Top Five Homeschooling Tips

Lots of friends have asked me how I stay organized when I home teach AND work full-time outside the home.  One of my biggest goals within schooling at home is to prepare my children for the real world.  Getting up on time, getting ready to go, gathering the day’s supplies, and working within deadlines and timeframes are all facets of the real, working world.  I am no expert, but here are some tips I’ve learned along the way, some valuable resources, and some good advice for preparing my kids.

1.  Plan ahead.

I’m not the kind of home teacher that can fly by the seat of my pants.  I don’t have opportunity to throw out the schedule and run off in a different teaching direction because I am working while my kids are working.  Because my kiddos are in my office with me each day, I need them to be prepared for the day and what activities are planned.  That is why planning is super important.  I plan everything from what’s for lunch to what supplies are needed that day.  My kids know to check their list as they are packing up, otherwise they’ll be missing necessary  items for a certain lesson.   I used to plan full quarters at a time, getting all the pieces of curriculum coordinated for the quarter to come.  Once I changed to Moving Beyond The Page curriculum, the coordinating was done for me.  However, I still lay out the quarters within that curriculum.  I also plan day-to-day which means my kids know what to expect as each day comes.  I have also created a daily planner for each child.  It is a fun rendition of a planner (my son’s has a Lamborghini on it) that you would buy for yourself or the office and it trains kids to plan things like due dates, special events, projects, and big days.

2.  Be willing to schedule.

I use a basic daily schedule with my kids.  I have typed up their schedule and put it in their daily planner.  It spells out specifically what they should be doing at any given time.  I expect them to be self-directed, so this enables them to know what is expected and when.  It trains them to keep an eye on the clock while working and also trains them to think ahead within specified time-frames.  There are two 30-minute breaks in the day (other than our 60-minute lunch) which are motivators to stay on schedule.  If the work is done & the focus has been adequate, by all means, take a break!  They’ve earned it!

3.  Be flexible.

Uh…wait.  Didn’t I just advise you to plan and schedule things?  I did…but this tip is important.  The best laid plans will collapse, dissolve, and deteriorate right before my eyes.  I put so much energy into the planning, that I often forget to give it a little slack.  Perhaps the first activity of the day was more difficult than I originally thought.  Or, perhaps a friend drops in and we spend some time visiting with them and enjoying their company.  If I am so very rigid in my planning that the extraordinary cannot happen, then it won’t happen.  I must be willing to have some wiggle room.  If a child is running a bit behind schedule, where can I find the room to adjust?  If a kiddo is having difficulty with a concept and need more time on it, then what can I nix to accommodate? That said, I am careful not to allow the kids to take advantage of flexibility (something they poke around for sometimes).  But, if the schedule doesn’t work that day, then it doesn’t work.  It’s okay.

4.  Check the work frequently.

It was heartbreaking to both the kids and myself when, at the end of a quarter, activities were left undone or concepts were still not mastered. I had waited too long.  I expect the kids to achieve 80% mastery on any given activity/project/assignment.  If they are below that, then corrections must be made.  However, I had set up the kids for frustration because all their corrections were left for the end of the quarter.  We have adjusted accordingly, and now we check the kids’ work each day.  Sometimes they forget a page, sometimes they skip it needing help later, sometimes they avoid doing a difficult assignment.  It works so well to check the work at least once a day.  Waiting any longer is so painful for all of us.

5.  Discover your child’s learning style.

I know that sounds fluffy and somewhat like “education speak”, but it makes a massive difference in how your child learns new things.  If you’re not familiar with the various learning styles, jump over to Learning Styles Online for an overview.  There’s even an online inventory to take to discover a learning style.   You might even take time to discover your own learning style.  It highly impacts how and what you teach.  Discovering this information about my kids helped me select curriculum and plan activities that best reach their hearts.  My oldest is a Visual/Spatial/Solitary learner (prefers using pictures, images, and spatial understanding and working alone). She would rather draw, paint, or create computer graphics to show me she has mastered a concept.   My youngest is more of a Logical/Mathematical/Social learner (he prefers using reasoning, systems, and working with others).  He would choose to design and build a model, complete an experiment, or outline a process to show me he has mastered a concept.   Knowing this about my kids means knowing how they filter information, how they process it, and how they produce an end product.

There you have it:  my top 5 things I’ve learned thus far.  I have a variety of printables I regularly use if any of you are interested in more details.  I’m happy to share our daily schedule, the template for our weekly planner, our calendar template, or any other items.  Just comment below with how I can help!!!

The Homeschool Dilemma

It’s true.  I am doing what I always said I would not:  school my kids at home.

I have known countless families who homeschool.  I’ve met the kids, been friends with the parents, and still never really understood why someone would torture themselves day in and day out with the task of teaching at home.  Isn’t that why we pay taxes?

What I cannot answer is why those families chose to homeschool.  What I can answer is why we do.

My oldest (now in 8th grade) began her public school career right on time in Kindergarten.  She fared well, but didn’t thrive the way some kiddos do.  But, she soon learned the system and what the school expected and began swimming with the other fishes just fine.  We noticed her inexplicable ability to procrastinate, but other than that she did well.  She brought home good grades, displayed good behavior, and usually had good things to say.

By the time she hit 4th grade, things began to change.  We received her first progress report (in the middle of the first quarter) which was riddled with Fs.  This child brought home As and Bs until this day.  During a meeting with teacher and principal, we were told that we shouldn’t be alarmed because, “all 4th grade students get Fs during the first part of the year.”  We were stunned.  We muddled through that year somehow – mostly with lots of encouragement to just “hang in there” and “tough it out”.  We knew that just about everyone has a difficult school year at some point in their education.  But the concern only grew.

In 5th grade, my daughter was displaying a different set of morals at school than what she was taught at home.  She was neglecting homework, lying about due dates, ignoring standards set by us, and truly sliding down a difficult and dangerous slope.  Near the end of that school year, we learned more details.  There was a class trip on the calendar, and students had to have all their work turned in by a specific date to be eligible to attend.  We learned one week before the trip that she had multiple assignments missing — even ones from several quarters back.  We were shocked that we hadn’t heard of this before, but the teacher explained that school policy allows for students to hand in work at the end of the year.  There were no “hard/fast” deadlines.  Although we had been working at home with our daughter on deadlines, due dates, being responsible, not procrastinating, and being trustworthy the school was teaching and enabling laziness and ineffective planning.

We talked with the teacher some more, but in the end decided not to allow our daughter to attend the class trip because she was not displaying mature behavior according to our family values.  It was a difficult decision.  We just could not reward that behavior.  But then the conflict became clear:  she was being taught one set of values at school that were in conflict with the values she was being taught at home.

But I work full-time.  My husband works full-time.  What options do we have?  We cannot afford private school and we’re not sure that would heal the concerns we’d uncovered.

After much prayer and discussion, it was decided we would school at home.  I approached my employer (who also homeschools) and discussed the possibility of bringing my daughter to work with me each day – she’d work at her own desk and I’d work at mine.  Everyone was on board.  I hit the ground running researching curricula, schedules, options, standards, benchmarks, and state requirements.  We were blessed to find a program connected to the public school system  which pays for all our materials and curriculum (provided it’s not Christian-published).  They just reimburse me for everything I use from paper to books to computers.  This was a God-send!

I brought my oldest home to school for her sixth-grade year, and then brought my son home the following year for his fourth-grade year.  The kids get up in the morning and prepare for school (just like any other school kiddo) and they come to the office with me.  They each have their own school desk (a fabulous find at our local school district’s discard pile) and their own set of curriculum (I love, love, love  Moving Beyond The Page materials).  I set our schedule, our quarterly plan, and our goals for the day.

I can now say that bringing my kids home to school was the hardest but best parenting decision we’ve made.  My daughter is displaying maturity that is exemplary and my youngest is getting opportunities to exercise his designing brain.  She is becoming quite the writer, musician, and childcare pro.  And he is becoming an all-around smarty pants.   They both, of course, have their moments of, “I don’t want to” or “Do I have to?”  But, the chance to spend real time with my children – speaking into their everyday lives – is a priceless gift.

One doesn’t need to be a certified teacher, or a degreed professional, or a perfect planner, or even a perfect parent to school at home.  One only needs to weigh the benefits with the costs, examine the possibilities, and pray.