During a long-term sub, I did (eons ago now), I had my sophomores create a classroom newspaper. This project has always been in the back of my mind to re-create. I started to create a version of it for Christmas school this year (which I am still planning to do), but my planning exploded, and well, here we are.
When have you ever been asked to show your high school diploma? Do you carry it around in your back pocket with your driver’s license? Probably not. I am not trying to provoke anyone in that statement, but it is what it is. If you are the parent, then that qualifies you to homeschool your children. Under your state’s laws, you are also qualified to issue a homeschooling diploma on your student’s behalf.
If you have been following us on our Facebook Page or Instagram, you have seen the progression of adding the Alternative Book Report Resources to our Printables page. Since all nineteen of them are finally complete, I figured this labor of love was owed its blog post to introduce them more officially. About two-three years ago, I began creating these alternative book reports for our big girls. We used them for about a year, so I had them all created, but they lacked rubrics and things to enhance them beyond our personal use. I put out a few for sale last year when I put out our Christmas School Units, and they started to sell here and there. I then set out at the beginning of this year to complete them all for sale and create a Bundle of them.
For part of 2025, I have decided to do blog posts centering around frequently asked homeschool questions. I have been asked these questions or seen them in various online spaces. I have been asked when people find out we homeschool, "Well, who do you report to, or how are you held accountable to make sure they are learning what they are supposed to be lea
For part of 2025, I have decided to do blog posts centering around frequently asked homeschool questions. I have been asked these questions or seen them in various online spaces. Many people I have come across have questioned my ability and others on how we are legally qualified to teach children since most teachers are required to have four-plus years of schooling and also complete continuing education courses. So what, as parents, qualifies us to teach our children?
If you are the parent who qualifies to homeschool your children, While I do have a bachelor's degree in English and I was certified to teach grades 6th through 12th language arts, it in no way makes me more qualified to teach my children than a parent who went to a trade school, or the parent who did not have any schooling beyond high school. At times, my background comes in handy when I am creating supplemental lessons and assignments or altering lesson plans. Still, on the other hand, it has also been a hindrance, especially at the beginning of our homeschool journey. I also lacked confidence in some areas, but more on that later.
For part of 2025, I have decided to do blog posts centering around frequently asked homeschool questions. I have been asked these questions or seen them in various online spaces. This post will cover how to start homeschooling.
Starting to homeschool is very easy. I have narrowed it down to Five Simple Steps.
1. Know Your State Laws and Requirements
2. Know Your Child
3. Choose Your Approach
4. Choose a Curriculum or Not
5. Begin a Slow Routine
These five steps are just the basics needed to get started. Plenty of other online resources to take advantage of if you need further instructions or help.
For part of 2025, I have decided to do blog posts centering around frequently asked homeschool questions. I have been asked these questions or seen them in various online spaces. In this post, we will discuss what exactly homeschooling is.
A quick Google search tells us that homeschooling is defined as educating (one's child) at home instead of sending them to school. A simple enough definition, right? Ask any homeschooling parent, though, and it is much more than that. To most, homeschooling is more than an academic education.
It's been a year or maybe two since I've done a curriculum choice post since, honestly, our choices have remained relatively the same the last few years. This year, with Mouse entering high school (see blog post and curriculum choices for her HERE) and Thumper needing some changes, I figured now would be a good time to do an updated curriculum choice post. We have also added Bird to the mix more intentionally and formally this year, and her outlook on school looks different than it was for her sisters at this age.
Thumper is going into the 5th grade this year, and we had to change some things. A lot of our choices remain the same. We will continue using Sonlight History/Bible/Literature and following along with Level E: Intro to American History Year Two. This may be our last year with Sonlight, as we seem to be looking for a change of pace. So I have challenged us to stay up on our Sonlight level and made a goal to finish by the end of October. Because, in November I would like to try one of Campfire Curriculums Thanksgiving Units. Based off of how we like this unit will help determine where we go with school in 2026.
Thumper, my math loving kiddo,is also continuing with Math U See Epsilon that she started in July, when she finishes that level she will continue on to Zeta. She seems on pace for completing these, as we rarely have to stop and take time to practice a lesson beyond the six practice pages and tests.
She also started with IEW last year doing a themed book (Bible Heroes), this year she will is doing their Student Structure and Style Year 1 Level A. She is continuing on with their Fix It Grammar as well. We really do like the simplicity of this grammar program.
She is dabbling in Latin this year using Duolingo, where last year she was learning Swedish. I’m hoping at some point she will narrow down her focus and choose a language to pursue more formally in the years to come. But she has time still.
The biggest thing we changed is science. We had a bit of a struggle last year with completing assignments. So, after some discussion, we decided to switch from Apologia to Sonlight Science. Still, we are doing Anatomy and Physiology, which is a retired core that I was able to snag from Rainbow Resources. She will independently tackle the “read-aloud” and the daily questions/worksheets.
Thumper and Bird are working together on our Adoptive Cow Program. These are fun little learning activities sprinkled into our year, where we will mostly work on things on Saturdays together.
With Bird I have had to do a lot of thinking, reorganizing, and planning to decider how best she will learn. Right now my current plan is to begin All About Reading Pre-Reading with her, modifying it a little bit. We will follow the lessons in number order, completing two to three lessons a week. However, we will do activity sheets and crafts based on a letter a week (upper and lower case). She got some alphabet games for Christmas we will play as well to help increase letter recognition.
I’m also adding in Before Five in a Row, but I’m not sure how well this will go. So far it feels like a lot of prep and planning for very little activity. I’m going to give it a chance, but we may just read the books and I’ll come up with my own activities to accompany the books. My plan is to do two books a month, so we will see.
I’m not starting a formal math program with her, but she did surprise me over Christmas break, while playing UNO, of her number recognition. So we will just find some math games to play and go from there. If we go home at all this year, I may decide to pick up Math U See Primer for her and start that will her slowly.
So in a nutshell she’ll those are our curriculum choices for the 2025 school year for grades 5 and pre-school.
As always, keep following our journey on our Facebook Page or Instagram. If you want more in-depth conversations, check out our Facebook Parent Group. More importantly, if you’re finding yourself in a struggle season, reach out (email or messages).
It's here; as of January 13, 2025, we officially have a high schooler. I've feared this day for many reasons, but I'm unsure as to why. Maybe it was realizing she was old enough, or maybe because I couldn’t see beyond teaching that tiny human to read when we began our homeschooling journey. That was my biggest hurdle, and I couldn't see beyond that. I know my Momma's heart isn't ready for her to grow up that it has all gone too fast. But it is here, and I can't stop it; we must embrace it, accept it, grow with it now, and make it the best experience for her possible.
Requirements for Graduation:
I spent last year trying to prepare for this moment. I determined what requirements I wanted for her( also aligning with the state of Wisconsin’s requirements) and considered her tentative plans for the future. Until last year, she wanted to be a veterinarian or vet tech, but she's been leaning towards joining “the family business” of operating heavy equipment. Her great-grandfather, grandfather, DADDY-o, aunt, and uncle have all or are currently involved in something along these lines. So, for her, this means that a 4-year college education is most likely not in her future. This is perfectly acceptable to us as long as she wants it. While her requirements for graduation will still need to be met, it does change the courses she might choose to take over the next 4 years, which may look a little different than I had initially planned.
Moving to Independence:
We worked on that this past year with her science and French courses. This was a learning curve for planning, time management, checking in, and guiding. Based on what we both learned from this, we have decided that I will outline monthly goals for her to meet, but it will be up to her how she accomplishes them. We will take the year's first quarter to assess whether this method works for us. Eventually, I hope I won't have to intervene in setting her goals; she can do that alone. My most significant role will be to evaluate her work for grades and assign credits.
I plan to check in with her weekly for the first quarter, and if that goes well, I will move into bi-weekly checks in the second quarter and then monthly checks in the third and fourth quarters.
Courses for this year:
Sonlight American History 100: She likes the reading and literature we've been using for the last few years and wanted to continue using this curriculum independently. We plan on meeting weekly to discuss questions from our guides.
Sonlight American Literature (with the language arts components writing, analogies, spelling, and vocabulary): Once it arrived and we looked through the entire literature course, we decided to use the complete literature program instead of another program, especially since she most likely isn't pursuing a four-year degree. We will also discuss questions weekly as well.
IEW Fix it Level 5 Frog Prince:
While we aren't doing writing from there, I wanted her to finish the last two levels of grammar. They are quick and easy enough for her to fit in, and she enjoys them.
MUS Pre-Algebra: She has approximately 4-5 lessons to complete in Zeta and then will move on to pre-algebra. Math is not her favorite and is not easy, but I hope her confidence and skills will build this year.
Apologia Biology: She has enjoyed Apologia Sciences since we switched 3/4 years ago and is continuing by using their high school courses. She is primarily excited to be allowed to dissect things officially.
Rosette Stone : She has decided to switch from French to Spanish, as she was struggling with French a bit last year and also thinks Spanish may be more beneficial in her career choice than French.
Keyboarding: Moving beyond typing games, she will practice proficiency and accuracy this year and hopefully improve this skill.
Thrive Physical Education: I was excited to find this year-long PE/Health course from Not Consumed. I was writing an independent PE course for her (which I will still do because she needs one more half credit for graduation) but stopped when I found this curriculum. This will be perfect for her as she will most likely be on the road with Daddy-o for most of the year.
Grading & Evaluating: The biggest thing I have to iron out as we progress through this year is evaluating and grading, which we haven't done much of. I found an online grade book to help me record things and make a transcript. I have to determine what to grade and evaluate for each course. This will become clearer as she begins working through things and turns things in.
The challenge of High School is upon us, and she is excited, which hopefully will rub off on the Ol’ Momma Bear.
As always, keep following our journey on our Facebook Page or Instagram. If you want more in-depth conversations, check out our Facebook Parent Group. More importantly, if you’re finding yourself in a struggle season, reach out (email or messages).
Book reports make some students, even my oldest girls, cringe in fear.
A few years ago, I created book lists and alternative book reports to encourage reading books outside our curriculum and introduce some literary analysis-type things they hadn't had before. Reading definitely took off for both of them, and the girls seemed to enjoy the alternative book reports.
We didn't do book reports this year and switched to summary pages instead. These took less time and went over a bit better. I have been using the summary pages to check in on their reading comprehension of their readers this year.
So, within the Simply Language Arts umbrella of things, you will begin seeing these alternative book reports and summaries available for purchase.
