 My biggest and most unpopular homeschool opinion is that I honestly feel like your kiddos can get behind in homeschooling. Hey you guys my name is Brittany and welcome back to my YouTube channel. You guys in today's video I'm going to share with you all about my unpopular homeschool opinions. So you guys today I really didn't know what I wanted to film so what I did was I put a poll on my YouTube community tab and I asked you guys what you wanted to see from me in today's video and you guys absolutely wanted to see about my unpopular homeschool opinions and I am going to go ahead and give them to you guys today. I'm not going to lie like I am a little bit nervous about sharing my opinions on you know today's video but I'm going to be honest we're just going to have a little chit chat and hopefully we can have a discussion within our comment section below about some of my opinions and if you agree with them if you disagree I would love to have like a really good chat with you guys so we definitely are going to keep this video like open dialogue form so my first unpopular homeschool opinion is I truly believe as homeschoolers we need to stop saying that you can homeschool for free and just with a library card I really feel like you can homeschool affordably you can use a lot of free resources to lower the cost of homeschooling however homeschooling is not free if it's free you are utilizing your time and I really feel like we just need to stop saying that homeschooling does require a bit of financial sacrifice when it comes to your household and your family and you definitely need to budget out those particular things especially when it comes to extra curriculars if you need tutors extra resources for your interest let learning overall homeschooling isn't free it is a sacrifice that you and your families have to make or will be making in the long haul or you know however long your homeschooling journey will be I definitely will say when I started off my homeschooling journey you guys all I had was $150 to start off my homeschool and I really feel like I was able to get a lot with $150 and starting off our first year of homeschool I was able to utilize a lot of free resources I was able to homeschool successfully with that small budget in my first year of homeschool however homeschooling in our first year wasn't completely free so I really feel like we need to stop saying that homeschooling is free because it really isn't you do have to put some type of investment put forward but you can you know utilize free resources and it can be budget friendly for your particular budget in your household so my second homeschool opinion is that I really feel like it is okay to start off your kiddos academically at a younger age I feel like a lot of homeschooling families especially here on this platform always say they don't do formal learning or education until the age of six and while I feel like that's perfectly fine to start your kiddos at age six when it comes to formal learning I also feel like it is okay to teach a younger child who is willing and ready to learn formal academics that's perfectly fine especially when you have bigger households I have a 10 for and a two-year-old you guys and my two-year-old she is like tagging along with my four-year-old especially when it comes to learning new and different things she is learning just inadvertently being in this homeschool environment and I definitely feel like it's okay if she wants to pick up crayons with her older sister it's okay if she wants to have her own pencil and crayon box with her older sisters like I will allow that I'm not forcing her to sit down at a table and write and you know do formal instruction she is doing this because she genuinely has a joy and a love for learning and I'm going to nurture that and if you have kiddos that are under the age of six that just wants to learn and discover and and you know figure out this world around them please allow them please don't allow an age to stop their learning so my biggest and most unpopular homeschool opinion is that I honestly feel like your kiddos can get behind in homeschooling if you intend for your kids to graduate your homeschool by the age of 18 I really feel like they are certain benchmarks for each grade that you do want to meet especially in reading writing and arithmetic if you do want them to be done with high school by the age of 18 and that's just my personal opinion I know you are constantly hearing your kiddos cannot get behind in homeschool the benchmarks that public school has set is just for public school and while I particularly agree with the benchmarks in public school how it is made for public school I do feel like as homeschooling parents we do take on that responsibilities of our kiddos education and we do want them to reach benchmarks within our homeschool as they go through each year of their studies so if you don't have a particular age you want your kiddos to graduate homeschool they definitely can't get behind but if you do want them to graduate at the age of 18 I feel like they can get behind especially in middle and high school I feel like elementary school is your buffer especially when it comes to learning those things like reading writing arithmetic phonics like they are really learning the basis of education in elementary I feel like you know you can't learn anything if you don't have those three basic Rs middle school I feel like it's like your second buffer when it comes to homeschooling getting your kiddos a wording to be aligned and especially if you decide that you don't want to homeschool when it comes to high school I know a lot of people do choose to send your kids to high school rather than homeschool them so middle school is like a second buffer to get your kiddos prepared for that higher level of education and I feel like once you get to high school I feel like those four years they really go by really fast and that's just my personal opinion I know I only have three years of experience when it comes to homeschooling however I do see you can get behind pretty quickly if you don't continuously have goals and benchmarks you have that you want your kiddos to reach now two subjects I feel like you can't get behind and is definitely science and history I feel like you are going to touch on science and history again in high school as long as your kiddos can read comprehend and write they're going to be fine that's just my personal opinion if I had it my way to really be honest and I didn't have a state requirement to teach science and history I probably wouldn't teach science and history in elementary school just my personal opinion but because I do live in a state where I am required to teach those subjects I have to so yeah so my third unpopular opinion when it comes to homeschooling is I really feel like a trendy colorful popular curriculum sometimes may not always be the most solid and foundational curriculum and I'm going to give you guys my personal experience when it has come to like trendy and popular curriculum in my first year of homeschooling we did a becca arithmetic three uh when it has come to uh like math goals and I knew I didn't want to continue with that series uh Brielle was having like a few stumbling points with a becca especially because of the pace that it goes and I was seeing like Brielle doesn't necessarily struggle in math but she does need additional practice when it comes to math and uh the next curriculum that I was looking into to do with uh Brielle was Saxon math and I was hesitant to do Saxon math because I was seeing so many bad reviews about Saxon on YouTube how it was dry it was boring it was too much work and I strayed away from a curriculum and I second guessed a curriculum that actually works out very well for her just because I was seeing a lot of other people's opinion about it a Saxon is a old school curriculum I definitely will say it's tried and true and definitely while it is black and white and it's you know you know it's straight to the point it's you know a little boring for some I definitely will say it was the great fit for my daughter and I really feel like I wished I would have followed my gut instinct when it has come to uh doing Saxon math in our second year of homeschool because I really feel like we wouldn't have had so many curriculum fails if I would have just followed my gut and I wouldn't have been looking for like the next trendy and popular curriculum out there um and what I will say is what works for you in your homeschool especially when it comes to curriculum if everyone is not using it be okay with that be firm in your foundation and in your uh I guess your views and your opinions about your kiddos you know them best you know what works for them best and uh you shouldn't care if you know Johnny across the street is using something different from you you know uh one thing I definitely will say uh as a homeschooling mom and learning uh sometimes you have to put your like how the horses have their uh rears on where they can't see uh they can't see on their sides I forgot what they're called what are they called you guys you know what I'm talking about but I really feel like in homeschooling you really have to keep your head down and you really have to just focus on you and your kiddos uh while I love Instagram and YouTube as a platform of sharing and being able to see inside of other people's homeschoolers uh their lives what they do experiments all the fun things I really feel like sometimes it can be a distraction to you and your home and if ever you feel like uh you are distracted by all the noise around you just silence that noise and really figure out and tune in what is going to work out for you and for your homeschool and I really wish that I would have did that sooner and uh on to my next unpopular homeschool opinion is I really feel like it is okay to ditch homeschooling curriculum when it's not working for you but I definitely will say be wise in your decision to ditch because you definitely don't want to create any unnecessary learning gaps when it comes to your kiddos education a lot of the curriculum that I ditched in my second year of homeschooling it was within my first month of homeschool um I really was scared after that point to really make big curriculum changes because I didn't want any gaps in my daughter's foundation when it comes to like her learning uh that is really important to me I know uh learning and uh knowledge gaps they are going to happen but if I can keep them as minimal as possible I definitely want to make sure that I will do that for my kiddos and my household and I definitely think by sticking with one curriculum especially for at least two years um max it definitely will uh limit those learning gaps within your kiddos um education so uh on to my next unpopular homeschool opinion I definitely will say uh homeschooling is not always fun I feel like you're going to see like all of these you know cute videos these day in the lives where kids are just like doing their homeschool work and they're happy and everyone's having a good time you know the mom has written the uh the read aloud and all the kids look like they're you know quietly playing toys homeschooling is not always like that you guys like you know you're definitely going to deal with attitudes pushback uh character building you're definitely going to uh deal with the parenting aspect and the home and the school aspect are definitely going to countercross over each other especially when it comes to your homeschooling days you're definitely going to have to keep that balance of parenting and school at the same time and it can be exhausting and frustrating because it's like you know I can't finish this lesson unless I you know talk about this you know disciplinary disciplinary action that you know my kiddo is doing right now like I cannot finish this without addressing this and you're going to have some some of those days where it's just going to be hard and you know while I do respect my kiddos privacy and I will not share all of the nitty gritty details about like just different disciplinary things they do have to go over with them I will let you know my homeschool is not perfect I do have a lot of struggles when it comes to particular things like still raising and rearing my kiddos in the right way um but they do happen here I try my best on my day in the lives to give you guys a glimpse of like some of the hardships that I do have and I do try to share those things while still respecting my kiddos privacy um but I will say homeschooling is not always easy um you are definitely sacrificing a lot of time and energy and sometimes by the end of the day you guys like I'm exhausted my brain it's fried it's done I just want to take a nap uh and that's okay uh while we do have the joys of homeschooling uh we do have that uh other part of homeschooling where you know you are tired um you are constantly pouring into your kiddos and if you aren't careful about not pouring into yourself you will just end up in this like spiral downhill uh battle so it's really really important in homeschooling as you know mom you know to really take care of yourself now that's a completely different video but uh yeah another one of my homeschooling like unpopular opinions is that I really feel like you cannot do it all every single year I really feel like you do have to pick and choose uh which areas you do want to spend heavier years on focusing uh like this year for me you guys it really is a heavy history and writing year I know science I may not get to all the experiments all the fun things and that's okay because I know my past two years I did have heavy science years and I really feel like it's unrealistic for us to like really hit every subject hard every single year and to put those expectations on ourselves you know we're just setting ourselves up for failure so I definitely will say when it comes to homeschooling it is a a given take type of pool but as the years combined I really do feel like your kiddos will have a good solid and well rounded education especially when you have those focused years and you guys my last unpopular homeschool opinion is I really feel like when you are having a hard homeschooling days that doesn't necessarily mean you need to quit homeschooling or quit school for that day I really think by allowing your kiddos to quit lessons or stop doing homeschool just because they don't feel like it or just because they're having a hard time understanding the concept I really feel like we are not preparing them for the world ahead I mean when your kiddos get older they cannot just stop working on a project because they're tired or they don't get it or they're frustrated I feel like we are setting them up for unrealistic expectations when it comes to work and work ethic and when it comes to like my household if my daughter is having like a harder time when it comes to school what I will do is we will go ahead and take a lunch break early we will go ahead and go outside we will do some of those things however by the end of the day my daughter will have her lessons complete and that's just something that I do in my household you guys Rachel from 7 and all she made a really really good video just talking all about this particular topic and I definitely enjoyed watching it and I definitely agree with her when it has or when it comes to really preparing your kids for the world by not just allowing them just to quit or give up whenever they're just having a hard time because that's really is unrealistic now while I do believe in relationship over you know school work that definitely is important and it is the priority in my home school I'm definitely still going to teach my daughter you know you do have to complete what you started and I know you're having a hard time understanding this right now but we're going to take a break we're going to eat a snack you know we might even bake some cookies after this because I know how it is having a hard day but we are going to finish what we started and I really feel like that trait is going to help her just in life in general so you guys these are like all of my unpopular home school opinions I really hope you enjoy just like chit chatting with me and talking with me let me know in the comment section down below whether you agree or disagree with some of my opinions and I will love to chat with you guys in the comment section below thank you guys so much for watching today's video and I look forward to seeing every button in my next one bye