1. Tweens & teens have different needs than little kids.

Having both at the same time is precious & exhausting. Your kids don’t need a perfect mom, though. They need you, the mom given to them by their Creator. They need a mom who knows that the grace of Jesus Christ is sufficient for all things and that His power is made perfect in her weakness.

Academically, tweens & teens are often ready for more challenge. They ask “why” a lot and are old enough to read hard books and dig in deeper and think more critically. They’re intellectually unsatisfied with the surface level.

Avoid the temptation to go a mile wide and an inch deep. I know you want to cover “everything,” (you can’t) & make sure you’re doing “enough” (enough for what, I wonder??)…

But work to find the balance between doing necessary schoolwork & actually having time to pursue interests. It’s okay if the interest fizzles out. It’s okay if their hobbies change with their moods. 😉

Some resources, books, activities that my tweens/ young teens & their peers have seemed to enjoy lately…

• Tiny dot color by numbers
• Nails!! – They paint & bedazzle these shorter acrylic sets (they play stringed instruments) with nail stands they put under gel lights; then they glue them on.
• Tiny things – I still do incentives for some of my big kids’ school work! Heck, I give myself incentives… you’re never really too old. Tiny squishy things, tiny erasers, tiny stanley key chains, tiny notebooks, etc.
• Other incentives – sparkly pencils, gel pens, pencil pouches, journals, book of choice, $5 coffee coupon, poppi or bubblr
• Activities! Which means more driving them around. But that’s okay. Free samples at Costco or the mall, $6 movie Tuesdays, ice rink/ roller rink, bonfire, really anything with friends.
• Jobs! They love having real work – we have our kids babysit, mow the lawn, and clean (all for pay$$; yes they have some unpaid expectations too). But when I can, I also hire them to do online work for me! Canva, audio & video editing, etc, formatting & publishing blog posts, etc.

2. Tweens & teens might want (and need) more peer time.

This is good & normal. And it’s also good to balance that with time spent at home, hanging with the fam. Or just being bored. This is good and normal too.

We are so grateful to have amazing friends we’ve homeschooled with for years. As the kids in the friend group have gotten older, some of the opportunities to hang out have shifted from family style to friend group style. Meeting at the pool, dropping off at the mall, late night overs, etc. Some kids seem to thrive more in small groups, some in larger. We still hang as families and go on family style homeschool field trips/ outings, but there is also more time for individual friend hangouts. This means we’re running in more directions… but that’s okay.

I know a lot of wonderful homeschooling advice centers around being home together. And that’s good! Especially in those early years. (And making time for family connection as kids get older is great too.) BUT it doesn’t have to look a certain way (i.e. candle lit dinners and tea time).

You don’t have to all be home together all the time doing old fashioned hand-crafts to have a close knit family!!

3. It’s okay to give up slow mornings for a season

Slow mornings, nature hikes, families peacefully gathered around an aesthetic table sure do photograph well… and thus they have a prominent place on curriculum websites & social media.

Some of our years have looked like that. Though I’m sure my old kitchen table has ever been aesthetic during an actual homeschooling morning.

But none of these things are required for a great homeschool! Some mornings are busy, some season of life are busy, some parents work, etc. etc.

Everyone’s schedules, personalities, and priorities differ. Which means that not every thriving homeschool family has slow mornings & weekly nature walks.

Your homeschool should serve your family, not a social media ideal. Which brings me to my 3rd lesson…

3. Getting off Instagram and into real life

will never disappoint.

Uninstall, delete, ignore, do not disturb.

I know we all know this & I know I posted this article on instagram. (Because there actually are a lot of great things to learn there. And I do enjoy it in moderation.)

But I have that generally, homeschool instagram is so fake.

Staged B-roll & happy background music & carefully generated hooks. It psychologically affects us! Even the most well intentioned creators end up with hooks designed to make you worry you’re missing something.

You’re not! Ordinary life is beautiful. Keep showing up faithfully, in your own home. Find real homeschooling friends & send them handwritten notes that say, “You’re doing great.”

4. Faithfulness yields fruit.

For the past several years, we spent our days together. We sang songs & read stories. I taught my littles to read and hold a pencil and multiply 8×7. We cut & glued construction paper, found places from books on the map, and went the zoo.

Though the day to day felt chaotic, the methods were simple: small repeated habits over time.

• books, songs, conversations
• short lessons, narration, memorization
• pausing to answer silly questions
• slowing down to let them help me
• lots of unstructured free time

We’ve done very few science labs – just a handful with friends in a small group sometimes.

We’ve done very few geography themed cooking activities (ahem: like zero).

We’ve never build the pyramids from salt cubes either.

And yet, my kids love to learn!

Tehy enjoy reading, they figure out how to learn new things, they explore random hobbies and engage with people of all ages. We’ve kept our homeschooling remarkably unremarkable & it’s “working.”

I’m beginning to see bits and pieces of fruit. Of who they were always becoming. Little by little, one year at a time. Don’t give up.

Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we don’t lose heart.” -Gal. 6:9

5. Sustainability comes from simplicity

Don’t pile so much on in the early years that you crash and burn.

In a world full of overstimulated, fear-driven, anxiety ridden hares, be a tortoise.

Plod along, slow & steady. It might not be glamorous but it’s sustainable.

Yes, the days are long & the years are short. Yes, I blinked and my baby turned 13.

And yet, I’m thankful for every unhurried day & year we’ve spent at home together. I’m increasingly convinced there is no hurry to this business of raising humans.