I mostly identify as homeschooling mama, but truth be told, three out of our 6 kids have spent time in not just school, but public school. <GASP>

Our latest launch has been the most successful to date. Clearly this makes me an expert, so I figured I would impart my pearly words of wisdom to you.

Disclaimer: These steps should only be used on your first born child for whom you have the highest aspirations.

Step 1. Homeschool him for at least five years.

Step 2. Create some kind of family crisis so that for at least the last two years of  his homeschool career, so you are literally not paying attention to him at all.

Step 3. Allow the student to sleep in for as long as he pleases during his homeschool career. If his usual wake up time is after 12pm, all the better.

Step 4. Give him unlimited access to a computer behind closed doors to guarantee that he’s making the most of his home educational experience. Turn a blind eye to the number of hours he spends gaming everyday. At least he’s not sexting. It’s all relative, people.

Step 5. Try out homeschooling high school at home a year early just for fun. Make sure the child fails at least three classes.

Step 6. Be sure to choose a public school who is overhauling its guidance department so you have to wait until the last week of August to register and find out anything at all about the school-class schedules, start times, bus routes, etc.

Step 7. Check the bus route when it’s finally available and announce to your student that his bus will come at the o’dark hundred hour of 6:45 AM. Snicker behind closed doors.

Step 8. Plan to go out of town for his very first week of high school. Miss Back to School night. Be unavailable to sign any syllabi or other such first week of school paperwork. Additionally be unavailable to go back to school supply shopping for all the things that apparently high school teachers don’t tell you about until you actually get to your classes. I seem to remember getting supply lists over the summer when I was in school, but clearly that was another time and generation. #thankgoodnessforamazonprime

Step 9. Enjoy the fact that is there is one less body to manage every day from 6:45 AM to 2:15 PM.

How’s school going for you this year?

I guess I should also note, that this is what a day looks like if we don’t have Bridges or therapy appointments or…or…or. Frankly, these days are kind of like unicorns which is another reason to capture it.

I’ve been doing my best to get up and working at around 6 AM. All circumstances and sleep deprivation aside, I’m naturally a morning person. My brain really refuses to do any real thinking roughly after 3PM. If you see something from me after that time, I probably scheduled it at 6AM. This is also the only quiet time in my house where I can record what I need to for the podcast. However, with the days getting darker and colder, I’m starting to experience the slippery snooze slope. PJ slips out the door at around 6:45 AM.

At 7 AM, Mia, a morning girl after my own heart, gets up and starts school right away. #herchoice #dreamstudent

By 9 AM, I figure I should call Ty. He’s usually awake by this time, but he’s not allowed to come out until he’s been summoned. He goes straight to breakfast. If Jae doesn’t have school, he usually wanders over to eat with us, too. #theboysarealwayshungry

Ty is freshest in the morning, and my patience level is at its max, so we tackle school that requires my supervision right after breakfast. Despite my best efforts, I loose my cool over his inability to file papers in a binder…even with detailed instruction. Sometimes, we’re just going along swimmingly, and then–BAM–FASD brain.

That mist in the picture is our diffuser going. We use it to keep our emotions in check. I’m his external regulator, so if I can keep myself playful and calm, he’ll follow suit.

By 11:30 AM, we need a play break. Well, he plays. I work.

Around 12:30 PM, I sit him in front of his lunch (a taco bowl of sorts) and go take a shower. We have a solar hot water heater, so I try to do hot water activities when the sun is shining, and we can take advantage of the free energy.

After lunch, we tackle the bits of school that he can mostly do on his own. Basically, I give him one task at a time, such as alphabetizing his spelling list, and he reports back when he’s finished to have his work checked and get his next assignment.

Around 3 PM, it’s more playtime for him and more work time for me. PJ is also home by now which can change the dynamic if he decides to not be a video game hermit and engage with the rest of the house.

On Tuesdays, we eat an early dinner and head out around 6 PM for Ninja Warrior practice for Ty and archery for Mia.

By the time we get home, it’s bedtime for Ty.

Patrick bowls on a team with some work buddies and gets home late on Tuesdays, so I usually have a podcast guest lined up to record at 9 PM or I have time to catch up on that never-ending to-do list.

What are you up to today?

I’ve met amazing people during our family’s crazy journey, and the unCorked Podcast is my way of introducing their amazing stories to you!

My guest this week is Bethany Kaczmarek. Besides being an inspiring teacher and mama, she just published her first book, Strains of Silence. It’s a story with a powerful message about partner and domestic violence that is near and dear to Bethany’s heart. You’re going to love her strength and courage.

I love how she’s looking to create community around this topic to help break the silence. If you’d like her to video chat into your book club, you can get in touch with her at Contact{at}bethanykaczmarek.com.

You also need to go buy her book.

Who do you know who needs to hear Bethany’s message or read her book? There are easy sharing buttons for you below!

Join the podcast conversation by tagging your comments and feedback with #theuncorkedpodcast.

I’ve met amazing people during our family’s crazy journey, and the unCorked Podcast is my way of introducing their amazing stories to you!

Karen Harris is a veteran, homeschooling mama to many. She has a great sense of humor and no-nonsense parenting style. We chat about what she’s learned from decades of parenting and her new book project.

Her kids also recently released a new musical project.

Check them out at www.praisewarriors.com.

What was your biggest takeaway from Karen’s pearly words of wisdom? Tag your answer with #theuncorkedpodcast.

Our homeschool community, Bridges, is officially back at full swing. I’m excited to be the tutor for our Logic level program which is equivalent to 7 and 8 grade (middle school). We do both grades together with a 2-year curriculum that can be taken in any order.

This is the stage where learning is driven by asking questions and applying formal logic to check your answers. In addition to traditional core subjects, one year we cover formal logic, and the other year we do fallacies. We’re on fallacies this year and using the popular Fallacy Detective book. My favorite teaching book on this stage of education is The Question by Leigh Bortins (feelings about CC aside).

Here’s the line up for this year.

Latin-I use Henle First Year as my base. I teach it from beginning to end each year adjusting the assignments for first and second year students respectively. I focus less on memorization and more on how to use a set of declension and conjugation charts and a dictionary to translate. If students have come through our Grammar (or grade school program), they have a tremendous grasp of English grammar and the Latin follows much easier than the students anticipate. I also find that moving quickly through the book keeps their attention more than spending an entire year on declensions and not understanding verbs and other parts of speech until later levels and years.

Science-I’m pulling from Science World magazine and ScienceWise 2 to design discussion-based and experiential lessons. The students will also be writing formal lab reports based on the scientific method.

English– Writing is integrated across many of the subjects. We continue to use IEW tools to guide us. For literature, we will read one classic together and dig deeper into the IEW critique model as well as explore literary critique methods and vocabulary. The rest of the books are student chosen. Each month the students read a book, write a critique, and present it to the class. I was inspired to use a more student driven approach for choosing literature after reading the Reader’s Odyssey.

Health– We’ll be reading and discussing articles from Scholastic Choices magazine.

Social Studies-The focus will be on world geography and current events. I like the Mapping the World with Art curriculum because it also checks off the required art box requirement for our state. I have the students read the lesson’s reading at home, and we complete the drawing lesson in class. We don’t do the extra enrichment activities. Additionally, we’re using Seterra to help us memorize all the countries in the world. We’re going continent by continent. For current events, the class has a subscription to WORLD Teen (yes, we’re magazine heavy in this year of the curriculum). We’ll be doing discussion around those articles through the month.

Bible-We’ll start by exploring praying in the Bible. Then we’ll study and pray for countries around the world using
Window on the World: When We Pray God Works which ties into our World Geography focus. We’ll also learn about world religions as we go.

Math– Because math is the one thing I couldn’t figure out how to teach modularly, we just provide some math study hall time. Fallacy Detective won’t take us all year, so we will also use Uncle Eric Talks about Personal Career and Financial Security as an intro to economics.

I’m in the market for a great one-year, comprehensive formal, logic course for next year. Any recommendations?

Last year, we beta-tested a new classical homeschool community. While we were only 3 families, it was a really sweet year with a fabulous dynamic–kids and mamas alike. This year, we dreamed to expand in number and offering. Meet Bridges Classical Community. We added 6 families and now offer a Logic level (7th and 8th grade-ish) and a Rhetoric level (high school).

With two kids moving up a stage (Mia to Logic and PJ to Rhetoric), less opportunity for crisis, and a business still to fit in, I decided to be more intentional with our routine this year.

<<drum roll, please>>

Here is what an ideal week would look like:

(click image to enlarge)

My work and planning will happen before 8AM and after 3PM most days with answering and sorting emails during lunch. While there are times listed, I’m going for routine over schedule.

Curriculum you wonder?

Click here for our Claritas Cycle 1 Resource List

Ty (Grammar Stage, independent reader, special needs)

Bible, Science, Language Arts, Art, Music, Latin, Geography, History will all be covered in our 1.5 community days. #wewin.

At home, we’ll handle math, read lots, and master the weekly memory work and spelling list.

Math is a struggle. We rotate between Math Mammoth (main spine), Right Start Math, and Khan Academy. Basically when we get stuck at a concept, we drop it and move to another concept in another curriculum, gain some confidence, then come back to where we were stuck. It pretty much always works that we get it on the second go-round.

Mia (Logic Stage)

Everything but music will happen and/or be assigned from community. #doublewin
Click here to see specifics. We’re in Year A.

For math, she’ll continue in Math Mammoth.

For music, Mia will continue to practice and teach herself piano with a little guidance from me.

PJ (Rhetoric Stage)

Again, all of PJ’s credits this year will originate in community. #stillwinning
He’ll be completing the Alpha year credits.

Patrick is putting his MA in Theology to write the Hebrew scripture course content.

Credits that don’t have a curriculum link we’re creating with the kids using a bit of Thomas Jefferson Education philosophy. The plan is to take good notes and have our experience documented to be able to share with other communities in the future.

For math, PJ will do Life of Fred Algebra. He enjoys the sense of humor and non-repetitiveness of it.

If you need help picking homeschool curriculum for your family, please let me know. I’d love to help.

If you’re all planned for this year, care to share?

I have fantastic news for you! Homeschool is not actually school (as you envision the institutional variety) at home. It’s more like education that has the home and family unit as a base. We don’t sit at desks, and I become more of a tutor than a teacher once the kids can read independently. They kids have a checklist to work through and pretty much only come find me to have something checked or to ask a question. We also do not have as much structure and schedule as school, and we certainly do NOT spend 6 or more hours doing school…or do we?

School can be anything anywhere. This is where counting the hours can get tricky. PJ is getting ready to take a hunting class, but it will happen on evenings and weekends long after traditional schooling hours are over. Mia will start sewing washable feminine hygiene products for women in developing countries. She’ll probably do them in her “free” time. Health…check. We’re getting ready to take a 4 day trip to Houston during a week the kids are “off,” but you can figure we’ll all learn something. Listening to great literature in the car? Definitely school and definitely happens for more hours than most kids are in school. We drive a LOT!

[bctt tweet=”Homeschool is not the battle you fight to get homework done every night multiplied by 8.”]

Homeschool is not the battle you fight to get homework done every night multiplied by 8. It’s having your child during the best part of his day and meeting him where he is educationally, socially, and emotionally. Homeschool is not necessarily having a child, or children, attached to you all the time. It’s teaching everyone health space and time boundaries. Homeschool is not forcing your child into a curriculum or making her do busy work. It’s the flexibility to change what’s not working to something better and to craft experiences that are meaningful and educational.

If you’re a homeschooler, how is your homeschool different than school at home?

The beginning of a new year seems like an apropos time to reveal some of our current life hacks. None of the links are affiliate. I have no motivation for sharing other than, well, wanting to.

1. Our local YMCA membership. While most may be joining in January to support fitness and weight loss goals, we use our local Y for showers and free babysitting. With 8 people all needing showers after tae kwon do and only one shower at home, it seemed well worth it to pay $80 a month for the ability to all take hot showers at one time. Plus they provide 2 hours of free babysitting a day and soap for our showers! The pool and fitness equipment are a bonus.
2. Audiobooks. Want to know a secret? I hate reading out loud to my kids. I want them to be read to, but I hate doing it. Besides, I fall asleep. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. While reading. No matter what time it is. Enter audiobooks. We listen to them in the car. It’s a win-win. The kids are so captivated that they are quiet, and we’ve taken in dozens of great books. We pretty much only listen to ones that our library stocks, so this hack doesn’t even cost money.
   [bctt tweet=”Want to know a secret? I hate reading out loud to my kids. Check out this #lifehack.”]
3. My TO DO email address. Ever get an email to your phone while you’re out and about and want to remember to respond when you have more time and a real keyboard? Ever need to send yourself an important reminder? I have a separate email account that no one has that I ONLY check at HOME at MY DESK. I forward important emails, websites, and Facebook posts I want to remember for later and notes to myself. I have a daily Todoist task that reminds me to check that special email at the end of the day to make sure I follow up.
4. Disposable email addresses. Do you hate when you have to enter an email just to read a blog article? Or ever want to join a free site but don’t want to reveal your real email address for fear of spam monsters? Check out mailinator.com. It’s a public, disposable email. The inboxes are not password protected so don’t have sensitive information sent to one. We use them to sign up for some homeschool things like Xtramath and ReadTheory.

What are your favorite life hacks?

Fast forward 4 years. She is the most focused and motivated person in the house. She loves reading. She still wouldn’t call herself a math person, but she rocks it and is basically teaching herself. She gets up every morning while the house is still quiet and starts her work. Last year, when I was pretty much M.I.A. (no pun intended) as a mother (let alone teacher) because of our trauma drama, she moved through her checklist faithfully each week and bloomed into quite the academic.

We use IEW for our writing curriculum. It really works for my engineering brain because it’s systematic and structured. It really worked for PJ, who hates writing, and now I know it works for our creative, right-brained Mia. We don’t do writing at our house until about 9, so this is only Mia’s second year writing anything. A couple weeks ago, during a creative writing unit, she whipped out this short story that I love and wanted to share with you. It was a completely independent effort with me just providing some basic grammar editing.

Without further ado…

The Christmas Gift

One November morning, on Zumba Street, a girl, named Maisie, was sitting in the kitchen eating breakfast. Maisie had short, dark brown, lovely hair, and sweet, brown eyes. Her mother, Grace, was making her a special breakfast because the night before she and her soccer team won the championship. Maisie was the best soccer player on her team, but she hated it. Maisie’s parents thought she loved soccer, but they thought wrong. Instead of soccer, Maisie loved to paint. “Eat up Maisie because after breakfast you are visiting Aunt Rose at her house, “announced Maisie’s mother. After Maisie heard this she did start eating faster because she loved Aunt Rose. Maisie’s aunt, who was really magnificent at painting, might give her some advice. After she ate her breakfast, she walked into the car and fastened her seatbelt.

Maisie and her mother finally arrived at Aunt Rose’s. When Maisie walked into the house, she spotted her aunt sitting in the living room.

“Have a wonderful time.” Remarked Maisie’s mother. “Bye mom.” Mumbled Maisie in return. After her mom left, Maisie turned to her aunt in the living room. “Why hello Maisie. Now what do you want to talk about?” asked Aunt Rose.

“Well I need advice on something. Everyone thinks I like soccer, but I hate it. Instead of playing soccer next year again, I want to take painting lessons. But the thing is I’m too scared to tell everyone. I mean what if everyone laughs at the idea? ” exclaimed Maisie.

“So you need advice on if you want to tell everyone about painting, or suck it up and play soccer next year?” asked Aunt Rose.

“I guess that’s what I want,” softly whispered Maisie

“Maisie, I really don’t think that anyone would make fun of that idea. It’s good to try something new. However if you want, I will pay for the art lessons for Christmas. If I do you have to tell your parents about the painting.” decided Aunt Rose. Maisie, who considered this, thought it was a lovely idea. Maisie was so proud to have such an awesome aunt.

That night at dinner Maisie mumbled the whole story to her parents frightfully. Her parents who, were confused at first, understood more as she talk. Weeks passed and then finally Christmas came. She finally possessed what she wanted so she was happy. It was the most terrific Christmas gift she had ever received.

Moral: A little encouragement goes a long way.