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The Great Homeschool Hoax – Public School At Home?

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

Like a lot of new homeschoolers, I too just copied the public school system in everything from keeping a similar schedule, to curriculum selection, and even testing my first child, Mr. Senior 2013.

Public School at Home

You see, I was doing public school at home.

I hadn’t embraced the freedom that homeschooling offered. I was afraid.

I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to lesson plan, to teach all of my children at one time, that my children were going to be behind, that I needed testing for grade placement, that my kids need other children their age and that I would totally fail them as an educator.

The Great Homeschool Hoax – Public School At Home. Understanding the two COMPLETELY different approaches is key by Tina Robertson

Did I mention I even had feelings of guilt questioning myself if I was a good mother?

Why do we do that as moms?

I agree that today is so much more easier to homeschool because of all the resources available to us.

However, in one particular way homeschooling was easier way back when because homeschoolers then grasped the full meaning of homeschooling.

About 10 years or so ago, public school at home providers popped up and became popular.

The meaning of homeschooling has become obscured because these companies tout that they support homeschooling. They may or may not.

Can You Really Have One Foot in Homeschool and One in Public School?

Until you let go of the public school at home mentality which models everything after the public school and where you are only assisting your children at home while somebody else teaches them, you will never embrace the freedom homeschooling offers.

Public School at Home Characteristics

  • biggest difference – government controlled
  • normally offered online
  • have testing required
  • have parent and teacher conferences
  • maintain a public school schedule
  • curriculum is put together by educational consultants even though public school at home touts that you as the parent choose readers or have some choice. You may or may not.
  • can be accredited
  • tout they are free because they are public school and public school is free
  • have a teacher assigned to your child
  • a curriculum is one grade level straight across the board a/k/a boxed curriculum or one size fits all.
  • mostly uses textbooks. Some online school use only textbooks while others throw in a few classical readers.
  • schedule is set up to complete on their timetable. Though many programs offer flexibility because they are government controlled, schedules have to be maintained.

If this sounds like the arrangement you just left, then why would you want to repeat it at home?

Homeschool Characteristics

  • biggest difference – parent controlled
  • you can choose all online curriculum, part physical books or mix and match
  • testing becomes the right of the parent who knows the child best and understands that a test is nothing more than a tool
  • conferences are not needed because as the tutor of your children you know what they’re learning. Even if you just begin to homeschool, it doesn’t take long for you to know exactly which subjects your child excels in and which subjects he will need support for.
  • your schedule is adopted based on your family’s needs and not based on an outdated school schedule, which was set up based on a society that was much more agricultural than our society is today.  If schooling year round suits your family, you simply begin and don’t need approval by a governmental agency.
  • curriculum is put together by a parent because she knows the child the best. If the curriculum is not working, it can be changed on a dime. Being in control doesn’t mean you can’t use something laid out by another company, but then that is your choice.
  • accreditation is no longer a term which homeschoolers fear because they know it doesn’t have anything to do with the value of an education. Be sure to read my article, Accreditation – Removing the Shroud of Mystery.
  • homeschoolers know that public school at home is not free. It may be cost-free, but given up freedom like control, having stressful deadlines for testing and parent teacher conferences cost.  Many homeschool educuators give up well-paying jobs because their desire to stay home with their kids is greater than their desire to pursue a career they may even be passionate about.  They know that homeschooling for excellence doesn’t always mean having the most expensive curriculum though they are willing to sacrifice other things if a pricier curriculum is better. Be sure to read my article, Is Homeschooling Expensive? Check out this Essential Guide in How to Homeschool Well on a Budget.
  • children are tutored one-to-one by their parents. Reports show that parents play a major role in their child having above normal intelligence when tutored.
  • the parent stays in control of whether they should purchase a grade level in a box or mix and match grade levels adjusted to the child’s natural abilities.
  • homeschool families don’t have to settle for a few well placed classical or living books placed into a curriculum, but can choose living books consistently.
  • the homeschool schedule is completely flexible to adjust to the needs of the family each year.

There is not anything that the public school at home approaches offers that an informed and hardworking educator at home can’t overcome.

If it’s structure you crave, then choose a laid out program where you are not having constant interference from an outside source.

If you need a more budget friendly curriculum be sure to check out my post Digital Homeschool Curriculum – Big Ol’ List.

Pursuing sports, music, art or any other extra curricular involvement is done easier when you set up your schedule to fit your children’s passion.

Being in control of my children’s education is one of the most satisfying and fulfilling jobs as a mother and parent I ever could have.

We were never promised it would be easy in raising our children, but they are blessings.

What we are assured of is that we will be provided with what we need to aim our children at their targets.

I have been blessed over and over many times, but not without some tears shed, lots of elbow grease, lots of prayers and a dogged determination to stick to what is best for my family. You can too!

Don’t forget so easily what many homeschoolers who homeschooled in the past knew, which is that homeschooling is a precious and extraordinary way of education that doesn’t mix with any other approach.

Look at some of these other resources that will help you to stick to the homeschooling approach.

Hugs and love ya,

The Great Homeschool Hoax - Public School at Home @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Homeschool Learning Styles

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

Understanding homeschool learning styles can mean the difference between head butting or propelling ahead in your homeschool. Here at Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus, I have many tips to help you determine what is your child’s learning style.

Over 20 years ago, I not only started educating myself on the value of learning styles but helped other homeschool parents and my children to understand their learning style.

I remember reading a Swahili proverb that said “The greatest good we can do for others is not just to share our riches with them, but to reveal their riches to themselves.”

Best Homeschool Learning Styles Tips

For example, recognizing a need helps to identify a way to succeed. 

Learning styles are similar.

Educate a child about his strengths and weakness

When a child has a talent, we are quick to expand on that?

However, when a child has a weakness, we can equally be eager to help him understand tips in how to deal with his weaknesses.

Learning styles imply refers to a personality, the way a person likes to learn and the subjects he likes to learn.

Cathy Duffy is queen when it comes to helping us to understand learning styles.

Up until the time she coined the terms Perfect Paul, Sociable Sue, Wiggly Willy and Competent Carla, only trained professionals could understand what a concrete sequential learner was versus an abstract thinking learner. Uh? Sometimes they couldn’t understand either. That’s just between us though.

Also, much has been said about using the right or left side of our brain as the dominant side.

left brain drawing by Eden
right brain drawing by Eden
{Drawings Copyright Eden @ geeden blogspot} Please Pin from original source.

Why Your Child’s Learning Personality is Important

Because teaching styles are only part of choosing curriculum easily, I’ve included a link to my online course Identifying Your Homeschooled Childs Learning Personality.

How to Determine the Best Learning Styles Approach for Your Child? Determining the best learning style approach is much easier when you know about homeschool learning styles. A learning style is not something I thought about when I started homeschooling or even when my kids were struggling. However, had I taken time to learn what is the best learning style for each of my children, I would have saved myself unnecessary stress.

YOU WILL LEARN:

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

Too, much has been written about encouraging children to use both sides of their brain in a balanced way.

However, while I believe we should encourage use of both the analytical and creative sides, I also know we’re born with natural bents.

These natural bents are our personality or learning style.

Like a default setting, we can’t always reset it.

However, as homeschool educators we want to teach a child to use his strengths and to understand why he may struggle in other subjects.

How Homeschool Approaches Can be Aligned to Learning Styles

Too, we know there are many homeschool approaches in the homeschool world.

I’ve learned through my many years of homeschooling that approaches can be matched to learning styles.

But first, it’s important to determine what is your learning style and your child’s learning style.

How to Match Curriculum With Learning Style

Then, one of the most important reasons to understand learning styles is to help you make better choices when choosing curriculum.

Furthermore, the workbook, worktext, approach matches a learning style that normally does well in an academic setting.

Best Homeschool Learning Styles Tips
Homeschooling Learning Styles What's The Difference Anyway @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

When Should I Start Teaching Spelling in Homeschool?

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

Spelling is more than just associating letters with sounds and deciphering them. Spelling is an essential element to writing clearly and convincingly.

Although I valued the usefulness of spelling prior to teaching my sons how to spell, it wasn’t until I started actually teaching that I was able to see that learning styles affected how each of my sons learned to spell.

I couldn’t possibly understand the struggle of spelling at the beginning of my journey because Mr. Senior 2013, like me, is a visual learner. He looked at words, formed a mental map in his head, and spelling came naturally for him.

I taught him phonics and he began to write the letters he knew associated with the sounds. Pretty easy I thought. Rocking along thinking that I was actually teaching spelling, Mr. Awesome came along and everything I thought I knew about teaching spelling could fit in a button.

My second child was not a visual learner, but a hands-on learner. Laying the foundation for spelling, which is phonics instruction took longer with him.

The Difference Between Readiness and Formal Spelling Instruction

Look at these these tips that I learned and want you know when you formally start teaching spelling.

Don’t be so quick to add formal spelling to your day.

Some programs start testing children right away like at Kindergarten level.

Teaching spelling is one thing and testing spelling is quite another thing.

Before you can test output (which is making the letter or letters the sound makes) a child needs enough time for input.

We live in an educational society that is impatient on seeing results. We have instagram and instant messaging, but there is no such thing as instant education.

Children need enough time manipulating letters and sounds in the formative years or before Kindergarten.

Phonics is the springboard to spelling.

I feel you should be very selective as to when you start testing or beginning a formal program; I feel equally important that stringing letters together to form words should not wait.

Teaching phonics early even before a child can write is foundational to strong spellers later.

One thing I did right in teaching my sons how to spell was to spend a great amount of time on manipulating letters.

Look at these activities that I mean by manipulating letters:

 

Do not let your child’s fine motor skills hold your child back from stringing letters together to form words.

When I started teaching Mr. Senior 2013, one of the very best investments I made was to purchase Spell Time.

 

It was pricey but I knew that I had at least 3 kids ahead of me to teach phonics and using it with each child for several years, I got 6+ years use out of it.

A few things that I loved about it was that it was portable, had several letters of the vowels and I could grab a few letters to teach one child spelling while my oldest son could play with the letters and put them on the mat.

The mats are self-teaching meaning that on the back of the letter tiles are pegs which fit only in the correct spot on the word mat.  It is self-checking because another letter won’t fit.

Bottom line, Mr. Senior 2013 could practice spelling alone while I was teaching the other boys.

Using this great teaching tool, I was able to give them a strong start to phonics before they learned how to write.

Spelling rules are just tools.

Remember too that in English the pronunciation of a word at times gives very little help as to the spelling.

Through the years, I feel I have swung like a pendulum back and forth between constant memorization of rules to very little work remembering them.

I have learned that balance is needed instead of swamping them with too many rules or not giving them any.

Your child needs to understand that though beginning phonics is easy, the English language is not predictable all the time.

Giving my middle son not only direct phonics instruction but memorization along with the rules armed him with tools he needed to encode (spell).

All About Spelling

So it takes time for a child to understand those rules and this is best done after they have been immersed in phonics instruction.

Most spelling programs as I mentioned earlier are focused solely on the testing part of the program instead of activities like games, songs, stories, puzzle word search and fun unscrambling exercises to help a child learn through all senses.

It has been my experience that waiting to the end of first grade or the beginning of second grade to introduce formal spelling, which requires output immediately, gives your child a lot of hands-on practice with sounds.

Natural spelling through writing  and copywork were also key things I did in our day.

By delaying formal spelling until second grade, my middle son came in armed and ready to tackle the tests.

He even jumped two levels in spelling one year because we were immersed in letter fun.

Do immerse your children with the fun of sounds and don’t be so quick to add a formal spelling program if the emphasis is on constant testing.

When Should I Start Teaching Spelling in Homeschool @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

 

 

 

 

 

You’ll love these other tips:

What grade do you start formal spelling?

Hugs and love ya,

 

3 Smart Tips to Avoiding Busywork in Homeschooling

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

3 Smart Tips to Avoiding Busywork in Homeschooling @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusAvoiding busywork in homeschooling is one of the lures that drew us to homeschooling.

We understand busywork to be any resource that goes beyond what the child needs to master the material.

Should our Homeschool Schedule Include Planning Every Minute?

Simple enough. But, does busywork have practical value or is it – well just busywork?

Look at these 3 smart tips to avoiding busywork in homeschooling and knowing when to turn busywork into meaningful review.

Measure the work for your child and not a classroom.

I made this mistake when using curriculum.

For example, one of my favorite grammar programs is Rod and Staff during the younger grades.

Shortly after using it, I realized that there was an enormous amount of review for a classroom setting.

There was way more review than my sons needed to master the concepts.

Key to avoiding busywork was to find just the right dose of work needed for each of my sons to master the material.  It was different for each of my sons but it wasn’t ever close to what a classroom needed.

Can busywork change to meaningful learning?

Too, I learned that I had to change my thinking about some of the activities I had planned.

For example, doing a craft by a child could be meaningful or meaningless, depending on his personality or needs.

I have shared many times that coloring pages didn’t particularly make my boys squeal with delight at any age.

However, when I switched to museum quality coloring books like Dover Nature Coloring Book or like a Edupress Solar System Coloring Book, coloring took on meaningful learning.

Coloring then became a valuable part of our learning day instead of busywork I added at the end of the day.

Create balanced lesson plans that work.

The last tip has to do with your experience in balancing your homeschool day.

If your day is too short, your children may have too much time on their hands. In other words, sibling rivalry may follow because children are not busy.

The value of play and time alone to stimulate their imagination is an intrinsic part of homeschooling.

However, while children are being trained to wisely use their time with meaningful projects they savor like legos, creative play and pursuing hobbies, they still need help to make their day productive.

If you find that your day ends too short, then add activities to guide your children to make their time purposeful.

When an activity is adding no value to your day, then it’s busywork.  It is a time drain and busywork can be at the very heart of why it can be hard to get done all that is planned for the day.

Don’t forget to look for ways to turn activities into meaningful learning.

The learning style of your child is important because you may need to add more crafts and activities or he may be the type of child that rolls his eyes when you mention crafts. Give him a book instead to read about what he needs to know and move one.

It takes practice to gauge the amount of work each child needs to master concepts.  Remember you can always add more review if they are not grasping a point.  But you don’t want to breed a resistant learner from constant review or busywork when it is not needed.

Lastly, if you find that your day is too short and the children are not filling their time with productive play, guide them to the activities you want them to do.

My boys knew I didn’t like a messy house but I was hindering them from spending productive time exploring a broken computer they wanted to take apart.   Sometimes they need a little coaxing from you and too they need to know that it’s okay to spread out their hobbies.

How about you? Can you use the 3 smart tips to measure your homeschool day?

Also, look at these tips:
Stop the Homeschool Time Drain
How Can I Achieve Simple Homeschooling?

Hugs and love ya,

 

Homeschooling for the Love of Learning – Does It Really Work?

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

Besides building Godly character, homeschooling for the love of learning was also one of the primary reasons homeschooling pioneers touted homeschooling.

Does that philosophy still hold true today?

Are the Methods of Homeschooling Outdated?

Does homeschooling for the lifelong love of learning mean you are more interested in having fun than in helping your child advance in academics?

Some homeschoolers think so.

Not every homeschooler recognizes the value of instilling the love of learning in their children.

Homeschooling for the Love of Learning - Does It Really Work @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusTake a look at some of these attitudes that can go from determined to succeed to devastating effects in the long run.

  • When your sole focus is on planning long term only for academic advancement like AP and CLEP.
  • When your child’s desire to love learning is secondary to your foremost goal of achieving academic excellence.
  • When your homeschool plans are constantly pushing your child through the grades regardless of his age.
  • When year after year, your homeschool lesson plans seem to be always ambitious.
  • When you know that your child is capable of college level work in junior high so you pile on the academics because he is bright and hard working.
  • When complaining by your child is met by you with a tough attitude.

Only you can determine what course you are on.

Instead of getting you to change your philosophy, I want to share the results of some of the families I have known through my 12+ years of homeschooling.

Many of those young kids are now grown.  Some are in college, some have started families of their own and some are considering homeschooling their children.  However, some are not considering homeschooling their own children.  Why?

From Childhood to Homeschooling Curriculum

The adult children are now pushing back at their parents.  Robbed of a childhood where they could have spent endless hours playing, adult children recognize that they were burdened with adulthood too soon.

Other families were met with resentment and outright hostility much sooner in their journey like when their teen started high school.

Instead of following the course the homeschool parent set out for him, one teen I knew rebelled and move out while still in high school.

How sad for those parents who now lost their opportunity for a relationship with their son.



Teens and homeschooled adult children have a way of biting back.  It is dangerous to deliberately year after year put an enormous amount of pressure on a child, gifted or otherwise.

It is one thing for us as parents to want our children to succeed, but it’s quite another to be over demanding of our children and cause them to lose their only childhood.

It is amazing too that while a homeschool parent can sabotage a child’s love of learning they can also be the one that rejuvenates a child’s love of learning.

The power we wield as parents should not be taken lightly because it affects a child lifelong.

When a child’s intrinsic love of learning is fed naturally while balancing a high academic standard, these families have been the ones to not only succeed academically but to maintain a strong bond with their adult child.

Homeschooling for the lifelong love of learning is not only the building block to a strong character but it is the impetus for self-learning.  Self-learning is like a glue that sticks way beyond your few short years of homeschooling.

Do you allow enough free time for self-discovery which will propel your children to homeschool for the lifelong love of learning?

Hugs and love ya,

 

Read on:
What is REAL Homeschooling? Homebound, Co-op, or Public School at Home.
When You Feel Like a Homeschool Failure
3 Reasons You Wouldn’t Want to Homeschool