How to Start Homeschooling (especially if you feel overwhelmed!)

The trick is to step back and get grounded before you begin.

In today’s video, I’m covering 5 key things I recommend any mom do when she’s first starting out.

These are key things that will help you whether you are beginning with a preschooler or a kindergartener … OR you’re pulling your kids out of middle school or high school.

 I recommend you do these things before you --

• Pick a curriculum
• Plan the school year
• Decide on a daily schedule
• Plan fieldtrips and activities
• Find a co-op

Or even learn the laws of your state

Seriously. These 5 need to come first.

Then you can do everything else on the list above. 🙂

Transcript

Hello. My name's ToriAnn Perkey, and from my homeschool to your homeschool, today I want to talk about how to start homeschooling, especially if you're feeling overwhelmed.

You know, you're just sitting there, you're thinking, I need to get started, or I'm thinking about starting and there are just so many things. And I don't know if I can do this. And the thoughts are swirling in your head, and you're feeling overwhelmed. I want to take just a little bit of that overwhelm out today. We're going to talk about five things that you can do right at the very beginning to get you settled and get you going just a little bit better.

So the first one I want to talk about is Breathe. You've got this. You have decided to homeschool your children. You are the number one person who is going to be able to do this. You are going to figure it out because you're taking the time to do the research, to read, to watch videos like this and other videos. You're talking to people. So breathe. You're going to figure it out.

And that actually leads right into number two. Give yourself permission to take the time to figure it out. You cannot figure it all out in one day. It is a really big task. You are taking on the responsibility of educating your children. You know that. This is not something you're going to figure out in 15 minutes. So give yourself permission that it's going to take time. Give yourself the time to figure it out and not just before you start, but also as you get going. You're still going to be figuring this out. I've been doing this for a really long time. I am still figuring things out, so give yourself permission.

Number three, remember that nothing you do in your homeschool will ever be perfect. It's impossible. No matter how much you plan, no matter how much you try, no matter how much you think you have it figured out, something will happen to change everything. That's the nature of kids. That's the nature of homeschooling. So right now, remind yourself it's not going to be perfect and that's okay because done is better than perfect. If you get started, if you dig in, if you start trying, you're going to figure things out that you can't even figure out until you get started. So give yourself permission to not let it be perfect.

Okay, number four. Number four is remember that you're the Mama. Remember that you love your kids more than anybody else. And because of that you have a special connection, a special awareness, a special ability to know what they need. And because of that you are the best suited person to figure out the very best thing that they are going to need. And in your homeschool, you're going to custom and tailor and tweak and turn and get it just where it needs to be. And then things are going to shift, and you're going to tailor and twist and tweak and turn again. But because you're the Mama, you're not going to give up and you're not going to let anything keep you from figuring it out.

Number five -- the number five most important thing I recommend if you're just starting out and you want to figure this out is to create a vision for your homeschool. You need to know how, how to get from point a to point B and the way you figure that out is by knowing where point B is. It's by looking ahead and saying, where do I want this to end? And that's going to be different for you as it is for me as it for is for every other homeschool moms. So you can't look at someone else and say, I just want that vision. You can look at lots of visions and say that's ...and pick and choose and then create the one that's right for your family.

Now if you want some help doing step five, I actually have a free webinar that I would love to have you come take a look at. It's called Confident Homeschool Secrets. And one of the things we do in that webinar is we talk about how you create a vision for your homeschool. It's completely free. If that's something that you'd be interested in, just check out the link up above or down below. You know, wherever you're watching this video, and you can go check ...and you can go watch it and hopefully it will help you not only create a vision, but it will also talk about six other key things that you need to know in order to really get your homeschool in an awesome place. And it's all for you for free. So just check on that link up above, down below, wherever you're watching this video.

So five things, how to get started homeschooling. Number one, above everything else, breathe and remember, you've got this. I'm ToriAnn Perkey, and I make these videos every week so that you can be a successful and confident homeschool mom.

Save for later by pinning to your favorite Pinterest board!