 Hi you guys my name is Brittany and welcome back to my youtube channel. You guys in today's video we are just going to have like a old school chit chat video. I really wanted to just come to you guys today and talk about some like really good tips and advice before starting off your home schooling year. Today I had all intentions on sharing with you guys my um get it all done video where I organized all of like my curriculum and I got my home school room together and I prepared for like my kiddo's first day of school and all that jazz but I really felt like in my heart I wanted to post this video first. I really wanted to speak to that like first time homeschooling mom that's a little bit nervous about starting off their homeschool year and even me you guys even though I'm going into my fourth year of homeschool I definitely feel like I have a lot to learn. I am definitely not a veteran homeschool and I definitely feel like um I'm still learning. I'm still changing. I'm still evolving. I've made so many mistakes. If you guys followed along my homeschooling journey and you just watched some of my older videos you can see some of the mistakes that I made and um I definitely want to give you guys some tips and advice just from my personal experience and starting off your homeschooling year and I really hope that today's video will be like a sense of encouragement and um it will give you peace and starting off your homeschool year. So you guys my first tip of advice before starting off your homeschooling year definitely will be like my biggest tip of advice. If you don't take anything from this video just take this one tip. Homeschool mom, dad, parent, homeschool educator, whoever you are make sure you take care of yourself. Make sure you start off your homeschool year with your cup and your battery full. So however you fill your battery um self whether that be like through self-care prayer and meditation exercise if you like to read paint garden whatever you do to fill your cup please fill it up fill it to the rim and um start off your homeschool year rejuvenated and refreshed homeschooling is definitely not a sprint you guys it's a marathon and we have to be equipped and ready for this marathon. I definitely will say I have failed in this area all three of my past homeschooling years. I have neglected myself and I've failed to take proper care of myself. I have experienced burnout in all of my three years of homeschool when I really could have prevented it from just taking proper care of myself. One thing I definitely will say implementing my like Sabbath homeschooling schedule where I do that six weeks on one week off it really helped me last year in preventing out my burnout a lot more but I'm going to utilize my week off more effectively and I'm really going to take out that time to like recharge just take out one day for myself you guys and I encourage you to do the same take out that one or two or weekend whatever you can do for yourself to make sure that you are not pouring from an empty cup. Trust me it leads to destruction really really fast so I am definitely prioritizing myself this homeschooling year. My second tip of advice is do not start off your homeschool year feeling overwhelmed. If you feel overwhelmed more than likely you are feeling overwhelmed because you are not fully prepared and as August is right around the corner you guys you will be seeing everyone starting their first day of school the first day of school pictures and if you are quite not there yet ready to start your first day of school wait until September October November it is no race to when you actually start your homeschooling year especially for you guys who may have just had like new babies you added to your family whether you have a chronic illness and you're not at a hundred percent with your personal health or you may have had a death in your family or just any personal circumstance that may be preventing you from starting off your homeschool year in August please just take out that time for yourself for your family it's not a race it doesn't matter when you start or end really begin your homeschooling year I guess at peace and knowing that you are fully prepared to start that's one of my mistakes that I made in my first year of homeschool you guys I was ill prepared I felt like because you know the public school was starting in August I had to start I didn't have all of my curriculum ready for my oldest daughter and starting our first year of homeschool I really just put that pressure on myself to start just because I thought that was when I needed to start and I really could have eliminated it like that first month of being overwhelmed in my first year of homeschool if I just took my time and prepared everything I would have been better off just starting off in September you guys to really be honest and I learned that mistake the hard way my third piece of advice is at this point we have seen so many like new curriculum releases and we've seen a lot of people's curriculum choices and their plans and everyone's doing something unique and fun and different and it's so tempting at this point to really doubt your personal curriculum choices and decisions it's tempting to add in things that we don't need in our homeschool to buy this to buy that and I definitely want to say if you feel that step away and walk back while social media it's fun and it's engaging and it's a really good tool for us to gain information and reviews and new resources I feel like if it's used unproperly we can definitely fall into a bad rabbit trail you guys I have had such a bad habit and addiction with purchasing too much curriculum and this year you guys I have put my foot down on myself I have told everyone in this house my husband my daughter everyone in this house is going to help me hold me accountable to me not purchasing any unnecessary things that I don't need especially when it comes to like curriculum and I definitely will say don't second guess your plan for your homeschool don't worry if your plan looks a lot different put your blinders on you guys don't worry about what Sue or May or Johnny down the street is doing you focus on you your homeschool your kids and that includes me you guys if I'm doing something different that's inspiring to you and you may want to try it or things like that stay true to yourself and your plan don't allow other people to influence your decisions in your homeschool you know you and your kiddos best and definitely know that it's okay if you may do things a little bit differently than others stay true to yourself and do not doubt your choices in your homeschool now I definitely know it's times where you know you do have to make pivots and curriculum switches and you know that's just a part of the learning process to really be honest especially in your first years of homeschool you're really kind of getting used to different curriculums and resources you're still figuring your kids out and I feel like those courses are inevitable but if you already picked something just try stay true to it don't worry what everyone else is doing and focus on you and your kiddos my next piece of advice is before starting off your homeschool at least one to two weeks try to reestablish those routines that you have set in place such as like your chores your bed times your cleaning routines really get your kiddos back into like that habit before actually adding in your homeschool I really feel like it's overwhelming when you're trying to add in like your household systems and your chores and all that along with homeschooling so take out maybe a couple of weeks before starting off your homeschool year to reestablish those things in your household and that includes you mom like for me what I did was a couple of weeks before we actually started our homeschool year I made sure I did like a you know house reset where I reset at my home I did like a few deep cleaning projects I didn't totally like tear the house down you guys but I did tackle those main areas that I really wanted to like I deep clean my floors and my kitchen and I targeted like those high traffic areas so when I it was time for me like to really sit down with my kiddos and start our lessons I wasn't distracted by you know seeing a counter that I wanted to clean or a cabinet I wanted to reorganize I really made sure that at least the things that was in hindsight for me I reset my home I made sure my laundry room wasn't looking in shambles you guys I'm really bad about the laundry I try my best but that is definitely my Achilles heels in my home but I definitely caught up on laundry and I did all those little nitty gritty things so when it came time for me to do my kiddos studies I wasn't focused on like my household chores that I had to do another thing that is definitely great to do is at least meal prep if you are not the type of person to meal prep at least have a few meals are ready to go as far as like dinner lunch breakfast for at least your first week of home school you are going to be very happy that you did that because that's going to be one less thing you have to use your brain power for I'm not the best when it comes to actually like meal prep you know okay we're going to eat this Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday but what I am good at is making sure when I go to the grocery stores I have all of the items in my pantry to make like whether it be like spaghetti or chili or stir fry or whatever type of meal I want to make I make sure I have all of those ingredients and I just pick whatever day we're going to eat it and that works out for me so if you're a little bit more loosey-goosey with your meal plans like me at least like have a plan because it definitely is helpful because at the end of you know my home school one day you guys like I'm done I'm exhausted I'm not trying to think about dinner I'm not trying to think about anything and to already have those steps already prepared for me it really helped me in starting back my home school this year um my next thing and piece of advice will be is don't start off your home school year doing everything really take it easy um some people like to start off doing one kid at a time and starting off their home school um everyone does it a little bit different as far as starting off their home school year for me I like to start off just doing the core that's like math and language and reading and then I slowly add in like my history science and electives for my kiddos and that really has been helpful for me and I think I'm going to continue to do that and um whether however your soft start looks don't do everything you are bound to fall really just slowly ease into your home schooling year um my next piece of advice and this one you guys I am working on so hard is to put your phone down especially when you are in lessons um it really allows me not to be distracted um in putting my phone down uh I had a really bad habit with picking up my phone I had like notifications or comments that I was answering in the middle of like my lesson time and what I have been doing now is actually keeping my phone in a separate room um and that really has been helping me out I mean I know some people may not have to go to that extreme but for me I definitely do I have to definitely keep my phone away uh not have it there so I can be fully present for my kiddos in their lessons and then when it's my downtime of course you know I can do my little scrolling listen to my audible books and things like that but I definitely want to try to be more present in the moment this home schooling year and that's definitely something I am doing uh my next thing is just to really document your first day of school uh have fun celebrate it doesn't have to be all big and you know elaborate when it comes to like your first day of school you guys um I really keep it simple when it comes to our first day of school I just like to document our journey um one thing me and my oldest order has been doing since our first year of homeschool is every first day we have been making like homemade bookmarks and it's so much fun to make those bookmarks and then we use them throughout the home schooling year and um that's just one of our traditions we keep it really really simple I get each of the kiddos like one little special gift they see their new crayons and markers and things like that and you know that's pretty much it over here um we make a nice breakfast so we might have like pancakes or cinnamon buns or something like fun or a treat we typically don't have but other than that you guys that is like our tradition um I know you may see on Instagram like these big elaborate like first day parties and things like that and you don't have to do all that you guys just keep it simple celebrate your kiddos and um have a great first day of school um my next piece of advice and my last piece of advice is just to give yourself grace as you are kick starting like your new home schooling year um is definitely going to be some pivots and schedule adjustments and changes as you are getting used to like your curriculum and you're getting used to your flow you may be adding in a kid um in this home schooling year really just give yourself and your kids grace you will get back into the flow of things it takes six weeks to form a habit so just know if your first few weeks your first couple of months feel rocky it's okay you guys will kind of get into your groove and get back into things when it comes to home school um and you will make little pivots and changes and that's completely fine uh just really just try to stay consistent and take it one day at a time you guys this home schooling year i have two words of the year my first word of the year is for me to simplify and uh that was something i really have been working hard on is just to simplify our routine our curriculum our habits my next word is to connect i really want to prioritize this year connecting and we're connecting in three ways we are going to be connecting with god we're going to be connecting with our family and we're going to be connecting with our community so that is like my home schooling goals and my models this home schooling year and i really hope i can stay true to myself and i can stay true to my kiddos and honoring them and honoring our home school so you guys i really want to let you know um don't be nervous it's okay if you're nervous you've got butterflies in your stomach uh you're fearful of the unknown you can do this we all are going to have great home schooling years uh that's not going to eliminate the struggle or the the down days or the sad days but i definitely want to let you guys know you can do it i can do it we will have awesome home schooling years thank you guys so much for watching today's video and i look forward to seeing everybody in my next one bye