Homeschooling

 Lately I've had many friends considering homeschooling ask me what resources I use for my family. Most of these things are what I used for my students as a public school teacher. I created this document to share with anyone who wants to know what I use. There are tons of other great resources though, so this isn't an exhaustive list. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions too!

Homeschooling

Why I love homeschooling:

—Your child progresses at their own pace.

—Faster—we take about 2 hours per day, 5 days per week. More learning always happens naturally throughout the day too.

—Focus on what your child is interested in while keeping them on pace academically, usually ahead.

—You know and love your child better than anyone, who better to teach them?

Math

I use www.khanacademy.org for our math curriculum (use on phone, computer or iPad). 

—Curriculum from pre-k all the way up to college. It’s free online!

—It uses the national standards, so if your child can complete the 1st grade math, they can do what a 1st grader can do anywhere in America.

—Created by Sal Khan (he’s amazing, see his TED talk on YouTube).

—Sit with your child daily as they listen to the short lecture and do the practice problems, assisting as needed. Move quickly, slowly or repeat a lesson as needed.

—I also use toy clocks, an abacus, base ten blocks, fraction tiles, play money, flash cards, paper worksheets, etc. to reinforce learning. 

**The full website and the full Khan Academy app are different from the fun learning app they have called Khan Academy Kids (which is also great, but is more for 3-4 year olds to prepare for kindergarten). Go to khanacademy.org and use your email to sign up as a parent. (If you’re already registered as a student, delete your account and re-register as a parent unless you want to use a different email.) Then you can create an account and password (still using your email) for each of your children and add their first course, kindergarten math. They can begin this at age 4 to 5 depending on their interest level.

Reading

I use www.Raz-plus.com for our reading curriculum (use on phone, computer or iPad). 

—Used in the Northshore school district in WA, also in all public schools in Utah where I used to teach and across America.

—Costs $260 per year, add as many children as needed for that price.

—Your child reads out loud to you each day while you assist them in sounding out words and learning vocabulary. You can move them up to the next reading level when you feel they’re ready.

—Their reading level chart tells what levels are for what grade and age.

—You’ll always know your child’s reading level and they’re motivated to move ahead! 

Writing (credit for these ideas to my El Ed writing professor, Brad Wilcox. He explains that the more your child has an audience in their writing, the more motivating it will be, like self-publishing their book on Amazon, sending a letter to a friend or entering a writing contest.)

Writing can be the most challenging subject to teach because it’s easy to think that because your child doesn’t spell everything correctly yet and doesn’t have perfect handwriting that you’re failing. Don’t worry, you can do this! Your child can do this! Kids don’t need to write at a college level in elementary school. Look up 1st grade writing samples on Google, for example, and remember that most of the samples you see are NOT a rough draft. Most are the final draft after students have brainstormed, written a rough draft, edited and then polished their final draft.

—Journal time (2 days per week)

 This gets kids writing about what they love without freezing over spelling and form. Give quiet writing time for about 15 minutes, giving a prompt if they want it, otherwise they choose their topic (I write along with them in my journal, as Brad Wilcox recommends). Then take turns sitting in a special chair to read aloud what you and your child wrote. After reading, the presenter asks for questions or comments then everyone applauds at the end. Don’t correct this writing.

—Shared writes (once per month, or just whenever preparing your child for a paper)

This helps walk kids through the writing process. On a dry/erase board, write a paper together starting with the brainstorm, rough draft, edits and final draft. Use the following writing categories to do a shared write (at least one of each per school year):

• Narrative/fictional story (illustrate and publish on Amazon if desired!)

• Expository (non-fiction research, e.g. All About Pumpkins, History of Baseball, etc.)

• Opinion (e.g. My Favorite Sport, Why We Should Get a Hamster, etc.)

• Biography or autobiography 

• Letter/email

—Papers (work on these 2 to 3 days per week)

By paper, I mean a few sentences for a kindergartener, a bit more for a 1st grader, a page or so for a 2nd grader, and progressing to a few pages for a 5th grader. Once per school year, each child writes one or more of the above paper types starting with a rough draft, editing, such as correcting spelling, punctuation, improving vocabulary and adding details, then completing the final draft, with illustrations or diagrams if desired. 

—Fill in the blanks and word list sentences (about twice a month)

Most of my professors and many fellow teachers felt that spelling lists were less effective than simply reading and writing a lot. You can use a spelling program if you want, but often I’ll just give my kids 10 words and ask them to write a sentence for each one and then we edit it. I also write fill-in-the-blank sentences on the white board for them to write and fill in, like what their favorite color is, what they want to be for Halloween, etc. 

Science and Social Studies

—Follow the interests of your child! It’s fun to see what they want to delve into.

—In public school kids generally study 5 science units per year, like weathering and erosion, life cycles of frogs/butterflies, magnetism, electricity, etc. You can buy science unit kits, Kiwi Co or Mark Rober boxes, microscopes and sample slides, watch Magic School bus and read books. —State history, United States History and World history can be taught formally from a curriculum like The Good and the Beautiful, or follow your child’s interests by visiting a museum, watching a kid’s documentary, act out a court case, memorize the Bill of Rights, learn about the Constitution, read or watch the news, etc.

Music, Art and P.E.

—These again can follow the interests of your child! We like to do Art for Kids Hub on YouTube and explore different art mediums. For music our kids do piano lessons and for P.E. my girls take swimming lessons and want to learn Karate.

Portuguese (or other second language)

—If you speak a second language, or want to learn one with your child, homeschooling is ideal because they are at home long enough to practice with you! We speak Portuguese at home four days per week, and we do Portuguese writing practice, watch cartoons in Portuguese, have speaking practice where I set a timer for them to speak only Portuguese for a given amount of time then earn a treat, and finally my favorite website with hundreds of books written and many of them read out loud by Brazilian authors, www.elefanteletrado.com. (Feel free to reach out to me if you need help finding resources in a language and I’ll reach out to my former boss, Jamie Leite.)

Friend/Social Time

—Once per week we get together with a group of friends, some homeschoolers and some not, for some unstructured playtime. Lydia also attends primary activities every other week, we sign up for swimming lessons, piano lessons, have playdates with friends and go to the park a lot for more social time. Homeschool coops are another great way to make friends.

Final Thoughts

I truly believe that every loving parent is qualified to homeschool, even without a background in education. When I say loving, I don’t mean perfect parents either! Only God is the perfect parent. My children resist learning certain subjects more than others, and sometimes they are grumpy when it is time to learn. 

Even when I taught public school, I had many students who loved one subject area but truly struggled in another subject area. One of my 5th graders was incredible at math but froze up during writing, perhaps only being able to write a sentence or two. He and all his peers have since graduated high school and gone to BYU and other great schools and on missions and are happy, successful people.

Also, hands-down, the greatest indicator for any of my students of how well they would do in their education was having supportive parents at home who were involved in their learning—not the rating of the school or the teacher—it all came down to family involvement.

You will do great! Good luck and of course pray for personal revelation. God loves you and your child and He’s the Master Teacher. He’ll help you always!

I talk about some of these homeschooling ideas in more detail in this video I made back in 2020. https://youtu.be/D0ErRuUFh8w