New to Homeschooling

TheHomeSchoolMom Blog: You Started Homeschooling. Now What?

You Decided to Start Homeschooling. Now What?

When you've suddenly taken your kids out of school to homeschool, there is a long list of things to do, and it all seems like it needs to be done quickly so your kids won't be behind.

When you start homeschooling, one often overlooked aspect -- especially if you hadn't planned to homeschool -- is the need for you and your child to come to terms with the school experience and the reasons you find yourself homeschooling.

To help you process the big change that comes with suddenly starting homeschooling, I recommend this... Continue reading »

Thinking Outside the Textbook

I’m a member of several homeschooling groups and email loops, and the most common questions are all related to, “It’s a battle to get my child to do her work. I thought homeschooling would be better for my child, but it’s all tears and yelling. For both of us. I may have to put her back in school.”

The specifics vary, but many parents new to homeschooling are trying to recreate a public school environment in their home and finding that it doesn’t work. It’s not their fault. Most of us went to public school; it’s what we know. We’re taught that this is the only way to get an education. That children won’t learn if we don’t tell them what to learn and force them do so. We shouldn't be surprised when we find homeschooling not working under these circumstances. Continue reading »

Ask Jeanne: Is it possible to work full-time and homeschool?

Ask Jeanne: Work Full Time and Homeschool Five?

I work full time, and so does my husband. There is no way I could stay
home and be a full time mom. We have 4 high schoolers and the youngest
is in intermediate. The youngest we have the most trouble with, and I
am at wit's end trying to get her at grade level of her peers without
medication. I have read about families who work full time and still
homeschool their children. If I could make this work in our lifestyle,
I would be interested in learning more about it. In addition, I
would like to start a "trial" period during the summer months. Are
their any resources available for summer curriculum and assistance
for full time working parents? ~ A Working Mom Continue reading »

Deschooling vs. Unschooling: What's the Difference?

New homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers sometimes wonder about the word "deschooling" vs. "unschooling". The prefixes "de" and "un" often mean such similar things. We "de-humidify" and we "un-tie" our shoes — both acts of reversing the meaning of the root word.

And in that sense, the words are related. Both deschooling and unschooling require thinking about the inverse of schooling.

But within the world of homeschooling, the two words deschooling and unschooling have meanings that are, most often, distinct from one another. Continue reading »

TheHomeSchoolMom Blog: Learning when it's "just right"

Goldilocks Effect: Learning When It's "Just Right"

Young children seem to recognize that knowledge is an essential shared resource, like air or water. They demand a fair share. They actively espouse the right to gain skill and comprehension in a way that’s necessary for them at the time. Often children seem to reject what they aren’t ready to learn, only to return to the same skill or concept later with ease. This is not only an expression of autonomy, it’s a clear indicator that each child is equipped with an learning guidance system of his or her own. Continue reading »

New Homeschoolers, Beware These Red Flags

New homeschoolers are bombarded with information from which curriculum to use (see #11) to how to train their children (see #3). Homeschoolers are a wonderful group for crowd-sourcing information, but not all of the information available online or from other homeschoolers is helpful, useful, or productive. New homeschoolers are wise to beware the following... Continue reading »

What Curriculum Should I Use For My 4 Year Old?

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 »

Peter Gray quote from TheHomeSchoolMom Blog Post "Why Homeschooling Boys Works"

Why Homeschooling Boys (and Girls) Works

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 »

Parental Deschooling: 5 Things To Do While Deschooling

Parental Deschooling Part 4 - I've explained why parents need to deschool as they begin homeschooling their children, and I've given you reading homework and asked you to network with other homeschoolers as part of the transition process.

Another aspect of deschooling involves things to do as you make the transition to homeschooling. Here is your "to do" list... Continue reading »

Yes, You Can Homeschool!

There are many reasons that lead families to consider homeschooling. Often it comes up when a child's school is not a good match for their needs. Sometimes it's driven by a parent's desire to guide their child's learning in the context of their own values. Sometimes children need a more flexible schedule in order to pursue athletic or artistic training, and sometimes parents simply can't imagine missing out on the excitement of educational discovery.

How do you know for sure if homeschooling is the right fit for you and your child? Continue reading »

Parental Deschooling: Deschooling is not just for kids

Parental Deschooling: Homeschool Networking

While you're in a deschooling period with your kids, I hope you're doing some of the reading I suggested in Part 2 of this parental deschooling series. Another thing you'll find beneficial is to begin networking with other homeschooling families.

There are two basic versions of homeschool networking, online and IRL -- in real life. Both are valuable in helping you with deschooling -- the transition from school to homeschooling. Continue reading »

Parental Deschooling: Your Reading Homework

One of the most important things you can do is to read about homeschooling, education, and de-schooling. Read books, magazines, and online articles, blog posts, and websites.

Stretch yourself and read some things you don’t think apply to you, that are outside your comfort level. You don’t have to accept the premise of each homeschooling book or article you read, but even if you don't agree or find certain ideas too radical, you’ll educate yourself about the many approaches to home education.
Continue reading »

Will Homeschooling Help ADD/ADHD?

Will your child's ADD get better if you homeschool?

I'm no educational psychologist, but I've been homeschooling for sixteen years in three states. I've met hundreds of homeschooling families at conferences and workshops I've presented, I've answered hundreds of calls at a statewide homeschool phone line, and I've been a homeschool evaluator in Virginia for quite a few years now. I've heard dozens of parents praise homeschooling for their children who were labeled with ADD/ADHD in the school setting. But it's not magic. The parents who observe such a change in their children also generally report actively shaping their homeschooling to address attention problems their child had in a school setting. Here are some of the things that have made them successful... Continue reading »

How to Start Homeschooling: Tips for Deschooling

For children who are starting homeschooling after an experience in a traditional school setting, deschooling is an important part of the transition. Here's how to start homeschooling after a traditional school experience with tips for deschooling. Continue reading »

What is Deschooling? From School to Homeschool

From School to Homeschool: What is Deschooling?

Deschooling is the adjustment period a child goes through when leaving school and beginning homeschooling. To really get the benefits of homeschooling, a child has to decompress and disconnect from "school" being the default and "school ways" being the standard expectation.

The longer a child has been in school, the more important it is to allow generous time to process the huge change from not being in school to learning as a homeschooler. Continue reading »

The Homeschool Parent-Teacher Conference

My first t-shirt as a homeschooling parent proclaimed, "Don't bother me. I'm having a parent-teacher conference."

This expressed well my initial thoughts about the roles of mother and teacher while homeschooling. I could see my "teacher self" talking to my "mother self," echoing the familiar adult roles in education that involves public school...

Past my first few months of homeschooling more than a decade and a half ago, I have not separated a "teacher self" from my "mom self." At the same time, I found it was important for me to set boundaries of time and space that made my family function well. Continue reading »

What I Learned about Homeschooling from Saxon Math

As you may have read over on my personal blog, I'm thinning my library of homeschooling books, and it's an occasion for reflection. One of the things I finally feel free to do is to pass along my copy of Saxon Math.

Saxon didn't work for us. In fact, it didn't work in dramatic ways. We had multiple reasons for beginning homeschooling, but among the academic reasons was that the math taught at school was a poor fit and created a lot of stress and little math learning. Continue reading »

Delayed Academics: It's All About Learning

Many experienced homeschoolers have long valued the ability to delay formal academics to create a more holistic early childhood education for their young children, with the understanding that this creates a rich foundation for later academic and life success. Today, parents new to homeschooling are embarking on homeschooling at a time when public schools are emphasizing early formal academics and implementing standardized testing of very young children, despite lack of evidence that these practices enhance educational outcomes for the children.

As David Elkind (author of The Hurried Child and The Power of Play: Learning What Comes Naturally) writes in "Much Too Early" for the website EducationNext, "Why, when we know what is good for young children, do we persist in miseducating them, in putting them at risk for no purpose?" Continue reading »

Yes, It Does Take A Village

You've heard the African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child." You've probably also noticed slap backs like, "I've seen the village and it's not raising my kids." Continue reading »

The Homeschooling Insider's Dictionary

New homeschoolers can't help but experiencing it. It often happens the first time you go to a homeschool convention, or visit a homeschool co-op. You walk in, start to get the lay of the land, and then it hits you... This is like a whole different world.

There are different norms, different terms, different expectations -- and everybody who's in it seems to "get" it. You start hearing things like "Notice of Intent" and "IOWA" and "lapbooks" and you start to wonder just what it is that you've gotten yourself into. Continue reading »