I have been homeschooling for 10 years now, and I’ve never really questioned our decision to homeschool. I have always enjoyed teaching my kids and being there for the “lightbulb” moments on their educational journeys. Don’t get me wrong: Homeschooling is hard, […]
Homeschool Encouragement
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Finding Encouragement & Fellowship at Homeschool Moms Winter Summit
I’ll be completely honest: This past year has been a season of real brokenness for me, and I have mostly been in hiding. But when a friend asked me to attend the Oklahoma Homeschool Moms’ Winter Summit with her, I felt “seen” and I thought, “Why not?” […]
Homeschool Encouragement
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Mother & Teacher: How Do You Wear Both Hats?
When I first started homeschooling my two middle-school-aged daughters more than 10 years ago, I remember really struggling with the mother vs. teacher dynamic right off the bat. I thought that homeschooling my girls would bring us closer by adding “teacher” to the roles […]
NextGen Perspectives
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New Name, Old Game: Is Talent Pipeline a New School to Work — And What’s Next?
When I was in college taking American Government in the early 1990s, I wrote a research paper on the then-new School To Work Opportunities Act of 1994. It was legislation written to link to Goals 2000 in an effort to transition […]
NextGen Perspectives
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Homeschool Graduates: The Next Chapter
Many readers know that our two daughters are homeschool graduates: They both graduated from our homeschool when they were 16. Now that several years have passed, I thought it would be a good time to update everyone on how they are doing post-graduation. Our […]
NextGen Perspectives
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Three Generations at Teach Them Diligently
This was my third year attending a Teach Them Diligently Convention. The biggest blessing of the conference this year was being able to attend with three generations of my family: My mom, who homeschooled us in the 1980s, my homeschooling sister […]
Homeschool Encouragement / Real-Life Homeschooling
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Learning Continues Despite Life’s Distractions
Even after 10 years of homeschooling, my biggest challenge is still consistency. Because of our lifestyle — owning two busy donut shops — my plans are interrupted on an almost daily basis. Add to that the recent chaos of building a […]
NextGen Perspectives
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Being Frugal Without Being a Cheapskate
Are homeschoolers cheap? Hopefully, we are frugal — not cheapskates! There’s a difference between being a good financial steward and avoiding paying a fair share of costs or expenses. As homeschoolers, I think we should strive to be frugal, but not […]
NextGen Perspectives
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Can Public Schools Learn from Homeschools?
Recently I was sitting at a stop light staring up at a fancy billboard ad encouraging people in my district to vote “yes” for a $41 million school bond, and it got me thinking about how our public schools spend […]
Homeschool Encouragement
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Finding Relief for Homeschool Burnout
There are many reasons why homeschooling parents can experience burnout during the school year. It could be seasonal (a long winter), topical (curriculum feels stale), or more personal (family crisis, illness). It may even get to a point that you […]
Homeschool Encouragement
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Ten Things to Let Go of This Year: Not Qualified
One of the top reasons for not homeschooling that I hear from parents is that they don’t feel qualified to teach their children. They believe that if they don’t know Chemistry or Calculus, or whatever the subject, this lack of knowledge will hinder their child’s education. Personally, […]
NextGen Perspectives
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Homeschool Veterans: Pay it Forward!
It is time — past time, really — for me to pay it forward in the homeschool community. I have always liked to help people, but I mostly do it on a one-on-one basis — quietly. However, the past couple of years I have […]
Faith & Family
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Ten Things to Let Go of This Year: Being Overprotective
There seems to be an epidemic of helicopter parenting in our country today… Or maybe it’s just in my suburban neighborhood. But I also notice it a lot in the homeschooling community. In fact, for many parents, being able to better protect their […]
Real-Life Homeschooling
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Real-Life Homeschooling: A Day in Our Life
Last week I got to thinking about how our homeschool days have been flowing… all over the house. So I decided to take a few pictures of where we “did school” throughout the day to give you a glimpse of what real-life homeschooling looks like for […]
Homeschool Encouragement
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Ten Things to Let Go of This Year: Sensitivity
When I first started homeschooling more than 10 years ago, I felt a lot of pressure and judgment — not only from outsiders, but also family members and even my own children. For those first few years, I was very sensitive and […]