Homeschooling Review for Beginners: our first year

An honest review from a homeschooling mom for beginner after a year

As many other parents, I started homeschooling due to the global pandemic. In a million years, I never thought I would homeschool my kids. Especially English is my second language. But I did! And here is my honest thoughts about homeschooling my kids.

Who Am I?

I am a mom of 2 energetic healthy 6 and 4 years old.

I grew up in Vietnam and never heard of homeschooling until I had kids. I never thought homeschooling was for me because I wasn’t trained for it. It was my belief.

On top of that, English is my second language. How could I teach my kids in the language that I have not even mastered? Even though I went to university here and was able to communicate on a daily basis, I didn’t think I was good enough to teach. My second belief!

But the pandemic changed my life and beliefs about homeschooling and myself.

Children are learning from their mothers on the first day one they are here on this earth.

I was the one teaching them how to dress, go potty, say “daddy, mamma”, brush teeth, wash hands, eat different kinds of food, and many more. Was I trained for being a mother? NOPE!

I think being a mother is more difficult than being a teacher because there are no universities or classes for parenting. Not even a manual! 

Why do I homeschool my kids?

My son was at one of the best private school in the world. We love this school until this day. He had a wonderful experience and learnt so much there. Until pandemic, things changed.

Unexpected and unprepared but to be safe, we withdrew our kids from school a week before the shutdown happened. I didn’t know what to do at the time but grateful for our school and teachers. They acted fast and were well prepared to move all classes online in March 2020.

They did a wonderful job keeping 5-virtual-school day from 8am to 12pm. It was perfect for keeping my son busy.

However, through my 3 months observation, I just knew that virtual school was not for my son.

He was 5-year-old at the time. Couldn’t expect a 5-year-old sitting still in front of the computer for 45 minutes in each session. My son was confused and didn’t do well in his English class. He was behind his writing. His reading compared to his peers were clear. He barely read at that time.

Even though the school wasn’t expecting anything from students during this weird time, I still had one question in mind: if it was worth it for my son to sit in his virtual classes for 4 hours and not thrive in his class.

In addition, I, like other parents with virtual classes, became teacher’s assistance and worked extra on re-teaching our kids the subjects after school. Even I got confused with all the emails from math, language art, music, French, computer, social study, science and PE teachers about schedules, times, what materials to print and prepare before classes.

It was hectic and overwhelming for my son and myself. But we went through it and finished our school year gratefully.

Based on my observation, I had a conflict within me and wondered what if. I started my own research while I jumped right in teaching my son reading, writing, and math in June 2020.

2 months, only 2 months, my son read fluently and had better penmanship. I passed my own 2 months testing and decided to do homeschooling the next coming year.

With confidence, I withdrew my kids permanently from private schools. It was a mixed feeling because I wasn’t sure if I did the right thing. Deep down, I knew that teachers were trained to teach. School provided the best facility and safe structure for my kids that I couldn’t provide for them at home, like the science lab.

Fear kicked in! Doubt was sleeping with me! The critical voice questioned me every day. I registered my son to public school at the end of August 2020 as a backup plan. Just in case, if I didn’t do a good job, we still had a teacher from our public school supporting him.

But that didn’t work either. I couldn’t stand how much time my son had to spend on the computer from 8:30am to 3:00pm with one hour break in between for lunch. He wasn’t focused. He couldn’t sit still or pay attention to his teachers’ instructions. He played around if I didn’t watch him. After one month of trying public school combined with homeschooling, I was done.

In October 2020, I registered for homeschooling with our county. I made my decision! No matter what it took, I was all in mentally and physically. I wasn’t sure what I was doing but I knew it would be better for my kids. I learnt as I went. And I am happy that I did. 

How did I do it first year as homeschool beginner?

There is so much to learn and adjust. I didn’t know what to expect or do so I learned as I went. One thing I didn’t want to happen was overwhelming myself and my kids with tons of different subjects.

Start small!

I set up a small goal that I would call it a successful year for us if my daughter was reading and my son was done with his grade 2 math and reading chapter books at the end of school year.

We just got our first homeschooling year evaluation with a local homeschool evaluator yesterday. She was very pleased with what I showed her. I felt confident after my conversation with her.

I am thinking we are doing great with our first year. My focus was on 2 main subjects for my son, math and language art, and I outsourced the rest. I am confident my son is above grade level with his math, reading and writing.

He, in grade 1, is done with grade 2 math including memorizing 1-9 timetables and working on his division. His favorite chapter books are the Lego Ninja and Magic Tree House series. His evaluator said that his writing was beyond his age and it wouldn’t be a concern.

My 4-year-old daughter is reading and loves her dictation time. She is working on her adding and subtracting.

How did I do with other subjects like sciences, social study, music, art and PE?

I bought science kits for kids and used them after dinner as family time. We did a lot of natural walks and observations in our backyard. My kids collected dead snakes, earth worms, and cicada bug shells. They played and studied them.

I started his virtual piano lesson with Mrs. Jackie from Okohstudio in September 2020. I know nothing about music or piano, but one thing I know that I can help him practice. Every Monday, I sit in class with him while Mrs. Jackie is teaching him. The rest of the week, I help him practice 30 minutes per day, everyday.

Same thing with PE beside playing outside and running around the house, he does Shaolin martial arts at least 3 times per week. If he is not working with his Shifu, he is practicing his forms with me 30 minutes each day, everyday.

Social study is one subject that I didn’t focus on much this year. However, everyday interaction is a chance for learning. I use reading aloud as a chance to introduce them to social study like history or geography. Watching Sunny’s food review channel while he is traveling around Asia and the U.S. is a chance of learning about other countries and cultures through food.

I registered both of them in soccer teams in Spring for social interaction and teamwork study. As much as I don’t like to sit in the sun and wait for more than 2 hours, I have to admit that joining sports teams give kids a lot of benefits, such as teamwork, patience, following instructions, and energy burning.

About art, my son loves drawing. This is one subject that I allow them to use computers for as long as they can sit. Sometimes, they sit there for an hour straight to draw. I use the Art Hub for Kids channel on YouTube.

Another outsource I use is Outschool. Outschool provides hundreds of classes online from teachers around the U.S.. So far, I have great experiences with Outschool. Most of classes I bought for them were wonderful. The teachers and instructors were well prepared, organized, friendly and creative. 

My two favorite teachers are linked below. One is for my son speech class. And the other one is for my daughter Pre-K class.

what are the benefits of homeschooling?

The list is not long but not short either depending on different families. For our family, my son’s favorite saying is “I don’t have to stay in school for 8 hours.”

Yes, that is the number one benefit that I have a hard time letting go if we have to put our kids back to school. Before, it took me 3 hours to drive him back and forth. By the time he was home, we had maybe one hour outside playing and then a little homework after dinner before bedtime at 7pm.

Now, we save so much time that he can play his piano and practice martial arts everyday and still have time for playing outside. I am not sure I will go back driving him that far even for the best school in the world.

Time saving is number one.

Second is no homework. I set up a 1 hour independent-focus study for him. It depends on him how to use this time. He can’t play outside until he is done with his work. During this 1 hour, he learns how to stay focused and does the work on his own. He practices and works on Math and Language art. For the past couple months, he has to do one page each of subtraction, Multiplication, Addition, and exercises from the lessons of the day.

The third one is huge for me, that I am in control of my kids’ education, of what they learn. I used to depend on others for my son to read and do math. My son’s story I told you from the beginning was an example.

Here is another one. I remembered when I saw my daughter interested in writing letters and tracing them neatly at age of 3, I brought it to her teacher’s attention and hoped that she could come up with a plan to go with her interest. The teacher gave me a look like “And? What?” No further discussion!

Now both my son and daughter read above their levels. My 4-year-old daughter is working on her dictation. She saw her brother doing it and she showed her interest, I followed her lead and now she can write simple words and numbers. 

Here is my list about benefit of homeschooling

1. Time saving
2. No homework
3. Control of my kids’ education
4. Flexibility
5. Family quality time
6. Sibling bonding
7. I learn so much about my children than ever

Should I continue homeschooling my kids?

You must wonder why I ask myself this question while I have had a great experience with homeschooling.

My kids are missing their peers. Their last memories about school were the last day at school. My son kept talking about his last day playing with his friends, the conversations he had with them and what they promised each other to do the next day.

It broke my heart to hear that. Even after a year, he still mentioned the boy he played with was his best friend. My daughter still remembers and asks to visit her teacher.

Homeschooling could be lonely and worst during a pandemic because we couldn’t go anywhere or get together with others. I could see it was a challenge about social interaction with others.

Second, I questioned myself. Could I do a better job than the first year? Could I be more creative? Could I handle more subjects than just math and language art? How could I maintain my patience?

Looking at the benefit list, the bonding and attachment they have for each other, deep down I know it is the best gift I could give them.

I don’t ignore those questions or my kids’ feelings, but at the same time, I don’t want to pay too much attention to them because I don’t allow any doubt to hold me back.

I should continue doing this until further notice! 

What did my schedule look like?

I like scheduling because it helps me to organize my time. It provided my kids with an expected routine.

At first, I used an hourly schedule like 30 minutes for reading, 30 minutes for math, 30 minutes for writing, 5 minutes for spelling, 1 hour for independent study and so on. I felt I raced with time.

Especially the days, maths took longer than 30 minutes. There were days that my son couldn’t focus and couldn’t get his work done in 1 hour.

Slowly I moved myself to the time block even though I didn’t know what it meant but worked better for me.

I divided 8:30am to 12:30pm into blocks of time between math, reading, writing and independent study. In those time blocks, the lesson could be long or short depending on each subject and kids’ focus on that day. We could pick up the rest at another time of the day or the next day.

It was more relaxing and there was no rush to finish the lessons on time. I took me months to get to this schedule. You can get the click here to get the free download including the sample and the blank schedule.

My set up for homeschooling

My husband told me that I basically turned the whole house into homeschooling.

Unlike many other homeschooling families, I don’t have a special room with beautiful decorations dedicated to homeschooling. I basically use the whole house for this purpose because my son likes to move around a lot. And I want to give him that freedom.

However, I have different rooms or locations for different subjects. Our family room is where I keep all study materials. It used to be their playroom with tons of toys. But since we do homeschool, I moved all their toys to their rooms and kept this room for homeschool materials. They can’t move books from this room to their rooms. If they do, they need to move it back.

It was not easy, but with time and consistency, my 4 years old got it and learnt to keep things where it belongs.

My son gets distracted easily, so it is impossible for him to share a room with his sister while he does his independent work. I learned that to set him up for success I have to create an environment for him to learn and practice. I decided to use our library for this purpose.

When my son gets into the library, he knows that it is his focus time. He learns self-control, focus, and independence in that room. One hour is turned on, he sits down with his workbooks and knows exactly what to do. He also learns the consequences of his decision not staying focused and gets the work done in that one hour.

I use the sunroom for music. When they get into that room, their brain is turned on for music and stays focused on that subject for a certain hour.

We do a lot of experiments in the kitchen.

One thing I have done is that I don’t buy new containers or shelfs in our first year of homeschooling. I use what I have at home because to be honest, I don’t know what my homeschool room looks like. I don’t know if it is the right set up. I am still testing and learning what works and doesn’t work for my kids. I am still learning about myself in this area as well.

Our homeschool materials and setting are moving around and changing every couple weeks or months. 

Is homeschooling right for my children?

It was our first year, and it was a testing and adjusting period for both my kids and me. I can’t tell if it is 100% right or wrong for my kids.

However, I can say it is getting better everyday. Habits or routines need time to adjust. Dr. Maxwell Maltz mentioned in his book, The Psycho-Cybernetics, that it would take “minimum of about 21 days” to form a new habit.

Recent research has proved that it takes anywhere from 21 days to 6 months or more to form a new habit. Based on my own experiences, I can say that 21 days is not enough. 21 days is a great start for testing a new habit, but to form a new habit takes more than 90 days.

It took my son at least 6 months to get the idea of his independent work, not fighting back, not whining or learning how to stay focused so he doesn’t have to do work when daddy is home playing outside with his sister.

It took him months to understand that after lunch was our piano time. It took my little daughter that long to understand that when her brother is practicing piano, she can’t be in a room with us.

When we have habits and routines down, things are getting easier and smoother. It is not perfect everyday, but it is a learning process.

In addition, being a mom and a teacher of a high energetic/excited kid who has a fast-thinking brain with millions of ideas and questions, I am exhausted at the end of the day. He is running the show if I allow him and don’t have the skill to work with him.

I realized that teachers need special knowledge and skills to work with these kids instead of labeling them as ADHD. My son is smart, but he needs a lot of guidance, instructions, reminders, disciplines, rules, love, care, routine, consistency, even consequences in order for him to thrive and build confidence within himself.

I understand it is a lot for teachers to do when they have so many kids to take care, schedules to follow, the deadline to meet, the subjects to teach. It takes a lot from teachers.

My son is doing better with one on one. I am sure many moms would agree with me that any kid would benefit from one-on-one teaching.

For this reason, I think homeschooling is better for my kids. They get my full attention. And they love one on one with mom time because it makes them feel special. My teaching and communicating are tailored to their needs, emotions, and skills. It is not one size fits all. 

What is my next decision for my children?

From the results of my kids after a year under my guidance, I decided to do a second-year homeschooling with my kids. My homeschool carts for the new school year are ready to roll out anytime. I got 2021-2022 homeschool calendar and curriculum all printed out. Get the whole year at glance here!

I am confident that I can do it now. Mentally, I am more ready than before. Ideas come to me easier. The mantra “I am not creative!” is gone now. I am comfortable adding in more subjects.

For example, this year, I added U.S. history and Chinese into our curriculum. For science, I don’t do textbooks but continuing with experimenting with real life like growing butterflies, building solar power robots, walking nature, cooking, or observing the weather.  

I also decided to do whole year-round homeschooling. The only reason was that it took us a long time to form our habits and routines. I know for sure what it looks like after an 8-week-break. I do not dare to go that route.

Many teachers say that it always takes kids time to adjust after the summer break and have to teach the materials again at the beginning.

In addition, adults don’t have 8 weeks break from work unless one has a newborn. We don’t have summer unless we are teachers. Therefore, our kids need to learn that. Just like working full time, kids need to study full time.

This summer, I am continuing teaching them reading, math, writing, piano, and Shaolin martial art. It will be light learning for us and enjoying Florida with grandparents. 

Tips for beginners:

There is nothing right or wrong about how you start your homeschooling. It depends on how much research you have done and how much you know about homeschooling.  

If you are starting out like me, knowing nothing about homeschooling, not confident about yourself, and don’t know where to start, I have some tips and hope they are useful for you.

Check out my 12 Tips for New Homeschoolers article for more details.

Being consistent is critical in creating a successful habit and routine in homeschooling.

There is an aha moment for me when I have noticed what has been working and not working. The one that works successfully is the one that I am consistent on a daily basis.

If I didn’t discipline myself and forget things, our days would be messed up. It was critical for me to discipline myself day in and day out.

Discipline is going hand in hand with consistency. Learning without one another doesn’t work for me. I have to have both in order to work.

The next one is using the library. Our library has been staying open most of the time during the pandemic. That was the place I used to teach my kids social skills on how to communicate with librarians independently on what they are looking for. In addition, without a library, I don’t think I can buy all the books that our kids want to read.

The last one I want to mention is read aloud. If you don’t know where to start, start with reading aloud. It took my kids awhile to work with me on reading aloud. Again with consistency and discipline we were able to work it out.

Reading aloud builds their reading, listening, comprehension, and vocabulary skills. Read as much as you can and also let them read as well.

Again, no pressure of right and wrong. This list works for my kids and our family, doesn’t mean it will work for your kids and family. Use this as a preference.

Stop looking further and use what you have! Just get started and things will come to you as you go. Speaking from my own experiences!

Trust your instinct and be consistent! 

Vendor List I use: Click here to go to Vendor List

Books and Manipulative Sets: click here to see the book list I am using for my 4 years old

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