This video really spoke to me. My downfalls are buying from excitement and buying too early. I really tried to hold off this year, but the big sales happen in Spring when I really shouldn't be buying until July. Also, I gravitate towards literature heavy curricula which means buying lots of books on top of the curriculum. I also tend to buy something if I can't get a good sense of it from the sample online. Like, I really need to see two months worth to know if it will work for us, not just a couple of pages or a week. And, being honest, all of the homeschool content creators on youtube make it look like they had such a fun and magical year and show the resources they used and of course I want to try those out too since our year is lacking in magic.
The elusive magical year! I love your honesty, and I relate to this so much. I can say that our school isn't magical. It's work. It's messy and challenging. It is an experience...one that has brought me closer to my kids, tried my patience, and helped me grow as a parent and as a person. Magical it is not, but incredible it still is. :) I wouldn't change it for the world...although I wouldn't mind the occasional magical day 😁
Thank you for being transparent about budget downfalls. Being transparent myself, I brought too early and needed to reflect a little more to remind myself what worked. Blossom and root is also not a good fit for our family.
Great reflections, thank you for sharing 😊 I also need to be better about remembering what worked and embracing the consistency, rather than the new and shiny!
I get FOMO so bad when it comes to curriculum. I purchased both blossom and root and torchlight level k to see which fit best for us. We will spend about 6 months doing each (year-round homeschoolers). We started with all about reading. Loved it, and then I purchased the next 2 years of it used. (and all about spelling). Then I saw multiple people recommend Brave Writer and picked that up. Then someone else mentioned Ambleside Online, and while it's not secular someone in the comments section listed the secular version. Now I've added that on as well. Plus my daughter will go to a micro school 2 days a week. I need to stop watching videos. Then I would never know about all the amazing curriculum that's out there. And would spend a lot less money. 🤣
I definitely did this my first couple years of homeschooling but I’m finally getting so much better - I still often buy way more than I need (as evidence in my latest used book and curriculum haul video 😅), but only when it’s used so I know I’m at least not spending a lot of money 😂 and I’m okay with buying a lot of books, but getting better at not buying tons of actual curriculum!
Ugh the Mega Bundles are my Achilles Heal!! I had to unfollow and unsubscribe from all of the creators before I bankrupted the homeschooling account.😅 We are going into our second year and targeting a $1,000 annual budget. I think we have it dialed in for this year at $705 for the core curriculums and memberships. We will see how it goes🤞🏻😄
