Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

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5 Advantages to Creating Your Own Homeschool Unit Study

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5 Advantages to Creating Your Own Homeschool Unit Study @Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusBeing hooked on well-laid out lesson plans, I never thought I would be a homeschool unit study convert.

Planning seemed like a lot of time, which you know we all have very little of. And of course the other biggie you hear about in unit studies is the fear of missing something when teaching them.

Put to sleep the great missing something myth because no matter how long we teach, there is always something we will miss. Check out Am I Doing Enough When Homeschooling and Gauging Homeschool Progress – Masters of their Material to grab some tips.

Today, I want to share 5 advantages to creating your own homeschool unit study.

(1) Focus On Your Children’s Needs and Goals

Designing a unit study for the exact needs of your child is a huge advantage that stacks heavy against other homeschool approaches.

One of the supposedly negatives about the time that it takes to design a unit study can be a strength when it is suited to fit your children’s needs.

Check Out Books That Make Planning Unit Studies Eazy Peazy

(2) No Missing Books, Curriculum or Outdated Resources

The world of education can be a fast moving wheel and even the most well-staffed company can be hard pressed to keep their curriculum up to date with current resources.

Choosing current homeschool resources, library books and hands-on activities you find ensures that your unit study will run smoothly because all of your products are current.

(3) Lower Grade Unit Studies Are a Jumping Off Point for Higher Grade Planning

When I look back over my unit studies from the lower grades, I know I planned them with my children in mind.

When it comes to homeschooling middle and high school grades, previously taught unit studies become an unexpected advantage because they serve as a foundation or introduction to high grade unit studies.

When a child makes a connection to previously learned material it is meaningful.

Unlike subject areas where you are not sure what a child learned, your own well-laid out and planned unit studies are unique to your children. The bottom line is that you know what you taught them and can expand on those subjects in the upper grades.

(4) Learning Together as a Family is Easiest When Using Unit Studies

Like a lot of new homeschoolers, I started off with separate subjects for each of my kids. Insanity sets in and we learn that by having less curriculum, we can not only teach different ages together, but we cover content whether it’s science or history in more depth.

Teaching children together but on different levels not only fosters family togetherness, but forges a close bond between siblings.

(5) Challenges Learners Along With Encouraging Independent Learning

It is no secret in the homeschool world that we not only homeschool our special needs children who have unique abilities, but we have many advanced and gifted learners too.  Even special needs children can be advanced in some areas.

Because of uneven development in children, unit studies can challenge a learner at his level.

Project based learning is encouraged by unit studies because each child can delve into what interest him about the topic you have chosen to cover with your children.

Though you may be on one unit study topic, each child has the flexibility to learn as much or as little as he wants to.

Research skills are developed when using unit studies instead of following a spoon fed mentality.

Unit studies are hard work but the pay off through the years makes designing unit studies worthwhile to pursue.

There is no need to guess how to start one.  Do you want to create one now?

Look at my series of 10 Days of Diving Into Unit Studies By Creating One Together.

Began small by creating a simple unit study and it will grow into a comprehensive course of study.

Do you design your unit studies or use laid out unit studies?

Hugs and you know I love ya,

 

 Check Out Books That Make Planning Unit Studies Eazy Peazy

 

How a Homeschool Mom Grades a High School Essay

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

When the boys were in younger grades, I felt so confident grading their writing papers.

Confidence is suppose to soar with use, right? But when it came time to grade my first highschooler’s essay, confidence lacked.  Like anything else, inexperience makes you feel less prepared.

How a Homeschool Mom Grades a High School Essay @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusOn the other hand, having homeschooled my first high schooler from the beginning, I knew that I had a unique advantage knowing my son’s strengths and weaknesses and could use that information to help me form a grading standard.

Compulsory vs. Freedom

The thinking that a teen gets to choose topics all the time was the first thing I left behind.

For the most part, I did my best to be a reasonable teacher to my teen, which meant he got to choose the topics he wanted to write about. I learned early on that the very mention of some writing topics, especially controversial ones made for eager writers.

Mr. Senior 2013 wrote most high school essays on things he wanted to write about which were about topics like injustice, the life of writers he admired and a few other frivolous topics he found fascinating.

However, I also am reminded to not abandon my homeschooling goals in high school, which means that I want to form my son’s worldview and Biblical view. That is done through research and expressing his creative thoughts in written word. So some topics were mandatory to write about.

His last essay was mandatory for a completed grade. My instructions called for him to break down each verse of 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 that talks about the meaning of love.

Not only was it important to grade him on his creative words, but it was important to me to fill his mind with something worthy of remembering since it was the last time.

Give your teen freedom with his high school essays but don’t give up guidance.

Completing a mandatory high school essay is the first part of my grade.

Forget Grading Like a Public School Teacher.

The next thing I had to learn was to not grade like a public school teacher.

No, I don’t mean to not use some of the same standards, but to not directly attack my son’s writing by all the red marks.

Homeschool Writing in Early Grades @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusI did that in my son’s younger years and regret it.

Though my oldest son is not as sensitive as my younger sons, I could see that my red marks and my writing on his page took some of the fun out of the process.

What I did learn early in my homeschool years was to write notes in the margin or at the bottom of the paper. I still practiced this in high school.

Writing in Early Years of Homeschooling @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

(Learn from my mistake and leave behind all the red pens and red marks that we think we need to do on writing. Writing notes at the bottom of their page was a keeper for communicating to my sons.)

The example above is how I did it when Mr. Senior 2013 was in the younger grades.

I followed this same example on high school essays.

Specificity counts.

This is one area where my strength for detail can be utilized for high school. Teens are just like us. They want to know specifically what you liked about their writing.

As home educators we are very specific about what we don’t like about our teen’s writing. Praise should be equally vocal.

As I mentioned, the last essay assignment I assigned for Mr. Senior 2013 was about love and how it is shown. He not only gave his opinion of why it is the strongest motivator in the universe but he supported it with Biblical facts and things he had real life experience with.

I specifically praised him for supporting his writing with solid facts.

Developing Clear Writing.

Then the next part I look for in my son’s writing is to determine how clear he expressed his thoughts.  Developing clear writing is not something we achieve.

Expressing thoughts through writing is a developed art.  It is not achieved in high school, but I do expect my teen to use what he has been taught through the years like supporting his facts, illustrations, topic sentences and sticking to his topic.

Secondary: Spelling and Sentence Structure

Try to remember that we are nurturing writers instead of spellers.  You know I love spelling and grammar, but writing is about expression, communication and breathing life into our artfully contrived words.

Don’t stifle it by counting off more for the mechanics of writing than for expression.  Clearly cut writing that moves you is worth more than grammar and mechanics errors.

Homeschool Mom Grades a High School Essay

Grading a high school essay is not only a satisfying job but a unique privilege.

All the instructions you have been given your child for years turns now into a beautiful masterpiece.

Don’t give up your homeschool goals when you grade high school essays.

What writing topics our high school teens fill their minds with as they get ready to finish their tutoring with you is just as important as you adopting traditional standards for grading.

What are you afraid of most when grading high school essays?

Hugs and love ya,

Tina Signature 2015c

Also, check out:
Should We Give Grades to Our Middle & High School Homeschooled Kids
9th Grade Homeschool High School – Avoid the Sock It to Them Attitude

Linking up @these awesome places:
Thoughtful Spot|Making Your Home Sing Monday|Mom 2 Mom|Mommy Monday|Good Morning Mondays|Tuesday Talk|

Should My Homeschooled Kid Repeat a Grade?

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

Should my homeschooled kid repeat a grade is a tough subject to try to condense to one article because at the elementary level it may not be such a huge setback as it might be for a kid in high school.

Then again, if repeating a grade in homeschool is a blow at a young child’s confidence it could be a significant concern.

Tough subject for sure with all the factors to consider.Should My Homeschooled Kid Repeat a Grade @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusAssigning grade levels is one thing we try to leave behind when we begin to homeschool. However, there are times we have to address it like when some states that require grade level reporting at the beginning of the year or it becomes more important at the high school level to show completion or college readiness.

I want to share some pointers that will help across the board for you to keep in mind if you feel like your child has struggled all year and really didn’t grasp very many concepts.

Are you coping with learning challenges?

This is a challenging situation because you may feel that the right choice is to repeat a level so that your child can retain the information.

Add to that scenario, a state required test. This decision becomes almost too much to bear.

When faced with this decision, it is important to ask yourself if you think your child will make significant changes with that year?

Was it because of immaturity or was it because he really didn’t understand the subject?

If the child is old enough to understand that you are thinking about repeating a grade, will it crush his self-esteem?

A child knowing that he has to repeat a grade sometimes just does not have the same motivation for the next year.

In my experience, holding a child back had significant learning challenges later and more so than the parent is dealing with in the beginning.

Sometimes taking the state required testing and helping the child to understand that his end score is just that a score and doesn’t really indicate the progress he made in all areas of development is the less invasive way to go.

Learning can happen in leaps and sometimes it lags.

I wasn’t a math person in school and I struggled at the beginning of high school. Until I got a teacher that explained algebra to me in a different way, it didn’t click with me until the end of my sophomore year.

Though I kept a C average, I wasn’t held back and I had advanced classes in other subjects I excelled at.  A different approach can be the key to making progress.

This is especially important if you are dealing with some failures at high school because one or even two weak subjects for a highschoolers are just struggles and not necessarily a reason to hold him back a grade level.

Switching gears on you, if you have a young child, then you know how fast a few months can make a huge difference in their physical growth. In two months, I am buying bigger size shoes and clothes One year, within just a few months,  I bought tennis shoes two sizes larger. Academic growth is very similar.  Within months, a child can move ahead quickly in a grade level.

If you decide to repeat a grade, do they really need the whole year to do that?

Can you L-E-N-G-T-H-E-N a school year instead of holding a child back?

Besides the advantage we have in homeschooling of trying not to assign grade levels, we also have the benefit of stretching out a school year.

In high school, this can be particularly helpful if a teen is struggling with a subject and needs more time to mature prior to graduation.  Too, it is very common for a teen to not know what direction or career he wants to take until later in high school.

If he finally chooses a career or college, you may find out that he may need to cover more language arts, math or science to reach his goals.

Instead of holding him back, lengthen the school year to twelve months and arm him with more subjects.  This can look very different from what we consider schooling year round because most of us take a more relaxed approach if we school year round.

Schooling year round in this case would not be more relaxed, but would be more rigorous to stay focused on the goal of filling in areas of our child’s weaknesses in the 3Rs.

Repeating or Reinforcing Learning?

If a child is not getting a concept, then simply explaining to them that they have to reinforce their learning gives them a sense of empowerment and a can do spirit.

Though we try to avoid grade levels because they are not always indicators of what our children can actually do, grade levels can give us indications of what our children are struggling in or what subjects they have strong points in.

As the parent, it is up to you to decide what is the best course for you children, but remember in homeschooling we are homeschooling for mastery and sometimes it takes more than one traditional school year before a child is ready to move on to the next topic.

Do you have a child that struggled with concepts this year? Are you deciding whether to move on to the next level?

Hugs and love ya,

Tina Signature 2015c

Also, look at these articles:
Gauging Homeschool Progress – Masters of their Material
The Dos & Don’ts When You Hit a Learning Plateau in Homeschool

I Am Homeschooling Because I Want My Kids Socialized

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

I am homeschooling because I want my kids socialized. That was the only answer I could think of to tell the lady in the checkout line at the store. Hopefully, that would nip in the bud any further questioning of the new lifestyle my husband and I had embraced.

I am Homeschooling Because I Want My Kids Socialized @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I got so tired of answering the same type of question: “Uhmm, are they going to be with other children their same age? “ Soon after that question would follow the dreaded S-word (socialization).

It was a classic moment to see the expression on their face change as they are not sure what to say next.

All of the so well-thought out reasons for homeschooling like building character, teaching from a Biblical view, and rigorous academics just didn’t come to mind right at that moment.

Are We Over Protecting Our Children When Homeschooling?

When you start to homeschool, it is a genuine concern of a lot of new homeschoolers to worry about socialization.

It is okay to fear that your children will not learn social graces.

As seasoned homeschoolers, we are quick to jumping and defending that issue, but what we don’t realize is that it is a valid concern of a lot of new homeschoolers.

Be sure to grab my book, Homeschooling 31 Day Boot Camp for New Homeschoolers: When You Don’t Know Where to Begin.

My answer above really was the truth when a lady asked me at the grocery store check out line.

I do homeschool because I want my sons socialized.

After researching and feeling better about it, my husband and I realized that somebody will influence our children.

Why shouldn’t it be people who care for and love them? Why should it be peers who may not influence them in the direction we want our sons to go?

It just made sense to me that learning should be natural out among people and not in a nook somewhere caged by four walls.

Peers vs. Parental Influence. Is It a Match?

Too, what is wrong with inflicting our will and our view on our children?

My mother who homeschooled my youngest sister in the 80’s says to this day that anybody can be a product of cultural warping.

Wow, what a true statement, I thought.

Too, it is kind of an oxymoron to me.

Part of the definition of socialization includes giving the individual skills and habits to participate in society. Who is going to teach that to my sons, another 6 year old?

Later, if a child doesn’t turn out to be a productive part of society, folks look back at their parents, not the peers. Who is looking insane then?

As a parent, I want my sons independent, self-learners and not dependent on peer pressure for acceptance.

Soon you learn too that with all the activities available to homeschoolers now, we get more socialization with a variety of other people, children and adults alike, than we ever would have had we been in public school. Why?

Because we ARE in the real world everyday mingling around in it and living life.

When you are asked why you are homeschooling, what is your answer?

You’ll love these other tips:

Hugs and love ya,

 

Homeschool Confession – My Homeschool Mistakes

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

Homeschool confession my homeschool mistakes. Besides mistakes are part of learning how to homeschool. Do you want to hear about some of my blunders?

Homeschool mistakes are part of learning not what to do when homeschooling. However, in the beginning it’s hard to view it that way.

Too, nobody wants to do the trial and error method with their kids.

We have a few short years to homeschool our kids and we want to maximize our efforts.

Homeschool Confession - My Homeschool Mistakes

If I share just three of my mistakes maybe they can save you some grief.

Not leaving the public school mentality.

Isn’t that hard to do? Especially because I was the product of public school.

For example, I never questioned why I needed to test, I just blindly followed the masses.

I realized that leaving the public school mentality didn’t mean not using some of the practical tips that did work in public school at home. 

It just meant to leave behind what I didn’t need because I was not teaching my kids, not a classroom.

New Homeschooler

Because we live in this world, it’s hard to not be affected by the pressure of test, perform and out do.

My sons are just normal boys who have been privately tutored by me. That’s all.

I left public school because I didn’t want to model it at home, not just change geography.

Comparison to other homeschool moms, dad and oh yes their children.

I am guilty. It seemed like some other mom had this whole homeschool thing figured out.

Then I find out later her beginnings were as humble as mine.

I thought other dads did more of the teaching until I realized that statistics show that about 85% or more of the teaching is shouldered by the mother.

I guess it just sounded good when dad did a science experiment with their sons. My science experiments were not that exciting in the beginning. Can you say boring teacher?

Boring and now a show off. Yes, I thought I had to “show off” my progress to my mother-in-law who was not supportive of our decision to homeschool in the beginning.

I had to prove her wrong and was humbled in a lesson I won’t forget.

Trying to show off my teaching skills to her, I asked Mr. Senior 2013 who I was then teaching to read to show us the long i sound. Yes he did.

He promptly went and got the longest piece of white butcher paper he could tear off the roll.

Laying the paper down on the floor, which was twice as long as grandma, my poor baby proceeded to draw the longest i I had ever seen.  I shuffled off in shame.

What to Expect from the Homeschool Kickstarter

From my struggle, I created a curriculum for new homeschool educators. And taught this course in person to new homeschoolers. I’ve now put my course online for all new homeschoolers

More shamed at the fact that I was trying to show off instead of what really was funny at the time though I didn’t feel that way.

Humble me for I needed it for the road ahead.

With the 6 modules and 29 workshops, I walk you step-by-step through beginning homeschooling, understanding the homeschool lifestyle, choosing curriculum, and understanding how to fit it all in a day.

Look at what you’ll learn.

  • Learn how to identify what is and what is not homeschooling. It can mean the difference in succeeding or succumbing to the mindset you want to leave behind.
  • Choose curriculum wisely instead of using the oh it looks good method.
  • Organize the areas of life that collide when you begin to homeschool.
  • Identify and create the right schedule for your family’s rhythm.
  • Understand what is important to teach from K to High School. (Oh, did I tell you I have kids well past 10 years old?)
Not investing more time in my education as a teacher.

Like many new homeschoolers, I too focused solely on my children and their need for a support group, curriculum, socialization and field trip.

It took me a few years before I realized that the best way to help my children was to become the best teacher I could be.

A public school teacher is required to take continuing education classes. Why shouldn’t I?

If I didn’t take time to read blogs, join support groups, buy teacher helps and attend homeschool conventions I couldn’t say I was schooling for my children.

Feelings of guilt that I had associated with longing to interact with other homeschool moms had to be left behind.

Association has to be a vital part of my everyday teaching. Online forum groups were not a waste of time but needed for refreshment and encouragement.

New to Homeschool

Like all things, the time I took for educating myself and camaraderie had to have a place in my life to be balanced.

Your turn: Do you have a story we can learn from? I hope you can learn from my mistakes.

Homeschool Confession - My Homeschool Mistakes

I thought about this quote today because after many repeated failures, pursuit can turn to passion for homeschooling.

“Life is filled with so many exciting twists and turns. Hop off the straight and narrow whenever you can and take the winding paths.

Experience the exhilaration of the view from the edge. Because the moments spent there, that take your breath away, are what make you feel truly alive.”

~ Stacey Charter ~

You’ll also love these reads for New Homeschoolers:

Homeschool Confession - My Homeschool Mistakes @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus