CHM025: Homeschool Startup Info with Kimberlee Wilkes

Hello, and welcome to Christian homeschool Mom's podcast. I have someone with us today that is I think she's so passionate about homeschooling and about helping others with homeschooling basics, and I met her a few weeks ago. She also runs a homeschool podcast and as I've been listening to her podcast as well, So I want to introduce to you, Kimberly Wilkes. If you're new to homeschooling and you need some assistance with startups for helping you to get started in a clear and simple way, Kimberly is someone that can help you with that, and I'm just really grateful that I have you on my podcast today, Kimberly, So thank you for being here, well, thank you for having me. You're welcome. And first of all, you know, there are so many people that are just getting started with home education and it can be really overwhelming about how to get started. So I just have a few questions for you, and I hope you can help clarify to our listeners and just make it easy for them to know just how simple it is to get started with homeschooling. So the first thing I wanted to ask you is just if you could tell us a little bit about your background and how you actually got started with homeschooling. Sure, I am going to start with my education, because that's really where homeschooling started for me. I kindergarten through sixth grade was in a mix of public schools, private schools, Catholic schools. My parents tried everything. I was board stiff in school. I wasn't doing anything to school. This was not fun for me. And so when I was in the seventh grade, my parents pulled both me and my brother out of the school system and started homeschooling us, and then homeschooled both my brother and I through high school. And my brother is a year younger than me, so he was in sixth grade. I was in seventh grade. So it was great and I really it reignited my love for learning because I got to learn at my own pace. I got to learn the things that I was interested in learning. I got to go to different places and do different things. We went on all kinds of field trips when I was in school, and it was just so much fun for me as a homeschool student. Well, fast forward, I went to college, got a degree in biology. I was going to go to medical school, decided that that wasn't for me. So what do you do with the biology degree? You teach? So I went to the University of North Carolina and I got my master's degree in education, and I taught in the public school system for five years before I had my first child, so I know how the school system works. And I actually was a trainer for teachers. I worked my first year of graduate school with student teachers at the elementary school level, teaching them and training them and working on best practices. And NAT's training of teachers followed me through my whole school career. As a teacher, I would train other teachers and best practices and how to teach. And then I of course had children, and with my first child, I was adamant that I loved school. I loved teaching. I was going to go back to the classroom he was born, and then I wasn't so sure anymore, And so she was born in March. I had that summer after he was born to kind of spend time with him and get to know him and get comfortable with being a mom. And I decided that I just could not be a good mom and a good teacher. I hadn't choose, and if I had to choose, I was going to choose my own child and choose being a good mom. And as I as he grew, as he developed, we learned that he had autism. And round about that time he was about too we had our second child, and just in the process of becoming comfortable with being at home with my children and being a mom and looking back at my education, I decided that homeschooling would be a perfect fit for our family. I knew my children, so I would be able to personalize their education to them. I knew their strengths, and I knew their weaknesses, so I could help them build their strength and develop in those areas that they were weak, where if they're in a classroom with twenty or thirty other children, that's just not possible. I also knew that if I were to homeschool my children, we'd have freedom. We'd have the freedom to choose the curriculum that I wanted to teach, that we wouldn't be stuck with a set of textbooks that are required by the state or acquired by the school. That I could choose the subjects in the book that we use for those suffets, and I often knew that we have freedom of time. We could just go and do what we wanted well we wanted to do it. We could go to the zoo, like this week, we just picked up the want to the zoo one day. We can do those things that will educate the children outside of the classroom. So that's kind of how I got started homeschooling and why I started homeschooling right Well, that that sums it up, And I love what you said about that your freedom of time and freedom of choice and that I think freedom is a key word in home education and that's something that we value in homeschooling. And also I think that you had a really unique experience with having been homeschools. A lot of us have not been homeschooled ourselves, so I think that also maybe that puts a different spin on things for you. I don't know, what do you think like just having that that experience of having been homeschooled and then now that your homeschool and your children, it hasn't made it different for you or definitely I think it gives me a better appreciation for homeschooling. But also because I have experienced so many educational settings, from being educated in those settings to actually teaching in those settings. I've experienced a lot in the educational world, and so that's really impacted my decision to homeschool, knowing what goes on in schools, Knowing that a teacher who has thirty kids in the classroom really doesn't have time to spend one on one with a certain child who might be struggling with something, or doesn't have time to modify the lesson to help your child who might be excelling at something, and to keep them challenged. It's hard for classroom teachers being in a public school or a private school and being able to do that for our children and help them where them help and boost them where they're already good. It's so important, right right, Yeah, those are some wonderful points that you brought out about the differences between the private setting we have with our students, with our children in our home versus thirty kids. I mean significant difference in one on one attention that teachers can get students in with you having worked in that environment, like you know what it's like there. So yeah, I just it just makes me embrace homeschooling. More when I hear about the benefits of home education and so like, if somebody is interested in home education, there's a mom or dad out there right now who is they're considering homeschooling. Kind of made need a couple of more reasons why they should consider it. We've already talked out a few, that being freedom of time, freedom of choice, and what else would you say to a person who's considering homeschooling your children, why should they and what more could we say that would help them? I think that really it boils down to you know your children. You're qualified to teach your children. You have so much that you can offer and teach your children, your life experience, your knowledge, you can build on their interests, you can build on your interests. So you've got so much that you can teach them. And then you, as a parent, knowing your children and being able to provide their education, you can provide the best educational setting for your children. Exactly. That's good. Yes, I totally agree with you. Well, how easy or hard is it to get started? It's free, not all that difficult to get started in homeschooling. There are it's differed between each state. So if you're thinking about starting homeschooling, where I'd really say to start to start with your state Department of Education. And they are homeschool laws. You really need to know the laws. And when you're looking at those laws, do you want to focus on a few things. You want to focus on what you have to do to homeschool. So what are the requirements to actually homeschool. Do you just have to write a letter of intent? Do you have to submit your course of study? Figure out exactly what you have to do to homeschool in your state. Second thing you want to figure out from the law is what the qualifications are for the teacher and you, as a teacher, are as a parents excuse me, are qualified to teach your children. But you just want to make sure that there aren't any little things that you, as a parent, you have to have in place in order to teach. So you might have to take a class every quarter, or you know, they might have little requirements that you, as a here have to have to pass in order to be qualified according to the state law. So just check on that. And the third thing that you want to know in regards to the law is the subjects that you're required to teach your children. When you're looking at subjects, there are two different types of subjects. You've got those that are required for you to teach, and you've got those that you want to teach. So just look at those requirements and make sure that you're meeting your state requirements and that you're following that law. Once you've got the laws under your belt, then you can start developing your course of studying, your plan of instruction for your kids. And that's really where it gets fun. That's where you get to look at all the fun curriculum resources inside, what's going to work for you and your family, and then how you're actually wanting to teach, and then really make sure that you're not focusing just on curriculum and just on plasttime learning happens. Make everyday a learning adventure, from playing games to listening to audiobooks to going on field trips. Just just make everyday a learning adventure for your kids. That's wonderful. That that's really good advice. I think when a lot of people first begin homeschooling, as I did, I got really overwhelmed with the numerous amount of curriculum out there. I went to the curriculum stairs and the Yeah, the huge events homeschool conventions and there are there's just so many companies that you know, want you to buy their materials. And if you don't know what your course of study is and you're a child's type of learning that the way they learn best, it can be very, very overwhelming to make a decision. So, like you mentioned, there are so many different materials we can use besides curriculums. You mentioned field trips you I think you may have mentioned DVDs, But just like different materials and resources we can use. And do you have any recommendations in particulars for newbie homeschoolers as far as types of curriculum or styles of learning that kind of thing. Yeah, When it comes to choosing your materials, your resources, and your curriculums or homeschooling, you want to make sure that it matches with you and it matches with your child. So you want to match your child learning style. If they're a visual learner, they like to see things, you want to choose more visual resources. If they're hands on learners, you want to choose things that are hands on resources. And if they're auditory, you want to choose things that they can listen to. You want to make sure that your curriculum materials and your resources match your child learning style, but you also want to make sure that they match you as a parent teacher. And this is so important because you're stuff teaching, and I use the work stuff really loosely. You're stuff with this material, you're teaching it to your child. If you, as the parents teacher, aren't enjoying it, your children aren't going to enjoy it either. So you want to find curriculum resources and materials that work for you too. So another tip that I like to give is look for things that are low pressed, especially if you're starting out. Homecooling can be very overwhelming because you're at home. You've got your kids at home all day, and then you've got meal planning, and you've got housework, and you've got errands. You've said all of these other things that are required to run your household on top of school every day. So choose things that are low pressed, especially when you're getting star it. A couple of books that I like for those blow less that are kind of examples. I use a reading program called PHONYX Pathways, and it's a book and you open it up, and all I have to do every day is open it up, and there is the phonics lesson for us for that day, so I don't have any prep work for that. Another one is the English curriculum that we use. We use first first language lessons for the well trained mind, and the lessons they're scripted, so all I need to do is open it up. It tells me what we might need for the day, if we need a pencil on a piece of paper or whatever materials we might need, and then I can just read through the script with my child, go through the lesson, and there's really no prep work for that course. So that's really important. Look for things that you don't have to spend a lot of time preparing to teach to your child. You also want to and this is something I really recommend, try to preview materials before you buy them. I have bought a ton of stuff. I've gotten it, I've looked through it, and I'm like, oh my goodness, this is not at all what I thought it was because it will not work for me, this will not work for my family. And so try to preview materials before you buy them. And there are a lot of ways that you can preview materials, you can go to curriculum. There's just try not to get over walls with all the curriculum. You can ask other homeschooling family, get involved with other homeschoolers and ask them what curriculum they use and if they would mind showing you that curriculum. And then the third source that I think is highly overlooked as your public library, especially if you live in a big, big area. They have most of the curricula that you I want to use in your household, but checking it out from the library and looking through it as one who actually make those purchases, but try previewings before you buy. Good advice, very good advice. No time of prep you know, for your materials or for your curriculum. I think that's that's a great idea, especially when you have younger children. I mean, it really doesn't matter the ages, as long as you know that you're cutting down on the time that you need to prep and that helps. But especially with younger kids, I believe it really helps a lot when we can find materials we use with our children that doesn't take a lot of time to prep for. And so I like that idea. Also previewing first is so important. I really agree with that because I've purchased a lot of material over the years that I did not preview first, and so I've learned the hard way and sunk a lot of my money into curriculum that we did not just didn't work for our families. So I should have previewed. Of course, when you're at places like a convention convention, a lot of the time, you know they'll just say they may not open the package for you to preview everything, so I just, you know, purchase the material. But it's it's a good idea to ask around, and I like that advice. I think it will help a lot of people to say time and energy and money when they ask around and see if they can get advice from other people about what to purchase. Um, do you have any other particular helpful homeschooling advice you like to share with others? Sure, first thing, be patient. Homeschooling is a journey. It's not something that happens overnight. It's not going to be perfect. You might look at these other homeschooling families and see perfection and everything is running just right. I guarantee you that that is not true that they have their moments in their days with kids throw tantrums or decide that they don't want to work, or a day that just doesn't go right for them. So just be patient with yourself to be patient with your students and enjoy every moment of homeschooling. Be flexible. Make sure that you build flexibility into your schedule. Don't be rigid with homeschooling because you're going to have something come up. You're going to have to run the store, or you're going to have a doctor's appointment, or something is going to come up and you're just going to need to move things around, or you're gonna wake up and your kids are going to be sick that day and not feel like doing school. So build flexibility into your homeschool day and your homeschool schedule. Get and stay organized. Find the system that works for you. And this is super important. Getting organized, staying organized. It will help you not get overwhelmed. It'll help you know where all of your resources are. You'll help you know where you are in your curriculum, in your day. And then finally get involved with other homeschooling families. It is so important to have that support network when you're homeschooling because your kids aren't in the school system, you're not networking with other parents on a daily basis if you were, like in the PTA or something at school. So finding other homeschool families to connect with, to do things with, to have this kind of a sounding board when you have one of those bad days is a great way to keep your homeschooling mojo up. So, yeah, right, that's great, Kimberly. That was very very helpful information, And thank you so much for being on my podcast and use on a website about home education and so can you just tell us your web site address and how others can reach you. Sure, you can find me at homeschool with Kimberly and Kimberly is ay, I am be we are l e so homeschooling with Kimberly dot com. I'd love to see you over there. Thank you so much for being on our podcast and for helping our listeners who may be considering home education. Thanks Kimberly M.