Create Your Homeschool Vision First

EP189: Can starting with a vision instead of a curriculum revolutionize your homeschooling experience? Discover how to create a personalized, realistic plan that meets your child's unique needs and aligns with your family's lifestyle in this episode of the Art of Homeschooling podcast. Drawing from over 25 years of homeschooling and 15 years of coaching, Jean Miller shares invaluable tips on crafting a homeschool vision that simplifies your plans, prevents overwhelm, and sets you up for success. Learn why rushing to buy resources can backfire and how a clear, customized vision can make your homeschooling journey more fulfilling.

Find the Show Notes Here (www.artofhomeschooling.com/episode189)

Inspired at Home Membership (www.artofhomeschooling.com/inspiredathome)

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:09

You're listening to the Art of Homeschooling podcast, where we help parents cultivate creativity and connection at home. I'm your host, jean Miller, and here on this podcast you'll find stories and inspiration to bring you the confidence you need to make homeschooling work for your family. Let's begin Well. Hello, hello and welcome to this episode all about you and how to make homeschooling work for your family. I'm calling this episode Create your Own Vision First, because here's what I know from my own homeschooling experience of over 25 years homeschooling and now working with homeschooling parents from all over the world for the past 15 years or so we all have the tendency to start homeschool planning in the wrong place. Picture this You've just decided to homeschool your kiddos, or you're ready to start planning a new homeschooling year. Now where do you start? By searching for and choosing a curriculum, am I right? Or by looking for books and resources to teach the different subjects for the ages and grades your kiddos will be in? But here's what I want you to know to be true A much better place to start is by creating your own vision of the year first, and here's why, when you buy all the resources first, before you have a vision for your year, before you have a sense of what your child needs in the coming year, you will overbuy. I've seen this happen over and over and over again. You'll think you need it all and continue accumulating more and more, purchasing more and more. This actually leads to overwhelm and second-guessing ourselves and we end up frozen by indecision. I want to caution you. That's what I'm here for today. Don't buy all the resources first and end up with more than you can use. And, by the way, a curriculum package is a resource. Because here's the thing when you purchase multiple resources for teaching the same grade or topic, each one will have its own approach. Each one will have a different angle of vision and sometimes, my friend, they even conflict with each other. Instead, I want you to create your own vision first, decide what your child or children need right now and in the coming year. Then begin to map that out in a realistic plan. That out in a realistic plan, maybe start with a list of the subjects and then topics within those subjects. If you're inspired by the Waldorf approach, you can find a list of typical block topics on my website. I'll put a link to that in the show notes which you can find at artofhomeschoolingcom, slash, episode 189. Here's an example.

Speaker 1: 3:46

For you Say you're teaching second grade. So in second grade we bring a main lesson block of animal fables, which can be four weeks long or so, and through those stories we can teach the language arts skills our children need, such as word families, vowel teams, whatever it might be. So children of this age really connect with animal stories, and then we can teach some skills along with those stories. And before you purchase any resources, any curriculum or books, you want to think about what kinds of animal stories will your child connect with most and what skills do they need to learn this year? Those are the kinds of decisions to make first. That will help you create a picture of your year so you can teach your children what they need to learn and you can also factor in what your year ahead might look like for your family.

Speaker 1: 4:52

The parents who see success with homeschooling learn to make a plan that has this vision created first and that's simple and more customized to them and their kiddos and family. By doing that, by keeping things simple and learning how to customize and personalize the lessons, we increase the chances of actually following through on our plans and meeting our children right where they are. So here's what I'm inviting you to do today Make a decision to make homeschooling easier and not harder. Your plans need to be so simple that you consistently implement them. How many times have we made those lists that include 17 or more things to do in a day and we just get to one or two, and then we end up feeling defeated, discouraged, like there's something wrong with us and we wonder how everyone else can do this, but we can't. Here's another hard truth the busier you are, the simpler you need your homeschool plans to be, and creating your own personal planning system is the very best way to make this happen.

Speaker 1: 6:19

Every year, right around this time of year, and as I'm recording this video, I'm leading a group of homeschoolers through my plan it out process of six steps to planning an awesome homeschooling year. Of course, it starts with your vision, and every year, we focus on how to simplify and customize. I want you to ask yourself this key question how can you keep from putting too much on your plate? Because trying to do too many things is just a setup for disappointment, discouragement and even giving up. It's better to finish a few things than to have a whole bunch of unfinished things at the end of the day, week, block or even year. This is why we start with the vision and work toward creating our own personal planning system.

Speaker 1: 7:17

There is no one-size-fits-all curriculum or homeschool plan, but there is one that's just right for you and that's the one you create. I want to empower you to create that and continue to revise your plan regularly to make it your own as you go along. The starting point get to know yourself and your child or children. Create your own overarching vision first, before making other decisions, because you're the leader in your homeschool and then only use curriculum which, by the way, a homeschool curriculum is basically someone else's plan for their children. So you only use curriculum as a starting point or a resource or one example of how it can be done.

Speaker 1: 8:14

So that's my message for this week, as many of you are in the midst of or contemplating summer planning for the upcoming homeschool year. Don't buy all the resources first before you have a vision for your year. Flip the script and create your own vision first. That's what I help homeschoolers do every single day, and I'd love to help you too. So I'll put some links in the show notes for how I might be able to help you, be sure to check those out at artofhomeschoolingcom slash episode 189. Thanks so much for listening and I'll catch you next time. That's all for today, my friend, but here's what I want you to remember Rather than perfection, let's focus on connection. Thanks so much for listening and I'll see you on the next episode of the Art of Homeschooling podcast. Thank you.