Modern Homeschool Today

At the beginning of this year I sensed the need to relax in my homeschooling approach. I felt that less structure and more freedom would result in a more positive experience for us all.  I can hear the more experienced homeschoolers saying, "I told you so!". The two areas that are important to us as a homeschooling family are: Freedom to explore interests, be creative and LOVE learning To develop self-discipline and ability to persist with difficult, unpleasant tasks to prepare them for life Initially, we trialled a very relaxed approach. But I found that although they were abounding in creativity they weren't being persistent and were giving up on tasks easily. It made me realise that in order to prepare them for the future e.g possible University life and work that they needed to learn self-discipline.  In order to be successful the ability to be both consistent and persistent are important. So persisting through difficult maths questions or getti...

The other morning my day began in tears, my tears. I awoke to the sound of high pitched squeals, aggressive voices and unkind words. Like most parents, I don't like when my children fight. I'm not a morning person at the best of times but that day, I lost it. I lost my marbles, my cool, my common decency.. I was overwhelmed. See, justified or not, I take misbehavior personally. I see my own inadequacies and failings when I observe undesirable behavior in my own children. I don't expect perfection and misbehavior is always an opportunity for character development but I take the task of raising children very seriously. Why? Because I know that my children are a gift from God and that he has given me the task of 'training' them. As long as I rely on him, he gives me the strength to rise to the challenge but I have to keep my eyes fixed on him and remember why he has given my children in the first place. God's design for parents = Training "Do not ex...

When I first withdrew my eldest from mainstream school (in year 1) I told everyone that we would just 'see how we go' and trial it for one term.  It has now been over 2 years since we began our homeschooling journey !   It has quite honestly been the best decision I have ever made for my children and I believe that wholeheartedly.  This is why I can't go back. I don't want to say that I will 'never' send my children back to mainstream school because no one know what the future holds. But the longer I homeschool, the more convicted I become of its importance and value for both our family and the wider community. The benefits of homeschooling are not only academic but emotional, spiritual and social.   I LOVE having my kids at home.  I didn't have children to delegate that responsibility to a complete stranger once they turned 5. I believe God has entrusted my children to me and it is my responsibility to ensure they are nurtured, pr...

I first heard about C amp Kidpreneur from a fellow homeschooler. It sounded like the perfect experience for my 8yo who has always been interested in shops and sales and has been running a store out of his bedroom for the past 6 months. Admittedly, running a business is in his genes, but certainly not from me! 2 years ago we held a garage sale so the kids could earn some money toward our Gold Coast holiday. DS8 organised can's of cool drinks and chocolates for the people browsing our stuff. Clearly, they couldn't resist his charm and he made more money from selling the drinks and chocolates than from his toys! It was the first time I'd observed a keen interest in the 'idea' of business. He took great joy in adding up his earnings and subtracting his expenses. I began to see that his interest came from within and since we had recently taken the plunge into homeschooling we were now blessed with the time and freedom to support this developing passion and watch it...

When we have homeschool days we use a flexible routine. So, here is an example of what mornings look like in our family. Our morning routine My children are early risers, often before 6am, so I do allow an hour or so of TV in the morning. I am not a morning person and find that without the TV I wake up to fighting, destruction and mess which sets a terrible tone for the rest of the day. Once I am up the TV goes off and my children eat breakfast and I make myself a coffee. My children know that NOTHING happens before mummy has had her morning coffee and some quiet time. If the kids are playing something that looks productive then I allow them to continue respecting that children of all ages learn through play and I don't want to interrupt this process! This means that although we aim to start homeschool at 8:00am we are flexible and often won't begin until 9:00am (but generally no later). I give my kids the 'warning' that it is 10 minutes until homeschool t...

It's a new year! If you're thinking, wow it's only January 8th - are you crazy? let me fill you in. We homeschool all year round. This doesn't mean we homeschool every day of the year. It simply means we don't take long breaks so we can afford to take little breaks during the year for holidays, special occasions, my work commitments or even just a mental health day (week). I have a full on work schedule for term 1 so the next few weeks are a homeschooling intensive to account for the fact life will be a little hectic for 11 weeks or so. The good news however, is that I have made a big decision about my work / homeschool / life balance or lack thereof and will be working MUCH less from term 2 onwards. It is such a relief just writing that! So here are my little cherubs (?). I can't believe he's in year 3 this year! This boy is an absolute JOY to homeschool! DS4 will actually be going to 2 days of sessional kindergarten this year. The ol...

My 7 year old is a reluctant writer. When I say reluctant, I mean that he is more than happy to spend time writing stories but resists any of the rules of writing e.g correct punctuation. It is often messy, rushed and unreadable to anyone but him. When he was 5 I was happy with this as I wanted him to simply enjoy the experience of expressing his thoughts. I felt that perhaps as time went on that he would seek to be understood in his writing and learn to write so that others could enjoy his beautifully creative stories. This didn't happen. He continued to resist any guidance in even just the simple idea of capital letters and fullstops. Why? I think he just honestly didn't see any point! Hence why I named him a 'reluctant writer'. In my search for writing program that would work for him I turned to Writing with Ease.  It is written by Susan Wise Bauer who is well known for her classical approach to homeschooling and curriculum. I consider my homeschooling s...