My Three Biggest Homeschool Struggles as a Mom

I usually write about homeschool curriculum. But today, as a struggling homeschool mom, I’m writing about my greatest homeschool struggles. What has made them worse, and what has made them better?

I hope you enjoy reading this blog post. If you want to do my course on how to homeschool, click here.

Please comment if you find this helpful. I’d love to hear your thoughts 🙂

My Biggest Homeschool Struggle: Motivation

The greatest homeschool struggle I can think of right now has been motivating my son to do his schoolwork, which he’s not interested in.

Sometimes, we’ve struggled with Math; sometimes, we’ve struggled with Reading.

When my son got frustrated, it was often a reaction to my frustration that he didn’t get a particular concept. If I insisted he does the work and Luke was at his wit’s end, it often had a whiplash effect, and I created a wall in my son’s head where he started to hate that subject.

But after a while, I realized this. So, I tried to be as hands-off as possible and came in only when Luke needed me.

Being invited in again was lovely. But, now, I made sure I would be encouraging – not discouraging.

It’s still a struggle, but I’ve realized it’s more an issue of my pride in wanting him to learn more than he can.

And it’s also a matter of dealing with my woeful lack of patience.

Curriculum Choices Helped A LOT!

Another big thing that has helped my homeschool struggles is getting teacher-led video instructions from BJU Press (a Christian homeschool curriculum).

Our original curriculum was with BJU Press, but I got the Teacher’s Manual version.

Doing these manuals sapped my time!

And then, because I didn’t have the time to sit down with him, he’d skip and miss sometimes essential things. So we’d have to go back, which was frustrating for both of us.

With video lessons, I can sit with my daughter, play, and let Luke enjoy the online lessons.

These are way more fun than what I was doing with the Teacher’s Manuals.

At least, if I’d followed the manual, it would have been fun. But it would have taken half the day to get it right. That’s time I don’t have!

Second Biggest Struggle: Criticism

The second biggest homeschool struggle I can think of is criticism by friends, but more so by family.

Being doubted by your family hurts.

That’s because you look up to them and want to please them.

It makes you happy.

But if you look up to them and they are displeased with you, that makes you sad.

In my own family, I had an older mother figure say I shouldn’t homeschool because ‘homeschooling is cruel’ as it isolates children and doesn’t give them a chance to socialize.

These words hurt because she knew I was homeschooled.

It also hurt because I love homeschooling, had a great experience, and planned on homeschooling my own children.

My plan for overcoming this difficulty is to let my gorgeous children speak for themselves.

Currently, all the grandchildren are in public school, and mine are homeschooled.

I hope that one day, she can see my children are no worse off.

While I’m not a people pleaser, I would like to please this particular individual because I love her and pray for her often.

The Third Great Homeschool Struggle: Socialization

I’m getting further down the list, but another big struggle is finding a good Christian homeschool group in our area.

My son is only six, and Christian homeschool groups are in the area, but this has yet to work with my work time.

The one I attended for a while was quite transitory, and the times and place kept changing.

I’d love a group where we can simultaneously do academics (like a homeschool co-op) and some excellent homeschool socialization.

But at the moment, there are only secular groups.

While socializing with homeschool groups only happens a little, there are plenty of socialization opportunities.

The children go to church and socialize.

They are present on Bible study night.

We have the neighbors over often.

We hold regular dinner parties.

They see their family who babysit them.

They attend two to three sporting opportunities.

Luke and Penny run a homeschool entrepreneurial business on the weekends and interact with customers.

All these things happen every week.

While I want them to socialize with other homeschoolers, socializing with other people does a perfectly adequate job of helping my children learn the social norms and expectations they will meet.