11 Lies Homeschoolers Like to Tell

We all know those perfect little homeschool families. You know, the ones who have it all together.

Their kids excel at everything.

They get along wonderfully.

They love being together.

I honestly thought that was what my family would be like in the future just because we chose to homeschool. I’m not sure if I was buying in to the stereotype or that I was just that naive, but that’s not our family at all. Don’t get me wrong, we love homeschooling, but there are some lies that I have believed and even told on occasion.

1. Homeschooling is fun.

Please hear me, we absolutely love homeschooling, but if you think its all fun and games…I need to come to your house.

I love homeschooling little ones, to see their eyes light up when they finally “get it,” but there comes a time when real work has to take place. Whether it is on the computer or in a book, work will eventually have to take place. You can’t learn to write without using a pencil and paper.

Homeschooling itself is difficult, but totally worth it. Homeschooling can be fun, but the planning and choosing curriculum can get overwhelming. While I love homeschooling, it isn’t always fun – its work.

2. I have so much patience.

I know people think homeschool moms must have some supernatural, God-given patience that isn’t bestowed on other moms. But let me be honest, I am not always patient.

Like when my daughter is working on her phonics lesson and for the upteenth time “reads” cotton candy for cat, because they start with the same sound. Yeah…that one, she tries my patience.

Of course, some moms are more patient than others, but truthfully it has nothing to do with whether they homeschool or not. We are all unique individuals, created by God, striving to do our best as mothers.

3. My kids are geniuses.

Many people assume because we homeschool, our kids must be geniuses. While I would like to think my children are smart, genius isn’t accurate.

That doesn’t mean I don’t believe they have the capability to be a genius, but I am not going to push them. I want to nurture their love of learning, not force feed them information.

4. My kids don’t struggle at all.

I would like to say that my children have no struggles in their studies just because we homeschool. However, that is simply not the case.

Of my four homeschooling children, two are super quick with math, but struggle with reading. One struggles with math, but has picked up reading easily. And my youngest homeschooler thinks every page needs to be colored.

So, to say we don’t struggle at all is just simply not true. Each of my children has their own unique personality and learning style, which we can better accommodate as homeschoolers, but that doesn’t mean we don’t struggle.

5. My kids are best friends.

This one may be true of some families, but not my kids. Oh they love each other, but they also enjoy their solitude and playing with other kids in town.

I don’t think I’ve heard any of them refer to each other as their best friend. And you know what, that’s okay. I don’t mind if they’re not best friends, so long as they learn to get along and love each other. Friendship will prayerfully come later.

6. My kids love to be at home.

The myth that homeschooled kids love to be at home and going “out” is scary makes me laugh. While my children are definite home-bodies, they also love to go. They love to take day trips to explore new places and see new things. But they do love coming home to sleep.

7. We never argue.

Maybe its because my oldest is 3.5 years older than the next sibling and the next three are just 30 months apart, but my children argue just as much as the next family. They each have their own personalities, which means there will be disagreements. We teach them to talk peacefully and try to compromise, but that takes time and discipline.

8. I know how and love to teach every subject.

HA! This one makes me absolutely laugh. I am terrible at history, I don’t really care for science and I really don’t like teaching phonics or spelling. If I had my way, I would teach music and math.

We each have our own strengths and weaknesses. When it comes to teaching subjects we’re weak in, it’s important to find resources that can help it – whether that be another parent, video curriculum to do the teaching for us, a tutor, or an easy step-by-step curriculum that helps us along the way.

9. We always finish our curriculum by the end of the year.

Another misnomer about homeschoolers is, we finish every single part of our curriculum by the end of the year. While I would like to say this is true, there have been years we did not.

Some of it due to trouble with a subject and needing to spend more time on a particular area and some of it is because life happens. We make sure to pick right back up where we left off and press on, when our schooling is interrupted.

10. We never take days off.

I would like to claim we homeschool Monday – Friday, without regard to the calendar. But, it’s just not true.

While we don’t take most of the time off our local public school takes, we do take many Fridays off. Fridays are often filled with a field trip or other learning experience. That means we pretty much run on a year round basis. It gives us the freedom to pick and choose when we take time away from our studies and when we need to buckle down.

11. We always stick to the lesson plan.

Lesson plans? I learned a while back that making strict lesson plans only stressed me out. I learned there were ways to stay on task without strict planning and that has made all the difference in our homeschool.

I used to sit down and schedule out our entire semester, but when we didn’t complete things on time I was frustrated. If something happens and we have to abandon our day, then we pick it up the next day or even the next week. I have a general outline for the year and what we need to accomplish.

Have you ever told a homeschooling lie? Which one?