CHM161: How To Homeschool Prep + End of Our Homeschool Journey

[00:00:14] Welcome to the Christian Homeschool Moms Podcast. I'm Demetria your host of Veteran Homeschool Mom of 2 Wonderful

[00:00:21] Doctors since 2008. One college graduate and one in high school. I'm also a loving wife, a songwriter, and a child

[00:00:28] of the king, and I am very happy to be your host. I hope you're having a great start to your fall season of this

[00:00:36] year. As of this recording, I am in September of 2024. So it is the beginning of this career for a lot of people.

[00:00:44] And on the home front from me, I'm glad to have my daughter home from college and I really appreciate this opportunity to watch her

[00:00:52] thrive in this gig economy and hustle to make work life happen for herself. It's just been really cool starting our journey

[00:00:59] of back to school as well for my younger daughter, who's now in the 11th grade. So this is my second time around that I'm officially

[00:01:06] not in a homeschool season and it feels great to be in a launch mode with my teen daughter and my young adult daughter.

[00:01:13] This has been a season for me of giving back and reaching out to other homeschool mamas and helping them through their homeschool

[00:01:19] seasons. I'm also trying out some new gigs of my own tutoring through a school district and doing some after school tutoring.

[00:01:26] I'm also ramping up my music journey with songwriting and playing around with logic pro and planning to produce my music soon, which is an exciting journey.

[00:01:36] But it's also a long journey that's taken me for ups and downs over the years and hopefully I'll share more about that at another time.

[00:01:44] But before we get started with today's show, I want to give a special shout out to my friend and client Tracy Kelly Tracy has been a guest on the show back in 2022

[00:01:54] and she was on episode 125. And I've had the pleasure of getting to know Tracy over the years as an entrepreneur and also a fellow homeschool mom.

[00:02:04] And recently, I have the opportunity to redesign her entire website, which is now the virtual home base for her homeschool coaching services and her own podcasts.

[00:02:14] So if you're looking for personalized guidance to creating a nurturing and effective learning environment at home, Tracy offers exactly that

[00:02:23] with her expert advice and her customized lesson plans and guides and her ongoing support Tracy and powers parents to become confident educators and help students thrive both academically and personally.

[00:02:35] So I would love for you to go check her out and her homeschool coaching services and her newly designed website at homeschoolpower.com.

[00:02:45] So go ahead and check out Tracy when you get a moment and pass the word along to friends who you know might need a little support with homeschooling Tracy is there to help you.

[00:02:55] And if you're in the market for a fresh new website design or even some podcast coaching, I'd like to help you with that and you can find out how to reach out to me in the show notes so just send me a quick email and let's connect.

[00:03:06] So today we're talking about something that's on every homeschool parents mind and that's how to plan your homeschool for the new academic year.

[00:03:14] And though I have at least four other episodes about planning your homeschool, you can check out episodes 13 way way back in the day.

[00:03:22] And I'm ever so it's 94. 97 and 108.

[00:03:26] I thought this would not only be a refresher, but really jumpstart you into a brand new homeschool year giving you a boost who doesn't need a boost right we always need that boost to keep us going and to just kind of fuel us for the year that's ahead.

[00:03:39] So whether you're a season homeschool or just starting out the key to a successful year is really in the planning part and trust me it doesn't have to be overwhelming.

[00:03:47] So in today's episode I'm going to share some practical tips to help you plan your year with ease and flexibility.

[00:03:54] So are you ready to dive in? Let's get started.

[00:03:56] So my first tip for you is to reflect on last year before you start planning for the new year, you should definitely take some time to reflect on last year's homeschool journey and ask yourself what works well for you and your family.

[00:04:09] What did not work well? Were there any specific subjects or activities that your kids really enjoyed or were there areas where they struggled?

[00:04:16] And I want you to use those reflections to guide your planning. Maybe you'll want to continue with the curriculum that was successful for you or maybe you want to try something new and subjects that felt like a chore.

[00:04:26] About seven years ago when I was deep in the thursday of homeschooling my two girls, I made a video series called Why It's OK to make a mid semester change.

[00:04:35] And I'm going to leave a link in the show notes somewhere in case you're interested in watching this video.

[00:04:40] And I think there were two parts parts one and two. So this is back when I made a decision to switch curriculum in the middle of the school year because our ninth grade about all G from my oldest daughter was not working out at the time.

[00:04:51] And I think we were switching from an online school back into our traditional homeschool approach. So we were switching out for our second semester.

[00:04:59] So once we switched the curriculum things started to feel much easier for her and for me as well. So that is just one example of many, many other examples that I could have given you about how our family personally has made a lot of changes over the years.

[00:05:15] And we did that because of reflection reflecting on what did not work or what does work and what should we continue or what should we change.

[00:05:24] So make a note of your kids strengths and weaknesses. And also don't be afraid to make a note of your curriculum strengths and weaknesses.

[00:05:32] And you can use that as a foundation for your upcoming school year. The second thing that I want to offer you is to set goals for the year.

[00:05:40] We always talk about goal planning on this show because it's just a fundamental part of planning your homeschool you want to have goals for your family.

[00:05:48] So one of the great things about homeschooling is that you can tailor your teaching to meet your kids in divisual needs. So you want to start by asking yourself what do I want my children to achieve this year.

[00:05:59] For example, when my kids were preschoolers, my goal was to really just have them learn to do simple things like tie their shoes or learn to count from one to a hundred.

[00:06:07] But by third and fourth grade, my goal was to help them practice and learn multiple occasions tables. By seventh grade, we were working on pre algebra.

[00:06:14] And now with my love of grade daughter, our goal is to help her achieve passing the written test for her driver's permit. So every year those goals are going to change for your kids.

[00:06:23] Your goals don't have to be strictly academic either.

[00:06:25] Sure you might want to improve your child's math skills or help them develop a love for reading.

[00:06:30] But don't forget about personal growth like building confidence or learning life skills or fostering creativity. Those are all things that could be a goal maybe learning a new instrument.

[00:06:41] I recommend writing down your goals and keeping them somewhere visible. I used to use a homeschool binder just a three ring binder that I'd set aside specifically for our homeschooling and I put it on my desk to just remind me to open it up and look through it every week.

[00:06:57] Just to refresh myself about what my goals were for my daughters. I was very intentional about how I wanted their education to at least start.

[00:07:06] If not finishing the same capacity, but at least start with a strong intention of what I wanted for this school year and if things were going to change because I knew they would that I would be willing to be flexible and we'll talk about flexibility shortly.

[00:07:20] But at the very least having goals, setting goals is super important and keeping them where you can see them on a regular basis is going to help keep you motivated throughout the entire school year.

[00:07:33] My third tip for you is to choose your curriculum or create your own curriculum.

[00:07:39] Now there are so many options out there and it can feel overwhelming as a blogger and podcaster on my side of things.

[00:07:47] Choose and curriculum to talk about or not talk about or partnering with an education company to bring you guys a product that I believe in has always been a challenge for me because there's so many options and it's just hard to pick one right because there's so many pros and cons and strengths and weaknesses to all the different educational products out there

[00:08:07] and I'm the kind of person that's pretty open to wanting to try new things and so it's hard to turn down something if it looks good.

[00:08:14] But my tip for you is to start with your goals, if you know what your goals are, it's so much easier to turn down the things that you don't need so that it's easier to streamline what you should take off your table.

[00:08:27] What will be a no-go for your family when it comes to choosing curricula and also if you know your child's learning style and her teaching style, it's going to be super helpful and helping you to determine what kind of curriculum you don't want to be working with.

[00:08:40] So if your child is a hands-on learner look for curriculum that incorporates a lot of activities and projects if they thrive on structure you might choose something more traditional.

[00:08:48] Remember it's okay to mix and match too so you don't have to stick with one method across all the subjects. So you could, for example, use a textbook for math.

[00:08:57] You could use unit studies for history and then you could let your kids explore science through experiments.

[00:09:04] So you don't have to do a one-size-fits-all for all subjects and also don't be afraid to create your own curriculum.

[00:09:10] Sometimes the best lessons come from real life experiences so just take advantage of those filtrips and nature walks and family projects.

[00:09:19] Now I interviewed a lady named Aaron Jahi over 10 years ago, probably more closer to 12 or 13 years ago, and I'll leave a link to that.

[00:09:27] In the interview, we stressed the importance of creativity when homeschooling such as finding those resources that are right at your fingertips, those no cost or free resources or even creating your own like making your own unit studies.

[00:09:41] Because your homeschool curriculum choice does not have to be a standard free package curriculum, it can be something that you choose to create or something that you choose to piece together.

[00:09:53] So for example if you're going to the local zoo, you might want that to be part of what you do for science or you might want to explore nature, maybe attending a homeschool park day,

[00:10:05] maybe that's your jam, so then that's the best curriculum option for you is that hands-on approach.

[00:10:10] If you love to travel, why not hit the road for a world schooling adventure?

[00:10:15] And if you prefer something nice and tidy kind of like our family does, then you might consider workbooks or online school or a hybrid mix-in match of a little of both.

[00:10:24] You could have those nature walks, you can have those filtrips plus online school.

[00:10:29] You can have workbooks plus you can have some no cost or free resources that you can download or you can also plan to create your own unit study for history but plan to do something else entirely for science and maybe do online math.

[00:10:46] So don't be afraid to mix and match your curriculum to suit your particular needs for your family and for your individual kids.

[00:10:53] My fourth tip for you is to create a flexible schedule.

[00:10:57] One of the biggest challenges homeschool parents face is creating a schedule that works, so my advice is make it flexible.

[00:11:04] While routines are important, one of the benefits of homeschooling is the freedom to adjust as needed.

[00:11:11] You want to start by mapping out your big picture plan for the whole year and think about how many weeks you plan to homeschool.

[00:11:17] Do you want to take breaks around those holidays or family events and then once you've decided that break it into break it down into a monthly or weekly goals.

[00:11:26] And then create a daily or weekly schedule that allows for the flexibility that your family needs of some days might not go as planned and that's okay.

[00:11:34] A key is to have a general structure in place, but allow room for spontaneous learning.

[00:11:40] You can have slower days and then also if your child suddenly develops this interest in a topic, then you will be able to fit that in because you're not feeling stressed.

[00:11:51] You're not feeling like you have to fit a particular mode or way of doing things and you can give your student the flexibility they need to explore what they're interested in.

[00:12:01] While at the same time you are still following your plan for the year.

[00:12:05] And here's another tip for you. You might want to consider block scheduling a lot of homeschoolers to use this, so instead of planning out every minute of your day that which is really exhausting and gives me a lot of stress thinking about that.

[00:12:21] But schedule in chunks of time for your subjects.

[00:12:24] For example, from 9 to 11 maybe you focus on language arts and reading and then you might want to have an open block for science projects or creative time.

[00:12:34] Maybe in the afternoon there's free play or something like that.

[00:12:37] So it's kind of open-ended that way you are not having to do math from 805 to 835 and then English from 8048 to 915 if that doesn't work for you.

[00:12:49] And for others it is the thing that keeps your engine running in your home to have those minute by minute time periods for your classes and maybe that's what you and your kids thrive on.

[00:13:01] And if that's the case then go for it.

[00:13:03] Just whatever works for your family but I know for our family we appreciated having that openness and that space in our day and sort of time block so we can kind of meander into what we're doing think about it and enjoy it.

[00:13:17] And then when my kids were older of course they were in online school and they became more structured with whatever their school was offering being on that schedule and that provided them the practice I guess they needed for for college and for life later on when they would have those structured time periods for classes.

[00:13:37] If you want a little bit more information about planning I do have some planning episodes and I mentioned them earlier in the podcast so just check those out and they will be in the show notes.

[00:13:46] My fifth tip for you is you want to plan for socialization and extra curriculars.

[00:13:52] It's important to remember that homeschooling doesn't mean your child has to miss out on all of the social experiences or extracurricular activities that are out there.

[00:14:01] In fact this can be an area where homeschooling shines and is often the area where homeschooling takes a front seat for many families.

[00:14:10] It's because of the socialization and it's because of all the extra perks especially if you live in a city or in a state that is very homeschooled centric or homeschool friendly to the community of home educators,

[00:14:24] meaning that there's lots of things going on in your town or city for homeschoolers maybe at the library or maybe just events happening that are geared toward homeschoolers.

[00:14:35] And there are places, there are cities that really just love catering to homeschoolers because there's so many in that geographic area that they cater to them.

[00:14:44] Whether it's park days or whether there are homeschooled film trips, whether it's just maybe a library day or something like that that the city knows we have a lot of homeschoolers here.

[00:14:57] Let's be sure to serve them and so I used to live in a place like that when I lived down south.

[00:15:04] I don't have not experienced that on the same level since I've moved out to the west coast, but I do find that if I really search hard.

[00:15:13] I can find what I'm looking for.

[00:15:15] I might have to travel out a little bit to get what I'm looking for, but finding it here of course where I live now is a little bit harder.

[00:15:22] But if you have a homeschool friendly town or city, check out the resources available to you and see what kinds of socializing activities are available.

[00:15:34] See what kind of extracurricular as you can do.

[00:15:36] Take some time to research local co-ops, homeschool groups, sports teams, many communities offer music lessons, art classes, even theater programs specifically for homeschoolers.

[00:15:48] So planning for these activities and not only provides social interaction, but it also gives your children the opportunity to explore their passions outside of academics.

[00:15:59] So don't overload your schedule with extracurricular, so that's a pro tip for you because it's really easy to get caught up and trying to do everything.

[00:16:07] But it is important to maintain some type of balance, so you want to give your kids time to enjoy going out and being involved in the community.

[00:16:16] And you want to give them the balance of having some downtime as well.

[00:16:20] So just as long as we keep that balance, I think finding socialization activities is a lot of fun and should be a part of your homeschool program, so to speak.

[00:16:31] So if you can find it and it works for your family then definitely make it a part of what you do as homeschoolers.

[00:16:39] Okay, so with my next tip, we're going to talk about getting organized with your materials and your space.

[00:16:44] Now as the school year kicks off, you want to take some time to organize your materials and your space for homeschooling.

[00:16:53] Whether you've got a designated homeschool room or just a small corner of your living room or your kitchen, your dining room table.

[00:17:00] You want to create that organized and inviting learning environment.

[00:17:03] You want to label your supply bins if you have some bins. It's a good idea to invest in some, whether it is something you get from the dollar store or you've got some cardboard boxes.

[00:17:15] Anything you can use that will help you to stay organized and set up your bookshelf for your curriculum, make sure everything has its place.

[00:17:23] This is going to save you so much time and stress during the school year when you know exactly where to find what you need.

[00:17:30] And don't forget about digital organization. If you're using online resources, keep a folder on your computer for homeschool files and lessons and printable worksheets.

[00:17:41] I'm a big user of Google Drive and just keep all my stuff there. And I also have a video about creating homeschool spaces from at least 12 years ago.

[00:17:52] I'm going to dig up that video and see if I can add that to the show notes for you.

[00:17:57] Basically, I showed you how I set up my homeschool space to use very low cost and affordable bins, supply bins and boxes to store my materials for the school year.

[00:18:12] And again, this was a really long time ago, but I think it still could be helpful and maybe give you some insights on how you can organize.

[00:18:20] And additionally, you might want to check out episode 1119, which is how to declutter your homeschool.

[00:18:27] And this podcast episode, I believe I recorded right when I was in the middle of moving.

[00:18:33] We were selling our house and we were in the process of moving into an apartment.

[00:18:38] And from there, we were going to move into the house that we were buying further out.

[00:18:45] So we were in the middle again of two moves and so I had to do a lot of decluttering in order to first downsize before we upsized.

[00:18:54] And so it was just a lot of figuring out what I needed to keep and what I needed to give away or throw away.

[00:19:03] So I talk about that entire process of cleaning out my homeschool supplies on episode 1119, and I believe linked to that.

[00:19:12] And my very last tip for you today is to remember to give yourself grace.

[00:19:17] Hom schooling can be challenging.

[00:19:21] I don't even know if I can officially keep count of how many years I've done this.

[00:19:26] I think I would be on year 19 or so at this point, if I were going into another year of homeschooling it would be your 20.

[00:19:35] I'm no longer in a full time homeschooling space.

[00:19:40] This is my like I said before, it's my second time around not being an official homeschooler and having my kids either graduate or in school.

[00:19:49] So I am at this point, not homeschooling but I believe it would have been 19 years if I count correctly.

[00:19:58] 19 of 20 if I were going on to this very next year if I had continued.

[00:20:03] And I'm just going to say it is a hard path for many people and I guess for others it might be easier because maybe where you live it's easier for you to find the resources you need or maybe it's just a more fluid heart of your lifestyle as a family.

[00:20:23] For our family, it almost has been a bit of a fight to maintain a homeschool lifestyle based on so many things where we were living.

[00:20:33] All the moves we made and meeting new people and starting over multiple times.

[00:20:39] It has been a difficult journey but it also has been a very rewarding journey.

[00:20:45] And so what I've learned is that there are days when sometimes nothing goes according to plan and that happened a lot during our homeschool years.

[00:20:54] And that's the beauty of homeschooling is that it's not a race you're not bound by the same timelines or restrictions as traditional schools.

[00:21:03] So you can take it slow when you need to and you can allow yourself to be flexible.

[00:21:08] Some days learning might look like a nature walk or baking together in the kitchen and those experiences are just as valuable.

[00:21:15] And what I'm finding now that my daughter is in school full time is that because we developed a habit of the leisure, the meandering around the home and like really tapping into enjoying life at home together.

[00:21:30] And so we're making together had become a part of our lifestyle just doing fun projects at home that she enjoy doing working on her music.

[00:21:40] I'm working on my music, we were just at home together a lot and when we did go out together it was very intentional about where we wanted to go.

[00:21:48] We weren't just out for the sake of being out but because there was something that we needed to do people we needed to meet.

[00:21:55] And so it was nice having that lifestyle where we could wake up one morning and decide to bake chocolate chip cookies or and then get into our studies or study for a math quiz after watching a K drama or something.

[00:22:15] So we were just kind of figuring things out that would make our day feel more fulfilling as we accomplished our home school goals also.

[00:22:23] And now that she's in school what I love is that we're still doing some of those things because when she doesn't have a lot of homework.

[00:22:32] It's nice that she'll just decide to go in the kitchen and bake up a batch of cookies and we're right back to the lifestyle that we had before which is just spending that time together.

[00:22:44] Being her and then with my eldest daughter the three of us being home together under the same roof again and nobody's in college and adore many more so it's it's nice having that time back together as a family now that everyone's older but we're still together and so.

[00:22:59] They're dad and I are very proud of who they have become and who are who they are who the girls are becoming and we're just so grateful that God has allowed our family the opportunity to home school for this long.

[00:23:13] We're very, very grateful and so now that our journey has come to an end.

[00:23:17] We are looking back and reflecting with gratitude and giving ourselves grace for the times that we weren't perfect for the times that we did mess up for the times that didn't go as planned and realize that despite all of that our kids are where they are today because.

[00:23:35] We were able to work together as a family to make it happen and all because of God's grace you know I always have to say it's because of the grace of God that we're able to do it it was very hard and.

[00:23:48] It's not something that my daughter chose to want to continue through 12th grade so she's spending 11th and 12th grade doing school the traditional way and not homeschooling and and that's so okay with our family.

[00:24:01] Because we decided that we wanted her to have that choice and make that choice for herself and she doesn't regret homeschooling which is something that my heart is really happy about.

[00:24:13] Because I know that it could have gone wrong you know in so many ways we could have made them despise what we chose for them but I'm glad that it didn't turn out that way and I'm glad that it was a positive experience and so again just take it easy.

[00:24:31] And give yourself grace so that you can look back and reflect on your days with thankfulness and gratitude that you did it.

[00:24:39] And even if you didn't do it all the way for 12th grade that you did it and give yourself permission to make mistakes and grow along beside your kids and more than anything just enjoy your time together because that's all that matters at the end of the day is that you are making time for your kids loving on your kids and teaching them.

[00:24:58] All the values and the lessons that you want them to learn in life before they're launched and before they leave home so you've got this and I'm.

[00:25:08] Routing for you. I'm still here to encourage you even though I'm not still in that space anymore but I love you guys and I want to keep helping and to keep being here and being part of your journey somehow.

[00:25:22] So I can't wait for next time we're going to have a guest and we're going to be talking about tutoring and maybe even I'll share a little bit about what my tutoring experience has been like and share a little bit about that in upcoming episodes but I've been enjoying some different.

[00:25:42] And my new phase of life right now so I hope to kind of share some of that with you as I encourage you in your homeschool journey as well and that's all I have for you today. Thank you so much for listening to this episode and until next time happy homeschooling.