Homeschool Revision: What To Do When What Was Working Isn't Working Now

October is the season of revising your homeschool.

Only some of what you thought would work is working. Some of your curriculum and homeschool practices aren't working for your child; some of your homeschool practices aren't working for you. 

If you're an experienced homeschooler, some of your homeschool practices that have worked for years may have suddenly stopped working as smoothly as they used to—your child has grown into a new stage of life, or your family's situation has changed.

"Revise" comes from the Latin revisere—to look at again, revisit, or look back on. I invite you to "re-vision" your homeschool now; to look back to see your homeschooling—what is working and what's not—so you can get a new vision of what your homeschool can be.

Know you are in good company. So much so, that we at TheHomeSchoolMom have declared October 1 as Curriculum's Not Working Day. It's never too late to "celebrate" this unique homeschool holiday by making an honest assessment and making beneficial changes.

You can change curriculum, your routine, your expectations, your screen time policy, the amount of play time your kids get, bedtime routines, chore expectations, where you homeschool, or your approach to homeschooling.

Making some of these changes may challenge your long held beliefs about school. You may find yourself exploring things that homeschoolers don't have to do that are common school practices.

Making some of these homeschool changes may even change you.

One of the weird powers of homeschooling is that our kids get to see—up close and personal—how we parents deal with challenges.

Will we show them we will stick with a program that is not working no matter what because this was our plan and we said so?

Or will we show them we recognize when there are problems that might have more effective solutions if we are flexible enough to examine our assumptions about the way things "must" be?

Both pride and stubbornness can make it hard to back up and make changes in our homeschooling. But so can having paid a lot for a curriculum or having spent a long time finding and falling in love with just the right program.

But we know in our hearts what is working and not working (and as I've said before—crying, frustration, resistance, inattentiveness, lack of learning, and misery are clear signs that something's not working. And that goes double if Mom is crying).

It helps to get an analysis of what's working and not working in our homeschool down on paper. Then, let us revise together.

Looking forward,
Jeanne