I was scrolling through my blog feed reader and I noticed I was marking more as “read” than I was actually “reading.”

I subscribe to a lot of blogs; many of them are homeschooling blogs. They have good content written by people who are teaching their kids well. But I have found that reading them tends to throw me off my purpose.

Reading about the good things other people are doing makes me feel like I need to do them, too. Even if I was totally happy with my curriculum and what my kids have learned, one blog post later, I am rethinking my science curriculum or thinking about adding a new study on composers.

Those may be great options, just not for us at this moment. I am slowly learning my limits. I only have so much time. I need to use that time to focus on the subjects and curriculum that I have very purposely planned out at the beginning of the school year.

I know my kids and what they need. Just because something is good doesn’t mean we need to do it. It is all about finding balance.

This doesn’t mean I should never read about what other people are doing. It just means I will be more selective about what I read. I love blog posts with encouragement or teaching strategies, but when it comes to posts about specific subjects, I try not to read them on days I am feeling discouraged. Or if it is something that looks really interesting, I will add it to Evernote to read again in the spring when I begin thinking about next year.

Unless a curriculum choice is going badly and it really needs to be changed, I try to commit to not changing anything major mid-year. I tend to be impulsive and attracted to trying the newest ideas. By committing to not making major changes, I make wiser choices when the time comes.

What about you? Do reading about people’s homeschooling choices make you question your own?