My biggest regret regarding school in general is sending my oldest to K at five years old. That one wins, hands down. Under no circumstances would I ever send a child that young out to the public school wolves--EVER. Now, regarding homeschool, I wish I would have paid more attention to my son's learning issues when he was younger. I believed he was just being lazy, when he had learning issues, one of which is dyslexia. It breaks my heart to think how hard I was on him for a while. If I could go back, I would worry less about keeping up with what they are doing in public school and focus more on what my children needed. I'm definitely getting better at doing this, but it is a long process. My younger child is benefitting from the mistakes I made with my older child. By the time I have grandchildren, I might have it figured out! lol
I tried to make my school look like a public school...for about a month LOL Big mistake. Other than that, we really just go with the flow and found our groove very quickly. Even when our groove change...it just flowed naturally and was never an issue. Mistakes? What would I do different? I'd say never put the kids in PS but I'm actually grateful for the experience as it's motivation on rough days, I know PS doesn't work and isn't an option....
My biggest mistake was waiting until 5th grade! Then, like JosieB, I tried to keep that going at home! What would i do differently? I don't know. The last 4 years have been an awsome journey and each "mistake" has opened a new door!
I would have waited until later elementary or middle to begin Mystery of History or not attempted volume three this year. While they loved the first book and enjoyed the second, the third was just not at all right for us at the time. I wish I had not tried to make it work so long this year. I wish I would have done what Math U See told me to do and not move on until math facts were known. I would have kept things more fun and less school-y for longer than pre-K and K. I wish I would have taken better advantage of our membership to the children's museum. I wish I would have taken the boys to my parents when we lived closer and my dad still had health enough to garden so they could work with him outside.
The mistake I made at first, was trying to duplicate public school. There is not the time, energy, resources... to do this. We changed to having our main focus on reading, writing and arithmetic Jody.
For me it was expecting that learning would be logical, sequential, and methodical. Not all children learn that way.
What mistakes didn't I make?! I failed to recognize my kids' strengths and weaknesses and teach accordingly. I failed to practice self-control with my temper and made some days truly miserable for my kids when things didn't go well. Those are things I wish I could change. My other mistakes aren't so bad because we all learned from those.
I have no regrets. LOL - if you believe that, I have a bridge for sale in NYC. LOL Hmmmmmm.....not sure, I think I would have been more patient with my daughter and let her learn at her own pace and not pressure her so much. She's such a high stress kid, and I think how I approached her schooling in the early years was way to structured for her. Some days, I wish she'd relax a bit on herself. But I realize that I set that presidence way too early, and she cannot let it go. I did much better with my son, and my youngest than I did with ehr starting out. She's my beta tester! LOL
I think the big one is when I stop trying to homeschool based on our own strengths/weaknesses/values, and start comparing myself to everyone else. It drains our energy and fun. We do so much better when we keep our focus on why we are doing this, on what our family values, where our kids strengths/weaknesses are. We have fun, and we do life together. Much less like pushing a boulder up a hill!
Doubting myself and the kids too much when things were not working. Had I moved on to another aproach sooner we could have saved time and frustration. It was easier with the second student. I knew to back up and reapproach a given subject or learning objective and change curriculum as needed.
Loosing my temper when the kids weren't getting a concept.. I still do that from time to time.. And honestly, it has to do with the fact that I feel that we are "getting behind" when this happens.. I constantly compare my kids to public school kids and what they are learning. All of that because my kids will most likely be returning to public school in a few years the boys are already there.. :/ Second guessing that option though.. I HATE public school!!!!
