3 Things Homeschooling Taught Me ~
Written by Purva Brown of The Classical Unschooler

A note from Jamie: Purva first started writing on Simple Homeschool back in 2016. As she steps away to focus on work and other pursuits, I’m so grateful for all the words she leaves behind here that will continue to encourage readers for years to come. Thank you, Purva! xo

In a lighter mood some days, I like to tell my children, “I didn’t choose homeschooling for you! I chose it for myself! Now behave because you’re ruining my perfect homeschool fantasy.” LOL

There is truth there, however. I have to admit that this homeschooling adventure has been as much a mom’s education as it has been about educating my children.

Here are three things I’ve learned through the process.

3 Things Homeschooling Taught Me

1. Focus on a Goal – The Process may or may not Matter

As I move my blog into more of a personal space again where I write about my hobby for strength training, this is even more relevant. When we first started homeschooling, I had zero desire to imitate a classroom, but everyone around me seemed to think it was necessary.

Rebel that I am, I decided to follow my own style of teaching my children and called it “classical unschooling.” I even wrote a book about it. I experimented with different schedules and methods. Other books were born. I thought we had found our sweet spot.

But here’s the truth: Even when you focus on a goal, the process changes over time. I have had to become comfortable with that idea. My children are not done growing and neither am I.

If the way I am teaching something to my children isn’t working, I change the method. When you focus on the teaching, it’s important to ignore the ideology.

I don’t cling to any style of learning over the actual fact of educating my children.

2. Write it Down and Get it Done

This is what gets to the heart of my time management philosophy. I have recently stumbled back into the workforce with a job outside the home again. As a result, I have much more to get done in a day. If I don’t create a list that I can check off, all those tasks sit in my head in a swirling mess and overwhelm me.

This is not uncommon, by the way. I notice people at work who do exactly this, stress themselves out and then complain that no one else does anything.

Thankfully, the way out of it is to think on paper. This works just as well with homeschooling as it does anywhere else. Writing things down and checking them off has helped me immensely. While your goal may be concrete, the way to get to it could take many paths, as mentioned above.

Those paths can be broken down into actions which can be checked off along the way. This gives me the required flexibility I need from day to day and the written list keeps me accountable, so I don’t waste time.

This rule also helps keep the children on track. I like to write out a schedule for them so that they know what’s expected of them.

Waiting on me to tell them what to do every single day wears them out as well. So we have lists for everything – chore lists, school lists, shopping lists, you name it. Lists keep our household and homeschool running smoothly.

3. Consistency Matters Most

There is so much advice on being motivated and staying motivated lately. This is especially true on the strength training side of things. It seems we all need constant motivation.

But I have learned through homeschooling that even if we take time off now and then (when we need it) the overall trajectory of consistency is what gets us to the next level. In the end, it’s not about motivation as much as it is about habit.

Creating a habit is work, but once created, it takes way less energy than trying to get into the mental space of the motivated. We won’t always be raring to go get things done. Habits carry us through.

When we recently took time off in between grade levels so I could buy workbooks and plan the next year, my 13 year old daughter surprised me. After just two weeks off, she begged me, “Can we please do some schoolwork?”

Even though she had looked forward to playing all day, she was now bored. She had gotten into the habit of doing something academic. Consistent work, even when we’re not necessarily excited about it, day in and day out, is what gets stuff done.

I am so grateful for the education homeschooling is giving my children every day. I would have it no other way. Homeschooling has not only made us a closer family; it helps us be involved in our children’s lives like no other method of education would.

But in addition to teaching them, I am also thankful for everything homeschooling has taught me. These are lessons that are so easily transferable I carry them into every other aspect of my life, personal and professional.

Feel free to reply and share below some of the lessons homeschooling has taught you!

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!

3 Ways to Connect with Your Middle Schoolers ~
Written by Purva Brown of The Classical Unschooler

Something has changed around here lately, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. Overnight it seems my older two children have grown up. And the trajectory of my mom life has changed completely. Where, in 2019, I was mostly concerned with having time to myself, now most of my worry revolves around what my middle schoolers are doing.

Prefer to listen instead?

“Are they making good decisions?” I wonder, realizing the old ways of talking to them no longer work. They tend to talk to each other a lot more than they talk to their father and me and when they do, the conversation is short and to the point.

I spend so much time with them around, but still feel like we don’t share the same world. Of course, I anticipated this change; I even welcome it. But part of me is a little miffed that I have lost my position as Head Queen in their minds and that they don’t hang on my every word as the youngest still does. (Less so, lately but hey, I’ll take what I can get.)

What is a mom to do? Maybe you’re in a similar place? Follow along then as I share three ways to connect with your middle schoolers.

3 Ways to Connect with Your Middle Schoolers

1. Music

I will be the first to admit I am not musical in the least. I couldn’t even tell you what genre is my favorite; it all depends on my mood. But my oldest daughter seems to have inherited her musical talent from my husband, a bit of an autodidact.

He taught himself to play the guitar by watching YouTube videos and he shows my daughter a few things here and there. We haven’t enrolled the children in formal lessons.

However, one of the ways I have learned to connect with them is just to listen to some of the music they enjoy. This is not about “being the cool mom,” but a way of being involved and connecting with them. I remember shunning all popular music when the kids were little.

I worried about it being a bad influence on them. I have since loosened up and prefer to discuss and talk about it with the children and, yes, listen to it with them in the car. Open lines of communication with the kids mean more to me these days than the lyrics.

2. Games

We have recently added this into our weekly routine and I absolutely love it. When we were living in California, my husband had a game group he met with twice a month to play Pathfinder, which is a role playing game. It all looked fascinating, but I was never involved.

When we moved to Washington and COVID hit, all chances of playing with anyone outside the family vanished. So we started our own adventure! I didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as I did, but I now look forward to our Wednesday evening games.

I don’t read aloud as much as I used to, now that the children are older, but this gives me the same feeling that reading aloud did.

We all get to inhabit a world together that’s just us and I love it as a bonding experience. Plus, it’s fascinating to watch the decisions my children make. It’s a lot of fun.

3. Money

I know. This seems like an odd way to reach your children, but I tell you… it works every single time!

We have always encouraged work for money, but involving them in small financial decisions goes beyond the basics. It’s a great way to engage and build trust and also show them the ropes.

One thing I have learned with my kids is that they have to be shown something multiple times for it to stick. With that in mind, just reminding them to turn off the lights and fans isn’t enough. I have to also show them the electric bill and the mortgage bill.

It’s a gentle way to introduce them to the skills they will need in adulthood without being didactic. Conversations about career choice flow a lot more easily if they are already involved in everyday talk about money.

The elementary years were the tough ones when it came to homeschooling, but I am learning to appreciate these middle school years. Our hard work has begun to pay off and we can enjoy our time with the children.

They definitely still need the guidance and – much to my surprise – I need the interaction with them. I love watching the people they are becoming–right in front of my eyes!

How do you connect with your middle schoolers? I’d love to learn even more ways!

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 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Picking Next Year’s Curriculum ~
Written by Purva Brown of The Classical Unschooler

It is officially that time of the year when it is more fun to be picking next year’s curriculum than finishing the last of this year’s workbooks. Spring is in the air. Everything is in bloom.

I don’t know about you, but this is the time I want to run out and buy new things – new clothes, new bedding, and yes, new books.

But wait.

Prefer to listen instead?

Besides the fact that most years, our school year starts in January and we homeschool year round, I have to remind myself not to rush into new curricula just for that new book smell. There are a few things to review before this big decision.

These are the questions to ask yourself before committing to something.

This is especially true if you’re thinking about delving into something new or thinking of changing up your style of homeschooling and especially so if you’re thinking about writing your own curriculum. (afflink)

4 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Picking Next Year’s Curriculum

1. What are the personalities we are dealing with?

I’m a huge fan of homeschooling organically. Organic schooling means that the sit down work we do is not necessarily something imposed onto the children or on me for that matter. We do not undertake something just because “everyone is doing it.”

I don’t pick curricula based on something that children at a specific age are doing in public school. Instead, I like to pick something that works with the children’s personality and mine.

For example, our family would never do well with lots of desk work. So I don’t pick a curriculum that requires a ton of it. I also don’t like to follow instructions to a T, so unless I’m baking a cake, I take most instructions as suggestions.

You can probably tell the worst thing I would do at this point would be to buy a box curriculum with explicit instructions for me. It would never work! So I respect my eclecticism and leave room for it.

2. What are my children’s eccentricities and how can they be beneficial?

As an extension of the above, but just as an exercise in paying attention and committing to a wholly organic curriculum, I also like to include the child’s individual eccentricities into our homeschool.

For example, my middle son loves to research and read. When he gets a hold of a screen, he seems to approach it with the dogged desire to find something out. He loves nothing better, even approaching video games that way. And he likes to “teach” his younger siblings. So I tend to approach his education from a base of research and investigation.

My youngest child is taking forever to learn double digit multiplication, but he likes to cook and has no problems understanding fractions. So we’re bending the rules and teaching those right along with multiplication. Everyone has quirks; the trick is to use them well.

3. How was last year?

It was an anomaly of a year, but it was a first year of homeschool for a lot of people. So ask this question. How did homeschooling go? Was it hard or easy? What worked and what didn’t?

Take this time to note everything that could be changed or customized to fit your family. If there was something you wish you had done differently, this is the time to note that.

2020 for us personally has been the year with the biggest changes. For obvious reasons, it was difficult, but it was also the year that our children made the greatest leaps in growth and independence. As such, our homeschool reflects that and has changed a lot this year as well.

If I tried to continue what we have been doing for the last eight years, it just wouldn’t work. The older children have shifted to a more independent way of learning and as a a result I have more free time to myself.

The youngest is benefiting from everything I learned while teaching the older and as a result is also enjoying more of what he likes to do without me panicking that he isn’t doing enough sit down work. Take the time to review the year before and incorporate the lessons learned.

4. What are the non-negotiables?

There are some things that I need to see my kids do for me to consider them educated. My husband and I are crystal clear on the matter. Many families have an idea of what their own non-negotiables are. It’s a good idea to have a discussion about this beforehand, first between the parents and then with the children themselves.

Our family’s non-negotiables include math, reading, writing, learning about handling money and every chore that keeps our home running smoothly. As such, we include that in our homeschool and the children know that we expect them to master these.

We work with them on these, but they’re never off the table completely.

By asking these four questions each year, I ensure I am choosing wisely before committing to new materials.

I make sure that I am investing in tools that serve our unique family, instead of tools that require us to change who we are to serve them. Doing so contributes to a happier homeschool and helps me be a happier homeschool mom, too!

Tell us in the comments- what do you ask yourself before picking next year’s curriculum?

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!

Purva’s Homeschool Day in the Life ~
Written by Purva Brown of The Classical Unschooler

The only constant is change. Who said that? It’s true. Now that my older two children are fully “tweenagers,” I feel that sentiment in my bones. My life – my family’s life – is changing beyond measure.

In some ways, I feel like with all the changes we have already undergone in the last 4 years (5 houses, 4 cities, 2 states) the one constant and the best thing that we have had going for us is our homeschooling.

The children have been excited to see new place and meet new people, but the one thing we have not excessively worried about is their education.

This is what it currently looks like.

Purva’s Homeschool Day

Mornings

Our mornings are very relaxed. Now that the older two are, well, older, they enjoy sleeping in. My husband leaves for work early before I’m awake most days, so I wake up, get some coffee and let the children wake up on their own while I tinker around on my blog and online. This is the best time for writing for me.

After I am sufficiently caffeinated and showered, we meet for “school” at 10 am. This is very hands-on only for the youngest (8) one who is currently working on double digit multiplication and division.

We use Kumon workbooks a lot for math practice at this age and also homemade basic flashcards. All I focus on at this stage is reading and math.

The older children follow a basic agenda that I have written. They come downstairs, sometimes still in their pajamas, and settle down to get their work done. I have long given up on them being dressed “for school.”

A decade of homeschooling has taught me not to sweat the small stuff. Most of the agenda I want to cover is dealt with through workbooks. However, knowing my aversion to sticking to a prescribed curriculum, I feel free to hop around and choose what I want them to work on or where they need extra practice.

My role is shifting, as I said, from making them do the work to simply giving them work and ensuring it gets done. It sounds like a subtle shift, but it’s actually mentally very freeing.

Not physically, however. I do still have to sit with them, occasionally glare at them, catch my middle child day-dreaming and sometimes even break up fights and banter.

Not that I’m complaining (much).

Afternoons

Right after “school” is done, I head out for a short walk. I like this. It clears my mind and shifts my focus to the other to-dos on my list.

The afternoon is typically my time to myself and the kids’ time to themselves. They have recently made friends with kids in the neighborhood, so one in particular shows up at the dot of noon. My kids do have afternoon chores, so he has to wait for a bit until those get done.

The chores are simple – washing and drying dishes, putting them away, sweeping, vacuuming, taking the trash out, feeding the cats, cleaning the litter box. Besides this, the children also make their own lunch. When they were very little, we taught them to cook basic food. They’re actually quite skilled at it now.

Afternoon is when I will catch up on social media, reading, finish up a blog post or just take a nap if I need one. The children usually play video games or watch YouTube or chat with their cousins and friends online.

Evenings & Weekends

4 o’ clock is the outside / play hour. Some evenings, depending on the day, my husband and I head to the basement gym to lift weights. The children have a strict rule of going outside to play for an hour. We have a local park, not too far from the house. It is not uncommon to find the kids there often.

Just because it’s the evening or the weekend doesn’t mean learning stops. In the evenings, we will occasionally find something to watch that interests us or that can segue into a good conversation. For example, as I mentioned on my blog, we recently watched Vikings and used that as a jumping off point into history.

Weekends can be an intense time. Most of their education is covered between home improvement projects, reading I prescribe them, our board/role playing games together, cooking and baking.

Of course, there are always good conversations to be had as well.

Our approach has always been fairly hands off after a fairly intense dive into basic skills.

So far, it seems to be working. Quite well, actually.

My, how the days have changed:

• 2020: Purva’s day (with a 7-, 10-, and 11-year-old)
• 2019: Purva’s homeschool day in the life (with a 6-, 9-, & 10-year-old)
• 2018: Purva’s homeschool day in the life (with a 5-, 8-, & 9-year-old)
• 2017: Purva’s homeschool day in the life (with a 4-, 7-, & 8-year-old)

Tell us in the comments- how has your role shifted since starting to homeschool?

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!

Written by Purva Brown of The Classical Unschooler

We delved into Algebra this week. I had mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I had been looking forward to it for years. I was one of those kids who actually enjoyed algebra in school.

On the other, I was dreading the tears that would inevitably follow learning any new math concept – or so I thought.

Would you rather listen to this post?

Imagine my surprise then, when after some work, my daughter said she understood. In front of my (saucer-eyed, I’m sure) gaze, she then proceeded to solve a few easy problems substituting numbers in place of letters. Best of all, there were zero tears.

I was surprised, but I shouldn’t have been.

After all, we have been using the half step method within our “classical unschooling” approach for years.

Classical Unschooling & The Half Step Method

Okay, so this isn’t an official method. I just coined that phrase and I’m sure you’ve been doing it in some capacity since you’ve been homeschooling. I just want you to be intentional about it.

Let me give you an example with reference to double digit multiplication. This comes to mind because my third child – aged 8 – is currently working on it.

Double digit multiplication is usually the first rung on the ladder of tears reserved for math. But I get it. Going from single digit multiplication to double digit is a huge jump.

So what do we do? We break it up. Into small steps.

And then we practice those steps until they are second nature. If those steps are too hard, we break each one up into half steps. And then we practice those steps until they come easily.

My eight-year-old, in the example above, specifically had trouble understanding where to place his numbers.

Going from single to multiple digit multiplication, there were suddenly a lot of numbers he was dealing with – the extra zero, the carry overs and the fact that the units, tens and hundreds place didn’t align for the second line of numbers like it always had up until this point in his brush with math.

So we went back half a step.

I wrote down multiple digit multiplication problems for him with no carry overs. We are currently working through this. Once he gets it, we will move on with numbers that require carry overs.

At this phase he is already well versed in his tables – we have done those separately and perfected them with flashcards over time.

Why I Hate Most Math Curricula

I came up with this method after being disillusioned with most math curricula on the market.

“I need more practice work!” I remember saying to another homeschooling mom.

“But why not move on if the child has already got it?” she asked.

The current debate in math curricula seems to center around using mastery or a cyclical approach as the dominant style of teaching and learning.

I’m not sure which side I’m on, because I think both miss the point. In my experience, most math workbooks introduce a concept, give you basic questions to answer and then make the numbers bigger before you have established second nature competency.

I hate that.

I have always said that math is something you should be able to do in your sleep. In my experience, most math curricula on the market prevents that rather than helping that along. They go for too much too quickly.

Full Steps Up Ahead!

The best thing about doing math with this half step method instead is that it actually saves time.

Instead of revisiting a concept that hasn’t become second nature and then having to go back over it before moving forward, this half step and practice, practice, practice approach makes for much more pleasant days.

And although some days the practice seems like mere busy work, it is mostly effortless and gets done.

This helps us move forward boldly because the basics are solid. Repetition is the mother of mastery. After all, that is the classical part of classical unschooling. (afflink)

If that makes me less of an unschooler, so be it. I’m in this for my children, not for any homeschooling ideology anyway.

Have you discovered a method of teaching something in your homeschool that works so well for you, you want to shout it from the rooftops? Tell us about it in the comments!

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!

Written by Purva Brown of The Classical Unschooler

What interesting times we live in! Never in a thousand years did I ever think that the majority of people would be homeschooling.

And yes, while veteran homeschoolers will scream that “this is just distance learning, not TRUE homeschooling” until they’re hoarse, the truth is that there are more homeschoolers today than there were last year. That’s something to celebrate.

However, even as someone who has been a classical unschooler (afflink) for the last decade, I have fallen into the trap of seeing education through the very limited lens of work that takes place when seated at a desk. We even refer to the time we spend on focused textbook work as “school.” We do it because no other word fits as easily. “TIME FOR SCHOOL!” just fits. Sigh.

But I don’t want to equate text work with an education. We can’t let the definition of “homeschool” become something only institutions prescribe and families follow.

It is especially during these times that we cannot forget that there are other things we do that count – perhaps not as “school,” but as an education.

And that is, after all, what we want to give our children.

So here then is my reminder to you and myself of three ways we are always homeschooling, even when we don’t think we are:

Conversations

As my children get older, these are my most treasured times with them. I long for deep, meaningful conversations. They don’t need to happen at dinner either. When they were little, I remember them asking where money came from.

Recently, my middle son (10) piped up in the middle of our conversation about our retirement accounts, “So what is a stock?” More importantly, he listened and understood as my husband explained it to him.

So much gets conveyed through conversations that will never make it into textbooks. The fact that this is an election year makes the time even more poignant. Sure, it’s a difficult time, but difficult times make conversations even more necessary, intense and therefore more nourishing.

Conversations are the heart of our homeschool.

Everyday Chores and Activities

Now that I am working the night shift full-time outside the home, the children have had to do more around the house. It turns out that all those years of training them have not gone in vain!

Of course, my husband has to do some hand holding and some (a lot) of prodding, but I couldn’t be prouder of my children. Recently, they surprised me by picking blackberries, finding a recipe online and baking a blackberry pie without me even having to lift a finger.

I can directly trace their taking on more responsibilities like making food, vacuuming, doing laundry, mowing and other chores to the time when we first started training them. We would pay them for the work they did – we still do. But paid or not, the fact is that everyday work teaches many lessons!

Chores teach more than just the knowledge of how to do a task – it teaches them that they can have a clean house, that they alone are responsible and that if they don’t do something they’ve been assigned to do, it doesn’t get done.

That last lesson, self-reliance, I believe, is the most important.

Sharing Whatever Interests You

My oldest daughter (12) has recently decided to take up the guitar again. I was adamant not to push her into lessons unless she showed real interest.

My husband is a bit of an autodidact and taught himself how to play it. She would watch him and eventually got interested. Then she abandoned it for a bit and now she’s coming back to it. Hobbies can be that way and that’s okay.

When you share what you love doing, it is infectious. Of course you can’t force interest – it’s either there or not. More importantly, when you do something that is dear to you and that makes you come alive, they notice.

If homeschooling is at least partially teaching children to find their own path, this one is huge.

I find it helps me to remind myself of these three ways often. It helps especially on days when I’m tired or the children are having trouble with their math.

Taking a view of homeschooling that focuses solely on what is in a textbook kills the true meaning and joy of what we set out to do in the first place! Instead let’s focus on teaching our children, watching them come into their individual selves, and spending more time with them along the way.

How do you homeschool, even when you’re not at a desk?

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!

The 3 step guide to managing your time as a homeschooling mom ~
Written by Purva Brown of The Classical Unschooler

When I first started homeschooling, my child was too young. I readily admit that now. But I did it for the sole purpose of getting into a routine. I wanted to know that I could do it when we were really ready.

Most of the day, my daughter, then 3 years old, spent a lot of what we called “school time” playing with paper, cutting and scribbling, coloring and singing. The sole purpose of my starting “school” back then was so that I could get on some kind of schedule.

Managing my time well has always been a bit of an obsession with me, but I am well aware that this is not the case with everyone.

So I thought today I would write a three step guide on managing your time as a homeschooling mom:

Step 1: Inventory

Taking inventory of my time is something I have learned from the financial side of managing our household budget. The first step of controlling money is always knowing where it goes.

The same is true of managing time. You have to know where you are currently spending it before you try to assign it to someplace else.

So I would recommend that at least for a week, before you start working on any kind of schedule, you spend some time observing what your family does and writing down how you spend your day.

This might seem silly and even unnecessary, but it is a useful exercise. It establishes your basic routines and the general ebb and flow of your household.

This has come in especially handy for me lately because I work evenings and nights. My husband works during the day.

But we have managed to keep our homeschooling going through this because we both know the basic rhythm of our family. We still stick with it.

Step 2: Work

This is the main reason I don’t like pre-curated curricula. I remember however being very attracted to it in the beginning. All grade-oriented curricula includes a schedule for getting the work done. While this seems like a good idea, the trouble is that it usually follows the general guidelines of a classroom for how much time is spent on the work.

As a homeschooler, this seems like overkill.

We don’t take half as long to finish the required work that we need because a lot of what we do relies not on textbooks but on real, hands-on life skills and discussions.

If we have already covered say, a good discussion of history and politics over dinner the night before, I don’t see any need to have the children read something and answer questions about it on paper just to say we covered it in our homeschool.

So make sure you get an idea of how much work is actually involved in the curriculum you’re considering.

Also find out if you can cover it in less time or a different way. Always change the curriculum to fit your family’s style and rhythm of learning, and never the other way around.

This will ensure that the work gets done is actually enjoyable.

Step 3: Create a Template

Now that you have an idea of all the time you have in a day and everything that needs to get done AND your own method and rhythm of how your family functions, you can start fitting school work into your schedule.

This is my favorite part. I try not to rush to create a schedule immediately however, no matter how inviting writing in a brand new planner is. Instead, I work on a template.

If you asked me the one thing that has helped me the most in my homeschooling, I will point to a template. A template is basically just a rough idea of what will get done for the week.

For example, my middle-schoolers currently work with 30 minutes in each of these subjects: math, vocabulary, and social studies–with another 30 minutes or so of extra practice in whichever area they need it. These are our goals. But I don’t specify the textbook or method in which these goals are accomplished.

Oddly enough, we always get everything done every single day. That is the power of working with a template. The pressure is off and the focus is on the goal, not the tedium or details of the process.

And there you have it. Managing your time as a homeschooling mom doesn’t have to be hard.

Actually, homeschooling is incredibly freeing because you get to set your children’s schedules yourself, and don’t have to be tied down to a school’s way of doing things.

Play around with it, make it fit your family and you might discover the same thing I have.

Enjoy your freedom!

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 ways to make homeschooling more fun
~ Written by Purva Brown of The Classical Unschooler

I started homeschooling ten years ago. It was my first time dealing with FOMO – Fear of Missing Out. You see, I started homeschooling right around the time social media took off.

Every other post I saw seemed to have photo shoots of moms celebrating languishing in backyard pools or planning mimosa days when the kids went back to school.

Yet here I was trying to teach my kids to count and string coherent words together. It was enough to make me organize a pity party.

“Is this how it’s going to be forever?” I wondered, bemoaning my supposed weary, hapless state.

The good news is, no. Absolutely not. Homeschooling is not, and should not be, a life sentence. What’s more, it’s not all drudgery. I’ll be the first to say there are times when sit down work, even supposedly “busy work” is necessary. But that does not mean that it’s all boring.

In fact, I’ve come to believe that it’s the public schooled kids and parents who are really missing out. How the tables have turned!

Here are four ways I’ve learned to make homeschooling more fun since we first began:

1. Take Advantage of Time and Liberty – Plan Well

I often say that time and liberty are your biggest assets as homeschoolers. You are not limited by someone else telling you when to go on vacation, how many hours to volunteer, how many cookies to bake, what days to create crafts or dress your children a certain way, what to feed your children for lunch or otherwise the socially or politically acceptable manner in which your children are supposed to behave.

You are free!

Do not squander that freedom. Use it to shape your homeschool, blending life and learning as closely as you can so that there is very little difference. The reason why we use classical unschooling as a method is because it works for us. It may not work for you. It doesn’t matter.

As long as what you’re doing is working, stick with it. Regulate your own schedule and do it your way. It is way more fun than following a public school’s marching orders.

2. Conversations

Not everything is learned through books. In fact, there is so much I know today that I picked up merely through talking with my parents. Conversations are the cornerstone of any good family.

Check on any family that is well bonded that you respect and you will probably find a common thread of openness and advice. Just ask yourself what you remember most about your parents and chances are oft repeated phrases will rise to the surface.

Remember to have good conversations with your children. You can even expand on what the textbook covered that day. What they read or even write may not stick as much as what you say and your take on it.

3. Different Media

Education is about learning and often teaching methods to learn. It’s about finding out and, yes, persevering. As such, it doesn’t always have to be pencil and paper. It doesn’t always have to be lectures.

Remember how fun it used to be when they wheeled in the TV during school? I know, I know, I’m dating myself here.

My point is this: there is nothing wrong with learning something through Netflix, YouTube, Khan Academy, lectures, audiobooks, and whatever other method works best for you and your children to learn something.

If adding different media makes something more fun, in addition to teaching something useful, go for it. My favorite way to learn something? Rabbit trails.

I love researching things and following different trails. I find there is a time for focused work, but rabbit trails extend the breadth of my knowledge as focus increases the depth.

4. Write About It

Here’s an odd one. I find writing about homeschooling on my blog actually deepens my enjoyment of it.

Maybe it is that I look at it differently because I’m looking for things to write about as I’m doing it. Whatever the case may be, starting a blog about your homeschool is a fantastic idea.

It gives your children a place to showcase their work, and it can be a memory keeper, tracking your journey from the beginning. It can also help extended family know what’s going on. This is especially useful if they’re not fully on board with the idea…yet.

Who knows, it might even launch your writing career!

The weird thing I’ve found since we started is that what we refer to as “fun” often looks, to others, like work. But it’s not drudgery to us.

Your job is to chase down whatever it is that attracts your or your child’s fancy that sounds like fun and see if it does indeed satisfy that itch.

You might surprise yourself.

What was fun this week in your homeschool?

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!

Written by Purva Brown of The Classical Unschooler

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t been myself lately. Motivation to do anything has been hard to come by. I make plans and can’t follow through. Things have a way of getting to me. Homeschooling and writing – two things that I truly enjoy – have all but fallen to the wayside.

See, I have always homeschooled my kids. I have even written books on homeschooling. But this uncertainty, this insecurity around us, is novel. All my energy, it seems, goes to just staying afloat mentally. Financially, we’re fine. My husband is an essential worker; these are no small blessings. And yet…

The current situation has turned me into part worry wart, part reactionary. It is only in this last week that I realized I cannot continue in this way. Who knows when this will end?

Would you rather listen to this post?

So here are five things I am choosing to do instead:

1. Set New, Easy Goals

I am one of those people who is energized by doing things that work. As such, it helps me to have a “could-do” list instead of a “to-do” list.

I write down a list of things that I could do and pick the one that seems easiest or gives me the quickest satisfaction. Eventually, I build up enough momentum to get them all crossed off.

But with recent frustrations, it’s been difficult to build momentum. So I’ve started putting some new, simple goals on my list: Looking up new recipes, new weight training exercises, finding new documentaries of things I’m interested in.

Every new little goal counts.

2. Go Back to Basics

For homeschooling, we’re going back to basics. You can never go wrong with reading aloud. So that’s what we’re doing. You can also never go wrong with just practicing a little math every day. So that’s on the agenda, too. Wherever we can, we’re keeping it simple and refining our basics.

Going back to basics doesn’t have to be boring, either. You can always relate it to current events. For example, we read Animal Farm aloud recently and it’s been seminal in other conversations we’ve been having lately.

You just have to find what’s important to your family and incorporate it.

3. Learn Something New

We’re taking the time to learn something new – the children as well as the adults. As I said above, we’re not undertaking any huge goals at this time, but simple ones.

We have a wealth of information and knowledge around us, thanks to the internet. It’s a great time to be alive where new skills are just a click away.

All those things that we didn’t have time for, or decided to do “later, when we have some time” are now on the front burner. I’m reading books and articles I had out off for months, we’re watching more documentaries and YouTube videos than ever.

And you know what? I’m enjoying it so much that I might keep doing school this way long after the quarantine ends.

4. Get Off Facebook

Honest confession: I have been struggling with this. But I have also confirmed that time on Facebook is directly related to a downward turn in my mood. There is much on there – people, articles, opinions – that are good and interesting, but there is also so much that is extreme and has to be weeded through that it tires me out and makes me short on patience.

Not to mention the fact that many use Facebook to rant.

So I’m trying to spend as little time on it as possible. I’d rather read on my Kindle. Again, this hasn’t been easy to do, but it’s a worthy goal I have set lately.

5. Have Every Conversation

When everything is up in the air like this, it sparks some great conversations in our family. Children tend to be great observers, and my husband and I decided long ago that no topic is off limits.

So we’re making space for every conversation. If they’re asking, they’re interested and their interest is not to be treated lightly.

Who knows what seeds we’re planting today?

We take the time to talk about everything they want to talk about. And if we don’t know the answer to their questions, we’re taking the time to find out and learn together with them.

In the past, in the hurry of getting things done, this was one aspect of our homeschool and parenting that was easy to ignore, but now seems to be a good time to reintroduce this ritual.

All in all, these five things have the power not just to help you tide over this time, but to bring you closer to your kids and your vision for homeschooling. I know it did mine.

I am not where I was mentally a month ago – waiting for quarantine to end, planning for what I will do when it ends, bemoaning the current state of affairs.

Working on these five things has energized me and changed my perspective.

May they do the same for you.

What has been a help for you during this time?

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!

3 ways minimalism enhances our homeschool ~
Written by Purva Brown of The Classical Unschooler.

I‘ll admit it. I wasn’t always a minimalist. In fact, I resisted that title as much as I could, even arguing against it on my blog.

But I have come full circle.

I’ve found that minimalism, far from taking anything away, actually enhances our quality of life and our homeschool. Here’s how.

3 ways minimalism enhances our homeschool

Physically:

We have always lived in a fairly small house. We did have a brief stint where we lived in a large home, only to decide it was far beyond my ability (and desire) to take care of.

When we recently moved, we found that we were able to load all our belongings in just a few hours. I love the freedom this gave us.

When it comes to homeschooling, we don’t have a lot of clutter lying around.

I don’t feel the need to save textbooks or build shelves for books. We tend to use workbooks, but they’re consumables and get thrown out after use, with the exception of some samples and tests.

We do have a closet dedicated to homeschooling supplies. We tend to make a mess in there off and on, especially if I slack on cleaning, but I get to close the door to that closet and turn off my mind for a bit in the evenings.

It’s nice not to see work everywhere I look.

Mentally:

As a homeschooling mom who spends most of her time at home, it is important to me to have mental space.

I don’t know when it happened, but sometime after having children, I was no longer a slob. It didn’t used to bother me to have things lying around until three other little beings started throwing their own things around as well. That was when a switch went off in my head.

I decided (overnight, it seemed!) that I needed counters to be clear, laundry to be put away and trash to go out every night.

While the children do help around with chores, the biggest thing minimalism does for me is leave room in my mind.

When my physical space is cluttered, it’s like it takes up room in my head. I find myself not being able to think creatively or function positively. Having fewer things and being able to put them away leaves me with the freedom to create new ideas.

“A place for everything and everything in its place” is a line I am definitely teaching my kids.

Spiritually:

The less time we spend taking care of our stuff, the more time we have to spend with each other.

Homeschooling shouldn’t be just about work and chores, but when the kids are little, that’s all it seemed like it was. As they get older though, I am learning the importance of having them grow into good, caring people with a deep connection to each other, their Creator and other people they love.

Having fewer things makes this easier. When we are not spending so much time cleaning up after ourselves or maintaining what we have, it gets easier to look outward and think of others.

Minimalism makes our life more meaningful, which is part of homeschooling after all – the ability to teach purpose and perspective.

I understand now why minimalism bothered me in the past. It was because I thought it was something to pursue for its own sake. Owning less just for the sake of it is not something that attracts me.

But when put in the service of something greater, a purpose outside itself, minimalism really shines.

I have chosen to put minimalism to use for our family and our homeschool.

When we are happier and healthier mentally, physically, and spiritually, our perspective changes. We are not spending our time simply putting out fires in constant emergency mode.

Minimalism makes our family less harried and more intentional.

And that, after all, is a big part of what I want my children to remember about their childhood.

Tell us in the comments- which methodology did you give up on and then come back to because you saw how it helped your homeschool?

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!