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,…
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…
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…
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 feel like throwing in the towel — but it doesn’t…
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, I don’t struggle with this concern or give it merit because:…
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 our family. On this particular day, I was late getting…
Welcome to our October “31 Days” series at NextGen Homeschool: 31 Days of Homeschool How-To Tips! As NextGen Homeschoolers, we remember what it was like to be homeschooled ourselves, and our experiences as students have helped shape many of our best systems and strategies today. In the next 31 days, we’ll be…
What do you remember most about the back-to-school season of your youth? The smell of freshly sharpened pencils, perfectly tipped crayons and a clean backpack? Picking out a cooler lunchbox? Laying out your first day’s wardrobe, complete with scuff-free school shoes & coordinating hair accessories? Making plans to sit next to your…
Last week, I drove to Washington, D.C. with my family to attend the Teach Them Diligently homeschool convention, but we were also planning to spend time at the United States Capitol. Our eldest daughters (13 and 11 years old) are very interested in learning about our nation’s history and really…
Last week we took a few days off for a spring garden prep “field trip” at the home of my in-laws in Kansas. Grandpa and Grandma Gotcher are “firstgen” homeschoolers: They began homeschooling my husband and his two sisters in the early 1980s. They needed help getting their orchard and…
Last year I wrote about expanding our backyard garden and involving the girls in every step of the process, from choosing what to grow and starting seeds in the house, to transplanting and harvesting. What I left out of the story is the fact that we’d also decided to try…
Join us in 30 Days of Thanks! We will be posting all month at NextGen Homeschool about some of the things we are personally thankful for, and when we do, the post will include a link-up at the bottom so you can share posts of your own on the topic…