BJU Press Blog

Jenna

How to Build Your Homeschool Support System

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homeschool support
If you’re homeschooling, you probably have a lot fewer contact points with other adults. Your PTA meetings are those rare moments you spend preparing for the day alone. Your coworkers are your spouse and your children. A homeschool support system, however, is something that you’ll need to depend on for adult interaction and guidance. But how do you go about building one?

The hard reality is that creating a reliable homeschool support system isn’t something that’s likely to happen naturally over your homeschooling years. You’ll have to reach out and make connections with others. And if you’re strongly introverted, you may feel some hesitation about reaching out to new people for help or guidance. While I can’t make those connections for you, I can show you where to go to make them.

HomeWorks by Precept

HomeWorks by Precept is a nationwide network of independent curriculum consultants who have lots of homeschooling experience. They primarily work with BJU Press Homeschool materials, but they have also experienced many of the situations you may face as a homeschool family. They’re all veteran homeschool parents who love helping others on their journey. Sometimes these consultants spend hours on the phone, helping a homeschool mom through the transition to BJU Press products or just offering encouragement wherever it’s needed.

Here’s what two homeschool moms said about their consultants, Hillary Lundstedt and Alice Bradley:

Hillary, our consultant, has guided us through the process of the BJU Press curriculum over the past couple of years. She has been a true friend and valuable resource of information. From her experience with her own children, she had the answers I needed and tips for implementing a schedule. She is there at the drop of a hat for us.          ~ Amanda

I am so very thankful for the confidence that my consultant gave me to start homeschooling my kindergartner! I didn’t think I could do it, but Alice, my HomeWorks consultant, gave me encouragement that I could do it with the help of the online videos. She helped us get started, and she’s kept up with us and made sure we were progressing well throughout the year.        ~Leah

You can contact a consultant in your area by going to a curriculum display, by attending a convention, or by reaching out to a particular consultant! Curriculum displays are always free to attend, and they give you an opportunity to meet with a consultant face-to-face and get special pricing on BJU Press materials. Plus, you get to touch and interact with the textbooks in person!

Homeschool Co-ops

You may have heard that joining a local co-op can give variety to your homeschool. But how do you find co-ops in your area? If you’re in an area where homeschooling isn’t widely popular, the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) will be a valuable resource for you! They provide a list of all state and local homeschool organizations with contact information. The local organizations are the co-ops you’re looking for. So, if you want to find a homeschool co-op in your area, select your state, click on the available county nearest you, and then look for the co-ops listed for your area. HSLDA provides as much contact information as they have available, including phone numbers, email addresses, and websites.

Blogger Communities

Interacting with bloggers online is one way to get homeschool support—on your own time. The following blogs are all offered by experienced homeschool moms who love engaging with their followers and helping other homeschool families along the way.

Janelle Knutson

Janelle’s relationship with Christ radically changed the direction of her life, and she and her husband are committed to bringing up their seven children to know and love the Lord. Because of that, they homeschool to more effectively disciple their children in both mind and spirit. She shares her suggestions for new homeschoolers in “Getting Started in Homeschooling: A Step-by-Step Guide.”

Homeschooling with Dyslexia

Marianne Sunderland commits to helping parents of children with dyslexia to successfully homeschool their children. She firmly believes that homeschooling with dyslexia is not only possible, but better in the long run. She offers fellow parents of dyslexic children free resources and advice aimed toward success. Marianne shares her suggestions for new homeschoolers in “Homeschooling with Dyslexia: How to Get Started.”

Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Kris Bales brings homeschoolers out in the open with her frank and down-to-earth discussions of life as a homeschool family. The stereotypes about homeschoolers don’t stand a chance against her. Two of her three children are homeschool grads, and her youngest is still homeschooling high school. When she started homeschooling, she committed to shaping their education to their unique needs and interests. Kris offers guidance for new homeschoolers in “10 Things You Need to Know If You’re Homeschooling for the First Time This Year.”

Homeschool Support at Conventions

Conventions are excellent places for meeting and getting to know fellow homeschool families. In sessions, at vendor booths, and during break times, you’ll be surrounded by people who share your concerns, your passion for children, and your determination to choose what’s best for them. A chance conversation might lead to a lifelong friendship. You can also find HomeWorks consultants at the BJU Press booth at all the major conventions!

Many state organizations host their own conventions, but there are also national homeschool convention groups that schedule multiple conventions all across the country. Here are just a few of the more popular conventions:

Eager to learn more about your homeschooling journey? If so, feel free to sign up to receive our free eBook, A Guide to Homeschooling, to learn more about the road ahead of you. Be sure to fill out the homeschool preparation checklist at the end, and feel free to ask questions in the comments section below.

Take Advantage of Homeschool Flexibility

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are you taking advantage of homeschool flexibility?
When you’re just starting out as a homeschool family, there’s so much you’re excited about. You may be thinking about the time you’ll get to spend with your children, watching them grow and learn. You’re about to make some truly precious memories. Your path forward is full of new opportunities for fun and learning. And don’t get me wrong, stability will be important for your homeschool life. But truth be told, you wouldn’t be homeschooling if all you wanted was stability. Homeschool flexibility is what makes your journey vibrant and exciting. Each new day is full of possibilities.

It’s also the key for surviving your first few years. As you’re finding out what works best for your family, as your children grow and gain interests, as they develop passions and skills, flexibility will be a friend you call on to get your children where you need them to be. So I’ve highlighted five areas for you where you might find yourself needing to be flexible.

1. Curriculum

Have you been to a homeschool convention and visited the vendor hall? If you haven’t, imagine a giant room filled with booths. There will be a couple of booths selling regular books—and the obligatory essential oil vendor—but almost every other booth will be another textbook vendor. Those vendors represent only a small portion of the options available to you as a homeschool parent. Also, a great many free curriculum materials are available online. What on earth are you supposed to do with all the options? Some homeschoolers jump from curriculum to curriculum, looking for that perfect fit.

The solution is actually a lot simpler than you’d imagine. You don’t have to check out each and every curriculum to find out what’s best. Instead, consider the reasons you’re homeschooling. Do you want to give your children an education with a solid biblical worldview foundation? Then skip past all the materials written from a secular worldview. Do you want to customize their education? Then a curriculum that doesn’t give you options may not work for you.

2. Plan

What word do many homeschool moms love the most? Organization. You and your family are both growing. As you do, things tend to get complicated. Think about the day when your youngest wants to take music lessons, your middle child wants to play a sport, and your oldest starts driving lessons. And you’re going to need to have a plan to stay organized—to some extent. First of all, go ahead and plan on taking moments to breathe and pray every day. Second, your plans are often better to change than curriculum. As you watch how other homeschoolers are making their plans, you may find yourself adjusting your own plans according to what you like or don’t like.

3. Goals

Brick-and-mortar schools will often have learning goals for a course. But you have the freedom to be much more creative and specific with your goals. What do you want your children to achieve? Do you have goals that they can work toward every day? Do you want them to learn to share? To master that one lesson in math? To learn to love reading? It’s wonderful for you to come together as a family and set goals for your children. Personalized goals will help them stay motivated and moving forward. But they’re still growing and learning every day. You will need to regularly set new goals, giving them something new to strive for. Their goals can be a source of accomplishment and encouragement. When they can see clearly how they’ve succeeded in the past, they’ll be more willing to keep trying in the future.

4. Standards for Success

One of the nice things about homeschooling is that grades become much less important—and I’m not talking about what year your children are in, though that is also true. Assignments are rarely pass or fail. You get to work at it until your child gets it. You’re also open to many different ways for determining success, for you and for your children. Here at the beginning of your homeschool journey, take some time to figure out what it means for your family to be successful. But realize that what looks like success to you may change over time. Today, success may look like getting everything done by 3:00 p.m., preparing a seven-course meal in two hours, and spending three wholesome hours as a family reading, playing games, and sharing God’s Word. Tomorrow, it may look like actually getting dressed at some point in the day.

5. Children’s Interests

Just as your children are constantly growing and changing physically, they’re also changing mentally. When they’re still young, everything is new to them, and they eagerly ask a million and one questions about everything their minds settle on. As they grow older, they may only show interest in certain things, or they may not seem to show any interest in anything at all. It’s a natural part of growing older, but it doesn’t make tailoring their education to their interests and abilities any easier. Just as you have many curriculum options, you also have many options for encouraging your children’s interests. For example, you could create a special course for their interests, as one homeschool mom did with her daughter’s interest in interior design. If you don’t want to go quite that far, you can use supplemental resources to cover a subject or topic in more detail.

Eager to learn more about your homeschooling journey? Please sign up to receive our free eBook, A Guide to Homeschooling, to learn more about the road ahead of you. Be sure to fill out the homeschool preparation checklist at the end, and feel free to ask questions in the comments section below!

Time to Refresh Your Homeschool?

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use computer to refresh your homeschool
The holidays have just finished, and you’re probably about to get back into the same old same old. But how did it go those last few days of homeschooling before the holiday break? If you left off feeling worn out and tired, you may not be so eager to dive back in. If that’s the case, now may be the perfect time to refresh your homeschool. Here are a few ideas for adding excitement and energy into your routine.

Add in Field Trips

If you weren’t able to include many field trips last year, take a few moments to plan out some places you might like to visit this year. Or you can leave room for some spontaneous field trips. Field trips are great opportunities to solidify what your children have learned, but they also present new learning opportunities as well. If you visit a zoo, your children may be able to see live examples of different habitats and how animals live together, but they will also get to see many other aspects of life science that may not be covered in their textbooks.

For example, I recently had an opportunity to visit the South Carolina Aquarium, located in Charleston Harbor. In addition to its wide range of aquatic habitats, the South Carolina Aquarium is also home to the Sea Turtle Care Center, which gives visitors an up close and personal look into the veterinary care of sea turtles. They even had some of their instruments on display. History museums, science museums, art galleries, zoos, and aquariums are all full of opportunities to get your children excited about learning!

Focus on Hands-on Activities

Sometimes, it’s easy to let hands-on activities go by the wayside. You don’t always have all the supplies, and maybe your children already have a good grasp of the material. But hands-on activities have a way of bringing even the most ordinary lessons to life. Many of the activities suggested in BJU Press textbooks straddle the line between play and learning. Your children may be learning about the moon and how its surface was formed, but they’re also getting to make their own play dough and getting to shape the dough themselves. And hands-on activities aren’t just limited to science and art. There are many ways to incorporate hands-on experiences into history and math. Such activities are also great for getting kinesthetic and visual learners engaged in learning.

Reorganize

Nothing says “fresh start” like a newly cleaned space. Before the books start flying again, take a moment to assess your homeschool space, clean it, and maybe reorganize it. If you have a spare room, you could set up your own dedicated homeschool space. Or, if you’ve been using a dedicated homeschool space for a while and it’s starting to feel too much like a brick and mortar school, you can relocate your lessons to the kitchen table instead. Regardless of your set up, you can learn from some of the tips other homeschool moms have found useful. Feeling more adventurous? Here are some other ideas on how to add life to your homeschool space!

We hope your new year of homeschooling goes well! Do you have any ideas for refreshing your homeschool this year? Please share yours in the comments!

The Best Gift of Christmas

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gift of Christmas card
During Christmas time, we often focus on giving. We teach our children that it’s better to give than to receive. You may have helped them create a Christmas gift budget. Or you may have encouraged them to give by serving others. We must remember that we as children of God are able to give in love because we were first loved. In this season of giving, let each gift shine with the love of God.

Take Advantage of Homeschool Stability

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working with homeschool stability
If you’re at the beginning of your homeschool journey, you might think of the serenity prayer often seen on magnets and signs: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Despite the flexibility of homeschooling, there are still some things that you cannot—or should not—change. In fact, here are five unchangeable elements that will shape your family’s homeschool journey. It’s important for you to be familiar with these elements at the outset because they will give you stability in the years to come.

1. State Regulations

All states have regulations for how children are educated, and most have specific rules concerning home education, ranging from low to high in restrictiveness. These regulations may seem like an imposition, but they’re intended to ensure the well-being of your children. The best way to follow your state’s regulations is to keep detailed and accurate records of the classes your children have taken and to regularly participate in achievement testing.

The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) offers a helpful summary of each state’s regulations for homeschooling. Knowing your state’s rules is a key first step for homeschooling. You don’t want to be taken by surprise by requirements, such as submitting test scores or academic records by a certain date.

2. Commitment

No parent just wakes up one morning and decides to start homeschooling. It’s a long and often difficult journey that involves many sacrifices. Carefully consider the reasons behind your decision to homeschool. Do you want to homeschool to more effectively disciple your children? Do you want to lay a solid foundation for a biblical worldview? Are you protecting your kids from bad influences? Do you want to make sure that they’re getting what they need academically? The factors you based your decision on drive the commitment you make to homeschooling. This commitment effects both the goals you set for your children and the curriculum you choose.

3. Joy

In a traditional school environment, much of the potential of learning gets lost. Everything is textbooks, tests, strict rules, lining up, raising your hand, and just ten more minutes until lunch. With one teacher to every ten to fifteen students, that rigidity is what keeps the school going. But at the end of the day, the joy of learning often gets lost in the humdrum moments. Learning should be fun because every day is packed with new ideas and new ways of looking at the world.

When it’s just you and your children learning together, you have the freedom and opportunity to bring out the joy of learning every time you find it. You can set the rules that are important to your family. This one-on-one experience with your children lets you chase learning wherever it may lead.

4. Homeschool Support System

Remember, you don’t have to do this alone. Every homeschooling group is a community of like-minded parents who are as committed to the homeschool calling as you are. These communities are digital, local, regional or state, and networks. Digital communities are groups of bloggers that offer quick answers to homeschool problems as well as numerous resources for parents. Local communities, or homeschool co-ops, give you a chance to join forces as you teach your children. Co-ops share the burden of teaching and planning field trips and give children a chance to develop healthy friendships outside the home.

Regional or state homeschool support organizations give families a place to turn to in navigating their journey. In addition to offering conventions and conferences, they keep track of state regulations on homeschooling, and some have consultants who work with families as they get started and can connect them to local co-ops. HSLDA functions as a countrywide support organization and maintains a list of state organizations on its website.

Another good option for getting some personalized support is connecting with a consultant from Homeworks by Precept, a nationwide network of independent curriculum consultants who have plenty of homeschooling experience. Establishing a relationship with a HomeWorks consultant could make your first few years of homeschooling much easier.

5. Time

Education takes time. Both you and your children will need to devote time to lessons and schoolwork. But that doesn’t mean you can’t homeschool if you’re a single parent or running a home business. How you use your time is still up to you. There are many different options available to busy homeschool parents that can work with the time they have available, such as self-paced video courses or online classes. Time-strapped parents will also appreciate a curriculum that includes as many supplemental resources and activities as they may want so that they won’t need to come up with these on their own. Knowing how much time you can devote to homeschooling will help you narrow down your curriculum options.

Eager to learn more about your homeschooling journey? Please sign up to receive our free eBook, A Guide to Homeschooling, to learn more about the road ahead of you. Be sure to fill out the homeschool preparation checklist at the end, and feel free to ask questions in the comments section below.