Homeschool News Network

07/05/2024

Great article! Way to thrive in homeschool!

When my kids were forced to remote learning, I noticed they were thriving. We decided to homeschool and prioritize travel and safety for them.

02/04/2024

Great post for homeschoolers with multiple students

Ok, veteran homeschool moms, I’m talking you folks who have graduated some kids, maybe even married them off, have grandbabies even; but still have kids you’re homeschooling: tell us the truth. How do you keep the momentum? Or is it inevitably a slow slide into unschooling?

I personally have two graduated, and three still schooling at home. I’m also a single mom who owns her own business now. I’ll admit that I have absolutely trimmed the fat. My younger kids have more independent learning than my older kids did. There are far fewer poetry tea times, and I can’t remember the last time we cracked open our natural journals. My younger kids are more likely to be found reading Harry Potter and Captain Underpants than Treasure Island and the Lambs’ Shakespeare.

My youngers have more screen time, less activities, and more independent responsibilities, than their older siblings. I incorporate them in lesson planning and curriculum choices more than I did with their older siblings. I have definitely relaxed my control over their education. They begin to own their education at a younger age than their siblings did. I’m far more likely to allow their passions to lead the way.

When it comes to discipline and habit training, thankfully much of our habits are just incorporated into our family life now, because I have not even opened my copy of Laying Down The Rails in about 4 years. I am far more likely to laugh off grumpy attitudes, talk through unkind behaviors, and diffuse situations, than I am to discipline.

There are positives and negatives. But my current struggle is finding momentum to keep going! My youngest is 9, so I have a piece yet to go. How do we recapture the passion? Or is it a matter of creating new passion?

Veteran moms, weigh in! We are TIRED and need your advice.
🖼️Zwei Damen by Charles van den Daele 1860

03/03/2024

I love this

Here’s your friendly reminder that grade levels are an artificial construct. They didn’t exist until 100 years ago. They were designed specifically for mass education in public schools.

It doesn’t matter what grade level of math or grammar or science your kid is in. What matters is that they are always progressing. Checking off boxes like grade levels is a trap full of stress and guilt, yet for some reason, homeschoolers insist on copying the very system they claim to disdain.

When people ask me “what do you recommend for 3rd grade grammar” or “6th grade science” I don’t give them the answer they’re looking for. I don’t know what 3rd grade grammar even is. I just know that my kids start with phonics, then reading, and then learning to spell based on phonics rules, then move on to copy work, and by about middle school they take their first Easy Grammar course. It’s the same with all subjects.

Progression is the goal. Being well-educated is the goal. Not checking off a list. So if my kids take pre-Algebra at age 10 or age 16, it’s not a big deal. What’s important is they they grasp the content and are able to move on to the next level.

It’s like video games. Just keep going until you level up, and if the kids aren’t getting it, stay in that world a little longer. If they are, advance to the next level. 🌟

Have confidence in your ability to make decisions for your kids! A curriculum is only a tool; YOU are the one in charge of construction.

25/09/2023

Your homeschool day doesn’t have to begin at 8am.
⠀
You can let your kids sleep in and you can drink an extra cup of coffee in the quiet.
⠀
You can do morning time in the afternoon.
⠀
You can do your read alouds in bed at night.
⠀
You can homeschool in the evenings, on the weekends, or during baby’s naptime.
⠀
You can get all your homeschooling done before 10am if you are early risers.
⠀
You can homeschool in the pockets of your day - when you’re in the car, waiting for an appointment, while you’re cooking dinner, or on the sidelines of a sibling’s at soccer practice.
⠀
Your homeschool rhythm doesn’t have to look anything like a traditional school day.
⠀
The beauty of homeschooling is that you get to decide what works for your family. The where, when, and how is up to you - there is no wrong way to do it.
⠀
If your family doesn’t like mornings, don’t pressure yourselves to begin your day early. This is the freedom of homeschooling.
⠀
You can build your homeschool rhythms around your work schedule, farm chores, the seasons, or sleep schedules. This is the FREEDOM of homeschooling.
⠀
You can homeschool year-round, take a break every six weeks, or take an entire month off in the middle of the year because of illness, a new baby is born, you move across the country, or you need to care for a loved one. This is the freedom of homeschooling.
⠀
Build your homeschool around the life you actually live - not the life the system says you’re supposed to live.

07/09/2023

Very relatable 🤣

It's official! Just carrying on living and learning. Share your ease-back-to-homeschool pics!

16/03/2023

"Homeschooling and child abuse is not the issue, and conventional school and child abuse is not the issue; rather, demographics are the key to explaining differences in rates of maltreatment.

If anything, the weak incidences of child abuse among homeschoolers are not related to family, but with school and community."

Are homeschooled children abused more than school children? Compares abuse and neglect of homeschool and public school and private school.

15/03/2023

Bravissima, Malinda and family! What an exciting story!

https://hslda.org/post/homeschool-grad-blazes-trail-to-become-top-executive-s-bodyguard

Malinda experience providing personal security showed a top tech company she is qualified to protect their CEO and his family. But her hiring process hit a speed bump when she submitted her high school diploma.

02/03/2023

Yes!

It's all about balance 🤣

23/02/2023

What does homeschooling look like?

It looks like gathering at the kitchen table to begin workbooks at 8:00, lunch at noon, and finishing by 3.

And it looks like read-aloud time at 10, math sprawled on the bed, a science lesson on video after lunch, and a history lesson that lasts for two hours.

And it looks like getting the hard subjects done while the toddler naps, passing out snacks to keep math fun, and running around in the backyard for exercise.

And it looks like 1 hour of a bit of handwriting, a bit of reading, a page of math problems, and a YouTube video.

And it looks like 2 full days of homework, writing assignments, science experiments, reading historical documents, and algebra 2, while working a part-time job the rest of the week.

And it looks like mom teaching lessons in the afternoon when she gets home from her part-time job, dad helping with math at night, and science lessons at a homeschool co-op on Wednesdays.

Homeschooling looks like a hundred different things in a hundred different families. It’s learning at home, on your schedule, with your favorite materials, on every budget.

It looks like HOME.

09/09/2022

This is Home School 💗

09/09/2022

This is Home School. 💗

18/08/2022

https://wjla.com/features/i-team/homeschooling-pandemic-learning-covid-19-families-of-color-cooking-baking-dc-virginia-maryland-yorke-family-unschooling-black-hispanic?fbclid=IwAR3Bt1fFdr63uIV_zpv2Dh9z1dwfUPWNWLHwFH32RN5D4ar0W3lzQ0zMDrg&fs=e&s=cl

Homeschooling is surging and the families its attracting defy the traditional notions of who homeschools and why. Parents, who say they're done with school politics, inequitable treatment and a one-sized-fits all approach are finding creative solutions to maximize their child's abilities and educati...

28/07/2022

They say that homeschooling shelters children. That it creates a view of the world that is narrow and insular.

They say that homeschooling isolates children. That it takes away their opportunity to interact with other people and places.

They say that a homeschooled child isn’t living in the real world.

I wish they could understand how far all this is from the truth.

I wish they could see that home educated children aren’t spending their lives at home. That they’re not inside the four walls of their house, day in and day out, interacting only with their immediate family.

I wish they could see them out at the local library, the skate park, the pool, an art gallery, a street market, the beach, the park, exploring a museum...

I wish they could observe how naturally they interact with all the different people in all those different spaces - librarians, skaters, lifeguards, gallery curators, market stall owners, surfers, park rangers, museum staff...

I wish they could watch them in their karate dojo, their gymnastics hall, their dance class, their sports team, their music or drama school, surrounded by other children passionate about the same things they are.

I wish they could see the varied ages, backgrounds, cultures and worldviews of all the people they’re engaging with throughout the week, and the natural environments in which that’s happening.

I wish they could hear how strange it sounds to say all of this offers less social development and life experience than spending years in a classroom.

And I wish, once and for all, that we could shed this myth.

Homeschooled children are not isolated from the real world.

They’re out there living in it.