It’s official! We are wrapping up our 2017–2018 school year. I have to say that has been the most successful year of homeschooling that we have ever had and that is said with a sigh of relief. I am sharing my top 3 homeschool strategies that work. These are really more hack that I have found through trial and error. I feel like we can joy the experience and we have learned more than ever before. We have been able to “stay on track”, whatever that means, and this mom hasn’t had quite as many days where I questioned my sanity at least due to homeschooling. This post contains affiliate links, you can read my full disclosure here.
Psst… if you aren’t a homeschooler, scroll down for free goodies and a science giveaway.
The 2016-2017 Homeschool Strategies that Work
-These are the top 3 things that I did this year that we either enjoyed immensely or I feel like just change the way we homeschool and the way we approach our days. So without further ado here are the top 3 ways we transformed our homeschool in 2017-2018.
Number 1: Getting Organized
Number one was really attacking organization! This was my fifth year homeschooling, but I have always struggled with consistency and keeping kids who are not excited about academics on track. This was complicated when we added our unexpected, but wonderful last addition to our family 3.5 years ago. Homeschooling with a toddler in tow is like running a marathon in the mud. Her entrance onto the scene combined with older kids that need more of me academically created the perfect storm for someone like myself who finds maintaining organization challenging.
I can organize like a champ, but maintaining systems that work are always my downfall. I knew I needed help, but I was completely not looking to spend any cash to learn how. That all changed when I started to see Kristi Clover’s Ultimate Homeschool Organization Course. I have mentioned this course several times and it has been the biggest game changer in our homeschooler.
The kids can get going even when our little one needs more mom time. They are responsible for getting their work done that is in the crate. This personal responsibility is something I preached when I was a teacher but had struggled with implementing as a homeschooler – not anymore! I was literally was on the brink of quitting when I started to utilize the strategies from her course and I don’t see me ever feeling like that again. Read my full review of her course. You can see an early edition of my crate below:
Number 2: Unit Studies
I had always wanted to do unit studies but just hadn’t figured out how to make it work for my kids. My kids are not super crafty and they have some learning differences that make lots of writing and too many directions overwhelming very quickly. I tried a few things early on and found they were just a waste of money (when money was tight). I gave up.
This year I decided to branch out from our normal patterns and really try again to find something that worked for my kids. It was a success. I have used a combination of my own unit studies and purchased studies that I have adapted with success. We wound up studying Ancient Greece in the fall and spring and my kids loved it. Our tutorial is going to study ancients next year and the kids are excited to do another round. We started talking about Ancient Greece during the summer games. I included family game night and even our oldest who is a college student and her boyfriend had fun. We also got the chance to use Project Passport this Spring and we will be using that program for the ancients next year to go along with our tutorial.
Number 3: We did Science!
The third thing we did this year is we really have created a more well-rounded experience. We aren’t focused on math and reading at the exclusion of everything else. The impact this has had can’t really be explained. My resistant kids are asking what we will be doing later in the week! We have added unit studies, but I also made a commitment to more science this year. We meet with another family for a lab day every other week and it has made a big impact. The results have been so positive that I found I wanted to do more and more with kids. So much that I ultimately decided to share our projects in a book. That is how The Lab Bench came to be.
This isn’t about perfection…
And no I’m not saying that we don’t ever have bad days because we’re individuals that have hunger pains, headaches, and just wake up with the grumpies. None of that is changed, but I am saying that it doesn’t feel like one bad day, after another, after another. I don’t wake up feeling afraid that I am extinguishing the desire to learn in my kids. So if your mom who is worried about that (or just trying to survive), I definitely suggest implementing some of these strategies. I bet you will be able to see you aren’t doing such a bad job.
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