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I am NOT Patient Enough to Homeschool – Now What?

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Patience (not skill) is the secret to sticking to homeschooling @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Ever heard the quote by an unknown source which states, “Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow – that is patience.” They must have been a homeschooler. I am not patient enough to homeschool is a common myth about homeschooling.

Whether you are patient enough o homeschool is a valid concern whether you’re new or if you have been homeschooling for a while.

Seasoned homeschoolers would probably agree with me when I say that not many of us feel like the shining role model of patience.

It’s not because we are not great moms, it’s just that we are humbled by this process of homeschooling.

As homeschoolers we get told a lot that “I could never have the patience to homeschool.”

I am NOT Patient Enough to Homeschool

When I first started homeschooling, I felt ill equipped to answer that valid concern.

I feel differently now that I have graduated two of my sons.

Look at some ways to help moms who have that concern. Maybe, you can grab a bit of encouragement for you too.

Patience in my homeschooling journey was learned right along side teaching my sons.

It has to be developed and nurtured. Patience is just as much a skill in teaching as any other skill.

It takes patience to restrain yourself or in delay giving your children the answers.

It is NOT a virtue that you should have instantly, but it is a virtue that you want in your homeschool journey. Why? Read on, I will explain in a minute of its ability to stick through tough times.

More than anything, patience has to be modeled by YOU, the teacher, the educator.

If you either have had a preschooler or teenager one day that is misbehaving or acting up (I promise you some days you can’t tell the difference between the two) they are watching your every movement, body language and tone of speech to see if they are worth of your patience.

It is then that patience is learned by the teacher. The quality of patience teaches our children that they are worthy of our patience because you are really being a servant of them by teaching them.

Patient Enough to Homeschool

Children, even teens, are extremely sensitive to harsh criticism.

Teens are dealing with hormones and physical changes and this can add to the chaos of the house hold.

If we are constantly short on patience, then how can our children respect us as teachers? It won’t happen.

It is important to be firm, not give in and correct their behavior when you see negative attitudes or rebellion from your children.

From the time our children are babies they mimic us and it really doesn’t stop when they are teenagers.

Patience (not skill) is the secret to sticking to homeschooling.

Many new homeschoolers are on the right track though when they think of patience as a must-have in homeschooling, but not necessarily for the right reasons.

You’ll love my book!

Patience is the key to sticking to homeschooling for the right reasons. What are the right reasons?

You are not overly upset when something is not working in your homeschool. Having patience, you can sort through curriculum or teaching tips that are not working for your family.

The most rewarding of things though is that you do not lose your joy so quickly in homeschooling either. Patiently, you don’t get upset at the slightest thing that is not working right in your homeschool.

Also, you avoid making rash decisions like switching curriculum quickly. Look at my article, Stop Switching Your Curriculum, Switch Your Course of Study.

Many times it is not the curriculum that is the problem, but it can be the attitude toward a change in your lifestyle, a change in the mood of your child and just the pressure of everyday life that tug at us.

Is Your Homeschool Missing this?

The beautiful beaming quality of patience knows how to sort through all those ups and downs and doesn’t give in so easy to pressures.

When we exhibit patience and kindness in our teaching, then our children will have something to learn and worthy of imitation.

Look at my tips, What Does It Mean To Be Family Focused Instead of Curriculum Driven When Homeschooling.

Patience is more than the willingness to wait, like the very wise saying above states, patience is proactive and it is the ability to keep going on when the going is tough or slow.

I am still working on those parts. How about you? Do you feel the same way?

Ancient Greece Unit Study. Birthplace of Western Civilization Free 4 Tab Square Minibook

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Ancient Greece Unit Study. Ancient Greece Birthplace of Western Civilization free minibook @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I have the second minibook ready for our Ancient Greece Unit Study.

Too, I am using the same fonts and similar style that I used in my first Ancient Greece Lapbook.

This way you can mix and match the minibooks from my first lapbook and this newest unit study to create a lapbook for your specific needs.

The minibook I have today is “Ancient Greece is The Birthplace of Western Civilization . . . .because”.

It has 4 lift tabs where information is added. You simply cut out and fold the tabs in and glue the title on the outside page.

Like most of my minibooks, I have facts for you and I created a blank minibook too with the download in case you want to add your own researched facts.

This minibook is part of the freebies that I hold back for my loyal followers and this Ancient Greece Lapbook is part of my email reader’s subscribers only.

I would love for you to follow me and give me the opportunity to help you along in your homeschool journey.

This is a Subscriber’s Only Freebie because I luv my followers.

subscribe to my blog posts

Important: IF you are already an email reader, please read this below instead of emailing me right away.

Though I love your emails, it can take a while for me to answer you.

1.) The private link to the subscriber’s only page was sent to you immediately when you joined my blog.

2.) Also, the link is sent to you at the bottom of EVERY newsletter. If you have been getting my blog posts, then check at the very bottom of one of my recent newsletters for the link.

Remember, if you are following along with us, do the minibooks and then just place in a ziploc bag until the end or close to the end of the unit study.

I normally show you a layout we do for our lapbook toward the end of the unit study.

I can’t wait to share the rest of our hands-on activities and the minibooks.

Hugs and love ya,

Tina Signature 2015c

Ancient Greece Unit Study. Hands-on Activity 2. Ancient Greece Chariot

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

Today, we made a fun and easy Ancient Greece Chariot to go with our Ancient Greece Unit Study.

Again, it was a project chosen by Tiny. And we had most of the things here in the house already.

Ancient Greece Unit Study. Make an Ancient Greece Chariot @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Look at our list of what we grabbed and then we added a few other things as we figured it out.

■ cereal box (this is what we used for the body of the chariot)
■ shoe box (we used this stronger cardboard for the “tongue” of the chariot)
■ two round lids (our round lids came from two juice bottles)
■hot glue gun
■ruler
■marker
■scissors
■utility knife
■foil (we used foil to cover the wheels and “tongue” of the chariot because it is what we had and we didn’t have to glue it). Use what you like to decorate the wheels. I see even that sharpies could have worked for a creative design on the wheels.
■brown paper bag (we used a brown paper bag to cover the body of the chariot, but any material you have that you like can cover the body of the chariot). Your child can even design an Ancient Greece pattern.
■straws or wooden skewers for the axle. We used straws because we have so many.

Chariot 1
Chariot 2

After we gathered our supplies, Tiny took the black marker and measured approximately 3 inches from the lower corner of the box and over about 4 inches.

Ancient Greece Unit Study. Hands-on Activity 2. Ancient Greece Chariot

Chariot 3
Chariot 4

He did the same for the other side of the cereal box. Then he took a ruler and connected the lines on both the front and back and on the side.

This way he could see to cut all the way around.

Ancient Greece Chariot Craft

Chariot 5
Chariot 6

This is how it looked after he cut it out. (The open side is the back of the chariot.)

Turning it on its side, he took the ruler and measured down from the top about an inch and measured in from the bottom about half an inch and drew a black line to connect them and cut.

You are trying to give the chariot that “slanted look” for a lack of better technical terms, like in this picture we found.

chariot_16657_md

We couldn’t really curve the sides, so Tiny just did a slant.

Chariot 7
Chariot 9

He did this for both sides of the chariot.

The part he cut off for one side he just used as a template for the second side.

Chariot 8
Chariot 10

So this is how it came out and he was real pleased with it.

Then because he liked the look of a brown paper bag and we had it on hand, he used it cover the chariot.

Here your child could paint or add an Ancient Greece design.

You know I told you Tiny has his limits on artsy stuff he likes to do, so I don’t push him. I let him savor what he likes to do, but there are so many possibilities for designing the body of the chariot that would be fun to do.

Let your child decide how artsy craftsy he wants to be.

Chariot 11
Chariot 12

After he covered and glued the brown paper bag on the chariot, he drew a T shape design on the bottom to show where the wheels or axle would cross with the tong of the chariot.

Then he took the juice lids we had and I actually did this part, which was to use a utility knife to cut a small hole in the middle of the juice lid big enough for the straw to fit through.

If you are using a dowel or skewer, just make sure the hole on the wheel is big enough for it to fit through.

Chariot 13
Chariot 14

Then he covered the wheels with foil and poke the hole through the foil carefully.

Next, he stuck the straw through both lids to make the axle.

I didn’t take a picture of this part, but he cut a rectangle tongue out of the shoe box cardboard and covered it with foil too.

He then glued the straw axle right onto the bottom where he made the horizontal line and glued the tongue on the vertical line under it.

Chariot 15

Cute, cute and Tiny was pleased with his work. It was another fun and hands-on way to learn about Ancient Greece.

Hugs and love ya,

Tina Signature 2015c

The Creative Process: 5 Ways to Cultivate Inspiration & Ideas as a Homeschool Teacher

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

The Creative Process 5 Ways to Cultivate Inspiration & Ideas as a Homeschool Teacher @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Are you just in awe at all the amazing teaching ideas that homeschool moms come up with? I am.

I hope that I am not alone in feeling that when I first started homeschooling the wheels of creativity turned slow for me or so it seemed anyway.

Not only did I fight my own preconceived notion that crafty people were more creative, (you know what I mean – thinking that because they loved crafts, they must be more creative than others who did not like crafts) I didn’t know if I could make a connection with my sons with the creative idea that I wanted to teach to a meaningful purpose for learning.

Help in overcoming my insecurity and giving me a nudge forward was the way my children responded positively to my new teaching ideas I tried.

Results boosted my confidence and I marched forward.

Today, in sharing the creative process: 5 ways to cultivate inspiration & ideas as a homeschool teacher, I hope to boost your creativity confidence by sharing things that worked to help grease the creativity wheel

■ Follow Your Children’s Lead – it’s natural.

One of the first and easiest places I looked to when looking for creative teaching ideas was to look to my boys.

Watching them while playing and noticing what they naturally took an interest in, I followed their lead and expanded on it.

For example, early on I recognized the love my boys had for creating with lego and playing with play dough.

For some of my earlier writing assignments because my boys loathed writing, I would have them create a “masterpiece” first with lego or with play dough and then write about it.

This hands-on approach worked with writing.

 ■Follow Your Passions.

The next thing I looked at was my own passion.

Which homeschool subjects did I feel comfortably teaching and that I spent more time poring over was the next question I asked myself.

Knowing that I have a love for teaching both history and geography, ideas could flow on how to teach those subjects in a fun and entertaining way.

Presenting ideas from what I loved deep down spilled over into enthusiasm for the way I wanted to teach.

■ Visit an unfamiliar place.

After visiting a beautiful ski resort in Colorado, my mind was infused with more ideas of how to teach reading.

There was no rhyme to reason when the ideas came, but when they did, I wrote them down fast.

The trip to the mountains in Colorado was to rest up. An unexpected benefit was that it boosted my creativity.

I let my mind explore teaching ideas that I thought might work.

It wasn’t about being critical of myself if an idea didn’t sound so remarkable, but it was about accepting whatever creative idea I had even if it sounded absurd.

What I have learned is that even a not so remarkable idea can be tweaked to fit when you do have a stroke of pure genius. The point is write it all down.

You don’t have to travel far either.

Activate Your Imagination

After a local field trip to a historical reenactment, I came back with hands-on ideas of how to teach history.

It did have something to do with going in and out of the vendor booths as I know only loved history, but could see books, crafts and hand work from a certain period in history.

■ Dr. Seuss said it best. “Oh the Places You’ll Go!” Read to Go Places.

Reading is an oil that can well grease the creative wheel.

Reading creates ideas; ideas boost a sagging imagination.

Many of my ideas for hands-on projects or lapbooks were born out of an idea that I read in a book.

Never give up your time reading as a teacher. Whether you are reading for pleasure or to find out about teaching, all of the input will fuel the fire of creativity.

■Internet – Pinterest, Homeschool Forums and Blogs.

I almost cringed as I typed the above because though you can google just about anything you may want to look for and I  know that information overload is just waiting to devour your time. Don’t let the internet do that.

It was almost better for creativity when Pinterest didn’t exist because now we think we have to entertain our guests with food made in jars.

With that being said, like all the new tools that come along in our homeschool, it is just a matter of sharpening them to our advantage.

Take an idea from Pinterest, but tweak it to make it your idea.

Simple and uncomplicated are two things that children welcome. A small tweak and an idea you saw can become your idea.

If you see a teaching idea that you want to do with your family, then no problem, just give credit if it is due.

Learning that creativity is really about tweaking an idea to fit your need, I know now that creativity really exists in ALL of us.

You are just as equipped as the next homeschool mom to come up with strokes of creativity.

The only difference between creative homeschool moms and those who are not is fear.

Creative teachers have taken the time to feed, nurture and stoke their ideas.

Letting go of the fear of failure or that your teaching idea is not remarkable is the only hurdle.

Listen to your inner voice and unleash the overflowing amount of ideas burning within you.

Take time today to feed your passion and watch the ideas multiply.

Hugs and love ya,

 Tina Signature 2015c

Check out these articles.

3 Tips From the Pros Before You Become a Homeschool Educator.
Time Tested Teaching Tips

3 Common Missteps in Teaching Multi-Level Children (And How to Fix Them)

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

3 Common Missteps in Teaching Multi-Level Children (And How to Fix Them) @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Teaching multi-level children is a necessary skill that emerges quickly when homeschooling and all the focus on homeschool curriculum can pale in comparison with homeschooling multiple ages of children.

Problem: Keeping ALL subjects separate.

Fix: This seems like a pretty easy problem to figure out, but when you have high school children and preschoolers it can be perplexing.

Should you or should you not keep kids on separate subjects is not as easy to figure out.

The secret here is to follow the scope and sequence of your older children because credits do matter in high school. It is easier, also, to plan down a grade than plan up a grade.

In other words, planning for lower grades is always easier than trying to take a lesson plan and increase the level of it for an older or high school student.

3 Common Missteps in Teaching Multi-Level Children

Using your high school students history or science curriculum, plan activities for the lower grades by changing written assignments to coloring, essays to word search, and memorizing vocabulary to match the word and definition.

Too, my younger sons were always entertained when my oldest son did his hands-on activities. Also, let your high schooler do his hands-on activity and add in another easy hands-on activity for your younger children.

Where possible, teach history, science, Bible, art and geography together.

Problem: One child needs more attention than the rest of your children.

Fix. By adding in my suggestion above, you have already freed up some time.

However, there are many times that one or more of my children needed my attention at the same time.

Dividing my time between my children equally was stressful until I figured out a few key ways of how to manage the time.

The basic rule of thumb is to start with the youngest learner first or the special needs child.

They do not have the attention span of your older children.

Your older children understand that they will get their turn soon, but it is hard to capture the teaching moment again with the youngest learner.

Teach your children that sometimes their day will not go as planned.

In other words, there will be times that you will just need to stop and switch your day.

Some of your children will need to work on subjects they can work on independently or even use digital devices when necessary.

The key is to be prepared for the interruption. This is not an if, but a when one or more of your children will need you.

Avoid the stress by having a backup plan now.

Digital and interactive content play a vital part now in learning.

Beating Homeschool Burnout

Be sure you have a plethora of resources to reach for in case you need them and to not lose control of your teaching day, but to switch it around temporarily.

Look at my article, Digital Homeschool Curriculum – Big Ol’ List to grab some backup when needed.

Plan prudently.

This means when assigning subjects during the day, try to plan the day so that no more than a few of your children are doing subjects at the same time that they find challenging.

For example, I knew that when I had to teach my younger two boys to read, I gave them my time in the morning. At that same time, my oldest son was working on math, a subject he excelled at.

By planning my day where each son’s subject that he struggle in was spread out, I minimized the stress of

Problem: Comparing children and their work.

Fix: Another roadblock to look for when teaching your children together is to avoid comparing children.

Though it is good that the oldest set of children model for the younger set, sometimes the plan backfires.

What I mean by this is that normally the younger child or to the child with special needs feels less inadequate in his school because he is always looking at the work of an older student.

This can really dampen the love of learning by a younger learner when he feels that he is constantly be comparing to his older student.


Not that we would do this on purpose, but because of the constant interaction, a younger learner may feel that his work is always of less value.

What I did to avoid this constantly was that I would dismiss my older son occasionally and especially if I felt the younger boys feeling a bit inadequate.

We spent a lot of time together, but at times it was okay for my older son to go to his room to do some of his work while I worked with the younger two boys.

The benefits of the one-room school house have always far outweighed any possible negatives because the kids can learn from one another.

Don’t let a few missteps in teaching multi-level children prevent you from treasuring one of the most unique ways to teach your children – altogether is superior.

Hugs and love ya,

Tina Signature 2015c

Check out my other tips!

From Homeschooling One to Multiple Ages – Then Back to One

5 Days of the Benefits and Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together