Homeschooling-expectations vs. Reality

How do we deal with homeschooling expectations and homeschooling realities? This is difficult! Sometimes when I meet someone for the first time and I tell them I homeschool they say " I don't know how you do it!!" My response is always the same! "Whatever it is you think I'm doing, I'm probably not!!" This is not to say I don't educate my children, nor am i saying that we do nothing all day, I'm just pretty sure it DOESN'T look the way you think it does!

Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in what we think homeschooling looks like.  Maybe we think it looks the same way we were schooled, maybe our husband was homeschooled in a certain way and we really want to school or not school that way!  What if you weren't homeschooled at all, and you've only heard stories, read books or watched reality t.v. shows! We all have some type of expectation as to what homeschooling should or should not look like!  Here are some ideas to manage those expectations!

• List the reasons you started homeschooling. When you wonder what you're doing, or why, go back to the list of basics! 

•  Ask your husband what his homeschooling expectations are. Make sure they line up with yours!
• Form or join a support type group.  This will look different for each family.  Maybe this is a homeschool co-op, maybe it is a weekly park date, maybe you invite other homeschooling mom's to your home once a week just to pray for each other's children .
• Find a seasoned homeschool mom to talk to, often. This mom should ideally have graduated and maybe even married children. 
• Write things down throughout the day , as they come up. Ask your husband about these things and ask him which questions you should bring to an older wiser woman. 

I'm sure there are a lot of other ideas floating around! What are yours?