Falling Behind in Homeschooling

hello homeschool moms do you feel like you are falling behind in homeschooling if so I can so relate I have felt like I was falling behind so many times over the course of my 14 years of homeschooling especially during this time of year when other homeschool friends are posting on social media about how they only have two weeks left to school or one week left of school or wouldn't you know they finish the curriculum early and they get to enjoy more summer yet we are sitting here on maybe week 20 of a 36 week curriculum thinking I am so far behind and then don't we start to doubt ourselves and think we're terrible homeschool moms and we're ruining our kids yeah I can so relate because I have been there so in this video I want to give you some encouragement I want to share with you what I think are the five most common reasons why we feel like we're falling behind in homeschooling but notice what I said there I said feel like we are falling behind in homeschooling I think that a lot of times the reasons we feel like we're falling behind are actually because we are enjoying the benefits of homeschooling we just have to change our mindset so I want to talk about that in this video the first four points that I'm going to share with you the first four reasons why I think we feel like we're falling behind in homeschooling really are just that we feel like it but we really aren't but you know what point number five is sometimes we really have dropped the ball and we need to do some things to kind of get back on track so I'm going to talk about that as well towards the end of the video but let's jump in and get started because I want to so encourage you especially during this time of year one of the reasons that we often feel like we are falling behind in homeschooling is because we're moving in our child's own pace but isn't this a benefit to homeschooling the fact that our child doesn't have to move at the pace of a classroom or what some random person has deemed a normal pace for a particular grade our child can move at their own pace if we need to speed things up because they're really understanding something and strain it quickly we can speed it up but on the flip side we can slow it down now when we have to slow it down that's when we start to feel like we're falling behind because we're not getting through a curriculum in an entire year it might take us a year and a half it might take us two years to get through one particular curriculum for a subject that our child is struggling in but here we need to actually change our mindset because we're not behind we're enjoying the benefit of homeschooling and so instead of you know at the end of the year looking at it and going oh my goodness we only got through half of the curriculum instead look at the progress you've made and say wow we got through half of the curriculum and my child enjoyed it they learned so much they've retained the information they understood it Wow we are right on track this was a good successful year do you see the difference you're getting through the exact same amount of curriculum but in one sense you're looking at it like wow we're so far behind we only finished half the curriculum and with a different mindset in a different perspective we're looking at it going wow my child retained so much they enjoyed so much they learn so much they mastered so much because I was able to slow it down and let's be honest if we push a child faster than they're ready to learn we might get through the whole curriculum but they're not gonna have learned anything much or retained it they're gonna be frustrated and so next year you're gonna be building on frustration and a lack of mastering that particular subject think of it in a different way go hey if I slow things down if I'm moving at their own pace then next year when we pick up the curriculum and we continue on then we are going to be building on this great solid foundation that we have laid by the fact that we were able to move at my child's own pace oh my goodness isn't homeschooling wonderful but sometimes we get so caught up in finishing that correct you love that we lose sight of these wonderful benefits of homeschooling which the first one is moving at our child's own pace so let's now look at a second reason why we might feel like we're falling behind in homeschooling another reason is that we're taking time to deal with heart issues or character issues maybe you have a child who is you're dealing with laziness they have anger issues they're disrespectful they're disobedient they are just exhibiting heart issues that is it's very clear these are sin issues in your child's heart this is going to mean that you're not going to be able to get all of the lessons done in a particular school day that you want to because you're having to stop quite frequently to deal and address your child's heart issues and so we can often feel like we've fallen behind at the end of the year because we didn't get you know we didn't get very far through the curriculum we didn't finish everything that we wanted to finish but again we need to change our mindset here we need to remember that more important than getting curriculum done more important than academics is our children's hearts we want to be using all of these opportunities that we have at home as we're homeschooling them these challenges that are coming up these anger issues these laziness issues disrespect whatever it is as they come up when you're homeschooling these are wonderful opportunities amazing opportunities opportunities that we should be thanking God for where we can address our children's hearts where we can be letting them know in a loving way helping them to recognize the sin in their heart and pointing them to Christ pointing them to the Savior who can save them from that sin in their heart these aren't great opportunities so if you have been feeling like you're falling behind because you have been dealing with a lot of heart issues this year with your children let me encourage you as you look back over the year don't just look back at the academics and how much curriculum you got done to judge whether this was accessible year or not look back at all of the times that God has given you to address the heart issues in your child maybe it doesn't seem like you've even made that much progress with those heart issues but again let me encourage you that this is something that takes time it takes time for the Holy Spirit to work in our children's life I mean he could work just like that but oftentimes he works slowly and just our faithful parenting our faithful discipleship with our kids and bringing exposing their sin to them letting them know about these heart issues that they're having and pointing them to Christ and helping them to know how to better handle these things and let me tell you something this is going to be more important for your child than academics in the long run and here's why if we have a child who is brilliant absolutely brilliant but doesn't love the Lord everything they do is going to be in vain but if our children grow up and they love the Lord yet they have some gaps in their education which let me tell you everybody has gaps in their education but if we didn't get to all of these things that we were hoping to because we were building character disciple in our kids addressing their heart issues when they grow up and they go out into the adult world let me tell you something they love the Lord they want to serve Him they are going to do great things for the Lord why not because they're brilliant but because God can use anyone who has a heart for him and who wants to follow him so let me just encourage you that if you feel like you're falling behind because you've been dealing with a lot of heart issues this year that you are exactly where you need to be the academics are not as important important as those heart issues in developing character into our kids I tell ya I think their spouse I think their future employer I think their friends are gonna really appreciate appreciate if you have built those fruit help your child putting them to Christ and help them to build a godly character patience kindness self-control those are things that other adults want to see and their friends and their employees and their spouses so again just giving you an encouragement if you feel like you're falling behind because you've been spending a lot of time on heart issues don't worry you're not behind you're doing exactly what God wants to do and really again this is a benefit of homeschooling that we have all these opportunities to pour into our kids and deal with their heart and to point them back to Christ and we have all of these opportunities to slow things down and and address those heart issues because we're not rushing all over the place we are homeschooling our kids are with us and we have these opportunities and we can choose to slow down the academics to make time for heart issues a third reason that we often feel like we are falling behind in homeschooling is because life happens let's be honest life happens homeschooling is kind of a lifestyle isn't it it's it's us living life with our kids and we are putting in academics and learning into the mix but life sometimes happens we are pregnant and we don't feel good we have a new baby we've got sickness that runs through the house over and over and over and over again we've got elderly parents that we need to care for we've had big moves that we've had to take I mean things happen in life and it kind of puts the brakes on homeschooling a little bit or the academic part of just getting down into the books and so we can often feel like we're falling behind because we didn't have a whole lot of time for academics again here's where we need to change our mindset because living life with our kids and having them experience these life circumstances is learning it's learning they are developing character they are developing life skills they're learning these things in those life circumstances and to be honest the book stuff sometimes it goes in one ear and out the other I mean how much stuff do you remember from your childhood that you learned but how much do you remember about trials that you have gone through situations that you have gone through as a child and so our children can certainly learn from these life circumstances and they are growing and God is going to use them now I do want to say something here these life circumstances they can benefit our children in amazing ways but they also can hinder our children and almost be a disadvantage and I think there's one thing that makes the distinction between whether these life circumstances are going to be a benefit to our kids or a hindrance or kind of hurt our kids and again before I share this one reason again remember the sovereignty of God God's in control so I'm not saying that if if you do this or you don't do what I'm about to share with you you're either gonna mess up your kid I mean God's in control right he's in control but I think we God is going to use us in in the lives of our kids and I think one of the ways that we can either bless our kids in these life circumstances and build them up and make this a good opportunity for them or not is our response our actions our attitude in these life situations let me explain there have been so many times in my homeschooling journey where we have had to put the brakes on homeschooling because I am pregnant in sick I just had a baby and I'm tired we have had issues with kids we have had family members that we needed to care for on and on and on but there was a season in particular that I want to share with you where I was on bed rest and I was on bed rest because the life of my child and my life were at risk this was a stressful time we had people coming in to help us and you know I look back on that we didn't get a whole lot of school work done but boy did it benefit my kids the way that they saw God work the they grew in their relationship with the Lord their trust in him the way that they saw the body of Christ come alongside us to help us what a testimony that was the way think they saw God provide but here's the thing my response to this situation could have been really god I have to be on bedrest really and you want me to homeschool oh people are bringing me meals and I hate these meals are terrible they taste disgusting oh and how's our food allergy in it I could have had an attitude of a gratefulness of bitterness of anger towards God and that would have been a hindrance to my kids because then they would have learned that when challenging life circumstances come along we get angry at God that we have a right to be bitter that we can be ungrateful for things that that's not a good teaching moment in these life circumstances but instead again I didn't do this perfectly a lot of times I'm over here doing the wrong thing in this situation but I tried to not in my own strength because trust me I was not in my own self thrilled about this situation that I was in but every morning I'd say lord help me to have the attitude not my will but yours show me how to be joyful in this show me how to be grateful in this situation and that's what I tried to do through the power of the Holy Spirit trust me this was not my own power but through the power of the Holy Spirit to look at these life situations the situation that we were in and then to share that with my kids just say man do you see how God provided for us we needed somebody to take me to the doctors and to watch you do you see how God provided to people who could help us do you so God is bringing food and meals to us yeah they might not be what we love yeah some of us might not be able to eat it because it has a food allergy in it but yet God is showing us how he provides do you see the body of Christ coming alongside us that's how the body of Christ is supposed to function yeah today was a difficult day kids but how can we praise God in it maybe we can't even think of anything to praise God in that situation that circumstance but yet I was trying to teach my kids that we can always praise God for who he is who could always praise him for what he has done for us and giving us the gift of salvation this time in our lives was difficult it slowed us down it kept us from getting schoolwork done it often made me feel like I was falling behind but yet God used it in tremendous ways which I think are way more important that any lesson in math or science or history that they could have gotten that year so I just want to encourage you if life circumstances are slowing you down it's okay it's okay your children are learning and growing and I would just encourage you that every day when you get up maybe you just had a baby and you are exhausted get up and and just ask the Lord if we don't get to the academics at all Lord how can I use today to glorify you to point my kids to you to show my kids how great you are because really that's the most important thing and I think our kids are gonna learn a lot and our kids can learn if you've had a new baby our older kids can learn by making meals by bringing you diapers by learning to be patient with them with the baby to to to be to sacrifice their own desires and their own things that they want to do so many things that can be learned in life circumstances that I think are way more important that what then what can be learned in a textbook so again feeling behind because of life circumstances let me encourage you those life circumstances are probably the very thing that God wants to use to teach your kids and grow your kids in some areas that no textbook could ever do the fourth reason that we might feel like we're falling behind is because we have unrealistic expectations let's jacent moms we often try to do too much if you're falling behind in a home screen or at least feel like you are the reality might just be that you're trying to do too much you've got way too high of expectations for your kids for the school day for what you have can accomplish in the amount of time that the Lord has given us I mean only 24 hours in a day and we do need to sleep we do need to spend time with the Lord we do need to have some fun spend time as a family be with friends cook meals and eat and all of that stuff so we just might be trying to do too much and so this is really again evaluating what is really important what things that you have on your plate for homeschooling are the most important and with what things can you let go of I mean if you're trying to teach Latin but you're also doing maybe some really rigorous history curriculum or something this might be the time to set Latin aside maybe pick it up another year when you're doing some lighter things and some of the other subjects so again you can't do everything if you're feeling like you're falling behind might just be because you've got too much on your plate you've expect you're expecting too much of yourself and your kids and it's just time to reevaluate and set some things aside for another time the fifth and final reason why I think we often feel like we are falling behind in homeschooling is because we are what we mean we're not falling behind in homeschooling but disorganization has gotten the best of us and we're not really being good stewards at the time that God has given us and this usually starts to happen midway through this school year do you know what I'm saying I mean we might have been pretty organized and structured and have a very good flow to our day but life happens and towards the middle of the school year we kind of lose that rhythm that we had those textbooks that we had a really nice place for at the beginning of the school year our kids don't remember to put back I mean do you know what I'm saying you might have like this great 20 30 minute block of time where you could get a math lesson done our history lesson done but you waste almost all of that time trying to find the history book or the math book or the pencil or the paper and so then when you go to do the lesson you've got five minutes to cram things in or and you have to say hey we'll do the rest of it tomorrow but get it guess what tomorrow you're not gonna be able to find the book again I mean this organization has gotten the best of us or we're not being good stewards of our time sometimes this is well it's our fault I hate to say it but times it is our fault we need to acknowledge when things are our fault so that we can change them I don't know about you but I like to sleep in and I'm not saying we can't sleep in but sometimes I just drag through the whole day and never really get going and I just set a really bad rhythm and tone for our home school days but if I can hey if you're a family that sleeps in like we like to kind of sleep in that's fine but I need to be a good steward of my family's time by saying when we are up and ready here's the rhythm for our day we're going to eat breakfast we're going to do chores then we're going to start on school work I'm going to take a break after a certain amount of time and our kids and as need to know a rhythm or a flow for the day so that we can most effectively use the time that God has given us and nobody knows what's going on then you're gonna waste time saying no we're supposed to be doing this and they're gonna go wrong I thought I had five minutes to finish reading this book that I was on no no we need to be doing the math lesson well I really want to do the science lesson no sweetie we're doing the math lesson you know you see what I'm saying and there's all this dialogue it's taking up time but if our kids know this is the flow and the rhythm of the day then we're going to be better stewards of our time and so I just encourage you that you know if homeschooling has got if this organization has gotten the best of you if you haven't been the best steward of your time let me give you a couple things to think about and to do so that we can get back on track the first thing is to acknowledge that disorganization has gotten the best of us or that we haven't been the best stewards of the time that God has given us and this is gonna happen numerous times throughout the school year don't feel like you're a failure or you're terrible or give yourself a guilt trip because of it let's just acknowledge it if we don't acknowledge it we can't change but if we acknowledge it we can acknowledge that either it was a life circumstance it was totally out of our control the reason why things got crazy or we can acknowledge that it was our fault I don't know how many times I have had to acknowledge that I have just plain been lazy and I've had to confess that to the Lord and then move on so first of all we need to acknowledge that disorganization has gotten the best of us or we haven't been a good steward of our time but secondly we need to pray about and get input from other people about a plan of action to try to make things a little less disorganized and to be a better steward of our time definitely pray about it and seek the Lord about it ask your spouse for some input maybe ask a homeschool friend that's probably going through the same thing that you are dialogue and see if you can come up with some ideas on how to get things to be a little bit more organized in your home I'm not talking about redoing the whole classroom I'm just saying you know maybe throw out a tub and just tell the kids when we're done with school everything is going in this tub so at least we know when it comes time to do school we can dig through the tub but it's just it's the tub it's right here we don't have to be looking all over the house so whatever it is it can be super simple you guys super simple but think of a plan so acknowledge that disorganization it's gotten the best of you and that you might not be the best steward of the time that God has given you and then make a plan prayerfully make a plan and with the input of others and then finally and this is so important no matter what reason you like you're falling behind in homeschooling this one is so important move at a normal pace if you feel like you're falling behind in homeschooling because it's just you know you're moving at your child's own pace or you're dealing with heart issues or life circumstances or you've got unrealistic expectations or disorganize disorganisation has gotten the best of you or you haven't been a good steward of the time that God has given you whatever it is I know what our tendency is though we want to get through that curriculum right let me encourage you to continue moving at a normal pace do not do not I'm talking to myself here as well let's not try to cram 16 weeks of school work into the four weeks left that we have a school that isn't gonna do anybody any good I mean seriously it's gonna be like turning on a fire hose for our kids we're like shootin water out of this firehose at them thinking maybe they will drink some of it and retain some of it let me tell you what your kids are gonna do they're gonna close their mouths and they're gonna turn their back and they're not going to retain or get any of that water and they're actually going to be frustrated at you and at homeschooling because it's not gonna be any fun so do not try to cram all of that curriculum into a short amount of time instead move at a normal pace now if we're moving at a normal pace yes that means we're not gonna get through all of that curricula we're not gonna get through 16 weeks of curriculum in four weeks so here's two things that I think you can do the first one is that you can just move it a normal pace for four weeks and wherever you end you can say we are stopping there and we will pick it up again next year just do you see what I'm saying we you move it in our own pace yes stop and you pick up that curriculum next year and when you finish that curriculum extra then you can get new curriculum for that subject but don't cram it all in move it a normal pace and then just pick it up next year who said you had to finish a textbook in one year who said you had to do it from September you know to Mayer June why can't you finish it up in September October November December of the next year absolutely okay so that's one option and part of that could also be move it your your child's you know move at a normal pace and when you get to that four weeks you're done you're not going to pick it up next year maybe you don't want to use that curriculum ever again maybe that's one of the reasons why you're feeling like you're falling behind in homeschooling is because you didn't like the curriculum and nobody was ever motivated to do the curriculum you didn't want to teach if they didn't want to learn it you're sick of the curriculum move at a normal pace for weeks when you're done with school keep done with the curriculum nobody said you had to finish curriculum either and most public and private schools do not finish all of the curriculum for every subject so if you don't finish the curriculum it's okay so you could just be done with it the other thing that you can do is to look at what you know sixteen weeks or whatever number of weeks that you have left in that curriculum look at that curriculum and say of these things assignments and activities and and all of that what is the most important that I think is going to be the most important for my child to learn and then pull out four weeks worth of work or however much time you have left for school pull up out that much to do and just forget about the rest so maybe you realize maybe you're on you know chapter 20 and you think you know I don't think chapter 21 is very important but chapter 22 maybe the first half of that is important but I'm not going to have them do the assignment for it we're just gonna read that and then in chapter 3 I don't think we need to read it but maybe it's science and there's this really cool experiment we're just gonna do that experiment and they'll get exposed to those ideas in the experiment and you know and so on and so forth do you see what I'm saying so you just you look at what you have left you fight figure out what is the most Horton's that you can sit in that last amount of time that you're gonna be doing school and you're going to be moving at a normal pace don't cram everything in just don't I'm telling you from experience it's going to make you frustrated your kids frustrated and they're not going to retain anything so it's not going to do anybody any good except to make baby make you feel good because you know you finished the curriculum but that's not the point the point of homeschooling isn't to finish curriculum it's to educate our kids and to train them and to point them to Christ so if you've been feeling like you have been falling behind in homescreen I hope this was an encouragement to you I'm right there with you you guys I am seeing so many people say that they are done and we still have quite a ways to go and I've been going through my kids school work and doing some of the same things that I'm telling you to do we're looking at what we have left and if it's a curriculum that I want to be done with at the end of this year I'm looking at what's the most important thing and leaving the rest out and so I'm right there with you I am not something that's like whew we're finished in the curriculum early a couple kids wrapped up a few things early but for the most part I could I could feel like I'm falling behind but I'm not I know I'm exactly where God wants me to be but I do have to make some changes and kind of plan for how I'm going to tweak and try and change things so that we can finish school when I would like to be done with school although I don't know about you but I would have liked to be done with school maybe like two months ago that would have been nice but realistically speaking it would be nice to wrap up in another month or so so we're making plans accordingly I know this video was a little bit longer than most of my videos but I just felt like there was so much that was so important I didn't want to leave anything out I hope this video really was an encouragement to you I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments down below and give it a thumbs up share it with other homeschool moms if you found it helpful thank you so much for watching and I will see you again hopefully really soon in another video

Channel: Janelle Knutson

Views: 6,306

Rating: 4.9257293 out of 5

Keywords: homeschool, homeschooling, falling behind in homeschooling, homeschool mom, homeschool curriculum

Id: z8qPykYRplU

Length: 31min 0sec (1860 seconds)

Published: Mon May 21 2018