On Independence & Seeing The Positive

At some stage during their school years children need to move into independent learning mode and it is our role as their guide to assist them in achieving this.

Each child will be different in regards to their ages and stages of independence. But to ensure our children lead successful lives they must be able to work and live independently.

For today I'm going to focus on independent learning and how I am fostering that in my youngest child who is turning eight shortly.

I've used a relatively simple approach with all three of my children. I always ensure they know and understand exactly what is expected of them. This has taken approximately 12 months of sitting side by side with my seven year old holding his hand so to speak and working directly with him. During this time the older two are off doing their independent work.

Once I felt he had some level of confidence I began to distance myself. In the very early stages it is as simple as 'here's  your math practice, please make a start while I visit the bathroom and I'll be right back'. I got very good at finding lots of little reasons to leave the room more and more frequently.

Each time I come back I assess how he is and he has coped with what he was required to do. Thankfully he is a relatively calm child when it comes to structured work. This process took a great deal longer with my daughter, but my eldest had a similar experience to my youngest. Maturity, self motivation, learning styles and other factors can and will come into play for each child.

As his reading improves so will his level of work independence. Moving things in this direction as a slow, gentle pace has meant we've had no tears or frustration whatsoever and he is well on his way to becoming an independent learner.

Homeschool Tip #9

Gently move your children to independent learning.

Being around our children all day every day is such an amazing blessing. We truly get to experience so many wonderful things that parents of public school children miss out on simply due to time.

However with the all the wonderful there is also of course a bunch of not so wonderful. One of those being, we see every single little infraction from each of our children.

This can easily become something that wears the home schooling parent down because they are always feeling as though they need to correct all of these infractions. With so much correcting to do you may begin to feel as though there isn't much positive to see.

Parenting is hard work, parenting and homeschooling with kids that push the boundaries and exert their personalities every moment of every day is trying for even the best of us.

I urge you though to see past the minor infractions and the feelings of constant correction and remind you of a wonderful saying ~ Don't sweat the small stuff ~ but choose to see all of the wonderful positivity that your delightful home schooled children bring to your lives.

Homeschool Tip #10

Choose to see the positive. Look past the minor infractions and don't allow them to bog you down.

More Tips For Homeschool Parents

Each day this week I am sharing links right here to the other bloggers that are joining in with the Tips For Homeschool Parents blog hop.

The blogs I link to will also be different each day so you will find heaps of variety and you never know, you may just find your new favourite blog!

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




Happy Homeschooling Friends,
Kylie

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On Fresh Air & Journals

Welcome back to day four of Tips For Homeschooling Parents. Did you have a read through some of the tips from the other bloggers yesterday? You can find their links at the end of this post.

I hope you will continue to join us every day this week for more great Tips For Homeschooling Parents.

Fresh air, we all know and understand that our bodies and minds simply can't function without lots and lots of fresh air.

Generally, this is never an issue when our children are young. Their minds and bodies crave and beg for the outdoors, if they aren't outside playing, they are often at the park with siblings or other homeschooling friends.

As our children age, their book work increases and generally the amount of technology they have access to also tends to increase, heading outdoors often becomes much less of a priority to them.

However, I feel that being outdoors during these tween/teen years is crucially important for both our kids physical and mental health.

In fact a recent survey showed quite alarming results in regards to how much time our kids actually spend outdoors!

We must not allow ourselves to become part of the ever growing 'nation of the great indoors'.

Homeschool Tip #7

Make it a priority, in each and every day, to spend as much time outside as you possibly can. Take the books out with a blanket and enjoy reading in the sunshine.

If you're anything like me, record keeping is just another one of those pesky chores that you'd ditch if you really could.

Throughout the years I've always jotted down the things the kids needed to get through in a day, but we don't have a calendar of must do's laid out for us for the remainder of the year.

Exactly how I have done this has varied from a few notes on a single sheet of paper that is discarded at the end of the day, to a typed up weekly spreadsheet that we printed on a Monday and checked off the tasks as they were completed.

All of these methods have been quite fickle, simple yes and simple is what I need and although they served a purpose at the time there was no long term value in them. I needed a way to not only set out the required tasks for the day but a way to keep records on that, without double handling.

Some time ago I saw a post mentioning the use of spiral notebooks but my first thought was of lost notebooks, never to be seen again and therefore needing to be continually purchased new. Which again puts us back at square one with the fickle system.

That is, until I saw a standard A4 lined notebook, simply bound with staples but that is also hole punched and can fit neatly and securely inside the kids ring binder folders which we use to hold their daily and weekly work.

Perfect! I bought a pile of them.

These notebooks, without a doubt have been one of the best organisational tools that I've added into our homeschool in a very long time.

The secret to these though is to ensure you are using the K.I.S.S system with them. Don't make things any harder or more involved than what it needs to be.

I simply date the page, list what needs to be done and we tick things off as they are completed. I also aim to record other things that we do, excursions, co-op days and the classes covered, household chores, all right there on the same page.

This makes for a simple record of structured learning, free range times and out and about activities and excursions.

I love that I can easily look back and find what we were doing on any given day or week. If wanted or needed I can also easily add in our outcome codes for certain activities right there on the page.

Homeschool Tip #8

Introduce daily work journals to set tasks and keep records all at the same time.

More Tips For Homeschool Parents

Each day this week I am sharing links right here to the other bloggers that are joining in with the Tips For Homeschool Parents blog hop.

The blogs I link to will also be different each day so you will find heaps of variety and you never know, you may just find your new favourite blog!


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




Happy Homeschooling Friends,
Kylie

Come on over and join me at

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Visit Our Worldwide Classroom's profile on Pinterest.  

On Downtime & Friends

Welcome back to day three of Tips For Homeschooling Parents. Did you have a read through some of the tips from the other bloggers yesterday? You can find their links at the end of this post.

I hope you will continue to join us every day this week for more great Tips For Homeschooling Parents.

Do your children have ample downtime in their day?

Time spent with nothing to do but whatever they please!

Do they have time every day to run, play and simply do nothing if that is what they choose?

Science is proving time and time again that kids with not enough downtime are highly stressed and generally unhappy.

Granted the amount of downtime required is generally different for each of us but take the time to watch your children, to figure out what is the right amount of time. Often their behaviour throughout the day is a clear indicator if we are open to seeing it.

My daughter as an example, after she has had a very busy day, almost always retreats to our backyard, to do nothing. Out there she reconnects with herself, with the earth and with her quiet space. She digs, she gardens, she cartwheels, she sings and she bounces on the trampoline.

This is important for her and with out she becomes easily frazzled.

Homeschool Tip #5

Work 'downtime' into your routine. Both your children and your body and mind will thank you for it.

We gather with friends to learn 1 - 2 times per week and have been doing so for about 3 or so years now. We call this our micro-schooling way of learning.

This has truly invigorated our home school. Whilst we don't always get to choose what we are learning, we do love and always embrace these days.

The children are encouraged and cheered on by their friends and the other adults that are doing the teaching. They experience co-operative learning on a regular basis and have the opportunity to create long lasting friendships

Homeschool Tip #6

Grab some friends and do some learning together. If you are new at this, start with some simple, some art classes or science experiments and let it grow from there.

More Tips For Homeschool Parents

Each day this week I am sharing links right here to the other bloggers that are joining in with the Tips For Homeschool Parents blog hop.

The blogs I link to will also be different each day so you will find heaps of variety and you never know, you may just find your new favourite blog!


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




Happy Homeschooling Friends,
Kylie

Come on over and join me at

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Have you looked at my Pinterest Boards lately?


Visit Our Worldwide Classroom's profile on Pinterest.  

On Chores & Motivation

Welcome back to day two of Tips For Homeschooling Parents. Did you have a read through some of the tips from the other bloggers yesterday? You can find their links at the end of this post. I hope you will continue to join us every day this week for more great Tips For Homeschooling Parents.

Build Chores Into Your Home School Schedule

Homemaking or housework can be incredibly difficult to maintain whilst raising children, add homeschooling into the mix and if you are anything like me it can be downright overwhelming.

Not only do we need to cook, clean, meal plan and all of the other gamut of must do's that keeping a home requires but we also need to research curriculum, plan lessons, physically take an active part in the children's education every day, and ensure we have enough social and extra curricular activities organised for them. So basically us homeschool mums are working the equivalent to a full time job on top of the regular keeping of the home.

This isn't new, women have been keeping full time jobs and raising families for decades.  The big stand out difference here for me though is those homes for the most part, generally stand empty most days of the week. No one is there pulling out toys, running dirt in and out of the house every few minutes. Experimenting in the kitchen, and making messes every where you turn.

With staying home and having a houseful it means that the house really does get lived in and it needs constant attention. So much so that there is no way I can keep on top of it all on my own. Quite frankly now that my children are 14, 11 and 7 they are all more than capable of taking on their fair share of the housework.

So we build this into our daily schedule as much as we can. Along with their list of educational tasks they need to complete for the day they will also have, as a part of that very same list (we don't do extra chore charts) the things they need to do around the home. This varies depending on what we've got going on and how much of a disarray the house might be in. 

My older two are well and truly capable of doing pretty much anything I do around the home, from cleaning bathrooms, to washing clothes and mowing the backyard. My 7 year old is still in training, I don't expect much of anything from one that age. They are still babies after all. He will sort washing, clean some windows, sweep the floor, unpack the dishwasher, pick up toys etc. As he matures so will his level of jobs around the house.

We've never done any huge chore chart systems, oh we've tried them in the past but they never work for us. So I simply show the kids how to do various chores until they can do them proficiently and then I know I can add them into their daily tasks list. No need to make things harder than what they need to be.

This doesn't mean that we have a spotless home, far from it actually! It simply means that I do not need to carry the burden on my own. It also means that I am teaching the children valuable life skills. Ones I know that that they will thank me for as the years progress.

Homeschool Tip #3

Tip number 3 is to include daily household chores in with your regular school day. It can also help to break up the monotony of the day.

Finding Your Child's Motivation

Are you finding the days dragging out? Kids dragging their feet and taking 3 times as long as they probably should to complete their school work? My older two are generally pretty good and I feel that for the most part this is simply maturity. When they were younger they always dragged the chain but as they gained more skills and the work becomes much more manageable to complete independently they have both flourished and have become quite reliable independent kids.

My 7 year old on the other hand, well he's 7. Don't get me wrong I never expect more than what I feel they can deliver. You all know that we are a 'better late then early' family and we are also very relaxed with our homeschooling.

At such a young age our primary focus is getting reading happening, along with some basic arithmetic. Young children really can and do learn all of the extra's (such as science, geogrpahy, social studies etc) simply by living a full and varied life. They don't need a curriculum to take care of those things. Although he does get small amounts from our micro school and co-op days. For his work at home with me though he can do what he needs to do in as little as 30 - 40 minutes of structured time, roughly 3 times a week.

He can however, make that 30 minutes drag out to 90 minutes on days where he simply isn't feeling it! That was until I found his motivation. By that I don't mean bribes or punishment in any way. Those are not things I wish to bring into our homeschool. Although I do believe at times we need to assist the kids with their motivation, by adding in something (and this will be different for each child) that invigorates them and assists them in their perseverance for a job well done.

For my 7 year old that is one of racing his mum. At least for now it is anyway. The thing with these simpler motivational tools is they can be fickle things, they don't work forever and often you only find them by chance. Which is what occurred with us one morning.

He was at the dining table, where he and I generally sit together for this part of the day. His work was all laid out in front of him, ready for him to choose what he would work on first. We are in the early stages of fostering independence and are pretty much at stage 1, but that is a whole other blog post. He was dragging his feet. Doing everything other than what we needed to do.

I looked behind and noticed that the kitchen was still a mess from breakfast. I was starting to get a little panicky, I had a kitchen that needed cleaning, and three kids that needed attention from me, plus the million and one other things I had on my list for the day. Please, just get started already!

So I gave him an opportunity to race me. He needed to pick one thing from the choices in front of him. Complete that one thing whilst I was behind him cleaning in the kitchen. So for example, he chose his math sheet. I said to him, let's see if you can beat mummy in unloading the dishwasher.

He was off like a shot, and of course he beat me every single time! This worked like a charm and on days he is eager to have races he powers through and his small amount of work is wrapped up in no time at all. Plus my kitchen gets cleaned up at lightning pace!

The other surprise with adding this element into to his routine is one of fostering independence. I always make sure he understands what he needs to do before I head into the kitchen (which is literally 3 steps from the table he is sitting at). He has surprised both me and himself with what he can actually do. Often when I am sitting right there next to him he doesn't seem as capable as what he really is. Finding a simple motivational tool, such as racing mum, has shown both of us just how capable he really is.

Homeschool Tip #4

My fourth tip of the week is to find your child's motivation. This may take a bit of trial and error but it's well worth pursuing if you have children that drag their feet.

More Tips For Homeschool Parents

Each day this week I am sharing links right here to the other bloggers that are joining in with the Tips For Homeschool Parents blog hop.

The blogs I link to will also be different each day so you will find heaps of variety and you never know, you may just find your new favourite blog!

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




Happy Homeschooling Friends,
Kylie

Come on over and join me at

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Have you looked at my Pinterest Boards lately?


Visit Our Worldwide Classroom's profile on Pinterest.  

On Morning Baskets and One More Thing

Welcome to the first day of  Tips For Homeschooling Parents. I hope you will join us every day this week for tips on all manner of things related to homeschooling.

Add In A Morning Basket To 'Fit It All In'

I think most homeschooling parents often wonder how on earth they will ever fit everything in. We spend many hours pondering what education means to us, how we foresee that with our children and what tools we will actually use to help guide us along this path.

If you are anything like me most years you will have a list a mile long of all the things you would like to cover. All the topics you'd love to introduce your children too. All the experiences you wish you could take.

Then the day to day reality sets in and you quickly realise that on some, if not many days it is all you can do just to get through the basics of the 3r's.

I've always gathered my children together to read to them every morning, or at least we try to do this every morning. One morning, quite some time ago it dawned on me that I could be using that time to our advantage.

Don't get me wrong, reading 'for fun' books is definitely an important part of our day but what if I could also add in other learning opportunities into the time window.

Slowly, slowly I began including books from history, biographies, books about art and artists. Science books and books relating to any unit we may have been working on. Whilst I read the kids draw and color. Sometimes their drawings will reflect the readings, other times we will practice our still life sketching skills.

Right now our Morning Basket routine consists of all of us having something we are reading aloud. My youngest simply shares out loud simple books that he can already read. This is purely to help build fluency and his confidence with reading out loud. My older two children choose a chapter book that they would like to read to us. I also read aloud from a chapter book of my choosing.

Generally that takes about 20 or so minutes. We have also begun working our way through the Logic of English program. I could do this individually with each of the children but I've chosen to use it as part of our morning basket routine because it is a program that we can utilise together at varying levels. We spend around 15 to 20 minutes on LOE each morning.

Currently we are looking at some famous Artists. Again we spend around 20 minutes reading, admiring and discussing art work, drawing and notebooking. This is the area of our morning basket where I also sneak in some copywork, which at the moment is related to our artist study.

I try to keep the morning basket portion of the day to around one hour. As we complete a book or begin to tire of a topic we change it up and include something different into the routine. At some point during the hour, generally when I notice that my 7 year old needs a break, we have been trying to work on perfecting our diaphragmatic breathing and a couple of simple yoga poses.

Even on busy days if all we can fit in is our morning basket than I know we have gathered together  and have exercised both our minds and our bodies. I love all of the little extra nuggets I have been able to fit into our year simply by including them in our morning basket.

Homeschool Tip #1

So my first tip for the week is to get started on a morning basket. Keep it simple, if you aren't already reading aloud first thing in the morning, then begin with that and once it is routine, little by little add in smaller pieces of 'something else' that you would like to share with your children.

Do One More Thing

After the morning basket, we move into our independent work blocks and I'll try and touch more on those later in the week.

From there it is lunch time and generally enthusiasm for the day is beginning to wane. This is where the 'do one more thing' tip comes into play.

Once we've cleaned up from lunch we simply do one more thing. It might be science, history , geography, art, craft or even board games together or simply any other topic we haven't touched on during the earlier part of the day. But whatever it is both the kids and I know that it is only one more thing.

It is so easy to let the afternoons slip by and not do anything productive with them, but if you include the 'do one more thing' habit into your routine you'll quickly be surprised as to how much extra you can pack into the day and still have a large chunk of the afternoon for down time.

We don't draw it out, this is generally the shortest part of our day, unless of course we are completely engrossed in what it is we are doing. Again, like with the morning basket, I rotate our 'do one more thing' topic so that we are touching on different areas each day.

Homeschool Tip #2

So my second tip for the week is to simply do one more thing after lunch. Keep it simple, you might even like to start with things board games, documentaries and crafts. Once it becomes routine then the skies the limit with what you may add in to that part of the day.

More Tips For Homeschool Parents

Each day this week I am sharing links right here to the other bloggers that are joining in with the Tips For Homeschool Parents blog hop.

The blogs I link to will also be different each day so you will find heaps of variety and you never know, you may just find your new favourite blog!

Annette @ A Net In Time  ~ Brandy @ Kingdom Academy Homeschool  ~ Brenda @ Counting Pinecones  ~ Carol @ Home Sweet Life  ~ 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






Happy Homeschooling Friends,
Kylie

Come on over and join me at

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Have you looked at my Pinterest Boards lately?


Visit Our Worldwide Classroom's profile on Pinterest.  

A Week Of Tips For Homeschool Parents

All this week I'll be sharing some of my homeschool tips, with fresh new blog posts every day.

I have joined with the bloggers from the Schoolhouse Review Crew, where over the next five days  we will all be bringing you a whole host of tips for your homeschool.

Be sure to check back daily for all of the new tips added by all the various bloggers.

As the week progresses I will add the links to each of my blog posts below as an easy reference point.

See you all tomorrow for a full weeks worth of homeschool tips.

Day 1 Of Tips For Homeschool Parents

We talked about adding in a morning basket to your daily routine.

I also shared my reasoning on adding in just one more thing to your day.

Day 2 Of Tips For Homeschool Parents

I talked about how we handle chores around here.

Finding your child's motivation can make a huge difference to your homeschool day.

Day 3 Of Homeschool Tips For Parents

Does your child have enough down time in their day?

I shared how adding in learning with friends has added so much to how our homeschool.

Day 4 Of Homeschool Tips For Parents

Do your children spend adequate time outdoors in the fresh air every day?

I shared the best organisational tool I have added to our homeschool.

Day 5 Of Homeschool Tips For Parents

Here I talked about how I gently guide my children to independent learning.

And lastly I shared about choosing to see the positive.

Thank you for reading along with me on this series. It was a huge week but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

To see all the tips shared by all of the bloggers visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.


Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

Come on over and join me at

Facebook ~ Pinterest ~ Instagram ~ Google + 


Have you looked at my Pinterest Boards lately?


Visit Our Worldwide Classroom's profile on Pinterest.