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Wipe Out Self-Doubt: 13 Ways to Show Homeschool Progress (And How I Know My Sons Got It)

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Working in the sun 7 days a week and 12 hour days as insurance auto adjusters, my sons have been walking down rows and rows of thousands of cars as they’ve been processing insurance claims at their job.

The vehicles are owned by persons affected by Hurricane Harvey. Recently, the insurance company considerably reduced the amount of staff needed to work the claims; they kept only 5 people to finish up.

My two sons were part of the 5 kept. By the way, although they have worked doing various things, this has been their first real life (don’t you just hate when people use that word with us) job.

THIS is How I Know My Homeschooled Sons Got It

How do they measure up in their first real life job? One of their bosses told the team, “It’s hard to find kids in this generation with a work ethic like these two boys. They are prompt, do what they’re told, work well with the team, and work without complaining.”

Just prior to the boss speaking, the other employees had called attention to the fact that my boys have been homeschooled.

Homeschool progress, achievement, and success is measured differently by everybody.

And you know it’s not been my style to talk a lot about my sons’ achievements. I want my son’s to explore their options during and after homeschool without feeling the need to perform for the public.

However, I do know, like me, you want to know that your day to day efforts of homeschooling are working.

And letting you know how I know that my homeschooled sons got it, I hope that if you’re having nagging feelings of self-doubt that you’ll put them to rest today.

When a student takes initiative in his school every day that practice spills over to real life. Rigorous academics builds character. Giving your kids freedom to demonstrate mastery equips them with a can do spirit that will stick into adulthood.

What I’m saying is that there is a connection between rigorous academics while homeschooling and success later.

I have rounded up 13 ways to show homeschool progress. And although I didn’t use all of them with my older boys, I used a lot of them. Too, not every idea will work with every topic, but they give you a starting point.

ONE/ Student made maps.

Mapmaking and geography for homeschool study. Check out the tips!

Whether you choose for a student to draw a map from memory or label one teaching concepts get mastered.

WonderMaps by Bright Ideas Press

Wondermaps have been our choice of maps. Whatever time period my boys are working on, we can use them as a blank outline or add as much information to them as we want to.

TWO/Field trip notes.

I’ve always insisted that my sons come back with at least three key things we learned on our field trips. Not only was it fun, but I was enforcing that learning takes place outside of a book.

THREE/ Student made powerpoints or webquests.

FOUR/ Create a timeline.

FIVE/ Engage in a mock discussion. If need be, create a limited time co-op.

SIX/ Write narratives.

Writing narrative is a great way for an older student to demonstrate that he understands a subject.

SEVEN/ Student made presentations.

Presentations have been a huge part of not only recognizing achievement but gave my sons impetus to create excellent work. You don’t have to have something as formal as a co-op, but even a small family audience will work.

EIGHT/ Teach the subject back to you or to one of his siblings.

NINE/Keeping a journal.

TEN/Create a song.

ELEVEN/Create a play.

TWELVE/Oral discussions.

Oral discussions with my sons is one way I was able to gauge their progress in literature.

If they couldn’t go beyond telling me the basics of a story using proper literary terms, I knew they really didn’t put forth effort to engage with the literature.

THIRTEEN/ Narration.

Narration is a Charlotte Mason technique that I incorporated into our unit studies. If a child can’t tell back what he read, he doesn’t really understand it. Look at my tips at my post Narration – Telling Back or Testing? Books that Make Teaching Narration Easy Peazy.

Although my sons job right now is tough, it works for them while they are still taking courses. And I’m just as proud of their work ethic as I am of any academic grade they make.

I’ve learned that my focus on cultivating their attitude was just as important as nurturing their aptitude. You can have both.

When a student takes initiative in his school every day that practice spills over to real life. Rigorous academics builds character. Giving your kids freedom to demonstrate mastery equips them with a can do spirit that will stick into adulthood. Grab these 13 creative ways for your child to show mastery! #homeschool

Tests are important, but they’ll never be able to prepare a homeschool child for facing real life. Try one or two of these ways above for your child to demonstrate progress.

Also, you’ll love these articles!

Hugs and love

8 Colossal Pitfalls of Homeschooling in the WHAT IF World

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

When I imagine how things are going to be, I tend to be dramatic. Is that a nice way of saying I can be delusional? The pitfalls of homeschooling are plenty if you let them sidetrack you from your vision. Instead of losing vision, hone your goals.

For example, when I started homeschooling, I had visions of children eager to learn each day around our little public school desk. My house would be kept tidy every day. And laundry would never get more than a load or two behind. Supper would be on the table at 5:00 p.m. on the dot. Delusional I am telling you.

DELUSIONAL HOMESCHOOLING OR DELIBERATE HOMESCHOOLING

High levels of confidence, conviction, and fortitude wane easily and can be completely sucked out of us if we enter the what if . . . world of homeschooling.

Look at these potential 8 colossal pitfalls, if you let them.

What if

. . . I start to homeschool and my children get behind?

Guess what? They will. That is what catching up is about. Look at my article, Am I Doing Enough When Homeschooling.

. . . I choose not to test my children. Will I be doing them a disservice?

Look here at my tips about how to measure progress at my article, Narration – Telling Back or Testing? Books that Make Teaching Narration Easy Peazy.

. . . I’m not a creative person? I might be the most boring teacher.

You may, but you can change and learn too.

Look at how I did it at my article, Easy Hands on Homeschooling Ideas When You’re Not the Bomb Mom and 7 Homeschool Lies I Want to Tell My Younger Self.

. . . I can’t find friends for my children?

Unless you plan to homeschool your kids under a rock, there will be so much interaction over the course of your journey.

Look how we did it at my article, Socialization – A Homeschool Hallucination and I Am Homeschooling Because I Want My Kids Socialized.

. . . I decide that I want to put my child back in public school?

Before you do that, look at my tips at It’s a New Homeschool Year and My Child Wants to Go Back to Public School and Why My Homeschooled Kids Are Not Given the Choice to Go to Public School.

. . . my health or my children’s health prevent me from homeschooling?

Yes, that may happen. Look at how I dealt with in my article, Taking a Hit Doesn’t Mean to Quit– Homeschooling Through Crisis.

. . . while I’m pregnant I may not do my kids justice because I am too sick to teach them?

Hopefully, you put your health first if that time comes and realize that you’re teaching your kids way more than academics.

. . . I am not prepared for the upper grades?

All the preparing in the world won’t matter if you don’t have you teen’s heart. You can learn academics right alongside your teen. Focus on the relationship too.

And look at my articles in my blog category How to Homeschool Teens to Graduation.

COMBATING HOMESCHOOL PARALYSIS

We resist the urge to homeschool in the what if . . . world by applying these C tips.

Commitment.

Having practical teaching tips is important, however, that can be gleaned over any period of time.

Commitment is attached to an obligation. In some ways, I view my commitment to homeschooling like the marriage vow I made to my husband 23 years ago.

It is a guarantee that I will do everything in my power to make it work. Is a long term commitment for “just a year”?

View your homeschooling journey as a long term commitment.

Instead of bringing stress by applying pressure on your child to perform, start thinking of milestone markers. We plant certain milestone markers we want to reach for the long term.

Camaraderie.

Even though we can be consumed with the “nuts and bolts” of how to lesson plan, or how to teach writing, how to teach reading, or how to prepare a top notch high school transcript, it is the companionship of other homeschoolers that is the true glue that makes us stick to homeschooling.

In the camaraderie of our local homeschool support groups, summer homeschooling conventions, blogs and on line support groups, there is always somebody who understands our similar circumstances.

Conscientious.

Though many of us may live in states or countries where we do not need to test or keep attendance, our being attentive to our duties as parent and teacher keep us principled.

We do not adopt laxed attitudes about our house, our school, our worship, or our families. Again, we let go of the what if . . . world because our heart and conscience are stronger forces than any test score and they can motivate us to keep going.

My dramatic idealist person has not completely left, but my sons have done their work on many types of desks.

We eat meals close enough to 5:00 and there is always a load or two of laundry I could do.

The homeschooling what if . . . world is full of worry and guilt. Resist the urge along the way to re-enter it.

What counts in a journey is the ending!

The pitfalls of homeschooling are plenty if you let them sidetrack you from your vision. Instead of losing vision, hone your goals. High levels of confidence, conviction, and fortitude wane easily and can be completely sucked out of us if we enter the "what if . . ." world of homeschooling. Look at these potential 8 colossal pitfalls, if you let them. Click here.

Hugs and love ya,

3 Beginner’s Tips: Homeschool High School Literature

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

I have easy beginner’s tips for teaching homeschool high school literature. Also, look at my page How to Homeschool High School.

As if entering the high school years wasn’t daunting enough, you’re expected to be instantly informed about how to teach high school literature.

I began gathering teaching tips and resources for my first high school son.

However, all I could think of was my own high school years, and that was a long time ago.

Gradually, my basic plan for a starting point has changed as each son entered high school because my own high school experience was not much help.

3 Beginners Tips for Homeschool High School Literature. Look at this quick and easy overview to give you a heads up about what to expect. Click here to scoot by and read the AWESOME tips! #homeschool

Today, I want to clear away some of the mystery surrounding how to teach literature because I want to give you a beginning point.

Also, teaching high school literature is a very comprehensive topic.

Instead of taking you to the glazed-over-eyes point I want to stick to a basic foundation, which I think is more helpful.

Try to remember as I share the three beginner’s tips that you can build on them each year.

Try not to sock it all to your teen like I did in the beginning.

Look at my 9th Grade Homeschool High School – Avoid the Sock It to Them Attitude.

ONE/ Hone your definition of what is high school literature.

Literature is any written material.

That doesn’t help much so you need to help your teen understand what is the importance of studying literature.

Battle for the Mind

Try this.

Literature is any written material, but it normally means works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and drama which having artistic value and makes one think.

In addition, classic literature is written work that transcends time or has outlasted current thinking.

Too, great literature or masterpieces are written works that gives shades of meaning to their topics. Opinions, feelings and emotions will vary.

Whether it’s a short story with limited characters or poetry that reflects the author’s world, they all share identifying marks which are to move you and make you hate or delight in the undertone meaning.

And like one of my boys said, they just keep talking to you today.

Whether the material is about showing a stylistic technique or it’s an unusual genre, it’s a battle for the mind.

TWO/ Introduce literature through American, British, and World authors.

Something else I did wrong was to be all over the place when selecting curriculum.

No matter how organized my first high school teen was, I frustrated him because I didn’t have a method to my planning.

Dividing up grades or semesters by reading and analyzing poems, novels, and short stories from different parts of the world and different time periods gives your teen a well-balanced view.

3 Beginners Tips: Homeschool High School Literature. Look at this easy starting point!

For example, a study of World literature would obviously include authors from all over the world, but it should coincide with the different time periods of history.

This way you’re covering some of the greatest material from different ages.

Don’t forget the timeless tip of using one history book for analyzing literature while reading about history.

For example, when I read the novel by Dickens of A Tale of Two Cities with my boys, it gives a good view of the Victorian period and the French Revolution.

You’ll want to add to it by having your teen research a bit about the French Revolution unless he has already studied it.

Understanding the world the author has created or is writing about places your teen right in the middle of the conflicts.

The conflict of two distinct classes, the rich and the poor, along with the way Dickens explains sad times gives your teen a preview of not only literary topics, but history.

THREE/ Literary devices or terms need to be your framework.

I never required my boys to do a book report when they were younger, but I did require critical thinking skills and a broad understanding of literary devices in high school.

I would hear moans of how boring it was and I tried not to make it boring.

But, this is high school literature and the skills taught at these grades should equip your teen at the least to think like an adult.

Whether you’re preparing your teen for a college prep course or not, he still needs to learn how to think beyond black and white.

This is the time when your teen forms values, opinions, and beliefs and you need to look beyond the idea that you’re mutilating a good read.

How to Reflect on American, British, and World Literature

Making the connection to our belief system during our study time as we discussed it together was an unexpected benefit.

What I mean is that this is not just the time to read about boring literary devices, but the time to understand the message that the author is illustrating through literary devices.

Sometimes, it’s necessary to memorize definitions like rhyme, meter, or sonnet, but it’s more engaging when you and your teen understand why poetry was written in that style.

Digging into why ancient poets wrote how they did gives your student a richer understanding of the world around him.

You want your homeschooled teen to clearly state a verbal or written response to the topics of today’s world. It begins by analyzing a great book.

I hope this simple beginning and quick glance will give you a good foundation to begin your planning. In my upcoming posts, I will be sharing resources to help guide you and your teen.

Do you think you would like that?

Look at these too, you may like to grab the tips there.

More Homeschool High School Literature Tips

What You Must Know to Teach High School Unit Studies

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

Until my sons reached high school, I didn’t know if my unit study approach would meld with tracking credits and courses. Check out my how to homeschool high school page for awesome tips.

Also, there didn’t really seem an abundance of prepared high school unit studies.

Between determining if unit studies were a good fit for high school and understanding record keeping, it was a lot to wrap my mind around.

Until my sons reached high school, I didn't know if my unit study approach would meld with tracking credits and courses. Also, there didn't really seem an abundance of prepared high school unit studies. Click here to read these 3 must know tips!

Sorting out myths from truth, I hope these 3 tips will help you to easily homeschool high school with unit studies. Or at least give you a beginning place.

3 Tips for Teaching High School Unit Studies

ONE/ Understand first that high school is just a continuation of the lowers grades – really!

Yes, it’s true that you’ll need to track credits and courses, but before stressing out about them, plan high school subjects like you’ve done in the lower grades.

That’s right. Begin with what you know.

In my article How to Choose the BEST Homeschool Lesson Planning Pages for THIS Year, I not only give you tips on how to do that, but each lesson plan form lists subjects by general categories; math, language arts, science, history and electives are the framework of well-rounded out high school courses.

It’s not hard to plan when you understand that you’re covering the same basic subjects albeit in more depth analyzing views instead of just a question answer format like your child did in younger grades.

TWO/ Look for resources which teach 2:1 or two-fer resources.

A two-fer resource is another secret tip to homeschooling teens.

Using a resource which teaches two subjects is vital when your child enters high school.

You don’t want your time wasted and neither do teens.

More important though is the reason that unit studies rocked in the younger grades is the same reason which holds true for high school.

Learning makes more sense when subjects are tied together instead of studied as separate subjects. Additionally, unit studies have always been a research-based approach.

This is a skill which is needed on into adulthood.

Living Books for Unit Studies

Resist giving up your unit study approach because it may require a bit more time to put together.

Sure, it’s easy to assign a text book and move on, but you and I know that high school is just hard sometimes. It’s a challenge to plan but still doable.

Begin again with something you know. Look at these things you may already know how and are doing with your kids in the younger grades.

  • Reading history living books and having your child choose writing topics based on history.
  • Reading science living books and choosing writing topics based on science.
  • Reading math living books and having your child choose writing topics based on math.

Now that you understand that high school courses fall into general categories and understand to look for two-fer resources, here are some examples of how to put it together.

We love the book Undaunted Courage.

Just a side note here.

When I look at a book which can serve as a springboard for high school unit studies, I note 3 things:

  • that it’s a living book,
  • that it’s high school level so that I can legally note on my high school transcript that it’s a high school level resource,
  • and I mull over how hard it will be to add external resources to enrich the study.

Not only is your teen covering part of his credit toward history when reading Undaunted Courage , but he is covering credits for literature too. Writing is part of a literature credit.

So your teen is covering 2–3 subjects at once depending on what credits you’ve lined out for the year.

Because covering literature in high school means more than just reading, you’ll want to have a variety of resources for analyzing literature and for guiding your teen how to write well.

A literature-based unit study which has a history setting has been the easiest to start off with at the high school level.

For example, I find it a challenge to round out a history book with literature analysis than a great book suited for literature analysis.

How to Put Together High School Unit Studies

It’s been easier to add history and science of a time period to a great read.

One super helpful resource we only discovered this year and that is the Thrift Study Editions by Dover. 

Not only are the books for high school level, but each one comes with a study guide in the back. 

For example, while reading A Tale of Two Cities, we studied about the culture of France and England and learned about the issues of the French Revolution.

With a resource like that, doing unit studies are a cinch at the high school level. This brings me to the third point you want to know.

THREE/ Fill your teacher nook with specialized how-two books for you and your teen.

Tackling how to teach a subject with out a curriculum can be daunting, but you can go from research to reward if you choose specialized teaching books.

Here are a few of my favorite resources. You don’t need all of them, but I’ve used them at one time or another to round out our unit studies.

Literature Unit Studies

  • The Design-A-Study series are timeless. This series of books about science, history, and composition gives an overview of what to cover in each grade.  Instead of giving you subjects, it’s helpful because it gives you the big picture of what your child needs to know from K-12. A resource like this is especially helpful if you want to cover a skill or topic that your highschooler may have struggled with in the earlier grades.
  • Warriner’s English Complete Course. This set of books have been around for years and helps to hone writing. Christine Miller of Classical Christian said, “This excellent reference can be used throughout all three years of the dialectic to teach writing. It thoroughly covers grammar in detail, which provides a nice review for those children that need it, or for those children that missed some grammar instruction in the grammar stage. It also covers writing in detail, with a complete section on writing mechanics, usage, writing correct and clear sentences, paragraphs, and papers, the research paper, using references, and even public speaking.” Read the rest of her review here. Before we started using Rod and Staff high school levels, we used Warriner’s. Rod and Staff’s Communicating Effectively I liked one year because I felt like it was more streamlined. It helps to.understand that I used Rod and Staff in the younger grades and their grammar is very rigorous and by 8th grade formal grammar is completed. When you click the link above you can see the sample of their English and what is covered in the high school years.
  • Home Learning Year by Year: How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool Through High School. Don’t get overwhelmed by this book. There is no need to have to read all of it. Focus only on the grade level for this year. Having a handy reference like this will guide you to subjects for each grade.

In an upcoming post, I’ll show you how I plan credits now that you can see how easy it is to satisfy two to three subjects using carefully selected resources.

What You Must Know to Teach High School Unit Studies. Click here to grab the tips!

Also, check out Diving into Homeschool Unit Studies: The Dos and Don’ts and 10 Days of Diving Into Unit Studies by Creating a Unit Study Together and Homeschool High School–How to Log Hours for High School.

Hugs and love ya,

How to Transition a Child From Reading to Literature

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

When I was in 8th grade I had an English teacher who loved words and literary analysis. I picked up her love of words and reading, but not so much her affection for literary analysis. Later in life, my fondness for literary analysis and literature was ignited but my earlier aversion affected how I started teaching reading.

When I was in 8th grade I had an English teacher who loved words and literary analysis. I picked up her love of words and reading, but not so much her affection for literary analysis. Later in life, my fondness for literary analysis and literature was ignited but my earlier aversion affected how I started teaching reading. Click here to get tips on understanding the difference between teaching reading and literature.

Determined that my boys would not be aliterate, I did some things right and some not so right when I first began to teach reading.

What I should’ve done with my first son was to introduce elements of literature earlier than I did. I’m grateful I didn’t totally mess up my kid because his love for excellent literature is apparent today.

From Reading to Literature

Let me back up first because understanding what is literature and what is reading can be confusing to the non-professional. It was to me.

And because there are so many facets about comprehending what is literature, it can seem almost over the top to grasp.

I’m going to speak in broad terms here because it’s important to see the big picture before you know how to transition a child from reading to literature. Teaching a child to read has these elements:

  • from the time he can sat on your lap, you begin reading aloud;
  • you teach him to associate symbols, which he later understands are letters with sounds;
  • you teach him that grouping together more than one letter helps him to blend sounds;
  • you begin to engage in formal and direction instruction which is phonics;
  • you continue with assisting him in learning phonics to about the fourth grade if necessary;
  • while you’re teaching him letter sounds, he cements those sounds by reading them in books, which gives him a purpose for reading;
  • you progress from early readers to chapter books; and
  • all throughout the years, you should be very picky about the quality of literature so that you hook an emerging reader on to lifelong reading.

Not focusing just on how to read but fostering a love of it in the early years is the key. That’s a tough enough job.

Here is one of my favorite programs to teach reading!
All About Reading

Switching gears to teaching literature is a gradual process as I’ve learned. It’s my opinion that whether or not you take a literature course in college, you’re not really prepared to know when to introduce all the features of literature to a young child. Of course, if you’re an English teacher that is different.

Before I go further, it’s important to also look at the elements of teaching literature which gives you a starting point in how to teach it. Here are some easy to understand features:

  • it’s about using good books that inspire readers;
  • it can effect the lives of people;
  • it may be praised for its literary value;
  • it may be famous for its historical value;
  • it’s about learning genres along with the elements of fiction;
  • it’s about exposure to a higher level vocabulary;
  • it’s learning how to extract meaning beyond what the author is stating;
  • it’s appreciating why literature can move us;
  • it’s about choosing a method, whether it’s an oral discussion only or part worksheet or part oral discussion to find one that suits your child’s learning style; and
  • it’s about moving from soft or fun literature to sophisticated literature which may not always be so fun.

As you can see, literature is an immense area to study. Knowing when to transition to teaching literature and not teaching reading is not an exact science.

Taming it doesn’t have to be a struggle if you know what to focus on at which ages or levels.

Now that you have an overview of the difference, here are a few strategies that won’t overwhelm you.

One/ Introduce genre in a natural way and not like I did with a workbook.

Even though I messed up with one child, I still had time to for a do over.

Instead of pulling out a worksheet to match genre types for books which your kids may not have read, simply explain the type of book it is.

As we read together from about third grade on, I saw the need to start explaining the genre and setting.

Now that two of my sons are young adults, I get different opinions from them.

One son critiqued me and wished I was more formal at the time when explaining the type of literature we were going to discuss and to include more worksheets. The second son critiqued me and said he wished there were no worksheets at all.

Teaching literature should take your child’s learning style into consideration but I also remember that I’m doing the teaching. And just because something is forced, it doesn’t mean it’s not good for my sons.

A balance between discussion and workbooks I feel gives a well-rounded approach and I ended up adapting to both learning styles

Two/ Book reports are not always required but you’ll want to determine a standard in how to analyze a reading.

What you would expect from a middle school student is not the same that you would expect from a high school teen.

Instead of doing book reports, take time to discuss the book with them. This means they read and come back to tell what they learned. I know it takes time, but literature is about taking time to let it move you.

In the beginning, they will just want to tell you what the book is about. Believe me after hearing the retelling of To Kill a Mockingbird numerous times, I thought I would lose patience. But seeing expressions on each of my son’s faced as they read it, made each time feel new. Each kid will identify with the protagonist, Scout, whether they agree with her or not. And understanding a six-year-old with a great wit is what drew my sons into learning about the story.

Three/ Analyzing  and teaching literature is a gradual unfolding.

I did this part wrong too. When Mr. Senior 2013 started middle school, I thought that instantly he was going to understand things like a figure of speech, the elements of fiction, author’s point of view, and etc.

I needed to slow down and realize that from about middle to high school, analyzing literature is a gradual process. Just like higher level math requires a more mature thinking, so does literature.

Don’t be locked into grades, but evaluate each child’s reading level and comprehension.

If a child can’t read well yet or is still struggling to comprehend, it’s hard to delve into a deeper meaning of a novel.

Let him lounge in the learning to read stage a while longer.

If You Can Read, You Can Teach Literature

Although I didn’t completely turn my son off to excellent literature, I almost made the mistake by several educators which is to make learning about it too mechanical.

With my next sons, I added in hands-on learning in the elementary grades and middle school.

For example, while discussing the setting of a book, my sons drew what they thought a time period looked like.

When we read Winnie-the-Pooh they drew a forest for the Hundred Acre Wood. A simple map brings the setting of the book to life.

More Language Arts Resources

I didn’t know using puppets would be such a great hit with understanding If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

Those are just a few tips in such a broad topic but I wanted to dive into sharing with you what worked and what didn’t work for me.

I’m going to continue on this topic by sharing some upcoming posts with tips about teaching your kids to high school.

Would you like to get some more tips? Tell me what kind of help you need the most.

Hugs and love ya,