I asked a bunch of my long-time homeschooling friends (10 years or more) what tips and tricks they’d picked up along the way, and I’ll be sharing them with you over the next few Mondays. I hope you enjoy seeing what they all had to say, and maybe find things to make it go a little more smoothly.

Happy New School Year!!!!

Let’s just dive right into the good stuff, shall we?

• Ask the veteran homeschool moms for help and playdates. I know that we may look old(er) to you, and not at all like the friends you’re used to hanging out with, but we know stuff. A lot of stuff. We’ve been around this block and run a marathon with it. Many of us have kids who’ve already graduated and gone off to college, and still have preschoolers at home. We may not look like your usual friends, but our kids are nice and would like to play with yours; and while they do, we can show you how to whip through lesson planning like nobody’s business.
• Ask the new moms for help and playdates. Look at those cute new homeschooling moms with their youthful exuberance, cute babies, and ambitious planning – remember when that was us? It’s easy for homeschooling moms to split into “Mommy Playgroups” by age of mom or her eldest child. That’s just stupid. We  can learn so much from these new moms who have the energy to research all the latest everything, the desire to fingerpaint, and the creativity to make it all happen. We can all use a shake-up every now and again, it keeps us young and fresh. Invite the new moms over and listen to all they’ve learned. Put aside your experience and hear them out, you might find a revolutionary way to do things right with the fifth child that you’ll wish you’d known with the first.
• Get the workbooks spiral bound! Seriously. Do it now. Thank me later. It’s cheap (around $2.50/book) and lets the books lay flat for easy writing or copying. My favorite part is no more whining about “writing on the hump.”
• Write in the workbooks. As long as they’re under $20 for the book, it doesn’t make sense economically or frustration-ally to make copies. You’ll spend way more than the price of the book in paper, ink, and time. The only caveat to this is if the book is out of print and you LOVE it, then guard that sucker with your life and make a safety back-up copy right now!
• August/September are always ridiculously more expensive than you’ll plan on them being. Between last minute book buys, co-op fees, registration fees for scouts and sports; it seems like everyone wants money at the beginning of the year. If you can’t cough it all up at once, go talk to the folks in charge. It’s very rare that I’ve run into a director of whatever who didn’t understand tight budgets and give me a grace period. Take it and then make sure to say thank you.
• You can’t really do housework and homeschooling at the same time, or something will fall apart – usually the homeschooling. There’s nothing like a laundry change to give a reluctant learner the time to slip away and get up to something. I know it’s hard, especially for us multitaskers by nature, but you really do have to focus on the kids and nothing else.
• Which means you have to make a plan for when you’re going to teach and when you’re going to do house stuff. Having a plan in place means that things get done and you get to enjoy the time with your children without feeling frazzled and worn out.

This is just the tip of the iceberg! Next week’s post includes – the very best pencil sharpener that you have to buy, strategies for getting a reluctant teenager to actually do his work without a battle, and more!

Want more homeschooling information? I highly recommend this book

P.S. I wrote it!