Why I Started Over With New Homeschool Curriculum

 

How many times have you Started Over?

Sure, we have start overs everyday. But, how do you feel about start overs with new homeschool curriculum?

I spilled coffee on my outfit, let's start this over again. Locked myself out of the house or the car? Can I get a break or a do over? We have so many do overs throughout our day that it's a wonder we make it to bed on time. Starting Over for me came in series of storms and heartaches in our first year of homeschooling.  

Kindergarten was rough. I started out with My Father's World. As we got into our studies,  I realized that I wanted Math and Phonics at the forefront. I added extra worksheets but my son was getting bored with his work.

Then, I found Homeschool Buyers Co-op during an online search. I thought that I hit the Mother load. Homeschool supreme pay dirt, everything at my fingertips from videos to reviews. Time for new homeschool curriculum!

I bought Explode the Code for the computer and got the workbooks and readers from Christianbooks.com.  The fights that came each day was a like a battle in good old Yorktown, Virginia. You would think the Civil War had started again.

I screamed in frustration. My son cried out of disappointment & seeing me frustrated. I turned to my homeschool friends to find out new methods and what to teach during our first year. I got advice from them saying that it should be fun and not stressful. I was stressed out to the max between trying to be a teacher and mom. Surely, there had to be a balance.

As the year went on, I started to get more comfortable with what I was entrusted to do.  I tried using one last new homeschool curriculum (or so I thought!), Looney Tunes Phonics. I figured this one would work because it was colorful and my son loves Looney Tunes. To my  surprise, it worked for a while. Then, he hated sitting in front of a computer.

After much trial and error, I had to sit back and figure out where I needed to start over. I had to reevaluate what I was doing wrong and what my son wanted instead.

It's Okay To Start Over With New Homeschool Curriculum

He passed Kindergarten and it was on to first grade. I took a much different approach. I let him choose what he wanted to do, instead of jumping on a main stream curriculum I know that's not to our taste. I started looking to Apologia for science,  All About Reading for phonics & spelling, and Horizon Math from Alpha Omega Publishing.  First grade was the first of many start overs in my homeschool journey.

Oh snap! Here comes second grade! I was thinking that I needed to build him up more to get him on the path to greatness. I ended up buying Sonlight for the library content alone and was blown away by its history and science. Math was great and science was amazing to the tenth degree. History, however, was an overload for us. We were both ready to get school over with. I looked back at our first grade year and remembered asking him what he would like to do for school.

Psalm 145:14 God gives a hand to those down on their luck, gives a fresh start to those ready to quit. (The Message)

 

Fast forward to third grade and fourth grade as our next start overs as a homeschool family. After going to a local homeschool convention and getting the refreshment that I truly needed, I found my Zen with homeschool. I realized it's not about push and drive but more about the sanity and well being of both you as teacher and child as a student.

[bctt tweet="Why I Started Over With New Homeschool Curriculum by Sarita-part of 20 Days of #Homeschooling Encouragement" username="busyboysbrigdade"]

 I encourage you to realize that each day, hour, and second. You can always have a start over moment.  You will never get them back, but you can flip the script and change it around. Turn any start over into a moment of growth, laughter and love.

Write down how many times you have started over in your homeschool day. Be mindful from the time you wake until bedtime, dealing with baby puke on the clothes, crayon on the walls, and juice on the carpet. God cleaned up our Start Over! He took the rag from our hands and said it's okay sweetheart, we can start over together!

 

Sarita is a homeschool mom of three. She loves planners (especially Erin Condren!) and Japanese anime. Sarita loves to share homeschool encouragement and her amazing sense of humor with all her friends and on Periscope.

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