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Treasure the Moments of Homeschooling Testosterone Armed Teen Boys

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

I don’t want to sound cliché, but I treasure the moments of homeschooling testosterone armed teen boys. Thinking back when all the boys were real young, my sis came over to my house one day with her girls, which are about the same age as my boys. We were not only discussing how to homeschool boys, but also how we could join forces to homeschool our kids together.

How to Easily Homeschool Boys

When we looked up, my boys were outside in the yard with tree branches fighting and her girls were inside coloring pages, inside the lines no doubt.

(Boys to …………..

I didn’t speak out loud what I thought of her girls, but she did later about my boys.

She discussed with me about putting my boys on medication and I silently thought she had beaten the life out of her girls to the point they had no personality or energy either one.

I didn’t really speak out too because deep down I had a nagging fear that something might actually be wrong with my boys.

We both had our first glimpse of the opposite gender of which neither one of us had any experience handling.  Fast forward many years later, I never put my boys on medication because I knew as the mom that they were boys.
What does that mean? It means they learn differently than girls when they are young and it means more noticeable differences happen in the teen years.

Much of my work in disciplining my sons did come when they were younger because I was trying to teach them to sit still when they really needed to wiggle.
When my sis and I would meet together, I would be the one with my hands full as my time was spent beating my boys, mmmm, I meant settling fights and prodding the boys to complete their work.

As my sons have morphed into the teen years, my work as mentor has not stopped.  It has required more finesse, patience and respect of the fact that they are born with an inward need to exercise authority even over me and a some lot of days that set my not so laid back personality in a frenzy.
Because homeschooling is not just an adventure for my boys, but a journey in learning year by year for me too, I want to share a few things that worked and did not work for me as I homeschool teen boys.

……. Men)

1).  Embrace the differences.  As my middle son, Mr. Awesome approaches completing his high school years, his relationship with me is different than Mr. Senior 2013.  Unlike Mr. Senior 2013, Mr. Awesome wants very clear cut guidelines as to what is expected of him in high school for each year.  So I changed the way I prepared his high school curriculum without giving up some of what his father and I required of him in high school.

For example, with Mr. Senior 2013, we planned his high school together each year.  With Mr. Awesome, I planned for two years and he is taking an online school for the next two years.

I still have some classes we do together like geography and some history, but he wanted an outside source.  I admit I was a bit disappointed, but then I have to remember that I have hopefully modeled the art of reasonableness and more importantly considered his needs and differences in high school.

Some things have not been different than Mr. Senior 2013 like my middles son’s need to also question my decision making ability now.

Mr. Senior 2013 and I had many head butting sessions, which only ended with me physically and mentally exhausted.  Having gone through the rooster syndrome with my oldest son, I was a bit more equipped this time with Mr. Awesome.

Blessing and Challenges of Homeschooling Teen Boys

Instead of taking his questioning my authority as a personal assault, I realized his need to start exercising his thinking ability to make good decisions.  If he does not start learning when and how to question decisions now, then how will he be able to make good decisions on his own and then to care for a family later?

Understanding this has helped me a bit more to have patience when I am questioned about every school subject.  It is on the job training for the preparation of the challenges of manhood.

2.) Figure Head of Male Authority a Need.  I sympathize with those single moms, but even they can provide a positive male role model.  It may be their father, uncle or other close friend or family member.  Men just have an unspoken word among themselves when it comes to male bonding time.

It is not that a single mom cannot homeschool a testosterone packing teen, but it sure makes her job easier to have a male figure to turn to.

In all my worry, both of my sons lapped up the influence by my husband and his time as he models the kind of men I want my sons to become.

Too, my husband is able to help my sons to accept the fact that as mom, they need to learn how to accept my authority.

Applying this to homeschooling has not always been easy, but I try to do my part in always listening to what each of my sons have to say no matter how trivial it may seem.

Admitting that I too make mistakes and want them to learn to make capable decisions independent of a woman (though always listening to sound advice by either a man or woman) has always been a good stepping stone to them completing assignments or subjects that my husband and I have planned for them.

This goes back to appreciating the fact that they are a different gender and their need to exercise domination and independence is such an intrinsic part of homeschooling each day.

It is hard to separate the parenting from homeschooling during the teen years.

3.) Create A World Separate From Yours.  Again I noticed the slight differences between my teen boys when it comes to having other teen friends and have had to adjust to their needs.  Mr. Senior 2013 was more content with just a few friends though he still needed a sphere of friends outside of our family.

Mr. Awesome on the other hand has a stronger need for more socialization with teens.  He has a more-the-merrier attitude when it comes to other teens and even other people.

Creating opportunities for both my sons to interact with both teen boys and girls has been some of the hardest work on my part beyond academics.

Our homeschool co-op, church activities, fun sports and group field trips just for teens have been some of my best life saving tips to fill my boys need for the right kind of association.

Coming up in more articles about how to homeschool teen boys, I will be sharing specific curriculum that clicked better for us and more specifics as to how boys learn.

Your turn. Have you hit a brick wall when homeschooling your tween or teen boy?  What tips work for you?

Hugs and love ya,

Want to brush up on some more tips for homeschooling teens?

Guiding Older Children

Homeschooling Middle School Doesn’t Always Mean Middle Way

Homeschool Writing Program for Middle and High School

Homeschool High School Readiness?

 

Making Each Day Count When Homeschooling

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

Beginning the journey of a lifetime when starting to homeschool, we seem to have superhuman strength and a dogged determination.  But then, each new year rolls around and we are faced with making each day count when homeschooling.
It’s not the starting homeschooling that makes us feel defeated, but it’s the constant stopping and starting throughout the year that is sabotaging a school day.

Some things are out of our control like a sick baby, a sick momma and sometimes dad’s crazy work schedule that throws us off our pace.

Let’s not beat ourselves up over things that we can’t control, but sometimes even those days are not a complete loss in making some headway for the day.

Don’t Put It Off to the Future

Homeschooling with Challenges.  One of the things that held me back from attempting to cover something for the day was to realize that perfect circumstances don’t really exist.

Waiting for the perfect day to happen, I missed out on seizing challenging moments because I couldn’t do everything in my curriculum planner.  I felt I was doing half-hearted homeschooling.

Accepting what I could do for the day when a circumstance threatened the day would have caused a few less bitter homeschooling days for me.

Accepting the Circumstances.  When my idea of what a homeschooling day should look like and reality collided, I see that I could have adjusted more easily if I had just simply accepted the change.  This is hard to do for a scheduler type of personality.

For example, when my husband worked a crazy work schedule or had to be out of town for a long period of time, I could have simply had a read aloud day.  That would have been the perfect time to catch up on some reading.

When both the kids and I were tired trying to keep up with my husband’s changing work schedule, we could have slept in and planned a field trip for the day.

Meeting the Challenge

Avoid All or Nothing Days.  Another key to not completely stopping and then starting up again is to lose the mind-set that each day has to be an all or nothing day.

If your personality is more laid back and you are a respond to the moment teacher, then you may have an easier time accepting changing circumstances.  Again, because I like to plan, it was harder for me to accept those things out of my control.

Looking back now, though you can’t see it at the time, I was my own worst enemy.  It’s just that you realize that being organized allows us to make good use of our time.

However, setting unrealistic expectations and not accepting the present moment sets you up for burnout too and homeschool disillusionment.  It’s that feeling of being disappointed because we think homeschooling is not as good as thought it was.

Soon we may regret homeschooling and that is where the bitter homeschool days come in.  As you can see, if we don’t accept what we can’t control, it can have devastating results.

Homeschooling When Sick.  I think the hardest times, once I determined that my days were not a complete loss when something unplanned came up, are homeschooling through sicknesses.

When I had more than one child sick, then I called off school. But I have found that when one child is sick or if I am sick that homeschooling for the day was a relief.
Having activities lined up for sick days beforehand is essential.

Back before Netflix (I am not real ancient I promise), I would buy tapes about history or science at the homeschool conventions. Too, I would look for museum quality educational coloring books like Edupress or Dover and buy board games.

Special art projects and art supplies were also part of my arsenal that I stocked up on.
But I would hold all of them back, in what I call my Mary Poppins bag only to pull them out when I needed them throughout the year. Keeping all the goodies a surprise from the kids is key to them being something that will keep their attention for the day when you need it most.

As soon as I purchased those things, I would hide them and put them away when the kids were occupied.  It’s sounds crazy, but it’s almost like they looked forward to the days when I was sick because they would get something new.
One year at the end of summer, I stocked up on games that were meant to be played inside during the long hot summer months. Of course that is not the reason I bought them.

For example, I bought an indoor mini croquet set.  All of the pieces, the balls, mallets and stakes were lightweight and made to be played indoors. When I had morning sickness when pregnant with my third son, I pulled the set out for my two sons and they played indoors while I was hanging out in the bathroom.

They had no idea they didn’t miss a day on strengthening their gross motor skills and I got my much needed rest.

Buying a pail and shovel at the end of summer that is suppose to be used at the beach made for great indoor play in a plastic pool that I filled with rice, beans or indoor sand during the winter.

Your imagination is the only limit to creating hangouts at your house when you need them.

Taking the kids to the park to study so the Mr. could have the house quiet to sleep in are some of my fondest memories of them when they were little.

Of course grabbing some of their favorite food at the time like hotdogs, which we ate on special occasions made it more special too.

Seasons of Adventure

Now with iPads and tablets, finding an activity is much easier.

I still prefer activities, like board games, where my children have to interact with each other instead of an iPad.  But it’s a relief to have options from our iPad too because you can purchase board game apps, like Monopoly for a group to play too.

Though it took me a while to expect the unexpected, some of our best homeschool moments of learning were ones that I have not planned. I learned that the constant stopping and starting was sabotaging my teaching efforts.

And despite what I thought at the time, I could push on through the interruptions. Besides, I would have missed out some of our fondest memories so far in homeschooling.

Don’t pass up the opportunity to make each day special in homeschooling, you won’t regret it.

Hugs and love ya,

Keep on Going!! Check out some more tips!

How To Fake Homeschooling

Biggest Challenges to Homeschooling

Looking Back To Stretch Forward.

Helping our Homeschool Children Find their Inner Drive When We are Not Sure We Have It

40 Reasons I Homeschool

 

What If I Choose the Wrong Homeschool Curriculum

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

What if I choose the wrong homeschool curriculum is at the top of the list of worries for new and seasoned homeschoolers alike.

However, I think on the flip side of worry is getting a shipment of new homeschool curriculum. It can be one of the most pleasurable moments in homeschooling. Don’t you just love the smell of new books? It just feels like you have it all together now.

But then, worry sets in. Will this be the right curriculum for my child? Will this year meet my expectations? We spend hours reading every catalog and website that we can as we pore over curriculum choices.

Many times we still are not sure if we have the best curriculum. Then we read those emails or posts on groups where one mom used something that is working so “perfectly” for her and her children.

And then we wonder what’s wrong with us. Doubt sets in about the choices we made at the beginning of the year and we have a gnawing pain at the bottom of our stomach.

If you are teetering about making a huge change, there are a few things that I have learned about choosing the wrong curriculum. Look at these 5 tips below that I hope will help you.What If I Choose the Wrong Homeschool Curriculum

(Incidentally, I love ALL the curriculum in this picture above and highly recommend it.  It worked beautifully for me in the years that I needed it.  But, what works one year for me, may not work for you. That is the key to determining if it’s the wrong choice for you.)

1.  There is no PERFECT curriculum.  Some years it is just about trial and error. There will be times when you pick something that is not what you need for that year or does not meet your goals. You will make some mistakes. That is okay because at anytime during the year you can switch.

Before you switch though, be sure it is the curriculum that is not working and not issues of scheduling, discipline or being overwhelmed. We might mistakenly think that the curriculum is the culprit of our day when in fact it could be other issues in our homeschooling. So give new curriculum a fair shake so to speak.

The opposite of that thinking is sticking with a curriculum no matter what. I have tried to stick to a curriculum because I begged my husband that I just had to have it, so I felt guilty in not using it.  What I have learned is that this can have detrimental effects on my kids.

It is not a waste when you switch because this is a lesson well learned in how your child learns best.

I am not encouraging you to not be frugal and make the decisions you and your husband make work, but balance that thinking with the hundreds and hundreds of dollars you would have spent in public school on school supplies not used, countless clothes purchased and otherwise frivolous things like a school fund raiser.

Too, if you keep your curriculum neat and clean you can resale it and recoup some of your husband’s hard earned dollars.

2. Don’t forget to read homeschool curriculum reviews.   iHN, which I am a proud member of reviews homeschool curriculum.  So be sure to check out the reviews because in reviewing curriculum, I try to give an objective summary of each one.

This means that I try to recommend which group of homeschoolers that a particular curriculum will work for and what you may need to consider if you end up using it.

Look here at the homeschool curriculum I have reviewed so far.

It is important to read homeschool reviews that are informative instead of biased.  Why? Because what may not work for you this year may be the “perfect” curriculum for another year or different circumstance.

More importantly, try to determine why or why not a certain curriculum worked for a family and see if you have similar circumstances.

3.  Take advantage of talking 1:1 vendors at curriculum fairs or either on the phone.  They spend thousands of hours tweaking their curriculum to meet our needs and most vendors want you to understand how best to use their curriculum.

Too, companies like Rainbow Resource, which has been around for a long time have staff that is well educated in the differences between curriculum. Use these free resources by asking them questions when you can’t find the answer in your own research.

Just the catalog alone from Rainbow Resource is an education in the differences between curriculum with their mini-reviews or write ups about various curriculum.

4.  Children are pretty hardy. Homeschooling in fear is not a good place to be at.  So don’t fall prey to the idea that we will have huge gaps in learning.

The truth of it is, everybody has gaps in their learning unless we all learned at the same school at the same time with the same teacher and we still would come away with differences in our education.  Our educational background and differences are what makes each of us unique.  Embrace it.

If you use a curriculum and feel you are somewhat behind in what your goals are, just remember children have a great reserve to pick up at a new point in learning and move forward.

I have done this more than I can remember. I made a bad choice with Mr. Senior 2013 in math beginning his middle school years and he got behind.  By high school, he was well ahead. Why? Because having made a better choice with math, he was highly motivated to move ahead because he loved math.

The same thing happened with Mr. Awesome with a spelling program in his elementary years.  One spelling program was not clicking with him, but after I changed he went up two grade levels because he now had a much better fit with the way he learned.

Not seeing tears, but a return of their love of learning was well worth any money I had spent previously. Just remember, your time is well spent investigating another curriculum if the one you are using is not making sense to your child.

sharing homeschool curriculum

(One mom in our group ready to share her homeschool curriculum with the group.)

5. Look to your local homeschool support.  Many times in our local support group, we would plan a park day for the kids, but it would be a curriculum swap or show and tell for us as the moms. Don’t you wish you could just rent curriculum for a week or two to see if it will work for your family?

As long as you respect copyright laws of publishers, you can take the curriculum home and give it a test drive. Many of my favorite programs I first put my hands on at a park day with my group.  Looking it over for a week or two gave me a much better picture if it would work for my family or not.

Curriculum is our blue print to see how we want to build the education of our children, but it is not the final building.  There are always changes and adjustments to any construction job. Sometimes the adjustments are huge, sometimes they are trivial.

Most important though is that when you are enthusiastic about learning and teaching any subject, that is contagious and rubs off on your children.

It is your attitude toward learning that matters more than any curriculum you choose. Your children will adopt the attitudes and examples you set.

Share your enthusiasm and passion for learning and your children will remember their unique educational heritage and not the wrong curriculum you chose.

Check out the other stuff I have to say about choosing curriculum:

Stop Switching Your Curriculum, Switch Your Course of Study

 How to Choose Curriculum Other than the “Looks Good” Method.

The A, B, C’s of Picking Curriculum + {part 1}

The A, B, C’s of Picking Curriculum + {part 2}

SaveHugs and love ya,

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Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for more AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.


Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

 

3 Easy Fixes to Recharge Your Homeschool Routine

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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


5 Signs That You Need to Switch Your Homeschool Approach

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

Sharing 5 signs that you need to switch your homeschool approach, maybe I will spare you my same stubbornness struggle.

5 Signs to Switch Your Homeschool Approach

Switching from a strictly classical approach to a more unit study approach with an eclectic twist was not easy for me. However, there were tell-tale signs.

Unless you have a public school teacher background (I did not) when you first started homeschooling, you probably were unaware of a homeschool approach. I wasn’t even able to define the term.

First, being able to define a homeschool approach helps to sort through what will work for your family and what will not.

5 Signs That You Need to Switch Your Homeschool Approach
A simple definition for homeschool approach would be the techniques, style, manner, and beliefs as to how you will educate your child.

1.You now understand that you may have chosen your current homeschool approach by default not choice.

Being able to understand and articulate that simple, but powerful definition of a homeschool approach was my first prompt in realizing now that I had homeschooled a few years, I needed to research more carefully the best way to teach my children.

When I started homeschooling I almost felt like I chose a homeschool approach by what I call default.  Classical approach was the homeschool approach my brain was drawn to; it made sense to me.  By default because I was the teacher, I chose that homeschool approach for my children.

2. Regardless of your teaching preference, your children learn better with another style.

My second sign was that although the classical approach worked most of the time for my oldest son, my middle son learned best by more hands-on activities.  I truly was not going to leave any child behind.

3. When you’re losing your homeschool joy because you want something to be successful.

The next sign was one that was real important to me and that was that all of us, including myself, were losing the joy of learning.

Although the definition of homeschool approach in its simplest form means your individual style of teaching, it has to be something you enjoy doing each day too.

Losing a bit of my joy in teaching, I knew the classical approach wasn’t exactly a perfect fit for my teaching style.

Constant moans when we got ready to homeschool played a part too.

You know they weren’t the normal I-am-not-in-a-mood-today-for-school moans, but major moans. The I hate to read now were words spoken in my house. 

My heart was heavy because my push and my drive for a heavy language arts focus was stealing our joy.

Although I can’t all together blame the classical approach because I could have added balance, it certainly started feeling like a noose around my neck.

I could easily move past not having such a great day teaching, but young children don’t have the same ability to reason that sometimes things are temporary.

4. Your day is getting longer and longer because you’ve been focused on following the curriculum instead of the lead of your children.

Another negative sign was that I started making our days go longer and longer, which is beyond anything that I preach tout for teaching kids in the younger years

5. Knowing that when we added in something else other than what our curriculum called for, my kids were more engaged. In our case, it was hand-on activities.

Also, we were finding delight when we took time out of our reading and writing.

For instance, we added a volcano activity, outside geography hunt in the yard or made a themed history meal. They were indicators that we needed more hands-on activities.

Careful Stubborn teacher that I was, it still took me another two years before I changed.

Also, I knew that I had to adopt a homeschool approach that fit my whole family and not just suited me as the teacher.

The good thing about homeschool definitions that you adopt is that they can be expanded.

Now, my expanded definition of homeschool approach would be this:

A homeschool approach would be the techniques, style, manner, and beliefs as to how you will educate your child AND it is the way a teacher nurtures a love of learning recognizing and accepting how a child learns best.

You’ll also love these other tips:

5 Signs That You Need to Switch Your Homeschool Approach

Do you have any of these symptoms signs?

5 Signs That You Need To Switch Your Homeschool Approach @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus.

Hugs and love ya,