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,…
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, and I lose my patience and blow it constantly. But…
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?” I had never even considered attending the summit, but…
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 I already played in their lives.…
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 align with Goals 2000, in an effort to transition students from school to the workforce. At the time, my…
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…
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…
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 house, selling a house, moving to the new house, and…
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…
Today, while my eldest daughter was at the park with me, she noticed a picnic table in a secluded area with trees around it and said, “Look, Mom — that would be a nice place for us to do school one day.” This was a simple reminder that one of…
Recently, I was sitting at a stoplight 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 their money. This particular bond is earmarked for several things: Chromebooks…
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…