Do you have a struggling reader, or do you suspect your child has dyslexia? That’s me! We will just say that he doesn’t fit the mold. He doesn’t learn like other kids do and guess what that’s okay. This is one of the reasons we homeschool. Also, I think that how technology is used today also plays a role in how kids learn. Let me tell you why, remember this is my opinion and my thoughts on the matter, if you don’t agree that’s fine. I am just trying to reach out to those who are at a standstill and are looking for ways to modify their current curriculum to fit the needs of their child. Throughout all my kid’s school careers, I have seen how different it was and still is from my own. I can hear the teacher telling us that we won’t always have a calculator, that is why we need to memorize multiplication facts, well guess what, we always have a calculator now. So, what does that mean for this generation and future generations? It means that the way we teach our kids must be updated just as technology gets updated. The days of memorizing math facts are done, the way spelling used to be taught is done. With today’s advances in technology, we should be teaching kids how to utilize this technology to aid in their learning. Let’s use spelling as an example. Anyone who has a child with dyslexia knows that spelling is a struggle. There is a lot of frustration and tears. My question is why, why are we putting our kids through the old way of learning to spell when there is a smarter way, a more calming way? Technology has taken the need to know how to spell every single word away. Do I think that a child should know the basics of spelling, like knowing letter sounds and connecting those sounds with making words, yes absolutely, but the days of spelling words that are difficult are over, you know, the many words that don’t follow the rules we learned in phonics. Nowadays we can start typing in a word on our phones or computers the way we think it is spelled based on its sounds and technology corrects it. Do you see where I am going with this? My son struggled so much with a spelling word list that no matter what I did he couldn’t spell the words on paper. So, I put my thinking cap on and decided to modify his already dyslexia-based spelling curriculum to fit his needs. We of course still spell the words using letter tiles, but instead of me just sitting there waiting for him to figure it out when he is struggling, I would help by saying the sounds for him. Sometimes, he gets confused because the sounds in the words get jumbled in his brain and he misses letters in the word or puts them in the wrong place. So, saying the sounds out loud to him helps his brain to concentrate on that sound and he would figure out how to spell the word. My biggest thought and what got me thinking about how technology is used today, was the test. The test at the end of the week where he would pull out his notebook and I would tell him a word and he was supposed to spell it on lined paper. My thought is why are we doing spelling tests like this? As I mentioned before, we can just start typing in a word into a text message on our phones and the correct word is going to show itself, so just as long as we recognize the word that we are trying to spell we will use that correct spelling without really knowing how to spell that word. The same with word processing programs, they will show the misspelled word by putting lines under it, you right-click on the word, and a list of words show up and if you can recognize the word you are trying to spell you will click on that it. So, with all of that said, I decided to make spelling tests multiple-choice. I found a website that creates spelling worksheets, you can check it out here if interested: Common Core Worksheets I also use the other worksheets they offer on the website as well. After we go through the instruction and practice spelling the words using letter tiles, I give him a worksheet that requires him to write the word into a crossword, fill in the missing letters, or fill in the blanks with the help of a word box. Then on the fourth day, I give him a multiple-choice test, three are misspelled and one is the correct spelling. I say the word, and he chooses the answer. This method is working out well. So, if you are in the same boat as I am and need to modify the curriculum to suit the needs of your child, just do it, don’t worry about what other people are doing or what society says is the “correct” way of doing things, because the old way of teaching and learning doesn’t work anymore. Technology is making life easier and adjusting the way you teach will help your child to learn by using this technology and still be a successful adult. I have heard from parents on and off social media saying they read their children’s books before the kids read them. At first, I thought that was weird, I thought that it was a waste of time. Usually just browsing the book or even buying it because it says it aligns with your beliefs or morals would give you a clear indication if it was an appropriate book for children. Well not anymore, I praise those parents that take the time to screen books before letting their children read them. I ran into a book that I thought would be great because it was a “Christian” book and it would line up with my beliefs (I am a Christian too), I didn’t read through it first and just started reading it with my son. We were only reading it for a few days when I decided to stop reading it. Quick disclaimer: This is my own opinion, I do not claim to know everything or to be able to interpret scripture the way God intended them to be interpreted, I just don’t agree with this author's interpretation of scriptures. The book is called 3-Minute Devotions for Boys. It doesn’t name the author; it only says Barbour Books on it. It is exactly what the title says, 3-minute devotions to read for 90 days. I thought this book would be great to go through with my son at the start of our homeschool day. The first couple of devotions were well written and I felt they made sense, then on day 8, I was singing a different tune. Day 8 is an interpretation of Jousha 1:9. The author of this 3-minute devotions book, talks about worry and how we should give all our worry to God and let God deal with it. This is true, I totally understand that worry and fear will eat us alive and by giving it to God we are unburdening ourselves and putting trust in God to lead us in the right direction. For a young person, this may be misleading. Depending upon the age of the child reading this book he may not understand how to go about assessing a situation and take these words at face value. The person who wrote this said that we should stay away from harm but in the same breath he or she says that fear is a waste of an emotion and could never change the end result. I have a problem with that interpretation. We all have an internal alarm system that was given to us by God himself. I feel like we should listen to that alarm system. An internal alarm system for a child is usually to run and find a trusting adult or if a little older just remove himself from the situation, so telling a child to ignore this feeling and go with it could possibly lead to a harmful outcome. I feel this particular interpretation is saying to young men that they are invincible, and no one is out to hurt them and that all people are good and every place is a safe place. We know as adults this is not true, there are good people and bad people and good places and bad places, and God has given us this internal alarm system to let us know that there could be potential danger. I do feel that more discussion about this interpretation is a must if you are going to either let your child read this on his own or if you are going through it together. Another interpretation that didn’t sit right with me is day 10 talking about sin. The author worded the interpretation as having any emotion is a sin. I feel this is also damaging to young men who are going through puberty and are having a hard time controlling and understanding their emotions. I think it is important to reach out to God for help with understanding emotions, like anger for example. Being angry is not a sin, it is what we do with anger that could make it a sin. Then the very next page the author says that anger isn’t a sin, even though the page before it said it was. After that I stopped reading this with my son. I can’t speak on the rest of pages, but what I read I felt like this book was misleading and could be damaging to young men. I think if you were going to read this with your young son, you should read it first and make notes to dive deeper into some of the interpretations because 3 minutes is not going to be enough to truly understand what was trying to be said. I do understand that this book is meant for boys ages 10-12 and maybe a little older, but just because a child is 10 years old doesn’t mean he will be able to read these devotions and discern what is being said and he might just take those words as literal, which in my opinion could do more damage than good. As always this is my opinion of this book. I don’t speak for all families, just my own. I feel this is a good time to remind every parent out there that reading books before giving them to our children is a good idea. Because judging a book by its cover and its intended message may be misleading. If you ever listen to homeschooling parents the first thing they will tell you, including myself is homeschool is not public school at home. We hear that with homeschooling we can follow our child’s passions and the rest will fall into place. But what happens when your child doesn’t really have a particular interest or doesn’t like ”school” and you as the parent/teacher are running out of ways to make homeschooling not public school at home? Well welcome to the current problem in our homeschool. I read hundreds of posts on social media and articles about homeschool kids living their passions, they are playing tennis, doing karate tournaments or they already know what they want to do as a career, so they have a curriculum that fits their passion of being a doctor, lawyer, zoologist etc. Well, my son to me is a normal teenager, has no clue what he wants to do in life and his current passion like many other teens his age are video games. So now what. So, then I decided to stick to basics, and I get a lot of whining everyday about how he does not like school and doesn’t want to do it and asks why he must do it. So, me trying to be super mom swoops in and tries to make school not look like school. Well, I am tired. No matter how many fun games I make, no matter how many different styles of curriculum I use his response is the same, he doesn’t like school. Then the other day my 19-year old daughter said to me, how about just follow the same subjects as public school kids use. My responses are, "Well that is busy work or what life experience is he going to learn from annotating Shakespeare." Then she said the magic words, who cares! Who cares if he doesn’t ever use anything he learned in school in his adult life. True learning for her, she said, was when she got out of school and started working, then she was exposed to “real life” learning. She also said that I put too much pressure on myself to find the magic curriculum or the magic way of doing school to where he understands the material and enjoys it. Honestly, she’s right. I mean he hasn’t expressed any interest in really anything that would require using a “curriculum” to learn it, so why not. So, if you are in my shoes, just do what the public schools do. I am not saying do school 8 hours a day or give a time limit for each class and take tests, no I am saying if your child is supposed to be doing a certain subject based on his age and you are having trouble justifying if that certain subject is going to be something he will use in his adult life, don't, just do it. The worse thing that could happen is that they will never use it in their adult life. Just expose them to the concept and see where it leads. Who cares if he or she doesn’t get all the answers right, just learn. Think about it like this, what do we do as adults when we want to learn something, 9 times out of 10 we watch a video, read a blog or just ask someone who is knowledgeable in our area of interest. Do we test ourselves afterwards, do we grade ourselves and decided we failed so we can’t move on to the next thing we want to learn, nope, we just learn. So why does it have to be different for our children. We can take that public school curriculum and adjust it to the needs of our children. If that means not doing all the quizzes or instead of writing the answers on paper you just have a discussion that is perfectly okay, that is what it means to be a homeschooler, adapting a curriculum to our child’s needs. I will say, if your child knows exactly what they want to do when they are an adult, or they have some passion or talent by all means make their homeschool revolve around that. But I feel that so much emphasis is put on that type of learning we forget that there are children out there who don’t know what they want to do, they don’t have any real interest in anything and they just need the basic subjects to get them through the school day and that is okay. Homeschooling is about what works for your family and being stressed out because you are not doing nature studies or building a car in your garage will blind you to what is most important… Family! Do you want to incorporate bible time with your children? Do you wish there was a way to get them to stay quiet and listen while you are reading from your Bible? These are the questions that I often ask myself at one time or another. I am the type of person that if a child isn’t sitting and being quiet while I am reading, I feel that they are not listening. I know that getting them to sit quietly and listen is something that only happens in a perfect world. Since we don’t live in a perfect world, I came up with a way to help them sit somewhat quietly and listen…. Coloring Sheets! Who doesn’t like to color, I am an adult I still like to color. I still buy coloring books just for me to color or I print out the coloring pages I created and color those. I know my kids love to color so why not incorporate these fun summer themed coloring pages while you are going through the Book of Mark. There is no right or wrong to do this activity. There are a total of 6 pages and each page contains a bible verse. The verses that I chose were: Mark 2:10, 9:23, 9:35, 11:25, 12:30 and 12:31. You can pull these coloring pages out when you are reading from that chapter. This will help with the chatter and hopefully while they are busy coloring their ears are open too! Remember, kids love fun, so why not make learning about Jesus fun as well. These coloring pages are a great way to accomplish that. When you are finished with your bible study, you can hang these pages up to display as your child’s artwork and by putting them in an area where your child can admire his or her artistic skills, they can be reminded about what they learned during their Bible Study with you! If you want more season themed Bible Verse Coloring Pages, check them out here. Let me start off by saying, I do not do “book reviews” very well. I guess I could research the proper way to do a book review, but let’s just say that I am giving my opinion of the 12 Rules Boot Camp by Connor Boyack (The Tuttle Twins). I went into this book already knowing that it was going to be good, but I was blown away and not because of the words on the pages, but by my son’s reaction to it.
Book Description In a nutshell, this book lays out 12 rules to help young people to be successful in life. This book was inspired by Jordan Peterson’s book called, “12 Rules of Life: An Antidote to Chaos.” 12 Rules Boot Camp is about the Tuttle Twins Uncle, he is in a slump and needs some help in finding himself and finding happiness (that is what I got from it). So, the twins, being as helpful as always, set up a boot camp which includes twelve rules to help their Uncle to succeed. The Rules As I mentioned above there are 12 rules, but there are a few that really stuck out to me that created meaningful conversations with my son. Some of my favorites were, Learn From Others, Don’t Compare Myself to Others and Don’t Be Afraid to Fail. These are my favorite because I see my son, who is a teenager, struggle with these. Sometimes when parents say to their children, don’t compare yourself to others or it’s okay to fail, etc. they don’t want to listen, they feel like we as parents don’t know what we are talking about. Hearing it from a third party with no relation to them really seems to get them really listening. This book really helped show my son that it is not just him that these things are happening to, it’s everyone and that’s okay. My Son’s Reaction When I first pulled this book out my son was not excited. In fact, he dreads school and anything that looks like learning. He even got more irritated when we really dug into the book and all of the rules were something that he struggles with. He kept saying, “Was this book written for me?” I chuckled and said no, but again here was another teachable moment. I said to him that yes, all of the things in this book seem like all of the things going on in your life, but that’s the best part. Someone, in this case, Connor Boyack saw many young people struggling with the same things and felt lead to write a book that brings awareness to these struggles and gives ways to deal with these struggles. After that he calmed down and gave the book a chance. Conclusion So, like I said before, I am not a book reviewer, but I will say this, if you are on the fence about if this book is worth it, the answer is YES! This book will spark meaningful conversations, teachable moments and most importantly it will show your child(ren) that they are not alone in their feelings and experiences and somewhere right now there is another young person struggling with the same issues. Disclaimer: I am an affiliate of The Tuttle Twins, I will earn a small commission when you make a purchase using the links in the blog post. I was just thinking about when my middle child was in early elementary school. At that time, we had both of our daughters in an online school (my son was just a baby). I noticed and her teachers noticed that she was having trouble reading. So, the school provided a tutor that we met at the library twice a week. I remember that first meeting with the tutor, I was so excited to say that my daughter read a k-1 reader all by herself with no help. The tutor looked at me with no excitement in her face and said, “Well she needs to be reading at grade level”, which was like 2nd or 3rd grade (don’t quite remember, that was a while ago). I was so crushed by her statement. Yes, okay we want to see improvement in our kids, but what happened to celebrating the small victories. It meant a lot to my daughter that she was able to read a book with no help. I feel that part of the problem today is that we don’t celebrate the small victories, we are too busy looking forward instead of living in the moment. To a child the here and now is what important, especially the youngers ones. They don’t know what tomorrow will bring, they honestly don’t care, they are more worried about what is happening in their present. I honestly can say that not celebrating the small victories stunts enthusiasm for wanting to learn more. I mean why would anyone want to try harder at something if their accomplishments are not recognized. I am not saying throw a party every time they achieve a goal, I am talking about being genuinely excited, in your face so the child can see it, or maybe pulling out that book they read with no help and let them demonstrate their skill, anything to show them that we as parents and teachers are proud of them. We were lucky, it didn’t take my daughter that long to catch on to reading and now she loves to read. Now my son on the other hand, totally didn’t work, he struggles to this day with reading, and I honestly believe he has dyslexia (but that is another post for another day). I vowed after my daughter’s tutor didn’t celebrate her small victories that I wouldn’t let that happen to my son. So, parents, fellow homeschoolers, I give you permission to celebrate those small victories and don’t be afraid to stand up and say, I understand that my child “needs” to be at a certain place, based on standards that another human being put in place, but for today we are going to celebrate this victory and if you don’t want to participate then leave. As a parent and a homeschooler this question crosses my mind all of the time. Having a struggling reader is new to me and knowing the proper way of addressing this is not easy. I have come to terms with that there is no black and white answer. Each child is different, with different struggles and one size fits all solution does not work. So my question is, "What should my struggling reader read?" The Struggle Is Real! As you can tell by now I have a struggling reader. He just couldn't get it, there were so many issues. If you would like to learn more about my son's struggles check out my blog post, how to help a struggling reader. As he has gotten older he is a better reader. Is he reading Shakespeare? No, but who wants to read that, I know I don't! I did notice that looking for books for struggling readers is not the same as looking for books for non struggling readers. You can't just search for books for kids age 14 or for grade 9 because when my son opens those books he just shuts down. Why? Well he sees all of those words and his brain says, "Nope, not today!" Of course my mind goes to its only my kid no one else's kid is like this, I must not be doing my job as a parent. Well I learned real fast that most struggling readers are like this. I have heard from several parents that providing reading material that the child is interested in is key. Of course when I thought about this, I thought well I am a good reader but when I am reading something that I am not interested in, I kind of struggle through it. It may not be reading the actual words, but comprehending what I am reading is not happening. So why should this be any different for our young readers? So I did an experiment. My son does not like to see pages with only words. Wait, I know what you are thinking, when he is out in the "real world" he will most likely encounter reading material that is all words and no pictures. Yes you are right, but.. By showing him books where the paragraphs are divided by pictures seems to help him. He doesn't see it as an overwhelming task. Sometimes in the books that he is reading, there will be a page where there are only words and how I deal with this is I tell him to focus on the words he is reading and not the number of words on the page. Then I tried a book that did have mostly words, but the font was bigger, so that meant less words were on the page. This worked as well. But what does this mean, well books where the fonts are bigger are not 9th grade reading level books. So now you see the struggle with finding books for him to read. So, it looks like I have a dilemma on my hands. I don't want to get him "baby books" as he calls it, but he gets overly frustrated with books that are deemed for his age. Reading Material Comic books, graphic novels, audio books, poems, ect. Yep you read that right, there are a bunch of material that a struggling reader can practice reading while building confidence to be able to comfortably read those "real world" reading materials. My son loves Batman. So I found him a Batman graphic novel. I do have to remind him to read for at least 20 minutes a day, but overall he doesn't give me any problems about it. These types of books I let him read on his own. I have him read me a poem everyday for school, so I make sure he is progressing in his reading. But you may be wondering how I know that he is reading the Batman story and not just looking at the pictures. Well, he is constantly asking me questions about the things he is reading. He will ask me if certain things that happened in the book happened in the movie. So right there tells me he is actually reading the words. We don't use audio books but I do read to him and have him follow along in his book as I read. I do this by scanning the pages of the book and put them on my computer. I personally think the key to audio books are to have the child read along with it. This way they can make the connection in their brain on what those pesky words are that you can't apply the phonics rules to. As I mentioned above poems are great too. I have him read a poem at the beginning of school day. Oh and any time he asks me what something says, I say you can read, figure it out. He just needs a little push, 9 times out of 10 he reads it, if he struggles, we work it out together. Graphic novels are new to me in a sense that I always thought they were just manga, which my son does not like. But more and more companies are producing graphic novels and one of those companies are The Tuttle Twins! I love the Tuttle Twins and I know you will too! Is your child interested in entrepreneurship, does he or she love corn dogs? Well this graphic novel is going to be perfect. While you are there check out there other great graphic novels! Disclaimer: I am an affiliate of The Tuttle Twins, I will earn a small commission when you make a purchase using the links in the blog post.
I was in the store the other day and they already had their Christmas stock out. I couldn't believe it, it is not even Halloween yet! If you are like me you wish you were the person who starts their Christmas shopping at the beginning of year, but... I am not that person, and I am going to assume that you are not either, if you are here looking for gift ideas. Don't you worry I am going to get you started on your list, here are a few gift ideas that would be perfect for your kids.
Christianbook
Christianbook is one of my favorite places to find gifts. They have toys for toddlers, great book ideas for kids and teens and they even have some fun arts and crafts gifts. Here are a few gift ideas that I will be putting on my Christmas list. Tuttle Twins I am amazed by the high quality skill that goes into the Tuttle Twins books. They have books for toddlers all the way to adults. As an adult I have learned new things about history and economics. I highly recommend these fun books as gifts for your kids.
Conclusion
Christmas can be a stressful time. But I am here to help you make it less stressful. Books are a wonderful gift for kids and who doesn't like arts and crafts. Also too, if you homeschool you can include some of these books into your daily lessons. I have personally used the Tuttle Twins Combo pack to help my son understand how the government and economics work. I even learned a few things along the way. Disclaimer: I am an affiliate of The Tuttle Twins and Christianbook, I will earn a small commission when you make a purchase using the links in the blog post. One of the most important things you can do for a struggling reader is to keep him or her reading. It doesn’t have to be a novel or something fancy, just have them read something. As you hear your child read you will pick up on strengths and weaknesses and then create a strategy that will help your child move to the next level. Over the years I have seen what troubles my son has, and I have created a few strategies and found some that work and some that don’t. Reading Weaknesses Every child is different. Each child is going to have his or her own challenges when it comes to reading. My son struggles with decoding words and slowing his brain down. It amazes me how he can read big words that I wouldn’t think he would know and struggles with words that I feel would be easy for him. By easy I mean sounding them out. We all know that the English language is tricky, and some words don’t follow the phonics rules. That is one thing my son struggled with and still struggles with to a degree. He still has trouble with sounding some words out, he will say that “y” says “w” and for some reason he switches “on” and “in”. He also struggles with sounding out parts of the words and putting them together. If I sound them out for him he gets it but when he tries to do it himself he either adds sounds that are not there are just starts guessing. Strategies I have come up with so many different strategies to help him be a better reader. A lot of those failed. Some of them were boring or they were too repetitive, and he was just getting frustrated. Then I finally found a few that work. The first one is reading the story to him first. We are about to be finished with All About Reading Level 4 and we are just reading the stories. I will read him the story first and I will make him follow along as I read. This helps him see the words as I am saying them. After he gets a day to process what I read to him (I noticed giving him a day for his brain to process the information helps a lot), he will read me the same story the next day. Any words he misses, I create a fun board game to help him get familiar with the words. Next strategy I use is to have him put his finger under the words as he is reading. I truly believe this helps his brain slow down and focus on his finger which helps him focus on the words. I have seen him read page after page without missing a word using this method. As soon as he stops doing that, he is missing words left and right. I say to him, “See how well you are reading when you put your finger under the words.” He responded that he doesn’t like doing that because people will know he struggles to read. That broke my heart. But I put my feelings aside and told him that there are adults who use this strategy to this day when they are reading. I also told him that there is no shame in doing that because that is what works for his brain and everyone’s brain is different. Then I added in so humor saying that people don’t make movies about the normal kid (I saw a meme that said that). He just laughed. He is still struggling with decoding the words. I say look at the word, find words you know within the word, or I say, just sound each letter out slow and then say it together fast. It’s a process. Conclusion There is no perfect solution. There is no one education fits all. It is the journey that makes a difference. It is trial and error and when you find a strategy that works, it will be like a light bulb went off. This will not only be an accomplishment for you as the parent, but also be a great accomplishment for your child. An accomplishment that will make him and her want to keep going, want to be the best reader they can be. Parents with special needs children that want to homeschool usually avoid it. They may feel like they wouldn’t be able to provide the specialized education their child(ren) needs, or their child wouldn’t be eligible for services that are usually offered through the public school. This is farther from the truth. The beauty of homeschooling is to create a specialized education that fits the needs of your child regardless if they are special needs or not. In the Beginning… I will be the first to say that I started out by enrolling my son into an online public school. After seeing that he was behind, according to the public-school standards, I requested to have him tested. As suspected, he did need some extra help. The testing revealed that he had trouble retaining information and instructions would need to be explained in detail and sometimes more than once. So, he was put on an IEP. So just to be clear, I didn’t really need the test to tell me that information, I was seeing it myself, but I thought, cool, since he was tested, he will get the help he needs. Don’t get me wrong, his intervention teachers were amazing, but there was a problem. One, not only was he working at a grade level or two behind, but they expected him to still do the current grade level work. That was just confusing him more. Then he was about to go into 3rd grade and in the State of Ohio, kids in 3rd grade must take a reading test (this is only if your child is in public school). I begged the school to let him take it in a separate room with a teacher reading it to him. He didn’t have problems with comprehension, he just couldn’t read the words on the page. Well, they didn’t want to do that, and I wasn’t about to let my son be embarrassed in front of other students when he didn’t have a clue how to read the passages on the screen. So, I pulled him, and we started to traditionally homeschool. IEP and Homeschool Was I nervous? Yes! Even though I knew what the problem was and had some idea on how to go about fixing it, I was still nervous, nervous that I wasn’t good enough and he would never learn how to read. Putting those fears aside, I got to work. I knew what needed to be done, he needed to go back. He needed to go back to the basics and start over. This is beauty of homeschooling, I could go back, I could go slow on some things and go fast through other things. There was no pushing him to the next grade level and there was no embarrassment from his peers because he was struggling and they were not. To this day, he is not on the same level as his peers when it comes to reading, but you know what, that’s okay. It is not about memorizing facts or doing research papers or reading Shakespeare, it is about teaching him how to learn, not what to learn. Will he be a successful adult? Yes! Will he need help with certain things? Yes! But don’t we all? I am 43 years old, and I don’t know everything, and I still need help, what makes that different for our children? Why do we expect our children to learn everything in school, true learning in my opinion don’t happen until we become adults. Extra Services I know that not every child is the same and some may need more help than others. So, with that said, Yes! You can get all the services you need even if you homeschool and there is financial help. I encourage everyone who is homeschooling a child with special needs to check out the Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship. I linked some general information about the scholarship, but keep in mind, Google is your friend, other homeschooling parents are full of information when it comes to testing and financial help. Also, if you feel that your child needs to be tested, ask your pediatrician to arrange some testing. If there is a will, there is a way. I can’t say for sure that you couldn’t get your child tested at the local school, but usually the school won’t provide testing for students who are not enrolled in their school. But again, don’t take my word on that, call and find out, they can only say no. Conclusion Homeschooling a child with learning disabilities or other disabilities is possible. As parents we know our children, we know what they need, and the best part is, we know how they learn. Homeschooling is all about Individual Education Plans, it is about tailoring an education that fits your child. Don’t think that the only way to receive services for your child is through the public school system, there are plenty of resources for homeschoolers with special needs kids. Fall is here! Time to get ready for fun fall activities. Who doesn’t like corn mazes, apple picking, pumpkin patches, etc. Just because it is fall doesn’t mean that it is all worksheets and textbooks, take your kiddos out and do some hands-on learning and some apple picking! Here are a few farms in Ohio that offer tours to school groups and homeschoolers. The Farms Lawrence Orchards- Marion, Ohio
Arrowhead Orchard- Paris, Ohio
Whitehouse Fruit Farm- Canfield, Ohio
Hartford Orchards- Hartford, Ohio
Brants Apple Orchard- Ashtabula, Ohio
Quarry Hill Orchards- Berlin Heights, Ohio
Johnston Fruit Farms- Swanton, Ohio
Eshleman Fruit Farm- Clyde, Ohio
Fuhrmann Orchards- Wheelersburg, Ohio
Conclusion Fall is the time for visiting farms, roaming corn mazes, hayrides and more. Plan your next homeschool field trip to one of these farms in Ohio for apple picking, hayrides and a little learning along the way. I never thought after having two girls that turned out to be good readers that my third child would be a struggling reader. My third child is my only son and I thought I failed as a mother because my child couldn’t read at the age of 9. But as I did more research, I realized that it wasn’t me, it was his brain, after many years of struggling we are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. I do have to give credit to All About Reading. Their system is what made reading make sense for my child. Early Struggles My son was about to turn 5, so that meant it was time to start school, well that didn’t happen. At 5 years old he was not able to pass the kindergarten entry test, so we waited a year. That didn’t do any good either, he was still in the same place. The problem was he couldn’t retain the information, no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t remember things that were taught to him 30 minutes before. At this time, he was in a public school, so he moved on to the first grade and then second and he still couldn’t read. So, the school had him tested. They declared that he was border line dyslexic and that he would need to be on an IEP. To make a long story short, the school was not accommodating and was going to push him on to the third grade knowing that he would never be able to take the third-grade reading test that is required by my state. So, I did what I thought was best for my son and pulled him out of public school and decided to traditionally homeschool him. Homeschool Troubles Believe me when I say that our troubles were not gone because we decided to homeschool. No, things were not changing. We tried so many different curriculums and we even tried game schooling, nothing was working. I especially noticed that he would be able to get big words but struggled with little words like in and on, he would say one for the other. I also noticed that he was prone to guessing words instead of trying to sound them out. It was frustrating, but, I understood that his brain was not going to process the information if it was not ready, so I tried one more curriculum, mind you my son was 11 and still struggling at this time. We tried All About Reading! It changed his life and mine. All About Reading All About Reading was founded by Marie Rippel. She developed this curriculum based on the Orton-Gillingham Approach. It is hands on, and it can work with any type of learner. They also have a spelling program using the same approach as the reading program. There are 4 levels. The levels are not grade levels. I recommend starting with level one no matter what age your child is. There is a teacher book, student pages, letter tiles, word cards, letter cards and readers. Once you buy the letter tiles you don’t have to buy them again when you purchase the other levels and you can use them for the spelling program too. To learn more about Marie Rippel and the company click here. Why Did it Work for Us? This program changed our lives. I finally realized that he needed the hands-on approach. He needed to be able to see and touch the letters in words. This helped with sounding out the words, which to this day is his biggest hang-up. He needed to see the flash cards and be able to touch each letter on the flash card to learn the words. The fun worksheets and games were just the right amount of fun to keep him focused and not bored. All of this with the huge brain growth worked for my child. I also realized that if he puts his finger underneath the words as he reads, he is a better reader. Don’t get me wrong he still struggles, he would not be at grade level according to public school standards, but he is making progress and that what matters. He also needs to be reminded a lot about when to sound out words or remind him that he can read if he tries. Click here to learn more about the reading levels and the spelling program. Conclusion I highly encourage parents with struggling readers, homeschooled or not, to check out this program. You will see improvement with your child’s reading faster than any other programs, in my opinion anyways. One thing to remember is that it is important for your child to keep reading, even if it is a paragraph a day, just keep reading. Once the brain grows enough to retain information, the more they read the better they will get. One thing about being a homeschooling family is the ability to take field trips anytime and mostly anywhere. Art museums are just one of those amazing places to visit with just your kiddos or a homeschooling group. Here are a few museums in Ohio to put on your field trip list this school year. Akron Art Museum
Wednesday- 11am-5pm Thursday- 11am-8pm Friday- 11am-5pm Saturday- 11am-5pm Sunday- 11am-5pm
Gallery Admission is always FREE
Check out the website for more details. Allen Memorial Art Museum (Oberlin)
Wednesday- 10am-5pm Thursday- 10am-5pm Friday- 10am-5pm Saturday- 10am-5pm Sunday- Closed
Check out the website for more details. Canton Museum of Art
Wednesday- 10am-8pm Thursday- 10am-8pm Friday- 10am-5pm Saturday- 10am-5pm Sunday- 10am-5pm
Kids age 12 and under- FREE
Suggested donation of $20 Check out the website for more details. Cleveland Museum of Art
Wednesday- 10am-9pm Thursday- 10am-5pm Friday- 10am-9pm Saturday- 10am-5pm Sunday- 10am-5pm
Check out the website for more details. Cincinnati Museum of Art
Wednesday- 11am-5pm Thursday- 11am-8pm Friday- 11am-5pm Saturday- 11am-5pm Sunday- 11am-5pm
Check out the website for more details. Columbus Museum of Art
Wednesday- 10am-5pm Thursday- 10am-9pm Friday- 10am-5pm Saturday- 10am-5pm Sunday- 10am-5pm
50 minutes long Check out the website for more details. Dayton Art Institute
Wednesday- 11am-5pm Thursday- 11am-8pm Friday- 11am-5pm Saturday- 11am-5pm Sunday- 12pm-5pm
Check out the website for more details. Massillon Museum
Wednesday- 9:30am-5pm Thursday- 9:30am-5pm Friday- 9:30am-5pm Saturday- 9:30am-5pm Sunday- 2pm-5pm
Check out the website for more details. Springfield Museum of Art
Wednesday- 9am-5pm Thursday- 9am-5pm Friday- 9am-5pm Saturday- 9am-5pm Sunday- 12:30pm-4:30pm
Check out the website for more details. Toledo Museum of Art
Wednesday- 11am-5pm Thursday- 11am-5pm Friday- 11am-8pm Saturday- 11am-8pm Sunday- 11am-5pm
Check out the website for more details. Zanesville Museum of Art
Wednesday- 10am-5pm Thursday- 10am-7:30pm Friday- 10am-5pm Saturday- 10am-5pm Sunday- Closed
1 hour long Check out the website for more details. Conclusion Just because you homeschool doesn’t mean that you miss out on field trips. In fact, being a homeschooling family gives you the freedom to take as many field trips as you want and you get to pick where you want to go. Art Museums are great places to go on field trips, they are usually free or low cost and they offer tours if you are going to go with your homeschooling group. I think one of the hardest things to figure out is how to teach history to younger kids. Meaning we know in highschool we have US History (if you are in the USA), World History and Government. But what about elementary and middle school, what should we be using to teach them history? To me history is informational, meaning I don’t think we should be quizzing and testing our kiddos. I know from experience I didn’t want to “learn” about history if there was a test, I just wanted to learn what was going to be on the test to get a good grade. I missed the point of it, to learn what went on in our past that shaped the way we live today. Well with that said let me tell you about an amazing company that developed an amazing history book, two books! About The Tuttle Twins was created by Connor Boyack, who is the founder of Libertas Institute and who happens to be a fellow homeschooling parent. All his books are centered around freedom in a way a child can understand. The books focus on concepts like free markets, rights, responsibility, and a whole lot more. American History The Tuttle Twins American History is amazing. If you were ever on the fence about which history curriculum is the best to teach your child who are the ages of 7-13, look no further. This amazing book not only tells a story but comes with worksheets, audio books, and videos. The first volume of the book is from 1215-1776. That is the one I have. It is a history book put into story form. My son loved it and to be honest I even learned something. Just learning facts is not easy for me to comprehend, but putting it into story form helps me visualize what is going on in my head and if that helps a 43-year-old, imagine how easy it is going to be for a 7-13 year old to understand. The Tuttle Twins are named Ethan and Emily and they learn about early American History from their neighbor Fred. Fred makes learning about history fun. He sets up fun activities to do with the twins to help in understanding how and why things occurred in history. My son was very intrigued with the story and how it was laid out. If you are a person who loves facts and feel that teaching facts are important, don’t be alarmed there are facts within the story and there are even little tidbits about historical figures within the pages of the story. They also completed their second history book, 1776-1791. You can check out both here. Conclusion History is our story, it should be taught as a story, not just random facts splattered on some pages. It should be fun and engaging. For centuries people have been intrigued by stories why should history be any less. Follow the adventures of Emily and Ethan Tuttle as they learn about the story of Us. Find out what really went on in history and how it relates to events happening today. Disclaimer: I am an affiliate of The Tuttle Twins, I will earn a small commission when you make a purchase using the links in the blog post. Let’s talk about online curriculum. There are so many out there that it can be overwhelming. I know that a lot of people confuse online curriculum with online school. Online school is public school done at home, these types of programs follow the same rules and regulations as a brick-and-mortar public school. Online curriculum is just curriculum. It is the same as if you bought physical books and used them in your homeschool. Today I am going to be talking about Acellus 2tor curriculum. About Acellus Acellus is both an online school and an online curriculum. The school is a public school done at home. But they also offer a homeschool program. They offer the same curriculum that they use for their public schools, but it is just that, the curriculum. The parents have control. They offer two separate curriculum programs called powerhomeschool and 2tor. Acellus is a video-based learning system. That means your student watches the videos and answers the questions and moves on to the next video. If you are in the public school it varies, but using the program for homeschool it is just as I described. If you are interested in the public-school online program you can learn more here. If you are interested in the curriculum part of the program, click here. Powerhomeschool and 2tor Powerhomeschool and 2tor are basically the same. They both use the same curriculum. The only difference is that powerhomeschool is a watch the video, answer the questions and move on to the next video set up. You can’t move on to the next video until you have completed all the questions to the previous video. With the 2tor program, which is set up the same way, you have more freedom to use the curriculum in the sense that you can pick the order of the videos to watch and do as many questions as you want, you don’t even have to do the questions, you can just pick another video to watch. I used powerhomeschool for a while, but I soon realized that I wanted something that I had more control over. I wanted to be able to pick and choose how I wanted my son to do the program. That’s where 2tor came in. I was excited to see that I could choose different videos for him to watch and if I didn’t want him to watch a certain video, he didn’t have to and he could still continue to the next video. Also, if I just wanted him to watch the video and not do the questions he could and still move on to the next video. I use this program for three of my son’s classes: history, science and health. For our homeschool, those three subjects are more about informational purposes than quizzes and tests. I want him to enjoy learning about these subjects, not just memorizing facts so he can ace the tests. I will say I do have him do the questions after the video but not every video, I choose what questions I want him to complete, but only for comprehension purposes, I want to make sure he understood what he just watched, I also don’t make him do 10 questions, the most I have him do is 5. This way I have a clear indicator if he understood the material or not, if he didn't understand I either explain it or look for other resources to help him understand it better. Side note: I also help him if he needs help, it is more about the discussion aspect than him being able to get the answers right. The best part of this program for me is that each video is taught by a teacher or a professional in the field. For an example their health videos are taught by doctors, nurses, and other professionals in the medical field. The math teacher is amazing, he is funny and makes the lessons easy to understand (we used math in the elementary years). 2tor is a paid curriculum, each class is 4.95 a month. I am using it for three subjects, so it is costing me $14.85 a month. That is not bad in my opinion. You can cancel at any time. If your child finishes the class early, you can cancel or edit it to add another class. For more information on 2tor, click here. Conclusion Choosing curriculum doesn’t have to be hard. The internet opens up options that are cost effective. Acellus 2tor program is great and affordable. Each class is taught by a teacher or a professional in the field. One thing to keep in mind though, online curriculum is just that, curriculum, it is not a school, you are using it as a tool in your homeschool. Side note: Some online curriculums do offer online school, which is called e-schooling, but they are a public school done at home, they follow the public education rules and regulations, you don’t have flexibility when it comes to that. So far, I have shown you two great free curriculum choices, The Good and The Beautiful and Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool. If you haven’t read those blog posts, check them out. Today I am going to wrap up by giving you a few websites that offer free worksheets, games, etc. They are not full curriculum sites, but you can find supplemental worksheets, games, etc. to add to your current curriculum or for extra practice. I have used all these sites, so I highly recommend them. Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) Teachers Pay Teachers is a marketplace type website. Teachers and Homeschooling Parents upload their creations for other teachers, parents, and homeschoolers to purchase. The great part is that they offer some free resources. You can pretty much find all subjects. You can sort resources by price to make it easier to find those free resources. There is no limit on how many free resources you download, so go crazy. I have used their free resources for years and I even purchased a few. Eventually I started my own TPT store. If you are interested, you can check it out here. Education.com Education.com is another great resource that you can use for free, but there is a limit. You can only download three free resources a month. This isn’t too bad if you are looking for something specific to download. They offer worksheets for all the common subjects, and they also have a worksheet generator for you to create using your own information. You can create crosswords, quizzes, word scrambles, addition, and subtraction drills, etc. K5 Learning Here is one like education.com but they offer more free worksheets. You can search for worksheets by grade level or topics. When you click on a worksheet you want, you have different options of the worksheet to download. This feature is great if you want to practice a concept several times. I have also used this website for worksheets, especially for their money worksheets. If you are looking for worksheets for couniting money I highly recommend K5 Learning. Classful Classful is something new to me. They are a fundraising website for teachers that recently added a market place to their website. They are like TpT (teacherspayteachers). They offer free resources as well as paid resources and there is no limit on how many free resources you download. Conclusion There you have it, four amazing websites that offer FREE educational resources. I have personally used these websites repeatedly, so I highly recommend all of them. Remember homeschooling is a journey and having some freebies along the way makes it more enjoyable for not only you but your student too! I am back again to bring you another free curriculum option to get you started on your homeschool school journey. There are so many great resources out there that I just had to tell you about a few. In my last post I talked about The Good and The Beautiful free curriculum they offer. Head on over there if you didn’t get a chance to read it. Today I am going to tell you about Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool. Curriculum Background Easy Peasy was created by a mom who wanted to put her children’s school lessons online to have a record of it and to also make it available for other homeschool moms to use. She designed the lessons and courses to get her children ready for college. She also included challenging books to read from the Robinson and Ambleside curricula. You can use Easy Peasy from preschool to highschool. Course that are available on this website are all of your basic school subjects with some electives like computer, bible, art, humanities, etc. You can print out all the worksheets that go with a subject and then use the computer to teach the lessons. There are links within the lesson plans that take you to other websites, so make sure you have an internet connection. The lessons plans are designed to be open and go. To learn more about Easy Peasy and its creator click here. To learn more about the course for elementary and middle school click here. To learn more about the highschool program click here. My Opinion I looked at this type of curriculum when I was first starting out and I chose not to use it at the time. I personally didn’t like the fact that I had to click links that took me to other websites and then I had to go back to the lesson plan page. It seemed a little choppy to me. Plus, my son would get frustrated if I had to stop and figure something out. But the information is very well thought out. This is a great resource to use if you are just starting out and not sure if homeschooling is for you. This way you can do a test run without spending a bunch of money. Another plus is that all the courses are in one place, no more searching around trying to piece together a complete homeschool year, it is all laid out for you. Conclusion Homeschooling doesn’t have to be expensive. The internet gives you the ability to find great resources for free to help you on your homeschool journey. Easy Peasy is just one of the many free curricula that is floating around out there on the world wide web. It is a great curriculum to use when you are just starting out and wanting to test the waters of homeschooling. Did I mention that it provides all the courses in one place? Disclaimer: This curriculum is Christian Based Throughout my years of homeschooling and trying to choose the best curriculum I have realized that homeschool moms love curriculum shopping! I will admit I am one of those moms! There are so many choices out there today that it can be overwhelming and expensive. Don’t worry, I am here to help ease your burden of finding the right curriculum. I am going to give you some suggestions for FREE curriculum. Today I am going to be starting with The Good and The Beautiful curriculum. About The Good and The Beautiful The Good and The Beautiful was created by a lady named Jenny Phillips. Jenny is a homeschooling mom who was searching for curriculum and just wasn’t finding what she needed. So, she created her own. She wanted something that was strong in academics but wanted it to be wholesome and fun! To learn more about Jenny and her journey click here. Language Arts When I first started out homeschooling, I used the free Language Arts program that they offer. I was so blown away at how well this curriculum was put together that it was hard to believe it was free, but it was. You can get grades K-8 for free. It is a pdf download, and you get everything you need. I will say that the curriculum is more advanced than what public school kids are using. So for an example, you can use the 8th grade Language Arts program for your 9th grader. This curriculum includes more than just English, you get art and geography as well. It is all worked into the lessons. The best part is that it is open and go! I will say one thing, I decided to stop using the Language Arts program. It wasn’t because it is not a good curriculum, it was because my son was at different grade levels when it came to Language Arts. He could answer comprehension questions and was very good at grammar but when it came to reading, he struggled. So, I had to piece together our Language Arts program. To see all the levels of Language Arts program that is offered for free click here. Also remember that if you don’t want to print it out you can order the physical copies, they are offered for a decent price. Math Another great curriculum that The Good and The Beautiful offers for free is their Math program. They just redid their Math curriculum and it’s amazing, the lessons are shorter, colorful and there is even a section for your student to do work independently. You can get grade levels K-6 in pdf form free. As always if you would rather not print the pages out at home you can purchase the physical books at a decent price. I will mention one thing is that when you get the free versions you don’t get the math boxes that come with it, which includes math manipulatives. They do offer you instructions on how to make them at home. To learn more about the free math curriculum, click here. Conclusion When choosing the right curriculum, it can seem like a chore that will never be finished. A good place to start is free curriculum. There are some good programs out there that get the job done just as well as the paid programs. The Good and The Beautiful is one of those companies that offers free curriculum. Not just a portion of the curriculum the whole curriculum. Disclaimer: The Good and The Beautiful curriculum is God centered. You have decided to homeschool, you notified, you chose which style of homeschooling you want to do, you even decided if you are going to have a homeschooling room or just wing it. So now the monster is rearing its ugly head……. SOCIALIZATION!!!! How are you going to socialize your kid? The answer could be as simple as throwing them into sports and letting the socialization commence or you can take it a step further and join a homeschool group or homeschool co-op. Homeschooling Group A homeschooling group is a group of like-minded individuals, in this case homeschoolers, that either get together in person or online and offer general support for each other, plan outings, and offer a place to get questions about homeschooling answered. Homeschool groups are great, but they can be intimidating at first, especially for introverted people, like myself. Even though everyone has “homeschooling” in common, not everyone in the group is going to homeschool the same way or have the same opinions about different topics and ideas. This can be a problem if you are not confident in your abilities and decisions about homeschooling. Once you come to terms with, not everyone is going to agree with your decisions about your homeschool, being part of a group is very beneficial for both you and your child(ren). In a homeschool group everyone has the ability to plan outings and events to bring everyone together. This is in my opinion is a win for the kids. Because unfortunately, homeschooling is still a taboo word and when other kids hear that your child is homeschooled they may make fun of them or decide they are weird and don’t want to play or hang out with them. So having your child interact with other homeschoolers at first lets them see that there are other people just like them who homeschool and that will help them grow in confidence about being a homeschooler and they will be able to deal with non-homeschooled kids backlash. If you are interested in finding a group, the best place to start is probably Facebook. You can search for groups in your area, or you can do a Google search looking for groups in your area. Homeschool Co-op A homeschool co-op is like a homeschooling group, it is a place either offline, online or both. It is a place where parents can seek support or have questions answered by fellow homeschoolers. The main difference is that co-ops usually charges a fee. Here’s why. Co-ops are usually a “school” set up. Parents in the co-op agree to pay a monthly membership fee or however the pay structure is set up and offer to teach a subject to a group of students or offer to put on some other activity. This is a great option if you are not confident in teaching all the subjects or are having trouble finding outside resources to teach those subjects. So how it works is that a place is chosen to hold these sessions and they are usually once or twice a week and an all-day thing. Some examples of classes that would be offered would be an art class, music class and even some of the core subjects like english, math or science. The possibilities are endless. Don’t worry if you are feeling overwhelmed or you not sure how the process works, these types of groups have clear instructions and are always happy to answer questions (well at least the ones I have contacted throughout the years). If you are interested in a homeschool co-op you can do a Facebook or Google search for co-ops in your area. Conclusion You are not alone in your homeschooling journey. There are a lot of opportunities out there to connect with like minded people and form lasting relationships for yourself and your child(ren). Two examples would be a homeschooling group and a homeschooling co-op. Both are similar in the sense where you can socialize with others through activities and seek support when needed. The only difference is one costs money, and one doesn’t. First time homeschoolers always ask themselves, “Do I need a homeschool room?” I asked myself that very question and the answer is not always going to be the same for everyone. I started out with a room dedicated to school and I eventually ended up in my living room/dining room. (my living room and dining room are one room.) Here is a picture of what my current homeschool space looks like. Dedicated Homeschool Room
As I mention in the introduction, when I first started homeschooling, well, actually e-schooling, homeschooling came a few years later, I had a dedicated room. I was so excited, I even got school desks for my two daughters. I had a chalkboard and everything. It was going to be great! Having a dedicated homeschool room gives you the option to go all out and really turn that room into a classroom. You can add those fun bulletin boards on the walls, put up some maps, add an alphabet border (wow I think my age is showing there, I wonder if elementary school classrooms still have those), decorate for the current season or holiday, the possibilities are endless. If you are thinking right now that a dedicated homeschool room is what you want, you can check out this blog post from the Homeschool Super Freak on how to set up your space and how to organize it. Pros and Cons Like with all things, there are pros and cons about having a dedicated homescool room. It’s important to weigh these and research more before deciding if a dedicated homeschool room is right for you. Here are some that stand out to me:
Conclusion Homeschool room or no homeschool room, that is the question! In deciding if you need a dedicated schooling space is a decision that is best made when you figure out what type of homeschooling you want to do. Having a dedicated homeschool room is not a bad idea but knowing the pros and cons to having one will help in determining if one is needed. What type of homeschooler are you? That is a loaded question and a confusing question for new homeschoolers. When it comes to homeschooling, there is no one way of doing it. Each family is different, and the learning needs of the child(ren) are different. That’s why we homeschool, right? So here are a few methods of homeschooling to help you decide which one fits your needs. Traditional
This style of homeschooling is usually what new homeschoolers start out with. This method pretty much follows the public school system. There is a set schedule, each class is mirrored to what is being taught in public school and you will have set grade levels. Your classroom will most likely look like a public-school classroom. I remember when I first started out, I had a separate room with actual school desks. That didn’t last long, lol. Lastly, your schooling dates will match your local public-school calendar. The teaching method used will look like it did when you went to public school, the teacher standing in front of the class teaching, assigning book work, giving quizzes, tests and homework. Time for learning has a great in-depth article on Traditional Homeschool if you want to learn more. Unschooling When people hear the word unschooling they think of kids running wild, playing video games all day and not having any education at all. This is far from the truth. In my opinion, I feel that this method of homeschooling is the hardest. Unschooling is where learning is interest lead. Your days are directed by your child and what they want to do and learn. Now with that said it is the parent’s job to make sure that boundaries are put into place. Even though the child is taking the lead in their education doesn’t mean that they can just decide they don’t want to learn anything. Setting up clear rules and boundaries are key to unschooling. An example would be if you were to tell your child that between the hours of 8am till lunchtime they can do whatever they want but it has to be something from this box or from these topics or these activities. This gives them the freedom to choose but the parents still have control of what choices their child has. Another example is to let the child tell you what they are interested in and run with it. So, if a child is interested in video games, find things to do that are educationally related to video games. It could be how to design a video game or how a video game is coded. Time for learning has a great in-depth article on Unschooling if you want to learn more. Eclectic After I was confident enough in myself that I was able to teach my child, I switched from the traditional style to the eclectic style. This method is where you basically are putting together your own curriculum from an existing curriculum or creating a whole new curriculum that is tailored to your child’s needs. Not all kids are going to be on the same level in every subject. What I mean by that is, your child may be at a 6th grade reading level and a 4th grade math level. So of course, if your child is in the “6th grade” he or she is not going to be doing 6th grade math. You will start at the 4th grade level and continue through. At this point if you are using the eclectic method of homeschooling, grade levels are irrelevant. It is not about what grade your child is in, it is about what your child needs are and how they learn. Are they a visual learner, auditory learning, or a combination of different styles? This method can accommodate all these learning styles. Because this method of homeschooling caters to the child’s needs you will most likely be using a mismatch curricula. An example of the mismatched curricula would be, using all about reading, using shorrman math, etc. All in one curricula are great, but again if your child is at different “grade” levels those types of curricula will not work. To learn more about the eclectic method of homeschooling, check out this article from Time for Learning. Charlotte Mason This method seems to be very popular. This method of homeschooling is literature and nature based and provides students with a variety of subjects they can choose from. This method also uses living books, which subjects are taught in story form. I do not know much about this method, with-it being literature based it wouldn’t work well in my homeschool, my son is a struggling reader. He dreads reading. If you are interested in the Charlotte Mason method check out this great article from Time for Learning. Conclusion….. There are so many different methods of homeschooling that it can seem overwhelming. Don’t let it discourage you from homeschooling. Learning about each style and trying them out is the best way to find out what works for you and your family. Homeschooling is not a race but a journey and sometimes on a journey you have to deviate from the “set” path to find out what awaits you ahead. Yes! Homeschool diplomas are a real thing. Don’t let anyone tell you they are not. A diploma is just a piece of paper that is printed on a printer that everyone probably has in their homes and the only difference between a homeschool diploma and a public-school diploma is the person who is signing it. You are in control of your school, so you sign it, the superintendent is the person in charge of public schools, so they sign it. One is not more valid than the other. But… will colleges accept homeschool diplomas? What is the Law?
Homeschooling is legal in all 50 states. With that said, keep in mind that each state has its own regulations. Like for an example I live in the state of Ohio. For the past 30 years or so the process to homeschool was to send in a notification form to the superintendent, stating that we are homeschooling, provide a list of curricula we will be using, agree to provide instruction on the “required” subjects and to have a review done by a license teacher or send in standardized test scores and few other requirements. The most important law in Ohio is that a diploma issued by the parent is just as valid as a diploma issued by a public school official. Well recently that law has changed, for the better, I think. Starting in October we only have to send in a form saying we are homeschooling, and we don’t have to do reviews or testing anymore, we don’t have to provide a list of curriculum and the “required” subjects are down to the basic subjects like English, Math, Science, History, Government and Social Studies. The diploma law has remained the same. College Acceptance A question that I have heard many times and one I have asked myself, “Will my child be able to get into college with a homeschool diploma?” The answer for most colleges is yes, but it is a good idea to contact colleges that your child is interested in and make sure they know the law for your state about homeschool diplomas. Another important thing you should do when calling colleges or doing online research is to see what credits are required for admission. This way you can tailor your homeschoolers highschool years according to what classes they will need for acceptance into their desired college. I have done some research and most colleges love homeschoolers! So, all you need for college is a transcript (which you will create for your highschooler) and a copy of the letter you get back from the superintendent on the last notifying year of high school. Remember, even if you don’t print out a diploma for your homeschooler they can still get into college! Homeschool Laws by State If you are looking for information about your states homeschooling laws, you can usually find them on your state board of education website or you can visit the HSLDA and find all the information you need and more! Conclusion “Your child won’t get a diploma if you homeschool”, does this statement sound familiar? Don’t get discouraged about this statement because guess what, it is not true. Homeschooling is legal in all 50 states. Just research your states requirements on the process to do it legally. It also wouldn’t be a bad idea to call around to a few colleges and see how accepting they are of homeschoolers and what process you need to do for your child to get in. Just keep in mind though, not every college or everyone knows the law about homeschooling, so make sure to check out the HSLDA and kindly inform any college or person about the law when it comes to homeschoolers. Did you know that according to the blog Brighterly, in 2022 it was reported that there were 4.3 million homeschoolers in the United States! That number is impressive, but did you know that there are many reasons why you shouldn’t homeschool? Here are few that I hear a lot: not qualified, no socialization, no opportunities, homeschooling is a cult! Not Qualified When someone is thinking about homeschooling and asks advice from family and friends, usually the response is DON’T DO IT!!! People will say that you are not qualified. The reason is if everyone could be a teacher then why do people have to go to college to become a teacher. I used to think this, and I will be the first to say that I don’t know everything, if my child wants to learn something that I don’t know I have to outsource that subject. Qualified is such a broad term. What measures to we put into place to determine if someone is qualified to do a job? Is it going to school for 4 years or having previous skills? I know how to read so does that make me qualified to teach my elementary aged children how to read? Being qualified is not a black and white issue, there are a lot of gray areas to consider. So as parents and/or educators we must decide if we are qualified to teach our children and if we are not then it is our job to find someone to teach them and sending them to public school is not always the answer. There are so many resources out there that can aid homeschoolers in their journey and the resources that are there are made by teachers. So qualified teachers are still part of the homeschooling process but in a different way. No Opportunities Homeschoolers don’t have the same opportunities as public schooled kids. This is false, in my opinion I think they have more. In some states, homeschoolers are allowed to participate in public school activities just as long as it is not being graded. So, they can join the sport teams or debate clubs and other activities. You just have to do some research in your state to see if this is allowed. Also, there are local sport teams that kids that are both public schooled and homeschooled can join. With the freedom of homeschooling, you can do as many opportunities that are available to you, go on trips, museums, take college classes, apprenticeships, get a part time job, it is all available, you just have to find it. No Socialization Your kids will never have friends unless they go to public school. FALSE!!! When it comes to socialization, people think we homeschoolers lock our kids in the basement and never see another living soul. This is not true. You don’t have to attend a public school to socialize. As an adult I socialize with all ages not just 43 year olds and those people are not the people I went to school with. I never see the people I went to school with. Public school socialization is easy, kids are forced together every day and eventually kids will become friends. So, what does that mean for homeschoolers? We have to work harder; we have to find opportunities to socialize our kids. This can look like a homeschooling group that does activities together, a co-op, or just plain getting out into the world and just live. Side note: If you hear that homeschoolers are weird or have no social skills, just remember I went to public school and I was the weird kid and I had horrible social skills. I didn’t really learn how to be “social” till after high school when I went into the workforce. So, believe me public school is not the answer for learning social skills, being in the real world doing real world things is the best teacher your child can have. Won’t Get a Job or Go to College Colleges won’t accept homeschoolers because homeschooling is not a real school and your child won’t get a good job because they have no piece of paper saying they graduated high school. Again FALSE!!! You will have to do research for your state, but in my state, Ohio, a parent issued diploma is just as authentic as the diploma from public schools and private schools. If your child wants to go to college, they can! Many colleges welcome homeschooled kids. Also, did you know that homeschoolers can participate in the college credit plus programs at your local college! Your homeschooler can graduate high school and earn an associate degree at the same time. If college is not in the cards for your child, No problem! In my opinion, today it is all about skills, it is not about that college piece of paper anymore. You don’t have to go to college to be successful, the internet has proven that. Youtubers and gamers are making thousands and thousands of dollars. You can get a part-time job at a retail store and become the manager at that very store. I don’t buy into the notion that a job isn’t a career or a retail or food service job isn’t a real job. Any job that you are making money at and supporting yourself is a career, it is about surviving not about how many degrees you have. One thing to remember is that whatever path your child wants to go down, college, trade schools or working right out of high school, you can tailor their education to fit with what path they chose. Homeschooling is not a one size fits all, it’s an opportunity to get a head start on what they want to do in the future. Homeschooling is a Cult! This is my favorite reason why you shouldn’t homeschool. Only religious fanatics and abusers homeschool their kids. Nope, try again! When I was in high school I thought homeschooling was a cult, because that’s all you heard on the news, never heard the success stories of homeschooling. Then I grew up and started homeschooling myself. I am not blind, I see how other people and religious organizations use homeschool as a means to control the kids lives, cover up abuse, etc. But you can’t group all homeschoolers into that category. People homeschool for many different reasons. Yes, some may be because they want religion to be part of their child’s schooling, but that doesn’t mean they are being oppressed or abused. Knowing Jesus is an important part of life and being able to incorporate that into a child’s education is amazing. There are many homeschoolers who are called secular homeschoolers. They don’t incorporate religion into their school routine. They may have other reasons, like previous bullying, or their child not getting the education they need. It is not the school’s fault that some children fall through the cracks. You can’t accommodate every child with their learning styles in a classroom of 30. So, to solve this dilemma they choose homeschooling. Conclusion I have given you a few reasons why you shouldn’t homeschool: Not Qualified, No Socialization, No Opportunities, Won’t Go to College, Won’t Get a Job, Homeschooling is a Cult! Don’t let these reasons be negative, turn them into positives. Here are reasons why you should homeschool: You are qualified to provide the best education for your children, There are plenty of opportunities for children to experience and to be social, Your child will go to college, Your child will get a job and last but not least, Homeschooling is NOT A CULT! Homeschooling is an education tailored to the child’s wants and needs. Hey everyone! Welcome to the blog! I am so glad that you are here. This blog is going to be mainly about homeschooling. I love homeschooling and I want to help other families who are homeschooling or thinking about homeschooling to love it too! I will probably sprinkle in a few other topics here and there, but it will be mostly homeschooling/education related. About Me Let me start off by telling you about me! I am a sister in Christ first and foremost, a wife second, and a mom third. I am, as of this date, 43 years old, been married for 22 years and have 3 kids. And if you are wondering what I look like, well that’s me. My School Career
I will say that I was NOT homeschooled, I will be the first to admit that I was one of those people who thought kids who were homeschooled were weird. But as an adult and looking back at my “school career” I can honestly say that I knew I wanted to homeschool my kids. I will tell you a brief history about my school career, I will stick with high school, but what I am about to say pretty much can be related to elementary and middle school. I went to high school from 1994-1998. I had a horrible experience. I was bullied left and right, constantly was in physical fights and I literally didn’t really have any friends and the one friend who I thought was my friend, turned out to be a bad friend. I was called everything under the sun, a slut, a loser and not to mention that kids would make fun of me because my mom was disabled. It was just horrible. It was so bad that when you are walking in graduation to get your piece of paper saying you got your diploma, the other kids would cheer and stuff like that. Well not in my case, no one in my class said a word when my name was called, I walked to that stage and the whole room stayed silent, you could hear a pin drop. Why Homeschool? Well, if you can’t guess from my previous paragraph I decided to homeschool my kids because of the horrible experience I had in school. I can honestly say that I would have been a straight A student, well maybe an A/B student if I didn’t have the constant bullying and constantly have to watch my back. So, I wanted my kids to have the best possible chance to get a good education without the worry of bullying. Where It Started… I enrolled my kids into a virtual school, a public school done at home. It worked great for my older two kids. One decided to give our local high school a try when it came for her to enter high school, but she eventually went back to an online school to graduate and my other daughter will be graduating in 2024. When my son was at the age to enter school, I enrolled him into the virtual school just like I did with the other two. But problems started to come up that I didn’t experience with my daughters. My son had trouble reading and yes, he was on an IEP but they wanted him to go to the third grade knowing he couldn’t read and he wouldn’t be able to pass the reading state test that 3rd graders had to take and they wouldn’t let him have someone give him the test one on one. So, I pulled him out and started to traditionally homeschool him. Presently…. He is still homeschooled and is about to start the 9th grade. I tailored his education to fit his needs, didn’t force him to learn something that his brain wasn’t ready to learn and I am happy to report that he is doing great! Conclusion In the beginning I wasn’t a fan of homeschooling, as a public-school kid I thought homeschoolers were weird, but as soon as I saw the face of my first born, my school career flashed before my eyes, and I knew that I wanted my kids to do school from home. There were and are many obstacles, but I wouldn’t change my decision for the world. |
Hi! I'm Robin. I am a sister in Christ, a wife second, and a homeschooling mom third.
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