Written by Jamie Erickson of The Unlikely Homeschool

As a self-professed word nerd, all of my conversations somehow start and end with, “I read in a book once…” Well-written stories have shaped nearly every second of my thirty-nine years, giving me examples of both the personal and the practical of life.

For instance, I discovered how to be a good friend as I sat with Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood. I began looking for possibilities while tub diving with Mary Poppins. And I figured out just how hard it was too hard to squeeze a tube of toothpaste during the quiet rebellion of my pal Ramona Quimby.

I learned all the most important things from my childhood books.

Caroline Ingalls’ Productivity Hack

Now, as an adult, while re-reading all these old favorites to my own kids, I’m rediscovering their simple but timeless truths. 

An adult lens definitely has a way of revealing different angles of each story that I never noticed before.

Recently while revisiting the Little House on the Prairie series, I stumbled upon a productivity hack that has revolutionized my days.

Perhaps you remember the simple schedule that Ma Ingalls implemented each week?

• Wash on Mondays
• Iron on Tuesdays
• Mend on Wednesdays
• Churn on Thursdays
• Clean on Fridays
• Bake on Saturdays
• Rest on Sundays

Caroline Ingalls didn’t use an elaborate spreadsheet or even a paper planner to get her life in order. She didn’t have an app or an assistant, or really any of the conveniences of our modern mothering.

She didn’t need to. She just repeated this no-frills routine each week and in doing so, created an uncomplicated rhythm to her days.

The Never-Ending Tasks of Motherhood

As a homeschooling, work-at-home mom, I have a lot of balls in the air on any given week–lesson plans to make, home-keeping chores to accomplish, volunteer projects to plan, church responsibilities to oversee, and work deadlines to complete.

Each day can easily find me trying to do all of them with excellence and in the process, doing most of them with aggressive mediocrity. I’m only one person, after all. I don’t have enough hands, enough time, enough energy for all of those things.

So many of my tasks seem endless and never-ending. And because of that, it’s very easy to feel defeated even before I’ve begun any of them. An ongoing job that’s never officially done to completion can make me feel like a hamster on a wheel, getting nowhere fast.

But instead of contemplating a forfeit because I can’t check a chore off a list or because the moment I finish one task another one suddenly pops us, I’ve decided to redefine “done.”

That’s what Caroline Ingalls did.

She never once got to permanently cross-out “churn butter” or indefinitely check-off “mend” from her TO DO list because those jobs were on-going. They weighed on her time week-in and week-out. On paper, she was never “done” with anything.

Yet she understood the power of small wins, of daily victories. Instead of trying to do it all half-heartedly, she set aside time each day to do one thing well.

And in doing so, she gained forward motion on everything.

Themed Work Days for the Modern Mom

Obviously, my modern-day hustle looks different to hers. But my system is exactly the same.

It goes without saying that homeschooling takes up a great chunk of the day and is a non-negotiable line-item on the schedule. (You’re a homeschool parent. You understand.) But after school, I usually have around two hours of time to work on other things.

And here’s where I steal a play from Ma’s playbook.

I assign each of my non-homeschooling jobs to a particular day of the week:

• Write on Mondays
• Run errands on Tuesdays
• Podcast on Wednesdays
• Write on Thursdays
• Bake on Fridays
• Clean on Saturdays
• Menu plan and Worship on Sundays

Throughout the week, I keep a running list of small tasks that need to get done under each category.

For instance, on Thursday, if I find a stack of books piled up at the foot of my bed that need to be re-shelved in the home library, I can try to tackle the mess right away or I can add it to my Saturday cleaning list. 

Then on Saturday when it’s time to clean, I consult my list to get immediate direction. I don’t have to waste any time stuck in mental lethargy trying to remember what needs to be cleaned or organized.

I just consult my Saturday list and get going. If I meet the time goal–if I put my head down and do the work, I get to claim the small victory of calling my cleaning complete even if something on my short list never gets accomplished.

Your weekly responsibilities might look quite a bit different from mine. Maybe you work outside the home. Maybe you have lots of family commitments or volunteer responsibilities. No matter.

If you find yourself stuck in overwhelm, discouraged by all the un-checked boxes and loose-ends of life, allow Ma Ingall’s chore list to gently walk you down Mt. Never Rest.

Checking a list doesn’t have to be the end game. Weekly forward motion is the old, but new “done.”

Read more Little House inspired posts on Simple Homeschool!

A note from Jamie (Martin, that is!): If you are drenched in doubt, filled with fear, and need more tips on how to juggle home and school, you need Jamie (Erickson’s) beautiful book, Homeschool Bravely: How to Squash Doubt, Trust God, and Teach Your Child With Confidence.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission from some of the links on this page.

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your personality type needs most!

Homeschool tips for students with ADHD ~
Written by Colleen Kessler of Raising Lifelong Learners

“He’s an EXTREME thinker,” exclaimed my oldest son’s preschool teacher the first time I met with her for a conference more than thirteen years ago. Since that day, I’ve endured all sorts of similar comments — some judgmental; some tinged with laughter — all of them related to his non. stop. energy.

My son was diagnosed with ADHD by the first of three psychologists we saw beginning when he was five. We’d later discover that his wasn’t truly ADHD, but hyperactivity and impulsivity that mimicked it, a result of his overexcitabilities stemming from profound giftedness.

But as ADHD and psychomotor overexcitabilities tend to need similar adjustments to learning environments and styles, we chose to pull him out of the public school system more than a decade ago so that we could meet those challenging and unique needs.

Homeschooling a child with ADHD can be a great way to adapt learning to their needs, and over the years we’ve found some things that work well as we try to tackle the ever-changing needs ADHD kiddos have.

Homeschool Tips For Students With ADHD

Stick with a regular routine.  While a kiddo with ADHD may struggle with routine, it is an important practice for the future.  Teaching your child about routine will help them to learn to be more focused.  A flexible routine is important, but overall you should have one you try to stick to on a regular basis.

This doesn’t mean you should have your child waking up and sitting at a desk as kids do in public school — for us, that was the kiss of death when we first started homeschooling and I fell back on my public-school-teaching-past. It does, however, mean you need to help your child maintain a sense of control in the daily routine.

Routine trumps a structured schedule every time. When kids know that morning chores come before breakfast, then comes independent work, then group work, then lunch, then free time, then dinner, then bedtime, they know what to expect — regardless of how much time each activity takes.

Create short lessons.  One of the best homeschool tips for teaching a child that has been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD is to adjust the activity times to suit their stamina.  In a traditional school environment, most subjects are covered in 30-45 minute increments at a time.  In a homeschool environment, you can focus on shorter class times that will work better for your child and their limited attention span.

Start with 15-minute sessions or activities.  In between each 15-minute time block, give your child (and you!) brain breaks or a chance to stretch their legs. Play outside, grab a snack, take time to dance in the kitchen… any of these things can get you and your kiddo recharged to keep going.

Allow for movement. Like my son, your ADHD child probably needs to move all the time. In a school setting, this was a “behavior” that gets kids in trouble. Remember — homeschooling offers the flexibility to teach how a child needs to learn. Math facts on the trampoline? Absolutely! Reading while upside down on the couch with the dog curled in the lap and feet tap on the wall? Sure, why not!

Kids can also sit on exercise balls, fidget or hum while doing math, or do jumping jacks in between comprehension questions. Pick what works for your child.  You have to think about the struggles your unique child has to determine what will work best for them in this situation.

Get involved in local homeschool groups. This is truly invaluable for most homeschooling parents.  Including local homeschool group meetings into your homeschool schedule can make a huge difference in your productivity and the success of your child.  

There are tons of options for homeschool groups to consider.  Some are strictly co-op situations that are educational.  Others are for field trips and playdates.  Some, in light of the current situation we face during a pandemic, are only meeting online. Search for options in your city, county, and your state so you check out multiple options to see what works best for your kiddo.

Remember as you are adapting your homeschool — consider your child above all, and not just what others are recommending.  Every child diagnosed with ADHD and ADD (or overexcitabilities) will have different struggles.  Some will be physically more active, while others may struggle to concentrate on one subject for long time periods.  The reason most parents choose to homeschool is to truly make education work for their child.

You’ve got this! Enjoy the adventure.

Oh! And that “extreme thinker” is now seventeen, entering his senior year of homeschooling as a fulltime college student, working towards a Bachelor’s in Computer Science. He also has an internship with the college program to develop a VR campus experience for other remote-learning students while running a freelance audio and video editing business from home.

He’s still an extreme thinker — but homeschooling allowed him to think in his own way, and thrive.

* Read more of Colleen’s work on Simple Homeschool here!

Do you have homeschool tips for students with ADHD? I’d love to hear them. Share below.

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your personality type needs most!

Intentional Mediocrity: A Homeschool Not To Do List ~
Written by Kari Patterson

“Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.” -GK Chesterton

Okay, this quote doesn’t top the charts of most-inspiring, but this idea has helped me immensely through the last 15 years of motherhood, homeschooling, and juggling the never-ending demands of ministry life.

Prefer to listen instead? Check out Episode 69 of the Simple Homeschool podcast!

Like you, I’ve been asked many times: “How do you do it all?”

And my answer is always: “I don’t.”

On those glass-is-half-empty days, when I’m discouraged and my perspective is skewed, I feel as though I don’t do anything well.

Dinner’s made, but it’s chicken and rice again. Laundry’s done, because I no longer fold. Kids finished school because I told Heidi to skip the Base 2 math problems (again). The house is tidied but the sliding glass door has so many smeared handprints I can barely see through it.

But eventually I remind myself of Chesterton’s wisdom and the power of intentional mediocrity.

Truth: We can’t be awesome everywhere.

I remember reading Michael Hyatt’s book Platform years ago, where he teaches the importance of exceeding customer’s expectations, of “baking in the Wow” to every aspect of your business. And I remember writing this realization in my journal that day:

“I can’t be awesome everywhere. I can’t ‘bake in the Wow’ in every area of life.”

Truth: Some things have to be neglected. 

Sadly, many people only “bake in the Wow” in the business world, or in the areas of life that are visible to others, but neglect the hidden places, the small people, or the health of their souls. We’re all in danger of mis-prioritizing which areas are worthy of Wow.

We’re wise to give it some consideration so we don’t drop the ball on what really matters.

Our task as parents and home-educators is to thoughtfully and intentionally choose where we will “bake in the Wow” (i.e. focus our attention) and where we will deliberately and confidently choose mediocrity.

If we don’t do this we’ll be enslaved to perfectionism, or convinced we must be failing since not everything is awesome.

One simple exercise that can help: A well-chosen Homeschool Not To Do list. 

Of course my priorities will likely be different from yours. There’s freedom, friends! But as a friend sharing with a friend, here’s a bit of what this looks like for me.

Creating a Homeschool Not To Do List

1. I don’t extra-clean before company comes over. I keep our house medium. Clean enough that you feel welcome (and aren’t grossed out!) but not so perfect that you’re impressed. My goal is to welcome, not impress.
2. I don’t fold laundry, except Jeff’s.
3. I don’t work out. Prayer walks alone, hikes with the kids, and house-cleaning have to suffice.
4. I don’t make elaborate meals. Simple and healthy, that’s it.
5. I don’t try to keep up with fashion, for myself or my house. I try to keep myself and home looking nice with tasteful choices, that’s it. (Side note: I switched to Stitch Fix for this very reason. No more shopping, ever!)
6. I don’t cook breakfast or lunch. I keep simple items on hand, and the kids can take care of this themselves.
7. I don’t worry a lot about school subjects outside the 3 R’s. Other subjects are electives.
8. I don’t watch TV or keep up on news and media much.

Hopefully, this Homeschool Not To Do list helps me focus more on what matters to me most:

1. I will listen to my children and others as much as I can, truly seeking to understand them as much as possible.
2. I will read, to myself and to my children, excellent books that draw my mind to beauty, courage, and truth.
3. I will sleep eight hours a night and observe a 24-hour restful day each week.
4. I will spend the extra time and money to create nutritious meals that strengthen our bodies and immune systems.
5. I will discipline and train my children to be a blessing to our family and others.
6. I will seek to love and serve the people in my immediate sphere — friends, neighbors, church family.
7. I will respond to immediate, pressing needs when I’m made aware of them.
8. I will follow the FlyLady and clean what she tells me to clean.

Every single one of the things on this latter list is really time-consuming. Listening and seeking to understand others is time-consuming. Taking time to sleep and rest is time-consuming. Cooking nutritious meals is time-consuming. But worth it. Why?

Because it’s also life-giving. 

Again, your list will look different from mine, but it can help to actually sit down and figure it out: Where do I want to be intentionally mediocre so I can give myself fully to “bake in the Wow” where it counts? 

Perhaps being present with others and listening to them doesn’t seem like a “Wow” thing to do, but you know what? In a world that’s hurting and divided and discouraged, isn’t that what most people, including our children, are longing for?

Let’s bake in the Wow where it matters most. 

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your personality type needs most!

Homeschooling & Chronic Illness ~
Written by Lusi Austin from That Homeschool Life

We didn’t homeschool because of chronic illness. The decision was made to homeschool to support our autistic son’s needs 15 years ago. However as medical diagnoses came our way, homeschooling has become even more valuable to us.

At the start of our homeschool journey, I was in remission from my first auto immune disease diagnosis: a rare bleeding disorder affecting 3 in every 100,000 Australians. I’d had a splenectomy in 2005 after other treatments had failed. Prior to that illness, I’d never been sick in my life.

But all of a sudden, life became complex. There were medications to take, appointments to keep and ongoing paperwork. Then there were complications encountered post-splenectomy as I came to terms with having a very compromised immune system.

I remember reading once you have one auto immune disease, you are more susceptible to another. However I could never have imagined what that would mean for me or our family. Today as it stands, there are 12 auto immune diseases diagnosed between myself and our children (hubs has none).

Mine are ITP (Immune Thrombocytopenia Purpura), Raynaud’s Syndrome, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Secondary Sjogren’s Syndrome, Hashimotos Thyroiditis and Fibromyalgia. Between my children the diagnoses are ITP (also in remission now), Raynaud’s Syndrome, Ulcerative Colitis (Pancolitis), Coeliac Disease and Crohn’s and insulin dependent Type 1 Diabetes. Another child shows signs of Raynaud’s and there is a tentative diagnosis recently of psoriasis for one child.

I’m not sharing this for pity or sympathy. We actually love our life and have learned to accept the challenges sent our way (even while still acknowledging that things are very hard!) So why am I sharing this?

I share so you know you’re not alone if you too are struggling with homeschooling and chronic illnesses. I want you to know that it is not only possible to homeschool with illnesses, but that there are amazing benefits to doing so.

The gift of self-pacing

Being able to set the pace of our days, weeks and months has been one beautiful benefit of homeschooling. At the start of each week, we write up a big list on the white board. This has ideas for things we would LIKE to cover during the week.

We know we won’t always get through everything (or sometimes anything!), but we at least have something to aim for.

Sometimes we’ll wake up after our diabetic child has had a hypo (or two!) through the night leaving us more tired than usual. A flare for our child with IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) might mean that we cancel plans out in the community and stay home for the day. We have learned to set our own pace and this has brought us a sense of freedom and agency that has been very liberating.

Some days, we couch-school reading book after book or watching documentaries curdled up with snacks and blankets. It all depends on how we are managing and how we manage our symptoms. But rather than seeing these harder days as failures, we see them for what they are: the chance to connect and regulate.

Homeschooling and Chronic Illness

Sometimes the learning that we can manage is situational. If we are in hospital for a stint, we ‘count’ and record the learning that we are doing as we are there. Let me give you an example.

One of our children had to travel to receive monoclonal chemotherapy treatments. She was incredibly ill and there was no way that we could have tackled bookwork at that stage. So her learning revolved around where we were, what we did and what we saw while we were there.

During 12+ hour infusions, she was using a DVD series to distract herself and pass the time. We often talked about plot, character development and what she was loving about the series.  I took photos of that and I noted down the learning (part of the requirements for me in our State).

We pushed her around in a wheelchair and took note of all the amazing artworks, sculptures and photographs that adorned the hospital. Our rural hospital is small so this was a visual feast for the eyes. Again, I made note of this.

If she read a book, I noted it down. When she couldn’t find a video of what to expect with that treatment, she decided to make one for others. She took small videos and then edited them in an app on my phone.

This fitted in perfectly with technology and her photography elective that she was taking at the time. And by the end of those four weeks, we had an amazing collection of learning experiences.

Care is King

For us, taking care of ourselves means taking a read aloud to a local café. At other times, it looks like each of us staying in bed a little longer in the mornings or going for a walk. Caring for ourselves is another important life lesson and one that we can demonstrate practically to our kids.

Sometimes, caring for ourselves has meant accepting offers of help or outsourcing help when we’ve needed to. On a practical level it can mean pairing things up so we are making the most of our trips. For instance, if we are needing to leave the house to get needle tips for our diabetic child, then we might pair that up with stopping by the library or local art gallery since we are already out.

For anyone else homeschooling with chronic illness, I hope my sharing helps you feel seen and known.  It is my great hope that we are all able to find connection, encouragement and strength for each of our days.

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your type needs most!

How we add FUN into our homeschooling days ~
Written by Lusi Austin of That Homeschool Life

I have 3 homeschooled grads and 2 children still homeschooling. What I’ve realised (with the benefit of hindsight) is that the things that made homeschooling most memorable for my older kiddos was FUN. Not just ‘fun’ in the way you normally think of it, but F.U.N as an acronym.

Around here, FUN stands for freedom, uniqueness and novelty.

This has been a great long-term anchor for me. When our days become monotonous, or the kids seem discontent, I’ll often return to this and see how we can add FUN to our homeschooling.

FUN helps us to connect with each other. It includes me creating a tailored education. This acronym helps me to seek out ways to encourage our kids to fall in love with learning.

It reminds me to be flexible, infusing our lives with enjoyment, and deep-diving engagement into learning. Here’s what I mean.

Freedom:

I have the freedom to pick and choose resources that will work best for my child. And the freedom to work out our own learning rhythm and pace. Freedom is about working learning into our life so that it best fits the needs of our family.

We have the freedom to take stock and work out what is no longer serving us. And we have the freedom to change things up to suit us in more meaningful ways.

Uniqueness:

We are able to tailor learning to suit our child’s unique interests, learning style, abilities, challenges and family culture. Taking uniqueness into account, we are able to focus on the things that we deeply value as a family.

We are able to work around limitations that might otherwise be a challenge, such as chronic illness for our family.

Our homeschooling style and flavor doesn’t look like another family’s might and that’s okay! We walk to the beat of our own special drum.

Novelty:

I love that we can use novelty to encourage creative expression. We use novelty in learning to reduce boredom.

We infuse novelty into our days to ignite passion which helps our children to fall in love with learning.

This in turns helps them become a life-long learner!

3 Practical ways we add FUN into our homeschooling day

1. Ask first

Ask your kiddos for their input when it comes to what they want to learn and how they want to learn it. In our home, we practice negotiation!

Allowing our children to have agency over what they want to learn and how they’d like to experience that has helped us grow independent young adults who are able to practice self-autonomy.

2. Visit

Of course, we know that homeschooling often takes us into museums and galleries. Visiting places like farms, botanic gardens or adventure playgrounds can also be great opportunities for children to learn.

Sometimes in our family, we take a drive with a packed lunch, an audiobook, and see where the road takes us.

The adventure is a learning experience on its own, let alone the content covered by listening to the book, discussions that arise from the trip and perhaps having a child note down their favourite memory of the adventure.

Think also about changing up location for learning. Read a book aloud outdoors and set up a poetry tea time. Or if the budget allows, take the book and read aloud session to a local café. Just changing locations can help change our outlook and provide some novelty.

3. Involve the senses (and use technology)

Our senses tell us so much about the world around us. Some kids love learning via taste. I taught my children many lessons through their tastebuds!

You can read my post about some examples we did HERE.  Some children are aural learners so audio books and podcasts are fabulous tools for them. Others love to watch documentaries and take in things more with their eyes.

Observe your child and write down the ways they seem to favor learning.

Here, we use board games, lapbooks, podcasts, audio books, documentaries, puzzles and word games to help hit learning outcomes. Hands on learners will thank you for this (especially reluctant writers!) Your child may not like putting pen to paper for a spelling list, but they may LOVE spelling the same words out on a fridge using magnets.

They might even love writing their words on a glass door with a whiteboard marker. Or spelling out the words using junior Boggle or scrabble letters. There are so many ways to ensure your child is learning.

It’s our job to engage our kids by finding out which way suits them best! Keep offering and trying different approaches until you find the best way for that child.

Creating a stimulating and enjoyable learning environment can be a reality with a little time observing, encouraging and experimenting. Hope this has been an encouragement to you to add fun into your homeschooling for the upcoming school year!

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your type needs most!

Tips and Tricks For Learning While Traveling ~
Written by Jessica Waldock of The Waldock Way

One of the best things about homeschooling is the freedom we have. We like to take advantage of our homeschooling freedom to plan our schedules by traveling together whenever we can. There are so many places to see and explore!

Learning while traveling happens naturally. Kids are curious and there’s a lot to discover and learn about in a real-world setting when you travel. But how can you make the best use of all that time in the car?

Travel In Our Homeschool

We love to travel in our homeschool! Visiting new places, exciting field trips, and exploring the national parks are some of our favorite things to do together as a family. Homeschooling while traveling is a great way to give Emily all kinds of unique and amazing learning experiences she wouldn’t be able to have at home.

Learning while traveling also gives us a chance to learn from real-world experiences and interactions instead of solely gathering information from books and videos. It’s a wonderful way to deepen our family’s connections with one another. 

Ready to explore homeschooling while traveling with your kids? Keep reading to discover my favorite tips and tricks for learning while traveling. 

Tips and Tricks For Learning While Traveling

Learning on the road is a lot of fun! It’s also very different from learning at home in lots of ways. For example, you’ll need to choose curriculum and materials that will travel easily without taking up a lot of space.

You’ll want to find tips and tricks for learning while you’re in the car so all that time spent in vehicles doesn’t feel wasted. Some of our favorite essentials for carschooling include activity books, reusable sticker books, drawing tools, paint with water activities (using a brush with its own reservoir), and single player games. Another favorite of ours are trivia decks and quiz books which let Kevin and I in on the fun while we drive. 

Here are some ideas for your next adventure.

Audiobooks

We really love listening to audiobooks on the road. Services like Libby through our public library and Audible make it easy to listen to our favorite audiobooks using our devices no matter where we are traveling. Checking out audiobooks from the local library is another great option for listening to stories while you’re on the go.

A good set of headphones for your child will go a long way too! With a pair of headphones, Emily can listen to her own audiobooks, apps, or videos without bothering the rest of us while we travel. 

Podcasts

Educational and kid-friendly podcasts are another go-to when we’re learning while traveling. There are some really silly podcasts we can listen to as a family, story podcasts, and lots of educational options too. Check out my list of 35+ Podcasts for Learning to get some ideas for your family’s next road trip. 

The Barefoot Books podcast and Story Pirates podcast are some of our favorites for listening to great stories on the road. For science we love the Wow in the World podcast and Brains On! When it comes to history our favorites include Greeking Out, Whose Amazing Life?, and The Past and the Curious. 

Car Organizer

Having a great car organizer makes it easier to learn while traveling too. I can fill our car organizer with books, activities, and supplies Emily can use while we’re on the road. Then, swap it out every month to keep things new and exciting for everyone.

Here are some of the things in our car organizer right now: single player games, car bingo, art supplies, some of our favorite printable unit studies. 

An Easy Option For Homeschooling Away From Home

If you’re looking for an easy option to homeschool away from home this year, check out my unit studies. These interest-led unit studies focus on topics your kids can get excited about. For example, my Traveling the States unit study is perfect for your next road trip out of state!

Then, check out Traveling the World for a special journey that includes 30 countries and cultures for your homeschoolers to explore. Finally, learn on the go with Traveling the Parks all about our National Parks. All of these unit studies are easy to take along when you travel and filled with hands-on learning opportunities you can take advantage of no matter where you’re traveling.

These are the tips and tricks we use for successful learning while traveling. Making the journey both educational and enjoyable allows for great memories and connection. 

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your type needs most!

3 Questions to Incorporate into Your Homeschooling Day ~ 
Written by Lusi Austin from That Homeschool Life

It’s so easy to do everything for our kids, isn’t it? Let’s be honest. It’s often faster if we just do it ourselves. But I’ve found with my kids, that teaching them HOW to do something helps them to really master that task or skill.

I’ve also learned that getting them there can be a journey in and of itself. Encouraging our children to work out the steps by themselves is part of the lesson. And in order to get them to think about the steps involved, sometimes I need to be the asker-of-questions.

Here are three questions that I incorporate into our homeschooling day that have helped our children in their learning and in their leaning towards independence.

3 Questions to Ask in Your Homeschooling Day

1. How do YOU think it is spelled/solved/working etc?

“Mum! How do you spell the word ‘pumpkin?’”

I’ve been asked this kind of question often – especially in those formative years. I sense whether or not my child is capable of working this out. I never want them to feel like I wasn’t willing to help them but if they know how to do it themselves, I’ll encourage them to work it through.

Instead of telling them the answer, I’ll respond with ‘How do you think it is spelled?’

I then wait as they sound out the word and help as is needed. I am supporting them but they are actually doing the work themselves.

Another example of when I use this question would be in an instance like this: “Mum! How do I put this kit together?”

Instead of doing it for them, I’ll ask, “How do you think you can do it?” If they say, “I don’t know!” I might suggest something like, “Have you tried looking back at the instructions?” Or “which step are you getting stuck on?” I am there with them, supporting them.

I might suggest they search for a troubleshooting video on YouTube. I won’t fix it for them but I’ll be there to help when they need it.

Of course there are times where it is necessary for me to act quickly and fix something on the spot but as parents, we have to discern the difference and if they can do it themselves, then I will always encourage them to do so.

2. What could we do differently next time?

I will often ask this after an upset has occurred or something has been broken. First I’ll wait until people have calmed down. Then I’ll ask, “What could we do differently next time?” and then I’ll listen to the answers.

When said calmly, this question can be a great tool for helping our children to reflect on what occurred. It can also help them forward-think for the future.

3. How would you like to spend your time?

I ask this question A LOT in our home because I want my children to be independent thinkers who use their time well. I want them to unlock interests and pursue their passions. Years ago, I’d ask my kids what they’d like to learn. Sometimes, they couldn’t verbalise this.

Instead, I now ask my younger two, ‘how would you like to spend your time?’ If they still don’t know, I’ll help them break it down. I’ll ask, ‘What’s something you’d like to bake? Or make? Or a game you’d like to play?’

On days when we are all really quite exhausted, I’ll get the kids to fill out the little template I created with these questions on it (you can find it for free too HERE on my website) and then we have an instant plan for our day.

It works because the answers are their own and they are learning how they like to spend their time.

I hope incorporating these 3 questions from our homeschooling day can help you and your children reflect and encourage them to lean towards independence.

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your personality type needs most!

4 Reasons to Ditch Multi-Tasking in Your Homeschool for Good ~ 
Written by Kari Patterson of Sacred Mundane

It was actually a diet book, more than 8 years ago, that helped me see “bad days” as helpful data. Of course objectivity is tricky in the moment, when tears are flowing or a conversation’s gone sideways or general overwhelm is sweeping through your homeschool day. But now it’s often my son Dutch, the one with Asperger’s, who will help me remember:

This day is giving me data. 

Prefer to listen instead?

Sure, just one day might not give you enough data to justify a major change, but when enough of those points line up and the trend is clear, it’s time to take action. For us? I discovered that all of our “bad days” carried a common denominator:

Mama multi-tasking. 

Of course I’ve “learned” this before, during our Experiment Year, but wouldn’t you know it: Like our kids, we often need a refresher course.

Now maybe you’ve already learned this, but if you’re at all like me you might be thinking, “Sure, she can’t multi-task. But I can. And I have to multi-task because I have to juggle ________ all at the same time.”

I have no doubt you are more capable than me and you do have more to juggle than I do, but please: Hear me out.

4 Reasons to Ditch Multi-Tasking for Good

1. It doesn’t work.

We think it does. We persist in thinking it does. We convince ourselves it does. But it doesn’t. In fact, it’s unfortunate that we use that word because it’s misleading. Originally it was used to describe the function of computers: Multiple tasks being performed alternately on the same machine. Now, we use it to describe humans doing multiple tasks simultaneously.

But even computers only process one piece of code at a time, switching back and forth, alternating its attention until a task is done. The speed at which they do this causes us to believe it’s all happening at once.

Similarly, we would do well to call multi-tasking what it really is: Switching-back-and-forth-between-a-bunch-of-tasks-without-really-focusing-on-any-of-them. But that doesn’t sound nearly as neat! The reality is that we’re “task switching” and it’s proven that tasks take more time when performed this way.

Researcher Dr. David Meyer estimates that it makes simple tasks take 25 percent longer, and complicated tasks over 100 percent longer. In short: It doesn’t work.

2. It erodes our ability to pay attention.

As every Charlotte Mason enthusiast knows, learning the habit of attention as a child is critical preparation for academic achievement. She calls this habit, “The act by which the whole mental force is applied to the subject in hand.”

This takes practice. We must be trained to pay attention well. Resources are available for teaching young ones to build an attention span, but how can we instill in our children something we aren’t developing ourselves?

And yet, it remains a crucial component of their education. Mason writes,

The highest intellectual gifts depend for their value upon the measure in which their owner has cultivated the habit of attention. To explain why this habit is of such supreme importance, we must consider the operation of one or two of the laws of thought. But just recall, in the meantime, the fixity of attention with which the trained professional man — the lawyer, the doctor, the man of letters — listens to a roundabout story, throws out the padding, seizes the facts, sees the bearing of every circumstance, and puts the case with new clearness and method; and contrast this with the wandering eye and random replies of the uneducated; — and you see that to differentiate people according to their power of attention is to employ a legitimate test. (Vol. 1, p. 137)

3. It produces shallow work.

In his book Deep Work, Cal Newport asserts that the two core abilities necessary for thriving in this new economy are:

1. The ability to quickly master hard things.
2. The ability to produce at an elite level, in terms of both quality and speed.

He demonstrates that in order to do these things, to produce what he calls “deep work, ” one must ruthlessly eliminate distraction and all forms of multi-tasking.

He advocates embracing boredom and scheduling long periods of time for deep thinking and focused work. He cites the habits of JK Rowling and Bill Gates, Mark Twain and Woody Allen, demonstrating how devoted they are to distraction-free environments in order to produce the highest quality work.

Sure, I may not be working on a great American novel, but isn’t the work of educating our children of highest importance? If so-called multi-tasking takes longer and produces poor-quality results, certainly it isn’t the best way to do school.

4. It robs joy.

I share this last but honestly, it’s the real reason I’ve tried to ditch multi-tasking for good. If I’m honest, trying to give my attention to many things at once is a sure-fire way to enjoy none of them. 

When I’m trying to do many things at once, how often do I smile? How often do I look deeply into the eyes of my child when my mind is a million miles away on other things? The truth is, I’m more impatient, quicker to bark out orders or sigh in exasperation or speak in a harsh tone, when I’m doing more than one thing at a time.

In fact, even challenges become invaluable teachable moments when I’m engaged enough to see the opportunity at hand.

I want my children to remember a mom who smiled. I want them to remember a mom who listened. Who laughed. Who sat down right beside them to look at math problems together. A mama who was present.

That’s nice, Kari, but how?

I get it. I have a high-schooler, a middle-schooler, a preschooler, and an infant.  Add housework, meals, outside relationships, and my other work, and this feels downright impossible.

For me, it means making my Not To Do List. It means trying to teach my little ones to play independently. It means silencing my phone. It means meal-planning. It means sometimes saying no.

I know each of our lives are unique, but I dare you to ditch multi-tasking as much as you can, and see whether it might just make the difference in your day. It definitely does in mine. Thanks for reading. 

What has been your experience with multi-tasking?

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your personality type needs most!

4 habits that help our homeschool thrive in busy seasons ~
Written by Kari Patterson

After many years of slow homeschool days, limited activities, and just two kids, our season has certainly changed. I’m grateful for those years, but now with two teens we are in full-blown activity mode and throwing a couple extra kids into the mix hasn’t exactly slowed the pace.

With cross-country, theater, dance, ballet, voice lessons, and teaching literature, on top of our at-home lessons plus toting around two littles, life feels very full.

Prefer to listen instead?

Thankfully, seasons that stretch us force us to grow. Here are four helpful habits that help our homeschool through our busy season:

4 habits that help our homeschool thrive in busy seasons

1. Reset nightly.

It was my friend Mikaela who first introduced me to this idea of a reset. Instead of “cleaning the kitchen” we do a reset instead.

Each evening, in anticipation of another great day (wink), we do a reset. That means dishes are put away, and everything is put back where it belongs. Water bottles are refilled and placed in the cars.

Snack baggies are filled and put in the snack-grab bin in the pantry. Coffee pot is set. Car is emptied, returning random sweatshirts, school books, nerf darts or whatever else has migrated from its proper location.

Each home and routine is different, of course, but a nightly reset makes is so we aren’t starting out the day already behind. This is one of the habits that have helped our homeschool most.

2. Ditch the “all or nothing” mindset.

Maybe it’s just me, but often what keeps me from doing something at all is the fact that I can’t do it well, or can’t do it every day.

This year, I determined I was going to put some important habits in place even if we couldn’t do them perfectly or all the time. This meant an exercise schedule that was just 3-4days/week and included my little ones, a devotional time with the kids that was just 3-4 days/week (and included the reward of gummy bears if the littles sat still and had happy hearts!), a writing schedule that was just 1 day/week.

Sure, I’d love to do these things daily. But I can’t let what I can’t do keep me from what I can. The reality is, there are aspects of our lives that are outside of our control, and if I wait around for perfect circumstances in order to do what I believe is important, I’ll never do it.

If it is important, then three days of it is better than zero days of it. Two healthy meals are better than zero healthy meals. One workout is better than no workout. All those sporadic successes actually add up to a lot. 

3. Say a hard no to school on Sundays.

This didn’t apply when the kids were little, but now that we are neck deep in high school courses, there’s quite a bit of heavy-academic lifting. Each week the big kids create their own weekly schedule, planning out what work they will do each day.

If they can’t get something completed, it gets bumped to the next day, but Saturday night at 9pm is the hard deadline.

Because we’ve probably all been there, right? Trying to finish that paper late on a Sunday night and you run out of toner or your computer crashes or you stay up way too late and you’re exhausted the next morning and how’s that for a great start to the week? My hope and prayer is that Monday morning begins with rested students, minds that have mused, bodies that have slept or recreated, hearts that have worshipped.

Sunday is to our souls what the nightly reset is to our homes. 

4. Laugh.

My mom was a homeschool pioneer in the early 80s, and I’m still gleaning from her wisdom. In some of her old lesson plans, I found this index card:

Count the day lost in which your children have not laughed.

Laughed? You’d expect to see the word “learned”. But laughed?  That was my mom’s heart, and I am trying to make it my own as well.

I’m amazed at how simple it can be. For the littles, a funny voice or a silly face. Dumping all the warm laundry on their heads or “accidentally” making the bed on top of them. Right?! We know how to do it, but sometimes we forget.

For our teens it’s scrolling together through the Life of Fred account on Facebook, watching whatever YouTube video they’re into (mine love Corridor Crew and the Holderness Family), or getting creative and Rick Rolling them when they least expect it. Never gonna give you up!

Laughter doesn’t erase the hard things, but it sure does make them bearable, especially when the laughs are enjoyed together.

I hope these four habits that help our homeschool will carry you through busy seasons. Thanks for reading!

What’s Your Child’s Learning Style? Take Jamie’s new quiz now and set yourself up for homeschooling success by understanding the way they learn best!

Your Quick Start Guide to Homeschooling ~
Written by Jamie C. Martin of Simple Homeschool

Everywhere I look online, I see parents trying to determine what is best for their kids as this new school year approaches.

I asked myself what I would want and need if I was considering homeschooling, and I decided I would want someone to simplify EVERYTHING and TELL ME WHAT TO DO.

Give me options and make them crystal clear. This post is my attempt to do so!

Would you rather listen to this post?

If you’ve decided to homeschool for part or all of this year, I’ve suggested below one easy way to get started (though remember it’s not the only way!).

Also, keep in mind these recommendations for academic/bookwork time based on age/grade:

• Pre-kindergarten: 15-30 minutes
• Kindergarten: 30-60 minutes
• Grades 1 & 2: 45 minutes to 1-1/2 hours
• Grades 3 & 4: 1-1/2 to 3 hours
• Grades 5 & 6: 2-1/2 – 3-1/2 hours
• Grades 7 & 8: 3 to 4-1/2 hours
• High School: 4-1/2 to 6 hours

Hopefully that has you breathing easier already! Now for more specifics.

Your Quick Start Guide to Homeschooling

Grades K-6:

Suggested focus for this age – Maintain (or reconnect to) your child’s natural love of learning!

One easy way to get started:

1. Order a BrainQuest (or other) workbook for your child’s current level.
2. Follow the 3 hour homeschool solution I’ve outlined previously.
3. Add in the power of home!

A bit more detail:

1. BrainQuest workbooks

Incorporate a bit of the 3R’s (reading instruction, writing, & arithmetic) into your homeschool days to keep your kids progressing in those subjects. It really is that simple!

These workbooks have around 300 pages, so help your child do 2-3 a day: one language arts page, one handwriting page, and/or one math page. (And because they would finish in only 100 days, you can take a break when it gets stressful!)

If your child can read and write already, ask them when they want to do their pages. Independently? With you at the table?

My kids used to like it when I would rip daily pages out of a workbook—that way they weren’t seeing ALL the empty ones still to come. It felt more manageable.

Use intentional bribery to motivate your child if necessary–don’t let this become a dreaded part of the day!

Is your child still working toward reading fluency? Then I also recommend trying Reading Eggs Online (4 weeks free) to help with the basics. Or if you want more structure and to do the teaching yourself, try All About Reading.

2. 3 Hour Homeschool Solution

Check out my post to find my recommended 3 hour plan for your homeschool lifestyle, including read alouds, book work, and intentional online learning.

3. Add in the power of home!

Don’t forget to use the building blocks of home to your advantage: chores, cooking and baking, discussions over a plate of brownies, playing with pets, board games, and whatever makes your family unique!

There is a learning opportunity around every corner.

If you want or need more structure:

With the above, you are covering the basics and beyond, so you don’t necessarily need a formal curriculum.

But if it would be a comfort to have a specific daily plan to follow, and your child would appreciate that structure, check out these all in one programs that go from PreK-12th grade: Oak Meadow (secular) or Sonlight (Christian).

Grades 7-12:

Suggested focus for this age – Deepen connection with your teen and keep track of their learning

One easy way to get started:

1. Use All in One Homeschool (a free, online curriculum) for subjects you need based on your state/country’s homeschool guidelines.
2. Find out what your child wants to learn about this year and count their hours.
3. Add in the power of home!

A bit more detail:

1. All in One Homeschool

This free, online curriculum offers daily assignments in a variety of subjects for all ages–pick and choose the essentials that your child needs this year. (Don’t try to do all of them!)

2. Ask your child; count the hours.

To homeschool older ages, you need to make it a partnership–otherwise each day becomes a battleground. When adolescents have the freedom to direct at least some of their education, it goes much more smoothly!

Set boundaries around what is and isn’t allowed during designated school hours, particularly as it relates to technology. But when it comes to their learning, involve your teen as much as possible in the decision-making.

Keep in mind that around 120 hours of work in an area equals one high school credit. If there’s something your child is passionate about and does a lot of already, those hours count! Your child’s piano practice and instruction becomes a music credit, and so on.

My 11th grade son needs a technology elective to graduate, so we created a “Lighting Design Technology” course that counts the hours he spends learning lighting design programming, something he was already doing in his free time since he hopes to work on Broadway.

Voila – now it has become an elective as well!

3. Add in the power of home!

With teens, having extra time to pour into their lives as a parent/mentor/friend can be an unexpected gift during this time–for them and you.

So don’t forget to use the building blocks of home to your advantage with your teens, too: chores, cooking and baking together, discussions over a plate of brownies, documentaries, and whatever makes your family unique!

I hope this quick start guide to homeschooling has lightened your load just a little–you can totally do this!

Yes, there will be tough days and moments as you find your way. But sometimes the best things in life are unexpected, and one year from now you and yours might just find that you love learning at home.

Please know that Simple Homeschool will always be here to help!

Have any questions? Ask below and we’ll do our best to help you out!

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your personality type needs most!