FAQ About Homeschooling, Curriculum Choices, Home School Posts
Meggen Loew
How Do I Choose Curriculum, and What About the ...

In many homeschool groups on the online space, parents are asking for the best curriculums out there. Very rarely will a whole collective group of homeschooling parents agree on what the best curriculum of all time is. Because really, there isn’t the best curriculum for everyone, but there is the best curriculum for your particular family unit. No homeschooling family is alike.

There are literally thousands of curriculum choices out there. From all-in-ones, piecing together, hodge-podge, you name it, and it is out there, with technology, homeschooling curriculum, and choices have become a lot more readily available than they once were.

How Do I Choose Curriculum, and What About the Cost?

Home School Posts

How Implementing a Routine Changed our Homeschool

How Implementing a Routine Changed our Homeschool

To me, a routine is a natural rhythm without adhering to set times during the day. A schedule is the opposite and is a more regimented timetable for things to happen throughout the day. Because of my inexperience, I tried to set up a homeschool schedule when I started our homeschooling journey. I constantly looked at the clock and lost focus on what I was trying to do. I often felt behind, and then I would rush through things. I would abandon the schedule and then try to restart over the next day and the next.

So, instead, I implemented more of a natural rhythm to our day.

Make Your Homeschool Curriculum Work for You: Adapting Curriculum to Work For You

Make Your Homeschool Curriculum Work for You: Adapting Curriculum to Work For You

A lot of other people will jump on the bandwagon of not using a curriculum at all, start unschooling their children, and be very successful. But there are some of us out there that still need assistance. Some of us don’t have the time or the patience to plan every lesson and detail. Others never actually have any learning happen because our attempts at unschooling turn into a free for all circus without a plan of some sort. This blog post is for those who need some guidance but are confident enough to make the necessary changes to what they have purchased, to make their homeschooling experience. I fully applaud those that can lesson plan well or that can unschool. While I love making lesson plans, I do not like the time it takes away from my family and other outside hobbies and interests. I prefer to lesson plan for the extras and supplements we use (hence the printables I have made and are now making available).

Why Year-Round Schooling Works for Our Home School

Why Year-Round Schooling Works for Our Home School

I chose to do year-round schooling early on in our homeschooling journey. I was feeling overwhelmed by fitting everything in. You see, I was at a point where the girls and I were doing much traveling, and I mean a lot. We had taken a two-month-long vacation and took school with us. While we were checking boxes and doing things, I felt far behind. We were not going to "finish" in a typical school calendar year, from August to May.

Why Establish a Foundation of Reading in Your Homeschool

Why Establish a Foundation of Reading in Your Homeschool

In a previous life, I wanted to teach High School English. I loved it all! Compositions, plays, poetry, novel reading, and I even LOVED grammar. So, of course, when it came to homeschooling our daughters, I felt prepared to take on this area of our homeschooling adventure. I spent much time obsessing about reading, writing, grammar, and all that encompasses language arts. I obsessed over this area a lot, and I worried I would mess it up. My only initial fear in the Language Arts area of our homeschooling journey was that of teaching our girls how to read. While I have little knowledge of the formation of the English language, I hadn’t studied or prepared myself to teach someone how to learn to read.

5 Things that Changed Our Homeschool for the Better

5 Things that Changed Our Homeschool for the Better

When I started homeschooling, I came to schooling from a former public school mindset. I had never envisioned homeschooling, let alone thought it was a path I would be pursuing and loving for my children. Eight years in and shifting a few things around, we thrive in our homeschool. None of these are of more importance than another, and not all of these changes happened simultaneously. Looking back on the things I have changed along the way, I can say that these five changes have only made our homeschool time together so much better.

5 Things to Consider When Choosing Homeschool Curriculum

5 Things to Consider When Choosing Homeschool Curriculum

Singing loudly for those in the back, "It's the most wonderful time." Maybe not for everyone, but this time of year is our Christmas for most (perhaps not all) homeschoolers. New curriculum is rolling out, homeschool conference sessions are rolling, and catalogs are arriving in our mailboxes. My nerdy side is bursting at the seams. I love the planning, the pursuit of possibilities, and the endless opportunities.

If you follow a traditional school schedule, then the allure of the next school year and the end of the current year is on the horizon. For more year-round schoolers (like us), we like the deals during this time and the promise of a chance to change things up, where I need to tweak or change things as the school year continues.

As all the shiny newness can overwhelm us and you find it hard to make decisions, keep in mind the following as you make your decisions for your next school year.

Lessons from reading “Homeschooling Bravely” By Jamie Erickson

Lessons from reading “Homeschooling Bravely” By Jamie Erickson

The first book I chose was “Homeschooling Bravely” By Jamie Erickson. It felt good to read this book and know that my fears about homeschooling were “normal.”

I narrowed down what I learned from reading this book into five big lessons.

1. God’s Hand is On Us

2. I am Not Alone

3. Keep Our Focus On The Why

4. Each New Step in Homeschooling is a Season

5. There is a Bigger Picture to Homeschooling

5 Ways to Reset Your Homeschool When You Feel Overwhelmed

5 Ways to Reset Your Homeschool When You Feel Overwhelmed

There are mornings when my girls take almost an hour to get dressed and ready in the morning. Why? I have no clue. There are days when my oldest seems to have forgotten every math fact from essential addition to division. There are days when the middle daughter can't sit still and is more consumed. They are just as many days that our littlest is just not having our school time, and I have to stop what I am doing with my older girls and rearrange our school day. Those are just some days, though, and some of our struggles. Throw in outside forces telling you that your doing something wrong, that your kids will be awkward and weird for homeschooling. What about your house out of control, laundry piled higher than the ceiling allows? Just like everything in one's life, we sometimes can get overwhelmed. Homeschooling is not different, and Yep, homeschooling isn't always sunshine and rainbows either.

I'm here to tell you that it is ok to hit the reset button, and it is ok to take a step back and reevaluate your homeschooling. You do not have to quit homeschooling. Let me say that again. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO QUIT HOMESCHOOLING! In our homeschooling journey, I have had several times where I felt like throwing in the towel and just giving up. In my mind, I couldn't see past the pile-up of everything return tog that seemed to be going wrong steadily.

Why We Love Homeschooling: And You Might Too

Some of you may know, but I didn’t start to be a homeschooling Momma, now after 7 ½ years, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.  So, I get it; I was skeptical of homeschooling heck, I recall almost mocking it while in college, studying to be a teacher myself.  Public school is what most of us know, and most of us are comfortable with, and while I advocate that anyone can homeschool, I realize that not everyone wants to or can.  This post is for those on the fence about whether you should homeschool.

There is no doubt from watching us on Facebook or Instagram that we love homeschooling.  Over the years, though, the original reason we began homeschooling is no longer the only thing we love about it.  Here are our current top 10 reasons we love homeschooling, and just maybe, you might be able to enjoy it too.

1.  Being Together as a Family

We started this journey to be together as a family.  When my husband leaves for a new job contact, we often join him.  If we didn’t, we would only see him every few months if we were lucky, or just for holidays and summer vacation.  Homeschooling allows us to pick up and move wherever we need to, to be with him. 

2.  Individualized Instruction

While I had several long-term substituting jobs before homeschooling, it was hard to reach every student for every lesson.  I was limited to teaching or using tools and resources used in the past.  It was hard, and I wasn’t allowed to change an assignment to fit the needs of students having difficulties.  I have been able to stop mid-lesson and wait for our girls to get a concept and fully understand it.  We can also wait for skills to develop.  I have put off formal grammar and writing with my girls, which has helped make our oldest a better writer in the long run. 


3.  Life Experiences

Traveling together with my husband for his job, we have been able to have a lot of once-in-a-lifetime experiences we wouldn’t have been able to before.  We have immersed ourselves in local and national history during our travels.  We have gotten to experience things beyond traveling as well.  We can teach our girls life skills and immerse those skills into their learning as well


4.  Helping Family

We have been there for the family in their times of need.  I have helped after several surgeries with my father and helped out with my mother-in-law after some health issues.  We have just packed up and taken our schooling with us.

5.  Low Pressure to Fit In

Spend about five minutes with our girls, and you will notice that they are just different.  Not different, as a bad thing, but they haven’t needed to feel pressured to fit in with others.  They have their likes and dislikes not influenced by media and peer pressure.  It is also low pressure academically.  I, as their teacher, don’t have to feel the need to follow mainstream educational standards.

6.  Intertwine Our Faith into Learning

I never realized how much our faith could be woven into our learning, and now that I get to teach our girls,  it has become essential to my husband and me to grow our girls’ faith, which has been fantastic as a Momma to witness. 

7.  Renewal of Learning (For Parents)

Just as our girls are learning, so am I.  While I don’t want to dismiss my public school education, I have learned much from teaching.  I also have gotten to read and listen to a lot of great literature in the process. 

8.  Not Derailed by the Outside World

Covid derailed a lot of kids’ educations.  We could stay on track.  We just missed out on a few socialization activities.  It is not just covid that can set things off track.  We can pause for sickness or travel and pick up back to schooling with ease.

9.  Foster a Love for Learning

Watching our girls fall in love with reading and every topic we encounter is unique.  I know they are young, and this could change, but I get to help foster this love for learning for now, and it is a fantastic thing to watch.

10.  Freedom in our Day

Where would love for homeschooling be with our freedom?  Freedom in our Day (only having to school for 2-3 hours a day), freedom in what we choose to learn, and freedom to be ourselves without fear of judgment.

There you have it!  10 Reasons you could love homeschooling as much as we do.  Don’t quite believe me?  Check out these other blog posts I’ve written on it as well: The Best Job, I Never Knew I Always Wanted, and Is Homeschooling Right For Me.

 

Look for us on Facebook and Instagram for a more daily look at our homeschooling adventures.  If you’re looking for a homeschooling community to grow with and learn from, check out our Facebook Group.