’t make sense then, work on something else for the next hour or so. Try it again. If it STILL doesn’t make sense, go back to doing something else and come back to it tomorrow.
Unless there’s a specific time crunch, wait until day 2 to ask for help. It’s so rewarding when you can come back with a fresh, next-day brain and everything suddenly makes sense!
Brains are weird, and sometimes sleep is the best way for it to sort out any confusion.
3. Motivation’s the name of the game!
If you can’t seem to find the impulse to sit down and work, give yourself a REASON to. There’s nothing wrong with giving yourself prizes for a job well done.
Give yourself a prize that’s reflective of the amount of time/effort that went into something as opposed to its “importance”. It’s not impressive to sit down and do 6000000 simple addition problems if this is something that comes naturally to you (well, actually, it is…but you get what I mean). If you struggle with math, however, getting through 6 questions correctly might TOTALLY be an accomplishment worth celebrating!
Don’t forget that prizes don’t have to be stickers or snacks or any physical monetary thing. Prizes can be as simple as giving yourself a certain amount of guilt-free time off during your school day. Maybe let yourself scroll TikTok for 10 minutes for every hour of intense studying. Maybe finally mastering a difficult topic gives you 20 minutes of uninterrupted screen time during your regular school hours.
You know in your heart what you’d rather be doing instead of whatever difficult thing you’re trying to study, so let that be the light at the end of your tunnel!
4. Get up
Sitting all day can put your brain and your body to sleep…which is the WORST way to try and learn anything! This is QUADRUPLED for kinetic learners (those who prefer learning with physical assignments as opposed to sitting and reading/watching things happen). How can you learn and fall asleep at the same time??
The good thing about homeschooling is that it’s super easy to add movement into your day regularly. I’m not talking about full-blown exercise (though that should be worked in daily as well…). I’m talking about getting up at some point every hour so your brain doesn’t drift off.
Whenever you feel like you’re falling asleep at the wheel, get up, blast your favourite song, and bounce around until it ends. Though it may feel dumb at first, doing stuff like this can be a game changer! Check out these other fun ways to BREAK UP YOUR DAY WITH MOVEMENT. There’s no reason this has to be challenging or progressive in any way. Do something fun and different - that’s all.
Also, if you’re a kinetic learner, and are struggling with the whole “learn by sitting and reading/watching videos” thing, check out my other blog post, Kinesthetic Learners: 9 Study Tips to Help You Excel in School. I get it - I’m 100% one of you!!!Adding kinetic elements to a basic text/video course is probably easier than you’d think, though. No curriculum changes are necessary at ALL if you’re like me and aren’t clever enough for that degree of creativity.
5. Location, Location, Location
Just like how sitting for too long can put your brain to sleep, so can staying in the same spot for too long. If you seem to be in that endless loop of reading the same sentence for 10 minutes straight, get up and change locations.
While having a proper study area can be useful for those times you need to get your brain to really engage, that area loses its power if you sit there the ENTIRE time. Seriously, your brain gets bored of its surroundings if they never change.
Find at least one other place to work when you have things that don’t HAVE to be done in your main workstation. Better yet, find three or four. If you can work outside occasionally, even BETTER! This doesn’t have to mean a formal desk space at all. Take your stuff to a floor somewhere, or a different chair, or a different room. Your bed may also be a solid option (though if you do this, maybe don’t crawl under the covers and go fully horizontal…the point isn’t TO fall asleep). You might even find that turning your current chair to face a different direction is all you need.
The more variety you can have in your surroundings, the more tools you have in your toolkit to tackle any difficulties.
Also, make sure your main study space isn’t facing a blank wall. It will feel no different than being stuck in the corner as a punishment. You might even start seeing stars, or the wall might start spinning whenever you look at it. In case you weren’t sure, yes, this IS a problem…and it means you might want to change something about your desk soon…
If you can have your desk face the window, that’s BRILLIANT. If not, there are a couple other ways to combat this. You can either pull your desk out from the wall and sit facing the room, or you can break up the wall with pictures/posters/other fun stuff. The main goal is to have other things in your field of vision besides emptiness.
6. Create a study crew
Homeschooling doesn’t have to mean alone or not-social - it just means you’re not regularly sitting in a classroom with a bunch of other same-aged people all day. Connect with other students and hang out virtually and physically if possible. These friends will help lift you up when you’re down and will even teach you things you wouldn’t have learned on your own. Chat about life, what you’re learning, etc.
It’s certainly a widespread myth that homeschoolers aren’t social. If anything, they tend to be MORE social because they have to make a conscious effort…and seriously, it’s WORTH making this effort!
Get involved in community groups and activities if you’re having trouble finding local connections. There are also a TON of homeschoolers who use Facebook groups to find people, so it’s certainly worth checking that out too if you’re totally lost!
Finding a motivated group of friends can also be a game changer to help with motivation. If you tell your friend what you did today, there’s some accountability to actually ACCOMPLISH something that’s worth telling them. You can also make up challenges and contests and make studying more interactive. If you hate math and they hate English, maybe you can both agree to sit down and study those simultaneously for a solid hour before hanging out and doing something together. As long as you both have a goal, it’ll be a motivating exercise for both of you!
If your lessons are relatively self directed, you may also be able to do joint research projects. Each one of you can research a certain aspect of a topic and you can share what you learned with the other(s). These are particularly great because the process of explaining something to someone else is the best way for you to fully learn/understand it yourself.
7. When all else fails, remember WHY
Whenever you’re finding it hard to study, remember the REASON you’re doing it. Though this may seem simpler for college students because they’ve presumably had more choice in their subjects, there are still fundamental reasons to learn.
You’re developing language skills so you can communicate clearly and be understood.
You’re developing math skills so you can balance books, understand your taxes, and problem solve real-life situations.
You’re learning history so you learn the mistakes and successes the world has had in the past…so you can help create a better future.
You’re learning science and geography so you understand the physical world around you.
By learning ANYTHING challenging, you’re also learning so many life skills that will help you wherever you go. You’ll learn how to learn so you can tackle any new obstacles. You’re learning self-motivation so you can do things yourself. You’re learning how to communicate and ask the right questions so you know how to get the right answers. You’re learning how to grasp concepts that weren’t even attainable last year.
Not everything is going to be fascinating and directly impactful, but that’s part of what school is about. You won’t always understand the reason for everything at every given moment. School is more about opening your mind up to the possibilities of the world rather than showing you everything you will ever need to survive in it (though hopefully that’s covered as well).
And, you’re right - there will be things you’ll learn that you sincerely will NEVER use. I don’t think I’ve graphed a function since grade 12, nor have I ever calculated the kinetic energy of an object in the real world. BUT. Learning how to learn these things is a skill in itself that cannot be ignored. That process is as much a take-away as the hard information your course is getting you to memorize.
Want more tips?
If you’re still looking for tips to get you through homeschooling, check out the A+ Academics at Home book linked below. I was once a new home learner myself, and I TOTALLY get the struggles that come along with it. It was one of the best learning experiences of my life, though, and it completely changed the way I view education. I want to help you on this journey to discover the excitement that comes with learning something on your own!
A+ Academics at Home - Finding Success Through Distance Learning
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