Tips for Homeschooling Parents ~ High School

Here we are on the final day of our Tips for Homeschooling Parents Blog Hop. I hope you've found lots of encouragement and help this week. I saved High School for last. Many parents feel they are ill-equipped to teach High School and consider sending their children to Public School. Let me encourage you that you CAN teach your High School aged students at home, and they can succeed, while you have the blessing of watching them grow into young adults.

I just have five points I want you to think about, and then I'm going to link some of our recent posts about High School to give you more of an idea about what the day to day life of High School is like around here.

Keep The Vision

You started this journey with a vision, as you draw near to that goal, do not waver. It is ok to change up your curriculum choices, or even your teaching style, but remember WHY you started home educating in the first place and keep that forefront in your heart and mind. There are a lot of options for High School, textbook, living books, online, dual enrollment, private tutors. You can continue on through graduation with some planning and effort.

Make a Master Plan for Each Child

At no time since you taught them to read will you notice the differences in each child as much as when you sit down to plan out their 4 or 5 years of High School. Yes, you read that right, some students should be taking five years. One of ours is taking 4.5 years, the other one? We'll wait and see. Sit down as parents with your child and a copy of your state's requirements. Pencil in the basics, then talk honestly about which electives your student wants to consider. You don't need all the electives chosen before you begin, but you should have the state requirements for Math, Science, History, and Language Arts filled out early so you don't overlook a course they'll need to graduate!

Write it all Down ~ On Paper!

There are a wealth of online planners and record keepers out there. However, you're going to need to keep a basic tally of courses completed on paper. Computers crash, companies change software, with at least a general outline on paper, you can always re-create any transcript information that might have been lost.

Transcript choices

You don't have to decide NOW which way to write out the transcript, but you should be thinking about it. When in doubt, write it down in a notebook or planner you save JUST for High School records. See the link below to our post about transcripts and graduation for more ideas!

Remember the Field Trips

We are HUGE proponents of experiential learning. Plan at least one field trip each month in High School. Sometimes you won't get them all in, but try. Older students love the break from book work, and are often able to formulate deeper questions to ask about the event or location than they could at younger ages. You'll love seeing things through new eyes as well.

Enjoy the Ride!

The High School years can be a wonderful, crazy, exhausting ride. It is so worth your time and effort to spend these last few years with your children as they mature into adults. Continue to tie heart strings. Remember that you were once a teenager. Be the parent, but also be their friend. Show them through your actions that they are valued, and that you are truly blessed to be able to spend this time together!

Click on the links below for more of our real-life High School posts.

Transcripts, Graduation, and a Diploma

Help! I Can't Fit it all in!

How Will I Teach High School?

Math and Science in High School

Homeschooling High School ~ Electives

Language Arts (& History!)

Making a Plan ~ Homeschooling High School 




To see what everyone else is sharing today, click on the banner below! Thanks for stopping by all week!

Visit my friends to read their tips for Homeschool Parents

Dawn @ Double O Farms 

Dawn @ Guiding Light Homeschool 

Debbie @ Debbie's Homeschool Corner 

Desiree @ Our Homeschool Notebook 

Diana @ Busy Homeschool Days 

Diana @ Homeschool Review 

Elyse @ Oiralinde: Eternal Song 

Emilee @ Pea of Sweetness 

Erin @ For Him and My Family 

Jen @ Chestnut Grove Academy

5 Days of Tips for Homeschooling Parents ~ The Middle School Years

When your children reach the Middle School years, there is a shift that happens in parenting. For some it happens in 5th grade, for others it happens in 6th and 7th grade. It is a shift towards independent learning. Your goal in these middle years should be to foster independence.

Don't worry, your children are still going to need you ~ A LOT! After all, this is where Algebra begins-LOL! The point is that now you shift from meeting all of their needs, to teaching them how to meet their own needs.

This shift takes time, and patience. Lots and lots of patience and prayer!

I'll share four things that can help you work on transitioning your children into independent learners before they enter the High School years. These are the things that we worked on (besides the obvious tasks of self-care, character traits, and changes brought on by puberty,) while our girls were in the Middle School years.

Teach learning skills

When you children are still littles, you spoon feed them most of their learning. Now is where you show them how to learn something themselves. Help them learn how to use the knife and fork of learning. Show them how to take notes, how to memorize names or important dates, how to use a key-word outline, and how to write a short speech. As they work on mastering each of these learning skills, they will be able to formulate a plan of attack to learn about new subjects themselves.

Shift record keeping responsibilities

You are still ultimately responsible for making sure your students do their schoolwork, however, now is a great time to show them how to record what they've done. It teaches them a new skill and helps you keep better records yourself. Get them a planner, it can be from the dollar store, or a fancier one. There are a lot of student planners out there, but just a basic school-year calendar style one is a good place to start. Show them how to abbreviate for each subject or course, and record what they covered each day. Have them practice explaining it to Dad at the end of the week. It is a good recap for them, and a time to practice informal, informative speech skills.

Encourage one or two outside activities

Your middle school aged student probably wants to spend time with their friends, and you want them to be some place safe. An organized club, sport, or volunteer activity several times a month can fit the needs of you both. Just put a limit on how many things they can participate in ~ save your sanity and your budget by limiting it to just a few times a month...not several times  a week!

Choose a path ~ or three

These middle years are a great time to explore several different possible careers at a superficial level. Visit people in the careers your student is interested in either through a field trip, or by arranging an after-hours meet and greet. Let them choose books at the library based upon their own interests, and let them explore. Right now, when they're still under your ever-watchful gaze, is a great time to explore possibilities for the future. The pressure to choose is low, and the excitement to try something new is high ~ capitalize on it!

Have fun!

Your middle schoolers are really turning into unique, thoughtful individuals. Cherish this time when they still want to tell you everything, and you'll get to keep that communication line open for the High School years. Do fun activities together because you can. Choose to spend days outdoors together, because now, you don't need to find a pit-stop every twenty minutes! Enjoy your children now while there is free time. High School is around the corner. Start talking to them now about possible courses of study, and then, ditch school on a sunny day and go hike in the park ~ because you can! Just write it down as gym class.

Tomorrow we'll be back with one last stop in this big hop ~ tips for the High School years.

In the meantime ~ go hug your kids!



Find more great tips for parents on these blogs: Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break  Latonya @ Joy in the Ordinary  Laura @ Day by Day in Our World  Leah @ As We Walk Along the Road  Lisa @ Farm Fresh Adventures  Lori @ At Home: where life happens  Meg @ Adventures with Jude  Megan @ My Full Heart  Melanie (Wren) @ finchnwren  Melissa @ Mom's Plans

Teaching Your Children to Clean ~ Tips for Parents

I felt the need to follow up yesterday's post about sharing the housework amongst the family with an honest ~ right to the point ~ post about HOW to teach your children to clean. Here are today's tips for Homeschooling (or any other) Parents!

First up ~ You've got to clean up your cleaners! Many of the cleaners commercially available at the store are a HUGE no-no for children to even be around. Let's face it, some of them even make me squirm the ingredients are so toxic, and I'm the one who puts them on the shelf for my day job! This isn't about bashing any brand, sometimes YOU the parent are going to need something pretty strong to clean something really disgusting, but for almost all household jobs, greener cleaners work well.

Look at the picture below. Along the bottom are the front of three different toilet bowl cleaners ~ all from the same manufacturer. One is probably ok for tweens and teens to use with caution... that would be the one labeled CAUTION. The other two should only be used by adults, with gloves on...and the DANGER one should not be used unless you're wearing goggles, gloves, and a mask. Seriously people, what are you exposing yourselves to in the name of saving five minutes cleaning the bathroom? If you want the cold, hard facts, click over to this post from the Ecology Center where you'll find out that DANGER chemicals can be fatal with less than a teaspoon. Let's take care of our cleaning and our families and talk about using something less toxic.

There are so many cleaning products available at the local market these days that are safe for use around children, and by children, that we just need to clean up our cleaning products. The two photos on the right (above) are of two cleaning wipes that I found at my local grocery store...both of which we've used before. Neither of them require a warning label because they are made out of plant ingredients...oh, what? Yes, they're made out of plant-based soaps and essential oils. You can pick them up at your local store, and they don't cost a fortune. Amazing!

In general, we still purchase products today that were safe for the girls to use when they were just 6 or 8. When they were little I bought a pair of rubber gloves for them to use, and I taught them how to use each product, and then wash their hands well with soap and water when they were finished. This is not rocket science people. Guess what? Now they're 15 & 17 and I can't remember the last time I had to clean a bathroom! To a working Mama, that is GOLD!

OK, but you may still be wondering: how?

Step one: relax and tell your child they are going to learn something new because they are getting to be a big helper at home. (Feel free to use your own child's love language here.)

Step two: show them what to do

Clean everything off of the counter/ sink

Spray the counter and sink with cleaner (or use a handy-dandy wipe)

Wipe the counter, faucet, and sink with a clean towel (it helps to go buy a set of inexpensive cleaning towels from the store just for the bathrooms so they always know which ones to use)

Put everything back that should be on the counter, put the rest of it (like extra ponytail holders) away in the drawer/ cabinet.

Clean everything off the top of the toilet

Spray the outside of the toilet tank, seat, and base ~ remember to spray the handle too!

Wipe with a cleaning towel (put towel in the dirty bucket)

Lift the lid, spray the bottom of the lid and the top of the toilet seat

Wipe with a new cleaning towel

Lift the seat, spray the bottom of the seat and the top of the bowl

Wipe with the cleaning towel, then put the towel in the dirty bucket

(If you sink wasn't very dirty, that towel can be used again for the outside of the toilet ~ however, towels NEVER go from the toilet to the sink!!! Once a cleaning towel has been used on the toilet it goes in your cleaning bucket to be washed. If you don't already have a bucket with a handle for dirty towels, stop at the dollar store and get one JUST for use when you're cleaning the bathroom!)

Last but not least:

Squirt cleaner into the toilet bowl and show the child how to clean inside of the bowl with the bowl brush. (If you're not comfortable with this, have them leave this step for you to do until they'r older.)

On to the tub/ shower

Remove all the soap, shampoo, and loofahs from the shower (set them on the floor, you haven't cleaned it yet!)

Spray all surfaces of the shower wall, tub, faucet, etc.

Sing a little song while the cleaner works on the soap scum

Wipe all areas they can reach. Then rinse with clean water. If you have a hand-held shower you are golden, if not, you'll have to show them how to use a bucket to pour water over the shower walls to rinse them. 

Rinse out the tub a second time to make sure you've removed all the cleaner.

Put that towel in the dirty bucket

Return all the soap, shampoo, etc.

Other things:

Empty the bathroom trash can, then wipe down the outside with an appropriate cleaner, or spray with an essential oil air freshener if it is a wicker or woven basket

Clean any walls that get dirty often, and the door, especially the door handle by spraying, wiping, and scrubbing if necessary.

Change the hand towels 

The floor

How you do this will depend on the size of your bathroom

If it is small, spray starting the furthest point from the door, and wiping with a cleaning towel as you back up

If it is huge, sweep first with a broom or your vacuum cleaner, then mop, starting furthest from the door and working backwards

Note: Your littles are not going to be cleaning your mirrors until they are about 10. Before then it is an exercise in futility because they either use too much glass cleaner, or not enough. Just do the mirrors yourself until they get older.

Also- you may want to have them spray the bathroom cabinet (if you have one under the sink) or the sink pedestal. That would come after cleaning the sink, and before doing the toilet. This probably only needs done twice a month unless you have toddlers who brush their own teeth-LOL!

If you have particularly difficult sink or tub, make a paste out of baking soda and scrub with it.

Ta Da! A clean bathroom!

Ok, I'll be honest. The first few time (or weeks) the bathroom will not be as clean as if you did it yourself. That's ok, because you're going to give them two opportunities each week to clean the bathroom. What they miss the first time, you can help them remember the second go-around!

Over time your children will get a lot better. Sometime you're going to have to go back and remind them of the little things...like when they forget to wipe that tiny area behind the toilet seat in front of the tank, or that sliver of space between the back of the faucet and the wall. As they continue to do the chore, it becomes more of a habit, and they get better, Plus, the bathroom is no longer waiting on you to "get around to it" so the layer of grime or soap scum is thinner and easier to clean. If you have a particularly bad or old toilet, look for a Pumie Stone. They're great for really hard water areas! We bought this one at Kroger and have used it for several years. 

So what are we using to clean our home today? Here is a peek at our current lineup of cleaners:

Read more tips at:

Melissa @ Grace Christian School 

Michele @ Family, Faith and Fridays 

Missica @ Through the Open Window 

Monique @ Mountain of Grace Homeschooling 

Rebekah @ There Will Be A $5 Charge For Whining 

Renita @ Krazy Kuehner Days 

Sarah @ Renaissance Mama 

Sasha @ Such a Time as This 

Tawnee @ Adventures in Homeschooling 

Tiffany @ The Crafty Home 

Tina @ Desperate Homeschoolers

Working and Homeschooling ~ Week 4 ~ Housework, a Family Affair

Welcome back to this merged edition of 5 Days of Tips for Homeschool Parents and Week 4 of our Working and Homeschooling Series! Hopefully you'll see how these two fit hand-in-hand when it comes to housework!

I'n not going to number today's tips, I'm just going to give you some honest thoughts on keeping the housework done at an acceptable level, and keeping your sanity.

Don't expect perfection: life happens, your children are at home, so your house probably won't ever look like the cover of a magazine. That's ok! Your children are much more important than a squeaky clean floor. I'm not saying to settle for a mess, because that makes everyone lazy. What I'm advocating is a reasonable level of cleanliness, and a weekly walk through with the big trash bag!

Split the chores up between everyone. Ok, in some houses Dad is not home from work long enough to do chores on a regular basis and still spend time with the children. In this case, divide the chores amongst the remaining walking individuals. If a child is big enough to walk over and take out their own toys, they're big enough to pick them up and put them back. Does this seem harsh? It shouldn't. Perhaps you just have too many toys per child. In that case, find a local women's shelter and donate some of your quality excess toys to other children. 

Children old enough to write their name are old enough to help clean. Children old enough to get dressed mostly by themselves are old enough to fold towels and match socks. If your child is old enough to write in complete sentences, its time to make sure they also know how to wash dishes. The family that splits chores, shares in a bigger amount of fun, because there is time and energy left at the end of the day for fun! If you're doing it all Mama, you need to let go and start teaching some skills to your children! (More on that tomorrow!)

No, they weren't writing in compete sentences yet, they just wanted to help... so I let them!

Be consistent! If you can only get the bathroom cleaned once a week, then be consistent and clean it on the same day every week. Pick up the trash the afternoon before it needs to go out every single week, then it doesn't get missed! If you assign a child a chore...like feeding the dog... then make sure that child is daily doing their chore. Follow up with them until it becomes a habit. Then, teach them a new skill!

Teach skills well. You must first model to your child what you want done. Show them! Then you must do the chore with them. Then you need to watch them do the chore themselves. Finally they will do the chore independently and you'll just need to check in on them for quality control. For some children this takes a few repetitions, and they learn a new skill quickly. For others, it may be months before they can do a task by themselves.

Anticipate glitches. Your children are all going to learn at different speeds, and for a while, it will take you long to be their employer than to do it for them. Resist the urge to just do it for them. Work with them. If they need step by step instructions in either pictures or words, either write it out and put it in a sheet protector (or laminate it) or purchase one of the sets from a reputable supplier like TimesTales.com. Help them learn to work through each chore one step at a time.

Do the next thing. When you first start assigning chores, you might be overwhelmed. Take a couple minutes to walk through your home with a notepad in hand. Make a list of what you see that needs done, then you can  teach/assign the chores that are easiest first and work on your own list. As you get the major things finished, you'll develop an idea of how often each thing needs completed. It's a good idea to make a chart or list of some sort to hang where everyone can see it. Once you've gotten in a new groove, your older children will know what is expected of them daily. Until you get there, write it down, and check it off.

Don't stress out about it. If you're worried about friends who like to drop by unannounced, just go to Hobby Lobby and buy yourself one of those cute signs: Sorry for the mess, we're busy making memories, or My house was clean yesterday, sorry you missed it. :) 

Life is a work in progress, and shh...I'd rather have teenagers with messy rooms than not have children! So we work on the level of mess being small, and we work towards being responsible adults.

Finally, don't be afraid to ask Dad to help! There are going to be things that are just too difficult for you to do on your own ~ like sweeping behind the couches, or cleaning the top of the ceiling fans ~ where it just makes sense to ask Dad to help.

Have a happy home, clean as you go, and focus on the family you have! If you keep your house clean, you can enjoy more field trips! :)

Want more great tips? Visit some of my friends: Annette @ A Net In Time  Brandy @ Kingdom Academy Homeschool  Brenda @ Counting Pinecones   Cassandra @ A Glimpse of Normal  Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses  Cristi @ Through the Calm and Through the Storm  Crystal @ Crystal Starr  DaLynn @ Biblical Womanhood  Danielle @ Sensible Whimsy

5 Days of Tips for Homeschooling Parents ~ The Elementary Years

Welcome to the 5 Days of Tips for Homeschool Parents blog hop! I’ve joined together with a whole lot of my friends from the Schoolhouse Review Crew to bring you a week of tips and advice for homeschooling parents. I hope you’ll come back every day this week! At the bottom of each day’s post, I’ll include the link back to the Crew anchor post so you can find all of the other blogs that are joining in this week. Without further ado…

Tips for homeschooling parents with elementary aged children

There are so many things to think about when you begin educating your children at home, that parents can get easily frustrated or overwhelmed. Don’t let this be your fate! There are a few things you DO need to focus on, and a lot of things you don’t need with young children.

My friend Katie refers to elementary aged students as “littles.” Over the years I’ve adopted this term myself, as it separates those children who really need you to do most of the work with them, from those who are mature enough to start working independently. Some littles like to work on their own, but their ability to do so is still limited by time, experience, and reading ability. These truly are the formative years: for your teaching style, their learning styles, and the two-way communication you’re going to need before they reach High School.

Here are some tips to help you stay focused:

1. & 2. There are two major things you do NOT need in the Elementary years: technology, and comparison. For a better understanding of The Dangerous Comparison Game, click over and read my post from week 3 of my Working and Homeschooling series. The second thing you do NOT need at this age is technology. Don’t shoot me before you hear me out!

Technology teaches along a different neural pathway than reading does. When your children are littles, you need to be reading to them, reading with them, and teaching them how to read. I understand that there are a lot of quality apps out there that are available to help you, but you don’t need them!!! YOU need to be spending time daily with your children. Stow the technology away for special events, or when you’re desperate because someone in the family is on-the-couch-all-day sick, or you loose your voice. 

3. Littles thrive on Mom and me, or Mom and us time! They also love Dad and us time. Do something together. What the activity is isn’t as important as that you’re doing it together! Read a book out loud, play Candyland, count birds, whatever you can find, do it together. If you are educating your children at home you want to be the biggest influence on their lives ~ you can only accomplish this by being there!

4. There are a few things you do need to educate your littles: a Bible, lots of prayer, a Library card, and a few basic school supplies. I mean basic supplies people, not fancy decorator things. When the girls were little we homeschooled with used math books, a library card, and about $25 of school supplies from Wal-Mart. If you shop during the back-to-school sales in late July and early August, you can still get quite a few supplies for $25!

Here is a good list for supply shopping:

FISKARS safety scissors (seriously worth the extra $1- they last for years!)

construction paper (mixed package)

glue sticks

Elmer’s school glue

Crayola crayons 24 pack (buy two per child, give them the new package half-way through the year!)

Wide lined notebook paper, or wide-lined notebooks

Elementary lined writing paper 

a few three-prong pocket folders

tape (scoth and masking)

colored pencils

hand-held pencil sharpener

wooden pencils

a package of white printer paper for “art class”

A few other tips:

5. As the parent with little children, you must teach yourself how to relax. This is (hopefully) just the beginning. It is a long way from First grade to graduation! God has a plan for your child, and He will reveal it in His timing. The only way to follow His path is to search for it, listen for it, and pray about it.

6. No two children are alike! You are going to be doing a lot of encouraging strengths, and working patiently to overcome weak areas, in the coming years. What works for your first child may or may not work for your second child. This is why I am a big proponent of NOT purchasing a lot of curriculum for elementary aged children. Library books are wonderful. You can check them out, read them together, and then return them. Stop thinking about how YOUR elementary education went, and start thinking about a better method. Strive for a better education for your children by letting them be children. Let them explore, let them move around, take them outside: to the park, to the woods, to the post office. Then take them home and read to them. You’ll teach them to read a little bit at a time, and you’ll work on math a lot, but your children will still have wonder in their hearts for this great big, interesting world that God has made. Cultivate the wonder! 

Take time to be you!

7. It is so easy to get wrapped up in the education of your children and forget to take time to be you. Not time for Mom or Dad, but time for Mary or Joe, Susan or Ralph. If you take just a little time each week to work on some adult thing that you enjoy, whether it’s sewing or fishing, fixing cars or learning to ski, you will be a better parent. Parents of littles who set aside a small time each week to ‘just be adults’ seem happier, healthier, and less prone to lose their cool when their children start pushing their buttons. And they will ~ they'll push your buttons. It’s a part of learning about boundaries. Be the parent, and still be your own person, and you’ll be better able to model healthy boundaries in your own life. For more about "Mom and Dad time" read my week 2 post about homeschool schedules.

8. Finally, my number one tip for homeschooling elementary aged children? 

Prayer, lots and lots of prayer, and then some more prayer, and maybe a little nap.

Until tomorrow! 

Come meet some of my friends and read their tips for homeschool parents:

Jeniffer @ Thou Shall Not Whine 

Jennifer @ A Peace of Mind

Jennifer @ Faithful Homestead

Joelle @ homeschooling for His Glory 

Joesette @ Learning Curve 

Kari @ Random Acts of Boyhood 

Katie @ Katie's Daily Life 

Kemi @ Homemaking Organized 

Kim @ Homestead Acres 

Kylie @ Our Worldwide Classroom