Mary Ann Kelley

Mary Ann Kelley lives in Virginia with her husband and has two grown daughters, both homeschool graduates. Mary Ann, who homeschooled off and on for 16 years, believes in school choice as well as allowing children to direct their own learning with guidance and input from their parents. Interviews with Mary Ann have been featured on HuffPost and in the Free Lance-Star newspaper. Her desire is to encourage parents and children to take personal responsibility for their own educational options and choices. In her free time, Mary Ann enjoys reading, cooking (check out her free meal plans), traveling, and genealogy.

Can You Start Homeschooling in the Middle of the Year?

Mary Ann Kelley

You may have never thought you would consider homeschooling, or maybe you were thinking about starting in the fall, but circumstances are forcing you to consider bringing your child home mid-year. Perhaps it is bullying, a negative school environment, an illness, school anxiety, a stressful family situation, or some other unexpected circumstance causing you to consider pulling your child out before the end of the school year. Regardless of the motivation, your first question is likely, “Can I start homeschooling mid-year?” Continue reading »

December Writing Prompt Calendar

Mary Ann Kelley

The December writing prompt calendar is full of winter and holiday-themed writing prompts. Each month we are offering writing prompts (you will be able to find them all on the main Homeschool Writing Prompts page), and you can download our December-themed prompts below. Continue reading »

November Writing Prompt Calendar

Mary Ann Kelley

This month’s calendar is full of autumn- and Thanksgiving-themed writing prompts, including menu planning for Thanksgiving dinner and leftovers. Each month we are offering writing prompts (you will be able to find them all on the main Homeschool Writing Prompts page), and you can download our November-themed starters here. Continue reading »

Homeschool Conventions: Best Tips from Homeschool Moms

Mary Ann Kelley

We recently asked moms on our Facebook page what some of the best tips are that have helped them avoid being overwhelmed at homeschool conventions. With hundreds of vendors and dozens of workshops, large conventions can quickly disarm the best intentions of even experienced homeschool moms. These ideas will help you stick to your budget, give new resources a chance, and get the best bargains at any homeschool convention. Continue reading »

May Writing Prompts Calendar

Mary Ann Kelley

The May writing prompts calendar focuses on picnics, moms, and Memorial Day. Each month we are offering writing prompts (you will be able to find them all on the main Homeschool Writing Prompts page), and you can download our May-themed prompts below. Continue reading »

April Writing Prompts Calendar

Mary Ann Kelley

The April writing prompts calendar focuses on food – lots and lots of fun food. Since April is also National Poetry Month, you may want to have your student answer some of the prompts in the form of poetry. Each month we are offering writing prompts (you will be able to find them all on the main Homeschool Writing Prompts page), and you can download our April-themed prompts below. Continue reading »

March Writing Prompts Calendar

Mary Ann Kelley

The March writing prompts calendar focuses on favorite foods, pets, colors, rainbows, and–of course–St. Patrick. Each month we are offering writing prompts (you will be able to find them all on the main Homeschool Writing Prompts page), and you can download our March-themed prompts below. Continue reading »

February Writing Prompt Calendar

Mary Ann Kelley

The February writing prompt calendar focuses on favorite books, love, and poetry writing prompts. Each month we are offering writing prompts (you will be able to find them all on the main Homeschool Writing Prompts page), and you can download our February-themed prompts here. Continue reading »

January Writing Prompt Calendar

Mary Ann Kelley

The January writing prompt calendar focuses on goals, memories, travel, and winter-themed writing prompts. Each month we are offering writing prompts (you will be able to find them all on the main Homeschool Writing Prompts page), and you can download our January-themed prompts below. Continue reading »

October Writing Prompt Calendar

Mary Ann Kelley

This month’s calendar is full of autumn-themed writing prompts with some creative story-starters included. Each month we are offering writing prompts (you will be able to find them all on the main Homeschool Writing Prompts page), and you can download our October-themed starters here. Continue reading »

September Writing Prompt Calendar

Mary Ann Kelley

Apples and summer memories and dinosaurs and space! These are just a few of the topics in our September Writing Prompts download. Each month we will be offering writing prompts (you will be able to find them all on the main Homeschool Writing Prompts page), and we start with this chart of September-themed starters. Continue reading »

5 Myths About Homeschool Superiority

Mary Ann Kelley

Despite being an ardent supporter of home education, I find myself consistently feeling obligated to set the record straight when it comes to claims of the vast superiority of homeschoolers. I’ve noticed a tendency of homeschool advocates commenting online to be elitist. I’m not sure many of the commenters are even homeschoolers themselves – I get the sense that they are just politically opposed to public schools – but regardless, it’s not helpful or accurate. If they are homeschoolers, I’m not sure if it is a defense mechanism, a lack of knowledge, or isolation from public school families, but I find it to be disingenuous and divisive. Continue reading »

Homeschooled “Runaway Radical”

Mary Ann Kelley

Jonathan Hollingsworth’s mother remembers him coming to her and his father shortly after starting his first semester of college to tell them he would commit to two years of filling up his mind if he could then spend a year emptying his heart. Amy Hollingsworth had homeschooled her son and daughter their whole lives, and Jonathan’s sensitivity was evident from the start. Now, as a freshman at the local community college, Jonathan was idealistic and burdened with a heart for the lost. He had already spent a week in Honduras, but instead of abating his ingrained drive to help the poverty-stricken, the trip only highlighted for him how very difficult it is to meet the need found in isolated cultures — cultures where the whims of nature can threaten the very existence of the inhabitants. Continue reading »

“O Captain! My Captain!”

Mary Ann Kelley

As a student, I hated poetry. In high school, the words “poetry unit” filled me with dread and an almost uncontrollable desire to feign an extended illness preventing school attendance. As an adult, the aversion stayed with me until I heard Walt Whitman’s haunting verses about the Civil War read aloud – grieved, lamenting the death that seemed to be everywhere. Listening to poetry and experiencing the emotions that the poet meant to evoke brought the words to life. Meter and rhyme, refrain and couplet, sonnet and stanza — they may be important to learn, but only after poetry is experienced. Experiencing poetry is crucial to appreciating it. Once it has been experienced, the process of creation can be studied with a focus on mechanics and editing Continue reading »

Talking To Your Teen About College Debt

Mary Ann Kelley

I’m a fan of natural consequences, but sometimes the lessons are too big – with consequences that last a lifetime – for the maturity level of the child. One such example is when a child wants to take on significant debt in the form of college loans. Most 17 year old high school students do not have the life experience to be able to understand the impact that taking on tens of thousands of dollars in debt will have on their lives.

While I encourage young adults to have freedom in making their own decisions, wise and carefully presented parental input is imperative in this issue. Most people would never consider advising a 17-18 year old to purchase a $80K house with payments deferred for 4 years (and a home loan has collateral — if you go into default, they foreclose and the debt is gone), yet are comfortable with student loans that have even more of a financial impact. Continue reading »

Homeschooling High School: Our 11th Grade Plan

Mary Ann Kelley

We are homeschooling high school all the way through. If you would like to see how we track credits and create transcripts, see Our 10th Grade Plan. If you haven’t checked out our free Homeschool Planner Plus download, you should take a look at it for creating high school transcripts. It is easy to plug in your courses and credits and the spreadsheet calculates your GPA for you.

The 11th Grade Plan: DE English – This year’s focus is on composition through the local community college’s ENG 111 course. Over the course of the semester, students work to complete a research paper from the abstract topic proposal to the final draft. It is a challenging course that goes into the details of the process for a single paper instead of completing multiple papers. Continue reading »

What Curriculum Should I Use For My 4 Year Old?

Mary Ann Kelley

Recently on TheHomeSchoolMom’s Facebook page someone asked for recommendations for her soon to be 4 year old. It took me back to when I had a 4 year old and a 1 year old and had recently decided to homeschool. I. Was. So. Excited. What curriculum should I use? How should we schedule our days? (I bought Managers of Their Homes and carefully scheduled every moment of our days and then proceeded to never once use the schedule.) I made lesson plans and felt organized and believed that my kids were going to get the best education ever. And honestly, we had great fun with some of the activities. So after all these years (my kids are now 19 and 16), what curriculum would I suggest for a 4 year old? Continue reading »

Why Homeschooling Boys (and Girls) Works

Mary Ann Kelley

Today a friend posted a video called “War on Boys” to Facebook and it showed up in my feed with lots of enthusiastic comments. As I watched the 5 minute video, all I could think was how obvious the video’s assertions are, and yet how far public schools are moving away from addressing the truths presented. Not just limited to boys (many girls share these traits with boys), the video shows how the policies being implemented in schools reward quiet intellectual pursuits in young children while simultaneously removing the opportunities for these kids to explore and learn through play. Continue reading »

Final Homeschool Giveaways: Map Trek, Dave Raymond’s American History, TOS GC, and More

Mary Ann Kelley

Update – Congratulations to the following winners:

Cheryl Powell – Dave Raymond’s American History Volumes 1&2
Debby Sapp – Map Trek 6 volume set
Jennifer Wennekamp – Cuisenaire Rod Kit and The Fun Spanish
Agj75 – Baktar, A Tale From the Andes and King Alfred’s English
Laurie – $25 TOS gift certificate

Thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s Great Homeschool Giveaway! Continue reading »

Giveaway Week 5: Notebooking Pages Lifetime Treasury, Titanic Lapbook, and Bacteria Growing Kit

Mary Ann Kelley

Our 2014 Homeschool Giveaways event is underway and this week we are giving away prizes to 2 reviewers. The first prize is a lifetime Notebooking Pages Treasury membership, and the second prize is a Titanic Lapbook from TruthQuest History and a Bacteria Growing Kit from Lighthouse Educational Product. Continue reading »