Welcome to Nikki Teaches What where I chat about all things homeschooling for new and beginning homeschooling parents, as well as homeschooling parents with lots of young kids! I don’t have it all figured out, but I want to share my journey and some tips and tricks along the way to help make your homeschool days and weeks enriching, fun and magical.
When I first started this homeschool journey I was lost. Clueless. Intimidated. I was so overwhelmed by how big the homeschooling community actually is and all of the resources out there that I got lost a little bit in it. I’m still in my first year, however, just 6 months into it I finally found our groove and what worked for us. And let me tell you it doesn’t look like public school. It doesn’t look like some other awesome homeschoolers and their beautiful Instagram images of unit studies with all coordinating flash cards, books and crafts (let’s give them a round of applause because they’ve legit got their crap together and I do NOT! ha!). And yours doesn’t have to look like that either.
My biggest struggle was during all the research I’ve done, all the podcasts I’ve listened to, all the homeschoolers I followed…. I couldn’t find much on how to navigate homeschooling with young children and HOW to do it! I needed a step-by-step guideline and I couldn’t find much. Like what do you do first? Where to begin? How do I teach my kid to read? How do I teach them to write? What if they don’t want to write? What if we all are crying within the first 30 minutes of our very first day?!
I had so many questions, but didn’t come up with much except for some vague things like play with them, read to them, do arts and crafts, take them to the library, go on a nature walk, etc, etc. All of which are EXCELLENT pieces of advice! And maybe for some families those ideas are sufficient and they work. But for me? A lot of those things didn’t work out so simply. I don’t live near a wooded area for a nature walk. I have a toddler and a baby, so taking them along with my older two boys to a library sounds a lot more serene on paper than it ever is in real life. Art? Yeah that takes a good 25 minutes to prepare in which they’re done with in about 5 minutes. Sitting down to read or play a game is great for a few minutes until someone needs a snack or a baby needs to be nursed or a poopy diaper needs to be changed.
This podcast is meant to come alongside you when you’re first starting out as a homeschooling parent. I want to share the highs and the lows with you. The things I’ve learned to work harder on and the things I’ve learned to let go of. I hope to be an encouragement to you on the hard days, and a sweet, reassuring spot on the good days. I don’t want you to feel alone or like you’re failing when your homeschool days look a lot less picturesque than the ones you see on your Instagram feed.
Kick back, grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!
Episode 1: The First Year StrugglesÂ
Episode 2: The End of Year DragÂ
Episode 3: Conquering Your Fears of Homeschool
