When my mom decided to start homeschooling in 1988, I was just two years away from finishing high school. We had moved too far from my public high school for me to continue attending, so she included me in this sweeping decision, despite my initial resistance. From my questioning teenage […]
Author: Renée Gotcher
Renée Gotcher is a freelance writer, editor, and recently “retired” homeschooling mother of three daughters (her eldest graduated from Moody Bible Institute and two younger daughters attend Bob Jones University). Still adjusting to an empty nest, Renée is the Communications Coordinator for Christian Home Educators of Colorado (CHEC), where she continues serving the homeschooling community she has been a part of for the past 15 years. Renée and her husband of 30 years, Kenny, are next-generation homeschoolers who began homeschooling when they moved to Castle Rock, CO, in 2010. In 2011, Renée launched this homeschooling blog with her homeschooling sister and sisters-in-law. She has served the local homeschool community through part-time teaching and administrative roles at a private homeschool partnership program and volunteer leadership positions at homeschool support groups. As a freelancer, Renée was a contributing writer to the devotional anthology, "Life Changing Stories;" she contributes monthly devotionals to the Daybreak Devotions series on Crossmap.com and writes on her personal blog, The Pace of Grace.
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Am I Preparing My Teen for Success After High School?
Whether you are new to homeschooling teens, a few years into your journey with high school on the horizon, or still considering whether to homeschool through the high school years, you are probably struggling with concerns like: What if I’m not qualified to equip my teen for academic success? If […]
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Looking for homeschool community? Start a simple homeschool co-op!
The foundational idea of a homeschool co-op is to “cooperate” with one or more families to share any part of the home education process. Co-ops can be as simple as two families meeting regularly to cover one subject or as complex as a large, organized, fee-based program covering a myriad […]
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Homeschooling With the End in Mind
If you’ve been homeschooling for any amount of time, I’m sure you’ve encountered at least one person who has questioned your decision to do so. I remember when we began homeschooling in 2010, every time I met someone new and introduced myself as a homeschooling mom, the response would be, […]
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Why Multi-Generational Travel Matters
For us, family travel is a legacy: It’s a priceless inheritance that’s been passed on from one generation to the next. From immigrant families that established new roots in the United States to pioneering families who headed west and farming families who settled down across the plains, my husband’s family […]
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Why a Daily Homeschool Routine Works for Us
As a former editorial manager who juggled a team of writers, editors, and various project deadlines on a wall-sized whiteboard and spreadsheet, I didn’t expect to encounter challenges managing our daily homeschool schedule. However, our first two years of homeschooling, it seemed that no matter what fabulous recommended scheduling system […]
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Find Freedom From Your Homeschooling Fears
Fear often holds us back in our homeschooling journey and robs us of the joy God has in store for us as we teach our children and create deeper relationships with them. I have yet to meet a homeschooler who hasn’t struggled with some of these fears — myself included. I find […]
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Take the Complexity out of Homeschool Co-Ops
Today we wrapped up a semester of Botany with our informal homeschool co-op by taking a scavenger hunt hike with three families who have children close in age to ours. This concept of sharing educational experiences with a few friends is the essential definition of an educational “co-op” — or at least it should be. However, as homeschooling […]
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Spring Dilemma: Must We Finish Curriculum?
With the joy and sunshine of spring comes this very familiar reader question each year: “I feel like the end of this school year is coming much faster that I want it to, and I’m worried that I need to finish every textbook and lesson from the curriculum that we’re using […]
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Ten Things to Let Go of This Year: Fear
Fear often holds us back in our homeschooling journey and robs us of the joy God has in store for us as we teach our children and create deeper relationships with them. I have yet to meet a homeschooler who hasn’t struggled with some of these fears — myself included. I find […]
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Ten Things to Let Go of This Year: The Schedule
I am one of those list-making/calendar-posting/digital-app-updating Type A mamas who thought I would have no trouble keeping it all together once we started homeschooling. After all, I’m a former editorial manager who steered multiple magazine sections like a tight ship, with an assignments timeline whiteboard up in my office leading the way and a project management spreadsheet keeping all my […]
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Ten Things to Let Go of This Year: “School”
You might already be asking yourself: What do you mean let go of school? Isn’t homeschooling all about school at home? Yes and no — and the longer I homeschool, the more I understand the “no” side. Let me explain… When we started homeschooling, I thought I was being pretty out of the […]