Ask the Experts: How Do You Get Motivated to Start Another Year of Homeschooling?

Worthwhile Things are Often Hard…

How do I find motivation to start the new school year? After fourteen years, one graduate, one senior, a ninth, seventh, and fifth grader, and years to go, the short answer is, that I do not. Homeschooling is hard, and Seton is one of the most challenging programs.

It is HARD to go from lazy summer days to school again, especially if other kids around you have not started. But. And there’s always a but, isn’t there? As I tell my kids, worthwhile things are often hard. Don’t wait for the motivation to hit you.

It might never come.

Some say there are, in general, two types of back-to-school moms. The first is one for whom the idea of going back brings tears and feelings of being overwhelmed. It all feels too much for this mom. She can’t figure out where to start. The other kind wants to plan out the WHOLE ENTIRE YEAR because there is less to be anxious about if there is a plan. Schedules and lesson plans bring comfort and stability.

If thinking about the whole school year overwhelms you, take it one week, one day at a time. If that is still too much, do a “soft start” with just the bare bones for a week first. Start with math, religion, and literature/English, and go from there.

On the other hand, if planning helps you, take a week over the summer and plan out the whole year. I always print my kids’ lesson plans a quarter at a time, usually on a weekend. (Can you tell which mom I am?)

Then, that’s one less thing to do in the thick of homeschooling. And always ask God for the grace to help you.

Kristen Brown, Virginia

Planning, Organizing & Beautifying…

The start of a new homeschooling year was always my favorite time. Each new year brought new hopes, dreams, and supplies.

Of course, sometimes it also brought new challenges, like when a newborn was added to the mix or a balking child was dragging their feet. So, to stir up excitement and lessen anxiety, I would focus on planning, organizing, and beautifying in preparation.

My planning methods looked different at different stages in our homeschooling journey. Sometimes, I plan out our year one quarter at a time. Other times, I found it easier to lay out the entire year in advance.

Regardless of which method I employed, pre-planning was key to achieving our educational goals. Also, having the children’s planners completed meant they always knew what lessons or exercises needed to be done. Therefore, if I was busy tending to a baby, my students couldn’t claim they didn’t know what to do!

Organization solves many problems. Unfortunately, family life frequently stirs a bit of chaos into even the most organized spaces. So, I would reorganize all of our learning spaces (for us, it was a school closet and dining room table) and book boxes. Before the first day back, I made sure everyone’s supplies were in order and easy to locate.

Beautifying our environment looked like shaking out the crumbs from book boxes, placing new religious stickers on their pencil cases, discarding old paper scraps, and opening up space for new artwork.

I look forward to each new homeschooling year, and I hope you do, too. With a little pre-planning, you can increase the joy and decrease the challenges.

Tara Brelinsky, North Carolina

Homeschooling Motivation…

What motivates me each year to start another new year of homeschooling is the heat.

Once we have exhausted our summer activities and find that we have a large part of our day stuck inside because of the heat, I know it’s time to start thinking of the new school year.

I like to get started early with school, so when our other activities, such as co-op, youth group, and clubs, get started, we are well underway with school.

We live in a very homeschool-friendly area of NC, which offers homeschoolers many social, enrichment, and academic opportunities. I know that there will be a lot going on each year, and it is prudent to start schooling sooner rather than later.

Susan Brock, North Carolina