What if your kids could learn to write from real-life, published authors? Sounds pretty amazing…and maybe even a little expensive, right?
The good news is they can do just that when they learn language arts naturally using copywork and dictation to develop their writing skills. BookShark Language Arts uses this approach.
Tools for Teaching Language Arts Skills
When we incorporate copywork and dictation into language arts, our kids learn to write from those who do it best.
Copywork and dictation are similar in many ways. In copywork, students write from the written word while in dictation, students write from the spoken word.
Don’t let the simplicity fool you though. Both are incredibly effective. And as students progress from copywork to dictation, they start applying what they have learned through copywork. Dictation requires higher-level thinking and writing skills and helps you to evaluate what they really understand.
How to Use Dictation to Teach Language Arts
How do you do dictation? Read a sentence or passage aloud, and have your students write what you are saying. It’s harder than it sounds though, especially when you consider the thinking skills that go into it.
Language Arts Skills in Dictation
Students are translating what they hear into the written word. That means they have to:
Remember how to spell the words
Distinguish between words that sound the same but are spelled differently, and then choose the correct one
Choose the correct punctuation (and there are a lot of different types of punctuation!)
Know when to capitalize a word
In other words, as they write from dictation, students are making decisions that will reveal if they are understanding and applying what they have learned in the context of real writing.And while they are doing all of those things, they are also absorbing the rules of grammar and usage, discovering different types of sentence structure, learning new vocabulary, and more, like they do in copywork. They are learning to write from real writers and see the rules of language in action. (And an added bonus: Kids who grow up doing dictation are great note takers in upper level classes!)
BookShark Language Arts integrates dictation exercises into the curriculum. So you don’t have to choose passages. You simply follow the Instructor’s Guide.
Extending the Dictation Lesson
Once kids have written a passage from dictation, you can then use it as a basis for personalizing their language arts lessons. You can teach them what dictation reveals they don’t know or understand yet. But be careful, you don’t want to overwhelm them. You don’t have to do all of these things every time! These are simply possibilities for how you can get the most out of dictation.
Create a personalized spelling list or notebook. Have them write down the words they misspelled during dictation. Talk about why it is wrong. Is there a spelling rule they didn’t follow? Students can even categorize frequently missed words that have the same rule.
Look up a mechanics rule in a reference book. Did they use a semicolon when they should have used a colon? Read the rule together and then simply correct the mistake.
Allow them to correct their mistakes. A lot of learning happens by going back to correct mistakes on their own. Have them look at the passage you are reading from and correct their own mistakes.
Let them make their arguments for why their way is also correct. Sometimes in language there is more than one way to write something. Let them share with you why they made the decision to use a certain word or punctuation mark and see if it is a valid alternative.
Why Dictation Teaches Students More Than Exercises in a Textbook
When students do exercises in grammar books, they are seeing a rule used in contrived sentences over and over. Often they do great on the exercises, but then struggle with the concept in their own writing.
Or they will get 100% correct on a spelling test after studying lists of words, but then turn around and spell the word incorrectly when they write it later. Why does this happen?
Because they are learning rules and words apart from the context of writing.
Dictation, however, is the application of all the rules and skills students learn in their language arts studies. When students can successfully do dictation, you know they truly understand what they are learning.
Tips for Beginning Dictation
Like any new skill, it will take time and practice for students to get comfortable with it. You can ease them into dictation so they don’t feel overwhelmed, though.
Begin dictating just one or two sentences. They can then do the rest as copywork. Slowly increase the amount of dictation as their skills increase. A little done well is better than overloading your student.
Start with copywork. Assign the sentences or passage as copywork one day, and then use the same passage as dictation the next.
Let students study the passage they will be writing from dictation before you start. As students become more comfortable with it, simply talk about the passage before you begin.
When you are starting out, don’t hesitate to repeat the sentences as many times as you need to. Begin by reading the entire passage and have them listen. Then break it down sentence by sentence or phrase by phrase if that works better for your children.
Exaggerate the pauses. Ask questions to help them along like “What punctuation do we use when there is a pause in the middle of a sentence?”
Answer their questions. If they ask how to spell a word or what punctuation to use, in the beginning go ahead and answer. It’s a big step in learning to recognize what you don’t know. Then transition them more and more by asking them to write down their best guess.
Reassure the perfectionist. If you have a perfectionist, remind them that dictation isn’t graded. It’s for pinpointing what they know and don’t know which provides direction for their language arts lessons.
Be their biggest cheerleader. Let them know that dictation takes time and practice. They will get better and better at it, and you are there to help.
BookShark Language Arts programs help you to teach language arts naturally by choosing dictation passages from the books your kids are already reading, ones that are appropriate for their level. But remember: You are the teacher. You can always modify the lessons in order for your students to experience success and grow as writers at their own pace.
The BookShark binder* is huge. It has to be to fit all of the information, lessons, and activity sheets included in the 36-week curriculum. We need the Instructor’s Guide that goes in the binder, but thankfully we don’t need to lug it around.
There are several ways we can keep our BookShark materials organized and accessible without wrangling a 3-inch notebook. If you’re like me and prefer to keep the big binder on the shelf, all you have to do is choose one of these five solutions.
1. Use a Working Binder
A working binder is exactly what its name suggests: a binder that holds the things your homeschoolers are currently working on.
This method works well if you plan units or like to build breaks into your homeschool year every six or eight weeks. Transfer the lessons to a smaller binder and when your child is finished with them, swap them for a new set of materials.
A working binder is also a great tool if you are using several different BookShark programs. Keep your current history, writing, science, and math units together, so you always have on hand exactly what you and your student need.
2. Use a Filing Crate with Hanging Files
Some of us are just not binder people. It’s okay!
A hanging file system is another great way to organize your BookShark curriculum. All you need to do is put each weekly lesson into a separate file folder. If you have multiple homeschoolers, you might put their weekly lessons in the same folder so that you can grab one file at a time. Or you can choose different colored folders for each child.
Once you finish a lesson, move the file to the back of the crate or cabinet. Your homeschooler’s next set of lessons is now right up front, ready for them.
3. Use a Kids Binder and an Adult Binder
My child loves school supplies and would be very upset if I were the only one with a binder. So she gets her own notebook, too. tory. Use reading strategies to craft your questions and discussions:
I always put all of her activity sheets in one binder and my Instructor’s Guide in another. She also likes to organize her supplies by subject, so her BookShark history lessons and writing assignments are in one binder while her BookShark science lessons are in another. These binders don’t have to be very big and give her the autonomy (and school supplies) she craves. They also lighten the load on my binder.
4. Spiral Bind Each Unit
If you love to keep curriculum long-term, spiral binding each unit or several units is a beautiful way to save and showcase the lessons. Spiral-binding might be an easier way to travel with units or for younger children to use the materials.
Systems like the Happy Planner also allow you to punch holes into the materials and use plastic rings to bind the lessons together.
5. Pull Out What You Need Each Week
Perhaps the easiest way to keep yourself from lugging around your big BookShark binder is to pull out what you’ll need each week. Keep the materials in a folder or separate binder—whatever works for you. At the end of the week, put everything back into the big binder and pull out what you’ll need next week.
Practically speaking, the big binder is massive and takes up a good amount of space on the table.
There is another reason you might consider downsizing your binder: Some children get overwhelmed by seeing everything they will need to do in a year. Seeing a manageable amount of activity sheets or reading may dissipate the shock factor. If you feel overwhelmed by the number of lessons, it might help you feel less stressed as well.
*A BookShark binder is included in the Required Resources for All-Subject and Reading with History Packages.
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.
Having a child who lives with anxiety can often be an overwhelming experience. It’s painful for us, as parents, to watch our children struggle with the weight of anxiety disorder. We work tirelessly to help them learn coping mechanisms, develop strategies for managing their anxiety, and help them live their best lives. What if there was one small thing—something many of us might already be doing—that could add another layer of support to their anxiety management?
I am currently parenting and home educating a child who has generalized anxiety disorder. Because I also happen to be an adult who lives with anxiety disorder, I have a deeper understanding of what my child is experiencing. I’ve been there and can truly empathize with my child’s feelings.
After a lifetime of searching out different coping techniques, I still find new things to try or think about. I recently came across an article discussing how reading can help anxiety. It made me think about all the books I crawled into when I was younger, as a way to self-manage my anxious moments. I thought about the times I snuggled up to my kids with a good book when one of them was having their own hard day. It really clicked, and I started to dig a little deeper.
Bibliotherapy Soothes the Anxious Mind
Above the door of the ancient library at Thebes, was inscribed the phrase Healing Place For The Soul. As long as there have been stories to tell and stories to read, humans have used the written word as a way to soothe our hearts and ease our minds.
There is a term for this, bibliotherapy, the act of using books to aid in treating mental health disorders. Particular stories can give our minds a way to see things and find solutions.
Sure, we all love a good book or a good story, but how can we use books intentionally to help our children deal with their anxiety? One of the most effective treatments I’ve tried for anxiety disorder is cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). In a nutshell, this is the act of retraining how we think about a situation, so that we can rewire our brain in its reaction to the situation.
Reading a novel can be a powerful way reframe a bad or scary thing. In the book, we watch the character solve that problem and fight that scary thing to victory. The more we read about a character overcoming a struggle, the more our brains start to learn other ways to respond to a threatening trigger.
Reading Lets the Anxious Child Be The Hero
GK Chesterton once said, “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
Books show us that the things we’re scared of, the situations that trigger our anxiety, can be beaten. Our children read a hero’s tale and see an ordinary everyday character—just like them—go on a journey through dark moments and scary places. They see our hero fight the darkness and emerge victorious.
Reading puts our children in front of these heroes and lets them imagine themselves as the victor, conquering the dragon. It gives them a brief experience of feeling that bravery and beating their foe.
Reading Reminds Us That There is Good in the World
When you live with anxiety, the world can seem overwhelming—full of terrifying events. To our children, these fears can become all-consuming. When we read a book, we are reminded of the good in the world:
that people can be strong and brave
that love can, and does, win
that we can persevere and overcome
Finding books with characters who do the good things and overcome adversity reminds our children that the world is not such a scary place.
Reading Gives the Anxious Mind Something to Do
A child who is feeling anxious will often have a million thoughts going all at once. They may be scatterbrained, or they might become intensely fixated on one problem or thought. When we sit down to read an engaging book, we give our minds something productive and enjoyable to do.
In an anxiety episode, our child’s mind is looking for trouble—in full flight or fight mode. If we give the mind something to focus on, it can’t keep fixating on the anxiety trigger. This kind of mindfulness activity can be an excellent coping mechanism, and books are a great way to do it. You can’t read a book and think of five other things at the same time. A good book will pull you in, and your mind will slowly let all the other worries fall off to the side.
Once your child spends time focusing their mind on one task, their mind can feel less scattered and frantic. Along the way, they’ll hopefully get pulled into a wonderful story or a fantastical world.
As home educating parents, we read all the time. We have family Read-Alouds in our curriculum, and literature for our homeschool lessons. We listen to audiobooks in the car on our way to activities. Reading can be such a large part of our lives already. How wonderful it is that we can also use it to help our children cope with fear and anxiety. 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
Nadine Dyer is a homeschooling parent to two great kids and the lucky wife to one amazing guy. She and her family, which also includes four spoiled guinea pigs, reside in beautiful (and chilly!) northern Ontario, Canada. Nadine is the author of upabovetherowantree.com where she shares her journey, with all its ups and downs, as a secular homeschooling parent. When she isn’t homeschooling or writing, Nadine can usually be found in search of good coffee, good books, and great conversation.
If you’ve ever doubted yourself as a homeschooler, you’re not alone. No matter how many years we homeschool, doubt can get loud. Seeds of doubt plant germinate and sprout when our kids struggle, when we’re tired, when our kids say they are bored, or when learning stagnates. When worry rears its head, our inclination might be to turn to a quick fix or busy work to quiet our fears.
What is busy work? Busy work is anything we tell ourselves is good for our child knowing full well deep inside it’s a way to keep kids occupied or put a bandaid on whatever is going on.
Busy work often appears in the form of
worksheets you’ll never look at or use
excessive practice and problems
crafts
online learning games
educational television
flashcards, and workbooks
While all of these things can be wonderful learning tools if used as such, they can also be pointless. They can be busy work.
Busy work in education is like the fillers in our food. We can pretend something labeled natural is automatically nutritious. But when we analyze the ingredients label, we see the truth. And at times (especially when we are stressed or exhausted), we tell ourselves our children are learning when children are merely doing something school-like.
I’m not here to judge. When I was a new teacher, I gave my students busy work. Again, there are a variety of reasons good teachers and homeschoolers use busy work to keep kids occupied. Busy work keeps kids quiet and basically content when other children are learning at different paces, when children are struggling to learn, when a teacher is tired or overwhelmed, and when there isn’t time to plan a more meaningful or hands-on lesson.
Good teachers and homeschoolers don’t turn to busy work because we’re lazy. We turn to it because we feel something is amiss. When we have that feeling, we need to answer the deeper questions:
Is my child struggling or challenged by something we are learning?
Is my child complaining about being bored or miserable?
Am I comparing my child to someone else?
Am I tired or in need of a break?
Is my child tired or in need of a break?
Are my expectations realistic?
Am I looking for reassurance?
All of these questions point to something other than the need for busy work. And in fact, offering worksheets or mundane practice on something a child already knows, finds boring, or they don’t understand is only going to make the situation worse.
There are alternatives to busy work, even when we’re tired or feel overwhelmed. Here are eight ways to say no to busy work.
1. Play
Children learn through play! Play is just as important, if not more so than anything we are teaching our kids. Rest assured, they are learning! If you need to work one on one with a child, have toys or activities the others can play with independently. Maybe set up an art station, reading corner, or building center. These areas do not have to be complicated or time-consuming to set up. Pull out beads and strings, watercolor pencils and paper, put books in a basket, or grab a bin of LEGO blocks.
2. Games
There are countless games that offer practice in reading, writing, math, geography, etc. Children will learn the skills at a faster rate if they are playing. Bonus: playing a game can be the perfect way to both take a break and learn at the same time.
3. Quiet Times
If we want our children to learn, our children need rest. A study out of the University of Edinburgh and the University of Missouri looked at the best ways to improve memory. “The participants were asked to listen to some stories and answer questions an hour later. Without the chance to rest, they could recall just 7% of the facts in the story; with the rest, this jumped to 79% – an astronomical 11-fold increase in the information they retained.”
When our kids aren’t used to resting or playing quietly by themselves, it can take time to help them adjust. Start out with ten minutes of quiet play and work your way up.
4. Use Group Work or Pair/Share
We can learn by watching others. If there are skills you want your children to practice, find a friend or sibling they can practice with. The other child may explain the concepts in a new way that helps it stick.
We all need reassurance, but as homeschoolers, we may have to offer it to ourselves. Keep lists, charts, or bullet journals to remind yourself you are all doing great! Keep track of and encourage yourself by focusing on all the things your child accomplishes during a school day.
7. Take a Break
Give yourself and your child time to process everything you’re doing. Take time to plan, to talk together about what your child wants to learn or needs to learn.
8. Go Outside
There are a number of reasons to get kids outside. The outdoors offers places to learn, explore, and exercise. Nature is good for our brains and our well being. Take a walk or head to the creek, the fresh air will reset everyone’s mood and your kids will find all sorts of learning threads to follow.
As homeschoolers, we have the opportunity to offer our children a quality education over quantity. Our kids do not have to sit in chairs all day, stand in lines, or wait for twenty other children to finish their work. We can set deadlines or not. Our kids can learn inside or out, in the morning or afternoon, and while that doesn’t mean our job as a homeschooler is easy, it does mean we can focus on what our children need and avoid keeping them busy with pointless busy work.
If after reading this article, you wonder if your entire curriculum may be based on busy work, take a look at BookShark. Meaningful discussions about great books are the heart of a BookShark education. No fluff. No busy work. Request a catalog here.
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.
We all suffer from information overload at times. When there is too much detail or too much to digest, we tend to shut down and not assimilate any of it in a meaningful way.
The same is true for students. Some learning tools are overwhelming. For example, traditional maps and atlases that have hundreds of labels can be hard to digest. There’s just so much information, students may not know what to zero in on and consequently remember little of what they see.
By doing the work of locating and labeling places on their map, students are more likely to remember what they are learning.
We tend to remember information better when it has a specific purpose or connection to what we are learning. The Markable Map gives you a way to create that context. You read; then you mark.
This 23″ x 34″, full-colored map can hang on the wall so your students can reference it easily. Tip: If you don’t have room on your wall, pin it to a piece of foam board and store it under a bed. You can prop it up on an easel or a chair during school hours.
It’s laminated, so you can use it again and again for a variety of activities.
The map has two sides: the United States and the world.
All of your students can use it, from kindergarten through high school.
Markable Map Learning Activities
You can use the map for a variety of learning activities with students of all ages across subject areas. You’ll only need a few supplies and resources such as Vis-a-Vis® markers, an atlas, the Internet, and of course, the Markable Map.
BookShark Instructor’s Guides include suggested mapping activities, so you’re covering geography in an integrated way if you follow the lesson plans. Below are some of the kinds of mapping activities that you may encounter. If geography is a favorite (or a weak spot), you may want to add extra mapping fun into your homeschool routine.
Label parts of the map such as lines of longitude and latitude and the equator. Learn what these terms mean and why they are important.
United States
Write the name of the state you are studying and place a star on the capital of the state and label it. Also mark and identify major cities. Include geographical features such as mountain ranges by drawing triangles where they are located.
Choose a color for each region of the United States. Outline each state as you study it with a Vis-a-Vis® marker corresponding to the color of the region.
Draw a symbol, such as an outline of a car, on each state that you have visited. This is also a great activity to do as you plan a vacation showing where you will be traveling.
World
Label continents, oceans, and countries as you study them.
During the Olympics, place the olympic rings on the map where the games are held. Learn about what the rings stand for, then using colors corresponding to the rings, outline those regions on your map.
Use your map to show where Native American tribes were located across the United States as westward expansion became the focus.
As you study the history of different parts of the world, add a symbol or simple stick figure style picture on your map where major events took place.
Show the movement of troops during wars. Talk about the obstacles the geography of the area might have caused for them.
History is being made everyday, so locate and label places you hear about in the news.
Other Subjects
When you read about a place in a book, locate it on the map. You can even draw a small copy of the book’s cover to attach to the map.
When writing a fictional story, consult the map to find a setting for your story. Think about how the geography of that area would affect the character’s lives.
Use the Markable Map as a visual for a presentation.
Learn about graphing using the lines of longitude and latitude. Give students coordinates and have them draw a circle on the map where those coordinates meet.
Reference the Markable Map when visualizing math problems dealing with distance.
Have students create their own word math problems using the map.
When studying animals, put small pictures of them in the region they are most predominant. Or track migration routes of animals across the world.
Draw small pictures of inventions and place them on the map where they were invented,
Label the places different types of music were created or emerged from classical to jazz to rock.
As your students study different subjects, brainstorm your own family’s ideas for how to use the Markable Map in your homeschool. You’ll discover it’s an inexpensive investment that yields valuable learning opportunities for the entire family. s 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.
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.
Are you in a season of on-the-go-schooling? Are you out exploring the world more than you’re at home? I know I am! Museum visits, sports practices, dentist appointments, weekend trips, co-op classes, piano lessons and countless hours in the car blanket our week.
This constant motion means that our homeschooling has to be flexible. Sometimes reading assignments are tucked into the twenty-minutes hanging out in the waiting room or the forty-five minutes at the library between activities.
At first, I didn’t think we could fit anything meaningful into these short shifts of learning, but I knew I had to find a way!
Next to my front door, you’ll find a laundry basket filled with tote bags of various kinds. As we waltz out the door, staying on track with learning is as simple as grabbing a tote. Let my bags inspire you to build carry-alls that meet the needs of your on-the-go family!
1. Tote Bag Homeschooling for All
If you’re going to set up just one tote, this is the one. It has something for everyone—perfect for family-style learning! Here are some suggestions based on what’s in my own bag:
A card game or two
A juicy read-aloud
Drawing books and colored pencils
Journals for freewriting
Magnetic white boards
Magnetic letter tiles for word play
A tablet for streaming documentaries
2. Tote Bag Homeschooling for One
This kind of tote bag is designed for one learner and is individualized accordingly. Here is what you’d find in a few of ours.
Learner, age 6: phonics workbook and early readers, math book, a couple of picture books, a geography sticker book, crayons and unlined paper, audiobook player with earbuds
Learner, age 12: atlas and Markable Map, deck of cards for math games, writing journal, historical fiction book, tablet with science videos bookmarked
Learner, age 14: laptop for online math lessons and history videos, novel, science book, word roots game, colored pencils and drawing notebook
Mom: Instructor’s Guides, a few math manipulatives, a read aloud book, a box of granola bars
3. Tote Bag Homeschooling by Topic
This tote bag is focused on one subject area and the contents will vary depending on the topic.
History Bag: history read-aloud, atlas, geography game, world history encyclopedia
Science Bag: field guides, nature notebooks, colored pencils, science books, science-themed games
Math Bag: deck of cards, snap cubes, math-themed read aloud, base-ten blocks, math notebooks, dice
Reading Bag: early readers, letter tiles, white-boards and markers, word cards, a phonics game
Fine Arts Bag: poetry anthology, art books, how to draw guides, markers, colored pencils, oil pastels, books about famous musicians, audio player with earbuds
4. Tote Bag Homeschooling on a Budget
This tote bag is inexpensive and versatile! It could be assembled with just a few items from the dollar store!
Library books
Notebook and pencils for writing and drawing
Dice, a deck of cards, and dominoes for math games
Homeschooling flows smoothly into the pockets of our days with grab-and-go tote bags! They don’t have to be fancy or overly involved. Build a few totes and line them up in your entryway so you’ll be ready for next day of on-the-go learning. Each bag can fit your family’s needs and the contents can change as often as you’d like them to!
Angela Awald is a homeschooling mama to 6, certified teacher, writer, and doula. Her days brim full of learning, loving, and laundry (lots and lots of laundry)!! She believes that nurturing children (and ourselves) means helping them to see that all of life is about learning – from our mistakes, from each other, and from great books! Angela blogs at nurturedroots.net where she shares the ways she is nurturing her family and inspiration for nurturing your own.
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.
EPISODE 145 SEASON 4 | What makes a successful student or person? While there are a LOT of items on that checklist, there are a set of skills that can make it a great deal easier to be successful. This skill set is called executive functioning. It is a broad group of mental skills that enable people to complete tasks and interact with others. It is a skill set that allows a student/person to write that final paper, plan a business outline, or follow a set of instructions on what chores to do in a specific manner.
Join Janna and her guest Dr. Lauran Kerr-Heraly as they discuss time management and other executive functioning skills. Learn how you can help your child as they move through their educational journey.
ABOUT OUR GUEST | Lauran Kerr-Heraly is an award-winning educator and author who has dedicated her career to transforming lives through education. She was homeschooled all the way through high school, which allowed her to develop a deep appreciation for self-directed learning and a passion for helping others to take control of their education. Lauran has worked in college readiness in American high schools, taught in international and British schools in England, and currently serves as a professor in an American community college. Her innovative teaching includes turning a classroom into an escape room, multidisciplinary projects showcasing personal food histories and environmental justice, and experimental learning spaces. She helps students and parents develop a holistic approach to college success, which includes a focus on essential skills, executive function, and emotional awareness.
Janna 00:00 Welcome to Homeschool Your Way. I’m your host Janna Koch and BookSharks Community Manager. Today I am joined by Dr. Lauran Kerr-Heraly. She’s an award-winning educator and author, who has dedicated her career to transforming lives through education. Fun fact, she was also homeschooled.
I’m super excited to delve into our topic today about executive functioning. And believe it or not, it’s not just students who find themselves with a possible deficit in this area. Lauran, thank you so much for being here.
Lauran 00:30 Thanks for having me.
Janna 00:33 Why don’t you go ahead and give us just a little bit of your background and how you became involved in homeschooling? Kind of not even of your own volition?
Lauran 00:44 Yes, well, so I was homeschooled K through 12. And I like to say my parents were homeschool pioneers because we were one of two homeschooling families and my entire town and Wyoming. So things have changed quite a bit from them. But I really loved being homeschooled. And I graduated when I was 15 went straight to community college, which I also loved so much that I am now a community college professor. So as a student, I had a really good opportunity to learn about homeschooling. And now, I teach a lot of homeschoolers through the community college system, either in dual credit or recent graduates. And I’m also planning to homeschool my own kiddo. So I’ve gotten into a lot more kinds of homeschool groups and discussions, as of late.
Janna 01:36 Do you find it interesting that because you were homeschooled, you didn’t automatically want to homeschool your child because I’m the same way I actually didn’t. I resisted it for years about homeschooling my own children.
Lauran 01:49 I think it’s, you know, it’s something we considered. When we were looking at educational options, we considered homeschooling, private, public, whatever. And it just seemed like it wasn’t quite the right time. But now that our kiddo is getting to middle school, we want to road school and we want to do all these things that we think would be beneficial for our whole family. So it’s Yeah, it is interesting, because it’s always different with your own kid. And it’s part of why homeschooling works is because you can tailor it to what their needs are. And you can start homeschooling and then go to public school, and then go back if you want. So there’s there’s a lot of flexibility.
Janna 02:30 That’s nice. I think it’s a common misconception that if you were homeschooled, and you don’t choose to homeschool your children that must mean you had a negative experience. And that was not at all the case for me. I really enjoyed homeschooling, it just didn’t fit our family at the time.
Lauran 02:46 Exactly. And you know, my sister who was home-schooled with me is homeschooling her three kiddos. And so we both had a great experience, it was just more of the needs of our family, which is what we all want to really look at is what is the best possible educational situation for our kids.
Janna 03:03 And now you find yourself surrounded by homeschooled children coming up into young adulthood, looking to you and wanting more information at a higher level of learning. What has been your experience as you see this next generation of homeschoolers coming up into the collegiate realm?
Lauran 03:26 So one thing that I see with every teenager, regardless of their educational background, because you can prepare them with all the right SATs, classes, and all that subject tutoring, and you’ve got the essay writing coach, and you’ve been to all the extracurriculars. Every student when they are a young adult will struggle with executive function. And executive function. To put it plainly is the set of skills that help us get things done. It’s the mental processes that tell us to get things done. And the demands that are required of a student in high school, whether they’re at home school, or not exceed what their brains can do. And part of that is not their fault part of it too, because we ask a lot of them. Part of it might also be that we’ve scaffolded too much. You know, I think a lot of parents think, especially if they didn’t get a lot of help when they were a teenager, they want to sort of make sure their kid has everything. And that’s why Yeah. And homeschoolers have the opportunity to help their students in every possible way. But sometimes that means that they don’t have the skills to do things on their own. So those are some of the things that I see they’re universal, but particularly for homeschoolers, I remember you know, as I mentioned, I was 15 when I graduated straight to community college, and I had great homeschool education. academically, I was very prepared for the college environment. But I was not necessarily ready socially. And I don’t just mean with my peers, I mean, interacting with adults, I mean, navigating the systems of the college, registration and payment and scholarships, and all of that I was not prepared for. So there is this big jump, that we kind of expect students to go from having their schedule completely planned out. You know, even in homeschool, we say you have to do these five things, here’s the order, I recommend, and I’m going to check on you and half an hour and make sure that all of this is going well, you don’t have that in college, even if you’re living at home, and you’re in a college environment, you don’t have that kind of oversight. So it’s something that can be kind of a shock for students. When they get to the college environment, or even the high school environment.
Janna 05:59 It’s amazing how we, as parents try so hard to make sure that our kids are completely prepared. And what I am finding in my parenting, my twins will be 18 Soon is that we all parent, kind of from our own deficit. So like you’re saying, like, Okay, so maybe our generation had a little bit less oversight, right as I mean, and it kind of sounds like probably my homeschool experience was very different than yours. I was left to my own, I sought out my education, I loved education, so nobody could stop me, right, like nobody had to check on me. But from that, I do feel like I have micromanaged my own children, even as they have done concurrent enrollment, and being outside of the home. Because in my mind, this is what I would have wanted when I had been homeschooled, and I have to constantly remind myself that they didn’t have the same upbringing. So their need is not my need. And I know this is not groundbreaking, but as homeschool parents, I think sometimes it has to be reiterated like, you are naturally parenting your children and preparing them out of what you experienced their experience is not the same.
Lauran 07:15 Correct. And it’s important to recognize that they’re also growing up in a different world than we were when we were kids. You know, just homeschooling in general, like I said, two families in one town, and we had to drive five hours to the once-a-year homeschool convention, that was our only support. And now there’s so much support that it’s totally overwhelming. Like, if you search for Facebook groups, for homeschooling, it’s you’re gonna get everything. So in a way, we have to figure out how our kids how our students can get the individualized systems created for them. And they need to be part of that process that works for them. We have students who have different learning styles, we have a lot of neurodivergent, that, you know, finally we’re starting to recognize this society. And we have people who are interested in different career pathways, but they’re all going to have to take my history one-on-one class, and they might not care. So we have to figure out how to get them to care about everything that they’re involved in, and sometimes how to push through and do the boring things. And then also how to take ownership of their education and their skill set.
Janna 08:33 So when you’re seeing these students come into your classroom, and you’re recognizing these this deficit, what what are some of the tips that you have, that you share with your students, and then we can kind of talk about to the program that you created since you were seeing this so frequently.
Lauran 08:51 So if I’m going to speak to my college classroom, one thing that they really struggle with is knowing how much time the course is going to take. So I would say to them, it’s going to be you know, and I have a whole calculation, I’ve got a video on this that we can put in the show notes. But it’s how to calculate the time that you need for a college course. And this is a good thing to practice for high school homeschoolers because they can see, okay, this semester, my history class, is this many weeks, and this is how much time I need to spend per week and this is how I’m going to break it down, etc. So I do go through with them and encourage them to find time in their weeks. I have a lot of students who have care responsibilities, they have full-time jobs, etc. And this is also true of homeschool students who are dual credit or recent grads because they’re often taking care of younger siblings. They’re interning maybe in a company or they’re working to pay for their education. So it is significant that they sit down and they find a time in their week. It’s also important, you know, as we want to have warm open communication with our high schoolers, we want to have that same warm open communication with our college students. So I wouldn’t necessarily sit down with my sophomore in college and say, let’s figure out, you know, the 10 hours a week that you need to study. But I would ask them, to have an open conversation with you, you know, my students, I tell them, You need to tell your friends that between these two hours, you are not available, your phone is off, you can’t do the dishes, they’ll do them later, whatever it is you but you need to sort of, you know, arrange that time. So time management is a big thing. Time blindness is maybe a term that is a bit newer, but that is the sense that when you think, Oh, this thing is going to take five minutes, but it actually is a two-hour task. Or conversely, it’s a three-hour task, or you think it’s a three-hour task. And it’s a five-minute task. So you put it off till the very last minute, right? So having a perception of time that’s realistic can be a pretty big game changer. It comes to emotional regulation, which is a big part of executive function because that is a brain function that comes from the frontal lobe, and again, it’s around 25, that the frontal lobe is fully formed. And that can vary based on, you know, neuro divergence, as well as trauma and other factors. But, so if a student is in college before 25, they’ve got deficits there, right? So we have seen, you know, my spouse has been a high school teacher for a long time, I taught college prep high school, and I taught embedded ACT courses. I’ve taught in boarding schools. I’ve taught in a lot of different types of environments. And then my favorite is now what I’ve been doing for several years, which is Community College.
In all of those environments, I can almost set my watch to midterm. When everyone is going to have a breakdown, the students are going to come to me and they’re going to say I can’t do it anymore. It’s too much. I’m behind. My mom wants this from me, my job wants me to work more hours, or you know, I overcommitted or I wasn’t prepared for this course. And they just shut down. Some of my students will disappear for two weeks and not come back. And then they’ll come back when they’ve like, sort of composed themselves. But I tell them, you need to be communicating with me and the people in your life about what’s going on. So emotional regulation is one of those things that can be practiced. And it can be practiced on a micro level in high school, to start with awareness. And that can be just how are you feeling right now. Do a self-check. We use the feelings we’ll use. You can Google that. But my spouse and I use it too, it’s not just for kids. But it helps you identify? Because you might be able to say, Oh, I’m feeling overwhelmed. That’s not really a specific feeling, right? How can you break that down into something that is more specific? Once you have emotional awareness, then you can make a plan for how to deal with it. But if the midterm breakdown is coming, then you need to be aware of what’s leading to that as well. So practice that on a micro-level in the high school situation. Make sure you have a good support system, and make sure that you’re not overcommitted. And be kind to yourself. That’s a big thing for parents and our kids.
Janna 13:26 When my daughter called me yesterday, crying because there was a mix up with her schedule at school. And my first response is definitely to cry. I mean, I think, I don’t know if I’m the only one but I just feel like tears are my soul’s way of letting go of some of that overwhelm. So definitely cry. And then let’s figure out what had caused the problem. And part of it is, I think, fatalistic thinking of young adults because their frontal lobe is not fully developed. So they do need safe mentors in their lives to walk them through some of these things. It’s like, even though maybe wasn’t stuff that we talked about when we were kids, now we know when we can do better. She felt like she dropped the ball somewhere. And, so I was like, Okay, well, let’s get before we think about the rest of the schedule. Let’s get rid of let’s get down to the bottom of that feeling because that’s going to make you feel insane. If you can’t pinpoint what had happened. So come to find out she hadn’t logged into her college email. And when she did, the class had been canceled just the week before. So she did do that. She did register for it. It was on her calendar, and now she knows why it has disappeared. But once you can kind of like take away that. Oh my gosh, did I make a mistake? I don’t like making mistakes, Lauran. I don’t know that a lot of people do but some personalities can roll with it better than others have in mind. otter is very much like me. And so I was like, Don’t you feel better now that you know that you did do all the right steps and this was completely out of your control, you still feel out of control, right? You still have to come up with a solution. But just taking away that one thing of it, am I not paying attention? Did I do something and didn’t do it properly? It’s like these little things that just immediately when you’re already emotional about, you know, whether you’re finishing up high school and in college, or you’re in college, and you don’t know what the next steps are, that’s incredibly overwhelming emotionally for young adults. And then as parents, we feel it too, and we’re trying to fix things, but we’re trying to let them figure things out on their own. And, it’s this dance that we do that it’s like if we can eliminate things that are causing extra stress, and not eliminate it for them, but helping them walk through the processes to find out how they can eliminate it for themselves. It’s amazing that one thing changed the entire scenario for her.
Lauran 16:01 Well, and I think that’s a great example of how to handle it as a parent because emotional regulation does not mean like you’re a robot, it means figuring out how you feel and then being able to deal with the feelings. So I think that’s great. And, you know, I talked about how I was a procrastinator, and I’m still a procrastinator, but I was a much worse procrastinator in college because I’m a perfectionist. So I finally figured that was I had this moment I was 2am. This was back when we still had computer labs. So it was 2am. They were closing the computer lab, they’re kicking me out, I’m like my papers do the next day and the printer is not working. And I was like, Okay, this has to stop, I have to figure out what’s going on. And I realized that I procrastinated. Because I’m a perfectionist. If I waited till the last minute, I had a reason for why it wasn’t perfect. So once I figured that out, I was able to start earlier, I was able to just let it go, I was you know, a 90, it’s fine. An 85 is fine. Sometimes a 70 is fine, if that’s you know, which is how I handled math. But that, for me was a big game changer. And part of the reason I’m so passionate about executive function is because I’ve taught students with so many various backgrounds for a long time. And my spouse and my child were recently, a couple of years ago, diagnosed with ADHD. And it was one of those things that it was kind of like this lightbulb that like, Oh, this is why this is hard. I know. And this is this is what we can do about it. Because once you sort of know what’s going on with your brain. And in the case of ADHD, it is a disorder. You know, my husband always says I hate it when people say this is a superpower. It’s a disorder, it’s hard. But there are ways to deal with it. And you know, in our case, it’s a mix of medication and routines and just a lot of grace. But knowing all these things about ourselves will help us be a lot more gentle with ourselves. And then again, like I keep saying we have to create systems that work for us. I worked with a student recently, who for an entire year did not write down, any assignments. So was one of my one-to-one clients. And I said so you hate doing this, don’t you? And he said yes. And I said, Okay, well, let’s figure out a way for you to not hate it. So through conversations, we figured out that he’s really into graphic novels. So I said, Let’s every class do a square of a graphic novel. And we came up with a character. And we came up with a little soundcloud. And so this little character tells him what his assignments are for each class. But that was a total change. Because what his brain thought was, I can’t do this. And my brain doesn’t work this way. I can’t write down my assignment. So he didn’t even attempt it. But once we figured that out, it was like, Oh, my brain likes stories. My brain thinks this way. So that we’re doing it this way. And it’s a big change. So it’s liberating to realize that maybe your professor or your parents and homeschool will say you need to put your stuff in a calendar this way. The important thing is you put it on a calendar. Is it an app? Is it did you draw a giant Mind Map? Did you make a graphic novel, whatever it is, it has to work for you or you won’t do it.
Janna 19:20 My youngest daughter refuses to write down things. And I am a list maker and a box checker. So it frustrates me to no end. And as a homeschool parent, I find that everything I talk about it always comes back to how I need to change my perspective, and how I’m looking at things with my children as we’re taking this journey. And so I keep saying, Okay, I just don’t know how you’re not writing it down. It’s just that I’m trying to breathe through it myself because it doesn’t make sense to me. But I also know that you don’t always complete the tasks. So what we have yet to come up with is the system, we’re still kind of working on it. And if first you don’t succeed, try try again, right? I find that demanding things of my older children now really tends to backfire. And I really would rather partner with them to help them be successful, as opposed to them just being obedient. And that’s definitely not the type of parenting that I was modeled. And so it has taken well, almost 18 years with my first to, to really try to understand that executive function isn’t something that is natural to necessarily a lot of people. I mean, it’s something that can be developed, but you have to be aware of it right, you have to be aware that you don’t have a process. And, some people are just naturally, they make the list, and it feels good. And that works with their personality. But that’s not everybody. And so as a parent, it’s so frustrating. But it’s important to recognize these things so that when our kids do get to college or outside of our home, you know, they are prepared, even if it’s not the way we would have done it.
Lauran 21:05 Well, I think that you made several good points there. And I want to capitalize on the fact that you say you want to partner with your kids, which is the best way to do it. Because, and sometimes, you know, my daughter, and I think very differently. I have anxiety, she has ADHD. And so sometimes we’re like speaking different languages. So one of the things that has been successful for us, and what I suggest to parents is to find someone who thinks like them, some kind of other mentor that has, particularly if you can find a recent college grad. That’s golden because they’ll see, okay, this person is not a list taker, but they graduated, they did okay, what did they do? Right? So that can be helpful. Because our kids always want to listen to someone besides us, right? The other thing I would say is, when we are trying to support our kids, this is something that I have learned to do with my students, as well as with my own child is to not have hard starts. So that would be like, you know, the they come in the door, I got your report card. What did you do? Like, how could you like, you know, whatever it is? And instead of saying, first of all, you reconnect, how are you? But then with my students, I’ll say, you know, I’m noticing that you’re struggling. What’s going on? Like, let’s find out, I’m inviting them to tell me the emotional reason that things aren’t going well, right? And it’s also an opportunity for them to, because if I go to them, and I say you haven’t turned in the last two assignments, you’re gonna fail the course, that relationship is over, right? So what we’re trying to do is invite our students to come to us before things are dire, right? So this can be something that happens with a lot of first-generation college students in particular, or maybe they’ve had, they’ve been homeschooled, and so they feel some pressure to succeed because they’ve had a different type of education than their peers is that they, they’re not doing well, in a class or they’re not doing well at college socially. They’re miserable, they’re whatever, but they don’t tell anybody. And they just wait till the end of the semester until they fail. And failure is not the end, you know, I have students who have taken my class, I am very proud of this student who just took my class for the third time. And he had a lot of emotional stuff going on. He had all kinds of issues that were challenges, I should say. And he passed my class on the third time and we celebrated, you know, so failure is not the end. But also it’s before that midterm breakdown. Let’s have a conversation with our kids and say, How are things going? If you’re struggling in this class, it’s okay. If you’re struggling socially, it’s okay. So having that kind of safety net to put out for our kids, in the beginning, invites them to open up instead of saying, I’m just gonna, you know, I lost my financial aid because I failed a class and now I’m sleeping on my friend’s couch, so you won’t know about it. It’s a big stream, but it happens maybe more than you would realize. So again, that warm open communication, trying to figure out what’s going on emotionally inviting them to help you help them. The biggest thing is it’s their idea, right?
Janna 24:35 Well, that in and of itself is a whole other college course that I think all parents would take if it were available to us. Lauran, I am so pleased to hear you giving homeschool parents permission to give grace. I think sometimes there’s this outside pressure along with inside pressure when we choose to do something that’s countercultural, and then we feel the need to prove to those around us whoever they are, that we made the right decision for our children that we didn’t mess them up in some way. And so from the pressure out and the pressure in, it boils over and our children are unfortunately kind of a casualty that happens in that they’re the force that you know, that feels our force when it happens. So permission to give ourselves grace, and then that there’s nothing wrong with giving our children grace. And it really doesn’t matter what anyone else says or thinks. Because when everybody’s 35, and in their career and has their own families, if that’s their, what they choose, like, none of this stuff, none of the pressures are going to matter. But it’s what we do in the day-to-day, the relationship building that does matter.
Lauran 25:50 And the reality of the matter is, we’ve all done the best we can with the knowledge that we had. And so we need to give ourselves so much grace, because we’re learning as our kids are learning. And the world is changing very quickly. And maintaining a close relationship can be difficult, and it can be felt like a mountain that we’re climbing, but you just have to hang in there and be supportive. The because the students I know, you know, could be the first generation students whose parents don’t speak English. And they have very little context for the college experience. The ones that do better, are the ones who have a close relationship with their parents, and they can go to them and say I’m struggling, they can go to them and whatever. So that it is really significant. But, you know, being homeschooled myself, sometimes I’ll say to people, you know, I was homeschooled, and they’re sort of surprised, not because they, they don’t think it’s legitimate, but it’s like, oh, but now you have a doctorate and you’re doing this or whatever. I’m like, Yeah, so you’re right. But once we get to a certain point, it doesn’t matter. And we don’t really need to compare ourselves to anyone. In any situation, you know, this is this can be difficult if you have a neurodivergent child. And they’re being compared with their behavior or their you know, you know, for my daughter, she’s sometimes pulled out of situations so that she can get extra time or whatever it is. And I would encourage everyone, you know, I’m not a psychologist, not a neurologist. So if you suspect any kind of learning challenge with your child, definitely go and get them, you know, assessed because it is a game changer. My husband was 40 when he was diagnosed. And it’s like, it’s changed our whole life. But my students who have their letters, there are lots of accommodations, you know, that that has to be formalized. I have several students who have letters but never turn them into me. And because it’s they want to start over when they’re in college and prove that their dyslexia or their ADHD is not going to hold them back. And they can just do it their own way. Don’t make it hard for yourself, you know, and make it so that I always say smart students ask for help successful students ask for help. All you’re doing is getting the support that you need for the way that your brain works, and the way that you need to have help. You know, I had a, what, like an assistant dog in my class last semester, and I was like, This is great. Made everyone is happier, right? So because that student took the steps that she needed to have her emotional support dog with her so that she could focus in class. So this is, it benefits everyone if you get the help that you need.
Janna 28:44 Well, before we go, can you share a hack with our listeners?
Lauran 28:49 Yes. Just one. Okay. One of the things that with, you know, I’ve talked about executive function kind of in a sort of umbrella sort of way. But again, it’s really the set of skills that helps us get things done. It’s the working memory, it which helps us remember, processes, people with deficits and working memory, can remember, you know, we’re a big trivia family. So my husband can remember all kinds of trivia about like the 50 states, but he can’t remember to, like, unload the dishwasher. That’s working memory, right? And it’s something we joke about, but that’s just an aside. Anyway. So it’s mental flexibility. It’s emotional regulation. So on my website, I have an infographic called the College Prep Essential Skills infographic. What I recommend as a hack is to look at that infographic it’s I’ve divided it into skills of scholastic study, social, and sensibility, which is the emotional part. And so what I recommend is for you to take a couple of weeks and write down executive function skills that your kids do really well. I’ll. So for example, one of the executive function skills is being able to sort of remember and also process what you’ve read. So if your child reads a book and tells you about it, and has an opinion about it, that’s well-founded based on the text, write that down, write that, because that’s an let’s put it in a positive category, if they were helpful to a sibling, but that in the sensibility emotional regulation category, that’s positive, right? It can be really helpful for you as a parent to see, okay, maybe they’re like, again, that fatalistic attitude of like, nothing is working, you know, you got to start with the positive. And then I would take another week to note down some areas of growth. And then I would not go to your child and say, I’ve been observing you like a weird scientist for the last couple of weeks. But to say, you know, I’ve noticed that time management has been a struggle. And I wonder if there are some things that we could change or a way that I could help you? Can we change a system, etc. So that’s my hack is to start observing these skills, and then to pick just one or two things at a time, that maybe you as a family can work on together. And maybe that’s first you saying, like, you don’t have this to say, like,I have a list? Why doesn’t my kid have a list? You know, to step back, and maybe maybe the first change is to change your perspective. And then to think, okay, but there is still a gap, there’s still not turning things in on time, or the tasks aren’t getting completed. So list is not the answer. The problem is the tasks aren’t happening. What executive function skill category can we work on? To close that gap?
Janna 31:49 I hear you saying is literature-based learning where we read to our kids, and then have discussions and have them tell us the story back is a great way to build executive functions.
Lauran 32:01 Yes. And you can start, you know, we’re not born with zero executive functions, we all have them, they just need to be developed. And you start in kindergarten with, you know, my kid loved that memory game, right? Where you put all the cards down and you pick up to, that’s your developing memory, and then you develop working memory from then. So the book discussions, the memory games, the, you know, all in all, I could go on and on. But there are a lot of things that you could do in elementary school, to help your kids develop this. And you don’t necessarily have to tell them, that’s what you’re doing. But yes, all of those will help, there are a lot of things about homeschooling that do help build executive function, and that’s a positive thing I want to say. It’s just a matter of developing them and scaffolding them as they grow older, because, like I said, the demands grow higher than the executive function skills are at a faster pace.
Janna 33:02 So I think it’s also natural as our children start to age, we stop playing memory games, right? We kind of get away from reading aloud if you’re not in a program like BookShark, that it’s the forefront of the curriculum. And being intentional to continue and scaffold these very things are going to be so helpful for parents to continue to help grow their children in this area, which is an area that has not been growing. Maybe the best way it can be so Lauran, thank you so much for coming on today. How can our listeners learn more about what you offer through your courses?
Lauran 33:43 The best way to get to me is through my website, alteringcourse.com all my socials are on there. As I said, the infographic is on there. And all of my offerings are on there I have executive function cohorts is what I call them, and you can join the waitlist at any time. They are virtual experiences for students and or parents. And we do a lot of fun things in there to to assess executive function skills to help improve them. There’s a lot of gamification involved. So those are fun sessions but also you’ll come away with some really good skills and ways to continue to improve them.
Janna 34:27 And then you had a special for our listeners if they wanted to connect with you and purchase something from you, what can they expect?
Lauran 34:36 So you can get 10% off any products that I offer with the code bookshark.
Janna 34:41 Alright, you guys, you heard it here. Go to alteringcourse.com and learn more about what Lauran has available to help you and your students learn executive functioning and ways to improve what you already know your children have. Make sure to use the code bookshark if you want to purchase something from her and we’ll have all the information including the link to the infographic in the show notes thank you so much, Lauran. Thank you guys, until next time goodbye
Although having a family reading time is important to my family, I realize that with the numerous other obligations a homeschool mama has, reading aloud as a family might not seems doable. Our family reading time is one of our favorite times of the day, but it didn’t always look like it does now. Here are five easy tips to help you and your family have an awesome daily reading time together:
1. Be choosy about the time of day.
Your family reading time will be affected by the ages of your children and your daily activities. It may also change over time, depending on how your schedule shifts through the year. Choose a time of day that is more relaxed. If your evenings are always very hectic, that probably isn’t a good time for you.
We used to read in the mornings before school until the baby became a toddler. Our family reading time suffered while our mobile little sweetie was getting into everything under the sun. To say she was distracting is an understatement. We ultimately moved our reading time to evenings after the baby was in bed and after the older kids were showered and ready for bed themselves. Changing our family reading time to evening made it a great transition into bedtime.
2. Choose books that interest your children.
If your children can’t stand fanciful stories, don’t read them. Find an author that they love, and read his or her books. My kids love Roald Dahl! On the flipside, challenge your kids to try new literature styles, too. But make sure that they are having fun. Family reading time should not be torture.
3. Read an array of books together.
Sometimes I chose books that correlate with the season or an upcoming holiday. Sometimes my selections go with what we are studying in science or history. Other times they don’t match our homeschool lessons at all.
The point is that I select a wide variety of books, authors, and subjects. Changing it up keeps family reading time from getting dry and boring. Let your children suggest books they want to read. Other times choose for them.
4. Keep little hands busy.
I have been reading to my kids for a long time, ever since they were very small. I’ve even read chapter books to my three-year-olds, but to expect them to sit still and not wiggle is unrealistic. Have a special activity that your little ones can do while you read. Make sure this activity is mostly mindless like these examples:
squeezing silly putty
stacking and unstacking blocks
matching socks
This kind of physical action will keep them mostly stationary and quiet while you read. They may still be moving while they do their activity, but they are listening!
5. Be consistent.
When I’ve tried to read only one chapter every week or so, I almost never finish the novel. Being consistent in your reading time is key to being successful. With too much space between reading sessions, your kids (and you) will forget what is going on in the story. Shoot for at least reading four times per week. It will start to become part of your daily routine, and your kids will miss it when you don’t read.
Happy reading to your family!
About the Author
Alicia Hutchinson is the homeschooling mom to four. She and her children love reading and history and exploring outside. They are just settling into their new home in the Minneapolis area, where they just relocated from North Carolina.
You can read more about Alicia and their homeschooling adventures, current projects, and thoughts on motherhood at her blog Investing Love.
