Our role as mothers, and as parents, is one that can surprise us, and the worries that we end up having in supporting our baby’s development can be intense. Who would have thought we’d be so interested in the minute movements of our babies, from chest rising and falling as they sleep, to watching their tongue stick out in imitation of us, to the shape and colour of their poop! Although I talk a lot about infant development (it’s been my focus professionally for over 20 years), we don’t often talk about how our baby’s development is woven into the fabric of our own development as parents.
OFTEN OUR CURIOSITY AND DELIGHT (AND WORRY!) ABOUT OUR BABY'S DEVELOPMENT TAKES THE FRONT STAGE:
When will they roll?
When will they crawl?
When will they eat solids?
When will they say their first word?
When will they sleep through the night?
Underneath these questions, though, are more uncertain ones:
What can I do to make sure my baby grows and thrives?
If my baby has trouble (crawling, managing solids, sleeping) is it my fault?
What toys do I need so my baby can develop the way they should?
How do I get this "right" so I help my baby develop?
Why does so much of what I read conflict with each other?
How do I know what to do?
Somewhere under the questions, the curiosities, and the concerns, is a deeper truth:your parenting role matters more than what usually gets appreciated. And yet not always in the way you expect.
YOU ARE THEIR WORLD, AND YOU ARE ENOUGH
There is no such thing as perfect parenting, or the perfect environment. What there is, however, is the possibility of deep joy and curiosity about who your baby is, what amazing skills they will express next, and how to keep "caught up" with the incredible speed at which your baby is changing.
I see one of the most powerful roles we can play as mothers is simply to establish a loving, safe, and simple yet stimulating environment for our babies to develop skills at their own pace. By focusing on the relationship (and our secure attachment) with our babies we are in a better position to make decisions about what our babies need, and can take greater joy in watching their development emerge.
So, as your baby grows in the coming months and years, remember that you are growing too! Keep your eye on the biggest priority of all -- the one that keeps your baby's world secure and fascinating: your relationship with them. Which means that while you feel like parenting is all about your baby, it’s worthwhile flipping that idea over and reflect on parenting being all about you:
The world you create for your baby helps them feel safe and secure. And this supports babies in being confident and curious, calm and playful.
The simple yet nurturing relationship you are working towards having with your child will do far more to support their motor, cognitive, and emotional development than any toy will ever do.
What can you do to support your own development? Here are four ideas to reflect on:
1. Self-regulation: by focusing on your own feelings and needs, and your ability to regulate your reactions, you are able to process information better and make decisions that align more with your priorities as a parent.
2. Growth of your own priorities, traditions and values. The perspectives you had before becoming a parent might start feeling kind of outdated! And although there are traditions and values that hold deep value for you, there may be new parenting perspectives that you are developing that feel at odds with what you expected. Approach the shift in your role and your identity as a parent with flexibility and self-forgiveness. Change is hard, navigating new roles can include grieving the loss of old ones, but your personal growth as a mother can also feel powerful.
3. Holding space for big feelings (your own and your baby's!): After reflecting on your own big feelings, it is naturally easier to accept and hold space for your baby' feelings. Baby-hood can be frustrating! And a young mind cannot yet regulate these big feelings without support. By staying as calm and soft as possible, you are helping your baby manage their own big feelings through co-regulation.
4. Mental wellness and emotional well-being. Parenting can be anxiety-producing, and many mothers feel overwhelmed, anxious, and depressed. Finding ways to fill your own cup (self-care), feeling sustained emotionally and mentally (rest, connection, and community), and getting skilled support from a mental health professional are three ways to support your own emotional development as a parent.
Although your baby's development in the first 3 years is profound and incredible, so too is the development you are undergoing. Parenting is an extraordinary and significant journey filled with big ups and downs. And so, as you worry and delight in the transformation you see your baby undergoing, know that your transformation as a parent is just as extraordinary.
To explore infant and parent development further, see
Are you frustrated with homeschooling, wondering how to make the light bulb in your child’s mind turn on more often? Here’s a key that almost always makes a difference: CONNECTING with your child. It’s like a switch.
Connecting with your child enables better learning. You may have heard homeschoolers say “The relationship with your child is always more important than curriculum.” This post elaborates on this idea, giving you an explanation and practical tips that will help you improve your homeschool journey from the foundation of a solid relationship.
I have a love/hate relationship with homeschool curriculum.
I’m obsessed with looking at new curriculum.
Waiting for the delivery guy…
Opening the box…
That new curriculum smell…
I think I’ve purchased more homeschool curriculum than I can even use in the 18 years I’ll be homeschooling.
But that’s why I hate it. I keep purchasing all this curriculum then I never use half of it.
Over the past few years, looking at curriculum for my own kiddos and working with thousands of homeschooling families, I’ve learned the 5 important things that you need to consider before choosing a homeschool curriculum.
When you take the time to reflect on these 5 things, your homeschool curriculum choices start to narrow and choosing the best one for your family becomes super easy.
Your Goals
Before you even hit Google to begin your search, you need to define your goals. I recommend creating 3-4 goals per kid. If you reach those goals, you can always create more, but it’s better to just focus on a few at a time.
I usually create 1 for math, 1 for reading, and 1 for writing. Make them specific and attainable within the school year. I tend to make goals that move them forward one small step until they fully master the skill.
By creating smaller goals, you and your child will feel more successful.
Now that you know your goals, you can begin looking for a curriculum that will help you achieve those goals.
Your Ideal Homeschool Day
Before you can consider how to start homeschooling, it’s important to think about your ideal homeschool day. If you lived in a perfect world, what would your homeschool day look like? What would you do? What would you learn about?
Write it all down and don’t hold back.
It’s a good idea to have your ideal homeschool day in your mind when looking for your homeschool curriculum.
The chance of your ideal day happening may be slim, but if you’re using a curriculum that doesn’t even allow for your ideal day to happen then it never will.
It’s all about having the possibility of your ideal homeschool day.
Your Educational Philosophy
Let’s travel back in time with this one. Take time to reflect on your past educational experiences. What were your favorite subjects? What did you enjoy about your education? What didn’t you enjoy? What would you change about your educational experiences?
Use your answers to design your own educational philosophy for your homeschool.
An important thing to remember here…
You are not choosing a homeschool method. You’re taking your past educational experiences and creating your own unique educational philosophy. How do you want your educational experiences to go for your kiddos?
Your Child’s Learning Style
Most homeschool parents don’t use a child’s learning style correctly. They tend to use only their preferred learning style, but that can severely limit your child’s educational experiences.
All kids learn best through hands-on experiences, no matter what their learning style may be.
A learning style should be used to introduce new concepts/skills then a hands-on activity should follow it to help solidify the information that was learned.
For example, if your child is an auditory learner, you may watch a documentary on fossils and archeology. To help make this information stick, you could follow the video with a fossil dig.
But there is a catch with learning styles as well. Just because your child has a preferred learning style, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use other types of learning styles to introduce concepts. You should use a variety of learning styles throughout the year, especially if your child has a hard time grasping a concept.
By introducing concepts in a variety of ways, your child deepens their learning and develops a greater understanding.
So when you’re looking for a curriculum, you want to make sure the most prevalent learning style is your child’s preferred learning style, but it should also include hands-on activities and other activities that incorporate the other learning styles.
This tip alone should dramatically decrease your curriculum choices. As a quick guide, visual learners do best with literature based curriculum. Auditory learners do best with online/video based curriculum. Kinesthetic learners will do best with either since both should include hands-on activities.
The Right Way to Use a Homeschool Curriculum
Curriculum is not a means to an end. It should not be followed step by step or day by day.
Instead, curriculum is more like a road trip map. When you set out for a road trip, you usually have your end destination in mind, but all the pit stops along the way may not be planned.
A curriculum is the map to get to your end destination, but along the way your child may want to explore rabbit holes. You may spend more time on a certain concept that they are not fully grasping.
A curriculum is just an outline, not your full learning experience. When looking for the best homeschool curriculum for your kiddo, make sure it’s flexible and allows you to explore the pit stops along the way.
Need help choosing a curriculum? Click the image below to download our Choosing Curriculum Guide.
About Amanda
Amanda helps homeschoolers raise self-motivated learners by bringing the adventure of learning right into your living room. She’s the creator of The Captivated Learner and The Learning Lifestyle. Amanda is a single, entrepreneur, homeschooling mama of two kiddos. You can follow her on Facebook.
We often think of education as academics only but it is so much more than that. The goal of education is to learn how to learn so our children can move towards becoming thriving independent adult.
With this in mind let’s look at the heart of homeschooling to create a journey that fits your unique family.
In a previous blog post about homeschooling for beginners I go through the steps of how to start homeschooling (and in this podcast episode).
I always encourage families to start with why you are homeschooling. This will determine your priorities, approach and curriculum. Are you in it for a short time or long time? COVID? Faith? Freedom? Struggles? Go ahead and journal, write down all your reasons (I'll wait). Even families who have been homeschooling for a long time, often loose sight of why they are homeschooling, so this is a great exercise for anyone.
Now dig deeper:
What are your family values?
What is most important to your family?
What is special or unique about your family and situation?
What characteristics and life skills do you want your children to have when they leave this homeschooling experiences ?
While your at it extend that to their whole time living in your home.
Now you have your goals, so work towards that. You can see it is a much bigger picture. When you are education your children at home, you have opportunity to engage in so much more than just academics.
Remember though that your family will be different than others. You have your own journey. Celebrate what makes it unique rather than fighting to fit in a box. You may be single, or a working parent, or a family with special needs. For our family we are entrepreneurs. I run two businesses from home and take this opportunity to get our children involved in our work. You see our children and school are no longer an inconvenience to our work life, we have found a way to see the whole picture and mix it all.
But wait. What does all this have to do with homeschooling? EVERYTHING!
You are at home. You are a family. This is why I’m a parenting and homeschooling coach. You can’t separate the two so easily. This journey is about your unique family.
Are you feeling pumped and excited?
I want to leave you with some practical tips though to help you with this journey.
Connecting with your child improves learning. They are more relaxed and willing to accept mistakes and new things. You can also determine their interests to focus on strengths to play into.
Drop the labels. You may want to focus on a particular method, but don’t get too hung up. There is no Waldorf or Charlotte Mason police checking up on you. You will only stress yourself out and forget about your priorities. Use labels as a guide even for diagnosis about your children. Focus more on the child than their labels.
Connection over correction.You can use every challenge that comes up and see them as an opportunity to practice and work on the characteristics and life goals I mentioned earlier. Whether they are academic or not, work together towards solutions and problem solving. Now you are thinking long term and modelling real life!
Emotion coaching will come up often. We all have big feelings that can overwhelm us. Rather than trying to discipline and move forward as a teacher would in school, remember you are home. You are your child’s guide and teacher. Help them with coping skills, and self-regulation so they can move on with the rest of the day. Remember parenting is about connection and empathy.
The heart of homeschooling is home. It is about family. It is about relationships
If you'd like more support in your parenting and homeschooling journey visit
When I think of language rich homeschooling with a relaxed enjoyable feel, I instantly think of Julie Bogart of Brave Writer. She has so much experience and wisdom to share. Every time I listen to her or read her book I am encouraged by how simple and doable it is to get excited about writing. I'll be the first to admit that English is not my best subject. Coming from a degree in engineering I am more comfortable with math and science.
It was an absolutely pleasure for me to talk with Julie for my podcast. I encourage you to listen or watch the full episode; this blog post shares the highlights of our conversation.
Podcast Episode
Julie Bogart is the popular voice of common sense and compassion in the homeschool community. She's the creator of the innovative writing program called Brave Writer and the popular fast-growing practice called Poetry Teatime. She’s the founder of a homeschool coaching community called The Brave Learner Home. She home educated her five children for 17 years who are now globe-trotting adults.
Julie draws from her work with tens of thousands of homeschool families over the last 20+ years, and her own homeschool journey to enrich the homeschool and parenting experience. Her writing program includes award-winning online writing classes and paradigm-shifting writing manuals that allow parents and kids to become allies in the writing process.
Julie is also the author of the best-selling book The Brave Learner and host of the popular podcast “A Brave Writer’s Life in Brief.” She enjoys raising African violets and playing with her brand new granddaughter. Julie lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Can you explain to us a little about what the Brave Writer lifestyle is to our listeners? And also, how did you come up with that?
So back when I was raising my kids, I had five of them and we had an average sized house and it felt like things were cluttered and chaotic all the time. And I am not a natural housekeeper. Some people take a lot of pleasure in getting things organized and clean, and I just get depressed. So I realized one day that I did not have those skills. I didn't have it as an intuitive sense. And I signed up for a series of emails from the fly lady, which a lot of people know she's world famous. And I started following her instructions. She'd send an email it would say, stop what you're doing and do a five minute drawer clean out. And so I would I'd stop what I was doing and clean out a drawer. And then she would say it's Tuesday vacuum the living room and I would vacuum the living room and then on. In the evening, she'd say, before you go to bed, make sure you shine your sink. So I shine my sink. And over time, those things became habits. And I started to feel like they were more natural to me.
Suddenly it dawned on me that when I was meeting women in my classes that I was teaching or at conferences where I was speaking, they would ask me the question, but how do you create a language rich environment? What does it mean to naturally build a lifestyle where kids are engaged with writing and reading and it's, it's pleasurable. I hadn't realized that that was natural to me. It came to me naturally I knew what to do. If we had an hour free, I would be thinking of a little Language game. I'd be thinking of a way to play with adverbs or we would be driving down the road and analyzing the sales power of billboards and voting on which one was the most effective. Language games and the thought about writing and reading and quotes and analyzing movies, all of that was natural to me. I realized maybe I needed to set up a kind of tutorial the way the fly lady had done for me with housekeeping. So it started with a Yahoo group, which was an email list. I just started scheduling what I thought were the essentials of this lifestyle. So things like copy work and dictation, reading aloud to your kids, going to the art museum and learning to narrate the art that you see and taking nature hikes.
One of the strategies that we use in what we call the Brave Writer lifestyle, is putting your child in the driver's seat, letting them teach you something for a change. So get on their video game and be the novice and let them put into language, all the steps you need to be effective. What's really amazing about that is when you come in as a novice, and your child is the expert, they have to work really hard. They're not talking to a sibling who knows how to use the A and the B control on the Xbox or the Wii. They literally have to help you know which thumb to use. So they're actually doing the work of what would be typically a howto make the peanut butter and jelly sandwich kind of paragraph, but they're doing it in real time with a real outcome they care about.
So it was all these elements poetry tea-time, having a movie afternoon every week, going to the library on a regular basis. I just stuck them into this email list. And I even included things like one on one time making eye contact, being sure to hug a child today and don't worry that you can't hug all five in a day. So just hug one today, make a note on your calendar. Remember to hug another one tomorrow, very realistic. What I found was that by putting it in that sort of weekly pattern for people, they found the same thing I did with the fly lady, those habits start to feel natural, you start to see the results. And you've built a lifestyle, not just a list of curriculum steps to follow.
I love that because it just makes it so much more practical than many homeschool conferences and things. Often we get just the curriculum and lesson plans but you are getting to the heart of how to actually do this.
I love that comment, because when I first wrote the core manual of Brave Writer, which is called the writers jungle. And so when I first wrote it, I was sitting down I spent a lot of time, I worked as a freelance writer and a ghostwriter in a magazine editor before I started writing, and so I sat down with the burden of a friend, which was, I don't know how to teach writing, you seem to be able to do it with your children. How can you help me?
So we did a seven week class at the time I attended this one church and they let us do it during Sunday school. So, seven weeks of teaching about writing, all these parents came, it was homeschool parents, school teachers, fathers. It was shocking the number of parents who came. It started with 15 and by the end of the seven weeks, we had like 40 people in there. And they all acted like I was giving them information they'd never heard in their lives. And all I could think was, well your kids are in school or you have homeschool curriculum. What on earth are you being taught if what I'm sharing with you is not? what's in those books?
So I started looking and those books were all organized around what to do. Nobody was showing parents how to do it. So they would say things like have your child write a descriptive paragraph. Make sure it has five sentences, three of them need to be supports. The top sentence is a topic sentence. The bottom sentence is the clincher. You know, a solid paragraph is like a cardboard box as a top supporting sides and a bottom. I mean, none of that helps you find words that live inside your body. None of those help you do an adequate job of delving into description. They're expecting that all that stuff is already alive and active in the child. And all they had to do was the finished work, which is, you know, putting it in a list situating it in a proper structure, so thousands upon thousands. I do not think it's an exaggeration to say that millions of adults who have been raised in that system today, still don't think they're good writers, and some of them have master's degrees. In other words, that system never got it to help.
So when I sat down to write The Writers Jungle the question I asked myself was, what do you do if you have a child sitting next to you who says, I can't think of anything to write? I did not sit down and think, okay, what's a paragraph? Because we speak in paragraphs, we read paragraphs, we know what paragraphs are, that is not the major missing ingredient. What's missing for a child is one, the courage to expose their inner world to an adult who's getting ready to criticize it, and then to finding more language than they knew they had. So if you can create a safe space and guide them into finding that language, suddenly they have writing power and they can write paragraphs, they can even like writing.
That is so incredible. And I know that from reading and our family uses some of your things, that you take the like the writing process and how parents are involved, you do that differently from most curriculums. Most just assume that the child should be doing it all alone right from the beginning. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
Oh, yeah, for sure. That's my favorite topic. So when we are raising children, parents are beautiful partners in every way. From the time that baby's born and you're changing its diaper and you're breastfeeding or bottle feeding it, you are the chief source of support for that child's growth and development. I have a brand new granddaughter right now and watching my son and daughter-in-law, engage with that baby, they do everything. Noah picks her up and he's constantly holding her up to flowers and trees and bark, so that she can touch things that are natural, not just toys in a house. They wear her, they feed her they sing to her they give her things to play with. They're not waiting for her to someday have the skill of holding things. They're literally putting things in her hand, so that she will discover, oh, this thing is in my hand. We do this from a very young age, and the baby starts cooing and you coo back and then you start saying words and then the baby makes sounds. Then we record them and send them all over the world to family, because we are so thrilled with this child's development.
So I remember when my son Noah was, 11 months old, I was washing dishes at the sink. He said the word Nana, just spontaneously, he was in his chair, and I wheeled around and being the writer that I am, I turned to him and I said, Noah, that is brilliant. But you need to know the word Nana is part of a bigger word. The word is banana. It's a noun, and it fits in a sentence like this. I would like a banana and because it's request, you need to use the oral format called etiquettes. What I'm going to need to hear from you is some version of I would like a banana please Mama. Do you think I did that with an 11 month old? Of course I didn't.
I did what everyone does. I yelled for his father to come downstairs, I made an international phone call to my mother. I wrote the date and time in a baby book. And we fed him six more bananas, trying to get him to say Nana one more time, there was never a moment where we thought Nana is insufficient grammar. It doesn't adequately express. And we certainly didn't go about teaching him to speak by saying, the first thing you need to learn is what a noun is and a verb and how those work together in a sentence.
And yet, it's like we get amnesia when we get to writing. So when we start with speaking, we're so natural. Probably three months later, Noah said something like me want Nana, and I was like, good you get one because you just communicated a full thought. Is it grammatically correct? No, but of course he's going to become grammatically correct, because he lives with me. And that's gonna happen. So then a little more time goes by. And I would say things like, do you mean I want a banana? Do you mean, Mommy, please get me a banana? And then he would literally parrot my words. And I didn't suddenly wonder, are those his words? If he's copying me do they count as his own words? Maybe I should stop speaking, so that he never uses any of my words in speech, because otherwise I won't know if they're his words. We never think that with speech. In fact, when grandma's coming, we literally give them scripts of how to be polite, how to say thank you for the present. And we never think to ourselves, well, that's not a genuine expression of gratitude because he's using my words. No, we think etiquette and training. My child is learning to be a polite human being respectful of his elders. So one day, Noah will be in the other room five years old and he'll yell, Hey, Mom, get me a banana. Now at the point that he's so fluid, he can yell from another room. The words make sense. Now I require him to use the format called etiquette. And I yell back to him, Hey, what do you say? And that's when he can say, Please, because he's not thinking about his mouth. He isn't struggling to put words together. He is so fluent in self expression, adding the format Piece of cake.
In writing, then, partnership means the same thing. When your child first picks up that pen, start scribbling on the page the goal isn't to anxiously worry that those scribbles don't look like letters yet. That child moves to copying random letters and all different lower and uppercase and does it on your wall. One of our Brave Writers new instructors yesterday said milestone achieved, you know Chloe is writing her name on the door. Now here's permanent marker, child's name written on the door. These are developmental milestones, not things to fear. Now, of course, you're going to show Chloe we have paper for that, or a window marker in a window. But the point is, we are celebrating each risk that the child takes to make a connection to the written word. Eventually, as they are becoming more and more fluent in speech, and when their physical act of writing and reading have not yet caught up, we're going to jot some of those words down for them. We're going to be their transcriptionist, their secretary.
So when your child starts telling you the clever little thing about the dog in the backyard, you're going to stop stir-frying dinner, start jotting it down. Let that child see you catch them in the spontaneous active self-expression. Put some of that in writing, and read it back to the family at dinner. Let your kids see that you value the inner life, the language that bubbles up naturally, that it deserves to be preserved and enjoyed by an interested audience. That is how we start to build writers. And I promise you, if you raise children that way, writing actually feels as natural as speech. But no one teaches it that way.
Julie explains more about her program and how it is unique. I encourage you to listen to the whole episode or visit Brave Write for more information
Let your kids see that you value the inner life, the language that bubbles up naturally, that it deserves to be preserved and enjoyed by an interested audience. That is how we start to build writers. And I promise you, if you raise children that way, writing actually feels as natural as speech. But no one teaches it that way.
I know that right now, homeschooling is exploding due to the pandemic and everything that's going on. What advice would you have for a family way that is new to this?
Oh, absolutely so challenging. What we're discovering and we've had thousands and thousands of new people come to Brave Writer during this season, it's just been a wild ride. And what we're discovering is, in the past, a new homeschooler had friends who homeschool. That's how she heard about it. Homeschooling is the ultimate viral marketing. You know, you have two friends who are in your church group or your gymnastics class or next door neighbor. And those people have been modeling and talking about it, and then they hand you a book and you read it and then you start thinking about it. And then you find out there's a group in your area and then you talk to your spouse, and then you sign up. And that takes time. It's usually either before the kids are school age or pulling them out of school, but it's a process over time. That is a decision they're making. This is entirely new this circumstance, because people who've been thrust into homeschooling who never consider doing it, don't have role models or friends. They're all friends with public school parents or private school parents. And they've never imagined themselves being in charge of education. It's not in their vocabulary to think that way. So they come in, and they're like, Okay, I'm a homeschooler. Now, how do I sign up for the homeschooling online program? And what they mean is they think there's some national organization with homeschool videos that you sign up for. And you're like, no, that's not really how homeschooling works. Or they say, Okay, well, I just want an all-in-one. And I would like it for all my kids, and I want them to follow this schedule. It's like, but that's not what homeschooling is, either. So they're coming in with really green understanding and very little conviction. So there's a lot of opportunity there. One of the best things about it is they don't come in with a strong conviction. So they're very open to new information resources. They are eager to learn about education. They're not coming in worried that school was going to ruin their children. So there's it's a lot less ideological, it's a lot more pragmatic, which is where we really like to stay in Brave Writer is at the level of pragmatism.
I created something I call the six week on route to homeschooling with these schoolers in mind and anyone who's new or looking to sort of revamped their homeschool and follow more of a Brave Writer style of education. And that is going to be the first thing we roll out in our online membership community called the Brave Learner Home and it will walk them through the preparation and how to understand curriculum shopping and how to file with your state and just some of those basics of prep, and then it will take us through four weeks, have an actual homeschool model that they can adapt and make personal to them. So that's one of the ways that we're helping those families. Brave Writer also offers the Brave Learner Home program to help parents feel more confident in their teaching. There are also online writing courses.
I love that you are offering so much support. Is there anything else going on in Brave Writer that you wanted to share with us so that we can make sure everyone knows about it?
Well, the brave learner home really is an interesting experiment that we're conducting right now. So the way it works now is the Brave Learner Home Membership for a lifetime is free with a Brave Writer program purchase or a Brave Writer online class purchase of $198 or more. We are really trying to make that something you never think about again. So if you take it online class with us now you're in. You can use it during a busy during a light season, and ignore it during a busy season and not feel guilty and wish you had canceled your order. So it's going to be this platform that is a support. And now there's like over 3500 members. So we've got all these people who clearly wanted that support. And that's our goal. We have hired staff. It will be really wonderful, particularly if you are new to this way of thinking about education.
The second thing I just would mention is we do offer online writing classes. And our staff are all homeschooling parents who are professional writers, so they understand both experiences. Our classes last anywhere from three to six weeks, some of our classes, enrol you, the parent with the child so that we help you become a great writing team together.
That is incredible. So you're providing support for the parents to become better teachers?
Exactly. We don't ever put time for ourselves. But that's the biggest part is how do we even implement this? And the Online Writing is an incredible opportunity for everyone because often we want to find an expert in a field, someone who can really dig in and help. Having someone else help you with the writing with your kids is a great experience for everyone.
Well, the one thing I love about our online classes in particular, is that they are only three to six weeks. We're not trying to take over your writing program. This is not semester length teaching, you can dive in and take a Movie Club. You can do Passion for Fiction. You could do the expository essay rhetorical critique and analysis just for six weeks, so your children know this is a deal for a limited amount of time focused on one subject. And then you can take a month off after take a big break. We try to think about writing and teaching the way a homeschooler does, not the way school does. And so even for covid schoolers, what we call these parents are just flooding us for even just six months, you can come in for that six week essay class because it's not happening effectively in your school. So maybe they're still doing online school, but you want to make sure they're still moving towards that outcome that you want to see. Or we've got middle school classes that are designed based on passion projects or nonfiction. And so you can keep those skills going without making a year-long or a semester long commitment.
PLEASE do take time to listen or watch the whole episode. There was much more Julie had to share with us.
Congratulations you are considering homeschooling or perhaps new to this adventure.
I bet you are feeling nervous, excited and perhaps a little overwhelmed. It is completely understandable, but don't worry. I've got you covered. In this post I've laid out the basics of how to get started homeschooling along with links to over 20 amazing homeschool blog posts all to help you feel more confident about your new adventure.
Listen to the full podcast episode here:
1. First thing to do is to find out the laws surrounding homeschooling in your area. Each State or Province has different rules.
2. Take time to journal and think about why you are choosing to homeschool. Every family is unique and has their own reasons. What is yours? Also write down what you hope to gain from homeschooling your children? What do you want your children to come away with from their time at home? What are your family values? What are your long term goals?
Once you have a clear picture of why you want to homeschool and where you hope it leads you will be able to filter all the rest through those things. Such as what curriculum will best fit your family etc.
Overcoming 6 Homeschool Fears
3. Deschool - this is taking time to adjust to being at home together. Take some time out to relax and shift your mindset way from the traditional public school setting. For some it takes longer than others. Focus now on connecting with your kids, finding their passions, and enjoy being together. Summer is the perfect time to do this!
4. Learn about the different methods, styles and philosophies available. Don't overwhelm yourself but it is helpful to know that there are other ways to teach your children other than what is taught in traditional public school. Once you find a method that interests you, go ahead and learn more about that style.
6. Now comes the fun and sometimes overwhelming part...figuring out what you want to teach your children. This will largely depend on your research done in step 4. Some families decide early on that they want to follow a particular method, while others choose a more general path. Are you frustrated at all because this isn't a simple clean cut deal? There are about a million companies offering curriculum because it is so customized to your unique children.
Over the years most families end up being an eclectic mix of several types of styles, choosing what resonates most with them. If you are just getting started, I suggest choosing one thing you like the look of that isn't too expensive and giving it a go for a few months. Many families just choose a workbook from Costco as a guide to get them going while they do more research on what they'd like. Talking to local homeschoolers is also a big help because you can find out what works for them. Don't start to compare yourself though.
I know how easy it is to feel guilty that you aren't doing enough, or the 'right' things because someone else mentions that they are using the latest and greatest program. Be confident in yourself and your choices.
8. Give it a go. Take time to deschool with your children. Enjoy being together and finding out their interests. They say it take about 1 month for every year that a child was in public school to fully deschool. Then slowly add in more to your day. If you jump in to soon with a full schedule you may all burn out. You may wish to start fresh in the fall and come up with a good plan then.
