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Letting Go of the Homeschool Language Arts Stranglehold

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Covering homeschool language arts and no other subjects for the day is not just dull, boring and unbalanced but it can also suck the life out a child’s desire to read and write every day.

Letting go of the homeschool language arts stranglehold is not easy.  Wanting our children to succeed in life and not wanting them to miss something vital in the area of language arts, many parents, including myself, have unintentionally piled on double the subjects in language arts.

Letting Go of the Homeschool Language Arts Stranglehold

Instead of feeding a child’s natural eagerness to learn through language arts, we create resistant learners.

e;”>Understanding the elements of language arts keeps them from over taking hands-on science activities, history projects or art projects that our children can’t wait to do.

Key to covering language arts well, but keeping it balanced with the other activities is being sure we know what the subjects are.

It is hard to know if you are covering the essentials when you use such a broad general term like language arts.

Homeschool Language Arts – Think Communicate

Because I was not a public school teacher in my LBK (life before kids) and because I always need to compartmentalize before I can tackle a job, today, I want to help you clearly identify and categorize which subjects make up language arts at each level.

Language arts is a term used to cover how we communicate, whether it’s spoken communication or written communication.

In each grade level, language art subjects will vary but the subject will cover one of those two areas.  You don’t have to have a public school teacher background to figure it out.

For example, at the beginning level, teaching phonics is about teaching our elementary children how to read.  At the middle school level, teaching our children composition is about teaching them how to communicate their ideas efficiently. At the high school level, language arts can take a different turn and it’s about how to teach our high school students to orally communicate effectively.

As just a mom, I don’t like the term language arts because it is too broad and does not help you to grasp which subjects to teach at which grade levels.
Language arts can be a whole host of subjects but most of them fall into these 5 subcategories.

Reading

Writing

Spelling

Grammar

Oral

Identifying them each year and then filling the need, keeps language arts as a subject that is not only thoroughly enjoyable to learn about, but keeps it balanced.

Look at this list of a whole host of subjects and teaching techniques used interchangeably that make it seem almost impossible to organize.

Phonics, word study, narration, dictation, grammar, literature, English, speech, penmanship, drama, public speaking, poetry recitation, memory work, composition, spelling, reading comprehension, speaking and listening and outlining are just some of the subjects that I have seen through the years.

While some are subjects like composition, which have numerous ways to teach it and various genres and some are techniques like copywork, which teach a whole host of skills, they all generally fall into reading, writing, spelling, grammar or oral categories.

Too, one subject can teach multiple language arts skills.

Elementary Homeschool Language Arts

Look at these samples below of how I categorized subjects or teaching techniques.

This is not an exhaustive list by any means because there are an overwhelming amount of superior teaching techniques as well as excellent language art curriculum that we can seize for the year.

I just sorted through some of them to show you how I organize them both mentally and most of the time in my planner so that I keep a balanced plan.

Middle School and High School Homeschool Language Arts

Too, I haven’t even touched on how language arts skills can be honed by using novels, poetry, science and history topics.

The point of today’s blog post is for you to rein in the numerous techniques and subjects in language arts that constantly bombards us.

It helps to see that many years were are either meeting or exceeding standards for a grade level.

Some years, I have very slim language arts curriculum and more reference type books because language arts is taught through another meaningful subject like history.

For example, if you have a boy that does not like writing, he can see the value of learning it while he can write about ancient weapons. A reference book to guide him on his subject is of more value.  If you have a girl that would rather read about fashion or horses than write, then a reference book about creative writing will inspire her to write her own story.

How Do You Keep Homeschool Language Arts from Choking Out Your Other Subjects?

Did I mention that covering language arts while study science, history or the history of art is the simple trick to balancing language arts while still getting in your much loved subjects for the day?

Covering only language arts for the day and not finishing until 2:00 p.m is a recipe for disaster.

I hope that by simplifying some of the subjects and techniques for you that you will see that you are probably more than just meeting the basics each day.

Most homeschoolers I have helped have way too much curriculum in language arts and do not realize that language arts spans just about any other type of subjects.

Whether you are learning about art, history, science or the Bible, you have to read, decipher sounds, infer, follow directions and explain or tell back what you have learned and somewhere along the way write down instructions, follow directions, label and diagram.

Sorting through my language arts curriculum each year helps me to isolate curriculum to fit within the categories of the big 5 (reading, writing, spelling, grammar and oral).

Too, it helps me to not over plan but to realize that I will cover different parts of language arts through our love of other  subjects.

How do you keep language arts from choking out the other activities you have on tap for the day?

You’ll love these other tips:

Hugs and love ya,

 

Divide And Conquer The Ever Growing List of Homeschool Subjects

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We always have the best intention when we add more homeschool subjects to our already busy and jam-packed schedule.  More is better right?Today, I want to share a few of my secrets that help me to divide and conquer the ever growing list of homeschool subjects.

Are You Sabotaging Your Homeschool Day?

Child’s Age Matters.  When teaching the younger grades from PreK to 3rd grade, try to resist the urge to add subjects that go beyond the core subjects.

Look here at What Subjects To Teach and When to Teach Them Part I, What Subjects To Teach and When to Teach Them Part 2,What Subjects To Teach and When to Teach Them Part 3 to get a good overview of the core subjects.

I know, I know, foreign language is best taught in the early grades, but it should not be at the expense of your child not being able to read and write. Too, remember not every homeschool approach is for every child.

When I started homeschooling, I followed a more classical approach, which included teaching Latin extensively.  There were some benefits of learning Latin to Mr. Senior 2013, but looking back I see that I could have given him about half as many lessons to accomplish my purpose.

Instead of helping him at the early ages, I was weighing him down with the complexes of language arts that could have waited until the older grades.

On the other hand, if your child is middle school or high school, you want to have a variety of subjects to whet their appetite.  By this age, they are beyond the learning to read age and need changes in their schedule and how subjects should be approached.

Look at a few of these other posts to help with those ages too. Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects Part 1 and Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects Part 2 .

Teaching Your Children To Be Quitters

Keep it Skinny in the Beginning.  Waiting until your child has a good foot hold on the basic subjects in math and language arts until you introduce other subjects will help him to avoid burn out.

Too, it will give your child a sense of accomplishment because he finishes what he starts.  Why is this important? Because if your child, whatever age they are, never gets past the struggling level, he will never find the intrinsic value of learning.

He never gets the satisfaction and pleasure that comes with learning because he has only struggled with every subject.

Don’t throw out stepping stones to help him be a quitter by continually adding to his mounting list of subjects.

Reevaluate Often/Watch for Overkill.  Life changes, our children grow up and have different opinions than us, and you might find a new side or angle to your child that you didn’t know existed before that you now want to nurture.  Go with it!

Pitch your curriculum in the trash or toss your subjects aside when they have accomplished whatever immediate need that you wanted to.

For example, all of my boys loved covering critical thinking skills when they were younger.  But as they grew older, I realized a lot of the math and history resources that I was using covered some very detailed critical thinking skills.

Divide and Conquer the Ever Growing List of Homeschool Subjects

Covering both history and critical thinking at the same time is a much more better use of your time instead of flipping open the critical thinking workbook after having just covered those skills in history.

Avoid Separating the “Yoke“ Syndrome.   Sometimes we just can’t help ourselves and feel we need to compartmentalize every subject, but learning just does not take place like that no matter how hard we try to keep subjects separate.

Even without trying, our children understand they are covering two or more subjects at a time.  They understand when they are reading a paragraph about the bull fights in Spain that they are not only checking for cohesiveness in a paragraph, but they are learning about another culture.

You can be the only judge of when homeschool subjects are closing in on your homeschool day. Adding a few of these tips that I shared today, I am hoping they will add the spring back into your step and allow you to check the box “completed”.

What do you do when you find that you have more homeschool subjects than children?

Also, you’ll love these tips:

Hugs and love ya

Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects Part 2

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

Today, I have homeschool high school the must cover subjects part 2. Also, look at my page How to Homeschool High School.

Planning high school subjects does not have to be a tricky conundrum. 

We may think we want a checklist provided by somebody else, when in fact, guidelines may be of more value. 

Guidelines for must cover high school subjects are more flexible than a checklist.

I tallows you to take into consideration your family’s goals, your teen’s maturing personality.

(I know, some days it doesn’t seem like it, but I promise they do grow up) and it allows you to adjust your plan, which is very common too.

When I shared Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects Part 1, my goal in that post was to be sure you knew to build your high school courses .

For example, I want you to have ar frame with the basics and keep a good balance of the core subjects.

Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects Part 2

Today, I want to share what I call “glam planning” in high school. 

I call these next round of courses you need to decide on glam planning, because they really embellish or add to the goals you have been working on in the younger grades that will now come to fruition in high school.

Chosen Direction Equals High School Course Selection

The direction your teen chooses to take makes all the difference as to which high school courses are selected.

Too, I think part of the confusion in understanding high school courses is realizing how you can break down course selections and how courses generally fall into larger broad categories.

Master High School Course Descriptions

As you can see from my picture above, American Literature falls under English.  It is not as specific though as say a study of plants which is a more narrow study of Biology, which falls under the broad category of Science.

Understanding both the direction your teen wants to take and more clearly how to articulate your courses, will help you to glam up your high school course selection.

For example, if your teen was going to enroll in a four year university then a lot of universities like to see a broad range of topics being covered.   In other words, was his course selection well-rounded?

If your teen is thinking about taking community college courses and then maybe head to the work field, then you would want to hone in on skills that will help him to accomplish that. 

You would want to be more specific in choosing the course of study. 

As you can see from the picture above that a plant study would be a great choice for your child if he chooses to become a biologist.

The bottom line is that must cover subjects vary for each person according to what are the end goals.  Understanding that you can get a specific as you need to or stay as general as needed will help you to not become stressed by the selection process.

High School Courses  1, 2, 3 Planning

In public schools here in Texas, the high schools have a variety of plans that you can choose to follow. 

I think as parents it is wise for us to have a plan and back up plan too because things don’t always go exactly as planned.  Look at the 3 plans below. 

The plan varies with the goal, but they are all good plans.

College Bound Recommended Minimum
Total Credits : 26 24 22
Remember that you don’t have to have everything planned to a “T” when your child enters high school.   Planning is good to help you reach goals, but just don’t allow your plans to rule when you need to change or be flexible.
If you will focus on keeping the core subjects balanced just like you have all along, you will have some breathing room as your teen decides on his final direction.
Look at this 9th grade course selection I laid out where I keep all the course descriptions pretty general.   Actually, it’s pretty close to what Mr. Senior 2013 did his freshman year.

Subject Area

9th Grade

Credit
English I1
Mathematics – Algebra 11
Science – Biology1
Social Studies – World Geography1
Physical Education1
Fine Arts1
Total 6 credits
  

Can you see how easy peazy it is to get 6 credits for their freshman year and I did not add any electives yet or a health credit, which is usually .5 of a credit?

Hint Hint: The rest of the grades follow this same type of layout.

If your teen was doing a foreign language then you would add that to your course study.

As you can see it is not hard to get the required amount of credits that you set up for them in high school. 

Key to determining the credits is being sure that you are within the normal range of most high schools.  

Using simple multiplication of 6 x 4 (number of years we usually equate with high school), your child can easily attain 24 credits for high school.

I have heard all kinds of numbers through the years, but I feel pretty safe in saying 19 to 26 total credits for high school is what you should aim for.

Some folks think 19 is too low, but then again it depends on your goals. 

How to Easily Plan High School Courses

That is not for any person to judge or say, it is your decision alone as a family to make.

Remember, that there is a lot of wiggle room in choosing courses that interests your teen in high school beyond the core subjects.

Just to give you an idea, beyond the core subjects, my son studied foreign languages for a couple of years, fine arts, wood working, ball room dance, public speaking and some volunteer work.

Look at these steps as to where to begin high school courses.

  • Plan each grade by filling in the core subjects, which are English or Language Arts, Science, Mathematics and Social Studies.  Some schools feel that foreign language is part of the basic core subjects.  With our world being more connected than ever before and with diverse cultures in each country, I tend to agree with them.  These subjects are your framework.
  • Determine your child’s direction. This are your glam subjects.  If your child is college bound, the college is the first place to visit and determine what they think is a well-rounded plan.  If you child does not know a direction which is completely fine too, then fill in with courses that interest them and are of importance to your family.  For example, if you child for sure is interested in dance or sports, is it really necessary to weigh them down with a lot of extra history courses?  If your child knows a direction and is work-minded, then give him skills in high school that will help him hone his work skills like courses on communications and computers.
  • Be willing to adjust as you go along.  There is a huge difference in maturity levels between children that are 14/15 years old and young adults that are 17/18 years old.

High School Courses

I will share more on this subject as I plod along too in my blogging, but I wanted to give you an easy starting point.

Plan high school just as you have planned the previous grades.

  In the most basic form, high school really is just a continuation of what you have been doing all along.  Keep on doing it and besides you’ll love “glam planning”.

Hugs and hang in there.  High school truly is fun!

I also found one book particularly helpful when planning:

Home School, High School, and Beyond

You’ll love these other powerful and practical helps from my over 20+ years of how-tos:

Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects Part 1

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

Many of you have asked me what are the must cover subjects in high school.  Guess what? There are not any.  Okay, I just wanted to get that over with so you can be released from all the stress of high school planning and all those rules you have set up for yourself.

Instead of giving you the must cover subjects, I want to give you some must know basic tips that will help you to sail through high school planning.

And okay yes, I’m giving you a guide to what you want to know which is what are some of the basics that you don’t want to overlook.

Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects Part 1

I assure you this is easier than some books about planning high school make it sound.  Bathe in the thought for a minute that there is so much freedom in high school when it comes to planning.  Free yourself from any predisposed thoughts about what you think you need to cover in high school.

From that freedom, comes the very unique way you want to build your high school courses.  Don’t start high school with fear, stress, and rigid rules about planning.

Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects

I don’t want to oversimplify planning high school either. Your fears about high school can be valid if you don’t get the heads up about a few very significant details.

You know I’m a stickler for details.  And I always want my followers to be just a notch above when it comes to understanding homeschooling know how.

Core Subjects Are Key

Most veterans might answer the question about what subjects to cover by saying it depends on your future plans.  Though this statement is very true, it does not give you a specific answer and direction.  I don’t really like that answer either.

Giving you one foundational point to build on will be of much more help and here is the nitty-gritty: stick to the core subjects in your most basic planning.

You have heard me say it before and it’s true.  The 3 R’s are at the very heart of high school planning and they keep every future opportunity opened for your teen.

Follow me on this thought or scenario for a minute.  I don’t care what teen experts say, not all teens know exactly what they want to do at the high school age.  I know many adults who are still not sure what they want to do whether in college or not.  And if they do, they can change their mind on a dime too.  Don’t make my mistake and put extra pressure on your teen to decide now while he is still investigating his options for the future.

This is not the time for our teens to know exactly what they want to do, but it is the time for them to bask in the wealth of opportunities opened up to them.  Diligently investigate the opportunities while they are a teen.

On the other hand too, the teen years are about exerting some positive pressure on your teen.  They need to taste the weight of adult decisions, but you are the only one to know how much positive pressure to exert.  It truly is a balancing act in high school not just about planning subjects, but because you are dealing now with a pre-adult.

There is not another time in their life that they will be free of financial responsibility and not responsible for taking care of a family yet.  High school is about preparation for adulthood and they are not quite there yet.

Some teens have an idea of what they think they want to do and others do not.  It is all in the realm of normal.  Do not think you are the lone homeschool mom who has a teen that does not know what he wants to do yet.

How does all of this help when planning subjects?

Because high school courses reflect the direction your teen wants to take.  Sharing that fine, but significant point with you helps you to see that they are inextricably link, which is why it can seem like talking about muddy water when talking subjects in high school.  A set of courses or subjects that works for one family might not work for another family with different goals.

Again, the backbone of your planning, whether you are planning for the known or unknown future is to be sure the foundation of their high school is built on the basic or core subjects.  From there,  you can add specific subjects to it.

You want your teen to have every option available to him when he finally decides on a route.

A Teen With No Plan While You Plan

Whether your teen goes to college, joins the workforce right away, takes up a gap year, goes to missionary service, or don’t know what they are doing the next day, lay a good foundation by sticking to the basic subjects like math, language arts, history and science.

These courses will give them the edge they need for any future options.

My basic high school plan looked like this:

  • 1 Math each year = 4 years or 4 credits.
  • 1 Language Arts each year = 4 years or 4 credits.
  • 1 Science for 3 years= 3 years or 3 credits.
  • 1 History each year= 4 years or 4 credits.

Bam, 15 solid credits were planned immediately for Mr. Senior 2013.

Now, I said this was my plan.  I realized soon enough that planning for a young teen prior to high school is quite a different thing than when he inched closer to adulthood in his junior and senior years.  Now, he wanted to make more of his own educational choices too.  And rightly so.

Plodding along throughout the high school years with the basic core subjects is a solid plan because it keeps all your teen’s options open.

But, what else do you want to add to his high school courses?  Well, next comes the glam part of planning as I call it.  I will share in Part 2 how to round out the rest of your high school subjects.

Does this sound like a plan? Click on Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects Part 2 if you’re ready for the next part.

Hugs and love ya,

Did you miss these posts?

Dynamic Reader Question–How To Get All those Homeschool Science Experiments Done?

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Dynamic Reader Question Homeschool Science How To Get it All Done

Affiliate Link Elements

Whatever I am doing on my blog, your questions are always at the top of my list.

I only had answered part of Laura’s question and now want to answer the second part of her question.

Hi there Tina!!
Laura here (a most grateful “follower” who thinks your site is awesome).  I have two questions.
1.  There are so many neat things to do and neat curriculum with science, how is one to get them all done.  I’ve even thought about doing 2 along side each other.

Sharing with you first on how to pick a science curriculum helps you to see if it will fit in with what you want to get done for the day.

The most important thing I have learned about how to do science is to not ever do a bait and switch and give up hands-on projects.  And, I did this to myself and have nobody to blame.  I started off good when teaching science, but then lost my way.

My oldest son was a bit precocious when it came to learning and I fed his science love through hands-on experiments.

Simply doing something hands-on two or three times a week was the best start to science.  We used several books. Two of them are below.

   


When they were young, it is more important for them to delight in learning.  Understanding all the science and why’s behind an experiment comes later.

Then, I made the big science goof and gave up hands-on activities when they got a bit older in elementary grades.  I fell victim to the thinking they had to only now write papers, do vocabulary and keep science journals.  Instead of adding that AND keeping the hands-on, I got unbalanced and let the hands-on activities fall by the side.  All along all I needed to do was to revamp my schedule to allow more time for science.  I finally did that, but not before I lost a few precious years with my oldest son.

Hands-On Science or Picky Choosers?

So one hallmark of a well rounded out science program is plenty of hands-on projects.   And, it should stay that way all the way to high school.

Science is about doing, not just reading or watching somebody else do it.

After that there are other things you want to determine about a program before you buy.  For example, if you are short on time already, then you may want to purchase premade kits.

List at this list of questions:

  • Is it secular or Christian? Which do you want?
  • Can it be used for multiple ages?
  • Do you want to learn by subject matter (unit studies) or by mixing and matching topics similar to a textbook?
  • As the kids get older, supplies like microscopes cost a bit more.  How many supplies do you need?
  • Are science kits available? Or, do you have to gather your own supplies?
  • Do the children learn at the computer part of the time? Is it all computer reading or part book and part computer or all book?
  • If you don’t have a science background, then you may want a more helpful teacher guide.  How helpful is the teacher guide? Does it have thorough explanations or is it an answer sheet only?

Superb Science Schedules

After you decide what is important to you in a science curriculum, then you have to make time to do all of those wonderful hands-on science activities.

Don’t do the same thing I did and try to make a middle school budding scientist work on a toddler approved schedule.

Increase the time for science as they get older so that they know how to both research and note their findings AND have time to test those ideas, i.e. hands-on activities.

Too, along the 6th grade or so, you can start off your day with science which is a content subject instead of the skill subjects.  Hopefully, this is past the time your children struggle with the skill subjects.

You know I am a firm believe in writing it all out and that means a schedule too.  Write it all so that you not only see it, but that you as the teacher stick to it. This will help your children have well-rounded out days.  Too, seeing it keeps these ideas from being “pie in the sky” dreams, but makes them reality.

Look at these options.

Schedule. Science Here.
Mon. – Fri. until noon ALL the skill subjects are to be done. Mon. – Fri.
Science every afternoon for an hour.
Mon. – Fri. until noon ALL the skill subjects are to be done. Mon. Wed. Fri. Alternating days to switch with another content subject like history or geography.
Mon. – Fri. until noon ALL the skill subjects are to be done. Mon. Tue.
Two back to back afternoons of science or visa versa make it W,T,F.
Mon. – Fri. start off with science and then start your skill subjects.

The two main keys to being sure you cover science is to 1) not push the skill subjects past the time they are suppose to be done.  I have heard of drill sergeants moms who feel that all lesson plans have to be done before you move on to the other fun subjects.  Skill subjects need to stay to the time scheduled by you.

Remember, it is the *time* for learning that needs to be scheduled, not necessarily the lesson plan.  As long as they are doing it, they are learning.   And, the next 2) thing to do is schedule it.   Just do it.

Though I have used parts of two science curricula, I have never used all of any one curriculum.  I simply used what I needed from each one.

What about you? How does your schedule look for science? Do you have any more tips for Laura?

Too, if you don’t remember the difference between the skill and content subjects, look at my post below:

How to Use Homeschooling Multiple Children Secret Planning Sheet Tinas Dynamic Homeschool Plus 5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together – Day 4: Embrace Homeschooling Multiple Grades

5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together – Day 4: Embrace Homeschooling Multiple Grades

Hugs and love ya,

2012Tinasignature 5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together – Day 4: Embrace Homeschooling Multiple Grades

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