After you decide to homeschool, the next consideration is what kind of homeschooler you will be so you can choose your curriculum and plan your style of teaching. Are you a religious homeschooler who desires to infuse all of your teaching with the principles of your faith? Or are you a secular homeschooler who prefers not to teach matters of religion or at least keep them separate from your academic pursuits? Your answers to those questions will influence what kind of curriculum you consider and ultimately buy.
Do you want a faith-neutral program or a faith-positive one? Do you prefer secular materials only for certain school subjects?The beauty of homeschooling is that you can mix and match. Some families hold a personal faith but prefer a curriculum that doesn’t address those tenets in the day-to-day homeschool lessons. Others are strictly secular in the own perspective on life and, of course, want a program to mirror that conviction.
Being a Secular Homeschooler
If you’ve ever felt out of place at overly spiritual co-ops or at churchy homeschool groups, we invite you to consider BookShark’s 4-day faith-neutral curriculum. It’s literature-based and covers everything your children need. Our All Subjects Packages include Reading, History, Science, Language Arts, and Math (plus areas like geography, vocabulary, etc.). All the materials come in one big box, and you won’t have to worry about editing out religious content on the fly. Add in whatever faith-based materials you prefer—or not! We leave the choice up to you.
Below is an index of all our articles and blog posts about secular homeschooling: reasons, definitions, tips, and even a personal story from a secular homeschooling mom.
There are as many reasons to homeschool as there are benefits in doing so. It’s not uncommon for a family to choose to homeschool for one primary reason, but as the years go on, they discover so many more reasons to homeschool—reasons they never even contemplated until they started on the journey. With more experience, a homeschool parent begins to see the rich education that homeschooling provides goes well beyond any single motivation—whether religious or secular.
Homeschooling in Michigan? Or wanting to homeschool in Michigan? Find out how you can get a FREE literature-based curriculum with support and online assessments! Join Janna Koch, BookShark’s Community Manager, as she is joined by Jen Myers and Gwyn Domke, from Michigan BookShark Virtual with Alpena schools in Michigan. Find out the benefits of using Michigan BookShark Virtual with Alpena and the option of getting it at no cost to you!
Janna (00:00): Welcome to Homeschool Your Way. I’m your host Janna Cook and BookShark’s community manager. Today’s episode focuses on homeschooling with confidence. My guest, Jen Myers, and Gwyn Domke are from Michigan BookShark Virtual. Jen and Gwyn are immersed in homeschooling both personally and professionally. Not only have they homeschooled their own children now facilitate homeschooling for numerous families across the state of Michigan. Their program has equipped parents to homeschool confidently and successfully. Let’s hear how. Jen, Gwyn, welcome.
Jen (00:38): Thanks, Janna, for having us today.
Gwyn (00:40): Thanks, Janna, for hosting us today on the show.
Janna (00:43): I’m excited to hear how your personal experiences have led you to your partnership with Michigan BookShark Virtual.
Jen (00:53): Yes, thanks, Janna. So my career is in education and I did homeschool my kids, but I also stepped into the role as director of our partnership here in the area in northeastern Michigan. And we service families who homeschool and we offer electives, but we also offer core curriculum like BookShark Michigan Virtual. And so when we first started our journey working with homeschool families, we realized that there was a real need for homeschool families that were looking for assistance with the curriculum.
(01:26) And so we did some research and we discovered BookShark. So we loved that there was a set of books that this family got as well as the virtual component. And as we did more research, we realized this was going to be a great fit for our families. So we started offering BookShark Virtual within our in-house program and we saw how successful that was. And so we decided we would launch it statewide and offer Michigan BookShark Virtual, which is pretty cool because now any homeschool family with a student in grades K through eighth grade who reside in the state of Michigan can actually sign up with our program and receive for free the whole box of BookShark Materials as well as access to the online program. So that is how I got into Michigan BookShark Virtual.
Gwyn (02:16): So my side of things is coming alongside Jen when we started the program and looking at Michigan BookShark Virtual, the opportunity is I homeschooled my kids for 16 years using the curriculum. So for me, it was just a natural fit to help families use this amazing curriculum because I know it works. And I was very excited to be able to share it with our local community and then to take it statewide is amazing.
Janna (02:46): And you mentioned this virtual component to BookShark, and it may sound possibly misleading because typically virtual schooling means that you are on the computer and you are doing everything in front of a screen. How is this program different?
Jen (03:04): Yes, that’s an important delineation that you’ve just made. So traditional online programs are indeed a hundred percent online. Matter of fact, in our very first year offering virtual classes through our partnership, we utilized traditional virtual programs where the student is a hundred percent online, and our families didn’t like it. They didn’t like that their kids, especially the younger kids, but really at any age, they just did not like how much time their kids sat in front of the screen. Plus they really lost that personal, intimate experience that our homeschool families were looking for. And that is indeed what birthed our search, there’s got to be something out there, something where it can still fit the confines and requirements of a virtual program that the state requires for schools, but also be something that works organically in that learning environment with mom, dad, or whoever is leading that homeschooling at home.
(04:02) And that is where we started looking at different options and we met a Book Shark representative and they started to explain how the beauty of this program and the uniqueness of it is yes, you still have all of those hands-on materials. You actually get a physical book to open up and sit on the couch and read with your child. You actually get a workbook to fill in, or you do hands-on experiments, and then the online part is really only about 25% of the time and that’s where you go to upload your answers, to upload the responses that you’ve already talked about. So it’s really a great blend and for sure more developmentally appropriate for those younger kids especially.
(04:41) So you’re right, it’s a great way to look at and explain how the virtual component in your curriculum is a traditional one.
Gwyn (04:51): The other benefit of BookShark is that students within certain ages can be grouped together. So for mom homeschooling, and I know from my personal experience I had four children and I could have them in two separate cores, but I had two kids in each history and science core and then they each have their individualized math, individualized language arts. But it took the pressure off of me having four separate history social studies, and four separate science levels to teach. So that is so unique and amazing with BookShark, and it’s one of the things I love sharing with families.
Jen (05:29): And the third thing I’d like to mention that’s unique about the virtual component of this curriculum is the online graders. So with a traditional online program, your online grader might be somewhere in a different state and really not have a pulse on what your expectations are or your autonomy as a parent with this online curriculum. Whereas our online graders work personally with our program so they understand the nuances of this curriculum and they understand our families. They understand where these families are coming from and each student gets individualized responses, which is very unique in the online platform. So that’s another huge delineation between BookShark virtual and traditional virtual.
Gwyn (06:16): And within our program, we also have mentors who are assigned to a family. So you have that middleman, so to speak, that’s coming alongside of you if you have those daily questions or any situation that you just want to discuss with your mentor, and then they can take it back to the BookShark teacher or if there’s something else that they’re having difficulty with or a book or a question, anything. They’re not going alone. They have someone alongside of them.
Janna (06:46): So what I hear you say is, if I’m a parent new to homeschooling, I might feel as though I don’t even know where I would begin. And so this program not only offers me a teacher to connect with, but a mentor to come alongside me, and then a curriculum that is fully planned so I don’t have to do any of the legwork if I want to homeschool my child.
Jen (07:08): Yes, that’s the beauty of it. As a matter of fact, truly right from moment one, you have someone coming alongside. Gwyn, as our bookshop coordinator, meets individually with each family prior to ordering any material. So she really can hone in on what that best fit will be, not only for each individual child but collectively as a family. So right from the beginning, you have assistance even to decide what level is your best fit, not to mention what other materials your family may need.
(07:42) And so it really helps because some families, when they start using BookShark, they’re not really sure where they want to start, which math curriculum they want to choose, do they want to bring the level up a little bit, or bring the level down a little bit? There are all these nuances about the curriculum that Gwyn is able to come alongside each family individually to really get that best-fit level.
(08:05) And so right from the beginning they have that assistance not to mention then once the material comes in, they have the assistance as far as how to navigate the IG, which is like the teacher’s manual, what to do with the materials, how to report the LMS. That’s the beauty of it is that at every step, they have assistance with those components, so they never really feel like they’re alone. They may be several hours away from where we are, but they always feel connected.
Janna (08:31): I think connections is one of the things that people who even start to contemplate homeschooling really get … Personally. I got a little anxious because I thought, I’m not classically trained. I don’t know what to look for necessarily in a curriculum. And then one of the biggest things we find in advising families with BookShark is that it’s not that easy if you don’t understand the nuances, Jen like you said, to pick a level or to combine children. To the company, we think it’s easy because we’re in it all the time 24/7, but for somebody who’s being introduced to it, it can become very overwhelming. And when I first heard about Books Shark through my co-op, I remember parents saying, “Oh, be careful there. There’s a lot of work and you really got to know what you’re doing.” But then when I got into it and saw how well it was laid out, step-by-step processes. It’s simple but not easy, I think is a great way to describe it.
Jen (09:29): Yes, and also one of the things that we’ve heard from the families is they like that the online graders can grade at the grade level expectation, so it really takes that pressure off of the family, especially when it comes to writing or subjective grading. It takes the pressure off of the parent to have to know where they should be at that grade level. As I said, for writing, that’s a good example where it helps them to have this online grader that can give the grade and subject-specific feedback, which parents really appreciate. And that also is part of the Michigan BookShark virtual component is they have that connection with their online grader for that feedback, which is pretty immediate. Some of the questions are auto-graded so they know right then when they submit it, and then for the ones that aren’t auto-graded, the responses are within days of the answer being submitted. So it’s nice. It’s not like a way of weeks and weeks to get a response from their online teacher.
(10:32): The other thing that our families really like about that is that the IG, the teacher’s manual, has all of the answers in it. So as a parent is working with a child, they’re not on their own trying to play the guessing game of what is this question asking. They can see the answer right there, which really helps. Any parent that has worked with their child with homeschooling, sometimes you do run into those questions that you’re not really sure exactly what they’re asking, and that’s a nice thing is by seeing the answer, not that you’re going to give your child the answer, but it does help to direct the discussion so that you can lead them to understand where the curriculum is trying to take them with that higher-order thinking question.
(11:09): And so that’s something that our parents really appreciate about the virtual side, is even though it’s online, you still have that printed IG with those answers right there, and it does help guide the discussion.one of my favorite things about being a parent, really, is being able to walk with my children through these hard things in life, and then seeing, okay, we don’t have all the answers.
Gwyn (11:20): Another benefit of BookShark is it is a four-day curriculum. So families absolutely love the fact that it’s four days of focus and then they have one day left in the week for enrichment or other purposes for their families. That offers so much more flexibility. Especially like some of our families homeschool in different ways. It can work for so many different families. Some work full-time, and some students are with grandma or another guardian or someone, and this curriculum offers them the opportunity they can take that with them and grandma or whoever is helping them coming alongside a tutor, whoever it is, and help them complete that.
Janna (12:08): I think flexibility is a really important point to mention because if you’re new again to this idea of taking this education and bringing it home, or you’ve been homeschooling, but you’re kind of branching out to these other programs that are available to families. If you think that it is a Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM type of program, that will disqualify many parents who are working during those hours.
Gwyn (12:35): And when you have other younger children at home, it gives you those moments to be able to put that little one down for a nap and do some of your readers together. And just the flexibility of when dad comes home at night or whoever comes home at night can do some of the work with the students. You can travel. We have families that take this curriculum on the road. They’ve been to Europe, they’ve been to Mexico. All over. So it has so many benefits to it that I think you’d be hard-pressed to not find a situation in which you can’t make BookShark work for you.
Janna (13:18): And in Michigan Books Shark Virtual specifically, are the recommended hours the same as it is for the traditional BookShark curriculum? So for let’s say a certain level, we say that it’s typically three to four hours of student work per day. Does that change at all within your program?
Gwyn (13:38): I think it depends on the family and how much of the enrichment that they participate in. You can do what’s required, especially in those years when you have a lot of littles, or if you have the dynamics of, I have some families who are homeschooling one or two children and they want every single thing that’s offered.
(13:59): And so yes, you can fill your day, but you also have that opportunity to scale back when you need to. So it would ebb and flow. It’s one of those questions that’s very different for every family.
Jen (14:14): What I would say is I don’t feel like Michigan BookShark Virtual, adding the virtual component would add time. If anything, it would add options. With traditional BookShark, as amazing as it is, you are limited to just the hands-on materials that you have, which is awesome. The nice thing about the virtual component is you have the same hands-on materials, but you also have the virtual component so that if you do need your child to be a little bit more independent, by the time they get to the older grades, you can say, “Okay, while I do this, you are going to work on this.” And that’s when they can do the virtual aspects, or as Gwyn said, you can do all of the extra stuff hands-on and then still have them upload their answers to the virtual, but it really hasn’t added time. It just adds an option that you have the flexibility to add independence for your student, especially as they get older. So if anything, I would say it adds opportunity, not time.
Janna (15:22): Well, I really like that distinction because as a homeschool mom who is down to one and she is working very independently, there’s actually very little that I do with her now working through Level I as she’s 13 then when we first started seven years ago and she was still learning how to read. So this idea that as they do age, if you are looking for more independence, it will give it. And if that’s not what you’re looking for, it certainly doesn’t have to be the focus with Michigan BookShark Virtual.
(15:53): So if I’m considering putting my child into Michigan BookShark Virtual, I would love to have the assurance that if I choose to put my child back into a brick and mortar after any time, either a year or two years later, that they are going to be tracking with their peers. So how does your program come alongside parents to give them the assurance that they’re doing enough?
Jen (16:23): Yes. Well, that is a very common question that all homeschool parents have am I doing enough? Am I at the right level? Have I covered what they’ll need? Whether you’re going to put them in school or not, homeschool families have that questions. That’s a nice thing that you can utilize with Michigan BookShark Virtual is that they’ve done that legwork for you. They’ve taken these levels, they’ve compared it to grade level expectations that Michigan has, and they’ve made sure that that material covers most of those standards so that when you hit a level in a certain grade you know that when they’ve completed that level, they’ve covered the topics and the benchmarks that are hit in the state standards for that subject, for that grade level, which is really, really a relief for homeschool parents because they don’t have to have the guesswork of how much do I do? What do I do, what do I cover? It’s all right there.
(17:29): Not only is it all right there, but by using Michigan BookShark Virtual progressively through the elementary grades and into junior high, you’re getting a really great caption of all the different subjects, all the great literature. It’s a wonderful journey of learning that those kids go through and coming from an educator comparing it to what, as I’ve seen in the classrooms that I’ve taught, the literature is high quality and the volume of literature is a lot more literature than what you would see traditionally, which all of us know the best way to make a great reader is to read. And so that is something that really is a cornerstone to this curriculum is the amount of reading that the child does as well as the read allows that the adults do with the children. What a great way for them to develop and understand how a story is put together and to study the topics of science and history as they’re tied in with stories. It makes it so much more real for them.
(18:35): Then to be able to have the practical hands-on aspects like laying it out right on the timeline. What a great way to understand how an event fits into history. You’re reading about it in every book that you read. Michigan Bookshop Virtual has the student not only identifying where in the timeline that event happens but also mapping it to where it is with geography, it makes it so much more real for the kids. It’s more meaningful than what I remember history being. And so that’s a really nice aspect of that.
(19:09): So not only are the standards taken care of and covered that the state would require, but Michigan BookShark Virtual goes even further and takes those standards and gives them application opportunities, which is really great to see incorporated in a virtual platform.
Gwyn (19:27):: So another way that you could meet some students’ needs with the curriculum is I had an auditory learner. So for him, he struggled with the readers on his own because he spent so much time trying to comprehend that I did audiobooks for him, and he’d follow along in his reader, and then he could grasp the comprehension and answer those questions effectively. So I love the fact that BookShark uses phenomenal literature. You can find an audiobook, they can listen, they can glean from history, and they can really engage and learn and grow, even for a struggling student.
Janna (20:13):: And even if there isn’t an audiobook available, it just because it’s stated as an independent reader for the student if you know your student and you need to read that to your student as they read aloud, that is one of the reasons we homeschool is so that we can speed up or slow down or make adaptions for our children. When I started homeschooling my own girls, I didn’t even realize that one of them was a struggling reader, because she compensated so well. And then when we started to go through all the literature, she wasn’t keeping up with the pace like her twin sister. And then I started to realize, oh, she’s struggling with words even though she was understanding concepts. And so just a few years of homeschooling with BookShark, she was off the charts and totally caught up and surpassed her peers. But I wouldn’t have known. How would I have known had I not been homeschooled with her?
(21:08): All right, ladies, you have me sold on this program. If I were to live in Michigan and I was contemplating that I wanted to homeschool and I know that this is the right choice for me, what would be my next practical steps as a parent who’s interested in Michigan BookShark Virtual?
Gwyn (21:27): So you would reach out to me through my email, which I think you will have that at the end of this podcast included. Tell me you’re interested. I will contact you and discuss how you will enroll with our district for the year using this free virtual online component. We will ship a box of curriculum to you directly and come alongside you and help you set up your year.
(21:57): Also students within our district are issued Chromebooks that they will check out and will be shipped. I’ll ship them to the family and they can use those to submit their work, which is another great benefit. And that would be your first couple of steps in getting set up with us here.
Jen (22:22): Then in that meeting with Gwyn, she would sit down with you once you’ve decided that this is a good fit for your family and she would discuss which level is the best fit, whether are you able to combine kids and how that works.
(22:35): We offer this for students in grades kindergarten through eighth grade, and we are able to combine kids who are close in grade level. So that is a nice thing. Usually, how that works is they combine-
Gwyn (22:49): Within a couple of grade levels.
Jen (22:52): And then they do their separate math and language arts, typically.
Gwyn (22:56): Yes. So three math programs that we offer are Saxon, Singapore, and Math UC. So families can look at those three. I do have an email that I send, and I send the links and information about all those curriculums so they can choose the best fit. We have an organic conversation about the dynamics of their student, what type of learner they are, and what approach they’re looking at.
Jen (23:22): The nice thing too is there are some pre-assessments that she sends links to that they’re able to do with their child, and then those pre-assessments give a great picture of what level would be the best fit.
(23:35) So they kind of use both the results of the pre-assessments as well as this conversation that they have to figure out what would be the best. And then from there, once they’ve decided on the level, Gwyn puts the order in, we order it, we take care of the paperwork enrollment on that, and really then everything is taken care of. Then it’s a matter of the box arriving at your house sometime later in August, and we share a calendar with the family. And like Gwyn had mentioned, it’s a four-day program. So each week they have four days of work to complete for that week, and it’s laid right out in 32 weeks. Starts at the beginning of September, goes through the middle of May, and they submit their weekly work and then at the end of the week that is all submitted, and then their mentor contacts them if they have any concerns or any questions that they need help with, and otherwise it just runs through the year.
(24:30): So it’s a pretty smooth process. It’s the enrollment, it’s receiving the materials, familiarizing yourself with the materials and the books, working through your school year, and then at the end of the school year, you’re able to keep that box of materials if you choose. If you’ve completed the whole year, you can keep that box of materials and then sign your children up for the next level if you choose to do the next year. So it’s a pretty easy process. And then we come alongside, we have Gwyn as well as our online graders that come alongside them throughout the year and pretty much weekly communication with things that they may need help with, reminders of different things that they’re doing.
(25:14): It’s a smooth-running machine. We’ve done this now for a few years and our families really, really appreciate it. It’s something that not only is the financial help to them, but really they feel like it’s an emotional help for them because they’re not out on their own. They may be in an area in Michigan where they don’t get to be with other homeschool families, and this gives them an opportunity to really rub shoulders with someone else. Oftentimes, I’ll hear Gwyn, have conversations with family where she can help them through the transition of homeschooling.
Janna (25:51): All right, I am thoroughly convinced that this is an amazing program that I want to be a part of if I were a resident of Michigan. You had mentioned that the district would send me a Chromebook for any student I sign up with through this program. What other things would I need in my home to make this successful homeschool?
Gwyn (26:12): One of the most important things for a virtual program is to have internet that is adequate for uploading because you are required to upload work each week. And if a student doesn’t have those capabilities because you’re so remote and your service is very slow, like dial-up, it’s just not going to be, unfortunately, a good fit for you. And Michigan BookShark Virtual won’t be available for you, unfortunately. Besides that, your basic school supplies, pens and pencils, and markers. That’s just a typical thing you’re going to need for your school supplies. Other than that, books are provided, the virtual component is there, and you have your teachers on this side, your mentor, and support.
Janna (27:07): In closing, what are your final words for families who are contemplating coming to Michigan BookShark Virtual?
Jen (27:16): Jenna, really what I would say is take a look online, look up Michigan BookShark Virtual, do some research, take a look at what they offer, look at the all subject packages, drool over the amazing literature that a kid can read in one year, which is pretty amazing. And then contact Gwyn. Start a conversation. You’re not committing to anything by just having a conversation. Reach out, and see if it’s a fit for your family. Dig a little bit and do some research. And at the end of the day, if you feel like this is something you like to try for your family, you’re not out anything because again, this curriculum is free.
(27:55): So I would just encourage families to do a little research, make a contact, ask the questions, and find out if it’s a good fit for them. And if so, we are here to support you.
Gwyn (28:08): I’ve homeschooled four children that are very different learning styles with BookShark. So for me personally, to have those conversations, I think it would be hard-pressed for a family to bring something to me that I wouldn’t know how to direct them and help them come up with the best solution for their children’s education for that year.
Janna (28:30): I know that if there are people who are listening who had any doubt in their mind that they could not homeschool successfully and confidently after listening to this podcast, they will now know that with the support of Michigan BookShark Virtual, they have all that they need to do this and do it really well.
(28:50): Ladies, thank you so much for coming on today. Thank you for sharing your expertise, and thank you for providing a program for the state of Michigan.
Many BookShark parents love to outsource some of the scheduled reading aloud to audiobooks. This hack gives them a bit more time, saves their voice, and even allows the entire family to enjoy the listening experience together while traveling or doing chores.
Another big use of audiobooks in homeschooling is by children who struggle with reading independently. Whether it’s due to dyslexia or just learning at a slower pace, these students benefit from hearing their Readers delivered in audiobook form.
Due to licensing challenges, BookShark itself does not provide audiobooks alongside its literature-based curriculum. But with a touch of resourcefulness, you can piece together what you need. Here are our recommendations to get you started with your search of audiobooks for BookShark.
1. Free Audiobooks
The apps below are available for free through most libraries. These three apps are always our first stop when hunting for a particular title in audiobook form. Much like a library book, you have a limited time to listen but can always renew. Check with your local library to see what’s provided with your membership or library card.
Sometimes there’s a new book out and we just can’t wait for it to be offered at our library. Or maybe we want the option of listening to a book over and over without having to return it. In that case, we need a paid subscription.
I also like the feature in these apps that allows students to choose if they want to read or be read to.
3. Ebook Readers
There are also a few apps that read ebooks to you. These options are wonderful if you’re looking to help your child become a fluent independent reader since your child can follow along visually with the audio.
Bookshare® According to its website “is available only for individuals who have a qualifying reading or perceptual disability, a visual impairment, or a physical disability that affects their ability to read printed works.”
My children both love audiobooks. Many a night they have fallen asleep listening to a favorite story. We also love to listen to books on car rides.
Some readers also do a better job understanding what they are reading when they can hear it. As a teacher who has taught many students with dyslexia and other learning differences, I found this to be true again and again. While younger students might enjoy being read aloud to, I’ve also found older students often like the autonomy an audiobook gives them.
Audiobooks do not have to replace the books in our homeschool curriculum, but they can be a wonderful addition, and for some students work even better than a physical book. Try using audiobooks in conjunction with your BookShark Readers or Read-Alouds or use audiobooks when you’re in the car. They make for a wonderful start and end to the day as well. Audiobooks encourage even more reading in our homeschool days! There are no drawbacks when it comes to more great books!
About the Author
Kelly left teaching middle and high school English to homeschool her children and reclaim how she and her family spent their time. Followers of interest-led learning, her family’s days rarely look the same, but they tend to include a lot of books, art supplies, and time outside.
Kelly facilitates local writing circles for women and children and blogs about nurturing the love of learning on her blog, Curiosity Encouraged. She loves to journal, read memoirs, hike, and travel. She seeks quiet mornings and good coffee daily.
As homeschoolers, the idea of having children who can complete school lessons, projects, and assignments on their own can be enticing. Mom, who usually bears the burden of the homeschool planning and teaching, gets a break, and children take responsibility for their own education. Sounds like a win for both parties, right? Yes, but let’s delve into this idea of independent learning more deeply:
How do you know when your child is readyto learn on his own?
How much should you push your children towards working solo?
Exactly how do you train your kids to learn independently?
Is independent learning even possible?
Is It Really Possible for Children to Learn Independently?
Does independent learning really exist? The answer depends on how you define the term. All of us need to learn from someone or some kind of starting point of reference, so it’s not realistic to expect our kids to learn without any guidance at all. For example, the cornerstone of the BookShark curriculum is parent and child, learning together over great books. Sure, older kids can do their assignments and reading alone, but they would miss the insights from their parents that come from discussing the History and Literature. So consider what you and your kids lose when they learn on their own.
With that said, it is possible and wonderful to teach our children to take ownership of their education. In our family, the kids complete some of their homeschool assignments on their own, which—in my mind—qualifies as independent learning. For example, my oldest daughter does most of her lessons and quizzes herself while I help her review and prepare for testing. For our younger children, independent learning might include Read-Aloud sessions, worksheets, and simple crafts while the bulk of the learning is done alongside a parent.
When Can A Child Start to Learn on His Own?
Some early education methods, such as Montessori, encourage teaching children self-reliance at a young age. Others, such as unschooling, promote allowing a child time to develop his or her own educational interests.
Since children mature at different rates, there is no specific age when parents should begin to teach kids to work on their own. As parents, we know our children best. We know when they’re ready to move on to more advanced concepts, and we know what they’re capable of doing.
While it would be unrealistic to expect a very young child (grades K – 3) to learn solo, it could also stunt your child if you continue to hover when he’s ready for greater autonomy. In each family, parents have to assess their children’s abilities and skills to determine when they are ready to complete schoolwork on an independent basis. Trust your gut on this decision. You will know when the time is right and how much liberty to allow your kids. If you are unsure, ask them! They often know exactly what they need and can tell you how much support and direction to offer.
How to Help Kids Learn Independently
Children, like adults, need very little guidance or encouragement to do the things they like. Naturally, if our children enjoy what they are learning in school, they will develop the self-motivation to complete many of their assignments without much prodding or direction.
A good way to help kids become self-motivated is to allow them to have a say in their education. Let them choose a few of the books on the reading list this year. Or allow them to choose a few animals, places, or historical events to study.
For example, at the beginning of our school year, we make a list of all the things our kids would like to learn about. Then we try our best to work those topics into our lessons. When I announce that we’ll be covering one of those topics, the kids are so excited that they’re willing to do whatever assignment they’re given—even independently.
Another way to help kids learn to complete their schoolwork independently is to teach them to manage their time. Upper elementary and middle school grades are a wonderful time to start working on this skill. Start by giving kids to to lists to check off. Then give them blank weekly planners to fill in on their own and check off completed work.
As an example, our middle schooler, who has ADHD, is learning to create a weekly schedule for herself. She tries to complete all of her schoolwork in four days, so she can have an “off” day each week. Setting up her own routine has helped her develop the drive to get her assignments done on her own and on time.
As homeschoolers, we can make independent learning fit into our family’s educational goals, abilities, and grade levels. By giving our children a say in their education and helping them learn to manage their time, we can help them become independent learners for life.
About the Author
Selena is a homeschooling graduate and a veteran homeschooling mother of four, including three with ADHD. She and her husband, Jay, use an eclectic homeschooling approach to encourage their children to learn throughout their lives. Selena blogs about her family’s homeschooling adventures every week at Look! We’re Learning!
Homeschool scheduling is about finding your starting point and matching your family’s own groove. For example, when my boys were preschoolers and toddlers, my goal for the day was to shower and have some meaningful reading activities for my oldest son. Insanity was thinking I had to get my homeschool started at 8:00 a.m. when there was no need to. Fast forward to the middle and high school years. My sons now start their homeschool day closer to 8:30 a.m., independent of me.
The key to breathing sweet homeschool scheduling into your day is to begin with a set of guidelines that you can actually follow—ones that fit your family’s groove. We don’t need one more thing to stress us out if we are already struggling with homeschool scheduling, so look at these easy starting points below.
Analyze Your Family’s Routine and Daily Flow
For example, if you have a younger household, your day will start earlier. When my household was younger, some days I could start school by about 7:00 a.m., stop for nap time, and then pick up again with a few more activities. Other days were helter-skelter.
Setting a dogmatic time to start our homeschool day only added to my aggravation because there was very little I could control when my children were preschoolers. Later, I understood that because my children were so young, I had to have a tentative game plan and find flexibility so that I could accommodate my family’s needs.
However, older children tend to thrive with routine and sameness even though we may not as adults.
Find Balance
If you are not a morning person, then give yourself another half hour or so in the morning before you tackle your assignments in the Instructor’s Guide. However, if your children are morning people and they can start independently of you, then set the schedule to accommodate their desire to start early.
Think About the End of the Day
When does your homeschool day end? Though learning and living naturally flow in our day, and sometimes it’s hard to see the difference between the two, we still want to schedule an ending to our day. Through the years, I have heard of homeschoolers who homeschool for eight hours or more. I am shocked.
Our job as homeschool educators is not really very different from having a full time job. We need to have an ending to our day because homeschool burnout may loom ahead if we don’t.
During the younger years when there is not much difference between playing and learning, having an ending time is not as important. However, as your children approach the middle and high school years and you are teaching them to stick to a schedule and how to balance their time, it becomes critical.
Avoid Hour-by-hour Homeschool Planning
When you are struggling with homeschool scheduling, avoid hour-by-hour planning and instead to plan bigger chunks of time. Getting out your daily planner and setting aside 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. for homeschool is doable, flexible, and gets your feet on the road to homeschool organization.
Next, noting the hours 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. for house chores is pretty flexible too. Instead of chaining you to a homeschool schedule that might not work for you or that may be too specific right now, start with scheduling broad zones of time.
As you fine tune your homeschool schedule to fit your family’s rhythm, then you can fill in with hour by hour chores, academic subjects, and other activities you have planned.
The simple truth is that homeschooling requires time and a schedule that fits your family as your children grow. Fitting your family’s groove at the present moment, having an ending to your homeschool day, and planning in blocks of time are the beginnings of homeschooling scheduling success. w out the topics they are interested in and can relate to, ask questions that spark opinions and more questions, and get excited about what will happen next. Your kids will follow suit and you’ll be digging in and having valuable discussions with them before you know it.
About the Author
Tina Robertson celebrated the graduation of Mr. Senior in 2013 and is getting ready to graduate her next son. Because of her love for new homeschoolers, she mentors moms through her unique program called New Bee Homeschoolers. She loves all homeschoolers, though, as she shares her free 7 Step Curriculum Planner, unit studies, lapbooks and homeschooling how tos. She can’t sing, dance, or craft, but she counts organizing as a hobby. She is still in the homeschool trenches blogging at Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus.
With history’s constant expansion, it’s easy to understand why homeschooling the subject may feel a bit daunting. How can children begin to grasp how it all fits together? There are so many people, cultures, continents, and events!
Timelines come in a variety of formats, but one thing is consistent. Whether it’s vertical or horizontal, there’s a dated line that helps students put information in chronological order.
Students can create history timelines for a variety of reasons:
to study a specific era or region
to see the events of a person’s life
to trace the development of a particular subject—like the evolution of art or progress of scientific discoveries
to compare the histories of multiple countries at the same time
to give context to a person’s life or an event
Homeschool timelines are incredibly versatile. They can be kept in a binder, hung on a wall, or even written on adding machine tape, They come pre-printed (like BookShark’s Timeline Book), or students can make their own. Whatever format you choose, consider these five benefits to making one part of your homeschool history studies.
1. Homeschool Timelines Help Kids Make Connections
A timeline acts as a way to tie history together. As students add people, events, scientific discoveries, and inventions to their timelines, they discover how these smaller puzzle pieces fit together into the bigger picture of history.
Teaching tip: Color code your timelines. For example, you can write people’s names in red, events in blue, etc. Or you can assign specific colors to countries and label anything to do with that area in the same color. Just keep a key for reference.
2. Homeschool Timelines Provide a Way to Organize Learning
Many parents enjoy a chronological approach to studying history, so using a timeline makes perfect sense. But there are also times when you may want to follow a rabbit trail—something your kids are interested in studying or a current event you want to take advantage of, like the Olympics or US Elections.
When you use a timeline like BookShark’s The Timeline Book, students can add to it even when they aren’t studying history sequentially. They will see how their current studies fit into the broader scope of history.
Teaching tip: Have students memorize a few key dates. These can become pegs to hang their learning on. For example, while studying the American Revolution, knowing what happened in 1776 is essential.
3. Homeschool Timelines are the Perfect Review
With a timeline, students have the opportunity to look back over what they have learned and review it. And when you ask questions about their timelines, it can be an informal method of evaluation.
Teaching tip: Have students show off their timelines. When they are sharing it with grandparents, aunt, uncles, etc, they will naturally be telling others about what they learned. You’ve covered narration and review at the same time!
4. Homeschool Timelines Develop a Global Worldview
Students can see what was going on in different parts of the world at the same time. For example, using a timeline when studying inventors and inventions shows students that ideas were often being worked on concurrently, but in different ways.
Thanks to a timeline kids will realize that Christopher Columbus and Leonardo da Vinci were contemporaries.
They will marvel that Socrates, Buddah, and Confucius all lived at around the same time period.
And they may be surprised to learn that while Europe was mired in the Dark Ages, the Islamic Empire and China had a flowering of science and art.
Teaching tip: When working on your timelines, look for overlap. Prompt them to consider,“How did people from around the world contribute to this event, idea, etc.? Does this event remind you of something else in history? While this is happening here, what’s happening elsewhere?”
5. Homeschool Timelines Show Patterns in History
Timelines help students discover patterns in history. You’ve probably heard a variation of George Santayana’s observation, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” By using a timeline, students see certain patterns emerge. Rising tensions, war, times of economic depression, times of prosperity—these tend to cycle in almost every developed nation around the world.
When students look back over their timelines, they can find specific types of events more easily and compare to current events. The 2020 pandemic is the perfect time to look back and see when a disease or illness has had a major impact on society.
Teaching tip: Questions help your student develop critical thinking skills. Instead of simply adding a person or event to the timeline, ask them if they’ve noticed any patterns. Be specific, especially with younger students. For example, “Have you noticed any similarities about events before a war begins?”
Why You’ll Want BookShark’s Timeline
Timelines are such a valuable tool for homeschool history that every BookShark Reading with History curriculum package includes a Timeline Book as part of the required resources. Of course, if you use BookShark more than one year, you don’t need a fresh Timeline Book each year. You can continue placing figures in the same Timeline Book throughout your entire homeschool career. The spiral-bound notebook format is especially practical:
includes pre-printed dates from 5,000 B.C. to the present
constructed of quality, heavy-gauge paper that holds up over time
is in a standard 8 ½ x 11” size so it’s easy to store on the shefl or take with you on the go
includes plenty of space for figures, notes, and drawings
Even if you’ve never used a timeline in the past, it’s never too late to start! And if you get behind in placing your scheduled figures, no worries! Just have a timeline book day when you review what you’ve learned and affix all the figures you’ve covered in the last few months. pics they are interested in and can relate to, ask questions that spark opinions and more questions, and get excited about what will happen next. Your kids will follow suit and you’ll be digging in and having valuable discussions with them before you know it.
Have you ever had a conversation like this in your home?
Parent: How’s your book?
Child: It’s good.
Parent: Why is it good?
Child: I don’t know. I just like it.
Talking with our kids about a book they are reading can peter out before the conversation even starts. Why? The questions we ask, what we know about the book, and the way we hold discussions all matter. Good discussions are all about connection, and if there is one thing we homeschoolers do well, it’s connecting with our children.
Looking for ways to having rich, meaningful discussions around the books your homeschoolers read? Here are some of my favorite ways to create conversations.
1. Read the Books Your Kids are Reading
It’s pretty hard to have a conversation about a book you don’t know anything about. We can ask questions, but the heart of a discussion lives in everyone being somewhat informed.
If you can’t read the books your kids are reading, find summaries. The more you know about the book, the richer our conversation will be.
2. Ask Open-ended Questions
Questions that have a right or wrong answer, that elicit a one-word answer, or that don’t spark interest will not get our kids talking about books. The questions we ask need to invite them to think about their opinions, the world around them, and who they are as a person.
Try questions like these:
What do you like about this character?
What is something that annoys you about this story?
Why do you think the character made that decision?
What would you have done in the character’s place?
3. Use Reading Strategies
Reading strategies are tools that help readers think beyond the basic plot of a story. Use reading strategies to craft your questions and discussions:
Predict: Discuss what is going to happen next. Find evidence in the novel to support your predictions.
Connect: Discuss how you each relate to the characters, conflict, or setting.
Question: Discuss what you’re wondering? What doesn’t make sense? What does the author not tell us?
Comment: Discuss your opinions. What do you think, like, dislike?
Infer: Discuss what you know by reading between the lines. What are the clues that support your findings?
4. Model Excitement About Reading
Modeling excitement is one of the best ways to create conversation because the more excited we are about reading, the more our kids will be.
This next tip may sound silly, but it works! While you’re reading in earshot of your kids, react audibly to your book.
Shout, “What?!” when you reach a shocking part.
Laugh loudly when you get to a funny part.
Gasp loudly at a scary part.
When we express what’s going on in our head while we’re reading, our excitement does a couple of things. If you’re reading independently, it sparks interest. Your kids are going to want to know what is so funny or unbelievable, which will spark discussion. If you’re reading out loud together, it’s a great place to stop and discuss what’s going on or how they are feeling.
5. Create Conversation Midstream
While adults often wait until they have finished a book to discuss it, this isn’t always best to do with kids and teens. They need conversation throughout. It will help them stay interested, make sure they are understanding what is happening, and dig deeper.
If I’m reading out loud with my kids, we’ll stop and discuss when we’ve ingested a lot of information, get to a really important part, when they are starting to get antsy, before we read and after.
If we’re reading the same book independently, I try to create a conversation (even a small one) before and after we read each day. The discussion questions in each BookShark Instructor’s Guide give you perfect conversation starters if this doesn’t come naturally to you.
6. Be Truly Interested
Have you ever tried to talk to someone who was looking at their phone or not focused at all on the conversation? It can make us feel pretty small and unimportant. Discussions are conversations. They should look like people paying attention, listening, and truly being interested in what the other person is saying. If you don’t find the books your kids are reading interesting, remind yourself that you are interested in your child and helping them learn. (Or switch to a curriculum full of fascinating books!)
7. Have Real Conversations
Books invite us into real-world problems, historical mishaps, conflicts, and so many lessons. Use a character’s flaws, values, and problems to discuss the best ways to handle struggle and conflict. Books can be wonderful ways to introduce and create conversations around hard topics. Create conversations that are meaningful and go beyond merely discussing a book for school.
If you have ever had a really good conversation with a friend about a book, you know the power of discussion, of lifting up the characters you liked, what you each thought and wondered. We can have these same types of conversations with our children. Draw out the topics they are interested in and can relate to, ask questions that spark opinions and more questions, and get excited about what will happen next. Your kids will follow suit and you’ll be digging in and having valuable discussions with them before you know it.
About the Author
Kelly left teaching middle and high school English to homeschool her children and reclaim how she and her family spent their time. Followers of interest-led learning, her family’s days rarely look the same, but they tend to include a lot of books, art supplies, and time outside.
Kelly facilitates local writing circles for women and children and blogs about nurturing the love of learning on her blog, Curiosity Encouraged. She loves to journal, read memoirs, hike, and travel. She seeks quiet mornings and good coffee daily.
When you think homeschool learning spaces, the first thing that typically comes to mind is a nature center or a reading nook, or perhaps even an art center. But what about kids’ electronic devices? How do devices such as tablets and computers fit into your plan for a homeschool room?
Our homeschool is not exclusively digital. We enjoy learning through books, science experiments, and hands-on projects. But we still have several devices for our kids to use as part of their home education. Unless I stay on top of the device organization, those cords get tangled and tripped over. Laptops and tablets get unplugged and batteries go dead. We don’t have much space in our homeschool room so it’s more important than ever that I stay on top of managing these digital devices.
How Many Devices Are Needed to Homeschool?
Our eventual goal is one device per child, whether that’s a laptop, a Chromebook, a tablet, or a raspberry pi. However, for now, we have only been able to pull off three dedicated devices among our seven children. It’s not ideal, but it’s working for now.
Having almost one device per two children makes it easy to stage and stagger lessons, especially where we still have physical lessons using books and tactile materials.
We used to only have one device for all seven kids to share, and that was painful. It was incredibly annoying trying to get all of the kids a turn on the one laptop in a timely manner.
Choosing Devices For Your Homeschool Room
Here are five questions to consider.
How many kids are you actively schooling? This one is obvious, but the number of devices you need will obviously fluctuate based upon the number of kids you are homeschooling.
What age are your homeschoolers? Older students will naturally have a need for more electronic time than younger students. If your students are older, you will need a smaller ratio of devices to students than if your students are younger.
What style of homeschooling do you follow? Some styles of homeschooling will have a smaller need for electronics. For example, Charlotte Mason homeschoolers will generally spend more time in books than eclectic homeschoolers. The ratio of devices to students will fluctuate based upon your homeschooling style.
What is your children’s level of independence? Some homeschooling families strive to get their kids working independently as soon as possible while others thrive in a cooperative setting.
How much money do you have to invest in more electronics? It goes without saying that your finances will determine how many devices you can afford. It might behoove you to buy one or two now and in a few years when you’ve got more money, you can invest in a couple more.
Unfortunately, my school room is not very large, but here are a few tricks I use to keep the electronics tidy.
Child-Friendly Phone and Tablet Cord Organization
If your kids are anything like mine, I’m sure you have gone through a painful amount of broken charging cords over the years. Even when my kids don’t use the devices, it seems like they are still always breaking the cords, either because the device got tripped over, tugged on, or plugged/unplugged incorrectly.
I got so sick of always buying new charging cables that I finally invested in magnetic phone cables for our homeschool devices.
These are great for kids because they are really easy to plug in. Even my 1-year-old can do it. These are also nice because when a cord gets tripped on, nothing gets ripped or bent wrong, and nothing goes flying either. These magnetic cords are a must for any homeschool room that uses portable electronic devices.
And to minimize the number of plugins we were taking up, I invested in these fun little charger plugins that can accommodate two USB slots instead of just one. Now we can plug in double the devices with half the outlet space. Again, this is a must for a homeschool room with so many homeschoolers.
Easy Laptop Storage
We have three laptops in our family. One of these is specifically dedicated to our homeschoolers and our homeschool learning space, while the other two are more for the adults in the family. However, all of the laptops get used by the kids at least some of the time, which means we need a safe space for multiple laptop storage in our homeschool room.
The nice thing about laptops is they fold up flat, making them easy to store. Right now, we just stack our laptops onto a shelf in our homeschool room. That way they are easy to access for anybody who needs them, but they are out of the way when not in use. Cords just get wrapped up loosely and set on top of the laptop pile until the next time we need them.
In the past, we have also used small plastic containers to store our laptops. We found an inexpensive container in the dish drainer section of our local grocery store that was the perfect size for holding a couple of laptops with their cords. And as a bonus, our kids’ tablet also fit nicely in this container.
Simple Electronic Setup
When all of our devices are in use, you can imagine the tangle of cords that we deal with. On a regular basis, our school room consists of one tablet, one laptop, and one raspberry pi, and it’s not unheard of for us to add two more laptops and a phone or two, when circumstances require. Now that’s a lot of cords.
In order to accommodate our large homeschooling family, our homeschool room has two extra-long folding tables. One of those folding tables just so happens to have a hole specifically designed for easy stringing of cords and cables, but we have made this setup work without one of these holes.
The key to managing cords for all of these school devices is a multi-plug extension cord. We got a cord that was 6+ feet long and strung it from the wall to the table, up through that hole. We taped the cord down to the floor so the kids wouldn’t trip on it, and we taped the outlet part to the table so it wouldn’t get moved around by the kids.
Now we still have a bunch of cords strung across our table, but it’s more manageable than if they were strung across the entire house. And this kind of setup would work nicely no matter how many devices or electronics you have in your homeschool room.
For somebody who naturally struggles with organization, this has been a really simple and effective setup for our large homeschooling family.
About the Author
Charlene Hess spent many years teaching before she had her own kids. She now has 7 of her own, whom she has been homeschooling for the last 10 years. Although she still teaches other children outside of her home, she finds great joy in exploring the world with her family.
Charlene has participated in many leadership trainings with John C. Maxwell. She and her husband blog about their homeschooling and parenting adventures at Hess Un-Academy.
Purchasing a secular kindergarten program when I started teaching my first child, I thought I had a full grasp of the definition of secular homeschool curriculum. That was 19 years ago. I’ve since learned that the meanings of secular homeschooling and secular curriculum are not as straightforward as I may have thought.
Here are some considerations to help you dissect what is a secular homeschooler and what is secular curriculum.
Realize that Words Can Have Different Meanings
Not all curriculum providers embrace the same definition to the word secular, and the difference often comes out of the personal views of the author or publisher. It’s not that anyone is trying to be deceptive. It’s just that the same words can mean slightly different things.
By way of a silly example, someone from Chicago may balk at what a Southerner calls pizza—some flimsy, thin crust concoction that is nothing like the doughy slab that is more common farther north. Is this a conspiracy aimed to deceive? No. This is a difference in interpretation, experience, and vocabulary.
What Does Secular Mean?
That’s why you need to dig around and find out exactly what kind of pizza (or curriculum) you are getting to avoid disappointments! When shopping for homeschool materials, scour through the company’s About page, FAQ, and the Scope and Sequence to understand both the methodology and worldview of a program. When in doubt, contact the publisher outright and ask!
Don’t Confuse the Curriculum with the Education
Maybe you see a phrase like BookShark uses—faith-neutral curriculum. Don’t confuse that label with a faith-neutral educationbecause there is a difference. You may select a faith-neutral curriculum and be a secular homeschooler. Or you may choose a faith-neutral curriculum and be a Muslim or Christian homeschooler. It’s like a game of mix and match when it comes to labels!
One common thread all homeschool families can agree on regardless of their views is the right to educate our children in our belief system. You are the ultimate teacher of your views whether they are faith-based or non-religious. A curriculum can help you do that, but ultimately the job is yours. The day to day teaching, tutoring, and modeling your beliefs is the true education. Faith-neutral curriculum gives you the freedom to make deliberate choices. So a family that chooses a faith-neutral curriculum may actually have a faith-steeped education—or not. One isn’t necessarily connected to the other.
A few decades ago, the line between secular and religious homeschoolers seemed clearer. Either you were a secular family who did not believe in religion and adhered to evolution or you were a religious (usually Christian) family that believed in creation. However, this simple dichotomy is no longer the case in the homeschool world.
Today, secular homeschool families may be identified as religious or not religious.
What is the Definition of Secular Homeschooling?
For example, a family may choose to take a secular or neutral approach to education while still adhering to a personal system of faith. They are secular homeschoolers but they may be Muslims, Hindus, Christian, or Jewish. Their faith is something separate from their home education.
Secular homeschoolers who are not religious take many forms:
families who purposely choose to not teach religion
families who are not especially devout and prefer to let the child make his own choice as he grows
families of mixed faith who want to honor two different cultural backgrounds
families who want to teach their children that there is no one right religion but to respect all religions
familes who are atheist
families that espouse paganism
All of these families may consider themselves secular homeschoolers, but their beliefs are vastly contrasting!
Other homeschoolers may choose a secular or faith-neutral homeschool program while being very committed to their religious beliefs. They may buy a secular program but not consider themselves secular homeschoolers because they weave their beliefs into the tapestry of the education they provide their children.
For example, if they are Christian, they want to teach their children the Bible and want to be ensured that their curriculum is neutral of any anti-faith bias or government influence.
Also, there are plenty of religious homeschoolers who have less popular (or less orthodox) beliefs and would prefer to teach their own way of thinking when it comes to matters of the age of the earth, the origins of mankind, etc. They choose to use secular homeschool curriculum because they it’s easier to teach their views using resources from their worship center or from their own research. These homeschoolers may buy a secular curriculum, but they wouldn’t be appropriately labeled secular homeschoolers.
Surprise! This post didn’t succinctly define secular homeschooling or a secular homeschool. And that’s the entire point. These labels are general guides, and if you truly want to know what they mean, you’ll have to dig a bit further by asking probing questions—either from a curriculum provider or from a homeschool parent.
It’s hard to categorize all secular homeschool families with a single description because they hold different beliefs and motivations to educate at home. Homeschooling is constantly changing, and with it the meaning of secular curriculum and secular homeschooling also changes. What’s not hard is savoring the many choices of curriculum, cherishing the moments of learning together, and making lifetime memories regardless of our personal beliefs. We all believe in this—our kids are best served by being educated at home by their parents.
About the Author
Tina Robertson celebrated the graduation of Mr. Senior in 2013 and Mr. Awesome in 2015. Because of her love for new homeschoolers, she mentors moms through her unique program called New Bee Homeschoolers. She loves all homeschoolers, though, as she shares her free 7 Step Curriculum Planner, unit studies, lapbooks and homeschooling how tos. She can’t sing, dance, or craft, but she counts organizing as a hobby. She is still in the homeschool trenches blogging at Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus.
With one foot in childhood and the other entering adulthood, eighth-grade is a pivotal time. Choosing homeschool curriculum can be nerve-racking when you realize that eighth grade can set your child up for success or hold him back. I found inspiration for my son’s curriculum choices in a very odd place—a 1912 eighth grade exam.
Learning the art of cursive or diagramming sentences from the Bible seems archaic by today’s educational standards. However, the old-fashioned testing standards I saw in this old test helped me find a middle ground between relaxed and restrictive homeschooling. Here are three lessons I learned from this relic of one-room school days.
Lesson 1: Longer School Hours Aren’t Necessarily Better
Learning that longer school days don’t necessarily equate to more learning, I shortened the length of our school day and increased the level of difficulty in my son’s courses. Instead of sticking to grade level by purchasing eighth grade curriculum, I purchased high school level courses that better suited his true abilities. My son was able to get a head start on high school while still in middle school.
Lesson 2: The Basics Don’t Have to be Reviewed in Upper Grades
Learning more background of the exam, I realized that it was uncommon in the 1800s and early 1900s for a child to continue his education past eighth grade. Scholarships were awarded to students to encourage them to continue onto high school. Because eighth grade marked the end of most students’ academic careers, the basics were expected to be fully mastered by this level.
Taking a clue from this old test, I realized we, too, could move past the basics in eighth-grade and move into more complex subjects. I knew how much time we had spent covering the 3Rs over the years, and so I stopped scheduling them on our homeschool plan for eighth grade. Although it was frightening at the time, I reduced my son’s work in the basics, and he transitioned easily into higher-level courses.
Lesson 3: Curriculum Should Go Beyond Rote Memorization
Not all the things I read in the 1912 eighth-grade exam positively influenced me. Some of the history questions like name the last battles of the Civil War and the War of 1812 didn’t impress me as especially important for today’s society. It’s not enough to memorize battles or dates. Our kids need to understand the ideology behind decisions made in the past. Preparing a teen for high school or college means he needs the skills to look beyond the obvious and learn analysis.
So the last lesson I took away from this old exam was to scrutinize my long-term goals. In eighth grade I looked for curriculum that taught my son how to think creatively and critically and how to communicate effectively. On the other hand, because a relaxed homeschool atmosphere is important to me, reviewing my long-term goals didn’t mean I had to force my son to learn higher-level skills in middle school until he was ready. Achieving balance between relaxed and rigid homeschooling has always been challenging for me, and the huge amount of unused homeschool curriculum in my home is a testament to that fact. Reviving some of the learning standards from times past is something I occasionally wish for, but learning from them was far more valuable and inspirational than I imagined.
About the Author
Tina Robertson celebrated the graduation of Mr. Senior in 2013 and Mr. Awesome in 2015. Because of her love for new homeschoolers, she mentors moms through her unique program called New Bee Homeschoolers. She loves all homeschoolers, though, as she shares her free 7 Step Curriculum Planner, unit studies, lapbooks and homeschooling how tos. She can’t sing, dance, or craft, but she counts organizing as a hobby. She is still in the homeschool trenches blogging at Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus.
