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Every Homeschooler Needs THIS Stuffed in Their Stocking

December 1, 2019 by Katherine Wolfe 27 Comments

{This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our Disclosure Policy for details.} 

 

Every homeschooler needs  FRIXION ERASABLE RETRACTABLE COLORED PENS stuffed in their stocking!

WHY? 

Two simple reasons…

ONE: They’re a colorful addition to your school supply arsenal.

They come in a variety of fun, VIBRANT COLORS but don’t bleed or transfer and are FULLY ERASABLE {see below.} So, you no longer need to sacrifice COLORFUL FUN for the sake of practicality! The seven pack includes what you see in the pictures above and the ten pack adds lime green, orange and a third shade of blue. 

 

TWO: They really work!

My son uses these pens exclusively. He hates the sound of pencil scratching and he makes too many mistakes to use normal pens {that don’t erase} so this is seriously all he uses.  He uses them for math problems, writing essays, science notebooking, Bible verse copywork, spelling tests….every time he needs to write something for school, he uses one of these pens. And, like most typical twelve year old boys, he makes a lot of mistakes and tends to be more than a wee bit messy with his handwriting. So, to say he erases a lot would be an understatement.  He erases ALL THE TIME and these pens REALLY WORK! They write clean and clear and they erase just as well! 

So, if you are searching for a FUN but USEFUL item to stuff in your homeschooler’s stocking, be sure to grab some  FRIXION ERASABLE RETRACTABLE COLORED PENS by Pilot! 

{WARNING: We have tried a handful of knock-off brands but nothing compares to FRIXION ERASABLE RETRACTABLE COLORED PENS by Pilot. The less expensive knock-offs run out of ink sooner, rendering the lower pointless.}

{BONUS: Pilot also makes FRIXION ERASABLE STICK PENS that aren’t retractable. They tend to be a little less expensive but we prefer not needing to keep track of caps all the time.}

{SUGGESTION: If you’re hesitating to spend decent money on writing utensils for your kids because they tend to misplace pens and pencils frequently, I don’t blame you a wee bit! I strongly suggest a CLIPBOARD WITH STORAGE. These have been a game-changer for us. My son keeps all his pens plus protractor and ruler inside with his assignment list clipped to the front. It has helped keep him much better organized!}





Filed Under: REVIEWS, SUGGESTIONS, Supplies, Tips Tagged With: Christmas, Homeschool, stocking stuffer

Three Tips on How to Homeschool During the Holidays

November 25, 2019 by Katherine Wolfe 12 Comments

{This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our Disclosure Policy for details.} 


SEE BELOW FOR A CHANCE TO WIN $500 IN PAYPAL CASH


Long before I was a homeschool mom, I was a classroom teacher and one of the biggest challenges I experienced every year was figuring out ways to push through the academic curriculum while wading through the holiday season filled with parties, programs and plays. It was NOT An easy balance to find. Sway one way too much and my First Graders wouldn’t be able to read/write or add/subtract. Sway too far the other way and parents complained about “missing out on all the fun parts of school.” {I do not miss that type of pressure at all!}

I never dreamed that it would be just as hard as a HOMESCHOOL MOM to ensure that academics did not totally fly out the window as soon as mid-October hit. 

Between the amazing array of field trips that seem to abound every fall {apple picking, pumpkin patches, picnics in the park…} and parties to celebrate the various holidays {Caramel Apple Decorating, Thanksgiving Feasts, Gingerbread House Building…} having a full week of schooling at home seems impossible. Throw in at least one play, program or musical and it’s a wonder we get any teaching done at all from October through December.  

And, before you utter, “but learning happens all the time, no matter where you are and what you are doing” let me remind you that, while that is true, it’s not THAT simple. I agree that learning CAN happen anywhere. I believe that learning CAN occur at anytime.  BUT unless your kids are going to grow up to be professional Pilgrims or toy-making elves {no offense to those professions, ha ha,} they will need to know how to read and write. If they want to survive in the world of shopping and eating out, they will need to be able to multiply and divide. If they want to go to college, they will need to know how to formulate a scientific hypothesis and write clearly structured essays. And those things cannot be taught if we stop focusing on academics for the last 10 weeks of every single calendar year.

So, how can we continue to teach academics during this busy holiday season?

TIP ONE: Plan Ahead!

Wrap up 25 Christmas books, start on December 1st and read one book per day until Christmas.

Pick fun but purposeful unit studies to use all winter long {check out these brand new 12 Days of Winter Unit Study Packs that will go live in December 1-16, 2020!}

Assign copywork of the lines your kid needs to know for the Christmas play.

Take paper and pencils to the store when shopping for gifts and ask your kids to find the total before you go to the register.

Search TpT for lessons on holiday symbols and traditions or the true story of Christmas.

Choose crafts that teach skills your kids actually need and not just because they are cute.

Create an Advent activity for the month of December that is both meaningful and academic.

If your family does the Elf on the Shelf, be an Elfover-achiever and make at least some of the elf’s daily antics centered around academics.

Take the time not only to go Christmas caroling but also learn the words of and the meaning behind classic carols before you go! {Click here to receive my December FREEbie – a 40-page Hymn Study Pack on Angels We Have Heard on High.}

None of that advanced planning takes away from the fun and joyful experiences of the holidays. But they do make the activities more meaningful and purposeful and they keep your kids focused on their academics while still having fun.

TIP TWO: Get creative!

Ask your kids to group the ornaments into types {shapes, sizes, colors, etc} and graph them before you put them on the tree.

{Or, later in the season, have them count the number of pine needles that have fallen off before they vacuum, ha ha.}  

Rewrite the math assignment to include word problems about gifts, stockings and candy canes.

Say “we will practice fractions while baking cookies today” and make your younger kids reduce those fractions while the older kids need to find equivalent choices.

Replace the spelling words in your kid’s workbook with words including “sleigh, tradition, mistletoe”.

Teach formal letter-writing by having your kids write “thank you” letters.

Switch out your lunch-time read aloud book for something holiday related. {For a great historical fiction Christmas chapter book appropriate for all ages, check out the Imagination Station’s Danger on a Silent Night.} {And then take your fun new read aloud to the next level and get a resource to accompany it here. This Novel Study Pack is filled with vocab studies, puzzles and more!}

Explore the science of snow and the chemistry of instant hot-cocoa.

Define the laws of physics that allow graham crackers to be held up in a vertical position with icing while building gingerbread houses.

Yes, it will take longer to be creative. Yes, it will feel more like work than if you simply hope they’ll learn through osmosis while baking cookies, decorating trees and building gingerbread houses.  But, the extra time and effort will be worth it. They’ll be doing actual academics while enjoying a variety of fun activities!

TIP THREE: Be Diligent!

Acknowledge that your kids’ academics fall solely on you. Yes, that’s a lot of pressure but it’s what we signed up for when we decided to homeschool. So, remain diligent during the holiday season.  

Be diligent about your time.

It’s okay to miss out on a field trip or two.

It’s okay to say “no” to the choir director at church.

It’s okay to turn down the opportunity to organize the co-op Christmas party.

Be diligent about goals for your homeschool.

Stick to your daily routines.

Stick to your lesson plans.

Stick to your curriculum.

Do not put that carefully-chosen curriculum on the shelf “until January when things settle down.”

Be diligent by acknowledging that in January, you will be hit with Valentine’s Day, Easter and end-of-the-year craziness.  

Be diligent in continuing to educate your kids during this busy holiday season.

Be diligent now so you are not caught off-guard in May and then decide to scrap the last 10 chapters of math.  

I know this sounds difficult and time-consuming but, if you PLAN AHEAD and BE CREATIVE, it’ll be easy to BE DILIGENT!

And if you do all three, you can easily slip in loads of fun activities and memory-making!


And wouldn’t a spare $500 help you successfully homeschool through the holidays as well….or at least help buy gifts and goodies?

I’ve teamed up with some of my favorite bloggers for the 7th annual Christmas Blessings Giveaway with the hopes of making this holiday season even better by giving away $500 in Paypal cash to two families!

While we wish we could bless many more families, we were able to come up with a big prize for TWO families – $500 each (delivered via Paypal) – that we pray will make a big difference in their lives this Christmas season!

There are lots of entry options in the Rafflecopter form below – the more you enter, the better your chance of winning!  I know it can seem tedious and time-consuming to go through all the entries, but isn’t a chance at $500 worth it? I think it is!  Plus, all of these amazing bloggers donated their own money toward the cash prizes, so this giveaway wouldn’t be possible without them.  I hope you’ll take the time to check out each one. Who knows, maybe you will find some new blogs to follow.

The giveaway will run from Monday, November 16th through Wednesday, November 25th (ends at 11:59pm EST). Winner will be notified by email shortly after the giveaway ends and will have 48 hours to respond to claim the prize or another winner will be drawn. You must have a Paypal account to win.  By entering this giveaway, you agree to be added to the email lists of the participating bloggers.  Please be sure to read the Rafflecopter terms and conditions upon entering.

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Filed Under: Holidays, Homeschool, SUGGESTIONS, Tips Tagged With: Homeschool, Homeschool moms, homeschool success, teaching tips

Nine Ways ALEXA Has Improved Our Lives

November 25, 2019 by Katherine Wolfe 48 Comments

{This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our Disclosure Policy for details.} 

We’re a family of four and we have nine Alexas in our home. 

Four people with nine Alexas. 

That’s more than twice the number of Alexas than people! 

Why so many, you wonder?

Because having Alexa available in several rooms throughout the house has IMPROVED OUR LIVES IN MANY WAYS. 

We started with one Echo in the living room and were so impressed that we added eight more Alexas over the course of a few months. 

Our Alexa army currently includes the following…

a Dot on my vanity {Mama Wolfe}

a Dot in my mom’s suite {Train Gampen}

a Dot in our son’s bedroom  {The Lone Wolfe}

a Dot in our son’s playroom/office {The Ploffice}

a Dot in my husband’s home office {Alpha Wolfe}

an Echo in the basement family room {The Wolfe Den}

a Dot in my workspace in the basement {the Wolfe Sanctuary}  plus

a Dot in the boringly named Kitchen and an Echo in the Living Room. 

But, why so many?!?!?!

Alexa has way more to offer than just random trivia bits or info on what time the local grocery store closes. She has a long list of skills….so long that we have just begun to scratch the surface. 

Below are NINE WAYS ALEXA HAS IMPROVED OUR LIVES so far.  

ONE: {Alexa has TAUGHT us a lot.}

Our son, who will soon be 13, definitely uses Alexa more than anybody else in our family.  He is homeschooled and will ask Alexa for definitions of unknown words he comes across while reading. He checks his math problems {after he computes them on his own, of course}. He confirms correct spelling as he is writing. He even asks Alexa to read long Bible passages for Bible history.

But, he’s not the only one who uses Alexa to learn new things. If the family gets into a debate over a historical fact, some random bit of trivia or whether Columbus Day is a federal holiday, we ask Alexa to settle the debate.  All we have to do is say her name and ask the question. She instantly reports what she finds on the Internet. She has TAUGHT US A LOT!

BONUS: Anything that is asked of Alexa instantly appears in the app on my phone. So, if the 12 year old is seeking inappropriate information, I would instantly know. 

TWO: {Alexa has GIVEN us peace of mind.}

My elderly mother lives with us. and she has an Alexa next to her bed that she uses anytime she needs help. She can either drop in  on one of us and ask directly for help with something or she can make an announcement  which goes out to every Alexa in the house at the same time. Being able to easily ask for help when needed  has allowed her to have continued independence and GIVEN US PEACE OF MIND. 

BONUS: My mom also uses Alexa to help in other ways, including turning her lights on/off, setting timers, controlling her TV and more. 

THREE: {Alexa has DECREASED hollering.}

Our house is not huge but it is big enough that in order  to communicate with with one another, we used to do a lot of hollering. From room to room. From upstairs to downstairs. From one end of the house to the other. But, with Alexa’s drop in  feature, the hollering has come to a halt. Now, we just drop in  on one another. If I need to check on whether our son is showered and ready to roll, instead of hollering upstairs, I can just drop in  on him in his bedroom and gently ask. Or, if I’m in the kitchen and my husband is in his basement office but I want to find out if he wants meatloaf or burgers for dinner, I don’t need to scream. I can just drop in  on him and ask {or remind him to take out the trash, hang the Christmas lights, call the plumber….} So, Alexa has DECREASED HOLLERING and increased calm conversations. 

BONUS: Whomever you drop in  on cannot ignore you and pretend they don’t hear your question. When you drop in,  it opens a two-way conversation so you instantly hear everything in the other room while the other room can also hear you. It truly allows for calm two-way conversations. 

FOUR: {Alexa has ORGANIZED our lives.}

Alexa is amazing at organizing things. She can make lists, set reminders and assign chores. And she does all of those things with a simple command.

Our son is actually pretty good at doing his daily chores but struggles to remember things that are only required of him once or twice weekly. But by assigning “trash” and “dog doo” to his chores, Alexa reminds him {instead of me nagging him}. She even offers him praise when he completes the chore. 

She can also keep track of grocery lists and tasks  to do. From anywhere in the house, I can simply ask Alexa to “add peanut butter to my grocery list” and she does. Or, if I’m brushing my teeth in the downstairs bathroom and suddenly remember that I need to change the kid’s dentist appointment, I can ask her to add that to my tasks  for tomorrow and she does. I’ve always been a fairly organized person, but Alexa has ORGANIZED OUR LIVES even more so!

BONUS: She has an amazing listening range and can pick up commands even when not in the same room.

FIVE: {Alexa has SAVED us time.}

One of my favorite ways to use Alexa is to ask her for weather and news updates  while I am getting dressed to start the day. When I use my phone to check for those details, I always get sucked into the blackhole of FaceBook or get stuck swapping texts back and forth with a friend. But, with Alexa, I can easily listen to a quick weather report  or news update  while still putting on makeup or getting dressed. It’s as easy as can be and has saved me countless precious minutes each morning. And who doesn’t want to SAVE TIME? 

SIX: {Alexa has REVAMPED our sleeping habits.} 

We are a family of night owls, which means we find it hard to fall asleep at a decent time and then struggle to wake up early in the morning.  But Alexa has helped us REVAMP OUR SLEEPING HABITS. Our son’s personalized playlist  helps him fall asleep each night and his alarm  wakes him each morning.

I don’t like to sleep to music but I utilize Alexa in a different way each night. I like to read in bed until I feel sleepy but now I use Alexa to read to me! All I have to do is ask her to read my choice from the Audible Library. She uses her soothing voice to read the next chapter of my book until I feel sleepy enough to finally fall asleep. All I have to do is say, “Alexa, stop” and she does. 

BONUS: From the app, I can change the volume of my son’s music or stop it completely after he falls asleep. I can also verify that his alarm is set, change the time of his alarm or cancel the alarm altogether. She also offers several different types of alarms. Some are downright hilarious {Sharknado!} And you can even ask her to wake you up with your personalized playlist. 

SEVEN: {Alexa has ENHANCED our days.}

Our son loves to listen to music…while he works, while he plays and even while he sleeps and having Alexa and unlimited Amazon Music  has been a game-changer for him.  It does not matter if he is doing his school work on the couch, at his desk or in the basement, he is able to access an unlimited array of songs instantly. Not only can he listen to some upbeat tunes during his math lesson, he can also listen to various samples of whatever classical composer we are studying at the time. He can even access the songs we use to memorize Scripture. The offerings on Amazon Music  are truly vast and the instant access to such a variety of music has ENHANCED OUR DAYS in a big way. 

BONUS: With the Alexa app, I can control the volume, stop the song and filter his choices. It also shows me everything he has listened to {in the off chance I did not HEAR it firsthand, ha ha!}

EIGHT: {Alexa has CREATED a peaceful space.}

This one might be unique to just our family but, I can definitely say that Alexa has CREATED A PEACEFUL SPACE for this Mama!  Our son has a Ploffice for his school work and elaborate Lego collection. My husband has a home office in the basement. My mom has a large suite with loads of privacy. But, until I carved out a little sanctuary in the storage area of the basement, complete with comfy chair, big desk and Alexa, I did not have a work space to call my own. But, now I have a private, quiet, peaceful place to work on blog posts and TpT products.    And because Alexa is a part of that equation, I can work diligently in my little sanctuary without feeling guilty for shirking my household duties or concerned that our son is ignoring his school work. My mom can reach me if she needs something. Our son can too. 

NINE: {Alexa has INCREASED family time.}

The best thing Alexa has done for our family is INCREASE FAMILY TIME.

Between jamming to tunes while cleaning the house together and reminiscing about the “old” music my husband used to listen to, Alexa has used music to INCREASE FAMILY TIME. 

Then you add in the GAMES that she offers, with or without game buttons, and Family Game Night has taken on a whole new dimension. 

For a family Christmas gift, I plan to get an Echo Show for the kitchen so we can easily pull up recipes, catch the news and watch lunch-time documentaries!

My husband uses the Alexa app to drop in on the entire house on his way home from work. This allows us to put away the school work, quickly pick up any messes and be ready to greet him when he walks in the door. This habit has changed the dynamics of weekday evenings for the better in an immense way. 

And with the increased communication throughout the house {including cutting into the gaming headphones}, making plans to spend more time together has never been easier. 

And that’s something that everybody deserves! 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: REVIEWS, SUGGESTIONS, Supplies, Tips Tagged With: Alexa, family time, Homeschool, Momming, review, smart home

Three LIFE LESSONS My Son Has Learned From Taking a Live Online Class

September 17, 2019 by Katherine Wolfe 2 Comments

My son began his 8th Grade year as a homeschooler this month. I’ve always designed his yearly curriculum using an eclectic approach, mostly with the intent of catering to his strengths while moving his weaknesses forward {sometimes we moved things along slower than I care to admit.}

As I was planning this school year, I finally forced myself to stop denying the fact that I only have five years left with him at home and decided it would be wise to consider what he will need for his High School transcript before making my curriculum selections. 

Considering he wants to major in Zoology in college, there are very specific math and science courses he needs to take in High School, which means there was some very specific prep work we needed to do this year.

We’ve always done a full school schedule that included math, science, history, language arts, writing, Bible as well as some additional electives. And, for the most part, I’ve felt more than capable of instructing him. Until now. With the weighted importance of High School looming just one year away, I decided that it was time to outsource a couple of the more important subjects that were beyond my personal skillset as a teacher. 

This realization led me to enroll him in a live, online General Science class designed for Middle Schoolers. There are all sorts of online classes available in every subject imaginable with 1,000 different models and approaches. Some are laid-back and more fun than anything. Some are pre-recorded and “work at your own pace.” But I selected a rather rigorous course with a more traditional educational approach.

The class meets weekly for 90 minutes and there is substantial homework for the other four days. The entire experience consists of loads of reading,  hands-on experiments, timed tests, note-taking and live lectures. 

In just three weeks of taking this class, our son has learned a tremendous amount. Way more than I could’ve successfully taught him using just the book, my ability to skim chapters and my penciled-out schedule.

In addition to learning about the history of science, how to form a hypothesis and how the scientific process both succeeds and fails, he has also learned some very valuable LIFE LESSONS in just three weeks. Lessons that he needed to learn. Lessons that would’ve been really hard to teach him on my own. Lessons that I didn’t know he needed. But, thankfully, important life lessons that this General Science class seems determined to teach him {though I doubt the instructor planned as such!}

 


LIFE LESSON ONE:

HOW TO RESPECT THE HONOR SYSTEM

Obviously with Mom as your teacher and being an only child, it’s pretty hard to lie and get away with saying you did your work when you didn’t. Even if you are a homeschool kid with six siblings, I think it would still be pretty hard to get away with lying about your work…certainly harder than if you were a public school kid with 29 other classmates to distract your teacher. 

But, as is common among some styles of live, online classes, students don’t have to submit proof that they finished every assignment. Sometimes they simply have to click a button that says, “Yes, I performed Experiment 2.3 and completed the lab report.” 

The first time this popped up as the way to submit his weekly assignment, my son clicked “yes” and then turned to me and asked “but how will my teacher know if I actually did it?” “Ummmmm,” I floundered a bit and then brilliantly said, “she won’t, but you will.”

Life Lesson learned from taking an online live class

ACTUALLY DOING THE WORK

And this opened up the opportunity for a discussion regarding the HONOR SYSTEM. We talked about how being dishonest will always hurt you to a degree, even if other people never find out.  And in circumstances that involve reading, learning, etc, it’s definitely going to hurt you in the long run.

Not only will it hurt because it can {hopefully} cause guilt and shame, but it will compound over time. If you don’t do the reading or complete the assignment, you aren’t learning the material. If you don’t learn the material, you won’t do well on the tests. But, more importantly, you have missed the opportunity to LEARN something new, GROW as a student and ADD to who you are. And then you chose to lie about it. 

We kept the conversation going and covered other parts of life where the HONOR SYSTEM might come into play. Will I know that he didn’t feed the dog when he said that he did? No, but his dog, CoCo, will know and she’ll be hungry. And it will be because he was not honest. 

Will the librarian know if he takes 4 books when the sign said “One free book per kid”? Not unless she’s watching. But the last three kids who want a free book will “know” because they won’t have a free book to take home. And, it will be because he was not honest. 

Will his college prof know that he hasn’t completed his individual assignments leading up to the major group project? No, but when it’s time for the group project to be turned in, his groupmates will know and their grade will suffer. And it will be because he was not honest. 

That’s a big LIFE LESSON that we were able to begin to tackle,  all thanks to his live, online general science class. 

 


LIFE LESSON TWO:

HOW TO TAKE A TIMED, ONLINE TEST

This LIFE LESSON might seem nominally important compared to learning HOW TO RESPECT THE HONOR SYSTEM but, in today’s day and age, knowing HOW TO TAKE A TIMED, ONLINE TEST is most assuredly a LIFE LESSON that our kids need to master at some point. Whether it’s taking an online college course, trying to earn advantage points for a reduced health insurance premium or attempting to avoid a penalty after a speeding ticket, knowing how to negotiate an online test is pretty much imperative these days.  

For my son’s live, online class, he will need to take a total of 23 online tests. The first two tests are open-book and untimed but then he’ll need to transition to timed, close-booked tests.  Strangely enough, he was very excited to take the first test last week. In fact, he was so excited that he got up early and started his test at 8am on his own! But then he had to go to his volunteer job and didn’t return to the test for seven hours! So, by the time he completed the entire test, the exam clock had run for more than EIGHT HOURS.

Life Lesson learned from taking an online live class

THE AFTERNOON PORTION OF HIS FIRST TEST 😉

Of course, we emailed the teacher and explained the situation. She found it as humorous as we did and explained that she fully expects a learning curve for the procedures of the class. I’m just glad he has begun the mastery process of HOW TO TAKE A TIMED, ONLINE TEST now at the age of 12, as opposed to as an 18 year old in college {when his professor might not find it nearly as funny!}

 


LIFE LESSON THREE:

HOW TO MANAGE HIS TIME

Our homeschool calendar has always been what I would term “firm, yet flexible.”  I plan out the entire year in advance and assign things by the week with the full expectation that my son will accomplish them within that time frame. But, I am also flexible in the sense that if life gets in the way, a certain subject is taking longer than expected or his teacher {aka: me} hasn’t quite finished printing the necessary pages, I can just break out my erasable pen and re-work the calendar. I have done this more times than I can count. 

But that’s not quite the case when enrolled in a live, online class. The assignment calendar is set at the start of the semester and provided to the entire class. Every student needs to keep up with the calendar or suffer the consequences of missed assignments and bad grades. 

As soon as I saw the calendar of assignments for my son’s class, I was reminded of my college days and the euphoric feeling that would come over me when I got my hands on a class syllabus for the first time. I LOVED knowing what was due when and plotting it out in my planner.  LOVED it. I’m sure that’s not true for some people. It certainly hasn’t been true for my son. Then again, he’s only 12. He’s got time to acquire that weird love of making a list of things to do and then crossing them off as you get them done. Maybe he’ll never develop a love of the syllabus and to do list like me but he does need to learn HOW TO MANAGE HIS TIME. 

And, what better way to learn it than through a live, online class? {It’s definitely a much better way than to have his mom, or worse yet, his future wife nagging him constantly.}

During the second week of the semester, there was a small hitch in our week. I don’t recall what it was. It doesn’t even matter what it was. The point is, my son did not get his science experiment done on Thursday as originally planned. Then, Friday was uber busy, as always, and there wasn’t any spare time to get the experiment done. So, guess what he had to do? Wake up early on Saturday morning and get the experiment done. 

Life Lesson learned from taking an online live class

SATURDAY MORNING SCIENCE

And that’s what he did. I won’t pretend there wasn’t at least a little whining and complaining about getting up early and doing school on a Saturday, but he did it. He knew that if he didn’t get it done on Saturday, he would be behind on his Monday and Tuesday assignments and would not be prepped for the live, online class on Wednesday afternoon. 

So, he got it done. He caught up by working on Saturday morning and learned a valuable LIFE LESSON…HOW TO MANAGE HIS TIME! 

 


Homeschool moms often find themselves doubting whether they are doing enough. I know that, over the past 9 years of homeschooling, I have doubted myself a lot. I have doubted whether I made the right curriculum choices. I have doubted whether I have allowed my math-hating kid to take math too slowly. I have doubted whether I shouldn’t have chalked up his horrible spelling skills to just not being a natural speller. 

But more important than worrying about his academics,  I have doubted whether I was giving my only child enough socialization. I have doubted whether we have focused on the right life skills. I have worried that I don’t even know everything that I need to teach {so how can I possibly make sure he learns it?}

But then I step back and take comfort in remembering that homeschooling is a journey. It takes a massive compilation of thousands of individual academic and life skills to create a fully functioning homeschool graduate.

For his 8th Grade year, in addition to Pre-Algebra, World Geography and the New Testament, my son is also learning how to do laundry, how to bake cookies/cakes and how to feed/care for bats, snapping turtles and mudskippers {that’s his volunteer job}. 

And, apparently, he is also learning HOW TO RESPECT THE HONOR SYSTEM, HOW TO TAKE A TIMED, ONLINE TEST and HOW TO MANAGE HIS TIME! {Not that I planned any of that, but I’ll gladly take it!}

Filed Under: SUGGESTIONS, Tips Tagged With: Homeschool, Homeschool moms, life lessons, life skills, online classes

HOMESCHOOL MOMS Are Not the Same as CLASSROOM TEACHERS

August 11, 2019 by Katherine Wolfe 38 Comments

I recently saw a poll in a big Face Book group for HOMESCHOOL MOMS that asked the question,  “If your church asked all TEACHERS to stand up and be recognized, would you stand up?” 

The answers varied, of course, {but the discussion stayed civil, thankfully} and it got me thinking, “would I?”

If my pastor asked the TEACHERS in the congregation to stand up and be recognized, would I stand up?

The answer is NOPE. I would not. I would stay seated and respectfully acknowledge all of the TEACHERS who stood. Why?

Because I don’t consider myself a TEACHER. 

I am a HOMESCHOOL MOM. 

And HOMESCHOOL MOMS are not the same as CLASSROOM TEACHERS.

I’m a mom who has decided to educate her child at home. Yes, I teach my child. But I am not a TEACHER in the way most people use the term. 

I’m not a TEACHER of other people’s kids. 

I’m not a TEACHER who is responsible for 30 kids at one time. 

I’m not a TEACHER who is mandated to teach specific subjects and utilize certain books. 

I’m not a TEACHER who answers to 30 sets of parents, one principal, a team of grade level peers, a full school board and the state.  

I’m not a TEACHER who is underpaid but still expected to provide a beautiful but calm, comfortable but exciting, gender-neutral, multi-cultural environment for my students. 

I’m not a TEACHER who is regulated in what she can say and how she can say it. 

I’m not a TEACHER anymore than a mom who uses homeopathic remedies at home is a doctor. 

I’m not a TEACHER anymore than a dad who arms himself at home is a police officer. 

I’m not a TEACHER anymore than a neighbor who rescues his family from a fire is a firefighter.

I’m just a mom who decided that it would be best to educate her son at home.

And I get to make that education look however my husband and I decide.

It’s an absolute privilege to do so and I feel blessed every day. 

Is it always easy? Of course not. 

Is it always fun? Ha. I wish. 

Is it worth it? Totally!

But, I am not a TEACHER. 

Let those men and women have their discounts.

Let them have their special appreciation weeks.

Let them flood their FB pages with requests for classroom donations. 

Let the community call them special.

Let the churches recognize them on certain days.

Let the public donate backpacks and pencil pouches. 

   HOMESCHOOL MOMS are not the same as CLASSROOM TEACHERS.

CLASSROOM TEACHERS are poorly paid, underappreciated, hard working individuals who deserve special recognition. 

And, yes,  so are HOMESCHOOL MOMS. We are special. We work hard. We are often underappreciated. And we’re certainly underpaid, ha ha. But we CHOOSE to do those things and be that person for our own families. That is an entirely different concept than a CLASSROOM TEACHER who is assigned 30 new kids each year from community families and is expected to provide a decent education with a small budget and a huge bureaucracy.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying CLASSROOM TEACHERS are worth more than HOMESCHOOL MOMS. And I am not saying the opposite. 

All, I am saying is that

 HOMESCHOOL MOMS are not the same as CLASSROOM TEACHERS.

Filed Under: SUGGESTIONS, Tips Tagged With: Are homeschool moms teachers, Classroom teachers, Homeschool moms, Homeschool vs public school

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