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As a new school year is about to begin, and our second year of homeschooling, I've got some random thoughts to share as we roll through somewhere in Kentucky on our way home from vacation…
- Do you have your kids do schoolwork in the summer? Even a little? I had big plans last spring, thinking I'd just have them do a little bit of math and writing over the summer to keep them in the groove. I'm talking about 1-2 math lessons a week and writing in their thankful journal 1-2 times a week, surely that wouldn't be a big deal, right? What a bomb. I decided about half-way through that next summer I'm going to do what my friend, Sonia, does: encourage reading but don't try to get the kids to do anything else. NOTHING. (Except chores, of course.) All it does is frustrate me. Our kids like to sleep in (all but Kasey anyway), so we've got friends knocking on our door before they're even awake. This is a good problem, especially for our homeschooled kids because socializing is a non-issue for us (I happen to believe it's pretty much a non-issue anyway, but that's a topic for another day), so I'm not complaining. I'm thankful for our great neighborhood full of friends, but even a little summer work has proven to be absolutely futile. Too bad it took me years to finally figure this one out.
- I've been reading a book on our vacation called, Discover Your Child's Learning Style. When we get home I'll print out the assessments and it'll be interesting to find out what kind of learners we have in our family. I'll have all six of us do it. I think this will help us have a better year, because once you learn more, the book also helps you help your child in their own learning process. By the way, this is not just for homeschoolers!
- I have a lot of friends and family members who are teachers. TWO local teacher friends have called this past week to say they're seriously considering homeschooling their kids. And we live in an area with a pretty darn good school system, too. I think it's a sad sign of how tough things are in all schools these days. My sister is a teacher and every year it gets worse. More and more teaching to the tests and evaluations based on requirements unrelated to actually helping the kids learn. And that's not even mentioning the unbelievable behavior issues that get worse every year, too. She's got stress coming at her from all sides. By the way, this is NOT a judgment on those of you who send your kids to school, not even a little. My kids were in the public schools for over 17 years, and mostly I was happy with them there. If I hadn't been really convicted about homeschooling, we never would've done this. Read about how in the world I decided to do something as crazy as homeschooling. 🙂 (I know, it's no longer seen as such a crazy thing really, but at the time, I really couldn't believe that was the direction God was calling us.)
- As fall quickly approaches I'm feeling nervous again, hoping I can do this well, and wondering anew how I'm going to teach the kids full time and work full time here on the blog. Somehow it worked out last year and I'm sure God will work it out this year, too. It's a constant exercise in trust. I have to keep reminding myself that we have such a few short years left of schooling and full time parenting; our youngest is eighteen in only TEN years! 🙁 I'm excited about our new curriculum, because I know it's really solid and will teach them well. It'll be better than last year when I always wondered if we were doing enough, but planning out our first year myself was good for getting our feet wet. I'm a little nervous about having a set curriculum now, too, though. I did some of this curriculum with them after reading the founder's book, but only parts. I know that for it all to go smooth, the kids have to wake up and stay on task. Not for long, and definitely for less time than if they went to school all day, but I just don't want to be a nag all day every day. “Is your work done yet…? Where are you at on your schoolwork…? How about now…?” Their friends will come knocking before we know it each day and if the work isn't done, I suppose the natural consequences of not playing until it is will take care of that soon enough, but I know at first it won't be easy.
- I'm still thinking of getting this brain exercise program that a friend told me about – it's actually for kids with definite learning or attention deficit issues, but besides helping to repair connections in kids’ brains with ADHD, I’d like to see if it just helps our kids focus better so it won’t take them ALL day to finish their work. Read more at their site. Better focus and work results: The Learning Breakthrough Program is a medication-free treatment for improving the range of symptoms and closing the gaps that define attention deficit. This deceptively simple balance and movement program is one of the most respected alternatives to medications and a perfect complement to other therapies.” I love that ‘medication-free' part.
Do you have any beginning of the school year musings to share with us? Or any advice? I'm always open to hear what you might have for me!
- Skim through my earlier homeschooling posts to see what you may have missed. There's a lot there about our own journey with loads of input from all of you, too. I'm so thankful to learn from many of you seasoned homeschoolers. 🙂
Lori says
I always had my kids do some kind of school work during the summer. It was usually catching up on science or math. It seemed like it helped with the brain atrophy that happens if they do nothing at all. Also, it kept them from complaining that they were bored.
Another great book on learning styles is The Way They Learn by Cynthia Tobias. Knowing my kids learning styles (and mine too) was essential in educating them effectively and without tears.
Stick with it and you’ll find what fits your family. Unfortunately, it takes a few tries and some trial and error.
Jackie says
This is our first year not to homeschool during the summer. I have enjoyed it as much as my daughter. When she was younger we used Time4Learning but they stopped at 8th grade and we became mostly unschoolers which works well for her ADHD and dyslexia. However, this year T4L just announced they are offering high school courses (https://www.prweb.com/releases/Time4Learning/High-School-curriculum/prweb10950988.htm) and since she is in high school and needs a transcript, I enrolled her. I like that they do the record keeping and teach subjects I am not comfortable teaching.
We still unschool and and supplement with whatever she is interested in learning. I am working on ways to translate those life skills onto a high school transcript. I am so literal, so black and white, I have to really work on it. LOL
Oh, we purchased a brain program through Homeschool Buyers Co-op about four years ago to help retrain my daughter’s brain. Unfortunately she didn’t stick with it. I will say some of the lessons (games) were very difficult and frustrating–I tried them.
Joyfully,
Jackie
Anastasia @ eco-babyz says
I feel the same as you mention on #4. I’m working from home full time as well, running two businesses and launching a 3rd as we speak 🙂 Yes, I’m crazy. I have no clue how I will do it, but I know I can. Though it is ‘easy’ now with just a pre-schooler and a toddler, but I’ll have to beg my husband to be with them while I work, so that I can focus on homeschooling more when he is at work.
Nicole says
Kelly, did you know there is an updated version of Discover your child’s learning style??? Came out last month!!
KitchenKop says
Oh great, of course I have the old one. What’s better about the new one? Maybe I should get it at the library before I print the assessments in mind…???
Thanks Nicole!
Kel
Nicole says
Hi Kelly, I am wondering if you’re still planning to do a more in-depth post on the brain exercise program??? I am really interested in doing something like that for my daughter!
I wish I could home-school but I have health problems that prevent me from being organised enough!!! I think the fact that you can home-school and work full-time is just a testament to what an awesome person you are!!!!!!
KitchenKop says
I know, it looks like a great program doesn’t it?!!! I do still hope to do a more in-depth post on it soon, but I’m not sure when it’ll be, especially with school starting soon. I’ll try, though! 🙂
Kel
Rebecca N says
I admit, I looked at the program and it looks interesting. But at $400 + shipping i’d want to make sure it could be used for years and years and be 100% guaranteed. Does anyone have experience with this program? I just don’t trust the reviews 100%. Thanks
KitchenKop says
I’m trying to find more info on this and will keep you posted!
Kelly
Rebecca N says
Kelly,
I love your blog and I love that you’re sharing your home school journey with us. I’ve been contemplating it for years with my son and now that I have 2 more babies it’s popping up in the back of my head again. My family and friends somehow have talked me out of it any time I start talking to seriously about it. So i love hearing about how you’re doing it and working.
I do have a question though, it seems most of the book links I follow are religious homeschooling books, is this just the path you’ve chosen or is there a back story/reason to the catholic homeschooling books?
KitchenKop says
Hi Rebecca,
It’s mostly because we are Catholic and many of our close friends who homeschool are Catholic, too, so it was a natural fit for us.
I think, though, that the book, “The Well-Trained Mind” (https://amzn.to/13AMCY3) isn’t religious based and it’s about classical education homeschooling. (I’m not sure, though, maybe others could jump in?) I know for sure that there are MANY non-religious homeschoolers out there. It’s nice that no matter where your family is, homeschooling can be a good fit. 🙂
Kel
Rebecca N says
Ok thank you, that book did look intriguing. I think we all just want the best for our kids and family, that’t what really matters : )
Melinda says
Hey Kelly! My comment is actually about the teachers who are thinking of homeschooling. I taught third grade in a public school until the fall of 2011. Then I decided to homeschool my three youngest daughters for all of the reasons listed above and then some. The school I worked for was great! However, with all of the federal government’s regulations, etc. it just became too much. Teaching was no longer enjoyable. Homeschool, on the other hand, is one of the most enjoyable things I’ve ever done! It was totally stressful at first because I wanted to structure homeschool like my classroom. What a horrible, bad idea. Haha! Now that I’m relaxed and into my third year of homeschooling, I know it was God who led me to do this. I love this time with my girls and am so thankful for the privilege to be with them in this capacity. I am still far from perfect as a homeschool teacher and too often wonder am I doing enough…doing it right… But the feedback from my daughters gives me encouragement to carry on. Therefore, I would love to encourage the two teachers to take the plunge. I think they will be grateful they did.
KitchenKop says
Melinda, your comment will be a great help to any teachers thinking of homeschooling their kids. Would you mind elaborating more on how you learned to not just set up a ‘classroom’ at home?
Thanks!
Kelly
Melinda says
I tried a very rigid schedule at first. Since my daughters were all used to an 8-3ish kind of schedule, including me, I thought that would be the way to go. I used my third grade schedule for homeschool even down to when my class used to have the extra curricular classes. Totally unacceptable at home. Life would intervene through illness, appointments, or the simple fact that none of us are morning people to begin with. I think one of the greatest blessings of homeschooling is the ability to adapt to your family’s internal clocks and schedule however suits you. I adapted a schedule last year that I’m going to carry over to this year because we loved it so much. Rather than do every core subject every day, I do one subject a day and give the girls enough work for one day that it would be a week’s worth of work. For example, Monday’s are for Math, Tuesday is English Language Arts, Wednesday is Science, Thursday is Social Studies. The girls should start each subject around 10:30 every day and have their work completed by 5:00 in the evening at which time I check it. They can take breaks and complete chores but schoolwork has to be done before I start supper at 6 so I need time to check it. Then before their work begins for the same subject the next week, I go over with them what I have checked. I also have them, after lunch, take about 30 minutes or so and work on an extra subject. Monday is Art, Tuesday is Music, Wednesday is Health. P.E. comes whenever: bicycle riding, walking, Wii, roller skating…the list is endless with our family. Then I had to restructure my brain to realize that I was their Moma teaching them…not Mrs. Wood. I can use strategies that I used with my students only present it to them as their Moma and not a teacher. I don’t know if that makes sense. I found it difficult to merge the whole parent/teacher thing into just me…one person. The curriculum was also a challenge. I was used to using what my school had adopted. I incorporated other means besides textbooks but I leaned heavily on that medium. I have found that if I want to, I could spend a ton of money on curriculum. I don’t want to. I draw from multiple resources…textbooks from Goodwill, internet, library books (both non-fiction and fiction), manipulatives. It was frustrating at first because I felt like if they didn’t have a textbook and I didn’t have a teacher’s manual, I couldn’t teach them and they couldn’t learn. I don’t know if any of this makes sense. But these are a few things I struggled with in understanding homeschool does not have to be structured like public school in order for students to succeed with all of the levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. 🙂
Tammy says
As we are about the start our 17th year of homeschooling, we’ve done it about every which way. Every year is different. We’ve taken a month off in the summer, we’ve done “traditional” schedules, we’ve done a few weeks on and a week off. At times I was frustrated because initially I thought it should “look like” school. We decided many years ago we would “homeschool”, not “school at home”. 🙂 Jacqui, Lifestyle of Learning was a huge turning point for me. I still didn’t school they way they did, with the note booking, that just didn’t work for us, but it did help me put my focus a lot more on being Spirit led.
Kelly, I have read numerous books on learning styles and such and “Discover Your Child’s Learning Style”, is one of the best!!!! I was already implementing a lot of it, but what a great fresh few they give on the diversity of people. I would say it’s a must read for all parents, homeschooling or not.
Jacqui says
Hi Kelly, I’m homeschooling but haven’t really gotten into deciding exactly how I’ll do it yet. I was put in touch with Marylin Howshall and Barbara Polling from Lifestyle of Learning. They have amazing literature on how to homeschool. I’m personally planning to research it a lot more very soon
mereditih says
Hi. I homeschooled my 4 kids. We are finished now! Last one graduated from Thomas Aquinas College last year.
I always ended school in May and didnt start up again til Into September sometime.
We all loved the time off to do what non-curriculum stuff was most appealing to them. Sleeping in , reading A LOT, playing with friends, training the dog, just doing life. It all paid off well. All four went to college and have done well. 2 already married with grandkids (33 yo and 29 yo) and 2 at home ( 23 yo and 26 yo) , working full time, gearing up for moving out and full support of themselves, contributing appropriately at home. I loved Laura Berquists materials and used them each year but picked and chose what worked for us without signing on to her program. We were in and out of public and private homeschool programs for different reasons, always trying to find the best fit. It was new every year, which surprised me. I thought once I bought something or signed on to something that we could use it for a few years but that didnt happen too often. It was a learning experience for me and for them. Yes, we had problems, yes it all worked out.
God Bless your year!
Beth says
I had a hard timing keeping my olders AWAY from school this summer, lol. They were motivated to catch up on some things that got messed up with our move 2 years ago (mainly Chemistry and Math) so they can move on to other courses in those subjects. Hopefully we can finish up Chemistry this next week so we can actually start Physics when we start the new school year. My youngest would do school mainly because she saw them doing it. However, I’ll be packing up my ‘shelf work’ soon so she has been doing some of that also, sporadically, during the summer.
KitchenKop says
Wow! I doubt I’ll ever be able to say this: “I had a hard time keeping my olders AWAY from school this summer”!!!
Lisa Schmidt says
Hi Kelly! Fellow CatholicMom.com contributor here. Our family is beginning our first year of homeschooling, using MODG as well. My anxiety levels were up, waaaaay up, last week. But I gave myself the week to hunker down, become comfortable with the curriculum, sketch out our first four weeks plans, and voila — dare I say I am actually a bit excited to get going. Very impressed with the curriculum. Looking forward to reading about your family’s journey.
KitchenKop says
I like what I’ve seen, too, how everything is broken down for the kids into small and not-overwhelming pieces each day.
But as I said, I’m just worried they’ll get behind. I think the online schedules are easily adjusted though.
Kelly
Mindy M says
We’ve always homeschooled all year. When I started, we lived in a climate with extremely hot summers. So we took off school in the spring and fall when the weather was beautiful. Learning is a lifestyle and discovery is fun.
Kimberly says
We homeschool year round so that we can take a break whenever we want throughout the year.I have a chart for the kids. When they wake up in the morning they do their charts, checking of things as they go. When they get everything completed, they are free. They even have bonus things they can do to earn various incentives once they are done with their regular chart.
KitchenKop says
I so wish we could do this – so the pace could be more laid back, but there’s no way we could go year-round in a neighborhood full of kids. How nice that you can pull it off though!
Kelly
Rebecca says
Kelly, I understand what you mean about neighborhood full of kids. Our two oldest had to deal with neighbor friends wanting to play during the summer-time. Now with my three youngest, there isn’t anyone left to play with. Anyway, the neighbor kids new that they weren’t allowed to come over until 12p during the summer months. That let us get chores done, as well as, summer schooling. We stuck with that rule with friends of the youngest kids this summer and it has worked out really well. All we did was reading, but it was totally worth it.
KitchenKop says
That’s a great idea!!!
Will try that next summer. 🙂
Kel
Kelly Smith says
I had plans to do some things through the summer, and like you, I found it didn’t work. We took 2 months off, except for still doing our brain exercises. We started up 2 weeks ago, and I am glad. I have time to tweak and evaluate, and we’ll have more flexibility with the semester. Blessings on your fall semester!
Peggy says
We do school through the summer. The kids choose the subject they want to do. We send them off to their rooms at 8PM year round, and in summer, that can mean almost two hours of daylight…too much light to sleep, so they work then. It doesn’t interfere with their daytime activities and it lessens the amount of daily work through the regular year.
Sadly, the pressure on teachers will continue to increase with Common Core standards. It’s a mess of a boondoggle and is pretty much geared toward developing a national curriculum.
We have cut the nagging down to almost nil by using planners. Until my youngest was 12, we met once at the “end” of the school day and I checked off that the schoolwork and chores were done before playtime began. Not done? No playtime until it is. Eventually they learned to not even bring me their book until they were done, and I learned to make sure I checked in with everyone before dinner. If schoolwork and chores were still undone by then, we would sit at the table after dinner and work together instead of playing a board or card game together. They got the hang of it really quickly. Now that my kids are all 13+, I check in once a week. Of course, I’m always there for questions and problems.