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Living Books About Thanksgiving (with Youtube videos)

living books about thanksgiving

It’s Thanksgiving tomorrow! I thought I’d post a few living book ideas for you as you celebrate this great holiday with your family. Since you probably won’t have time to order these books in time for this year’s Thanksgiving, I’ve also included Youtube videos of these books being read aloud. Enjoy!

An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott

Video (this video cannot be embedded onto a website)

Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende Delvin

Sharing the Bread by Pat Zietlow Miller

Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving by Eric Metaxas

The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dagliesh

The Pilgrims of Plimouth by Marcia Sewell

The Story of the Pilgrims by Katharine Ross

This is the Feast by Diane Shore

Three Young Pilgrims by Cheryl Harness

What is your favorite Thanksgiving read aloud?

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Weekly Homeschool Planner

I did it! I created a homeschool planner! This is the first of two. This one is a beautiful vintage-style weekly planner. You can scroll below to purchase a downloadable PDF or a hard copy. (The second planner I am designing will be released in 2025).

The print version is 8.5 x 11″ and has hard laminated front and back covers, smooth off-white pages, and gold metal spirals.

Let me show you what it’s like!

The Cover:

The schedule:

There is a sample schedule in the planner, as well as a blank schedule to create your own.

If you use the sample schedule, the planner lays out for you exactly how many much time is spent on each subject over the course of the school year:

Monthly Pages

There are twelve blank monthly pages. You can start your school year whenever you choose!

Term Pages

There are five two-page layouts for each term. Here is a sample of one of the pages:

Weekly Pages

There are six planning pages for each week. These pages include:

A page with the days of the week listed (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc.) and lines below them. I use this space to write in appointments or thing I need to remember for the week. You may use it however you like. This page also includes a To Do list for the week, and a Notes section.

A page with space for a weekly menu and a blank chart that says “The Week.” I created these pages because I recognize that in addition to home educating your children, you are running a household. You can use the chart titled “The Week” in a variety of ways:

Kitchen Jobs: Leave column one blank at the top, and write the days of the week across the next seven columns in the top row. Down the left column, write some “Kitchen Job” tasks, like “Dishes,” and “Counters,” etc. Now, assign your family to these tasks and write their names into the appropriate slots.

Grocery List: Write grocery aisle titles across the top row, like this: “Produce,” “Dairy,” “Meat,” “Baking,” “Dry,” “Frozen,” etc.–now write your grocery list for the week under each title.

Weekly Overview: Leave column one blank at the top, and write the days of the week across the next seven columns in the top row. Down the left column, write times, like 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, etc. Jot down any of the week’s known appointments, so that you can see an overview of the week’s schedule. Or, make this chart more detailed and add in your week’s ideal homeschool schedule here.

My favorite page in the planner: a pretty page for filling in the week’s Enrichment, Life Skills, Bible Memory, Catechism & Repetition.

A page for all of the suggested Whole-Family subjects. Fill this page in with the resources & page numbers you will be using. Do these studies with everyone gathered together around the table or at a comfy couch. Remember, this is a Whole-Family Homeschool Planner. This page and the following two pages make this planner different from every other option on the market. I really want you to gather all of your kids together as often as possible.

A page for Individual Studies with Help. This includes subjects like Math, Reading, and Grammar; which children may need your assistance with. You might be able to group together some of your children in these subject areas.

A page for Independent Studies. These are for Forms III through VI. If you do not have children in these grades, don’t worry about this page. This is where you will fill in your students’ independent school work.

There are Four or Five Terms

I designed this planner to be flexible, to meet your family’s needs. The Gentle Learning Co. reading plans last for twenty-eight weeks (four terms). Some states require thirty-six weeks of instruction, though. Because of this, I designed the planner with five terms, divided like this:

  • Term 1: Weeks 1-7
  • Term 2: Weeks 8-14
  • Term 3: Weeks 15-21
  • Term 4: Weeks 22-28
  • Bonus Term: Weeks 29-36 (an 8-week term)

Some notes about this planner:

  • This planner is 280 pages.
  • This planner is undated and this is intentional, so that you can start using it whenever you see fit. Need a new plan mid-school year? Great! Fill it out with the proper dates and get started!
  • The vintage illustrations are just for fun, and to make the planner look pretty. I hope you enjoy them! If you feel like coloring them, do!
  • The Latin titles under the illustrations are to make you feel smart, because, why not?
  • I used “Day 1, Day 2,” etc. instead of the names of the days of the week in case you start your week on a day besides Monday. Our family goes to co-op on Wednesday and we start our new week on Thursday. I wanted to make this planner flexible for whatever your situation is.
  • There are blank spaces on the charts for you to add any subjects you choose. You’re the boss! You get to pick which subjects you are using in your homeschool this year. Feel free to omit any of the subjects I have suggested and add any subjects you choose.

Ready to Purchase?

Buy the PDF Download (immediate download)

$35 Thanksgiving Special: $18

 

Order print-copy (and a link to the PDF Download will be sent to you for free, as well, within 24 hours).

The print version is 8.5 x 11″ and has hard laminated front and back covers, smooth off-white pages, and gold metal spirals.

Print copies will be delivered before Christmas 2024.

$60 Thanksgiving Special: $45

Questions?

Feel free to ask them below!

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Homeschool Resource Center

We have a dream of opening a homeschool resource center in the Knoxville area.

Why the Knoxville area?

There has been a huge migration to Tennessee over the last several years. You can see a small glimpse of this trend in this article and this article. If you read online forums on Facebook, Reddit, etc., you will find that a lot of families have either moved to Tennessee (many to East TN) or they are considering moving there.

Also, we have many family members who live in Tennessee. Between 2019 and 2020, about sixty-five family members left Oregon and moved to East Tennessee. Many of those people are homeschoolers.

What will this Homeschool Resource Center Include?

At Minimum:

  • A library with curriculum, Christian books that can’t be found at the public library, and homeschool tools to check out (like math manipulatives and science equipment). At the library, it will be easy to find books and materials that line up perfectly with The Gentle Learning Co. reading plans.
  • A project space where I (and others) can teach history-related crafts.
  • Classrooms for other homeschool class options.
  • A big gathering space for potlucks and events.

Pray with us!

We have big ideas–let’s pray about whether these are in God’s plan:

  • A stage/theater space for homeschool theater productions and talent shows.
  • A large gym for homeschool dances and other activities.
  • A coffee shop for moms.
  • A large kitchen for cooking classes.
  • A community garden where homeschooled students can learn how to grow their own food, as well as learning to grow and use fresh herbs and herbal tinctures.
  • A small farm with livestock so that homeschooled children can spend time around animals and learn about food production.
  • A garage space for students to learn about basic car repair and mechanics.
  • A recording studio and a variety of instruments for students to learn about recording and producing music.
  • A science lab with microscopes, bunsen burners, and other tools for science classes.
  • A tech lab for students to learn how to type, write documents, create spreadsheets, graphics, websites, floor plans, etc.
  • Outdoor play spaces like a basketball court, a play structure, and a field for children to run in.
  • Picnic tables and a pretty view for families to bring their sack lunch to and hang out for the day.

And even bigger prayer requests:

  • RV hookups for homeschool families to camp.
  • Small cabins for families to stay in.
  • A pond for children to learn how to fish in.

(Basically, picture a homeschool resource center AND retreat center all in one….wouldn’t this be lovely?!).

When will this happen?

It depends on a lot of factors, but Lord willing, within the next two to three years (by 2027). We need a lot of prayer, and of course, we need funding. This kind of project is very expensive. And, if this is God’s will, we trust that it’s going to happen! He is good!

Would you like to be a part of this?

We’d love to have your support! Comment below to let us know if you will commit to pray for this project. Also, if you’d like to give towards this project, you can do so here:

What would you like to see at this homeschool resource center?

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Cycle 4 Bible Reading Reading Plan A

Cycle 4 Bible

This Bible reading plan will take you through the whole Bible in four years; reading just one chapter per day. This is a doable plan for a family! Start reading in any Cycle, and go through all four cycles.

During Cycle 4, you will read the following Bible books and passages:

School Days

  • Deuteronomy
  • Psalms 117-119, 122-135, 142, 143, 148-150
  • John
  • 1 Chronicles
  • 2 Chronicles
  • Romans 6

Weekends

  • Haggai
  • 1 Thessalonians
  • 2 Thessalonians
  • Psalms 115, 116, 120, 121, 136-141, 144-147
  • Zechariah
  • Malachi
  • 1 Timothy
  • 2 Timothy
  • Titus
  • Philemon

Breaks

During breaks from school, follow this plan in order to get through the entire Bible in four years:

  • Ezra
  • Nehemiah
  • Proverbs
  • Psalms 104-150
  • 1 Corinthians 13
  • Esther
  • Daniel
  • Galatians
  • Ephesians
  • Philippians
  • Colossians
  • Revelation
  • Romans 7, 8

For Bible, you will need the following resources:

  • A Bible of your choice

And some optional resources you might consider are:

  • A Children’s Bible

You can download the Cycle 4 Bible Reading Plan A pdf here:

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Gentle Homeschooling

I named my business The Gentle Learning Company with this picture in mind:

Mothers snuggling with their children and reading beautiful literature and poetry, studying carefully crafted art pieces, reading God’s Word, and listening to classical music together. 

Can you see it? It’s a wonderful thing! 

I create reading lists for moms, to point them to such beautiful moments with a kind of order and structure. A reading list, alone, cannot create this kind of scene, though. It begins with gentleness.

What does gentleness begin with? A right heart.

A love of others, including our children, recognizing them as unique individuals, created by God. They are fully human, even though they haven’t “arrived’ in their knowledge and maturity (spoiler: neither have we).

Deference to others. A willingness to set aside our wants, even our “rights,” for the sake of another. In my estimation, this may be the single greatest mark of maturity in a human. 

I am not suggesting that we allow a child’s mood, temper or wants to rule the homeschool day. There can be order in a gentle homeschool environment–order with flexibility that acknowledges the personhood of each family member. 

Rigidity does not belong in a gentle homeschool environment. Rigidity often stems from a selfish desire to control. Sometimes it arises because we felt a lack of control in some other area of life, or perhaps in childhood. God has the power to heal this.

Harsh words should have no place in a gentle home. Even words of correction can be spoken in gentleness. Again, we are recognizing our family members as persons–created by God, with value and purpose.

Gentle homeschooling includes a smile and a softness of eyes. There will be moments of displeasure, when the smile disappears briefly, but the soft eyes should remain. It may take work to smile. God can heal this, too.

Ultimately, gentleness comes from the heart within. Sometimes, people want to show gentleness, but their heart is full of so much hurt that the opposite comes out. God, the great healer, can mend that brokenness. Let Him fill you up so that your days can be filled with gentleness!

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Cycle 4 Enrichment

Cycle 4 Enrichment


Enrichment consists of the following subjects:

  • Composer
  • Poet
  • Artist
  • Handicrafts

The Cycle 4 Composers are:

  1. Frederic Chopin
  2. Gustav Holst
  3. John Williams
  4. Dario Marianelli

The Cycle 4 Artists are:

  1. Jean-François Millet
  2. Thomas Gainsborough
  3. Winslow Homer
  4. Vincent van Gogh

The Cycle 4 Poets are:

  1. William Wordsworth
  2. Langston Hughes
  3. John Keats
  4. Ralph Waldo Emerson
  5. A.A. Milne

The Cycle 4 Handicrafts are:

  1. Clay Sculpting
  2. Doll Making
  3. Making Photo Books and/or Collages
  4. Carving Wood
  5. Quilting
  6. Cake Decorating
  7. Basket Making
  8. Machines: Robotics

You can download the pdf here:

You can download the Form 1 Poetry schedule here:

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Homeschool Curriculum is like a Recipe & I’m a Rebellious Cook

Sunday evening, we had guests over for a taco night. I made iced tea, taco meat, and rice, and our guests brought toppings and taco shells. The rice I make is a Chipotle-style Cilantro Lime Rice, and it’s so good. Since I was cooking for a crowd and I didn’t want to make two pots of rice, I tried to squeeze as much rice as I could into one pot (I dumped a whole 32 ounce bag of Aldi’s organic white rice into one pot). It worked okay, except—this particular recipe calls for extra water and then draining the rice through a fine mesh strainer. My strainer holds less than 2 cups of rice at a time, so it was taking me a while to get all of the rice drained and into the slow cooker I’d be serving it in. By the time I got to the bottom of the pot of rice and water, I had quite a bit of watery, mushy, gelled rice. I wasn’t going to serve that to my guests, but I didn’t want to waste it (I’ve been watching grocery prices lately—ouch–so I figured every little bit could be used). Besides, I cook with white rice flour (I have Celiac), and this was pretty much white rice flour with water, right?

The day after having guests over, I pulled the gelled rice out of the fridge and scraped it into a mixing bowl. I added two eggs, some shredded cheese, green onions, chopped ham, baking powder, garlic powder, a little bit of gluten free flour until it seemed like the right texture, and some melted butter. I poured it into my cast iron scone pan and cooked the made-up mixture. It turned out to be so yummy! My husband was surprised, again, that I had “made it up,” because he thought the “recipe” turned out so well. When we were first married, he started calling me a “rebel in the kitchen,” because I would change recipes all the time. 

I homeschool a bit like I cook. I have always seen curriculum as a general guide for how to do things, but then I’ve veered off the page and added my own “ingredients” and omitted some others. Recipes and curriculum are great for teaching the basics of how to do this thing. Once you get it down, and you know what a basic muffin batter recipe includes and should feel like, you can get creative and make it however you like. The same is true for homeschool curriculum–once you learn the types of books and materials to choose, and the cadence of a homeschool schedule, you can plan your days exactly as you wish.

With food sensitivities, I have had to learn to change recipes to fit my dietary needs. The same has been true of our homeschool curriculum. When I would purchase boxed curriculum sets like Sonlight, for example, I would find that I didn’t like particular books for our children. You might say, our family had “sensitivities” to those books. So, I learned to swap out books and cross out the titles we wouldn’t be using. At first, I felt some mom guilt about this–was I giving my kids an adequate education if I didn’t read all the books? But I let that go, because I know my kids’ needs (and sensitivities) better than anyone on the planet.

Working from recipes can be expensive. Here’s how it’s gone for me so many times: it’s payday, yay! I sit down and make a menu for the week. I use Plan to Eat and load in all the recipes I want to use. I print the grocery list from Plan to Eat, which is usually several pages long–for one week. I go to the grocery store, and my receipt is about as long as the grocery list. Whoa. I just spent two weeks’ worth of grocery money on one week of groceries. The next week, I “wing it” and just cook what we have left in the house and whatever we have stored up in the freezer and pantry. Have you noticed this?

I find that our grocery budget takes less of a hit when I use recipes as general ideas and then I substitute ingredients for whatever I already have. I prefer to stock up on the staples, especially when I can get them on sale or in bulk (like through Azure Standard). I like to go to the farmer’s market (or out to my garden) and find whatever is in season, and then “make up” recipes as I go…I find I spend far less money on groceries when we live this way, when I compare it to the perfectly planned-out menus I’ve made.

One downfall to my rebellious way of cooking is that occasionally, I can’t replicate the foods I have made. This is one benefit of following a recipe: the results can be duplicated over and over, with a certain degree of predictability (there are a few factors that can alter a recipe, like humidity, elevation, and changes in packaged ingredients). Carefully planned curriculum is also great if you want the same duplicated literature experience across multiple households. But–do we need that, homeschool moms? I can see why it would be useful for a public school to maintain the same exact curriculum across all fourth grade classrooms in the district, but most homeschoolers broke away from that kind of rigidity for good reasons. Do we need people telling us exactly what materials to use every day of the school year in our homeschool journey?

You can think of a boxed curriculum set like Sonlight, or My Father’s World, as a perfectly planned-out menu. It’s kind of like purchasing a meal kit from Hello Fresh and pulling all of the exact ingredients you need out of a box, at exactly the right time. It’s nice to have an organized plan, and it definitely takes less “brain power,” but there is a cost for that convenience, too. There have been seasons in my life when I needed that kind of organization–and that’s okay. Most of the time, though, the frugal side of me takes over and I want to plan things myself.

To homeschool the way I cook, I stock up on “ingredients” (books) when I can find them on sale or at used book sales. I organize my shelves in a way that makes sense to me. Then, I use those “ingredients,” measured carefully, at just the right time. Deciding the “right time” for each “ingredient” is the part that takes some thinking, but I don’t mind doing that kind of thinking. I created a system that works for me as a loose kind of “rule” for where to put my “ingredients” and when to use them, kind of like setting up my freezer and pantry in a way that makes cooking creatively a possibility for me.

I decided to start with Claritas Publishing classical memory work. It’s built around four cycles. I love teaching over four classical cycles. This gave me some context for how to organize my books:

Cycle 1

  • Science: Biology
  • History: Creation to the Fall of Rome

I label these books with a red dot.

Cycle 2

  • Science: Astronomy, Geology
  • History: The Dark Ages Through the Early Explorers

I label these books with an orange dot.

Cycle 3

  • Science: Chemistry
  • History: Dutch Revolt through California Gold Rush

I label these books with a green dot.

Cycle 4

  • Science: Physics
  • History: Victorian Era through Modern History

I label these books with a blue dot.

This helped me organize my “ingredients,” but I had quite a few books that did not fall into these categories. I decided to divide up the following topics among the four cycles:

Nature 

Other Science Topics

Character Traits

Composers

Artists

Poets

Handicrafts

Life Skills/Survival Topics

Hymns

Faith/Catechism/Apologetics Topics

Geography

Biographies of Missionaries and Other Famous People

Read Aloud Chapter Books, Other Literature “Just for Fun” (Not tied to history)

Read Aloud Picture Books (Not tied to history)

Electives

Now, I know where to stick everything on my shelves, and I can literally just grab a book off of the shelf of whatever cycle we’re in and do school with my kids. I post all of the books I suggest at The Gentle Learning Company. I also create reading plans for those who like more of a “recipe” to follow. The difference between the reading plan I make and those that come with a Sonlight package is that I give options. For historic literature in a particular cycle, there are multiple picture book options per week and then five or more “tracks” of literature to read aloud or to have your child read independently. I set it up this way because I hate feeling restricted to one plan of action. I like to improvise and choose what is best for my family. I figured you probably do, too.

Plus, I want you to have the ability to use the reading plans as loosely as I use recipes. If you’ve got other ingredients in your “pantry,” feel free to substitute. I’ve been working on picture book lists for Cycle 4 this week, and I just chose books about the Civil War, the Transcontinental Railroad and the Iris Potato Famine for weeks three, four, five and six. You might go to your local library and find a book that isn’t on my list (probably because it was out of print and $40). Grab it! Use it! I want this kind of freedom for you, and I hope that the cycles I’ve set up can provide a little order to your planning so that you don’t feel totally out of control.

If I were to make the gelled rice muffin/scone things I made yesterday without any idea of the general ingredients that go into baked goods, or without any concept of how to mix and bake a recipe like that, it would have been an utter failure. I could have pulled out all the wrong ingredients. (I’m trying to think of ingredients that would throw the whole thing off, but I keep thinking of ingredients that could have worked somehow…chocolate chips–make them sweet—oats–could’ve worked…Hmmm!). Anyways, the point is, I needed to have a little bit of knowledge about cooking, the order of cooking, and to have the right ingredients on hand and in an organized place to be able to pull off that “recipe” and have it turn out okay. My hope is that the GLC reading plans will be exactly like that kind of knowledge and organization for you–while giving you the freedom to be a “rebel in the kitchen” like me–or, a “rebel in the library.” 

Do you cook with recipes, or do you like to make up dishes as you go? Do you homeschool like you cook? Share your thoughts!

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How Homeschooling Has Changed

I mentioned this week that I have been homeschooling since our oldest son was two–which means I’ve been homeschooling for TWENTY years. That’s a long time, and a good chunk of my life so far. Homeschooling has changed drastically over the years, and I want to share what I’ve witnessed here.

When I entered the homeschool scene in the early 2000’s, many  women were still wearing long denim jumper dresses. The curriculum choices were limited, though I’ve heard it was even more difficult to find adequate materials in the years before that. Many people were using Abeka and Bob Jones textbooks that had been created for Christian Schools. I purchased a Bob Jones preschool class set off of Ebay.

The first convention I attended was full of dress-wearing women whose daughters wore hand-made, matching dresses, and whose sons wore collared shirts and high-waisted pants with a belt. They probably drove fifteen passenger vans, too.

I joined that movement with a bit of trepidation. I wanted the freedom of homeschooling, and I wanted to be with my kids all day, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to be one of “those” homeschool families. I tried the dresses for a while, because even the young moms were wearing them—and then gave up because I felt frumpy and ugly. Interestingly, I am back to wearing dresses a lot of the time, but not because of a national movement or any convictions. I just like the feel of dresses, and I think they are more flattering on me than jeans. I haven’t picked up a denim jumper dress again—yet. 😉

I felt like we didn’t quite fit in with the homeschool families who were just ahead of us. First, I wasn’t going to be able to have ten biological children, because we had tied my tubes (due to complications) after two. I knew I wouldn’t fit in with the home-birthing, baby-wearing, pregnancy tea making, home-sewn nursing cover conversations. 

Second–even though we believe in Jesus and we read our Bibles, I wondered if we were too “worldly” for those homeschoolers. Our children hadn’t been restricted to wholesome stories about Mennonite families. The music we played in our home wasn’t limited to hymns. They had been exposed to some popular culture, too. My husband likes introducing our children to movies, music, cinematic music, and characters. He has always connected with our boys over Star Wars, Marvel, and soundtracks from popular films. I also enjoy a wide variety of music and have played all of it for our children. (Side note: one of our sons is now a Music major at Liberty University and writes film scores for fun, and I am certain that those early introductions played a role in that…).

When we first considered attending a church that was full of homeschool families (a “family integrated church”), I asked a friend who went there if we would be judged because our kids liked Spider Man? It’s such a balance, living “in” the world but not being “of” the world, and it seemed like a lot of the families around us had pretty high standards about what got introduced to their children. I didn’t think we could be like that—I didn’t think we even wanted to be like that.

There were remnants of the Bill Gothard movement in groups we hung out with. I knew of people who used his curriculum, and a few who believed that modern worship music was sinful. I bought one of Bill Gothard’s character study books, not realizing what the organization and the man stood for.

Vision Forum was a big deal back then. I saw Doug Phillips speak at one of the first homeschool conventions I went to. My husband and I listened to so many of Doug Phillips’ teachings after that. He said some good things, and then also some things that made us pause. Our kids got several Christmas presents from the Vision Forum catalog. The boys soaked up every single Jonathan Park episode and played with their Jonathan Park “communicator watches.” (Side note: We’ve since become friends with the creators of Jonathan Park, and they’re wonderful people. Doug Phillips wasn’t so wonderful, we found out…). I wrote Vision Forum an email at one point, wondering why the 18” dolls with historic names that they sold (like “Dolly Madison”) were all white. I had a black little girl, and I wondered why they hadn’t considered making a Rosa Parks doll, or a Coretta Scott King doll. They never emailed me back.

I remember when the local homeschool bookstore that bought used curriculum would no longer purchase any Vision Forum materials, because Doug Phillips’ hidden sins had recently been brought to light. Suddenly, our $40 set of CDs about creating a family legacy was worthless. I’m glad we held his teaching loosely and leaned on God’s Word more than any man’s words, or we could have been devastated and completely lost when this trusted leader in the homeschool movement fell. I am grateful we were on the younger end of homeschoolers back then, and we hadn’t fully embraced the movement. We were playing Disney music in our home and our boys had underwear with Marvel characters, afterall… 😉

A lot of families did struggle. People began to question the teachings from Gothard, Phillips, and others. I saw dress and head covering-wearing women suddenly wearing jeans at the homeschool baseball games. I watched friends cut their long hair, dye it unnatural colors, and gasp—get tattoos. 

It was like a major pendulum swing was happening. I think a lot of the homeschooled teens struggled through that time. I don’t blame the parents–they really wanted to do what was best for their children, and clung to some pretty restrictive ideals, but out of conviction that it was good for their family. The teachers were so convincing. 

I’m wary of big movements that go through the churches. When everyone was reading The Purpose Driven Life, and Boundaries, and The Prayer of Jabez, and The Shack, I stood back and watched. I’m never an early adopter of trends. On the nutrition front, I haven’t even started using stevia yet, because I’m still watching. What studies will come out? I’m cautious. (We’re using organic cane sugar instead, which, I’m sure, is 1,000 times better for us. Lol. At least it’s a tried and true form of poison. Haha! I digress).

Big movements can lead masses of people down wrong paths. Big movements can also be harmful to families. Many of those teens who struggled went to completely opposite kinds of lifestyles. I wonder if their lives had been too restricted and felt suffocating? I’ve had to unfollow some of those young people on Instagram, because some of their posts became borderline pornographic. I don’t want to see those kinds of things. Some joined Antifa, changed their gender, shaved their heads (females), pierced every part of their body that could be pierced, or started posting demonic imagery. We lived outside of Portland for the majority of our married life, and the Portland culture has embraced “weirdness” as if it was an esteemed character trait. As a Christian, it looks to me like many Portlanders call good things bad and bad things good. It’s all mixed up. Many of the teens who grew up during the pendulum swing have embraced that “weird” culture.

The saddest part, to me, is that so many of them have also given up on God. This is why we have to be SO careful to know God’s actual Word and not just man’s interpretation of God’s Word. When the “Word” that is taught to children is coated with extra-biblical legalism, it’s hard to get to know the One True God who loves them deeply. It’s hard to see that there is JOY in the LORD. 

That homeschool movement was legalistic to a fault, but also; wholesome stories were admired, family meals were treasured, sibling relationships were a priority, families did everything together, and moms carefully curated the curriculum they used. I see some good in that movement, and I’m not ready to “throw the baby out with the bathwater,” but I see good in the changes, too.

The Portland convention evolved. Where there were once jumper-wearing mamas with perfectly matching stair-stepped children in a line, suddenly, there were women in loose, natural fiber clothing with messy buns, birkenstocks, and nose piercings. Even the baby carriers changed, from restrictive Baby Bjorn and Ergo carriers to less restrictive wraps, tie-dyed or decorated with a bleach pen. The wardrobe change represented a major shift in the mindsets–homeschool moms were not tight and rigid like denim dresses any longer, they were free, open, and ready for a different kind of life. It was as if the jumper-wearing mamas were communicating, with their clothing, “We want order,” and “We want safety,” and the tie-dye-wearing mamas were communicating “I’ll do things my own way, thank you.” 

While I think the earliest homeschool families worked hard to buck the system, it seems that a whole new system emerged out of that movement. Over the years, I’ve noticed that fear tends to lead to the slippery slope of putting too much trust in a leader who claims to have the answers. People make drastic decisions when trusted leaders tell them that they will be safe if they just do “xyz.” And the masses follow, and subsequently, suffer.

There’s a new kind of fear in the homeschool world these days, and it involves moms believing they “can’t” homeschool their children, or that they need a program to tell them what to do. Many people have moved towards hybrid schools, where all of the curriculum is chosen for them, children sit in classrooms two days per week, and moms basically do homework with their kids three days per week and call it “homeschooling.” It feels safe because someone else (presumably more qualified) has chosen the curriculum, and because it’s only a little different from school. Perhaps, it feels a little easier to defend to the inlaws and nosy, inquiring neighbors. 

Even if a mom has confidence that she can homeschool through the early years without such classes, many believe that they need help, or a program, or a system for middle school and high school. The majority of homeschool moms I know are no longer homeschooling their kids by the time they hit the teen years, at least in the traditional sense. Most moms are signing their teens up for programs and classes, and all of their curriculum is chosen by those programs or teachers. The students go to classes one or more days per week and discuss the curriculum with other teens and an adult who is in charge of the class. It’s kind of like school. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not wholly opposed to this kind of program, and the community that I run–STAR–functions like this in the teen years. I get to be the mom discussing books with my teens and other teens this year, though, and I’m grateful for that. It’s just different from how things used to be.

The moms of teens typically aren’t involved anymore. Back in the conservative homeschool movement days, moms went everywhere with their teens and sometimes even wore matching clothes. They were involved in basketball, baseball, debate club, theater, and they showed up for field trips. I’m not positive if the homeschool “drop off” mom is a new phenomenon because of the changing times or if it’s also because we moved across the country. Oregonians, please tell me, are moms of teens dropping them off & having little to do with their child’s education once they hit middle school, or are they still involved with their teens? 

I volunteered at a homeschool community here in Virginia for a while, and even though I was in leadership, I barely knew any of the parents. I planned activities, and few showed up–or we ended up canceling the event due to low or no participation. When I started STAR, I made it clear that I wanted it to be a community where people would “Show up” and “Hang out” and do things together. The first year, many people showed up–but not the families with teens. The second year, we had to cancel events because of low or no participation. Even though we had sixteen teens at STAR this year, my girls were typically the only teens at the field trips, and many of the moms of the teens did not come to potlucks or moms nights, either.

Do you see the pendulum swing, too? We used to have moms who were always there, maybe to a fault, and now we have moms who just don’t show up, drop off, and for the most part are uninvolved. I wish there was a balance. I think parental involvement is crucial for keeping a genuine homeschool movement going. 

The moms who lived through the big pendulum swing are tired. You can see it in their eyes. It’s like they’ve been through the emotional wringer. Often, they have adult kids who are not following the family’s values, and it causes one or both parents to throw their hands in the air and give up all of the restrictions for their younger kids. The family is in the middle of unpacking and dismantling their old belief system and determining what they really believe, and sometimes it just feels like way too much to think about. It’s easier to just give in and do what the culture is doing. They’ve lost the confidence they used to have and they feel so unsure about their ability to teach or even train their children. Now, their youngest kids sit in drop-off programs, hiding their cell phone and their feed of Tik Tok videos on their lap below the desk. The moms don’t know what to do with their kids anymore. Being SO restrictive didn’t work. Giving kids SO much freedom isn’t working either. They’re drained. I can see why they don’t show up to activities anymore, they’re just spent. 

Also, moms used to be convicted about the work they were doing in their homes. The message was loud and clear: moms should find joy in being home with their children. It was their main career, and they ought to treasure it. I don’t think it was a bad message. Nowadays, homeschooling seems to be almost like an “extra” thing moms do. So many moms have moved on to careers (while still homeschooling), masters degrees, or to some kind of online business. The need for employment may simply be reflective of the changing economy and rising cost of living. Regardless–the homeschool world is different. And, it does seem like, even moms who can stay home and devote their lives to educating their children don’t. They want more. They want extra. It’s not quite enough.

They may also question all of their previous convictions because social media has bred so much confusion in people. The messages are unclear, always changing, and truly, social media has created a wandering kind of people who don’t stand for much. 

With the loss of conviction comes a loss of community. When moms were serious about their role in the home, they got together with other moms with similar beliefs and there was a bond between them. Nowadays, it seems harder for a homeschool mom to find her people. 

Somewhere in this mix, a whole “Unschooling” movement rose up. A lot of these moms love being with their children and truly just want to teach delightful things to their kids. Some have swung the pendulum extra far, moving from an authoritarian parenting style to a child-led home, where whiners get their way and “rule the roost.” I’m not sure how child-led parenting works in a family with ten children, where each one has different opinions, but I’ll let moms figure that out. Again, there has to be a balance. Some people (few, I hope) say they’re “unschooling” when they really go to work all day and leave their kids home alone on the computer. That’s not homeschooling, and I’m afraid it gives homeschooling such a bad name.

And again, how does a homeschool mom find her people these days? When one mom is setting her child in front of a laptop and calling it “homeschool” and another is dropping off at a hybrid program and calling it “homeschool,” but another delights in snuggling on the couch and reading nature study books with her kids, where does she meet other moms she can relate to?

And yet–I see glimpses of some hope. In the midst of the tired moms and the “drop off moms” and I’m seeing a rising trend in homeschoolers who:

Are convicted about the need to stay home and are committed to it.

Want to read to their children.

Want to BE with their children.

Are careful about the media they introduce their kids to but not legalistic.

There are so many women out there who are encouraged by the ways of Charlotte Mason, and I love this trend. We also have to be careful–Charlotte Mason was a human and not God. God’s Word is God’s Word. I would hate for this movement to have a sudden and abrupt end because of wrong-beliefs and wrong-decisions. 

I’m excited about the young moms who are rising up to homeschool. When I’ve done family interviews for STAR, I have found that the moms who have four year olds, or “almost” four year olds have been the most enthusiastic about homeschooling. I love seeing their energy and hearing their visions about homeschooling. I pray it continues throughout their homeschool years. I pray that their joy is contagious and that other moms catch it.

As an “older” homeschool mom now, I feel like I have some things to share with younger homeschool moms:

  • Keep at it.
  • You can do it.
  • You ARE qualified to teach your children.
  • Don’t give the government too much information or control (homeschool families *fought* for the rights we have today, please don’t give them up so readily).
  • Read good books.
  • Go outside.
  • Memorize Scripture, read Scripture, sing Scripture, get it in your family’s heads!
  • Homeschooling is a valid career choice, you don’t have to do anything else to have value.
  • Go on field trips with your kids, even when they’re teens.
  • Hang out with other homeschool moms–they want friends, just like you do.
  • Please stop calling hybrid programs and online programs “homeschool.” (more on that later)
  • Grow a healthy and tight-knit family.
  • Your kids don’t have to be busy to be learning.
  • Take care of yourself, mama–so you don’t burn out, and so you can be an effective witness to your family and others you encounter. And, because you are worthy, because our really good God knit you together and knows you by name.

And more. I have a lot to share!

I would love to hear your thoughts about the changes in homeschooling. What have you seen and experienced?

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10 Reasons I Still Homeschool

I mentioned yesterday that I only planned to homeschool through preschool and kindergarten at first, because I thought those years would be easy enough. And yet, here I am, the mom of three sons who have graduated and two high school aged daughters, whom I am still homeschooling. What happened, and why am I still at it? Why am I such an advocate for homeschooling?

  1. I like being with my kids. The most common thing that non-homeschooling moms say is that they can’t imagine being with their kids all day. I can’t imagine NOT being with my kids all day. I love my kids. I am not any kind of super mom with an extraordinary amount of patience. I am just so used to being with my kids each day, I would truly grieve if our days looked any different.
  2. My kids have become friends and they like being together. I know–the norm in the U.S. is that siblings argue every single day and about every little thing. Mine don’t. I can’t promise that you will get the same results if you homeschool, because well, kids are sinners, just like us. My kids have grown up hanging out with each other every day, and they’ve grown to actually like being together. 
  3. I like seeing my kids learn new things. Remember when your baby first learned to stand up, and you were there? It was so cool! I have been blessed to be present when my children first learned to sound out a word, write their name, read a chapter book, and write a research paper. Their eyes still light up, even if they’re too cool and they try to hide it now, and I get to be there to see it.
  4. I get to learn, too. I have no need of going to further college at this point, because I’m marinating in an educational environment right here in my home. I am reading poetry, classic literature, and history. I am looking at the map more than I ever did in my public school years. I am writing down people and events in my own timeline book. I’m listening to composers and exploring nature and going on field trips. What an amazing experience!
  5. I know what my kids are learning. I’ve hand picked my kids’ curriculum, and I know what they are learning. I’m protecting their minds during vulnerable years by providing them with a good, healthy, rich, full diet of beautiful literature, history, science, and more. They aren’t exposed to the most recent agenda that is being pushed on the public schools. 
  6. We can spend time in the Bible together. I believe that the most important thing I will ever teach my children about is God’s Word. If they were gone all day, I’d only have small bits of time to share Scripture with them. 
  7. My kids don’t sit at desks all day. My kids move around, go outdoors, explore, sit on the floor, lay on the couch, and be comfortable. This is a real kind of childhood. I don’t personally have a goal of training my children to sit at a desk in a cubicle all day when they are older, so why would I do that to them now?
  8. Our family shares experiences and knowledge. If we sent our kids to school all day, they would be in separate classrooms, and they’d possibly have different lunch and recess times and maybe even different schools (depending on their grades). They wouldn’t be getting to know the same people, or even sticking to any of the same subjects. Our family has always gone to co-ops and activities together. We also study several subjects together. As the boys have gotten older, I see how this connected our family in such a beautiful way. They can still talk about people they spent time with, experiences they had, and things they learned. I love that they can have these kinds of conversations!
  9. Homeschooling has allowed our kids to explore subjects they are interested in. School doesn’t have to take all day long. In fact, most of the time, we get our core subjects done in the morning. Because of this, our kids have had time to research, create, read, and focus on topics that they are curious about.
  10. My kids have become well-rounded individuals. Since our school days aren’t aimed at achieving perfect test scores, we get to explore so many beautiful subjects. Our children have learned so much about music, poetry, history, geography, great literature, and many other subjects. In addition, we’ve been able to spend time teaching them how to cook, how to care for a home, and how to take care of animals and a garden on a small homestead. I love who they are becoming. It has been such a wonderful experience to be by their side through all of it, too.

These are my top ten reasons. I’ve got more, but I wanted to share these top ten with you today.

Do you homeschool? If so, why do you homeschool? 

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Why I Started Homeschooling

Homeschooling wasn’t on the radar when I was in college, planning to teach middle school English. I grew up in the public school system, and so did my husband. We planned to enroll our children in that exact same system.

Fast forward to 2001, when our first son, Isaac, was born at twenty-six weeks gestation. I sat by our tiny baby’s incubator every single day for the three months he was in the hospital. When he came home, I had no desire to work, or to be anywhere else but with my baby boy. We had lost two babies before Isaac clung on for dear life in my womb, until my body kicked him out at only six months. I think something about losing children and then finally having one made me realize how precious every single moment with him was.

We were blessed with a second child in a short amount of time: Kaleb is only thirteen months younger than Isaac, and he was born a month early! I thought I had miscarried Kaleb early in the pregnancy, but it turned out to be his twin. Another loss. Another reason to treasure the lives–the gifts–that God had blessed us with.

When Kaleb was eleven months old, I got a call from my friend Judy, who asked “Want a baby?” It turned out, a couple from our church had a grandson in the foster care system. Their daughter was incarcerated and was not going to be able to parent him. We had planned to “have a couple, adopt a couple” and had tied my tubes after a difficult and dangerous pregnancy with Kaleb. We prayed, met everyone, placed a polaroid photo of a dark haired baby on our fridge, started with the paperwork, and eventually adopted our son Noah when he was fourteen months old.

We had a preschool in our home! Isaac was three, Kaleb was two, and Noah was one. It was lively, fun, loud, and sometimes chaotic. I tend to strive for order, and I decided to create a little bit of order in our days. We would have “Circle Time” and sing songs. We did laundry together. I taught them how to unload dishes. We had story time, and snack time, and outside time, and lunch time, and nap time. Truth be told, sometimes I sat in the hall by their bedroom door and prayed through tears: “Please, Lord, I need them to take a nap.” Those days were long.

Order! 🙂 The boys used these “popper” toys as play vacuums while I used the real vacuum.

Because Isaac was born so early, he had occupational therapy appointments, feeding therapy appointments and Early Intervention through the public school system. Isaac had a hard time gaining weight, was in the hospital several times, and was eventually had a feeding tube surgically put into his stomach. 

I started doing preschool-style activities at home when Isaac was only two, and I continued with those activities when we adopted Noah.

The boys “helped” me cook a lot. I gave them little bowls and let them try ingredients.

When Isaac was five, I had hesitations about our original plan of sending him to school:

  1. I liked teaching my boys at home. I loved spending my days with them, and I really enjoyed seeing their faces light up when they learned new things.
  2. Isaac was so much smaller than other kids his age, and he was blind in one eye and had a lazy eye. I worried about him getting teased in public school.
  3. He also had a feeding tube that he carried around in a backpack. It was so much easier to monitor that at home than to send him away to have other people doing that. There was less risk of injury (the tube accidentally being yanked out of his belly) if he was home. AND, Isaac vomited often and needed quick baths and outfit changes throughout the day. Keeping him home just made sense.
  4. I couldn’t picture separating our three boys for several hours a day. They really enjoyed being together and I loved seeing them play together.
  5. All of the appointments plus half a day of school seemed like too much to juggle. How do moms of medically fragile kids make it work? I couldn’t imagine how to do it all.
  6. I wanted to be a teacher, and started realizing that my favorite students in the whole world were under my own roof.

As I began homeschooling, I dug into books and blogs by other homeschool moms. I also observed other families around me who homeschooled, and those who didn’t. Over time, I developed my “why” for homeschooling. Our boys are now twenty-two, twenty-one and twenty, and our daughters (who we adopted after the boys) are sixteen and fourteen. I’m still homeschooling, and I have pretty solid reasons to homeschool. I’ll share about those tomorrow!

Why did you start homeschooling?