Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Activity, Change, Progress

homeschool lifestyle

Eliminating 3 Non-Essentials in Homeschooling

| 10 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

With our move to South America, I had two suitcases to pack with what was absolutely essential to living in South America.  Included in our two suitcase maximum for each person was not just clothes, but homeschooling books.

Non-Essentials In Homeschooling

Eliminating non-essentials was utterly crucial to making a smooth transition.  The line between absolutely vital and unimportant became very clear.

Homeschooling is similar because there are just some things that are not required to raising life long learners.  Instead of a homeschooling help, some things can become a hindrance.

Look at these Tips to Eliminating 3 Non-Essentials in Homeschooling.

Assigning a Book Report – Non-Essential.  I did it too.  I assigned my boys books reports in the beginning of my homeschool journey only because that is what I did in public school. 

Like most new homeschooling teachers I associated books reports with good readers and writers. 

The longer I homeschooled, the more I realized that my strategies like reading aloud, practicing writing each day, acting out stories, creating puppets with the boys when they were preschool age and debating an author’s viewpoint in the high school grades was incredibly more powerful.

It has been my experience that forced book reports do not fuel the love for reading and especially with wiggly boys.

Also, I learned that if I just had to assign one for the language arts teacher inside of me then assign a book my kids don’t like. Who really wants to be forced to use literary analysis on a book they love?

Instilling the pleasure of reading or lingering over vocabulary for the love of words has to be cultivated with other equally pleasurable tasks.

When you are doing copywork with your children, talking orally about the plot or rising action of a book or researching about an author, information in a book is then absorbed and retained.

More important reading is associated with pleasure and not drudgery.

College Degree – Non-Essential.  As you homeschool longer, you realize that all that is needed is the ability to learn alongside your children.

Here is a little secret I learned while conducting my homeschooling workshops. 

Quite a few of the public school teachers in my workshop didn’t want the other moms in the workshop to know they were teachers. 

Of course, I was elated and enthusiastic to have quite a few public school teachers in my workshops because I savored our time together as we shared teaching tips.

However, many (not all) of the public school teachers turned homeschool educator felt that their college education hampered their ability to think outside the box. 

Appreciating their candor and vulnerability, I realized we all struggle with things that make us feel inadequate.

A parent’s degree or lack of it has very little bearing on the success of their journey.

Check out the article The Myth of Teacher Qualifications by HSLDA.

Knowing All the Answers – Non-Essential. We may think we need to know all the answers, but when I have been honest with my boys by letting them know that I don’t know all the answers, they appreciate that I am human too.

What I have found is that knowing where to go to find the answers or how to connect with other homeschoolers has been more essential.

Too, a dogged determination, willingness to work hard and an unwavering dedication to your children's education have been the keys to successfully homeschooling.

Eliminating the clutter as I packed and weighed each bag carefully for our move, though stressful at the time, allowed more room for what was really important.

Only so much will fit in a bag and only so much will fit into a homeschool day.

Looking back now, unloading all that clutter and eliminating the non-essentials has allowed me to maximize the time we have together by savoring what we brought with us.

You'll love my other tried and true tips through they 20+ years I've homeschooled.

What about you? Have you overstuffed your day with non-essentials?

Hugs and love ya,

Patience, Confidence, Knowing all the Answers – NOT Required to Homeschool

3 Homeschooling Myths Debunked

Things Homeschoolers Know

3 Easy Fixes to Recharge Your Homeschool Routine

| 2 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Because our living location is temporary right now and our homeschool routine not so routine because of our recent move to South America, I thought I would share 3 easy fixes to recharge your homeschool routine.

These are things that I keep in mind when I have a big change in my life.

Recharge Your Homeschool Routine

Too, it doesn’t take such a huge thing as a move overseas to feel defeated.  Some days when the boys were all very young, just a move from their bed to the living room was enough for chaos to follow and my well planned routine go out the window.  

You hope as they get to the teen years that it gets better.  Okay, you do get a break, but even as teens they need a recharge for their routine.

If you are feeling a bit defeated in your new routine, try these easy fixes to bring some peace back into your day.

The Challenge

Easy Fix 1.
Try a new location. 

If there is anything that can breathe life into your day, it is changing where you and your kids do school. 

The old kitchen table has stood the test of time, but sometimes we just need to pull back from it. 

Maybe you’re a rocking chair and porch type of girl. 

Give yourself some room to enjoy spending part of the day where you like to be.  Especially this time of the year when the weather is a bit cooler, you can start part of your school day outside. 

Then, when you do come inside to the kitchen table, everybody will be much more relaxed. 

If you have teens, you know they want to be in their room for part of the day.  But if you have homeschooled them from the beginning or as you do, you will find that teens still look forward to spending some of their day with you.  When Mr. Senior 2013 had those moments, we would move to the living room to read together. 

Here is our new and temporary location until we find a home.  It is just a small space in our apartment that I set up to suit them.  Tiny loves sitting on the floor to do his school anyway so he thinks this set up is just perfect..

Our makeshift school room

And then moving a few tables around in the apartment, I have set up a place for Mr. Awesome do some of his online classes.  The key is we are together and embracing a new change.

Push Back When Your Routine Gets Crowded

Easy Fix 2.
Stick with a Set Time To Begin Your School Day. 

Though I thrive with having a set time to start school, I have a lot of fellow feeling for those that feel jailed when they hear the words “time management”. 

My simple advice is this: There is nothing more important in your day than your children. 

Though I love all my family and homeschool friends, I try to remember that my children’s education has to be first in the day and not the musings of my family or friends. 

And guess what? Instead of thinking that your not a close friend or “be there for them daughter”, your family and friends, whether they support your homeschool decision or not, will respect the priority placed on time with your children.

Easy Fix 3.
Stop and Reorganize. 

Without adding homeschooling to our day, this world is enough to make us think that if we stop one moment to plan or reorganize that we will waste a time.  It is kind of funny in a way though we may not see it at the time. 

I think about all the focus we put on curriculum and not enough on the help we will get with supper, clothes washing or bill paying.

One of my back to school chores includes emptying my pantry or kitchen cabinets

One year, somehow I had hoarded collected 9 pie plates.  Not in any dinner I make would I ever make 9 pies to go with it. 

But the fact, they were taking up room in my cabinets was taking up space in my mind and weighing me down. 

It was completely stressful and a waste of time in making dinner when I would have to reshuffle those 9 pie pans each time to get the pans I needed to actually start supper with. 

Why do we do put up with tiny time zappers that turn huge over time?

You may have another room bothering you. For me, it’s always the kitchen that I make time to organize so that I save time.

A homeschool routine is not about scheduling every block or minute, but only the important ones.  Not everything on your list for the day is urgent.  It’s important, but there is a difference.

Whether you have temporary circumstances like me right now or you are feeling a bit defeated, push back when your routine gets crowded. 

Instead of planning your whole day, plan to get started.  It is so worthwhile.

Hugs and love ya,

3 Easy Fixes to Recharge Your Homeschool Routine


Must-Haves for the Organized Homeschooler: What to Keep & What to Skip

| 4 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Must-haves for the organized homeschooler are not the same must-haves for other stay at home families.

Think about that for a minute because priorities become real clear. The point is we share living and learning spaces and what we skip and what we keep are different.

By sharing must-haves for the organized homeschooler, I want to ease organization for you.

Must-Haves for the Organized Homeschooler: What to Keep & What to Skip

I do not want you to create a must-have list of things which don’t work.

Organized Homeschooler

We stop agonizing over organizing and what becomes a hobby for some folks (oh yes, I could so go there but I try to keep myself reined in) and the realities of the things that actually need to be organized becomes two very different things.

When You Homeschool and Agonize  Organize

There is a difference in the ways we approach an idea, task or project IF we want to accomplish organizing that fits our homeschool lifestyle.

Our homeschool lifestyle cannot be dismissed as some small undertaking so it requires  a measure of finesse that a lot of books, blogs and websites on general organizing just don’t understand. We are not sending our kids off somewhere, but we are living and learning in shared spaces.

Look at my list below because we don’t have to give up organization and don’t want to; we just learn how to do it differently.

5 Must-Haves for the Organized Homeschooler: What to KEEP

Homeschool Keeper 1. Menu Planning.

Menu planning for 30 days has grit, it’s the only way I menu plan.

It’s not easy if you normally menu plan for 7 days. However, I encourage you to menu plan for 30 days because you do not have to plan again so quickly.

You get a whole lot more return for your time when you menu plan longer. Taking an extra 15 minutes or so in the beginning of the month gives back more time in the month than it takes up.

For example, I turned this into a year long project. Take one year and plan something for every day of the year for recipes that your family like.

This plan will keep giving back for year after year because you’ve created 365 meals and the best part is that you have meals already created.

I color coded every 7 days so that you can see one glance at a time. I plan for 30 days, but shop weekly. So seeing the whole week at one time speeds up the process for myself.

Grab this editable recipe form on my page DIY Easy Home Management Binder.

Homeschool Keeper 2. Chores Assigned to Each Family Member.

I could not do what I do or even school for the day if my kids did not help. Teaching them requires time, but the payoffs are huge.

Ideally, I would love to tell you that I trained them so that now they do all my grocery shopping, but really they have learned some valuable life skills that I can’t check off in my planner.

Update: Yes, they did ALL my grocery shopping and half of the cooking as they grew older. Now, with so much available on-line they still help put groceries away.

Grab this editable chore chart too over on my page DIY Easy Home Management Binder.

Homeschool Keeper 3. A homeschool planner like my 7 Step DIY Homeschool Planner.

Do I need to tell how my heart goes pitter patter when I prepare the 7 Step DIY Homeschool Planner each year?

There is NOT another like homeschool planner like it because YOU organize it each year for your EXACT needs this year.

Using my printables with tons of options at every step, you create a UNIQUE one of a kind planner.

If you’re not a paper/pen gal, you still want some way to easily track your school work.

Homeschool Keeper 4. Command center. Even if it’s simple or temporary.

It’s one thing to have plans in mind, but communicating to the rest of the family is how to effectively carry out plans.

This area can include all upcoming activities for the family and even a Home Management Binder.

Many plans or routines fail and can be traced back to lack of communication.

A physical place at the house where everybody can see what is planned is useful in keeping my family up to date.

Also, I use and love Cozi, which is a free family calendar app.

Each week the calendar is sent o everybody’s email or phone. I love this now that I have teens because we could be going a lot of different directions during the day. Not just that, but the boys can see what is coming up too and learn to plan.

However, one place in the house where all family members pass by for the day was more effective.

Reminders from apps can be out of sight and out of mind; a command center in the house is a way that all family members can stay organized and be mindful.

Homeschool Keeper 5. Place to organize the overflowing amount of books, supplies, and crafts which come with the full time job of homeschooling.

Though I highly recommend having a homeschool room, I know that is not possible with everyone.

In addition, I was told I would never use a dedicated school room. That was not right either. Look at my tips Dedicated Homeschool Room or Dining Room Homeschooler.

Twenty years later and I’m here to tell you I used it very often. So much advice I’ve learned depends on families circumstances at the time.

When I started all of my kids were preschool. I needed pint sized furniture and I needed ways to train them to a habit and to get them ready to learn and focus.

On the other hand I have also had many years of my homeschooling where I couldn’t have a school room. I loved our homeschooling years just as well.

However large or however small area you have, I recommend that you have a place to corral all the clutter so that your home remains a place for relaxing family evenings.

5 Must-Haves for the Organized Homeschooler: What to SKIP

What to Skip 1. Reading organization books from those who don’t live our homeschool lifestyle.

Skip organization books that do not include homeschool parents as an author. I’m not saying you can’t glean some tips.

But if you are struggling in this area, then a book written for an audience that does not have the same demands we have  on our time could end up discouraging you instead of inspiring you.

What to Skip 2. Extensive record keeping.

I’m not saying to throw caution to the wind, but record keeping for the right reasons is key to being organized.

For example, fear of the homeschool law changing is not a good motivator and we’ve brought undue stress to our organized day.

Trying to keep all records to provide proof when your state law does not require record keeping is undue stress. It’s one thing to keep it for you, but another if you need to meet the law.

However, record keeping becomes important in the middle and high school years.

Look at my videos How to Successfully Begin Homeschooling Middle and High School (facebook or here for YouTube) and How to Stay on Top of Record Keeping – Seriously!

Also, I have some detailed tips here Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects Part 1 and Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects Part 2.

What to Skip 3. Stressful Schedules.

I’m an organized person, but that still didn’t help me to find a balance until several years of homeschooling.

Some years, I was able to schedule hour by hour because it suited our pace.

However, most years, a flexible schedule was needed to accommodate slower learners, my toddler, and preschooler.

Your youngest learner is your TRUE scheduler.

Skip a stressful homeschool schedule in favor of a peaceful schedule.

What to Skip 4. Perfectly picked up house.

Having a perfectly picked up and clean to my standards mindset was the hardest for me to let go.

Learning to let go of that mindset helped me to stay organized although it didn’t feel that way in the beginning.

Accepting a kid cleaned house was not only key to my sanity, but now that my sons have all graduated it trained them for valuable life skills.

Being an organized homeschooler means knowing when to delegate which is not always easy. However, a good enough picked up house while being clean allowed us to move on with our school day.

What to Skip 5. Overflowing amount of clothes.

Lastly, when my kids were young, I realized the more clothes they had, the more they seemed to plow through them.

This always equaled to not only more laundry, but tiny mounds of messes everywhere.

So I realized less is more; I reduced my kids’ wear to less than half.

As you school longer, you realize that you don’t need as many dress clothes for activities outside the house. Unless, your kid are attending a five day co-op which is more like private mini school your kids need just a few sets of dress clothes each.

Having less helped me to organize more and gave me freedom to do the things we love the most.

Must-Haves for the Organized Homeschooler: What to Keep & What to Skip

Not giving up your homeschool freedom begins by knowing what to keep and what to skip as an organized homeschooler.

What are you must-haves and what have you skipped to be organized?

This is also a blog hop. This blog hop is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutual beneficial projects.

Hugs and love ya,

Must Haves for the Organized Homeschooler