Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

dy•nam•ic constant change, progress, activity

How To - - -

5 Tips on Teaching Homeschool Subjects I Loathe

| 8 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I have been on a homeschool confession sort of roll and in that spirit I might as well confess my dislike for math.

All you math lovers don’t leave because I need you here on my blog.

5 Tips on Teaching Homeschool Subjects I Loathe @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Teaching homeschool subjects I loathe I guess really boils down to just one and it’s math but I am so thankful that none of my boys feel the same way.

However, these tips I am sharing today will work for any homeschool subject.

The tips are really kind of like a formula I have followed when we have covered tough subjects or ones that we had less interest in.

5 Tips on Teaching Homeschool Subjects I Loathe

Believe me, it’s not because I am a brain-iac in math that my boys actually love math, though I do feel differently about it now than I did when I first started teaching my boys math.

Looking back now and if you have a math bent, I think you would agree with me that sometimes math can be plain easy to teach because of the predictable formulas and operations that you follow.

That part of math saved me in a sense once I figured out it was like learning a foreign language in a way.

It is sort of like defining terms.  Once you understand the operations, terms and formulas, a lot of it is practical sense.

However, before getting to that point, I struggled with picking math curriculum for my boys because I didn’t want them to not like it.

I knew my dislike of math was traced back to my school days.

It is actually kind of ironic or a twist because I did not have good math teachers or start to enjoy it until high school.

Up until that time I struggled with math.  I had dedicated public high school teachers who allowed me to stay after school and they would tutor me.

Oh, I soon caught up and did four years of math and took advanced classes in the end, but I still remember my struggle and dislike.

What I am trying to say is that the beginning mattered more than the ending because it set the tone for how I still feel today.

I just wanted you to know all that background because our weakness affects the way we set out to teach a homeschool subject we loathe.

Look at the these tips that I learned that made math a favorite subject for my boys and that really can be applied to any homeschool subject you loathe teaching.

One/ Understand the approach.

What I didn’t realize about myself was that I needed less drill when I was younger and longer time in between concepts to think about them.

I needed something to add a mystery of suspense to math and to allow me to think about it, which is how I still am today.

You know for the most part I don’t make knee jerk decisions and it’s the way I approach learning too.

Remembering this, I took a long time looking over math curriculum to give my boys a good head start and settled on Singapore Math as a good beginning math curriculum.

I was such a good choice because it was not boring and it is a mastery approach, meaning it had less drill and kill.

It focuses on conceptual understanding, which was lacking in my own elementary years.

Also, I liked how it focused on concrete things before moving the boys too quick onto abstract.

Knowing that I wanted my sons to understand the concepts before rote memorization, I feel, made all the difference for them.

Math just made sense to them from the beginning, unlike my own experience.

For any subject, think about the approach they use whether it’s a spiral approach with lots of repetition or has some repetition, but moves on at a steady pace.

Two/ Use as many hands-on manipulatives as you like and don’t get rid of them too fast.

My first son was the only one I rushed when using math manipulatives because when the math curriculum stopped giving me instruction like: “Show your child this operation with blocks, shapes or a number line”, I stopped doing them.

I realized soon after that my sons benefited from using the hands-on activities longer.

So I soon ignored the advice to use them only in the younger grades, again, because I recalled my limited use in the younger grades with hands-on manipulatives.

Why do we have to leave off those vital things in the first or second grade?  There simply is no rush.

Each of my boys on their own gradually moved away from using them as they understood the concepts.

If they couldn’t show me with a picture or manipulative, I knew they didn’t fully understand.

Three/ Games are NOT just for young learners.

Then another thing I did was to be sure I kept the subject fun by adding in games.

A simple deck of cards used to drill multiplication facts took priority anytime over a boring worksheet.

Tell a boy we are going to play War with the cards and he is in and brushes up too on his math facts so that he can win.

Dominoes, Uno and Monopoly were called “school” and took the place of our math time on many occasions because again I was determined for my boys to feel differently about math.

Four/ Read a math story.

When they were little, I used math time to read aloud.

I loved it when I was unpredictable when assigning them their math for the day.

Reading a living math book for the day was always a winner.

Living Math Books for Homeschool Middle School Too

I never minded that the boys felt like they were getting away with not doing school because we only read.

It hasn’t hurt one bit to let them feel that that way because it always added an air of fun to math.

Too, though there are many living math books for the younger grades there are also many books to use even for middle school.

One book, Lawn Boy, I read to one of my sons who struggled a bit more to show him the value of learning math.

He needed a valid reason to learn math and making money is certainly an inspiration for learning.

Too, I didn’t want them to sigh when they heard the word “math” and I did want to invoke warm feelings toward learning math.

Five/ Join a Chess Club.

Even though at the time we lived far out in the country and it was about a 40 minute drive one way to meet with other homeschoolers, my boys played chess with other homeschoolers.

It helped to burn off some of that mental energy they had for numbers as they grew.

It wasn’t anything formal, the other moms had boys and girls too who enjoyed being challenged and had math lovers.

These five time tested tips have been the starting point when teaching homeschool subjects I loathed.

Not wanting to model for my sons my dislike for any subject, I can say today that though math may never be my favorite subject to teach, it certainly has way more appeal to me as we homeschool.

What is your least favorite subject to teach? What tips work for your kids?

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T

Also, look at tips at my post 25 Creative and Tasty Edible Math Activities that Keeps Learning Fun.

Homeschooling Kindergarten: What Subjects to Teach and For How Long?

| 29 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Giving you practical advice on homeschooling kindergarten, what subjects to teach and for how long, now that all of my boys have moved well past kindergarten gives me a different perspective than giving advice in the moment, which may or may not have been helpful. You’ll love the tips on my page kindergarten homeschool curriculum.

Homeschooling Kindergarten

I always prefer giving you specifics, which were way more helpful to me than generalities.

In helping a lot of homeschool moms plan their kindergarten day, one thing a lot of them had in common was over planning academic subjects.

Homeschooling Kindergarten: What Subjects to Teach and For How Long?

Let me back up first and tell you how I felt when I started homeschooling kindergarten with my first son, Mr. Senior 2013.

I wished that I could say that I was reasonable, balanced, and unafraid when I started with my kindergartner. I was not.

I was terrified that if I didn’t start the formal learning part of kindergarten on time or earlier that my son was simply going to be behind and evermore I would ruin his chances for success as an adult.

Focusing on more scare tactics I read than practical advice, I made the mistake a lot of parents do which is to rush the part of learning that comes with kindergarten, which is to play.


It’s ugly to admit, but I wasn’t the mom interested in if he was delighting in learning, I was only interested if I could prove what he was learning. Ouch!

Going one step further to reveal my twisted attitude, I thought that moms, who spent their day doing crafts with their kids didn’t have the same goals I had, which were rigorous standards. There I said it.

In my defense though those feelings were coming out of a heart of love. I wanted to be a conscientious homeschool mom because like you, I wanted the best for my son.

Kindergarten Beginnings

This is the very opposite of the way I feel today.

It is a privilege to learn and I will take a child any day with an almost unquenchable resolve to learn over one who only cares about getting finished.

Would you believe me if I told you it starts in kindergarten?

That is how important your beginnings.

You can nurture a scholar who basks in learning and then rigorous learning comes OR you can raise a learner who resents academics because you feed a “show me the results” attitude only.

Part of the hard time I had in kindergarten was that my son, though I didn’t fully understand it at the time until he got around other kindergartners, was advanced for his age. I was told at public school that he was gifted as the term was used then.

Did you know that this is common for some homeschoolers to have high achieving children?

Many times I hear moms say: “Oh you don’t understand, my son or daughter wants to sit and do schoolwork for hours and hours.”  I will talk about that in just a minute.

Whatever label the public school wants to give advanced learners, which I never worried about much, I knew the subjects I did and did not do in kindergarten had a positive affect on his development.

Essential Subjects to Cover When Homeschooling Kindergarten

Like I mentioned before, some of my experience was based on failures or what did not work because it was unbalanced.

However, many things and subjects I covered did work.

I have divided homeschooling kindergarten subjects or activities into two groups.

One group, which is vital and the other group, which if you can find the energy to possibly do, adds enrichment to your kindergartner’s path and what is more creates the life long learner we all want.

New Homeschooler Online Self-Paced Boot Camp By Tina Robertson

Too, I have given an estimated amount of time to spend on that subject.

Before I give you estimates for the formal part of learning, one important point to remember is that kids this age are learning with every breath.

That is why playing outside, nature, and plenty of time for arts and crafts is part of a learning. They are just as important IF not more so depending on your child’s development for learning.

Subject

Time Covered

Phonics

20 minutes direct instructions which means 1:1 time each day.  Then an unlimited amount of time exploring the sounds through hands-on crafts and movements.

Penmanship

10 minutes with direct instruction which means 1:1 time each day and showing them how to form letters. Then an unlimited amount of time enforcing the shape of the letter and strengthening fine motor skills through play and movement.

Reading

30 minutes with direct instruction which means having them read to you mixed with a combination of you reading to them. Then an unlimited amount of time each day as they want to read to you, listen to audio books and yet still more reading aloud by you.

Math

30 minutes with direct instruction which means working with them 1:1 teaching them about the basic operations. Then an unlimited amount of time reading living math books, playing games about numbers and using interactive content like iPads along with hands-on manipulatives to learn math.

This next group of subjects is inextricably linked to a kindergartner’s development and like I mentioned play a valuable part in stimulating the intellectual growth of my sons.

  • Art, music, and gymnastics.

Art stimulated imagination and fed their creativity.

Music played an important in stimulating math and science thinking skills and gymnastics helped to strengthen their motor skills for both large gross skills and fine motor skills.

Learning Through Play – Vital to Kindergarten.
It’s called Developmentally Appropriate

My reason for dividing out the groups in this manner is because when you are overwhelmed taking care of so many littles, you need the assurance that if you just do the vital subjects that your kindergartner will still have a huge head start.

I am sure you noticed by now that the actual direct part of teaching kindergarten only takes about 1 1/2 hours.  Yes, that is it!

This is the only formal part of teaching that is needed. 

Learning at this age is intertwined with playing as it such be.

I almost made the mistake of allowing Mr. Senior 2013 to do workbook after workbooks for hours because he wanted to until I realized that by second grade I almost had a homeschool burnout.

All About Reading Pre-reading

When children are high achievers, gifted or just enjoy learning, think of long term hands-on projects or activities that can be expanded to feed their almost tireless need to learn.

Guide them to expand that learning not only takes place with seat work, but that is it more hands-on than seat down.

Look at some wonderful, detailed tips for teaching young kids:

I have never heard an older child reflecting back say that he or she did too many crafts or interactive activities during their kindergarten years, but I have heard many who wish their moms had done more fun things and crafts.

They only have ONE year to be a kindergartner, make it memorable for the right reasons and they will remember and better yet grow up to be well-rounded high achieving homeschoolers.

How many subjects are you covering in kindergarten? Do you need some help? Post them here and I don’t mind a bit looking them over.

Do you want to see some of what I used in kindergarten?

I look fondly at these products like Dr. Maggie’s Phonics readers because this set was my very first set and Alpha Omega Horizons phonics challenged us.

Also, be sure to look at my Amazon Store where I have subjects organized for you on things I’ve used through the years.

Homeschooling Kindergarten: What Subjects to Teach and For How Long?

Hugs and love ya,

Homeschool Kindergarten. What Subjects to Teach and For How Long @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Diving into Homeschool Unit Studies : The Dos and Don’ts

| 6 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

When I think about sharing what swirls around in my head and what I am so passionate about, I get plain giddy.

Diving into Homeschool Unit Studies The Dos and Don'ts @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I want to share a few pointers from my sweat and tears to help you put together a unit study.

Diving into Homeschool Unit Studies:  the dos and don’ts list type of approach keeps things simple for me to remember.  I hope a short list like this will keep things simple for planning a homeschool unit study.

do and do not listv2

Do not think you have to incorporate every single subject into the topic.

It makes me exhausted thinking about it.

With the abundance of curriculum available, use what you have in your home already to cover subjects that don’t fit naturally.

Eliminating Meaningless Subjects in Homeschool Unit Studies

Covering topics that your family finds more captivating keeps the unit study meaningful.

Focus on what captivates you.  Find your family’s groove and move on.

That simple tidbit keeps the stress level down and energy level up for learning.

Do not have an unrealistic view of the in-depth planning that may need to be done on the front side.

I know it doesn’t sound very flattering but I have to be realistic. Who is afraid of hard work anyway?

After all, we are homeschooling our kids, which a lot of people find over the top hard.

On the other hand, along with hard work comes a very REWARDING payoff.

My sons remember the material we cover from unit studies more than any other approach I have used.

For a lot of families, including us, unit studies have meant a level of mastery on the initial study.

Do not be setback, if at first, your children do not respond to this new way of learning.

The unit study approach has such wide spread freedom that not everybody feels so comfortable with it.

An older child may want a check off list for the day.  Make them one or better yet have them journal what they learned in their student planner.  I do not make my boys do this every day now.

You may want a check off list. You know how I feel about my 7 Step Homeschool Planner. I use it. At first, we all did journaling so I could gauge progress. I needed to see what we have done.

do and do not list 1

Do understand the basic definition of a unit study THEN redefine it to meet your needs.

One very simple definition of a unit study is to use any curriculum available {free or otherwise} to teach your children about a topic.

I can go one step further for you and define curriculum.

Curriculum includes books, workbooks, DVDS, CDS, a set of subjects, life’s experiences AND parental influences, social situations, hands-on experiments, games, lessons learned from everyday contact or modeled by peers, family or other adults.

Some homeschoolers use only real books and others will incorporate text books.
I blogged in a previous post what my definition is of a unit study.  “I define a unit study as a study on any subject that delights us.”

True, while I lean more toward living books, I never close my mind toward a wonderful text book. Look at my post From Textbook to Homeschool Unit Study Starter to use what you have to start a unit study. No need to spend a ton of money.

Do recognize which subjects are easier to cover in a unit study and which ones are not.

Too, this depends on the topic. I have listed them here generally. Just remember this is subjective because some units can be very language arts or math oriented.

Subjects easier to cover: history, science, art, Bible, memorization, geography, art, vocabulary, literature, composition, character building, music, and physical education.

Subjects not as easy to incorporate are: math, grammar, spelling, and phonics. {books can be readers but learning how to read with direct phonics instruction is important}

I don’t force a fit if it doesn’t come naturally.

Do keep in mind introductions and first impressions are everything.The same is true with a unit study.

Though many unit study ideas say to have an ending event to culminate the unit study, I find it equally important to open with something that grabs your kids’ attention and whets their appetite.

With the FBI unit study, we watched a documentary on the FBI {pop some popcorn, oh yeah baby}.

On the Amazon rain forest we also watched a documentary about the rain forest.

On War Between the ‘Tates, we had my sweet sis come over who did American Civil War reenactments.

She helped us to step back in time. My sons remember those events.

Whet their appetite for learning and they won't easily forget

It could be something as simple as reading a book, solving a mystery, playing a game or visiting a museum to set the mood.

Lastly, I put to picture, what I feel, is the process to a unit study. Unfolding of a Unit Study I Sip - The Steps @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

The I SIP process stands for immersion, separation, investigation and personalization of the material.
I will be posting more about each of these steps in upcoming posts, but I wanted you to see how to funnel down the information to your family.

Understanding the process is key to developing a unit study that is memorable.

Don’t rush the unit study because you may miss out on how learning comes alive and actually takes place.

I am inspired by this quote today as we take responsibility in educating the next generation outside of the box when diving into homeschool unit studies.

“Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you.

Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.”

-Jim Rohn-

Are you following the unit study approach?

Hugs and love ya,

Tina 2015 Signature

Also check out my 10 Days of Diving into Unit Studies by Creating One Together

 

Should I Let My Homeschooled Teen Graduate Early?

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

The question should I let my homeschooled teen graduate early crossed my mind a few years before high school.

My oldest son was the kind of teen that never needed to be reminded of deadlines and pretty well knew that he wanted to do some missionary type of work after graduation and before he pursued a career.

Too, even before taking his high school courses, he would work into the afternoon without my prodding him to do so. 

In ninth grade, I could have noted the 8 credits he had because we schooled year around and because he didn’t mind working long hours on his curriculum.

If he kept up that schedule and pace, he could easily have graduated in about 3 years depending on the number of high school credits I had planned.

In other words, I just knew he was on the path to early graduation.  Do you know that my plan was for him to graduate early? 

If you have been following me for a while, you know however, that our lives took a significant change when the Mr. had his heart attack during the 10th grade year of Mr. Senior 2013.

Mr. Senior 2013 stepped up and helped me run our business while my husband recuperated and of course, my son’s schooling suffered.

Instead of focusing on the sad time then though, I always like to focus on the good that came out of that for all of my boys. 

Should I Let My Homeschooled Teen Graduate Early @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Though, Mr. Senior 2013 did not graduate early as planned, I realized that he didn’t mind at all because he learned more about our family owned business then he ever knew before.

He has learned valuable skills in customer service because he was the one that had to go with our installation guys to our customer’s homes.

I was very nervous, but like a lot of our mature homeschooling teens he was equal to the task.

Though things don’t always happened as planned, I still see many positives for allowing a mature teen to graduate early.

If a teen knows what they want to pursue, then they have extra time to pursue what interests them.

There are many teens who are mature and already know that they want to pursue a career that requires minimal college time. 

I knew one teen boy in our homeschool group that knew he was going to be a chef and wanted to start pursuing culinary classes.

In his early high school years, he was hosting food parties in his home cooking for people.

He had a true gift for the culinary arts and his parents recognized the need to allow him to pursue his dream.

Many schools encourage a gap year and see the benefit of it.

Does it really matter if your teen takes a “gap” year earlier? 

Only you as the homeschool parent knows if your teen is mature enough to take a gap year and pursue what interests them.

High achieving and mature teens are ready to get on with their life.

Some teens are high achievers and are ready to get on with their life.

On the flip side, homeschooling is about recognizing the different personalities of our teens and some want to be done with the “book learning” part of school so they can get on with doing activities they know will help them be independent adults.

They may never be the bookish type of person but our teen may still be mature enough to have already decided what course he or she will pursue.

Too, teens feel the same satisfaction that we do as adults when it comes to knowing that they can finish early if they have fulfilled the number of high school credits we require.

If a teen is on the college track, then wouldn’t a year head start help him or her to add a internship to the mix, pursue some other goals or just get them ahead in college?

Homeschooling highschoolers can be complicated, but you don’t have to worry about ALL the choices, just concentrate on what your teen needs.

There is nothing wrong with a teen not being ready to finish high school earlier because teens all mature at different rates and there is no rush – really. 

They only have one time in their life to be carefree, independent, yet totally needing your guidance.

There are so many things that affect whether or not it’s beneficial for a homeschooled teen to graduate early, but in the end all that matters is the decision that allows your teen to pursue his or her chosen course when they are ready.

What about you? Do you have a teen you feel may graduate early?

Hugs and love ya,

 

Check out these other posts to help with homeschooled high school teens:

Homeschool High School Readiness?

Homeschool High School How To Prepare THE Transcript

Homeschoolers Who Want More Than College

Homeschool High School–How to Log Hours for High School?

When You Feel Like a Homeschool Failure

| 12 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Admitting homeschool failure is not easy. Homeschooling has always been the right choice for our family although many years I wasn’t sure if I was the right teacher for the job.

When You Feel Like a Homeschool Failure

When you feel like a homeschool failure as a teacher, it can be a pretty gray period because you feel like you have really messed up your children.

I was a contributing factor for Mr. Senior 2013 getting behind in math.

Yep I did, I messed him up. First, let me tell what I did and then tell you what I learned.

Homeschool Failure or Wrong Ways to Homeschool?

We had been using Math U See and I didn’t think he was absorbing the formulas as well as I thought he should; I switched him to Teaching Textbooks right before high school.

Shortly after we started using it during high school, I realized that Teaching Textbooks put him behind and that he was actually ahead of where I thought he was. 

So we switched back to Math U See.

Can I just tell you how bad I felt?

Although I had been homeschooling for a while, I still didn’t recognize that Mr. Senior 2013 was just at a plateau and that some of the concepts he would soon understand.

Look at some of these tips that helped me to sort through the feelings of failure I had and get us back on track.

What if they are not just getting it? 

This is a tough one because each child is different and many factors affect whether or not your child is understanding a certain subject or curriculum.

Looking back now, I should have backed up to the point where Mr. Senior 2013 understood the curriculum and isolate the math concept instead of right thinking it was the total curriculum.

When I did this later on after I made the switch of course, I realized he was getting most of Math U See, but had only reached some upper level math that required a bit more time to understand.

Questioning Your Homeschool

I knew Mr. Senior’s 2013 ability to work at higher levels and instead of accepting his difficulties as part of his development, I thought he needed to keep sprinting forward. Pushing was the mistake on my part.

I knew Mr. Senior 2013 excelled at math and did not need constant repetition.

Instead of trusting his learning style, I was afraid that I was going to hold him back and in the process I did.

What I am trying to say is that his learning style was not going to change over night and I should have looked at other things that affected him instead of just the curriculum.

What do I feel like we are going backwards? That was another question I had to ask myself.

I had to analyze everything we were doing. Was I not spending enough time with him because the younger boys were tugging at my time?

Was his schedule too full?

Knowing that Mr. Senior 2013 flourished with routine, was I allowing too many outside activities to interfere with our routine.  These were all questions I had to go back and answer.

As I have learned now, one solution would have been to take off a month and do review and go back over previous mastered material.

I could have easily grabbed one of those inexpensive work texts and just let him sat at his comfortable level for a bit until the frustration passed.

It was hard for me to come up with that solution because math is one of his best subjects.

I just didn’t realize then that my kids would even need to step back in subjects they excelled in.

Last thing I wanted to do was to bore him with previous mastered material.

That was just the thing he needed as he was going through a period of physical growth.

School had to to take a second seat to allow time for his physical and emotional development.

Is the problem in just one subject? This is another tell-tale sign of how I knew it was developmental.

When we had problems before, it was normally one subject and that is a clue that maybe I needed to switch out that one curriculum.

Other things were going on in my son’s life that helped me to see that the curriculum was not the culprit.

He pretty much struggled with the everyday basics of doing school.

I didn’t take this lightly because this was my kid who was such a joy to teach because he loved routine and didn’t have to be told to start school.

Again, it’s easier to look back now. At the time I felt like I pretty much was failing my child because I didn’t have the luxury of looking forward.

Mr. Senior 2013 was going through changes when I did a honest self-evaluation.

He was getting real mouthy, disagreeing pretty much with everything I said, started looking for a job and expressed his concern about supporting himself.

I finally understood that when I felt like a homeschool failure that my son needed me more than ever. Not all failures are a “curriculum thing”.

He couldn’t figure out what was wrong with our homeschooling because of his inexperience. 

I needed to step up and help us sort through it without my son feeling like I was going to send him to public school or throw in the towel either one.

Instead of feeling like a homeschool failure, I realized the time was closing in on how much time I would have with Mr. Senior 2013.

Mistake I Will Never Make Again

I focused on the satisfaction of knowing that his changes in puberty was a part of his life that I was proud to be part of as me and my husband guided him along.

When You Feel Like a Homeschool Failure

Experiences like feeling like a homeschool failure build a deep down resolve and dogged determination to keep on homeschooling when you come through them and can finally pinpoint the problem.

Update 2020: As I write this, my three kids have graduated and are now adults. I’m mentoring a preschooler.

All the tears, all the worry, all the stress pales into comparison to how well-rounded and successful each of my kids are. What I’ve learned is that teaching my kids about defeat, how to get up, and move on have been of way more value in their every day life than being behind.

I’ve learned it was IMPOSSIBLE to teach everything, but I taught them how to research everything they wanted to know. When they have perceived gaps now as adults, they are not intimidated. I can’t hold back my happy tears.

Moms, you GOT THIS!

Look at these other tips about how to find solutions when you feel like nothing is working.

What about you? Does this resonate with you?

Hug and love ya,

Tina 2015 Signature
When You Feel Like a Homeschool Failure @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus