Setting Realistic Homeschool Expectations

1. Be flexible for life events.

When you have a new baby, or you are moving, or there is sickness in your family, or you’re struggling with anxiety or depression, or just feeling overwhelmed with homeschool, it’s okay and actually good to set different expectations during that time. 

Rather than feeling defeated that you aren’t doing a good job, just decide that a good job is x, y, and z—and that’s achievable during that time, even if you are not doing everything you want to be doing. Pray and find out what is most important. Figure out how to best utilize your time. Decide how and when x, y, and z can be achieved with your schedule. 

Even during times of stress, have an actual plan, and of course, it should be flexible. But structure gives us a feeling of peace and calm, and it helps us to actually get things done, which helps us feel less guilty. In times of stress, having a simple plan that is easy and achievable can really help, rather than just surviving the chaos. Your plan doesn’t have to be a schedule. It can simply be a short list of what you will accomplish that day when your schedule allows it. 

In times of stress, you might need to spread things out and do much less each day, but also do a little school on Saturdays, or 30 minutes right before bed, or simply spread things out throughout the summer. Maybe you do math and language arts on alternate days, but you do it Monday through Saturday and some in the summer. Or there are many other ways that you can change things up. But it’s okay not to have the perfect homeschool. Your kids need to learn, but they don’t have to be doing elaborate activities, or extensive science experiments, or taking these huge steps every day. It’s actually small, consistent steps that add up over time. You can pull back to smaller pieces of learning and be okay. It can be just as meaningful and effective, and you don’t need to expect to see all the results so quickly.

2. Set realistic expectations.

Be careful not to expect too much and be okay with what is enough, not what is perfect. For example, if you want to make really nice meals for your family but realistically, you can’t do that all of the time, you're going to be frustrated when you don’t meet that expectation. What you can do is set a different expectation ahead of time. For example, you could decide, “Three times a week, I’m going to make a nice meal, and the other days of the week we will have leftovers or do quick, easy meals.” When you make that decision ahead of time, you can feel good about when you meet your achievable goal, having three nice meals a week, and you don't have to feel bad about having quick meals on the other days because that is what you planned.