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Everything you need to know about Homeschool Planning {Episode 183}
719 Plays2 years ago
Homeschool Planning got you scared? Confused? Feeling overwhelmed? In this episode, Bonnie & Audrey cover everything you need to know about homeschool planning, from the big overall picture to the year plan.
Please support our free podcast on Patreon!
Mentioned in this episode:
Thomas Jefferson Education phases of learning
Episode 133: College Flight Plan
What your #-grader needs to know series
Episode 97: Helping Kids with Math
Episode 69: Circle Time
Cathy Duffy reviews
Rainbow Resource curriculum comparison guides
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Host Background
00:00:07
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Outnumbered the Podcast. I'm Audrey. And I'm Bonnie. We are experienced moms to a combined total of 19 children. In our weekly episodes, we explore relatable topics using our perspectives of humor and chaos. Tune in for advice and encouragement to gain more joy in your parenting journey.
Importance of Planning for Homeschooling
00:00:34
Speaker
Hey everybody, we're back. And today we're going to be talking about school planning as homeschoolers, what we do for planning the big picture, the big, big picture. So we've talked a lot about individual subjects and about specific things that we do in our homeschools, but this time we want to talk about how we plan everything, the kind of the big picture.
00:00:56
Speaker
Yeah, and this can seem really overwhelming. When I first started homeschooling, I was like, I can't even think like long-term, right? But hopefully we're gonna break it down a little bit for you guys to make it a little bit more reasonable, a little more doable, and get you excited about the future you have educating your
Chaos of Parenting: A Humorous Story
00:01:13
Speaker
kids. So, first we're gonna start though with a tiny little humorous story. It's summer, we're out at the pool splash pad,
00:01:23
Speaker
water park, whatever we can find to stay cool, right? And recently we're at a public pool with my sister-in-law and my kids' cousins. And talking to my sister-in-law and her son comes up to her and says something to her. And she looks down and says, oh, son, your band-aid is coming off. Pull it off and throw it away before it ends up in the pool or whatever. And he looks down and goes, that's not mine.
00:01:46
Speaker
And we both look at each other and go, oh, get rid of it, get rid of it. Oh, man. As if we didn't, aren't constantly thinking about just how nasty a public pool is, but an excellent reminder of what you might pick up there. I know. I'm pretty sure my kids got stomach fluid.
00:02:06
Speaker
Yeah, they're just sucking down gallons of that stuff. You're like, please let there be like, I'd rather have you, you get chlorine poisoning than whatever horrible disease somebody's spewing. No, I know. I switched to teaching my kids to swim at my sister-in-law's pool and she cleans it with
00:02:28
Speaker
Um, I think it's a combination of minerals and reverse osmosis and things like it's a non chlorine way to clean it. And I almost feel like it's a health thing for my kids to go and swim in her pool because they're like, it's like being in the ocean. Yeah. Yeah. My, my mother-in-law has a salt, whatever the salt purifier is. So they use salt to like, whatever. I think it technically does create a chlorine, but it's not a synthetic chlorine. So it's.
00:02:53
Speaker
It feels better. It feels like less of a chemical bath. And your skin doesn't smell like it for days. Yes, totally.
Homeschooling: Freedom and Responsibility
00:03:03
Speaker
Okay. So today we're going to share our methods of planning what we teach our kids like for the big picture, like how we decide what we're teaching our kids this year and in the years to come. So the curriculum is set by us this year and then looking into the future, like until they graduate. So we're going to, we're going to share our methods on how, how we do this, like for this year and for going forward in the future. What do we do?
00:03:28
Speaker
Yeah. And like I said, looking at this big picture can be scary, but it can also be really liberating, right? Realizing, hey, it's totally up to us what we want our goals to be. Um, if you were raised in a traditional public school setting, it may be kind of difficult for you in a little bit of a culture shock to step out of that and say, actually, our education doesn't have to look anything like that. It doesn't have to look like this many minutes of math and this many minutes of language arts and this many minutes of whatever for, you know, whatever 12 years.
00:03:56
Speaker
It can look like anything you want, really. I mean, within the confines of whatever your state requires. There might be some requirements there if you're a homeschooler in a specific state. But we have kind of learned to accept both those feelings, both the scary nerve-wracking sensation of, ah, this is all on me, and also that feeling of, wow, we get to decide. It's up to me and my husband to choose the best path to send this child out with the best education we can offer to them.
00:04:26
Speaker
I'm so glad you mentioned that because I remember when I was planning my kids' school, what they were going to study at first, the subject, and I was like, what about social studies? What is social studies? I was like, oh, you know what? We don't have to teach
Planning the Educational Journey
00:04:47
Speaker
that. We can study specific things that are of interest to us, but just general social studies is not really something
00:04:54
Speaker
like isn't like a big huge thing. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, I digress. All right. So let's start with the big picture, capital B I G, right? Like how far are you going to go? Look into the future. We go, we do our school all the way to when our kids graduate high school. Um, maybe you're only planning to educate your kids through eighth grade or through a specific grade
00:05:17
Speaker
So where do you want to stop and where do you want them to be when you stop? So like look that far forward is where we recommend starting.
00:05:25
Speaker
Yes, and this is actually a really exciting exercise to do. I think it's especially fun when your kids are little and they have all this potential to them. You don't know what kind of people they're going to turn into being. You get to decide how to best facilitate these little personalities into growing into their best potential. But even if your kids are 10 or 15, you get to still decide what the rest of that education is going to look like. So you start by asking yourself, what's the end goal? I mean, we all want to send out
00:05:53
Speaker
well-adjusted, loving humans into the world to be good members of society. But they're going to need some sort of plan for when they become adults, right? And you generally get to decide this at an early age because they're not mature enough to. So it could be things like getting them ready for college, a university, or a community college. It could be... We have an episode on that, by the way. We'll link to that.
00:06:16
Speaker
It could be preparing them for trade school. It could be preparing them for both. You want them to be able to become an electrician or a hairdresser or a welder as well as get a bachelor's and something else. It could be you want to help them prepare to run a family business that you're going to plan
00:06:33
Speaker
to pass on your legacy to your children. Teach them that. Good luck if they choose not to do that. Maybe a mission trip. Maybe something else. Maybe you have no idea, but you have kind of a rough, at least, concept of the kind of people you want to raise. Now, obviously, we are raising
00:06:54
Speaker
tiny humans who have their own personalities and their own likes and dislikes, and they're going to turn 16, 17, 18 and go, oh, I'm going to do this thing actually. But we have to decide before they're ready how to prepare them for that future. And what we like to do is just kind of leave it as, you know, offer them as much opportunity as possible, right? Let them leave their future as open-ended as possible by offering them a college opportunity, a trade school opportunity, this opportunity, a service opportunity, whatever, and then they get to choose if that makes sense.
00:07:23
Speaker
Yes, that is so tricky for kids. So many of them don't know what they want to do. Our philosophy with our home school is to have our kids prepared for anything that they want to do later
Homeschool Philosophy: Teaching How to Learn
00:07:35
Speaker
in life. So how do we prepare them for that? Our school motto is learning to learn because if they know how to learn, then they'll be capable of doing anything in the future that they want to do. So maybe
00:07:46
Speaker
at 15 they decide they want to go to trade school and then they do a trade school for 10 years and then maybe at 25 they decide oh I actually want to go back to college. Like whatever they want to do whatever their future looks like we want them to be to know how to learn and so that's like our overarching big picture is that our kids know how to learn and so that they can go forth and do anything that they want to. Yes and unfortunately I think that the talent of
00:08:14
Speaker
knowing how to learn is almost bred out of our children in a lot of public school settings, simply because there's all this teaching to the test. It's, well, you have to score
00:08:25
Speaker
at this certain level so that we get the funding we need, so that we can maintain the teachers, et cetera, when in the end, you want your child to be able to go out in the world and learn whatever they need to learn. Like right now, in my business, I have a million different skills that I'm learning at the same time, and it's very exciting, but I could have never anticipated the skills that I needed today, 20 years ago when I was in college. First of all, they didn't exist.
00:08:46
Speaker
The tech didn't exist, the online space didn't exist. But because I was raised with this, both I learned a desire and then the skills of how to learn, I'm able to do that. And an excitement for accumulating new knowledge and new skills, right? So we have no idea what the world's gonna look like in 20 years, right? It could be flying cars time, who knows? But when we prepare our children today for that capability, then the sky's the limit.
00:09:18
Speaker
Okay, so one thing, I'll tell you guys just briefly about the homeschool methodology that made me want to homeschool.
Exploring Thomas Jefferson Education Method
00:09:25
Speaker
And it's called Thomas Jefferson Education. What I really loved about it was that they have these phases of learning, and they have looked at the child's psychology and figured out exactly what a child is prone to do at certain ages. So from zero to eight, it's learning right from wrong, learning the consequences of their action, and then it's love of learning on and on. You can look them up.
00:09:43
Speaker
What I loved about that was that it really tapped into the child's desires of each age. Most children at age five do not want to sit down with a textbook and learn like we learn in college. That's a little bit more of a more mature level of learning.
00:10:04
Speaker
at five, they want to play and they want to experiment and they want to role play and they want to play pretend and all these things. So really understanding how children develop and how their brain works can be very, very beneficial. A couple of other things that we have looked at when deciding what we want for a children's education is teaching them how to protect the democracy of our country and protect their own basic freedoms, because we feel like those are at risk.
00:10:32
Speaker
There's a big portion of their education that's religious education, teaching them to have a relationship with God and understanding the doctrine of our religion. And then like we talk about on the podcast a lot is some self-control, some working on our thoughts, right? I would love for my children to leave my home understanding that they are the ones that are responsible for their own happiness and their own emotional well-being and to know how to get there. Yes, those are such
00:10:59
Speaker
awesome things to be teaching your kids, like just beyond the reading, writing, arithmetic, you know, the things that they need to know to go on to higher learning, like what kind of person do you want them to be when you're turning them out into the
Backward Planning with Math Examples
00:11:15
Speaker
world? So once you've got these things figured out, just kind of even very broad, very general, then you can start planning backward. So let's say, let's just take a topic, for example, to make it easier. And so just speaking in generalities,
00:11:29
Speaker
Let's take math. Let's say I want them to have learned all the levels through pre-calculus by the time they graduate, because I think that's going to be the most helpful to them to take the SAT test, to get accepted into colleges. So then I am going to count backward to where they are and how much math they need to get to be at through pre-calculus by the time they take the SAT or by the time they graduate.
00:11:53
Speaker
Then I decide, oh, well, okay, look, they're ahead. Or, ooh, they need to catch up a little bit. So maybe some summer school or some intensified learning might be necessary. Or you might discover, you know, if they're way ahead, you're like, hey, let's take a day of the week off. Let's take a week of the year off. Let's take a year off math. They're plenty ahead and kind of stressing out because their brain isn't quite up to this level of math. I'm doing that with one of my kids this summer. We're taking the entire summer off math because he was
00:12:22
Speaker
He's like two years ahead and there's no reason for him to cry over math this summer when he should just be outside playing. So when you have the big picture, then you can start planning backward.
00:12:37
Speaker
Yes, yes, totally. Okay, so we're going to move on from big picture now enough enough scary big picture stuff. We're going to just focus on the next four years. Okay, so we chose four years because that's kind of a very convenient clump of time, right? It's kind of like a portion of elementary school or junior high or high school, college, they are kind of
00:12:55
Speaker
clumped in these three to four year segments. And you get to decide what your goals are going to be for them for the next four years. So let's say that you've just pulled a 10 year old out of school and they've decided that you want a little bit more control over his education. What is he going to look like?
00:13:13
Speaker
education wise when he's 14, right? Well, he's going to need to know these specific skills. I want him to love learning all of a sudden. I pulled him out because he hated learning. So now I want to instill a love of learning in him. I want to help him want to explore things, right? He's always had a love of mechanical things. I want him to go out and explore that a little bit more. You know, you get to decide what those next few years are going to look like because it just makes, it's kind of breaking that big picture down into bite-sized chunks.
00:13:40
Speaker
Yeah, that is totally right. Because now is where you can start looking at specifics. So you look at where you want your kid to be a little bit closer to graduating or whenever you're done homeschooling them. So you look, OK, in four years, where should they be? Or at the end of one of these defining places, look where you want to be with your child. OK, so I'm going to use a specific example, history, for example. So we used to study history kind of on a,
00:14:08
Speaker
a radiating basis. So we'd start with local history when they were young, and then we'd move on to US history when they got a little bit older. And then like in their high school years, then we do like world history. So that was like one way of doing it. But now we found that it works better for us to do a four year rotation through the chronological order of all history. So what was happening at the local US and world level
00:14:33
Speaker
this time period and we go so we do a four-year rotation and and we do it at each of those like we use tapestry of grace so they call it the grammar level when it's kind of the grade school level and then the next level is the dialectic level that would be like middle school and they study it a little bit deeper then they started the same topics they go back to the beginning and study through time a little bit deeper and then the last rotation through is called the rhetoric level and they studied that at high school level and then they're like
00:15:01
Speaker
making all these connections and drawing conclusions and forecasting and all these kinds of things at the deepest level overall. So that's just, you know, just decide what way you want to do it and then focus kind of on that four year mark. Yeah.
Ensuring Educational Progress
00:15:16
Speaker
Yeah. I love that. I will also say this, that you will find times you may feel 1000% prepared when you first start taking kind of taking back control of your child's education, whether that's fully homeschool or a hybrid or something, but there will come a time.
00:15:30
Speaker
where you will get a little lost. It's been a few years and you're like, oh, wait, what was our goal for this kid? And oh, shoot, where should he be? And so we found something that's really helpful is to just do a quick Google search on schooling requirements for specific ages. It's very easy to come across. You can do your local state. You can do a different state. You can even find a private school that you really admire and see what their rubric is.
00:15:56
Speaker
And then you just print them out. And I have them in a homeschool binder. And I know that if I'm a little bit hazy on what my sixth grader is supposed to be working on, then I flip it open to that and go, oh, by the end of grade school, they're supposed to be doing this, this, this. She's a little bit behind in math, a little bit ahead in language arts.
00:16:12
Speaker
Let's adjust right there, right? For me, obviously the most important is high school because that's the scariest. So when my kids get to be about 13, 14, we pull that open and we look at where they are, where they still need to be, see if we want to make any adjustments in regards to what they're headed towards. So like if they're really into STEM type things, can you hear that? I'm sure you can. Just pay no attention to the screaming child.
00:16:38
Speaker
If they're really into STEM type topics, you're going to want to make sure that they have a heavy emphasis in sciences and maths. If they're thinking more liberal arts type of thing, then you want to dive into the English and the reading and that sort of thing.
00:16:52
Speaker
Yeah, those resources are out there. They're very easy to find. We also really, really liked the series, What Your Blank Grader Should Know. We stocked up on those from Goodwill, I think, some thrift store years ago. So anytime I got a little bit lost or we were in survival mode, like mom was having a baby, I would just pull out one of those and we'd sit down and start reading. Like, oh look, we haven't learned about world geography and it's about that time, fourth grade or whatever. So let's work on that this week. So many resources to put your mind at ease and know that your kid is
00:17:22
Speaker
relatively on target. Yes, yes. I think we could do a whole episode about just basically saying, relax, you've got this. The most beneficial thing you're doing for your kid is the one on one time that you're spending with them or the small class sizes, you know, only you and four kids to kids.
00:17:40
Speaker
Whatever that that is really the most beneficial thing for your kid. So I'm going to again talk about a specific subject on science. So science in high school is pretty standard. Most high schools, most public schools, most private schools offer science in kind of a standard
00:18:02
Speaker
What's my word? Formula? Where you'll probably find most homeschooled curriculums offer the same subjects for high school science. It's biology, chemistry, physics, right? Definitely those three at some point in high school. But you have some flexibility here. For example, if you have a very hands-on kinesthetic learner,
00:18:20
Speaker
You might give them a biology curriculum that is very experiment heavy because they're hands-on, right? Or have them study physics early in their high school years because physics is the very hands-on science for the kinesthetic learners. Or if you know they struggle somewhat with math, then save physics for their last year when they're a little bit farther along in math.
00:18:42
Speaker
But in general, you, you know, that your child in high school is going to be studying biology, chemistry, physics kind of, you know, at a minimum. So just some things are kind of already planned out for you. And you just need to decide, you know, what curriculum you're going to use, what, what method you're going to use, and so on. But, but some, some decisions are kind of already made and you don't have to stress about it. Yeah. Yeah.
Customizing Education to Child's Interests
00:19:08
Speaker
And this is, once again, that time where I come in and say, don't stress out about this part. It can get so overwhelming. I remember with my oldest, he's the only one that's a decent chunk through high school, looking at that high school curriculum and just thinking, there's no way. There's no way we're going to get through all this. There's no way we're going to accomplish all this. And he's got one year left. And has he? No.
00:19:30
Speaker
And is it okay? Yeah, it's totally okay because I'm really proud of how far he has come, what his strengths are. I'm even proud of his weaknesses because he's worked hard on those. Anyway, so let this be the time where you just sit back and go, how exciting that we get to explore all this together for the next few years.
00:19:46
Speaker
We have plenty of time. We also have summers, right? Public school kids do not go to school in summer generally. And so that we have this extra time. And even if your kid is public school, you get to sit down with them in the summer and say, where are our holes? Where do we want to work on things? Where do we want to get ahead a little bit? Or just maybe even take a big break during the school year and hit it a little bit harder in the summer so that your kid has a little bit more of a long-term plan for those difficult subjects.
00:20:16
Speaker
All right, here's a pro tip for you. Did you know, um, I get this from my years when I was getting my teaching degree that if, um, as a public school teacher, if you complete 75 to 80% of the curriculum that that is good. They never expect you to complete a hundred percent. Just, just a little tip there. So you as a homeschooler, like getting through the whole book, you're.
00:20:39
Speaker
You're hailing it. Yeah, I'm hailing it. Okay, we've talked about the big picture and then we've talked about like the next four years. So now let's talk about next year. So think about the information that you have from looking at those two really big pictures and then think through this year and next year.
00:21:00
Speaker
Yeah. If you have decided that your kid needs a little bit extra on a certain subject or he really struggles with one, this is where the freedom comes in, right? You can spread it across a couple of years. You can decide to take, like I said, take a couple of months break during the school year and then get back in it in the summer. It's probably likely that if you spread it out, you'll both just hate the heck out of it by the end of the time you're done because you've just hit it so hard. But the time is there. The time really is there. Like you said, Audrey,
00:21:30
Speaker
The amount of time that our kids get in public school, even in charter schools with their teachers, is so small that having the one-on-one time or even small group time like we have in our home school on one particular topic is so beneficial for them.
Focusing on Strengths and Flexibility
00:21:47
Speaker
So stop freaking out that you don't have eight hours a day to put into your child's education. It's just not necessary. They will get there.
00:21:55
Speaker
Yes, yes, that is right. So if you've looked at this year, next year, and you're making some choices, this is also going to help you choose a curriculum, for example, or what method to use. For example, if I had a kid who I noticed was kind of behind a little bit in math and I needed to accelerate, I would definitely use Khan Academy rather than a one-topic math curriculum, because it's more set up that they can learn a concept and move on without having to do
00:22:25
Speaker
a ton of practice problems or lots of one concept curriculums, one topic curriculums have a lot of review mixed in. But if you're trying to accelerate a child, just skip all that extra practice, skip all that review, get them the concept and move on. Chances are if they're a little bit behind, behind in air quotes here, they're old enough to get the concept without having to do all that repetitious practice and all that review.
00:22:52
Speaker
Um, it's, it's the same in any subject. I'm using math for an example, but if they are a little bit older of a learner, they will get it just like that and they will not need all that repetition on that practice.
00:23:03
Speaker
Oh, this is a great place for that reminder, Audrey. We've said this in some of our other schooling episodes as well, but just because the neighborhood third graders are learning cursive does not mean your child has to learn cursive in the third grade, whatever age that is. Was that eight? We don't know our grades.
00:23:23
Speaker
When a child has a little bit more maturity, especially if they are boys or are just a little bit more hesitant to go through like rarest academic types of topics, waiting a year or two can be a game changer.
00:23:40
Speaker
And for those of us that like to compare or stress out or judge ourselves for that, that might be a really difficult thing for you to do, but it has been so liberating for us. My first couple of kids, I just beat my head against the wall when they weren't doing things when they were supposed to, quote unquote,
00:23:57
Speaker
But just allowing them to progress at their own level and their own comfort, as long as they're not being lazy, obviously.
Handling Educational Comparisons
00:24:03
Speaker
You can't just take six months off of school and expect them to just be ready to hit it again. They'll just stop wanting to. But you keep them going with whatever they are excited about. A little bit more maturity can go a long way. That is a pro tip for sure.
00:24:18
Speaker
Yeah, sometimes your kids will be playing with the neighbor kids or something and they'll come back and like my son did the other day and he's like, oh, I guess I'm behind in reading. And I was like, how come you say that? And he said, well, because so and so said he can read, you know, blah, blah, and I can't read that yet. And I was like, yeah, but I bet you're ahead in playing outside time. And he was like,
00:24:41
Speaker
Oh. Yeah, that's always difficult. It's hard to see as a parent, especially if your child gets teased or they're feeling badly, all of a sudden they're old enough to realize, hey, he knows how to do this and I don't. But honestly, I think I've shared this in another episode. That is what prompted my oldest kid to really get things in gear when he was about 13 or 14 because we moved into a new neighborhood and his peers knew a lot more than he did. He had been slacking and he knew that it was time for him to
00:25:07
Speaker
to get himself moving. So that can be powerful too, but yeah, just kind of putting your own fears and your child's fears at ease, they will get there.
00:25:17
Speaker
Okay finally fourth step after you've looked at the really big picture the next four years or the next year then we're just going to focus on this year and that becomes super simple right when you think about oh what should I teach my kids this next year but you have no big picture you haven't kind of worked backwards it gets very overwhelming but now that you've had you've looked through all those other plans you go oh well it's very simple we just have to fill the gap between here
00:25:41
Speaker
and the plan for next year. Giving yourself those benchmarks means that you take all the thought work out of the actual day-to-day. You know exactly what you're supposed to be doing.
00:25:53
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. In my opinion, this is the fun part because all the big decisions have been made. So now you get to find a curriculum that will work the best for your child, for your family. You can add in fun stuff. You can eliminate things that you know, aren't going to be sustainable or they're not going to work for you or your kids, your family, whatever. And you get to, this is fun for me because it's, um, you get to tailor it to your family and your kids and what is going to work for you. So I just, I just love this part.
00:26:22
Speaker
Yes, for sure. And I wanted to mention here that it is very possible to outsource a lot of your children's day-to-day education if that's overwhelming for you or you just don't have the time or the energy. A few ideas are co-ops. If you live in a place where there are other homeschoolers or alternative schoolers, you can find a group that is maybe doing some of their own classes, especially things that are kind of hard to do at home, maybe like a sport you're unfamiliar with or type of science you're unfamiliar with. You can coordinate with other mothers and fathers
00:26:52
Speaker
and have them create an amazing course on something they're great at and your kid gets to go do that while you do something that emphasizes your strength. So that's really fantastic. We've loved the co-ops we've been in. We currently have a tutor that comes to our house almost every single day and she works through a lot of that day-to-day, I don't want to call it drudgery, but a little bit of it is when the kids just don't want to do math one more time and that has really helped lighten my load because I know that she's going to be working with at least a couple of kids at all times, even while my toddler is having a potty training accident and
00:27:21
Speaker
The house is on fire, you know, whatever. Prenda is an option that a couple of my friends have used recently. It's an in-home, small class type of setup. Even charter, private, or public schools can be part of a very intentional educational plan that you are in control of, right? I could look at my kids and think, you know what? You really need something bigger than what I can give you. Let's go put you in the local charter school and see how things go for a year. We did that with my oldest son.
00:27:50
Speaker
And then we'll pull you out and see how it goes. Or we'll keep it going. You get to decide what's best for each child. But when you have that overarching vision and you know where you're headed, then you can tell when they kind of veer off the path. Like, oh, you're not really great at doing this on your own. We need to get you some outside help. Yeah, you're the final say on how your child gets to that final goal.
00:28:11
Speaker
Yes, outsourcing. This is awesome. So like if I had to teach all my kids all my levels, all their levels, all the subjects, like it would be too much. So what I do is I work with the youngest kids to get them, like my big goal is to get them reading and to teach them how to learn.
00:28:32
Speaker
But at the upper levels, it means I outsource my kids learning to my kids, my oldest kids. So I supply the materials they're going to need to study that year. I set up a schedule to help them know on a yearly, monthly, and weekly basis what they need to accomplish to get through that subject. Yes, we go 100% through the topic, not just 80%.
00:28:57
Speaker
Overachiever you I know and then I outsource it to them So this is part of them learning to learn is they have to learn the subject by themselves And yes, I am there for them to answer questions. I've got the teachers guide. I've got discussions I have with them and
00:29:13
Speaker
I'm not answering any questions. Things I can't answer will go research together. But my outsourcing of their learning is to my kids themselves because that's part of learning to learn. And obviously, once they can read, you know, you can do that. But we use curriculums like, for example, our math curriculum that we use is teaching textbooks.
00:29:36
Speaker
I love math, I love teaching math. Go listen to our episode on math. But I can't teach six different levels of math and stamp on the corrections. So I've outsourced that to this program, this curriculum that just does all the grading, all the everything right there. And again, if they have questions, if they're not getting it, then I take over. But yeah, a lot of the outsourcing around here is to the kids themselves, putting it on them.
00:30:02
Speaker
Okay, so Audrey, what age do you usually start giving them a lot more independence and letting them just kind of return and report? Right, right. So it happens gradually. Like first I outsource, as soon as they are able to read, then I outsource some of their reading to them. Like I've got a curriculum, Tapestee of Grace, that tells me what books they need to read and how long it should take them to read this book, as in weeks. And I outsource their reading to them. And then, like I said, their math is outsourced to them.
00:30:33
Speaker
I do have them, oh yes, accountability is the word I'm looking for. There are accountability checkups. I check their schedule every afternoon, make sure they've done everything. At the end of the week, I have them show me their work that they've done. They have to write down their math score, what they've got, and here we do 80%. They don't get to go onto the next lesson in math until they have at least an 80% score. I want them to get that much ability
00:31:02
Speaker
we go over things together. So it's not like they're completely, okay, here's your books, you know, see at the end of the year. Yeah, good luck with that, right? Right. There's science I do with them up until middle school. And then it's kind of this interplay between how much I do with them and how much they're doing individually. And then by high school, they're almost 100% outsourced themselves. Again, I'm there to answer questions, to guide, to help. But
00:31:29
Speaker
Yeah, so it's kind of, I can't say, oh, you know, at this point, turn and play because it's kind of gradual along the way. Yeah, and dependent on maturity levels and the time they're willing to put in, I'm sure. Yeah, that's so great. And you know, when we talk about what type of curriculum we want to give our children, I have to say that for us personally, a huge factor in that is what is required of mom,
Choosing the Right Curriculum
00:31:55
Speaker
right? Because in the end, the kids have
00:31:58
Speaker
so many subjects and we have so many children, both of us, and there's only one of me, that most of the time I have chosen my curriculum based on two main factors. Number one, what it requires of me and am I able to do that? And number two, how good of a fit is it going to be for what my child needs and his or her personality?
00:32:16
Speaker
We had quite a few math curricula that we have tried over and over and over because I think there are some really great in-depth ones. But in the end, I found myself in your same situation. I could not check and correct problems for all these different levels. And so we had to go to a technology-based one that was going to automatically tell them if it was right or wrong and not let them continue on unless they got 80%. And so anyway, so that's just a little caveat there.
00:32:41
Speaker
Please don't get so overwhelmed and stressed out in all your planning that you think, oh, I'm never going to have the time and energy to do all this. This might be the year where you hit math really hard with all your kids and you're there in the trenches with them and that you do a little bit of outsourcing when it comes to language arts. You hire some help or you have them go to a class or whatever number of things. You hire a teenager to come read with them or something.
00:33:05
Speaker
don't feel like you have to do all the things all the time because that's I think most homeschoolers big mistake at the beginning if you're excited about it I'm like yeah let's get let's do this you know and then six kids later I'm up to my eyeballs and diapers and all the things I'm thinking that's not a possibility where do I step back and how do I best manage my time
00:33:23
Speaker
But it's possible. We're here. We're still alive. Yeah, that's right. Oh, I want to share one of the coolest things about a co-op is that accountability, like you keep up with it because there's other people there with you.
00:33:37
Speaker
I have to share, my friend recently was telling me about a co-op that she put together for, first of all, her daughter and then it turned into a co-op because there were so many other parents that were like, yeah, I want my daughter and they're learning that with your daughter. But they did kitchen chemistry. And it was so awesome. Like they did sourdough bread, but they broke it all down into
00:33:58
Speaker
the chemical processes and all of these experiments that were all around, it was like, hey, I want to come in and sit on that glass. So there is some really, really cool stuff out there. Don't think you have to take it all on yourself. So while she taught kitchen chemistry to this group of girls, she was not teaching them something else. That was another mom teaching them. So yeah, there's lots of help out there if you need it.
00:34:21
Speaker
Yeah, I was just listening to a business podcast and they were saying one of the big mistakes they see entrepreneurs doing is that they work really hard to improve their weaknesses at the risk of not using their strengths. And he says, outsource the weaknesses. Stop trying to fix
00:34:39
Speaker
the fact that you hate marketing or science and instead really focus on what you love to do. I love language arts. I love teaching my kids to read. I love writing with them. I'm not so much a STEM person and so I try to outsource that because why make me miserable and make me do something that I'm not great at when I could instead send them to somebody who can do kitchen chemistry and learn this amazing skill
00:35:05
Speaker
So, yeah, again, don't beat yourself up for not knowing all the things and being great at all of them. Find someone who is and give your kids the best of both worlds.
Starting the Day with Connection
00:35:13
Speaker
Yeah. I think one of the most important things that you and I both do with our kids, Bonnie, is we have a whole episode about what we call circle time. And it's that early morning or first thing connection with our kids. And what we do in that time just sets them up for success in everything else they're doing and they're learning the rest of the day.
00:35:31
Speaker
Yeah, and what it does is it brings you together as a reminder that what our day is focused on is learning and playing and being together. Without that, everybody scatters, they do their own thing, and it always becomes more difficult later on to bring them together to do education unless you start out together. All right, now we're going to share a little bit of what we use for our general planning tools, so it's not all in our heads. I am a spreadsheet person, so I have a massive spreadsheet
00:36:00
Speaker
It has each of my kids on it. It has the years on it. It has the topics. It has the curriculums, and I just have it all spread sheeted out. This is the big picture, what I use for the big picture. So and so is going to graduate at this age, and so they need to... It's where I do my working backward. It's all the big picture thing, and it's really easy.
00:36:18
Speaker
set it up with a spreadsheet program and put it out there myself. For on a yearly basis, I use a homeschool tracker and that is used by a lot of people. And so it's out there. You can download many, many of the main curriculums are in there and you can download plans that other people have made to say, take apology biology and break it down across the course of a year. You don't have to figure that all out yourself. People have already figured that out, done that work for you and you just download that plan.
00:36:48
Speaker
make sure it works for you, tweak it where you need, and then, you know, print it out on a weekly basis for your kids. I use the well-trained mind book. We'll link it in the show notes. That is a classical learning method and she has tons of resources that she recommends and also kind of just sets it out. Like I didn't have to figure it out all myself, you know, what they should be doing at the dialectic age or in sixth grade or all that. It's an amazing resource that I love to use.
00:37:14
Speaker
I check on a yearly basis to make sure, as I'm doing my summer planning for the year ahead, that's what I use to look and make sure that we're where we want to be. If you want to look at different learning styles, different curriculums for your child, check out Kathy Duffy's things. We'll link to her website. She has reviewed tons of different curriculums based on your child's learning style.
00:37:39
Speaker
And then a final recommendation is Rainbow Resource has on their website reviews of every single curriculum they sell, which is most of them out there. And they also, I'm kind of a hands-on person, they also will, if you sign up for it, send you out a catalog and it's about this thick. I'm gesturing here about four inches thick. And you can just,
00:38:07
Speaker
look and review. They have personally looked at the curriculum and reviewed it. Those are some of the main things that I love to use in the planning phase. Okay. If you're watching on YouTube, I'm taking all my notes from Audrey for her planning. She's a master planner. That massive rainbow resource catalog sounds super dangerous, but also super fun.
00:38:29
Speaker
You know, that Well Trained Mind book is one of those where you get it and you're so excited and you open it up and you're like, oh, like it's a little overwhelming. But excellent. It's almost like a Wikipedia of homeschool resources for a classical education. So that is something to keep its
00:38:46
Speaker
a phenomenal resource to keep on your shelf and just check every now and again. If you try to dive in and read it like a novel or something, you're going to get so overwhelmed, you're going to cry. I'm sorry. My copy of that book has about 55 post-it notes on different pages, making different things. Right. Like you're thinking, oh, I really want my kid to dive deeper a little bit on this subject. You flip open into that and find more resources, but definitely not intended to
00:39:11
Speaker
Make you try everything. No, no, no, no, no. And that is honestly probably my biggest advice for anyone who feels overwhelmed by homeschooling. It is very easy to do, very easy to feel overwhelmed, especially when you are excited about all the options out there. But it's to take one or two things and become great at it, right? Like if you're a new homeschooler and you're feeling really overwhelmed, maybe this is the year where your kid becomes an excellent reader and really excellent at math. And that's it.
00:39:40
Speaker
And when you feel like you have a handle on that, and it'll probably be a lot sooner than you realize, then you start inserting a little bit of history and maybe it's just a novel that you read together and then you just kind of poke around a little bit.
00:39:51
Speaker
it's so much better to gradually expand the learning that you're doing with your child than to start with this big huge massive goal and then see everything crumble. Does that make sense? So that's just kind of my little tip for anybody who's feeling a little bit scared is to just start small and build out from there and you'll be amazed at what you're excited to do once you get kind of those basics under your belt.
00:40:14
Speaker
Um, I have not tried a spreadsheet yet, but I think I'm totally going to this year after hearing yours, Audrey. It sounds amazing. I just have a big homeschool binder just says mom stuff. And it's all of the, um, all of the information that I have downloaded, like I said, the different, um, levels that I want my kids to hit. It's their progress with certain things. It's how far they've gotten on certain things. Um, I'm kind of a pen and paper person, but spreadsheets are brilliant, especially because now we have this tutor that
Planning Tools and Methods
00:40:40
Speaker
we use.
00:40:40
Speaker
that'd be very easy to share with someone else. So yeah, whatever, you know, and it might take you some trial and error to figure out exactly what you like and what helps you keep track the easiest, but lots of options. All right guys, we're getting a little long here, but you can tell that we really love to be intentional about what we're planning. We think there is so much benefit in having a goal as to where you're heading because it makes a smaller,
00:41:06
Speaker
steps, the smaller chunks fall into place and it makes it easy. And then you're confident in what you're teaching your child. You're not in the back of your brain as you're teaching them thinking, oh, should we be using a different curriculum? Are we on track? You know, like, you know where you are and you know where you're going. And that is the biggest benefit of planning.
00:41:22
Speaker
Yes.
Embracing Freedom in Homeschooling
00:41:23
Speaker
And also remember, there is no perfect way to educate your child. There just isn't. You're going to try something and it's going to work great sometimes and sometimes not. And then you're going to pivot and you're going to find something else great. And then they're going to change and you're going to pivot again. And that is okay. The plan is basically just the foundation to help you feel so much more secure when you go into it. Like you said, you're not constantly questioning every second guessing, every decision.
00:41:45
Speaker
and questioning yourself if you're doing the right thing. But if it doesn't end up working at the end of that semester or the end of that year, you get to throw it out and try something new. That's the freedom of it. All right, everybody. That's it for this week. We hope this episode has helped you in planning or being more confident about planning what your kids are going to be doing in school this year. I'm Audrey. I'm Bonnie. And we're outnumbered.
00:42:09
Speaker
Thanks for listening, friends. Click the link in the show notes to subscribe to our email and never miss another episode.
00:42:48
Speaker
I think Halo is good. Right there.