Back-to-Homeschool Mistake #1: Not Purchasing Materials Ahead of Time
The first mistake veterans don’t make is not purchasing materials ahead of time. Few things can make back-to-school more stressful than having no idea of the tools you’ll be using. Veterans know to start the research process early and to take advantage of discount pricing many vendors offer. Securing your materials early allows you to do some critical planning for the year ahead. While I don’t recommend planning your entire school year lesson my lesson, I do recommend that you review your materials so you can plan your students’ time accordingly.
You’ll want to make sure you not only purchase curriculum but any supplies you need. Now is the time to buy school, art, and science supplies so you’re not missing sales or having to pay for expedited shipping.
If you haven’t begun the process of choosing curriculum, don’t worry. I have guides that well help you choose the best science, language arts, and math curriculum for your family.
Back-to-Homeschool Mistake #2: Not Having Your School Space Prepared
The second mistake you don’t want to make is to not have your school space prepared. If your children don’t know where to look for their daily schedule, their individual books, or their materials, you’re going to be stressed because your kids will be stressed.
Your primary school storage space does not have to be IKEA beautiful. But it does have to be user-friendly. Make sure your children can remove books from the bookshelves and colored pencils from their container without creating a mess. Make sure that even the laziest child or teacher can replace materials easily. My kids’ books don’t look as neat piled on shelves as they would in bins, but my kids are more likely to put them back on the shelf.
If the thought of organizing your school space sends you into a panic, commit to spending just five minutes a day there until it’s ready. I promise you that you will make progress even at this rate. Begin by removing things that don’t belong because you aren’t using them. Don’t worry about selling or even donating at this point. Just put them out of sight for now. Remove everything from one bookshelf or cubby at a time and clean it. You will do better if you replace things without purchasing containers to begin. I had a mountain of plastic containers at one time. You definitely want to see what you have before purchasing new organizing supplies.
Back-to-Homeschool Mistake #3: Not Making Back-to-School Special
Normal kids resist back-to-school. Even though they’re likely bored with a vacation routine, they will complain about having to do traditional studies.
Whenever we have to do hard things, a great strategy for motivating kids is to look for a way to make it fun. Back-to-school is a fantastic opportunity to model this. I have surprised my kids on the first day of school for many years now. The anticipation of the surprise tends to block out any negativity. Believe me, it will reemerge later, but my back-to-school surprises get us off to a great start.
Some ideas for you to consider are a special meal, a field trip, and games. Some moms like to make a special breakfast treat just for back-to-school. It might be pancakes in a special shape or cinnamon rolls that take forever to bake but are so delicious. You might consider taking the kids out for breakfast. I took mine to Waffle House and they loved it.
Another idea for a back-to-school surprise is to not do school at all. One year I surprised the kids by taking them to a local theme park that was still open. That is one of our favorite memories. If you’d like to make this idea more educational, consider taking the kids to a park as I did one year. We took out paddle boats and got some exercise after enjoying a picnic lunch.
Still another idea is to make back-to-school special with friends. Plan your back-to-school with another homeschooling mom. You could have a whole day of fun activities like an egg toss or water balloon fight. This is a great idea if your local support group does not offer a back-to-school party like mine does.
Finally, you could give your kids new school supplies in a fun way. Send them on a scavenger hunt to find them.
New homeschoolers are often most concerned with curriculum and forget that they will have to plan lunches for their kids. And when you’re caught up in the school day, dinnertime arrives quickly. No matter how wonderful your school day was, dinner chaos has the capacity to end your day on a sour note.
Pretend that you are going to have a new baby even if you aren’t. Homeschooling is your new baby. You will be teaching your children full-time. Spend some time making plans with shopping lists for quick, popular meals. In your meal planning, make sure you include meals the kids can help you make. If your child can operate a can opener, he or she can make chicken tortilla soup for the family.
1 (10 ounce) candiced tomatoes with green chile peppers drained
1 bagtortilla chips
1 bagshredded cheddar cheese
1 containerlight sour cream
Directions
Open the cans of corn, chicken broth, chunk chicken, black beans, and diced tomatoes with green chilies. Pour everything into a large saucepan or stock pot. Simmer over medium heat until chicken is heated through.
Amount Per Serving (6)
Calories: 214
Protein: 17.2g
Sugar: 2.7g
Carbohydrate: 27.2g
Fat: 4.9g
Cholesterol: 32mg
Sodium: 1482mg
Fiber: 6.7g
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If you’d like to make cooking a part of your homeschooling this year, consider the excellent Kids Cook Real Foods curriculum.
If you’d like to take meal planning a step further, get some meals put into the freezer. The easiest way to freezer cook is to make multiples of meals you’re already preparing for your family.
Back-to-Homeschool Mistake #5: Having Unreasonable Expectations for the School Year
If you are a newer homeschooler or just more of a dreamer, it’s easy to have high expectations for the coming school year. A child’s newly discovered special need, the toll of seasonal affective disorder, or the flu bug that hit hard last year are long forgotten. They won’t be an issue; you’re sure of it!
To some extent our idealism serves a good purpose. It gets us back in the saddle and homeschooling again. But in another sense, our overly optimistic expectations set us up for discouragement. I’m certainly not advising you to consider everything that can go wrong. It’s important that we have a positive outlook on what we and our children can accomplish in the Lord’s strength.
But this year, let’s be sure that our goals and expectations can be met. What would a normal, somewhat lazy teacher and students be able to do given your commitments and lifestyle? If you have a learning center on Monday and you’ve never been able to get school started up again when you’re back home, don’t plan to do school at home on those days. I know, it’s heresy. I would much rather have you be disappointed in having lower expectations now than disappointed by having your unreasonable expectations unmet later. Plan to do less so you are more likely to achieve your goals. It’s better to do more than you planned than less. Make your homeschool plan easy for your kids and watch their motivation soar.
In addition to keeping our expectations in check by having reasonable goals, each week of your homeschool, consider any obstacles that will stand in the way of you getting things done. I prompt homeschooling moms to consider this in the Organized Homeschool Life Planner. I ask them to not only consider what may get in the way during the upcoming week but how they will overcome that obstacle. For example, if you’re going on vacation this fall, plan for how to transition the kids back to a regular school routine. It won’t happen automatically.
Back-to-Homeschool Mistake #6: No Plan to Keep the Momentum Going
We homeschooling teachers tend to be pretty good at planning those first days or weeks of school. We have our curriculum, space, meals, and reasonable goals in place if you’ve been following along. Now we have to have a plan for keeping our homeschools running smoothly.
You need a chore plan. Any chore plan will work, but you need a way of making sure that your kids are helping you maintain your home. Public school kids have to clean up too. In a previous episode of The Homeschool Sanity Show on organizing, FLYLady gave us wise advice for cleaning up after every subject. Make that habit a part of your day in addition to assigning regular responsibilities.
Even when you assign chores and clean up as you go, you still need a plan for maintaining your home and life. Without one, there are things you’ll never get to that can make your homeschooling a lot less enjoyable. You may have clutter hotspots, upcoming holidays to plan for, or finances that need attention. Without a plan for when and how you will address these other areas, you can quickly find yourself overwhelmed. Take the time to create a plan for giving these other crucial areas attention or use the plan I’ve developed. Check out The Organized Homeschool Life book and Planner.
Conclusion
If you avoid these six back-to-school mistakes, you are well on your way having a peaceful and blessed back to homeschool. Have your curriculum, school space, special back-to-school surprise, meal plan, reasonable goals, and maintenance plans ready. That is my prayer for you.
Hey, homeschoolers! If your child hates to write, you’re in the right place. My kids were the same until I learned why they hated writing and what to do about it. Listen to the podcast for the solution to reluctant writers.
The first reason your child hates to write is because your child’s handwriting speed is too slow. You can finish reading a picture book by the time your child has formed the letter a. Your child may have learned to form the letters correctly but you may not have given him focused practice in becoming faster. If your child writes slowly, you’ll likely have a student who resists any written work. Her brain is working much faster than her fingers and it’s frustrating.
I learned that this was behind even my advanced student’s writing reluctance. It wasn’t that he couldn’t write; he just didn’t want to. Only my daughter didn’t complain about writing because she was the only one whose fine motor skills could keep up with her creativity. So what do you do if your child writes too slowly? Give your kids focused practice in writing faster–not so fast that their work is not legible–but with less of a focus on perfect formation. Faster handwriting is one of the lessons in the first volume of Grammar Galaxy: Nebula, but I have a treat for you. You can download the forms I use in the lesson right here.
Work at increasing your child’s handwriting speed, but don’t stop there. You can help your child learn to enjoy writing by making the input easier. Allow your child to dictate to you. Write what your child says on a chalk or whiteboard so he can see what he is writing. Or write it in a notebook and then go over it together. The first two volumes of Grammar Galaxy encourage ample use of student dictation so your child will learn to love writing. Next, use dictation software. I love my Dragon Dictation app for the iPhone, but Macs also have built-in dictation software that works well. Dictating is a skill for the future. I frequently dictate so I can move while I write. Dictation is perfect for your kids with ADD too. Then teach your child to type. Learning to type faster is a lesson in Grammar Galaxy Protostar. The faster your child can write, whatever the medium, the more likely he is to enjoy writing.
#2 Writing assignments aren’t structured for your child’s level.
The second reason your child hates to write is because the writing assignments aren’t structured for your child’s level. We not only have a child who writes slowly, but then we ask him to write about any topic. There are hordes of adult writers who are paralyzed by the thought of having to choose a topic, even within the broad scope of something personal, a famous person’s biography, or a science topic. Give kids a short list of specific topics to choose from instead, even if your curriculum doesn’t. Limiting choices actually increases creativity. Then provide as much support in completing the assignment as possible. It isn’t enough to tell a 2nd grader to write five sentences on her topic. Young writers need graphic organizers for their writing. These are forms that tell students exactly what to write for each part of their paper. They make the writing process seem easy. That’s why I include so many of them in Grammar Galaxy. The blank page is terrifying to all writers. Instead, young writers should have fill-in-the-blank pages or writing recipes that feel easy and fast to complete. And the younger the student, the shorter the assignment needs to be. Even more advanced writers prefer to have a short writing assignment, giving them the freedom to write more as they would like.
#3 You’re correcting instead of encouraging.
When your child’s handwriting speed has increased and the writing lesson is structured appropriately for your child’s level, your child is less likely to hate writing. But if you correct instead of encourage, your child is still likely to resist. No one likes to do something they aren’t good at. Most children see corrections and even suggestions for change to writing as a sign that they aren’t good writers. I have edited fellow adult writers’ materials and often see their discouragement upon seeing the changes I’ve made. I tell my students that every successful author is edited. Sometimes the edits are purely subjective and the author doesn’t like them. But most of the time, the edits make the work better. Writing isn’t like math where there’s one right answer. This is a truth we have to reinforce with our students frequently.
Before you regularly correct your children’s spelling or grammar, encourage their creativity. Express your joy in their writing, much as you would with their artwork. Be specific about what you love about it. Your child puts herself on paper and wants to hear that she is a delight. Explain that you aren’t worried about spelling or grammar mistakes. You just want your child to write. Once your child has begun to enjoy writing because you enjoy it too, you can begin to suggest a few changes. Work on just a couple of things at a time. Start with making sure each sentence begins with a capital letter and has an endmark. Make sure the word I is capitalized. If your child struggles with spelling, deemphasize it. Focus on vocabulary instead. Have your child replace weak vocabulary words like good and bad. This gentler approach to writing is one of the reasons students with dyslexia love Grammar Galaxy. But any student who resists writing because of constant correction is likely to blossom with this approach.
#4 Writing assignments are boring.
Being encouraged about something structured you’ve written with faster input is a great start. But boring assignments, reason number four, will keep your kids hating writing. Having your child constantly write out definitions to words may help them remember vocabulary, but it is not fun. I don’t want to do it. Do you? Notebooking is another writing assignment that can help your child remember what is studied but doesn’t ignite the writer within. When your aim is to teach your child to love writing, refrain from giving repetitive writing assignments. Give your kids funny writing prompts instead. Nothing has been more effective than humor in getting my kids excited about writing. Start with prompts that are already funny like the funny spring writing prompts you can subscribe to get by clicking the image below. Even better, allow your child to turn an ordinary writing prompt into a funny exercise. When your student feels freedom to use humor within appropriate limits, magic happens. In our house, I’ve had to make a rule about writing unkind things about others. But I’ve allowed my kids to use their siblings’ or friends’ names in their stories within that boundary.
Subscribers to the Grammar Galaxy newsletter receive a month’s worth of daily assignments, including fun, seasonal writing prompts. You won’t have to spend time looking for ideas on Pinterest because I’ve done the work for you.
#5 You’re anxious about your child’s writing.
You can be doing everything right with writing, but if you are doing this fifth thing, your child may still hate writing. If a homeschool parent is freaking out over their child’s homeschool progress, it’s likely to be about one of two things: slowness to read or what is perceived as poor writing skills. I know this fear. One of my children wasn’t able to learn to read using the phonetic approach that had worked with my others. I didn’t know what to do. And every time I read one of my elementary or junior high student’s papers, the spelling and grammar made me want to cry. I had failed and everyone would know. But then something amazing happened. By the time they were sophomores in high school, their writing improved significantly. Spelling improved for most of them automatically. I hadn’t used a formal spelling curriculum for them, but had corrected errors as we came to them. Grammar, which requires higher-level thinking, improved as my students developed. Most exciting was the fact that their personality, opinions, and creativity were expressed beautifully in their writing because they felt free to share it without fear. My honest appreciation for their work allowed them to continue to improve as they wrote.
If you’re afraid your kids are terrible writers, they’ll know. Anxiety is as catchy as the common cold. Your child will be afraid she’s a terrible writer. Then she’ll resist writing because again, we all hate to do things we aren’t good at. They’ll procrastinate on every writing assignment and tell you they don’t care about writing. So relax. If you aren’t strong in writing, ask someone whose strength is writing to encourage your child and make suggestions. Believe that your child can become a competent writer who enjoys the process. As a bonus, work on your own writing while your child writes. Write your own responses to the funny writing prompts, for example. If you work to improve your writing, your confidence will carry over to your child.
#6 You don’t give your child a reason for writing.
The last reason your child hates to write is because he thinks it’s like higher-level math that he’ll never use. Your child needs a reason for writing. Show her the importance of writing in a future career she is eyeing or even better, show her how writing can help her reach her goals now. Writing is valuable in business, charity, and relationships. Writing a pitch to a business, a sign for a church event, or a status update on social media are all opportunities to practice writing that have the potential to pay off for kids.
Next, use your child’s personality to provide a reason for writing. My kids are competitive and social. Writing competitions and group read alouds have given them a reason to write. Other kids can find emotional solace in writing or a way to connect with people they care about. Have your more introverted child keep a journal. Write to your child in a shared journal or ask your child to write letters to a relative who lives far from you.
Finally, point out the importance of good writing skills as you see examples. Good writing has the power to increase the status of the writer, while poor writing can make a writer look like a fool. In Grammar Galaxy, kids learn what happens when the Gremlin tampers with the English language. As fellow guardians of the galaxy, kids have to write to save it and stop the ensuing chaos. Kids are given a reason for writing.
Grammar Galaxy helps kids love writing.
Next week, I’ll announce the launch of Volume 3 of Grammar Galaxy, which is designed for fourth graders and up or those who have completed the equivalent of Protostar, Volume 2. If you have a student at this level or below, you’ll want to subscribe to hear about special pricing and bonuses that can get your kids writing and loving it.
If you want students who love to write, increase their handwriting speed or input, structure the assignment so it’s easy and quick to complete, encourage rather than correct, give fun assignments, relax about writing, and give your child a motivating reason to write. If you do these things, you may not be raising the next Longfellow, but you can have a child who enjoys writing. And that is half the battle.
Which of these approaches will you try first? Let me know in the comments.
I was compensated for my time in sharing these resources. All opinions are my own.
I have shopped Homeschool Buyers Co-op for a long time and I love knowing that I’m getting the best possible price on curriculum. The co-op helps homeschoolers harness group buying power to keep prices low. Getting an excellent price is especially important if you plan to invest in an all-in-one curriculum. An all-in-one or multi-subject curriculum can save your sanity by reducing decision fatigue and planning time. These are just some of the options available through the co-op for you to consider.
Monarch Online Curriculum from Alpha Omega
I have used some Monarch courses with my students and find that they’re an excellent option for parents looking for cumputer-based curriculum. Co-op buyers save 10%, which is the best deal you will find!
Monarch is an interactive, Internet-based Christian homeschool curriculum for grades 3-12 that’s compatible with most web browsers on a Windows® or Macintosh® operating system.
With Monarch, you get:
Dynamic, Media-rich Lessons: Bring learning to life with over 50,000 multimedia elements! Immerse your child in an enriching, multi-dimensional educational experience that includes video clips, audio files, challenging games, interactive exercises, and more.
Core Subjects & More: Monarch offers Bible-based online lessons in the five core subjects of Bible, History and Geography, Language Arts, Math, and Science, as well as a wide variety of enriching electives.
Automatic Grading: Enjoy freedom from paperwork! Automatic grading and recordkeeping conveniently record lesson assignments, test scores, and upcoming assignments for more hands-on teaching time.
Anytime access, no installation: Perfect for your on-the-go schedule, Monarch’s Christian homeschool curriculum is accessible around the clock with a browser and Internet connection. With just a username and password, you’re curriculum-ready in seconds.
The best part is you can try it free for 30 days with no risk!
I have also enjoyed using Horizons curriculum with my students. At the co-op, you can be sure you’re getting the best price.
Horizons is a brightly illustrated, engaging workbook curriculum filled with consumable lessons and hands-on activities for grades PreK-12.
Horizons offers:
Christian Worldview: Horizons courses support a Christian worldview that complements parents in their biblical teaching.
Spiral Learning: Horizons Language Arts and Math use a spiral learning method that helps students master concepts through a natural process of introduction, review, and reinforcement.
Colorful Curriculum: Eye-catching graphics and illustrations make the student material visually appealing and help keep students excited to learn.
Hands-On Lessons: Students using Horizons curriculum often find the hands-on lessons to be interesting and exciting. Much of the student material is filled with colorful illustrations that complement the activities to help students understand concepts.
I had a homeschooling family member who relied on Lifepac for all her curriculum. It made homeschooling simple! Save big on it at the co-op.
LIFEPAC is a Christian homeschool curriculum for grades K-12.
Designed by a team of accomplished educators with years of classroom experience, LIFEPAC is based on the principle of mastery learning. Students master content in each unit worktext before progressing to the next.
LIFEPAC is:
Bible-based: With Bible verses from the King James Version and biblical content that promotes a Christian worldview, LIFEPAC encourages critical thinking skills that promote and strengthen a student’s faith in Christ.
Flexible: Affordably priced, LIFEPAC lets students receive a Christian homeschool curriculum at a fraction of the price of regular textbooks and workbooks.
Economical: Affordably priced, LIFEPAC lets students receive a Christian homeschool curriculum at a fraction of the price of regular textbooks and workbooks.
Portable: Unlike heavy textbooks, LIFEPAC’s compact design is popular with busy homeschooling families on the go.
I have used and loved so many resources available through New Leaf Publishing. The group buy offers up to a 40% discount on them!
Master Books is the world’s largest publisher of creation-based material for all ages; including apologetics, homeschool resources, reference titles, and quality children’s literature. You may already be familiar with some of their wares like:
Over 550 Titles to Choose!Literature, Science, History, Apologetics, Parenting, Creation & MORE — Members choose from OVER 550 TITLES! If you like Creation-Based Science materials, have a desire to build your home’s Apologetics library, or you just love Christian literature; then this is the GroupBuy for you!
I enjoyed using this streaming service I accessed through the Homeschool Buyers Co-op several years ago and it’s improved immensely since then. Co-op buyers save 60%!
Bring Your Homeschool Lessons to Life! It’s easy to see why homeschoolers rave about Discovery Education Streaming Plus. It’s probably the most extensive and feature-rich educational video streaming service in the world.
It’s much like having the entire DVD selection of your local public library available to you from the convenience of your home, 24/7/365.
But it’s not just a collection of videos that you can watch from beginning to end. This library has been organized into useable video clips, organized and categorized, close-captioned, and supplemented with lesson plans, teaching guides, interactive simulations, images, audio resources, and other resources and materials that you can incorporate into virtually every aspect of your homeschool curriculum.
Discovery Education Streaming Plus features:
Thousands of full-length videos from scores of producers, segmented into tens of thousands of content-specific clips tied directly to state and national standards.
Supplemental resources such as Assignment Builder, Quiz Center, Writing Prompt Generator, lesson plans, and more
Fast and accurate search functionality and dynamic navigation menus
The ability to customize and personalize lessons to different subjects, grades, and learning styles
Comprehensive K-12 curriculum coverage in six core subject areas.
Thousands of images
Membership in the Discovery Educator Network (DEN)
Interactive self-paced training
Exclusive Discovery programming such as Frozen Planet, Human Planet, LIFE, Into the Universe, Mythbusters, and Curiosity
Video series from trusted content providers such as BBC Worldwide, CBS News, Channel 4, Discovery Studios, Scholastic, TV Ontario, and Westin Woods
Hundreds of games, skill builders, and body atlas interactives
Thousands of self-paced math tutorials spanning concepts from basic addition to calculus
Thousands of audio files including podcasts, classic literature audiobooks, children’s literature audiobooks from Scholastic, and numerous supplemental study aids for auditory learners
There are a number of problems homeschoolers have in using digital curriculum. I’ve had them myself! But now that I have the solutions, I’m excited about using digital curriculum again. I can’t wait to share the solutions I’ve discovered.
Before I share the solutions to the challenge of digital curriculum, I want to share the advantages of it.
#1 It’s less expensive.
Digital curriculum is generally less expensive than print and even if it isn’t, you don’t have to pay for shipping. Digital curriculum is really less expensive when you are able to make copies for more than one student. For example, two print mission manuals for Grammar Galaxy are $60 while one digital copy is just $25.
#2 It takes up less space.
Bookshelf space is at a premium in a homeschooling home. Digital curriculum is perfect for homeschooling in small spaces or just because you cannot buy one more bookshelf.
#3 It’s easier to use with multiple students at once.
Digital curriculum is perfect for morning/family/circle time because you can display the text on a large screen for all to see and read. It’s also ideal for homeschool co-ops, even if the co-op is just you and another family. You do want to make sure you are complying with the publishers’ rules for use before using curriculum with a co-op, however.
#4 It may include multimedia for many learning styles.
Some digital curriculum includes audio or video which is perfect for auditory or visual learners. Multimedia can help expand your students’ attention span and increase motivation.
#5 Digital curricula may permit your student to use digital tools and create digital projects.
I interviewed Beth Napoli about cool webtools for students. You’ll want to listen to that episode if you haven’t already. Beth’s online unit studies direct students to create digital projects — in the process, teaching them valuable skills. Other curricula allows students to type on pages rather than hand write on them — something my boys have always appreciated.
Problems with Digital Curriculum
These advantages of digital curricula sound great, don’t they? But there are problems in using digital curriculum, too.
#1 Digital curricula can be expensive to print.
This is especially true if you are printing color pages or have to use a printing service. You may need to purchase binders or a hole punch to prepare your curricula for use.
#2 Digital curricula can be time-consuming to print.
The more pages to print and hole punch or bind, the more time it will take you to prepare the lessons. If you do not have a two-sided printer, it can be challenging to get your printer to print all of the pages in order. Paper jams inevitably occur. Finding time to go to the print shop can be a problem. I’ve even been hassled by a print shop about the copyright of a curriculum that clearly gave me permission to make copies for my family.
#3 Digital curricula can be difficult to organize.
You think you bought a digital math curriculum, but now you can’t find it. Maybe it was on the computer that died. What website did you buy it from? Can you download it again? What was it even called so you can search for it on your computer or in your email? Maybe you give up on finding it and buy something else. Can you tell that I’ve had these issues?
Solutions for Using Digital Curriculum
Thankfully, there are solutions to these challenges.
Print curriculum using the right tools.
First, if your curriculum needs to be printed, purchase a laser printer that prints on both sides of the page. These printers like the black-and-white and the color laser printers I have from Brother are extremely economical to use even though they require an initial investment. The toner has to be replaced very infrequently. I buy off-brand toner that saves me even more money. Click the images below for pricing.
A laser printer will also save you time by printing faster and eliminating the need to go to the print shop. Purchase a 3-hole punch that goes through a stack of pages. If you’re printing digital curriculum, the time-savings are worth the negligible cost.
Don’t print curriculum.
You can also save time and money by not printing your curriculum. It doesn’t make sense to print curricula that includes lots of web links or that allows your student to type in fillable forms. Instead, consider opening your PDF curriculum on a laptop that is connected to your TV so everyone can see at once. You can also use a device like Apple TV to wirelessly display the curriculum on a large screen. If curriculum is to be read by an individual student, open it with or send it to your tablet. Here are instructions for opening a PDFs on a tablet.
What if your curriculum includes pages that require hand-written work? Open the curriculum on a tablet using the free Adobe Reader app. Your student can type or write with a finger or stylus anywhere on the page. No printing required.
You can use a combination of these approaches as well. If you want your student to read the text on a tablet but do the written work by hand, only print those pages that you think are critical. Remember that a lot of written work can be done orally as well. With Grammar Galaxy as an example, you could put the Mission Manual pages on the big screen and ask your kids the On Guard questions without having them use a highlighter. Or better yet, for squirmy learners, ask them to touch the correct answer on the screen.
How to Keep Your Digital Curriculum Organized
You may be thinking that this sounds great, but how do you find the curriculum you purchase and how can you keep track of it from now on?
Find the curriculum you already own.
My recommendation for storing these files permanently is to store them in the cloud using Dropbox or Google Drive. Then if your computer crashes, you’ll still have access to your digital curriculum. Create a folder for Dropbox or Google Drive labeled curriculum and add it to your favorite folders. (Click here for how to use Dropbox and here for how to use Google Drive). Next, open all the files on your computer and sort them by kind of file. You want to look at Adobe Acrobat files. Fortunately, those will already be near the top because they start with A. Look at each PDF file’s title. If you know it’s curriculum, drag it to your newly created Curriculum folder. If you don’t know what something is, hover over the title to reveal it in its entirety. If you still don’t know what something is, double click it to check. If you find a file you’re sure you no longer need, put it in your computer’s trash. My youngest will be a 6th grader, so when I did this and found first grade curriculum, into the trash it went.
If you have many files that go with the same curriculum, create a new folder for that curriculum within the Curriculum folder. Use the command key to click and highlight all these files. Drag them all to the specific folder.
Finding access to courses you’ve purchased is more challenging. Do a search of your email for the course name if you remember it. Search for the words course and receipt. Check your payment records. If you used PayPal, you can search for the company name or look through your activity.
Create a database of your curriculum.
The next step is to create a database listing all your curriculum. I would not put regular ebooks in this table, but would reserve it for other homeschooling materials. The easiest database for me to use is Airtable. I think you will love it. Set up an account. Once you have an account, you can make a copy of the database I’ve already created for you. Once you have copied the database, you can add your curriculum to it with its name, subject, grade level, format, password, and notes. I’ve already set up these options for you, so you can select them quickly. You have the option of attaching PDF curriculum directly to the database or of pasting the dropbox or Google drive URL where you have it saved. I recommend using the URL because the free version of Airtable only includes 2 GB of attachment space per database.
If that sounds like gobbledy gook, don’t worry. I’ll show you step by step what to do in this video.
If you’re still with me, here is what your Airtable database will allow you to do. You will now be able to see exactly what you already have for each subject and each grade level. And ta da, you’ll actually know where to find it! You’ll also be able to keep track of the new digital curriculum you purchase.
I have been going through this process myself and I can’t believe the valuable curriculum I haven’t used because I couldn’t find it. It was out of sight, out of mind. Now that I’ve found it, I’m so excited about using digital curriculum next year.
Digital curriculum can save you time, money, and your sanity when you use these approaches.
If you’ve been too busy to think about changes you need to make in your homeschool, now is the time. I have some ideas for changes we can all make now, regardless of our homeschool approach.
The first change you should make to your homeschool now is to make your homeschooling fast. I wrote a very popular post called How to Homeschool in an Hour a Day. At this point in my homeschooling, an hour of direct teaching is all that I need to do on most days. This does not include individual tutoring, editing papers, or the courses I teach in our co-op. One of the reasons we homeschool is so that our children do not have to sit at a desk for seven hours a day. Research is conclusive that our attention is not sustainable for long periods. The shorter the lesson, the better. Short, frequent lessons are more effective in helping our children learn anyway. Short lessons are especially helpful for your children who have attention challenges. It’s even helpful for distractible moms!
We do morning family time as a way of saving time. We can complete many subjects in short order. I reserve Fridays for teaching things that I never have time to teach. We watch Bible or history videos, study art, or read about contemporary issues. The afternoons are reserved for independent work. My kids actually prefer their independent work time. They read and prep for their co-op classes, do math, Bible, piano, extra reading and writing, and exercise. They love structuring their own time.
The most common cause of homeschool mom burnout is trying to do too much. If you’re stressed and overwhelmed, reevaluate what you’re doing. God doesn’t ask us to do more than we can handle. Sometimes the stress is circumstantial. There is an ill family member, a job loss, or a move, to name a few of those circumstances. But more often than not, the stress comes from driving kids to two co-ops, six sports practices, and trying to complete two math curricula. It can also come from directly teaching individual students when that isn’t necessary. If you have a preschooler or emerging reader, more of your time is required. However, the younger the student, the less formal teaching you should be doing. When your student can read well, he can be asked to work independently. He can ask older siblings for help. He can wait for you to finish what you’re doing and go on to another question or subject.
Make Your Homeschooling Easy
The next change I recommend you make now is to make lessons easy. Planning lessons that are too easy for gifted children is something to avoid. Very easy lessons that are far beneath a gifted child’s ability level are demotivating for them. But in most cases, even for gifted children, lessons that can be completed without struggle are more motivating. Consider your own response to a difficult, time-consuming task. The harder it seems, the less you want to do it–the more likely you are to put it off. Many children who are resistant to reading are resistant because the reading material they’ve been given is too difficult for them. We want our children’s lessons to be easy and quick to complete so that motivation stays high.
Making it easy can mean skipping repetitive, unnecessary work. Curriculum authors want you as the teacher to have enough work to meet your needs. They aren’t implying that your child must complete every exercise, every page, or every book they suggest. I used a curriculum that would have exhausted me in college, let alone junior high. I cherry picked from the material to make sure my students wouldn’t hate it and me. A particular issue I’ve noticed with some homeschool curriculum is the expectation that students write a paper every week. That isn’t a requirement even at the college level, so I don’t expect it of much younger students. If you’re confused about what’s reasonable to expect, ask a traditional student the same age as your child how much they have to do. Expecting a little more than what public schools do is understandable, except you also want your child to have more time than public school students do.
If your child is struggling with grade-level material, give them material that’s a step down. We often don’t want to do that because we are afraid our child will be behind. The opposite is actually the case. If your child resists the work, she is more likely to get and stay behind. Give her work that makes her think she is a competent student. She will be motivated to get back to grade level on her own. If you can, find ungraded materials. Do some research on an easy curriculum for the subject your child is struggling with. Ignore the teachers who scare you by saying it’s too easy. There’s no such thing as too easy if it helps your child understand a subject. For example, don’t worry about college when your child hasn’t mastered algebra. Just focus on making algebra easy.
If you can’t find a curriculum that does the trick, find a teacher who can make concepts simple to understand. Reaching a struggling student can be like translating a foreign language. Someone else may have the words or the illustrations that will click with your child. Getting help isn’t failing. Not getting help when it could benefit your child is failing them.
When you make a subject easy for your child, you make it possible for him to love it. We all hate things that are hard, that we don’t understand. When the light comes on, we discover the joy of learning the material.
Make Your Homeschooling Fun
Finally, change your homeschool now by making it fun. Not everything we have to do in life is fun. I will never enjoy cleaning toilets. Some children will never enjoy certain homeschool subjects. But we can do our best to make things more enjoyable. We can pair less enjoyable activities with something pleasant like music, for example. We love to do chores with upbeat music playing. Some children find that working together with you as teacher or with other students makes material fun. My son resisted his art curriculum until I suggested we do art together. This is also why we are so committed to our homeschool co-op. My children love science, unit studies, and high school classes because they are doing them with other students and sometimes with another teacher.
You can make school fun by incorporating games. The advantage of digital curriculum is that it often gamifies learning, taking advantage of a proven motivator. Online educational curriculum or just games can supplement your primary curriculum and may end up being the most educational. I have written a post on the best online sites for grammar. Games don’t have to be on the computer, however. Talented teachers have created a number of card, board, and group games to teach just about everything. My post of the ultimate list of grammar games was my #1 post in 2016. I refer to it all the time myself.
In addition to using games, make your homeschool fun by incorporating variety. Anything that’s done repeatedly can become dry. As important as homeschool routine is, it’s also important to change things up in your homeschool. If you’re a textbook family, consider taking a break to do a unit study. If you are a unit study family, consider doing some traditional curriculum for a while. One year our co-op decided to only do field trips. We had focused on subject-intensive courses for quite some time and we needed a break. Surprise your students with a new plan, a new twist, or even just a new recipe. It will keep their minds fresh and help to eliminate oppositional attitudes.
I do not want to suggest that if your children don’t enjoy doing schoolwork that they should not have to do it. Having fun is not a requirement. But it is a worthy goal.
I created Grammar Galaxy to make language arts fast, easy, and fun. I had to share what mom Elizabeth recently told me. She mentioned that their schooling had been a little off schedule because of a move. She wrote:
We got back on track yesterday and started Mission 8. Let me tell you, it’s been fun, but my son lost his mind on this lesson! I have NEVER seen him laugh so hard during any lesson, for any subject since we started homeschooling. When the queen told Ellen, “I hate you” with tears in her eyes, he fell off his chair. He actually begged me to read the story to him again! I laughed equally hard at your instructions to try mixing up synonyms and antonyms at dinner (But [to] let your parents know what you are doing). Our 5 year old was so offended when he told me dinner was just terrible! You really did it. You truly made grammar fun. I didn’t think it was possible but you obviously deserve some kind of medal! THANK YOU!
If you have a 1st to 3rd grader, a beginning reader, or a reluctant reader, I highly commend it to you.
Which of these homeschool changes are you going to make this week? Let’s talk about it on Facebook.
I’ve spent the last four days in this series of 5 Easy and Surprising Ways of Raising Writers sharing reasons why your child may not want to write. Now I want to share with you what I consider the secret sauce for motivating young writers.
I’ve taught my own children to write, some of whom come by their writing skills naturally. But I’ve also taught dyslexic students, students with other learning challenges, and students who hated the very idea of writing. As a psychologist (and not just a writing teacher) I’ve observed something interesting.
Most children who don’t want to write think they aren’t good at it.
The Problem With Reluctant Writers
It’s as though they believe writers are born, not made. Where would they get that idea? I think some of it comes from our failure to communicate that making changes to written work is not the same as marking a math answer or a test question incorrect. Red lines equal wrong. And no matter how hard they try, they can’t avoid those dreaded red lines.
Even if you don’t think your child believes that edited work means they aren’t good writers, you may have a child who could benefit from the secret sauce.
Many moms (as I mentioned in the post on what you’re not doing that may be keeping your child from writing) don’t think they can write well. As a result, they’re reluctant to praise their children’s writing. They’ve told me, “I don’t know if it’s good or not.” My friends have asked me to grade their children’s papers. If, as a result of mom’s writing insecurity, a child is getting no praise and only editing marks, it’s no wonder a child would believe she isn’t good at writing. No one wants to devote a lot of time to doing something they’re not good at.
How to Use the Secret Sauce to Overcome Your Child’s Writing Insecurity
Now that we know the problem, it’s time for me to share the ingredients for the secret sauce that will help your child overcome the belief that they aren’t good at writing.
First, explain editing to your child. Every writer, even the most successful, has an editor. Why? Because writers make mistakes. Being a good writer does not mean that they will not have their work edited. Sometimes the person doing the editing is making a mistake. Editors are human, too! But editing allows us to become better writers.
Second, praise your child’s writing. Even if you aren’t really familiar with writing mechanics like spelling, punctuation, and grammar, you can find something to praise about your child’s writing. It does not have to be perfect to warrant encouragement. Writing is a very vulnerable expression, very unlike math problems and tests your child completes. Our children share their opinions, their emotions, and their personality when they write. There is always something praiseworthy in their efforts.
You will not do a child a disservice by acknowledging positives in writing. Even more beneficial to your child’s confidence is expressing surprise. I often appear blown away by something a child writes and I am not acting. I did not know the young writer was capable of such deep thought, such hilarious description, or explaining something complex in such an understandable way. I have had many children, including my own, giggle nervously as I tell them that I see the gift in them. The gift doesn’t have to be for writing, but for observation, for compassion, for wisdom. Once you acknowledge the gift, you can explain that the areas where they struggle can easily be mastered with practice. But the gift? That can’t be taught. That’s theirs forever.
It has been one of my greatest joys in homeschooling to see a child begin to believe that he does, in fact, have something worth sharing with the world.
Third, document progress. As moms, it’s easy to get frustrated with a child who did not capitalize the first letter of a sentence or left off an end mark for the umpteenth time. But if we focus on what isn’t right, our children become convinced that they aren’t getting it. If they aren’t getting it, they won’t want to write any more. Be even more vigilant about finding evidence of progress than you are of mistakes. A scoring rubric for your child’s papers can be very helpful in this regard. I don’t think they’re necessary for young writers, who should be learning to write for the joy of it. But older students will appreciate a list of things to look for in their papers before handing them in. If your curriculum doesn’t include one, you may like this one for elementary students or this editing game.
If you don’t feel comfortable grading your children’s papers, you can ask a writing friend to help. Even if you enroll your child in an outside course, make sure you continue to express your approval and enjoyment of your child’s writing.
When I applied these three ingredients to reluctant writers I taught, I ended up being amazed by what they coud do. When a student believes he is capable of becoming a competent writer, little miracles happen. It all begins with the secret sauce.
If you have a beginning reader or writer, check out Grammar Galaxy. It’s a fast, fun, and easy way for kids to learn.
I’m a Christian psychologist turned homeschooling mother of six. My life can be a little crazy, so I look for sanity-saving ideas to use and share. I hope you’ll read my About page to learn more.
