As a homeschool mom and blogger, Pinterest is a huge part of my day, pretty much every day. When Pinterest appeared on the scene a few years ago, it revolutionized blogging. Homeschool moms, looking for a way to earn an income from home, became bloggers and long-time hobby bloggers began blogging for business.
Homeschool moms began to benefit almost immediately from all of these bloggers pinning their helpful content. At least the ones who were on Pinterest and realized that this visual social media platform was changing things. But how can you use Pinterest for your homeschool well, without getting sucked into wasting time?
If you are already an avid user of Pinterest, you can skip down to the bottom of this post where I share ways to make Pinterest really work for you as a homeschool mom. If you are not a Pinterest user, allow me a few minutes to explain why as a homeschool mom, you should consider using Pinterest for your homeschool.
First of all, let me preface what I’m about to say with one warning: Pinterest isn’t always representative of real life. Keep in mind that most homeschool bloggers aren’t out there pinning their failed projects, crafts, ideas, recipes, and methods. And sometimes they aren’t even pinning what really worked for them, even though it appears they have the perfect solution to your problem. So use your gift of discernment to decide what is realistic and what may not be for you and your own homeschool.
That said, know that Pinterest is filled with incredible content that can help you in every area of homeschooling — planning, choosing methods, choosing curriculum, organization, and more. You can also greatly benefit from downloading free and low-cost printables that can save you both time and money (especially if creating such things does not come easy for you).
In addition to homeschool moms and bloggers pinning awesome content, Pinterest is filled with arts and crafts, projects, lesson plans, and printables from public and private school teachers that many homeschool moms will find very useful and inspiring. There are some amazingly talented teachers out there, and not everything is directed at Common Core, so don’t be afraid to explore what they have to offer.
If you are a veteran homeschool mom or one who pretty much homeschools inside the curriculum box, you may not find Pinterest as helpful, but if you are a creative, eclectic, outside-the-box homeschool mom, I can think of no better place to be than Pinterest.
Here are a few tips for how to maximize the use of Pinterest for your homeschool:
Create and organize your homeschool boards by subject
I have a board for most every homeschool topic you can imagine. Art, science, geography, math, organization, curriculum reviews, and more. When I see blog posts, articles, or pins I believe will benefit me, I pin them to the most appropriate board.
Follow collaborative homeschool boards
Are you familiar with collaborative (aka: group) boards? These are boards that one person has invited a group of other people to pin to. I love collaborative boards, both as a blogger and a homeschool mom. These boards are chock-full of content from numerous homeschool bloggers, and in perusing these boards, you’re likely to find various tips and treasures that you might otherwise miss. Some of my favorite collaborative boards include:
Ultimate Homeschool Encouragement and Resources
Do a keyword search for ideas
If you are on a mission to find information for a certain topic, using the search feature on Pinterest is your best method. Beginning with the word “homeschool” and then adding the topic works well for me. For example, “homeschool biology” or “homeschool art projects Van Gogh” or “homeschool organization.”
Create a board for your unit studies or themes
Being a unit study mom, I don’t always teach in a traditional “subject” format, so using Pinterest to pin ideas for unit studies works well for me. As an example, I recently published a series of unit studies Notebooking Across the USA so I created a board just for them — see the Pinterest board for this series of unit studies. I also have a board for curating lots of ideas for unit studies.
Hopefully, you can see how beneficial it can be to use Pinterest for your homeschool. I would love for you to come follow my Pinterest boards. I strive to repin quality pins from many homeschool bloggers and teachers to help make homeschooling easier for you! But my Pinterest boards are not limited to homeschooling. You’ll also find great boards for parenting, Christian living, ADHD, healthy living, juicing, recipes, essential oils and more.
A couple more warnings: Pinterest can be a time suck, so be sure to set a timer for how much time you have to spend in one sitting. Also be sure when you find something online you want to save that you are pinning an actual post or article, not the main website (or you’ll never be able to find it later as your find rolls off the main page). And remember — Pinterest isn’t always real life. Don’t let it make you feel less than or inadequate as a mom, wife, or homeschool teacher. For every amazing pin you find, the original pinner has likely had many, many fails.
Are you using Pinterest for your homeschool? What are your best ideas?
