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Homeschooling A Trial Run?

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

No matter what our knowledge of the homeschool world is when we begin, the thought of giving homeschooling a trial run crosses our mind during our journey.

I had a younger sister who was homeschooled and I knew quite a bit about the homeschooling world then, but I still thought I should be prepared to send my first son back to public school.


Homeschool Trials – A Sign of Weakness?

What if my son missed out on opportunities that only the public school could offer?

What if the public school teacher was more prepared than myself on a particular subject?

What would I do if we got to high school and I didn’t have a science lab?

What field trips would he miss out on?

What I have learned is that we can’t lead our lives, teach our children or fully enjoy the benefits of homeschooling based on “what ifs”.
We will either be insane, live in a state of constant panic and fear or we can choose now to intentionally homeschool.

Now, when I think about homeschooling being a trial run it’s like saying: “I’ll give my newborn a year. Because if I don’t have a great year, we’ll we just can’t keep him.”

That may sound like a way out there analogy but homeschooling half-heartedly was paralyzing and insane.

I think about all the preparation I made for nine months when I had my first born.


I thought everything would go perfect, along with our perfect crib, perfect schedule and perfect baby because well — I planned, right?

If I had judged my whole parenthood by the first year with my oldest son, I wouldn’t have had any more kids because very few of my expectations were met.

It was not rock-a-bye-baby with my first son.

The sleepless nights, constant calls to the doctor and worrying, the nights up pacing, rocking, digging for information to understand him was met by lots of hard work and on the job training.  It was much more time than I even imagined.

Homeschooling is very similar.

I homeschool to enjoy the freedom, to have better standards, to give more time, to tailor the curriculum, to give my children a better future, to give my sons a better foot hold in life, to build Godly character, to foster sibling relationships, to build a relationship with God, to capture my child’s heart, to make learning a delight for the child and on and on.

Homeschooling A Trial Run @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I was not giving that up.

Along the way, I figured out this would not happen if I kept looking back instead of looking forward.

After my momentary lapse of fear when I put my son back in school for less than a year and took him back out, I realized that ruling out public school as an option from the beginning was the only way I could whole heartedly homeschool.

Too, though in the beginning my fears were more about not being able to meet my sons’ academic needs, the turns and twists of life have proven more challenging than meeting the academic ones.

Extended sicknesses by family members, deaths in our extended family, change of employment, financial ups and downs, pregnancy, and moving have been challenges that have you second guessing your journey.

Breaking all ties with public school was the best thing I did for our family. Why?

Because meeting the challenges of life was done best without interference with the public school schedule.

Public school may seem like a blessed relief in the beginning, but relief can quickly turn to restraint after the initial phase has passed.

Year-end testing, homework in the evenings and giving up control of what your children will be learning and when, were not things that I wanted to add to an already stressful time.

I weathered all the personal challenges I mentioned above and my homeschool conviction was stronger because of it.

At the time when I was making trips back and forth to the ICU in the hospital to care for my husband, laying on the couch because I was so nauseated each day of my pregnancy that I couldn’t hardly move to take care of my other children and driving hours and hours back and forth from my house to my mother’s house to care for my very sick mother, I felt my sons were going to be so behind in their academics that public school would be a relief.

Academics – Perk of Homeschooling?

Tears followed and the feeling of defeat loomed.
What I have come to treasure, value and hold on to is that out of every one of life’s challenges, we raced ahead, caught up and even moved ahead at certain times.
Along through the years, I taught my sons about compassion, nurturing older ones and the value of precious life. What a blessing!

Here are my answers now to the above questions:

If I sent my children back to public school, it would be giving them less as I can offer more even when the road blocks of life happen.

Yes, I have gaps in my education and will make mistakes. Through the years, I have seen plenty of mistakes in textbooks though.

Many professionals will know more on subjects than me, but I am the parent I don’t have to know the subjects, my children do.

I can hire private tutors, use DVDs, have my sons take on line classes and use co-ops and not to mention learn right along with my kids and I did.

We still don’t have a science lab.

We have something better, a fully stocked kitchen that is the perfect science lab.

Field trips are not taken once a year or a few times in the early years and then almost non-existent in the older grades, which is the norm in public school.

I did better. We have taken monthly field trips for every year and the field trips are some of my boys best learning moments. The tales we have to tell you now.

I don’t view myself as a particularly courageous or brave person, but through each hurdle, I was fortified, fueled and empowered for the next challenge and unswerving in my determination to stick to homeschooling.

Keep looking forward to your end goals and don’t measure your whole homeschooling career in front of you by one or two years. It is worth every effort and sacrifice.

What about you? Have you chosen to intentionally homeschool NOW?

Don’t give in thinking the other path is easier, check out these posts:

Hugs and love ya,

Skill Subjects vs. Content Subjects: What’s the Difference?

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

I can’t help it, but my heart sinks each time I read or hear about a family sending their kids back to public school.

t’s true that we don’t really know another family’s problems or struggles and that may be their only choice, but a lot of times it’s because we all struggle with how to simplify our homeschool day.

Sharing about skill subjects vs. content subjects: what’s the difference, I don’t want to weigh you down with one more must do in your day, but I want to show you how to lighten up without compromising on your standard.

I don’t say this thoughtlessly either, but homeschooling does not have to be stressful, time sensitive, and always overwhelming.

Uncovering the secret to a simple and relaxing day with your younger kids and teens is to understand the difference between skill subjects and content subjects.

Skill Subjects vs. Content Subjects What's the Difference

Getting down to the nitty-gritty of teaching is what lightens your load because then you will be able to prioritize subjects.

For example, when a struggling homeschooler shared with me her list of school subjects for the year, it looked like this: (a real case example)

Composition, singing class, gymnastics, penmanship, science, Bible study, math, violin practice, learning Spanish, phonics, history, co-op class and Spelling Power.
She asked me if she had missed anything.

I wanted to reply, “Uhmm, you may be missing out on a good night’s sleep from now on with that list.”
I don’t say things like that though because I can sympathize with the tug on us as home educators to fall into the trap that more means more meaningful. It does not.

Too, children are just like us in a lot of ways when it comes to mounting pressure. They long for a simplified day or list.

Homeschool Zen – Skill-Based Subjects Versus Content Subjects

The secret to covering more in the day is to organize or separate the skills-based subjects from content subjects.

They simply do not have the same importance or can be covered differently.

Just what exactly is the difference between skill-based subjects and content-based subjects?

Skill-based subjects are those subjects that without them they could possibly handicap your child from learning anything at all or impair your child from learning about other subjects.

They are the very essentials, backbone and framework of any education.

For example, it’s hard to learn about history or the Bible when you can’t read.

Too, our children will have very little appreciation for the wonder of science if they can’t write anything in a science journal.

How will a child learn to budget or secure a well paying job if he doesn’t understand the basic 4 operations of arithmetic?

Can you take a guess at which subjects should rule your day?

Reading, writing, and arithmetic are considered your skills-based subjects. 

Too, another identifying mark of the skills-based subjects is that they need to be presented in a sequential order.  Introducing a letter of the alphabet, with the sound it makes to stringing the letters together to form a word are the foundational skills to learning to read.

Math is similar.  We teach from basic operations to meaningful formulas.

Can you see that every other subject, other than the three Rs, is a content subject?

That slices your schedule to just about half the subjects that you may think your child needs to cover.

Now that I explained the difference, I don’t want you to think that the other subjects are not important or that you shouldn’t cover them at all.

However, I am here to tell you from experience now that Mr. Senior 2013 is pursuing courses on his own that covering less history, less science, and less art with him have not been hindrances at all.

Because of his love for reading and learning, he has continued to learn about subjects that he is interested in or that we may not have had as much time to cover.

It’s his job now to continue to self-educate, I just gave him the foundational tools and did not get sidetracked.

Understanding the difference between the two types of subjects does not mean that I would encourage you to spend the whole day on just those subjects.

The point of explaining this though is for you to try this before you give up or feel like a failure because you may not be the bomb mom.

Looking back at my example of the struggling homeschooler, look at how I sliced and diced her day:

Cover Each DayCover When Your Routine Returns Back to Normal from Insane
compositionsinging class
penmanshipgymnastics
phonicsscience
Bibleviolin practice
spellinglearning Spanish
history
co-op class

Sure, kids may be a bit disappointed if we have to cut back some of their activities.  However, helping them to learn the value of priorities and modesty, which means understanding limits, will be a valuable life skilled learned better earlier than as an adult.

When Homeschooling is Challenging

Too, help your kids to appreciate that circumstances are mostly temporarily and that you will try to return to the normal schedule soon.

After all, missing a dance class or piano lesson or two is a small price to pay when our homeschool foundation is threatened.

If you are thinking about returning your children to public school, please shoot me an email or post your concerns here if the reasons are not private. I am here to help you stay the course because homeschooling is a superior education in every way if you have the circumstances to do it.

In an upcoming blog post I want to expand more about when and how to fold in content subjects because the knowledge gained from those subjects make up the very necessary skills that our children need as adults.

Can you see where you may need to lighten your load for a while at least?

Grab some more tips here:

Hugs and love ya,

Cultivating the Desire to Homeschool

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

You’ve probably come across the type before. Those homeschoolers that knew always that they were going to homeschool and they knew before their first child was conceived.

However, if you are one of those that just fell into homeschooling or came to it kicking and screaming, then cultivating the desire to homeschool has probably been a learned art for you.

Whether you always had the desire to homeschool or hopped on board later, we all need to rekindle and cultivate the desire to homeschool so we can foster our growth.

Let’s just face it too, the world we live in today doesn’t engender finding tranquil moments in our day to ponder our desire to homeschool and fill up our reserve.

On the other hand, each day that we homeschool can empty us of our eagerness to keep on homeschooling.

It’s essential to maintaining the pace of homeschooling to tap into homeschool resources that will stir you to action and to avoid certain mind-sets.

Avoid the Weight of Burdensome Negativity.  Sometimes we are our own worst enemies because we have a set standard unreachably high for either us or our children.

For example, do you need to adjust the time that you begin school so that you have time to get more house chores done, or just to soak up more time in the morning to wake up?

Between me and you, I had several days early in my journey where I missed taking a shower and skipped breakfast because my schedule said it was time to start. Why do we do that to ourselves?

I never did get any homeschooling mom of the year trophy award either.

What I did learn was that day in and day out schooling at a grueling pace only sets a homeschooler up for burn out.

The end of the journey is all that matters. Mr. Senior 2013 remembers more about the quiet moments we had at home together doing simple things like reading aloud and playing board games than he did large homeschool projects where we were all stressed out.

Maybe you feel your child is not progressing as fast some other homeschool children that you know.

Could your child be at a learning plateau or is he getting enough rest and exercise?  Look at The Dos and Don’ts When You Hit A Learning Plateau in Homeschooling.

Change Your Homeschool Approach.  I changed my homeschool approach three times until I found one that suited my children and my teaching style.

When we are fighting a switch to a new homeschool approach, it can have devastating effects on our desire to continue homeschooling.

Look at Stop Switching Your Curriculum, Switch Your Course of Study.  I use to think if only I can change my teaching methods at the end of the year that it would be less stressful.

What I finally realized was that like a parched and sun scorched plant that is drying up and shriveling, my children’s love of learning was the same way.

I needed to take quick action to inject a love of learning by changing either my approach, curriculum or schedule.

Just Can’t Avoid it – You Need Other Homeschoolers. Before I formed our co-op and field trip group, I use to think I was too busy to be meeting with other homeschoolers.  Ask me now about how I feel and I cringe about my thinking then because homeschooling and meeting with other homeschoolers are inextricably linked to homeschooling staying power.

When you are tired with several small children, it’s hard to see how fellowship with people you barely know will help you. It just seems like one more energy zapping exercise.

And to make matters worse, if your personality is like mine where you are perfectly happy with just your inner circle of friends, it can be hard to overcome the thinking that you are just fine.

But what I have learned is that the homeschooling spirit is contagious when you have a crowd around.  Instead of draining your time of one more lack luster thing to do, interacting and sharing tips, techniques, and venting about the the ups and downs of homeschooling with other homeschooling families bolsters our desire to keep on homeschooling.

Not only are we encouraged to keep on homeschooling, but we meet other families who have similar circumstances as our own.

Some of the most significant homeschooling changes that I have had the conviction to do came directly after mingling with experienced homeschool moms.

Stoke the embers of homeschooling by fueling the desire to homeschool through being consistent each day and being quick to take advantage of opportunities to be encouraged by other homeschoolers.

The end will be here before you know it.

Hugs and love ya,

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To go from exhausted to exhilarated, look at these posts:

The 3 R’s for Homeschoolers. Part 3

5 Ideas to Kick-Start Your New Homeschool Year By Including Others

Easy Ways to Break Out of a Homeschool Rut

Have You Learned the Secret to Homeschool Joy?

Look at some of these homeschooling books that will stir you to action!

Should A Child Have a Choice to Return To Public School?

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

Starting to homeschool seems easy by comparison when you have to confront an issue like should you give your child a choice to return to public school.

Return to Public School. Homeschool - Should My Child Have A Choice to Retun to Public School

{For the sake of clarity when I mean return to public school, I am talking about leaving your home to go to a public school setting to be guided by somebody else and their standards.  I am not talking about using textbooks at home.  Too, I am not speaking about circumstances out of our control that do not allow us to homeschool at the present moment.  Big difference.}

Return to Public School?

The subject can send as many sparks flying as the topic of disciplining children can.

Never shying away from topics that could be unpleasant, I hope after reading this you can walk away with conviction about your choice to not give your child that option.

My son never got an option to return to public school.  It was never allowed as a choice for our children to make in our home.  Does this make me more or less of an unpleasant teacher?  Judge that for yourself as I want to share with you why my husband and I made that decision in the beginning of our homeschool journey.

Returning to public school normally means your child has had some length of exposure to it.  My sons have not had that experience.  Did that lack of experience make the curiosity for public school not come up in our home?  No, it came up.  Taking Mr. Senior 2013 out in Kindergarten, he never really had any bad experiences so his curiosity was piqued.

I do think the key to understanding your child is to determine if it’s just curiosity or if your child perceives they are lacking something in their journey.

So if that topic came up, I wasn’t going to wait for it to happen before I had a plan in place.  Determined on creating many learning opportunities and experiences, I focused my time and energy on that.

Learn Through Experience or Example?

As home educators, we are not afraid of work.  Most of us go above and beyond the call of duty so to speak to find what works for our children.  And then sometimes that is not enough.  It can be flat out discouraging, but I will share some tips in just a minute to breathe some life into your efforts.

First though I want to give you some tips on analyzing which set of values or mind-set you will adopt as you homeschool because it affects the merit or value of your decision.  Is it best to learn through experience or by examples?  I am often told that some children just need to experience it.  I don’t hail to that way of thinking because experience is not always the best teacher.  Learning from examples or by example is a much better teacher.  In other words, you don’t have to experience pain to appreciate the lack of it.

From the time children are very young, they need a standard by which to measure their decisions.  Core values for a family usually enters at this point.  It did for us.  I want my sons to know that they can make a good decision regarding their life choices way beyond what a person thinks my sons should make at their age if they have a reliable standard to measure by.

The Bible has always been our standard and we shared with our sons that it is our responsibility, no cherished privilege to guide them.  That mind-set has been engrained since they were young.  So returning to public school was not seen as a topic that was open for discussion, it was seen as a loving decision anchored in our values.

Hard or Hardly Working Mom?

What always was and still is open for discussion anytime day or night is what they feel that they need at the present moment.  If they feel at anytime like they were missing out on something, it is my responsibility to care for that need.  A child will grow, but not necessarily grow up loving to be self-educated unless we show them the positive aspects of our decision.

Make yourself available and open to discussions.  Having candid talks and 1:1 heartfelt conversations with each child gathers more momentum as your child grows.  At certain ages, normally preteen to young adulthood, I have spent more times during the school day keeping the communication lines open with my sons than they have completing school assignments.  This is not easy as they become young adults establishing their core values.

Sometimes that is just not enough either because you have to meet their needs and it starts with YOU, not with a support group.  I want you to hear my heart on this.  When your children are young, you are their everything in the world.

But when they are older and decision making ability is being nurtured and everything in the world matters to them, that time is more uncertain as they enter adulthood and your guidance is absolutely essential.  It simply can’t be left up to somebody else to make your children happy or fulfilled.  They have to learn to look within too as to why they may feel that they are missing out.  For sure it is easier and more of an adventure to fill our children’s needs by joining with others or joining a support group.  I encourage you to embrace those groups.  But at some points in my journey, I did not have an active homeschooling community near me.

Hardworking Homeschool Mom

{Look to your church for finding friends and don’t forget to include extended family as you build a network for a support group.  The homeschoolers will come as you set out to host functions for your children. When they do, connect with them.}

So focus on what you can do.  I have shared before how my New Bee Homeschooler Program, Free Lapbook site and my co-op were created out of my desire to push, no impel myself into another level of teaching and to provide my sons with the best teacher they can have.  I will not be content until my sons’ needs are satisfied and overflowing.

So I don’t “dictate” {or is that guide lovingly} that public school is not an option unless I have provided many other opportunities for them to choose from that meets their needs.

Also, I never used returning to public school as a means of discipline or allowed it as an option from an early age.  What I do know is that though the topic came up and we talked openly and lovingly about why they may want to experience it, the decision to not return to public school has saved my sons much grief through the years by not starting/stopping public school again and again.

I recently helped a friend who allowed her 13 year old daughter to make that decision to return to public school.  After a few months, she returned back home again.  I helped her to remember that sometimes as a parent we have to parent instead of being their friend.   It’s our job to protect, shield, guide and give them sound reasons for our values and not be the because-I-told- you-so parent.

Important: You can’t wait until your children are preteen or teen for them to know your feelings on this.  When their hearts are malleable is the time to share why you feel that there is nothing that the public school offers that you can’t give to them abundantly.  Do YOU truly believe that?

Conviction is not just expressed, but lived day by day.  Conviction is not just your opinion, but it is based on evidence.

As a whole, (because I don’t pick on public schools or caring, loving public school teachers) the public school system is not a superior academic or moral system.

When you are convicted knowing that you are giving your children the best in education, then you never feel that you are keeping them away from something that is better or that they are missing out on something.

What Your Past Can Teach You About Homeschooling

Understanding another person’s past experiences too is key to understanding this sensitive topic and why homeschoolers are so passionate about the decisions they make.

Our upbringing and the job our parents did with us can’t be overlooked.  Many parents today had parents who were dictator-like.  This is not what I am talking about in our home or any home.  Perhaps too as a child a homeschool parent needed friends and their needs were not met.  As parents now, they want to be sure they don’t make those same mistakes with their children.  Some feel that the public school is a way to have those friends, I do not feel that way.

Again, those needs can be met abundantly in homeschool though it may require a bit more hard work, ingenuity and inspiration.

Not giving my sons a choice about returning to public school, but always having a choice in their education has not been easy.  But is homeschooling really about choosing an easier path?

It’s easier to make the decision that your children have no say in the choice to return to public school, but it’s quite another thing to live with that decision.  Avoiding some of that stress that can happen in a homeschool journey by including our sons in on the conviction of why we chose this path has allowed us to have no regrets because our time has been spent on the value of our precious journey and not on the what if we return to public school.

Are you one of the ones living your homeschool decision with conviction?

Hugs and love ya,

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When does homeschooling become "normal"?

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

As moms when we lack sleep because of endless hours nursing the baby, shuffle a family schedule to line up with dad’s chaotic work schedule, or have our own health issues gnawing at us, a ‘normal'” school schedule can seem a challenge to say the least. It seems to be some elusive lifestyle that alludes us.

When does Homeschooling become normal

Tied in with that feeling of wanting to be normal is the negative thought that only through normalcy will we accomplish anything or succeed at homeschooling.

Focusing on things that we have no control over, but realizing that we are just like everybody else will help curb negative thoughts. We all struggle from time to time, you are not alone. If you are new, you might get more woes in your first couple of years of homeschooling. Seasoned veterans might experience challenges several years down the road after they have enjoyed many blissful years.

The point in dealing with these struggles is to realize that when our time, energy, minds and hearts are focused on ONE thing, like succeeding in homeschooling, we don’t have time to focus on what we cannot do. There is no room in our minds for negative thoughts to drain us of priceless energy.

Habits are formed by a lot of hard work and determination. This is the same for our habit of thinking. By allowing negative thoughts to creep back into our minds, and they will from time to time because we are just human, it will take our FOCUS off of succeeding.

True, we may wish our present stressing circumstance to go away. However, it is more realistic to realize that it is our minds we have control over and nothing else. Work hard at forming the habit to be more positive in our thinking.

Avoid extremes when you are going through hard times and want your homeschooling life style to return to normal.   Remember that circumstances are TEMPORARY at most.

Accepting your present limitations, keeping your mind singularly focused on what you CAN do will energize you.

Support groups, family members, a fellow homeschooler and being around other people who have a desire to succeed in homeschooling will keep your fire raging when you feel you’re smoldering.

Homeschooling never becomes normal, we MAKE it happen each day, one day at a time.

Be sure to go through my Free 31 Day Boot Camp for New Homeschoolers.

Hugs and you can do it,

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