Successful Learning

Each homeschool is different, but every homeschool requires one essential feature—organization! No matter your homeschooling style, from highly structured to relaxed, organization is a must—at least, to some degree. Without it, homeschooling can be confusing, frustrating, time-consuming, and chaotic. Just as there are many different ways to homeschool, there are also many different ways to organize. Whether you’re an organizing pro looking to find new tips or a bewildered beginner wondering where to start, you’ll find lots of helpful ideas for your homeschool room or for storage here. The beauty of organizing is that you can always rearrange, try new methods, and mix and match ones you already use.  

Learn how to organize your homeschool

If you are considering homeschooling, you are definitely not alone. Homeschooling is on the rise. In 1999, fewer than one million U.S. students were homeschooled, and in 2016 the number was still just over 1.5 million. No surprise, after 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, the ranks of homeschool students have swelled to over 5 million. So perhaps you wonder if homeschooling really is good for students, and if bringing your kids home to learn is a good idea for your family.

“Is homeschooling better?” is a great question, though its answers may be more complex than you first think. Better than public or private school? This decision deserves thoughtful consideration, and we can help weigh out the case for each. The crucial question is, Is homeschooling better for your family, and why? By prayerfully looking at the pros and cons of homeschooling and answering some common concerns that parents have, you can come to a confident decision regarding homeschooling.

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Every homeschool curriculum package has a lot of parts—some items are designed for students, like the textbooks and worktexts, but other items are designed for teachers or parents, like the answer keys and teacher’s editions. You might wonder if all those items are really necessary. You might especially wonder if that teacher’s edition is worth the expense. Can you homeschool without it? Maybe. But I really believe that a teacher’s edition will be one of the most important investments that you will make because it will make your job as a teacher so much easier and your child’s educational experience so much richer.  

What exactly makes a teacher’s edition such a valuable tool for every homeschool mom? Here are some features of the BJU Press teacher’s editions and some ways that they will help you in your homeschool.

Learn what a teacher’s edition has to offer

Success is defined in many ways—from a favorable outcome to the attainment of wealth and prestige. It can simply mean the accomplishment of your goals. So, for many homeschool families, measuring homeschool success can look different from family to family. For some families, measuring your success may simply be based on setting appropriate homeschool goals. For others, it may mean setting up a student with a complete homeschool transcript, a progress tracker that reflects good grades on homeschool testing and completion, or even doing well on standardized testing. When you’re determining how to measure homeschool success for your family, you’ll need to consider what your goals are and how you will measure whether you’ve achieved them. How can you declare homeschooling a success when it is all done? What key performance indicators will you measure?

Learn about homeschool testing

Thinking back to when I chose a curriculum for homeschooling language arts from a biblical worldview, I remember what I wanted my three young sons to learn most of all. Nothing was more important than them knowing the truth of the Bible—that God loves them, and that the greatest joy and purpose in life come from living in relationship with the God of the universe.

Of course teaching my boys these truths began way before the days of homeschooling. My husband and I began sharing a biblical worldview with our boys at home as we read our Bibles, prayed at bedtimes, explored the world God made, and celebrated holidays. Our church supported us as the kids learned in Sunday school, vacation Bible school, and worship. When the time came for the kids to begin school, my husband and I knew we wanted a homeschool curriculum that also supported our faith values. Since language is how humans learn all things, making sure our language arts curriculum was built on a biblical worldview was a priority.

Learn about language arts with a biblical worldview