5 Things that Changed Our Homeschool for the Better

5 Things that Changed Our Homeschool for the Better

When I started homeschooling, I came to schooling from a former public school mindset. I had never envisioned homeschooling, let alone thought it was a path I would be pursuing and loving for my children. Eight years in and shifting a few things around, we thrive in our homeschool. None of these are of more importance than another, and not all of these changes happened simultaneously. Looking back on the things I have changed along the way, I can say that these five changes have only made our homeschool time together so much better.

5 Things to Consider When Choosing Homeschool Curriculum

5 Things to Consider When Choosing Homeschool Curriculum

Singing loudly for those in the back, "It's the most wonderful time." Maybe not for everyone, but this time of year is our Christmas for most (perhaps not all) homeschoolers. New curriculum is rolling out, homeschool conference sessions are rolling, and catalogs are arriving in our mailboxes. My nerdy side is bursting at the seams. I love the planning, the pursuit of possibilities, and the endless opportunities.

If you follow a traditional school schedule, then the allure of the next school year and the end of the current year is on the horizon. For more year-round schoolers (like us), we like the deals during this time and the promise of a chance to change things up, where I need to tweak or change things as the school year continues.

As all the shiny newness can overwhelm us and you find it hard to make decisions, keep in mind the following as you make your decisions for your next school year.

Lessons from reading “Homeschooling Bravely” By Jamie Erickson

Lessons from reading “Homeschooling Bravely” By Jamie Erickson

The first book I chose was “Homeschooling Bravely” By Jamie Erickson. It felt good to read this book and know that my fears about homeschooling were “normal.”

I narrowed down what I learned from reading this book into five big lessons.

1. God’s Hand is On Us

2. I am Not Alone

3. Keep Our Focus On The Why

4. Each New Step in Homeschooling is a Season

5. There is a Bigger Picture to Homeschooling

5 Ways to Reset Your Homeschool When You Feel Overwhelmed

5 Ways to Reset Your Homeschool When You Feel Overwhelmed

There are mornings when my girls take almost an hour to get dressed and ready in the morning. Why? I have no clue. There are days when my oldest seems to have forgotten every math fact from essential addition to division. There are days when the middle daughter can't sit still and is more consumed. They are just as many days that our littlest is just not having our school time, and I have to stop what I am doing with my older girls and rearrange our school day. Those are just some days, though, and some of our struggles. Throw in outside forces telling you that your doing something wrong, that your kids will be awkward and weird for homeschooling. What about your house out of control, laundry piled higher than the ceiling allows? Just like everything in one's life, we sometimes can get overwhelmed. Homeschooling is not different, and Yep, homeschooling isn't always sunshine and rainbows either.

I'm here to tell you that it is ok to hit the reset button, and it is ok to take a step back and reevaluate your homeschooling. You do not have to quit homeschooling. Let me say that again. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO QUIT HOMESCHOOLING! In our homeschooling journey, I have had several times where I felt like throwing in the towel and just giving up. In my mind, I couldn't see past the pile-up of everything return tog that seemed to be going wrong steadily.

Why We Love Homeschooling: And You Might Too

Some of you may know, but I didn’t start to be a homeschooling Momma, now after 7 ½ years, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.  So, I get it; I was skeptical of homeschooling heck, I recall almost mocking it while in college, studying to be a teacher myself.  Public school is what most of us know, and most of us are comfortable with, and while I advocate that anyone can homeschool, I realize that not everyone wants to or can.  This post is for those on the fence about whether you should homeschool.

There is no doubt from watching us on Facebook or Instagram that we love homeschooling.  Over the years, though, the original reason we began homeschooling is no longer the only thing we love about it.  Here are our current top 10 reasons we love homeschooling, and just maybe, you might be able to enjoy it too.

1.  Being Together as a Family

We started this journey to be together as a family.  When my husband leaves for a new job contact, we often join him.  If we didn’t, we would only see him every few months if we were lucky, or just for holidays and summer vacation.  Homeschooling allows us to pick up and move wherever we need to, to be with him. 

2.  Individualized Instruction

While I had several long-term substituting jobs before homeschooling, it was hard to reach every student for every lesson.  I was limited to teaching or using tools and resources used in the past.  It was hard, and I wasn’t allowed to change an assignment to fit the needs of students having difficulties.  I have been able to stop mid-lesson and wait for our girls to get a concept and fully understand it.  We can also wait for skills to develop.  I have put off formal grammar and writing with my girls, which has helped make our oldest a better writer in the long run. 


3.  Life Experiences

Traveling together with my husband for his job, we have been able to have a lot of once-in-a-lifetime experiences we wouldn’t have been able to before.  We have immersed ourselves in local and national history during our travels.  We have gotten to experience things beyond traveling as well.  We can teach our girls life skills and immerse those skills into their learning as well


4.  Helping Family

We have been there for the family in their times of need.  I have helped after several surgeries with my father and helped out with my mother-in-law after some health issues.  We have just packed up and taken our schooling with us.

5.  Low Pressure to Fit In

Spend about five minutes with our girls, and you will notice that they are just different.  Not different, as a bad thing, but they haven’t needed to feel pressured to fit in with others.  They have their likes and dislikes not influenced by media and peer pressure.  It is also low pressure academically.  I, as their teacher, don’t have to feel the need to follow mainstream educational standards.

6.  Intertwine Our Faith into Learning

I never realized how much our faith could be woven into our learning, and now that I get to teach our girls,  it has become essential to my husband and me to grow our girls’ faith, which has been fantastic as a Momma to witness. 

7.  Renewal of Learning (For Parents)

Just as our girls are learning, so am I.  While I don’t want to dismiss my public school education, I have learned much from teaching.  I also have gotten to read and listen to a lot of great literature in the process. 

8.  Not Derailed by the Outside World

Covid derailed a lot of kids’ educations.  We could stay on track.  We just missed out on a few socialization activities.  It is not just covid that can set things off track.  We can pause for sickness or travel and pick up back to schooling with ease.

9.  Foster a Love for Learning

Watching our girls fall in love with reading and every topic we encounter is unique.  I know they are young, and this could change, but I get to help foster this love for learning for now, and it is a fantastic thing to watch.

10.  Freedom in our Day

Where would love for homeschooling be with our freedom?  Freedom in our Day (only having to school for 2-3 hours a day), freedom in what we choose to learn, and freedom to be ourselves without fear of judgment.

There you have it!  10 Reasons you could love homeschooling as much as we do.  Don’t quite believe me?  Check out these other blog posts I’ve written on it as well: The Best Job, I Never Knew I Always Wanted, and Is Homeschooling Right For Me.

 

Look for us on Facebook and Instagram for a more daily look at our homeschooling adventures.  If you’re looking for a homeschooling community to grow with and learn from, check out our Facebook Group.

What’s New for 2022 Momma Bear School: Bringing Homeschooling Parents Together


Over the last six months, there has been a dramatic shift in the life of Momma Bear School. Lack of Naps! While I anticipated adding Bird to our homeschool life, I didn’t realize how much it would affect my productivity. So, I stepped back and plotted and planned for what I truly wanted Momma Bear School to be. I was trying to do too much and in turn, started to become a person I am not. 


In comes 2022, and I’m ready to launch into what I hope will be a solid foundational year of growing and learning for both myself and you as a willing participant in what’s to come. My goals are simple and basic for this year as I navigate homeschooling my older girls and living with a currently very clingy toddler. I still want to help you and others along the way in their homeschooling journies and adventures.


For new things in 2022, I have set a “theme” for each month. So with each new theme, I'm committing to one new blog post and one new helpful free parent tool a month. In addition to this, I’m also committed to bringing weekly discussions to the Momma Bear School Parent Group and new daily glimpses into our homeschooling journey on our Facebook page and Instagram. As my confidence and my schedule opens up this year, I hope to offer more, but for now, this is what I know I can do. I anticipate developing a few non-free printable resources, but do not have a timetable on these, as I want to create freely and without time constraints. 


Some things that are leaving in 2022 are monthly/quarterly updates about what we have been doing. The redundancy of these has become a begrudging chore; besides, if you follow us on our Facebook Page or Instagram, you pretty much know what we have been doing. Gone also for this year will be the workshops and classes I was trying to form over the last two years. These may return in the future, but for now, they don’t reflect the person I am. This area was starting to become overwhelming to navigate, as I felt it required me to be a salesman, and well, let’s face the facts, I’m not, nor do I want to be. I’m stripping down Momma Bear School back to our Blog and Printable Resources for what’s new in 2022. I’ll be sharing more


I’m excited about what’s new for Momma Bear School in 2022; I feel this is a great year to build a community that encourages and supports not only our homeschool adventure but yours as well. Thank you to those who have been following our journey up to this point and those who are new to this adventure of Momma Bear School. 2002 is all about rebuilding and community building, and I can’t wait; I hope to see you there along the way. 

Be sure to join our Parent Group on Facebook(Momma Bear School: Parent Group). You can also follow along on our journey on Instagram and Facebook from the links below.

Box Day 2021: Our Curriculum Picks for the 2022 School Year

Box Day 2021: Our Curriculum Picks for the 2022 School Year

I'm not sure if Box Day is a strictly Sonlight related phrase for getting next year's curriculum or an overall understanding among other homeschooling families, but alas, we had our box day for the 2022 school year. Wait, 2022, you ask? Yes, for us, our school year begins in January. To take part in deals and use a few coupon codes I had to receive, I usually order our curriculum sometime during the summer. Also, ordering a while before we use it allows me to set it up and prep it ahead of time, and this year, with our Baby Bird, I may need a little extra time.

So, what did we order?

We are Plenty Socialized (I Promise)!

We are Plenty Socialized (I Promise)!

The dreaded Socializing question every homeschooler gets asked when we reveal to others that we homeschool has never been a dreaded question. I know all the sarcastic remarks others can make in this instance (we socialize our animals and countless others out there). It is not so daunting if you set out what socializing means to you and not necessarily what it means to everyone else. This (definition) can help answer the questions of the not-so-friendly, random stranger, or even family who ask. People often ask about socializing because they knew someone or saw some news article about weird, awkward, and half backward families who homeschooled. Frequently those families are extreme, but they fill people's stereotypes for what a homeschooler is supposed to be or how they are supposed to act. Like any stereotype, others' preconceived notions serve their definition, not what it means.

Dealing with Negativity (from Other's About our Choice to Homeschool)

Dealing with Negativity (from Other's About our Choice to Homeschool)

I have spent the last eight and a half years loving being a Momma and our homeschool journey. But I have always been a little reserved with it, and I have received my share of backlash for our choice and decision to pursue the homeschool path.

I have wanted to write about this negativity since I started plans for this blog three years ago. Every time I sat down to write it or jot notes down for it, my response always came up short, though, in my opinion, of the message I wanted to express to others. It felt snarky, rude, and judgmental. Precisely the feelings I had felt each time someone criticized our choices. No matter how I worded things, I couldn't get out what I wanted to say.

What Homeschooling Has Taught Me: Confessions of a Former Public School Teacher

What Homeschooling Has Taught Me: Confessions of a Former Public School Teacher

I will preface this by saying that while I never actually had my own public school classroom, my time as a short-term and long-term substitute teacher, and while pursuing a full-time teaching position, I had many biases in place regarding homeschooling. I spent the first year struggling in our homeschool because my public-school background clouded my education and understanding of learning. By our third year in (and consequentially the year I chose to test out Sonlight), I had a mind shift and finally had the clarity to separate myself from my public-school mindset. While I still have valuable lessons from my college days and my days as a substitute teacher, I now view our homeschool as something completely different, as others should consider it.