Why Your First Year of Home Education Might Be Your Hardest

When you first embark on your Home Education journey, you’ll likely be feeling a mixture of emotions: excitement, anticipation and no doubt a bit of apprehension. For many families, the first year can be particularly challenging for a number of different reasons. 

If your child was previously in school, they’ll face a profound shift away from traditional educational norms. If you’re home educating from the outset, you might not know what to expect or where to start. Either way, the first year of Home Education is full of learning curves and big adjustments that both adults and children must navigate.

So, what is it about the first year of Home Education that makes it the hardest? These 20 reasons should answer this question. Just remember — as with many other examples — if you can get through the first year, you can get through anything. These challenges will become part of your experience and being aware of them will make them easier to overcome. 

1. It’s completely new to you and your child

The first year of Home Education might be the hardest for one of the most obvious reasons: it’s completely new to you and your child! And when something is new, it’s like traipsing through water without knowing how deep it is. 

You’ll likely be feeling uncertain as you scour the internet and other resources for as much information as you can find. Everything will seem daunting at first as you try to understand what’s involved and how to go about taking the first steps.

Depending on whether you’re home educating from the outset or deregistering your child from school, there are going to be different procedures for you to follow in the beginning, and lots of advice out there to wrap your head around. 

2. It’s going to take time to adjust

Everyone’s adjustment to Home Education will be different. Some may adjust quickly and others may need more time, but one thing is certain and that is you will need the time to adjust.

Don’t make the mistake of rushing into it and hoping that everything will easily fall into place. Expect to have many periods of trial and error, and use the time between deciding to home educate and doing it to figure out what works best for your family. Be aware of how it will make your lives different and allow yourselves to take each day as it comes. 

3. Transitioning from school

This reason applies if your child is transitioning from a traditional education to the flexible world of Home Education. They’ll be facing a complete overhaul in their daily routines, as well as their mindset, which is not always easy. Parents find themselves wearing the hats of both caregiver and educator, which can be overwhelming and lead to burnout. And children must adjust to learning in a more intimate, less formal setting, which can be both liberating and unsettling.

4. It involves a lot of decision making

When it comes to the first year of Home Education, be prepared to make a lot of decisions. And these aren’t just your decisions, they’re your child’s decisions too. You’ll face various choices, such as what style of Home Education you’re going to follow, what your schedule will look like, whether you’ll continue to work alongside home educating, amongst many other things. 

At times, it may feel like the decisions you’re making just aren’t sticking or that you’re going round in circles, but this is the best time to be flexible and open-minded. Things will constantly change during your first year of Home Education, whether it be in your control or not. 

5. You’ll want to get it right

We have a habit of wanting to get things right the first time round, but this is normally never the case. If things did always go right the first time, we would never learn from anything. Of course, you want your children to thrive, but Home Education can be very difficult if you set your expectations too high. 

The important thing to remember is that there is no one-size-fits-all either, so what might work for one family might not necessarily work for yours. Not everything will turn out the way we want them to and often the first option is not necessarily going to be the right one. 

It can be hard feeling like you’re not getting it right, but trust that it will be right when it’s meant to be. 

6. Finding your community and making friends

We won’t sugarcoat it — your first year of Home Education can feel very isolating. Even if you and your child get out and about as much as possible and attend various groups, it can still feel like you’re on your own. 

Joining a Home Education group can be daunting, especially if you don’t know anyone. You might find that it’s difficult to click with certain people or that there are lots of people who already know each other and therefore they seem less approachable. You’ll also find that people come and go, so it’s much harder to make genuine connections when you’re not seeing the same people all the time. 

7. Your children will have their ups and downs

Your first year of Home Education, and in fact every year, will be filled with ups and downs. But our child’s ups and downs can often seem more challenging to deal with. There will be days where their emotions are all over the place, where they have no motivation or are just feeling overwhelmed. These will be the hardest days as it can be a struggle to encourage them and you may start to doubt your decision to home educate. 

8. It’s overwhelming

There will undoubtedly be times when you feel overwhelmed, whether it be from doing too much, not knowing what to do next or just having a bad day. There are also a lot of things to think about and factors such as managing your time, socialising, financial constraints and more can make it very stressful. 

Whilst you may feel like the pressure is all on your shoulders, you’re not alone. Facing each task one at a time usually helps, so don’t feel like you need to tackle everything at once. 

9. It can be difficult to assess progress

Whilst school constantly provides feedback on progress through marked work, parent evenings and exams, you may struggle to keep up with assessing your child’s progress at home, especially if you have a more informal style of learning. This can become even more stressful if you need to write a report for your local authority detailing your child’s education and progress throughout the year. Not every parent wants to test their children and some may struggle to keep a record of work. 

10. Finding balance

A common reason why your first year of Home Education might be the hardest is trying to find the right balance between educational topics, life skills and just generally having fun. It’s often hard to distinguish the line between these three things and it can feel like you’re always thinking about Home Education, no matter what you do. Your child might also feel the burden of either doing too much or doing too little, but finding the right balance can be difficult because everyone’s needs are different. 

11. Lack of support from friends and family

Many new home educators dread this because the first year of Home Education is usually when you face a lot of criticism and judgement, particularly from those closest to you as they may not understand your reasons for home educating or what it actually involves. 

Having a lack of support from friends and family can be really disheartening. You’ll feel like you’re always having to explain yourself and you might even try to avoid mentioning that you’re home educating at all. 

The first year will be full of questions and concerns, which can really make you doubt yourself. Just remember, you don’t need to explain your reasoning. After the first year, you’ll know exactly how to respond to judgement and criticism, which might be not responding at all! Don’t worry, everyone will soon see for themselves why Home Education is right for your family. 

12. Accessing resources

You might struggle to find valuable resources or waste your time and money finding ones that aren’t so great. Sure you could look at reviews or get recommendations from other home educators, but every child is different. Because of this, resources often have to be tried and tested and they may not always be good or work out for your family. The pressure is also all on you to find good resources, so it can soon become a task that you dread.

13. Financially difficult

The first year of Home Education is often financially difficult because you will have expenses that you didn’t have before. Educational resources, groups, extra food, travel and days out are all things that you’ll have to think about and budget for. This can definitely put more of a strain on your family, especially if you’re on one paycheck. Some parents may even feel the need to go back to work.

14. Working and home educating

Whether you choose to work part-time or full-time, home educating during the first year will be a challenge. There will be the issues of adapting your schedule, having enough money and even having enough time to home educate and spend time with your children. However, once you find a routine that works for your family, things will go much smoother and be less stressful. 

If working and home educating is a particular concern, you might be interested in: How to Home Educate When Working Full-Time.

15. Self-doubt

One of the hardest things you will face during the first year of Home Education is self-doubt. That niggling voice inside your head can be hard to ignore and only made worse by other people’s opinions. You might doubt whether Home Education is right for your child, whether you’re good enough to provide a suitable education for them and many other little things. This can cause a lot of anxiety and stress, but having doubts is completely normal and it doesn’t mean that you’ve chosen the wrong path. 

16. Struggling to have time for yourself

One of the reasons why you might have chosen to home educate is so that you get to spend more time with your children, but this can mean that you have less time for yourself. It can feel overwhelming being around your children for most of the day, even if they attend different groups and clubs. You will often crave having your alone time or miss doing things for yourself, which can be quite hard at first. 

17. Balancing individual needs

If you have multiple children, you may find it difficult to balance their individual needs. As we know, every child is different and what works for one of your children might not work for the other. They may follow different learning styles or have different interests, which can be difficult for you to juggle as you try to provide the best of what they need. 

18. Adapting to different learning methods

There are various methods of learning and different styles of Home Education, but you’re probably not going to know which one is right for your child until you try them out. This can take some trial and error and a bit of adapting to during your first year. It may seem time-consuming but it’s worth experimenting. 

If your child was previously registered at school, they’ll be used to a formal, more structured style of learning. If you choose to follow a different style, which might be better for them, be prepared to give them enough time to adapt. 

19. Keeping your child motivated

It’s no easy task keeping our children motivated and engaged, and it can be especially hard during the first year of Home Education when they have more freedom and are able to break away from the restraints and structure of a traditional school. And when you can’t motivate your child to learn, it can be very tiring and frustrating. 

20. Planning for the long term

The first year of Home Education is just the beginning. What can be challenging is planning on how you’re going to home educate for the long term. You can’t always predict what the next few years will look like but you can plan for them. This can be quite a daunting task, but it gets easier with time. 

If you’ve read through these 20 reasons and are feeling uncertain, don’t stress! The first year of Home Education might be the hardest but it’s what sets you and your child up for success, and a happier future! It’s all about making mistakes and learning from them. If you’re still a bit worried, here are some tips to help you through your first year. 

Tips on Making Your First Year of Home Education Easier

1. Be open-minded and flexible in your decisions.
2. Take each day as it comes.
3. Don’t stress about the small stuff.
4. Plan time for yourself.
5. Trust your gut.
6. Don’t listen to the judgement.
7. Be creative and think outside the box!
8. Create a schedule if needed.
9. Get yourself a planner or journal.
10. Read lots of books about Home Education. 
11. If it’s not enjoyable, don’t do it.
12. Don’t shy away from challenges. 

After the first year of Home Education, you’ll still face various challenges but it gets easier. A number of things should be certain:

• You’ll be pretty solid in your decision to home educate
• You will have mastered the art of adapting
• You’ll know what works and what doesn’t
• You’ll know how to respond to judgement and criticism
• You won’t doubt yourself as much
• You and your child will be much happier

Happy home educating! You’ve got this!