Growing In Grace

Ideas for a Skills-based Summer

July 6, 2018Tracy

Over the years, we’ve done a variety of things during our summer homeschool months. Kids with ADHD need structure, and while I’ve usually offered a break from our core subjects, we usually do something over those summer months to provide a structure. Some summers, we’ve focused on those subjects and activities we didn’t have time for during the school year: hands-on science, music appreciation, art, and nature study. But another fun option is to focus on skills. A skills-based summer can look different for each family and each child based on their ages and interests. The goal is to evaluate what sets of skills you want to work on and create a structure to help you strengthen those skills.

Ideas for a Skills-based Summer

Our Top 5 Homeschool Curriculum Favorites of 2017-18

June 4, 2018Tracy

Do you ever feel as though you’ve hit a wall in your homeschool? Have you ever had to go back to the drawing board on just about every homeschool curriculum decision you’ve made? This past year has been one of those years for me. Even long-standing favorites that I’ve used forever ground to a shocking halt. Over and over again, I found myself back to the drawing board to research new homeschool curriculum. But all of those homeschool challenges and upsets led us to several of our new homeschool curriculum favorites, resources that both my kids and I have loved.

Our Top 5 Homeschool Curriculum Favorites for 2017-18 school year

Teaching the Classics review: Literary analysis for your homeschool (that you’ll actually enjoy)

May 21, 2018Tracy

As my children are getting older and my oldest is approaching junior high, I’ve been thinking a lot about literary analysis. I’ve been asking myself what I want to accomplish, and is it really necessary. While my oldest is very language-oriented and thrives on deep conversation about great books, my younger daughter with dyslexia struggles with reading, even the simple task of decoding words she’s never seen before. How on earth do I tackle character analysis and devices and themes with her?

But even with my oldest literature-loving son, I felt discouraged and overwhelmed when it came to teaching literature. Flipping through over 50 pages of teacher notes for history and literature in my former curriculum each week left me feeling completely incapable and, quite frankly, burned out. I knew I needed something different. So I scoured the internet, and I stumbled upon a company that brought everything back into focus and helped me to answer that nagging question of “why should I do literary analysis anyway?” Center for Lit has a number of resources for homeschool parents that makes studying literature not just possible but meaningful and enjoyable. One of those resources that I’ve been using and absolutely loving is Teaching the Classics.

When is it time to change your homeschool curriculum? 5 ways to know

April 23, 2018Tracy

For six years, I’ve used the same core homeschool curriculum with my three kids. For six years, I’ve loved it, promoted it, recommended it, and blogged about it. Then this year, we hit a wall. Navigating my daughter’s dyslexia, increasing demands on my time, adding another child to the mix of homeschooling multiple ages, graduating my son to a higher level of learning within that curriculum—there was a perfect storm of reasons. But bottom line, what has worked for so long absolutely wasn’t working any longer. I dreaded even opening the lesson plans, much less planning the weekly assignments. My son was in tears over the reading. I was constantly overhauling the curriculum to make it work. And we were all tired.

I’m extremely loyal by nature, so leaving a homeschool curriculum I had used for so long felt a little bit like betrayal, like giving up on a relationship. Even looking at other curriculum options felt a little bit like cheating. Saying goodbye was bitter sweet.

But when I finally made the leap, closed that curriculum for the final time, and made the next purchase, there was a huge sense of relief. For all of us! I hadn’t realized just how heavy and burdened we’d all felt by plodding through a curriculum that was no longer working. The difference was night and day. My kids enthusiasm spiked, and my relief quickly converted into increased energy and enthusiasm as well. As hard as it was to break up with our homeschool curriculum, it was definitely time.

5 ways to know it’s time to change your homeschool curriculum

When the homeschool curriculum is failing you—even after adjustments

It’s not uncommon to run into some issues with even the best curriculum. Making regular adjustments is a part of the normal homeschool routine. But when you can’t find success, no matter how many adjustments you’ve made, it’s probably time to look for a new homeschool curriculum. I’ve made adjustments with our curriculum before and found a method we had all loved. But this year, no matter how many times I made adjustments, there just was no good solution.

When planning and using the homeschool curriculum fills you with dread

Homeschooling is hard. There’s no way around that reality. It’s hard work. It’s a full-time job. And just like any other job, there are going to be days and maybe even weeks when you just don’t feel like doing it. That’s normal. But when opening up that curriculum becomes something you hate and dread day in and day out, when it robs you of your joy and enthusiasm for learning and teaching your children, it’s time for something different. We cannot inspire our kids to love learning if we hate it. And our kids will ultimately pick up on our sour attitudes if we continue with something we hate. That doesn’t even mean that there is something wrong with the curriculum, but different methods and curriculum options work better with certain personalities and at certain stages of life. Find something that gets you excited about learning again.

When everyone begins to hate learning

We can all get into a rut. Especially around January and February, there is a period of homeschooling blues we all tend to go through. But when you and your child(ren) both hate and dread each day, it’s time for a change. Maybe it’s just time for a change of scenery or pace, but sometimes it’s time for drastic changes. What does this look like? When something you’ve loved becomes something you hate, it might be time to change homeschool curriculum. For instance, when my son, who is an avid reader, was coming to me in tears about the content of what he was reading, I knew something needed to change. When planning (something I usually enjoy) was becoming something I dreaded each week, I knew something needed to change. When we all dreaded the start of a new week, I knew something was wrong. I’d tried my usual tactics of making minor changes, but in my gut I knew we needed to say good-bye to our homeschool curriculum and try something new.

When you constantly feel like you are failing

I think we all battle “failure syndrome” to some extent. Life is hard. Parenting is hard. Homeschooling is hard. It’s not unusual to feel like I’m failing at something. But when I feel this way, I’ve learned to take a step back and ask: is there a tool I’m using right now that’s failing me? If I’m preparing a meal and I can’t get the knife to cut through my meat, I don’t instantly assume I’m terrible at cutting meat; I sharpen my knife. As a homeschool parent, we have to approach this feeling of failure the same way. I feel like I’m failing because this curriculum is setting me up to fail. For me, that feeling of failure came because I could no longer devote the hours of prep work it took to make the curriculum a success. Because I didn’t have the time to do it right, there was this constant feeling that I was missing things and leaving things out (because I was). I just couldn’t navigate the 50-80 pages of teacher notes each week to pull things together properly. It was time for a change.

When your homeschool curriculum no longer helps you to achieve your goals

Knowing what you are wanting to accomplish with your homeschooling, what your ultimate goals are, helps you to evaluate when something is no longer moving you toward that goal. If your overall goal is to inspire a love for learning—and your kids are hating school—it’s time for a change. If your overall goal is to build character and values through each subject—and your curriculum is presenting a worldview that doesn’t support your own—it’s time for a change. If your overall homeschool goal is college and career—and your child is scoring poorly on assessments—it might be time for a change. We all have different goals, and our goals may change. But the tools that we use within our homeschool should be moving us toward the goals we have set. Curriculum is a tool, not a master. If your homeschool curriculum tool is no longer working, it’s time for a change.

Breaking up with our Homeschool Curriculum

I love Tapestry of Grace and the years of fond memories we’ve had using this curriculum. But for us, it was time for a change. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been using Heart of Dakota as a family, and it’s been such a relief. We love our guides. I love the Charlotte Mason style, the Christian values, and the clear lesson plans already laid out for me. My kids love the books, the projects, and having all the directions included in their daily assignments. Opening our guides each week to discover what’s next is a joy, and I’m no longer spending all my free time trying to plan the next lesson. Deciding to change our homeschool curriculum wasn’t easy, but using a tool that was no longer working wasn’t easy either.

Sometimes, breaking up with your homeschool curriculum can be the best thing you do for your homeschool.

Tips for Homeschooling Foreign Language with Dyslexia

April 17, 2018Tracy

When a child has dyslexia, there are all kinds of questions. Will she ever be able to read and write? Will he go to college? Can she learn the things my other children are learning? Can he learn a foreign language? Obviously, these answers are as individual as the children themselves, but overall, yes! Your dyslexic child CAN learn. It’s not that a dyslexic child can’t learn; it’s that the child will learn so much differently than a non-dyslexic child. Language skills are definitely a challenge, but they aren’t necessarily insurmountable. Homeschooling foreign language with your dyslexic child is a perfect example.

Both my daughter and my husband have dyslexia. My husband just earned his second masters degree. He can also speak Spanish and translate Greek and Hebrew. He works hard, and he’s learned what helps him to learn. So when my daughter wanted to learn Spanish, I said “absolutely!” I know my dyslexic child can learn a foreign language, but I also know that how she learns that language may look vastly different from how my other children learn it.

Tips for homeschooling foreign language with dyslexia

My daughter has wanted to learn Spanish for years, and we’ve tried a few different approaches for her. She’s tried language apps and activity books and games. For awhile, nothing seemed to work—until I started to rethink what I was doing. I knew that my daughter could learn a language; she’d learned to speak English without a problem. What I needed to do was incorporate the same method into our Spanish study. For the first time this year, we are starting to make some real progress. She’s learning Spanish! Here are a few tips we’ve learned on our journey as we homeschool foreign languages.

Keep it visual, not verbal. This may seem like an oxymoron, but it’s true. Dyslexics learn visually. They think in pictures, not words. So when you attempt to help a dyslexic child learn a foreign language (or even English), keep it visual. Use lots of pictures and videos. Use the language daily as you go about your day. Allow your child to associate the picture and the experience with the language he is learning.

Immerse your child. How do kids learn to speak their native language? Immersion! Homeschooling foreign language is the same way. Daily immerse your child in hands-on, repeated interaction with the language. Most often, dyslexic children learn by doing. Your child with learn a foreign language by living in the context of the language day in and day out. Label objects around the house. Role-play conversations. Have real conversations and play games by including the foreign language vocabulary within your normal English conversation.

Engage the senses. Include as many of your child’s senses as you possibly can. An important way to help your dyslexic child learn a foreign language is by allowing your child to encounter and experience that language—hearing it, seeing it, tasting it, smelling it, and touching it. Taste the eggs and say the foreign word for eggs. Smell the flower and use the new vocabulary for flower. Touch the floor or the ceiling or the door. Play hide-and-go-seek in Spanish or French or Russian or whatever language you’re learning.

Be patient. Allow time for your child to learn. We’ve learned this in so many other areas, haven’t we? We are patient with reading and grammar and comprehension. We understand that our child will have challenges and will have his or her own pace. Homeschooling foreign language with dyslexia is not impossible, if we are patient with the process. It doesn’t matter if the curriculum says it can be completed in a year; let him take two or three years. Allow your child to learn at the pace that is appropriate for him.

I received this product for free and was compensated for my time reviewing this product/service and writing this post. All opinions about the product, however, are my own own.

This post contains affiliate links. That means, when you click on the link and make a purchase, I receive a small compensation.

Why I love Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids®

This year, we’ve loved using Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids®. My daughter enjoys watching the funny, engaging Spanish videos of children doing the things she understands: eating breakfast, reading a book, playing a game, etc. The visually-based quizzes allow her to test what she’s learned with pictures and audio, without relying solely on her reading skills. And the variety of activities allows her to immerse herself without getting bored. Best of all, it’s self-paced, which has eliminated any pressure for her.

Typically, my daughter watches the lessons a couple of times a week with very little involvement from me. She works through activities and watches the videos over and over until she feels ready to move on to the next lesson. She and her brothers role play the videos they’ve watched, repeating the dialogue of the characters in the stories, playing the games the characters have played, and regularly practicing their Spanish vocabulary in a playful way throughout our day. She loves her Spanish lessons, and she’s thriving. (Her brothers love them, too!) Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids® has been ideal, because it incorporates all of these basic tips for helping a dyslexic child learn a foreign language.

It’s visual.
It’s based on immersion.
It engages my kids’ senses.
It allows us to patiently keep our own pace.

Though we have used the online membership,Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids® also has DVD sets available, including a special set for young learners and a super set with workbooks. Single level sets are also available.

For more information or to see samples of the program, visit Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids® And now through April 30, 2018, you can get 20% off any order by using the code 20OFFFORYOU. Plus, enter the giveaway for a free Spanish level on DVD! (Prize shipped only to USA addresses.)

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Homeschooling foreign language with your dyslexic child does not have to be impossible. Our children are smart and capable. They can learn the things they want to learn. Our role is not to tell them that they can’t, but to provide them with the tools so that they can. And perhaps this is my top reason for loving Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids®: it has allowed me to teach my daughter that she can learn the things she wants to learn.

Can your dyslexic child learn a foreign language? Yes! Absolutely, yes! We just can’t expect that process to look anything like the Spanish class we took in high school.

Setting goals for your hard homeschool moments

March 28, 2018Tracy

setting homeschool goals | homeschool overwhelm | hard homeschool moments

Hard homeschool moments force me to ask myself hard questions. Why am I struggling through a particular subject with a particular child? Why am I teaching literature analysis to my children? Why does my daughter with dyslexia need grammar anyway? Why am I teaching her to read hard things? Why do we do what we do? The reason I ask these questions is, quite frankly, homeschooling is hard. Homeschooling dyslexia, in particular, can be overwhelming. And overwhelming moments make us question everything. Which isn’t a bad thing, I’m learning. Questioning everything brings purpose and certainty and conviction. Answering these questions helps me to battle through the hard homeschool moments and to press on. Answering these questions helps me to define my goals and objectives for both my homeschool and my child.

I’m not talking about a list of learning standards. I’m not talking about a list of topics we are supposed to cover or a list of skills she should have by the end of the year. I’m not talking about a list of books to be read in so many months. What I am talking about are clear objectives for the end of her education. What is my end goal, my final objective? Who do I want my homeschool graduate to be?

If I know my end goal, then I can clearly look at each step in our path and decide if it’s leading us closer to that end goal. If the end goal is college, then I will have certain decisions to make along the way to prepare for that goal. If the end goal is a particular career path, then that goal will shape the next several years. My end goal determines a number of smaller goals and objectives along the way.

For our family, when I started asking the hard questions, I came to one solid conviction: I homeschool to disciple my children, to train them to be followers and learners of Christ. When I realized this goal, it was an emotional epiphany for me, a very tearful “a-hah!” moment. It put all the hard days into perspective. Why do I struggle to help my daughter to read and to read hard things? Because I want her to be capable of reading the Bible and understanding it. Why do I teach her grammar? Not necessarily to help her write well, which may surprise you, but to help her read well. I primarily teach grammar to my children to help them to read, to give them the tools to break down hard passages and difficult texts so that they understand the message. So when they tackle that hard passage in one of Paul’s epistles, they know how to find the main clause and the main message.

Your goals may be vastly different for your family, but knowing your end goal, your final objective, will help you to start making the smaller decisions along the way.

There are tons of learning standards and book lists and curriculum options. That alone creates a lot of homeschool overwhelm. We start to ask, which choice is the right one? Then, when we hit an obstacle—a hard homeschool moment—the tendency is to second-guess our choice; of course, we must have made the wrong one. And yet, taking the time to think through our goals helps so much with all of this guilt and indecision. Your end goal for your family and for each child helps you to see your smaller goals for each subject and even each curriculum purchase.

If I know my goal, then I narrow my choices. Once I make my choice, I evaluate how well that choice is moving me toward my goal. Regardless of the hard homeschool moments, I’m keeping that end goal in mind and aligning everything with it.

My objectives prepare me for the hard days. They strengthen me and give me resolve. I can press on when the going get’s tough, because I know where I’m headed. I know why I’m choosing harder books or trying a new curriculum. I know why I’m assigning some literary analysis. I know why we are learning grammar and diagramming sentences.

I know why. And knowing why is more than half the battle.

A day in the life of Homeschooling Multiple Ages

February 21, 2018Tracy2 Comments

One of my favorite parts of homeschooling is that we can all learn together as a family, and yet that also presents one of the greatest challenges—homeschooling multiple ages. I’ve homeschooled while pregnant, with a newborn, through the destructive toddler years, while potty training, into the preschool stage; and now, my youngest is finally kindergarten. Each stage has its challenges, and our routine has looked different at each stage, sometimes changing throughout the year. But no matter what our current challenges are or how I change the routine, a few principles have remained constant and made a world of difference in successfully homeschooling multiple ages.

Quick Tips for Homeschooling Multiple Ages

Budget your time.
Combine all that you can.
Don’t try to do it all.
Less is more.
Train independence.

A day in the life of

Homeschooling Multiple Ages

Though not everyday is exactly the same, most days we participate in our extracurriculars in the morning and begin schoolwork after lunch. Monday afternoons, I devote to my oldest. We meet together for a couple of hours with a cup of coffee or tea and go over the last week’s work, the new week’s assignments, and our Tapestry of Grace history and literature discussions. It’s also our video and game day, which means that my younger ones watch geography and Spanish videos, play learning games, or work on projects; they are occupied with these special activities that I only offer them once a week, which allows me some (more or less) uninterrupted time with my sixth grader. The rest of the week, he works pretty independently, checking in with me only if he has a problem or question.

On the other four days, I work with my kids from youngest to oldest, starting with my kindergartener. Together, my youngest and I work on phonics (Logic of English Foundations B), math (a mix of RightStart Math A and Math Mammoth 1), and handwriting for about an hour. Then, he goes off to play legos, and I switch my attention to my fourth grader. She’s dyslexic and ADHD; between her learning challenges and anxieties plus the ADHD distraction, working on her own is sometimes challenging. Because I cannot work with her in every subject every day, I budget my time with her. We work together for about an hour and a half in a block schedule. On certain days, I work with her in RightStart Math and Easy Grammar; other days we work on writing and comprehension skills. She then works for about another hour and a half on some copy work activities, reading, and craft projects. A couple of days a week, I’ll wrap up our homeschool day by working with my oldest for about 20 min. in his grammar, using the Abeka 6th grade grammar workbook. We read through the instructions together, and I’ll have him work through a certain number of sentences until I’m confident he’s grasped it. (By no means do we work every problem or even every exercise.)

For history, I choose a read-aloud for the lunch hour and assign some independent reading and projects for my older kids to do on their own. Science is another independent subject for my kiddos. My oldest works on his own throughout the week in his Elemental Science Biology for the Logic Stage, while my daughter is reading through the Thornton Burgess Book of Birds and Book of Animals and choosing projects about the animals in her stories.

On a good day, we will finish up around 3:30 or 4, but of course, there are those days when I wrap up our day just in time to start dinner.

Homeschooling multiple ages is a work in progress. It’s about finding a groove that works for one stage in your life, and being willing to make adjustments as your kids grow and change. It’s about looking at your whole day to find the best moments for learning. It’s about seeing all the opportunities in your day. It’s about thinking outside the box and taking advantage of all that homeschool freedom and flexibility.