How to Get Your Kids to Hate Homeschooling

Want a sure fire way to get your kids to hate homeschooling? Here are three ways to make your kids hate school! 

I have been homeschooling for six years now, and for the most part, my kids still LOVE homeschooling. That has not always been the case though. There have been times where they have been burnt out, I have been burnt out, and we have somewhat hated homeschooling.

How do you get your kids to hate homeschooling?

Never take a day off

I mean like ever!  Field trip with the homeschool group? No! You have to finish up the work for the week; after all, you don’t want to “get behind”.

Dads off work for the day? Sorry pops, we HAVE to do school anyway. First time in 10 years you’ve got a foot of snow? Doesn’t matter, there are no snow days in homeschooling.

Never taking a day off, means always being in the books. This is not how I want my kids to remember struggling with homeschooling. Moms, it is okay to take a sporadic day off of school. Part of the beauty of homeschooling is the fact that it is flexible.

If you want your kids to hate homeschooling, never take a day off!

Insist on “Finishing the homeschool curriculum”

This is a mistake many moms make, and one that can lead to homeschool resentment. You pay a whole lot of $money$ for curriculum, only to get it and find out that your kids HATE it. But, you insist on using it anyway. Your kids are in tears, you are in tears, but you insist on finishing the curriculum. Sometimes, the curriculum just doesn’t work, and we have to cut our losses.

A similar scenario is never taking a break (hello, summer!) because you haven’t yet finished the curriculum. Think back to when you were in school. Do you remember EVER finishing up your school books? Me either!

Insisting on finishing the curriculum when you and/or your kids need a break, or just don’t like it is a sure-fire way to get your kids to regret homeschooling.

Take an all Hands-off Approach

Now hear me out here, I am not against allowing children to work independently. BUT, as a homeschool parent, we are also teachers. And, teachers MUST be involved in their child’s education.  Forcing children to figure it out themselves, without giving them the tools they need to do so, can lead children to resent homeschooling, and someday hate it all together.

How do I know? I have done it before! I failed at homeschooling last year, and let my kids do their work, with little to no oversight. I learned my lesson, and encourage you to learn from my failure!

Moms, I don’t know about you, but I want my kids to look back on homeschooling with a smile on their face. I want them to remember it as a fun time, yes, we have to do school, and that may not always be great, but I don’t want them to hate homeschooling. I want them to love it!

Every year on the first day of school, my kids wave at the bus. They like the fact that they don’t have to go off in it every day. I don’t want that to change, and I’m sure you don’t want that either!

So, let’s make a promise that we will do our best to NOT get our kids to hate homeschooling!