5 Good Things: Basic Homeschool Helps

According to a poll I read the other day, 45% of parents are unwilling to send their children to school next year.

This is a HUGE number, and while I’m happy for the influx of homeschoolers, I know the uncertainty and fear that comes with making such a large decision.

This week’s 5 Good Things is designed to help those who are thinking about homeschooling - or maybe you’re a couple years into the journey and need more help (we can always use help, right?).

Please share this post with new homeschoolers you know, and I’m going to be doing the same.

On our home front, we are giving our minds a break from homeschool for a while. It’s been a long, strange (almost never-ending) school year, and for my own sanity I just have to turn off the homeschool mom for a bit!

But first…. a reading update!

I just finished reading a total fluff novel that was WONDERFUL - I highly recommend Love Lettering for your summer reading!

Additionally, my son and I finished reading Nory Ryan’s Song aloud. It’s a heartbreaking story about the Irish Potato Famine and one young girl’s perseverance in the face of so many obstacles.

In case you missed the May reading update, check it out here.

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5 Basic Homeschool Helps

• How to Get Started in Homeschooling Webinar

  This webinar, from my friend Alicia at Learning Well, will be a great introduction to homeschooling. If you know anyone who is contemplating homeschool next year, please share this with them!

• 3 Things to Look for When Choosing Homeschool Curriculum

  I put this post on the blog last week to give you three overarching principles to guide you when choosing curriculum. It’s a very simple litmus test that has served me well over the years.

• Audio Books for Kids

  One of the biggest ways I snuck in learning when the kids were little was through audiobooks. All of our time spent in the car? We listened to books. Rest time in the afternoon? We had a CD player set between my kids’ rooms where they listened to an audiobook.

  I believe this is such an easy thing we can do for our children, and the latest podcast from Read Aloud Revival is all about audiobooks for kids!

• Help! I’m Homeschooling

  One of my long time and first homeschooling friends, Tricia Hodges (Hodgepodgemom) has written this simple, thoughtful book about how to get started homeschooling. Tricia is one of those people that has a lot of experience homeschooling, as well as the wisdom and heart for homeschooling families. This book is a good one to have on your shelf!

• Homeschool Master Classes

  Here’s another great resource - masterclasses from Cindy West at Our Journey Westward. Her next master class is about creating a homeschool schedule. Each master class is just $10 and is a wealth of information!

May I offer you a dose of encouragement?

Homeschooling is so worth it. I tell you this all the time, but we can never hear it enough.

I made a post for my Instagram followers and want to share it with you, too. One day you will look back and have that moment when you realize you made the absolute CORRECT decision in homeschooling your kiddos. (I’ve been having a lot of those lately)

(Click on the image to read my encouragement to you!)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Homegrown Learners (@homegrown_learners) on Jun 15, 2020 at 1:13pm PDT

If you are new (or new”er”) to homeschooling, I pray this post has been helpful to you.

Leave me a comment if you have questions! I’m happy to help.

3 Things to Look For When Choosing Homeschool Curriculum

We have so many choices to make when choosing homeschool curriculum.

(And if you have recently abandoned the ideal of public school and made the decision to homeschool, that feels like enough deciding for one year, right?!?)

I’ve homeschooled ALL ages and also ALL the way through graduation, so I have some experience with choosing curriculum. Some were excellent choices, while others simply gathered dust on the shelf because they didn’t work for us.

Please allow me to offer three simple criteria when choosing ANY piece of homeschool curriculum. (A curriculum litmus test of sorts.)

This will let you spend LESS time shopping and MORE time implementing and reaping the rewards of a beautiful curriculum.

These suggestions are born out of experience.

If I had a huge homeschool do-over, this is how I would choose curriculum.

(*These suggestions are for larger pieces of curriculum. Of course we played games, took field trips, and so many other things as part of our “curriculum” - but with this post I am referring to materials in which you make a considerable time and monetary investment.)

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Consistency

Will the curriculum you have chosen be something you can use for the entire year? Does it have a schedule that works for you, or can you tweak it to fit your homeschool?

One of the very best choices I made for our homeschool was to use First Language Lessons. This curriculum had short, effective lessons that my children could do daily with me. It was ACHIEVABLE.

The lessons were scripted and easy for me to use - even if I hadn’t prepared the night before!

Be honest with yourself when choosing a curriculum. Try a sample lesson with your children and test the waters. Is this something you can do consistently and well?

Beauty

Giving our children beauty is one of the biggest benefits of homeschooling. The world is our oyster.

God has given us infinite opportunities to observe, learn about, and create things of beauty. Why use a curriculum that doesn’t have that aesthetic appeal? And, why use a curriculum that doesn’t point our children to beauty?

Again - an example: Our morning time was always sacred. I loved to have a basket full of beauty for us to feast on first thing in the morning. It just set the tone for our day.

I knew I wanted the kids to learn about art - and I did, too. We used 13 Paintings Children Should Know (and other books in this series) because they were just BEAUTIFUL. My children STILL can recognize and tell you about the works of art we studied in those books.

You can even look for beauty in your math curriculum. I love the way Shormann Math points to the creator in each lesson. The children learn Bible verses and see how math is perfect because math is a thing of God.

Truth

This speaks to our world view. In a world that is increasingly hostile to our Christian beliefs, it is VITAL we choose materials for our children that point to God and reinforce our world view.

Science is an area to be easily led astray. We have always used Apologia Science, as well as beautiful living books. My son took Experience Astronomy - a course taught by Luke Gilkerson, which had a solid grounding in Biblical truth.

Five in a Row, which helped us create so many precious memories with stories, is grounded in a Christian worldview, so I knew the stories chosen would speak TRUTH to my children.

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I hope this helps you simplify your decision making just a bit.

I KNOW there are so many choices. Don’t waste a lot of time in search of the PERFECT curriculum, because you will never find it. But I do believe that if you look for consistency, beauty, and truth in the curriculum, you will have a greater chance of hitting a home run.

You Might Also Like:

Using Story of the World as a Spine for Learning

How to Include Beauty in the Upper Grades of Homeschool

Do you have a favorite piece of homeschool curriculum?

Does it meet the 3 point litmus test I’ve given? Let me know in the comments below!