My Amazing Approach to Homeschooling =) (well, I think it is!) (=

This is my Amazing approach to Homeschooling for the easily stressed, kind of guilty-feeling, introverted (well just saying, if you were any of these types), even emotional, but always feeling - busy Mama. Any Homeschooling parents really. It doesn’t matter if you are wanting more time on your hands or just looking for something that takes so much of the second guessing out of the educating equation. I hope the following information is informative and the blessing you’ve been hoping for. It is after an emotional journey that I finally got it right and I’d love to share with others how.

This blog will allow me to explain how we homeschool effortlessly (for the most part) and hopefully it’s exactly the system other families have been desperately seeking. (Cause I’ve been there!) First, let me state that I am not a blogger and certainly didn’t plan on writing this all down today. I just think that writing it here (now) will save me from continuing to retype it on facebook every time a frazzled or newbie homeschooling parent seeks help and advice. I don’t know about you, but I’m a member of dozens of facebook homeschooling groups so ….you know, back to that wonderful thing called “time”.

Hey look, we've all been there. Either the New Homeschooler, Frustrated Homeschooler, Depressed Homeschooler, Overwhelmed Homeschooler, Scared Homeschooler, etc. etc. I totally get it! This is for you and even for those parents who say how they'd love to take their kids out of Government ran schools but have little to no faith that they themselves (having attending Government ran schools) could teach their very own children in the safety of their very own home. And with that last paragraph, you know where I stand on public schools. So with that out of the way, let’s get to the information you came for.

Before I tell you the right formula for our family, let me introduce us first. I’m Sara, the mama of course, there’s my husband Jerry who works roughly 9 hours away from home on the weekdays. On the weekends, he’s busy in the garage working on wood, motorcycle, car, or welding projects. He’s an amazing Handyman and can pretty much make anything I can dream up for the house. He was very concerned about taking the children out of the system at first but quickly began to love how much homeschooling has blessed our family. He is also very, very proud of me as a Mother and Teacher. Heck, what more could a wife want right? It is his working that allows me to stay home and homeschool our four amazing children. The children. I have four children in various grades. We have a Sophomore (S), Freshman (D), 5th grader (D), and 3rd grader (S). That is our family. It’s Nice to meet you too. =)

I guess I do need to set this up a little, because it explains why this program worked so well for us but may not be a good fit for others. See, when we decided to take the kids (3 of them at the time) out of Public Schools, it was for a number of reasons but mostly because the kids were begging me to do so. (talk about a motivator!) Here are my children saying they wanted to spend more time with Me and their siblings? Heck yes! After all; we only have our children that close for such a short time…I’ll take all of it I can get! At first we started with Connections Academy which was a wonderful transition to full blown Homeschooling. It was wonderful for the first two years. We loved the scheduled field trips to the Zoo and end of school park days, but disliked the increase workload, constant phone calls from their remote teachers, and state testing. So with considerable contemplation; I read a few books on how anyone can homeschool, went down and filed my intent to homeschool papers with the city, and sat off on this grand all-in adventure of educating at home. Since my children wanted this ‘homeschooling’ more than I did; I am able to hold them accountable in its success too. Some of you know that the threat of sending them back to public school is all it takes to re-motivate them.

At first we tried the “Unschooling approach”. The down time, decompression was wonderful and I highly recommend it. Although you will feel guilty most of that time, it does allow for a different mindset to take place away from the typical “Oh my gosh they’re not in school!!” programing. We took about 4 months off but I still continued to give them talks on subjects that came up in everyday conversations. Then it was time to really start teaching. I went to the teacher supply store, bought cool things to make a bulletin board, pointers, lesson planner book, and other ‘teacher’ things that was exciting, and in the end, totally not necessary.

After extensive spending and researching free printables; I began to give the children assignments…..here and there. Honestly yes. With four of them in various grades and only one of me to do all that researching and printing, it came down to a lot of online math games and random writing assignments. Then the guilt came. Every night I’d sit with my husband and express my frustration at Me. The “teacher” that didn’t know what to teach. I felt terrible. I would see these posts from other Homeschooling Mamas that were taking their children to several different Co-ops and meetings - really trying to make sure they were getting socialized. Honestly that created even more depression and anxiety in me because; I am not a Social person but rather an introverted one. Not to mention one of the main reasons I took them out of public schools was to get rid of that crazy scheduling of this class and that extracurricular activity. Also, in my opinion, some of the things that go on at these places are what many homeschoolers are trying to avoid, so there is that too. But that’s my view and why I don’t include any extra circular activities or co-ops in my program. I’ll leave that up to the real ‘go getter homeschoolers’. We do however, go to the library like clockwork and schedule occasional “field trips”. We also run two public homeschool Minecraft Servers, play on many others, and meet-up with local Homeschool Minecrafters at the Zoo or Minecraft parties. My children have learnt so much from this game and I strongly encourage parents to take an interest in it as well. (This is a subject I can go on and on about.) They must also speak for themselves at stores, restaurants, and when addressed in social settings. This has done wonders for teaching respect, communication, and representing Homeschoolers positively, when we are out.

So dealing with guilt, time issues, and lack of accountability; I knew I needed to find something that worked for us or go back to doing online schooling and letting someone else have control over our schedules. We love to travel when my husband has the time off so I really wanted mobile learning along with a pretty strict curriculum. On top of that; I had not just one but two students going into High School! Yikes!

Through researching; I came to understand that most colleges want records of their courses completed, grades, and supported documentation of completion. Oh Geeze, I thought. I’ve got to pin this down for my own sanity and for their future. So this is the pattern of execution that has really, really worked out well for our Homeschooling.

1. Make it legit.

Not that you have to, but we did. We made a name for our school that will go on diplomas, student I.Ds, it’s even on a sign in our front window, travel bags and tshirts. Yeah. Really. This gives the kids that ‘school pride’ element and aids in that most awkward question by strangers, “So what school do you guys go to?” My husband loves responding to the question, “So! What does your wife do?” “She teaches multiple grade levels.” “Wow, really? Where does she teach?” “She teaches at a DHS.” “Oh. Never heard of it?” or “What school is that?” My husband (an extrovert) responds with, “DHS is Desert Homeschoolers, she has four amazing students she teaches every day.” Talk about building me up!! Nice!

2. Set it up.

I started a private facebook group for our Homeschool. Now my children have been on facebook for a long time but if you have very young kids, I understand. My youngest started when he was about 5ish, it encourages them to read and start developing their own interests. When we moved from California to Phoenix, I wanted the children to be able to keep in contact with family and share pictures and videos. They each have closely monitored accounts (only family) and it allows me to message them about school throughout the day, while also posting important things for them to read and watch within the group. Here’s the kicker! I also added their grandparents and other family members to the group who can add to their education. You might even add a few family members that are home school skeptics (you know the ones) so they can see that the children actually are learning and not playing video games while you do ‘nothing’ all day long. This really changes the respect and views others have of our decision to go against the school-norm. It may also get family, previously un-engaged to take more of an interesting in your children’s education and future goals. I know it has for us.

3. Give them workspace.

Make it a bit more formal, the whole ‘schooling’ environment. If you can, set them up with a desk, computer, headphones, notebooks, desk pad, desk light, and comfy chair. A tidy room (their responsibility) will do well for their concentration and seriousness of learning. If space is limited, see if you can convert one room in your house for a classroom. We did this for a while in our front (sitting room) but I found it was too much of a distraction, and they worked better independently. Some families gather around the dinner table to homeschool while others let their children take their assignments anywhere they wish. For us, it’s the comforts of their own room, but work stations are expected to be tidy as well as bedrooms. Now, some might say “Goodness purchase a new computer for each of my children!?” Heck no! Well, we hit Craigslist and found nice looking, well taken care of PCs for $50 – $100.00 (depending on the size, capacity, speed, and package). Many individuals refurbish PCs from their homes and boy are they are a Godsend to large families everywhere! If you have the money to buy new, hey – go that route too. If we only had one or two children we wouldn’t need to be so frugal but we are – picky about condition and quality yet still very thoughtful about where and when we spend our money. I don’t have to tell you about safety search and parental controls – we should all know these things by now.

This is my workspace. You can see some of the teacher editions textbooks and textbook sets I have collected for 'next grade up'.

4. Hit the Books!

No, no, no this is not where I tell you to read everything you can on homeschooling and curriculum choices. No, we are past that stage. This is what really turned our Homeschooling experience around and made all the difference. I realized the hardest part of Homeschooling my children was knowing What to teach them. Researching was taking all my time and the amount of assignments I could gather regularly was disappointing. Hey! I want some free time too! So during summer break (among house shopping, purchasing a home, and moving to a different town) I got on Ebay and Amazon and started collecting used textbooks that were in good to newish condition. At first I wasn’t sure if it mattered that they were previous years or Florida Editions (there’s a lot of those) but I quickly realized, there really is no difference. There are sellers who have nearly every subject for different grades ready to go in one purchase. What luck! I have included some pictures of my purchase to show you the dollar amounts I found.

Now for the subjects I personally struggle with (Math and Science); I tried to get teacher editions to help me grade and explain concepts. This is a real blessing but they are often a bit more expensive and tougher to find. Often, the student book came from Ebay and the teacher’s edition came from Amazon. I purchased all used books, just be sure they go do go together. The great thing about textbooks is once you are done and no longer need that year/subject – it’s real easy to list them back on Ebay or in a Homeschool (buy/sell/trade) group you follow. We invested between $40.00 – $70.00 per grade, and it took about two to three months before we had everything for every subject. The great thing for large families is the ability to pass down the books as their children complete grades. For instance; we originally purchased 10th, 9th, 6th, 5th, and 3rd grade textbooks. (at the time we were also homeschooling a niece) Next school year we will only need to purchase 11th and 4th grade, the following year 12th and 7th grade. This also allows you to teach from whatever grade level your students/children are in. If they are ahead or behind, you can customize their material via the textbooks you purchase.

5. Make it Real. I made a homeschool website where I can list assignments, have a virtual bulletin board, allow the kids to have their own personal blog posts and once again make it a more formal, educational and an established experience. I looked through free website providers and found one that was kind of dumb down and easy to edit. It also doesn’t show annoying popups because we have the free version. Once again frugal, I know. If you’d like to come and see our school the url is: deserthomeschoolers.org

Rather than go into detail about our webpage, I’ll let you explore it on your own. Pretty self-explanatory. Forgive me however, we are on week 16 and not all the subjects are up-to-date with their books..I kinda slacked there, and they remind me of this often. So as the textbooks came in, I turned to the table of contents and started listing the units, chapters, assignments on their individual courses’ page. For some, I had enough time to go into real detail about what number of questions to do and so forth. I was able to customize each class with a background and music that fit each child’s personality and interests. Won’t find that in public schools! =D So, now they can ‘go to class’ and have it all laid out for them in clickable sections. They love it! I love it! And boy does it make our little desert homeschool school sparkle!

6. Be Accountable.

In all the “anyone can homeschool” reading I did, (and there was a lot) the wisest thing I read, and I can’t remember in what book or on what web page; an author said something like “Dress for the Job.” This was in relation to Homeschooling. What? You mean don’t wear my (I haven’t done much Yoga in my..) Yoga Pants? No fair! Well, I still wear my Yoga pants most days but I did change the way I was ‘coming to the job’ everyday by feeling/looking more like a teacher. I started getting up before the children and preparing a bit, even if this meant having a cup of coffee in the silence of the morning, reading a few pages in that book I may never finish, checking facebook, or practicing some much needed meditation or scripture study. That is precious, mind-needed, spiritual Mama time. Everyone needs for you to do this. Trust me.

Now I don’t always get up and accomplish these things before I need to hit-the ground running, but most every morning I get at least an hour head start on the children. I love that time almost as much as that hour after the kids go to bed and it’s just me and hubby catching up on the day’s events or non-events. Your marriage needs that!

Now to accountability; we kinda need it to stay focused and inspired, right?

Grading: I do a lot of Grading. You figure I have 4 students (had 5), each with 5 subjects. That’s 20 subjects a week that I grade. By now, we have a very well-oiled system so there’s not much “you need to do this and complete that” for each child. If they do get stuck on something, they come to my room/desk and ask me or message me through facebook or the school website.

Their assignment/school schedule is as follows:

Mondays: Language Arts (Spelling, Reading, English)

Tuesdays: Math & Science

Wednesdays: Social Studies & History

Thursdays: Spelling pre-test for lower classman and Finish anything you have left to complete, also any field trips or outings

Fridays: Final Spelling tests, and Hand-in all assignments, stapled with cover sheet.

3rd and 5th graders have some kind of spelling practice (2x’s each, sentences, alphabetical order) every day to learn their words.

Every Monday I print out the weekly word list at: http://www.k12reader.com/third-grade-spelling-words/

7. Provide Incentive.

This is where I remind everyone that this program is what works amazing for our family. You can decide to try it all or ala cart it. You might even read this and chalk it up to another homeschool mama’s ridicules blah, blah blog. Hey, I get it. I do. We all have to find our groove that works best for our family dynamics and our children’s special learning skills and temperaments. I am aware that some children need more one-on-one guidance while others can take a lesson plan and complete it without any help at all. Why do I remind you of this? Because here’s where I feel some parents my lean back in their chairs and think – Nawh, I don’t think so.

The Grading Formula: This is how I issue out Credits, Grades, and Incentives. All my children have a free student account at Paypal. This allows us and family to send money to them for birthdays and holidays. Using that, and to teach them ‘real world’ values and ‘you earn what you work for’ I have a come up with a grading formula that adds incentive for assignment completion. Every question is worth 5points or .05. Since my husband gets paid every other week, that is when Credits pay-out. So, I combine the grades of two weeks for a total deposit amount in each child’s Paypal account. If you figure $10.00 a week (remember we have 4) divided by 5 subjects equals $2.00 per subject. Divide that by .05 and you get 40 questions. This is the goal for my children but not every subject has 40 questions. Some weeks they make more than the $10.00 while other weeks they make less. My top preforming student/child makes on average of $18.00 every ‘pay day’. If this is confusing, message me - it kind of gets lost in the writting but it's very simple and very fair., I promise.

So not only are they getting assignments and reading material through the textbooks but also graded books and portfolios of credits and grades earned. I use http://quickgra.de to help me calculate grades along with a little print-out I have taped to my monitor as follows:

8. Keep Records.

I purchased 4 white binders for each grade level. Once I’ve graded their weekly ‘package’ or assignments: I place them in the folders. Done. I return them back to each child so they can review the grading. Every Quarter I combine the weeks and provide them with their ‘progress reports’. Jerry really likes to see the letter grades and I find that husbands/fathers, in general tend to understand grade achievement to validate they are getting an education. This too allows for a Homeschooling Record of every week, every month, every year. There will be grading (we are teachers, right?) but I normally invest about three days out of two weeks to complete this task. Remember, one of the reasons we decided to homeschool was to have more control over our time with family, travel, homebased businesses, and hobbies.

We certainly don’t want the public school system nor homeschooling to consume our every hour. There should be a balance, and in this program, I’ve found one that fits our family and gives me time to grow my small business, enjoy my children, play Minecraft with them, and keep my house tidy. I’m not a superwoman or perfect Mama, but what I am is at peace, grateful, enjoying the great relationships I have with my children, my husband, and my decision to homeschool. Having a system & schedule really, really helps. If you need to take a week off, simply start your when you go back to your schooling. We have done this and I love that we can just get right back to the flow.

I hope the information I’ve provided here is comprehensive and extremely helpful.

I am online pretty much all day every day during ‘school hours’ and my phone is linked to my facebook as well. Anytime you need assistance, need to vent, have an experience or question – I am here for you as a fellow homeschooling parent.

With all sincerity, and Wishing you Many blessings,

Sara Randolph

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