Articles by Tara Buchanan

For my family, the end of the school year coincided with the beginning of my favorite season: garage sale season! That’s what I call it here in the Midwest. We’d visit towns near and far who were having neighborhood sales and spend the day seeing what treasures we could find! For my kids, they might have thought, “no school today!” but truthfully, they were just learning and reviewing those skills out in the real world. Sometimes that meant a bit more work for me, as I spotted opportunities for them to put their mind to work. Looking back, I see how those days at garage sales helped reinforce a variety of skills we were learning at home.

Do you remember that sinking feeling when you opened your report card and it wasn’t quite what you hoped for? Many homeschool parents feel the same way when reflecting on the school year. It’s easy to fixate on what went wrong — the illnesses that derailed your schedule, the curriculum that took forever, the tears, the struggles, and the moments you felt like you failed. As homeschoolers, we’re quick to grade ourselves harshly on our children’s progress and our own shortcomings. But those “grades” don’t tell the full story. Some of the most important growth can’t be measured with letter grades. Before you set new goals and improvements for the coming year, take time first to count your wins. Celebrate the progress that matters most, even the quiet, unmeasurable ones. Your homeschooling journey this year has been more successful than you might think!

It seems that kids these days have it easier when it comes to finding information. Just google it, and bam, there’s the answer! They don’t have to drive over to the library and pull large reference volumes off the shelf just to find the answer to a question or do a quick fact-check. Google is a fact of modern life and is almost essential to our lives as adults. But before our kids start googling, which is inevitable, we can teach them to be good searchers of information outside of the internet. This is an important skill to develop, and it usually means searching through physical books first!

Although many homeschooling families start from the very beginning, just as many find themselves homeschooling when that was the last thing they ever saw themselves doing. Maybe you started out sure that your schooling choices would serve your child well, only to be sorely disappointed, again and again. Then came the straw that broke the camel’s back, and you made the call. You pulled your child out mid-year, thinking there had to be a better way. So what do you do now?

With the start of the New Year comes a new chapter in your homeschooling journey! It's a time where many parents stop to think about what their children have accomplished so far and plan for what's ahead. It's also a time where you might wonder if you're doing “enough” in your homeschool. For me, it was the type of question that would pop into my head in the middle of the night, even after a full day of learning and activities. As I tossed and turned in bed I would lie awake and ask myself: “Am I doing enough?”

If you ask a young child what the Christmas season is all about, you probably won’t hear them say spelling or history or extra homework. Most kids would be happy to skip schoolwork altogether once December rolls around. According to my kids, any and all “school” has a way of crushing the Christmas spirit. How can we have any fun if we have to do math?? But even if you do put your formal lessons aside, that doesn’t mean there still isn’t learning going on, even if it looks different from your usual routine. 

You’ve picked out your curriculum and you’ve unpacked your Rainbow boxes. You’ve got the fresh school supplies. You’ve cleaned off the dining room table and hung up some maps and charts. But as your start day looms closer, you panic and think, exactly how am I going to do this? There’s no one-size-fits-all, unfortunately. But there are several elements of a typical homeschool day to take into consideration as you plan your school day and school year. Your day will be filled with different types of activities!

As homeschooling has become more popular, there are seemingly endless programs available in every color, shape, and style. You’re not alone if you feel overwhelmed by all of the choices! Fortunately, a wide array of curriculum options also means that with a little bit of effort, you can find what will be the perfect fit for your family. In this article, we will walk through 6 important factors to consider when looking for the right homeschool curriculum!