Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

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Tina Robertson

Why Most Homeschool Curriculum Tips Are Useless

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Choosing homeschool curriculum can be one of the most thrilling things about homeschooling and at the same time be nerve-racking.

Getting ready to graduate my second homeschooler and using completely different curriculum with him than I did with Mr. Senior 2013, I have come to appreciate why most homeschool curriculum tips are useless.Why Most Homeschool Curriculum Tips are Useless @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusDon’t get me wrong.  Having homeschooled from the beginning, I too have pored over volumes of books and blogs to discover that one piece of advice that will push me from reality to lightning striking revelation.

It might sound a bit over dramatic but what is really absurd is the overwhelming and staggering amount of tips on how to choose homeschool curriculum.

It’s not that we don’t like them, but we would like to read them in this life time.

With a limited amount of time to pick homeschool curriculum over the last few years, I have tried to simplify my method to choosing curriculum.

Instead of depending on flashes of brilliance from numerous blog posts about curriculum (I really do love them but I need simple), I have found that if I follow a method to choosing curriculum for my family that it works for both me and my sons.

From Homeschool Insanity to Homeschool Sense

Look at these 3 questions and tips that make choosing curriculum a cinch each year:

1.  Your Teaching Style Is Not Just Important, It Is Paramount.

Homeschooling momma martyrs are common, unfortunately.  As teachers we can shove aside things that help us to be an excellent teacher and solely focus on a child’s learning style.

While a child’s learning style is important, it should not have greater weight until a child is learning independently for a good portion of the day.

For example, you may be at a point in your journey where you thrive with a boxed curriculum but your child is a huge hands-on learner.

How do you marry the two styles? It is much easier for you to teach with a guideline and fill in with hands-on ideas each day than to come up with your own lesson plans for a hands-on learner.

This will eliminate your hunt for curriculum that is just a bare framework where you are suppose to fill in with hands-on ideas.  It just won’t work for you if you need a more fleshed out curriculum.

Again, using a homeschool curriculum that supports your teaching style and which you have to tweak a bit to fit your child’s learning style gives you a much better head start for the year.

A homeschool curriculum may receive a rave review, but if it does not support your present teaching style, you may burn out mid-year, too.

Again, I cannot stress enough that you as the primary teacher needs to be over the top excited about a curriculum that encourages you and makes homeschooling lively.

Banish boring days by beginning it with a curriculum that fits your strengths and shores up your weaknesses.

2.  Your Child’s Learning Style Matters Especially Around 6th Grade.

Switching on you here because I am giving you a method in how to evaluate homeschool curriculum, but the next significant factors to consider are the ages, maturity level and learning style of your child.

When children are young, a good rule of thumb is to use a curriculum that is suited to your teaching style and mix in the activities to tweak it to fit your child’s learning style.

As they grow older and become more independent in how they learn, which generally is around 6th grade, then it’s time to evaluate again.

Sixth grade is important because it generally is the time for another leap in a child’s maturity.

This doesn’t mean it happens automatically, but I wanted to give you a specific way to measure.

Only you can answer these questions:

  • During the 6th grade year, does your child need another year of momma teaching and are thriving with you tweaking your present curriculum? or
  • Was this past year one where there was more head butting than head way made?  If so, is it because you were determined to use curriculum that you felt was rigorous and met your learning style instead of your child’s learning style?
  • Can you give your child more choices this year?  It is time to give up control but not the authority, which is a fine balancing act.

Decision making by your child is a learned process.

Releasing decision making is easier and better done slowly or a little at a time.

Do not all of the sudden one year expect your child to choose all the curriculum.

Though at the 6th grade age, they may seem like they are ready for making all the decisions, they are immature and still inexperienced.  Too, as the parent, you have the authority to make the final say on all the decisions.

The only way for your child to gain experience and maturity is to start with small things and build up when it comes to choosing curriculum.

Just like you have allowed them free choice in their reading material while they still read the books you choose, curriculum is the same.

How to Begin Homeschool Teaching With Minimal Tips

Does that wonderful and new curriculum that you are excited about allow your child to work independently for part of the day if he is ready?

Through the years, I have learned that it doesn’t really matter what curriculum you use.

I don’t want to seem flippant about how hard it is to choose homeschool curriculum, but what matters in the long run is if the curriculum fits your child’s learning style best.

3.  What Do You Want the Curriculum to Teach? Concepts and View.

The answer to this question is not obvious because I am not talking about wanting a science curriculum to teach science or a history curriculum to teach history.

Look at another example.

If you have a science background and maybe even have a degree in science then you have a preferred way to teach science.

Science can be taught generally or in a spiral method each year or you can focus on one field like Chemistry, Physics or Biology.

As a science teacher, you may want to cover deeper concepts instead of broad strokes.

What difference does it matter if the newest science curriculum is hot on the homeschool market if it does not fit with the way you want to teach science?

All the homeschool curriculum tips can be useless and overwhelming if you are not looking to teach science the same way.

History is no exception.  If you want the details of history, then why look at a history curriculum that will cover history in generalities?

The same question or mind-set should be examined when you think about the approach.

How important is a Bible based curriculum, or would you prefer something light on Bible content so that you can add your own resources?

As I scrutinized my method for how I chose homeschool curriculum easily over the past few years, these three questions have helped me to slice and dice the huge amount of information on the net.

Focus on tips that work for your family and leave the rest of the tips to other families that need them.

Hugs and love ya,

Tina Signature 2015c

 How Can I Achieve Simple Homeschooling?
Eliminating 3 Non-Essentials to Homeschooling
When My Homeschool Curriculum Has Lost that Loving Feeling

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Relax! How to Easily Add Art and Music to Your Homeschool Day

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

How to easily add art and music to your homeschool day is well – so not easy. Also, look at Fun Facts About the Phantom of the Opera & Styles of Music Unit Study.

They tend to be subjects that can be left out.

Although we have good intentions, it just doesn’t happen.

Besides art and music are really what stirs the imagination and are creative outlets.

Relax! How to Easily Add Art and Music to Your Homeschool Day

I’m sharing tips on how to easily add them to your day without a lot of planning.

One secret tip to easily add art and music to your day is to not schedule them.

As fixated as I am on schedules, I am equally fixated with homeschooling simply.

6 Ways to Add Art and Music to Your Homeschool

Look at these easy ways to fold in art and music to your day simply without adding one more subject to your day.

1. Add Art to Writing or Composition

With the growing list of homeschool subjects that comes with each grade, it is easy to run out of homeschool day before you do subjects.

Relax! How to Easily Add Art and Music to Your Homeschool Day @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I learned this double duty tip when Mr. Senior 2013 was first beginning to write.

Kindergarten Art @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I learned he was very much more interested in writing when he could express his words through pictures.

Instead of scheduling a formal time for art, he just folded it in when he was writing.

Because I was developing his imagination and love for creativity, having a story to go along with his picture gave him the spark he needed to create.

When I started, I used the whole series of Draw Write Now. 

These books allowed a small part of writing and then drawing to strengthen fine motor skills. 

And these books are absolute keepers in my homeschool world.

2. Music or Art can be added to your current study of history.

As Mr. Senior 2013 grew and had a similar love of history, I allowed drawing of history scenes or battles as a way for him to express himself.

Again without having to add in drawing, we just covered history along with drawing.

Then the love of simple drawing morphed into a full art study in high school.

We loved the series Draw and Write Through History in the early years.

Additionally, looking up what is the music during a history period is a perfect introduction to the history period.

For example, we’ve also used Music in our Homeschool Courses.

For example, look at the list of music courses below which you can teach in your homeschool.

Too, with science there is no need to make a choice between science and art. 

3. Add Art to Science.

Find creative opportunities to add in art.

Science and Art @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus(Draw a cell and label it.)

If there is a way to illustrate a science concept, let your child do it.

He will remember projects and the content too for many years after he is older and especially when he can add in an artful element.

4. Add Music to every day learning.

Music was no different. We folded it into our day naturally too.

Music can be done while exercising and too some children learn better while listening to music.

  • Add music to every day learning.
Early Learning Music Resources @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I rounded up the DVDs I created way back (I’m not that old but in this day and age with technology you feel that way) when I had “opening” in Preschool and Kindergarten with all of my boys.

I rounded up learning songs and arranged them in the way I wanted to so that my learning day could last longer with music.

We sung these songs every day as a way to learn our ABCs, days of the weeks, continents and even math.

I used resources like Sing to Learn and Rock ‘N Learn:Addition & Subtraction Rap.

Too, though I had no musical background when I first began to homeschool, it was up to me teach them how to read music in between their music lessons.

5. Music can be added to phonics.

  • Do music instead of phonics one day.

Right away, I learned that music is like learning another language.

Many days we simply sat together in the living room and did music theory.

Not only did we learn about  the musical notes but the rhythm helped my boys to learn about the “beats” or syllables when reading.

I never felt like I was skipping on their reading for the day but giving them another way to feel the beat or syllables within each sentence.

All of my boys not only managed to read above grade level, but learned music theory in the process.

6. Fold art & music together for the subject.

  • Focus on a musical composer.

We did lapbooks using Zeezok to study a composer, some language arts, geography and hands-on activities.

Instead of feeling like I was only covering music for the day, we added in writing about the composer, the history of the time period they lived in and geography when studying about the country the composer lived in.

Instead of scheduling separate assignments for art and music, let those areas embellish the every day things that your child needs to learn.

More Homeschool Music Curriculum Resources

Art and music have a way of presenting up learning in an alternative way and of finding a way into your child’s heart that makes learning fun.

Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Hands-on Activities

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Learning American history through the life of Wyatt Earp, an American lawman is another fun way to learn American history. Also, look at Free American History Lapbook The Old West Through the Life of Wyatt Earp.

History comes alive when you focus on the dramatic life of an American figure or exciting event.

Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

When I need to cover American history, the boys always get to decide the person or event.

Whether they choose to cover the FBI in high school or the gunfight at the OK Corral, I can always make the time period come alive.

One way I have learned to round out a unit study and make it more meaningful is to study the world at the time the person was living or the event was happening.

American History through the Eyes of an American Lawman

By steering Tiny to events or persons in a time period we need to focus on, it’s a win-win. 

He gets to choose a person or event that piqued his curiosity and the teacher in me is satisfied because I know he is exposed to a time period we need to cover.

Too, beginnings are important in unit studies. 

Remember to make the beginning of your unit study lively. 

I added a few details that will lead us into hands-on activity first and then reading will come second.

Look at these few details.

  • Wyatt Earp was born in 1848 and died in 1929;
  • Tombstone is close to the Mexican border in Arizona;
  • Wyatt Earp wanted to join the American Civil War but his dad wouldn’t let him; and
  • Wyatt Earp made a name for himself in postwar Kansas as a lawman.

What a great time period to focus on for modern American history.

Right away, I know that the American Civil War happened during his life time so I could tie in the Civil War if we hadn’t studied it before.

However, because we have covered the American Civil War twice and a did a lapbook both times, I think we are going to head another direction by getting the flavor of the world at that time.

Being the youngest child, Tiny was too young for some of the hands-on activities we did during the time period of the late 1800s when we studied the Civil War twice.

Another thing about Tiny though is that he is different from my other two sons because he doesn’t care the age of many hands-on activities. 

The kid just loves all of it.  If it’s a hands-on activity he is in.

Hands-On History

That combination actually makes for a great kid to homeschool because he just loves activities.

So today, we had a pioneer day. 

We spent the whole morning doing fun and easy hands-on activities that families would have done during the time Wyatt Earp lived.

Hardtack – Staple of the American Civil War

Because the Civil War was going on when Earp was a boy, we started off making hardtack, which was eaten during the Civil War.

You probably have heard of the flat biscuit like staple of the Civil War.

Two ingredients make it easy to make.

  • 1 cup of water
  • 2 cups of flour
Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Hands-on Activities
Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Hands-on Activities

After mixing the flour and water, Tiny turned it out onto the counter.

Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Hands-on Activities
Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Hands-on Activities

Yes, he used a plastic bottle to flatten the dough. (A rolling pin would be nice to use but since we are still building up our kitchen supplies here in Ecuador, a clean plastic bottle worked just fine.) 

You want it about a 1/4 inch or thin as we learned.  Thin is better.

Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Hands-on Activities
Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Hands-on Activities

He used a fork to poke holes in it. 

We did read somewhere that the original hardback had 13 holes in it to represent the 13 original colonies.

Then you know I told you we don’t have an oven, but we do have a toaster over.

So we baked the hardtack for about 30 minutes on 400 degrees in a glass pyrex container.

Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Hands-on Activities

It actually came out pretty good tasting when it was warm. We were surprised.

Of course I know they can probably break your teeth if you wait to try one longer, but it was a fun activity to learn about what could be made to eat with just a few ingredients.

Pioneer Cooking – Make Your Own Butter

Then we had to have some fresh butter on those warm hardtack crackers.  So we started that activity too.

Again, I like this activity to explore the times of the pioneers because these ingredients I keep on hand here at the house.

The two ingredients are:

  • heavy cream
  • salt (if you choose too)

You also need a glass jar, which we had too.

Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Hands-on Activities
Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Hands-on Activities

I filled the jar about half-way up with the cream and let it sit at room temperature while we started the hardtack.

The hardest part to this project is the shaking. After filling the jar, shake….Make butter 3 Make butter 4

and shake it some more ……. and shake it some more all over the house.

Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Hands-on Activities
Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Hands-on Activities

We took turns shaking the jar for about 45 minutes before we saw results. 

You can see it in the picture where the butter started separating from the soured milk.

So we poured out the soured milk and added tap water in the jar to rinse the butter. We shook some more to rinse it and poured off the water.

Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Hands-on Activities

Tiny added some salt and taaaa – daaa, we had some sweet butter.

Here is our warm hardtack and sweet butter.

Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Hands-on Activities

And oh yes, it was delicious and a fun way to get the flavor (pun intended, corny, I know) of the time period that Wyatt Earp lived in.

Those aren’t the only activities we did though.  I’ll share our next easy hands-on activity we did, the history magazine we will be using for this unit study and the lapbook printables will be coming soon.

Look at a few of these website that have some great ideas for more pioneer living activities.

  • Include the littles with this unit for middle school by making a hand print horse, cow collage, animal cracker ranch scene or yarn doll to name a few from Kids Activities.
  • Make some taffy if you have some middle school kids.
  • Make hand dipped candles if you have middle school kids.
  • A Book in Time is chock full of ideas for each time period. Depending on the age of your child, he can make a covered wagon, log cabin or learn about cotton, which was a huge commodity during this time period.

Check out these resources for the American West and Wyatt Earp

HOW TO GET THE FREE WYATT EARP LAPBOOK, NOTEBOOKING PAGES & BOARD GAME

Update: The lapbook is now complete. Download all the freebies below.

  • Art cards by Frederic Remington about Wyatt Earp
  • Cover pages for the outside of notebooking pages 1800s and 1900s. Look here how to fold ordinary worksheets to interactive minibooks.
  • 8 Features of the SW United States
  • The 4 Southwestern states
  • American History during the Life of Wyatt Earp 1800s notebooking page
  • American History during the Life of Wyatt Earp 1900s notebooking pages
  • Who was Wyatt Earp
  • Who were the Cowboys
  • Who Was Doc Holliday
  • Gunfight at the O.K. Corral Tombstone, Arizona – About Tombstone – Ed Schieffelin
  • Printable Game with Game Pieces – The Most Famous Shoot Out – Gunfight at O.K. Corral

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2) Grab the freebie now.

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Homeschooling a Left-Brain Child a/k/a Socially Awkward and a Bit Nerdy

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Homeschooling a left-brain child has been a joy, but a bit of an adventure.

For example, right when the minister said we are assembled together in this funeral home for this sad moment of the passing of our dear sister, my left-brain child burst out in laughter.

Then, right before Kindermusik classes started, he asked the homeschool mom sitting beside me if she ever changed her baby’s diaper because he sure stinks.

Besides being moments where I wish I could crawl under the seat, I realized early on that I was homeschooling a child with a quirky personality.

Back when I started homeschooling, I didn’t fully appreciate the power of being informed about learning styles or personalities.

Homeschooling a Left-Brain Child a/k/a Socially Awkward and a Bit Nerdy

What I didn’t know immediately was that I was homeschooling a left brain child.

What I did know was that he had some of these traits:

  1. He was perfectly content to be alone and was truly happy;
  2. He preferred to read an encyclopedia for knowledge instead of a fiction book;
  3. He read early and was advanced for his age and it was hard to tell others how advanced he was;
  4. He had a hard time expressing his feelings in a gracious manner and he felt that unless he spoke his mind in a direct way that he was not being sincere;

And he had these 5 traits as well.

  1. He thrived with details and did not like being rushed;
  2. Routine was a comfort to him and he needed to be “warned” if I changed our routine suddenly;
  3. He didn’t like loud noises or a lot of people talking at the same time;
  4. He preferred his school area neat, cleaned up his room without me asking him and his written assignments were even neater;
  5. He was seen by others as being aloof or “different”, which really meant a bit weird.

Knowing that my son preferred adult interaction or older children over friends his own age, I knew that I would have to educate myself to help him to be well-rounded .

One thing I am glad that I did not succumb to even at the coaxing of my family was thinking that something was wrong with him.

Having family members who are more laid back about deadlines, prefer to be outside or lap up music, art and craft activities, they just knew his behavior was not normal.  Well at least to them anyway.

It was not easy, but I had to find a common ground to not change the way my son came wired. But i wanted to help him see that certain behaviors are seen as rude and uncaring.

Homeschooled Child’s Learning Personality

Do you know your child’s learning personality? Let me help you through my self-paced online course at my sister site How To Homeschool EZ. Here is what you’ll learn.

  • How to understand the way your child prefers to learn so that you can teach him in a way that he enjoys learning;
  • How to pinpoint your child’s learning personality;
  • A starting point in understanding (barring any special learning challenges or disabilities) and accepting your child’s preferred way of taking in information;
  • Understanding when the learning personality emerges; and
  • Teaching tips for each learning personality to stop the head-butting.

Socially Awkward to Socially Acceptable?

I was not only concerned about helping him to over come social difficulty but to challenge him because he had an amazing memory and vocabulary.

Look at some of these things I did to help him socially and at curriculum I used:

1. I switched to a mastery based math to align with his strengths.

First, I switched from a slower pace math program, which is good for a lot of kids, to the mastery program of Singapore Math Practice, Level 1A, Grade 2. 

This fed his love of math early and as he got older I added in a spiral math program to help with review because I just wanted to be sure I covered all learning bases. 

However, as he grew older, it was evident that Math stayed as his favorite subject and a subject he stayed advanced in. He stayed with a master program through to high school.

2. In addition, I gave up an all-in-one program.

Moreover, I gave up boxed curriculum because my son needed to move to higher level chapter books.  But not just any chapter books. I had to feed his desire to expand on his knowledge and research skills and still read living books.

I came across a series call the Whole Story with books like The Hound of the Baskervilles (Whole Story) which were literally a life saver at the time. 

Each book has generous pictures, notations, diagrams and extra information throughout the side margin.  He could both read and research within the book and it kept him off the computer when I couldn’t supervise him.

3. Keep the social circle limited to a few persons.

Next, when he was younger, I limited the number of kids he played with. 

This allowed me to intervene when he felt that a kid was being “childish” (he was). 

I was able to use a fight as a teaching moment to teach my son how to be a friend and to give in to his friend even if my son was wrong. 

Being wronged builds character and more important, I wanted my son to learn to be peaceful and to relate to the feelings of his friends. 

For the sake of precious friendship, it is okay to not have to prove your point all the time.

4. Hone in on weak subjects to reduce a perfectionist mindset.

As he got older, I realized he needed help with creativity and particularly with writing

Unlike a child that loves creative writing, he did not. No, it wasn’t because he struggled with penmanship. Quite the opposite, he could write pages and pages.

The problem was he wanted specifically what I wanted from him in terms of content and form. 

I followed what Susan Wise Bauer said about giving kids concrete examples of what to write about and models to follow. I found Classical Writing Aesop and other similar type of beautiful copywork.

And again had great success with it because it used a model for my son to follow as he learned to write.

5. In addition, give your child an outlet for strokes of creativity.

Not only was I interested in his academic development, but I wanted to foster a love for his imagination through art.

He took art lessons, but I chose a teacher that would not only give him art, but would add crafts to his day.

Determined to help foster the creative side of his mind and to deepen his love for people, I organized a homeschool co-op.

I was not going to just invite friends over to our house but I was going to be sure he had interaction on a regular basis.

These are just a few things that I could change right away.

How did my left-brain son turn out?

Not only does he love people and they love him, but I feel he has matured with a deep fellow feeling for people and a love for learning that he is feeding on until adulthood.

Focus on having your left-brain child accept himself and to be the kind of person that you want him to be and not whether other people will socially accept him.  Then, your parenting will be well worth all the effort.

Other Posts About Socialization and Tips

Homeschooling a Left-Brain Child a/k/a Socially Awkward and a Bit Nerdy

Homeschooling a Left Brain Child - aka Socially Awkward and a Bit Nerdy @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Rules for Homeschool Co-ops. Essential or Excessive?

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Rules for Homeschool Co-ops. Essential or Excessive @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusWhether rules for homeschool co-ops are essential or excessive shouldn’t depend on whether you are the hard working homeschool leader or the appreciative homeschooling attendee.

Unfortunately, this can be the case when you have a structured homeschool co-op.

There are several things that can affect whether a homeschool co-op has rules that literally fill up a booklet or they have informal guidelines.

One thing that can affect rules, which are hotly debated go to the very root of parenting style.

Understanding why rules are in place always helped my family to not let it sour us about attending homeschool co-ops.

Not only do some leaders have rules in place because a tragic incident may have happened before, but when you rent a room, normally the establishment has rules in place too.

For example, one place we rented had a very busy parking lot. With cars backing up and constantly going back and forth, we had to have rules in place for the kids’ safety.

Though none of the girls serving on the board of the homeschool co-op I led were helicopter parents, we would never want any harm to come to any child.  We had to make rules, like a child could not go alone to the bathroom or wander around alone at the building.

Middle and high school kids did not have to be accompanied but you would be surprised at how many parents thought it was okay for a younger children to go accompanied because they felt their child was old enough to watch for traffic.  Maybe so or maybe not.

Too, our group was responsible for cleaning the bathrooms after the co-op. Many moms expressed their gratefulness for cleaning a bathroom where young kids were not left unattended. Enough said.

Another rule we were adamant about that would sometimes bristle the hair of new families attending our co-op is that our co-op was not a drop and run place.

We required the parents to be there for the co-op. We were not a babysitting service, the disciplining police or teen dating chaperones.

Some co-ops are very large and have parents assigned for those roles. However, because we chose to run our co-op informally and not a mini version of public school, we required parent attendance.

As the homeschool leaders we went to great lengths to treat every child like our own when they were misbehaving. Kindness and love is always the way to treat every child at the homeschool co-op.

What Keeps Your Homeschool Co-op From Getting Better?

However, when that didn’t work, mom and dad know their child best.  Discipline has to be applied in the right measure with each child and because kid’s feelings can be very tender, it is a role for the parent.

Being reasonable is also a must for every homeschool leader.  When needed we made reasonable exceptions to our rules.

For example, we had one family that was expecting another child and mom couldn’t attend one of our biggest co-ops of the year. She asked another family to be responsible for her kids who didn’t want to miss out on the fun.

We were more than glad to accommodate this family because all of their kids were so well behaved and supportive of the co-op.

The very basic rule for any of our excursions or co-ops was that children were well-behaved and showed up ready to learn.

Of course for toddlers, it was always okay for them to toddle around instead of mom having to fight and hold them all the time in her lap.

When our older children were still, whether standing or sitting, our toddlers eventually modeled the example of our older children as they grew older.

It is very normal in a lot of co-ops for toddlers to move around and we expect our older kids to learn the same way they do when they are home, which is to tolerate the little ones and learn to listen even if the toddler is a bit distracting.

It is different if a toddler is loud and crying, then our moms would address their needs.  However, toddlers can learn early on that when we come together, it is for the purpose of learning together and it starts by letting them see what is going on.

Our toddlers were not in danger of being ran over because older kids did not rough house. We simply did not have to put up with kids that couldn’t behave.

Having a few, but meaningful rules was essential in our homeschool co-op.  We always appreciated it when parents would ask the thinking behind the rules because we didn’t make them needlessly.

When the formal part of the homeschool co-op was going on, we expected the same behavior as if they were at home doing school. When the co-op was over and it was time to have fun and socialize, our group still followed the rules.

We were blessed to have a great group of moms and dads who cared about all the kids’ safety and understood that rules were in place as a protection.

How about you? Do you attend a homeschool co-op where you feel that some rules are meaningless?

Hugs and love ya,

Tina Signature 2015c

Also, look at:
Unlocking the Homeschool Leader Within You
Look at my 5 day series of a Homeschooling Co-op Convert