When my family made the choice to homeschool our daughter, it was no small decision. Today almost 7, she had been in public school since age 3, getting needed therapies through a lengthy Individualized Education Plan (IEP).
Trading an IEP for a homeschool curriculum was scary. But it was the right decision. One of the best parts of choosing a Sonlight curriculum is that it is open-and-go, meaning your homeschool day is pre-planned for you. That might seem like a tall order for out-of-the-box kids. Yet after using Sonlight for several years with my own, I believe your Sonlight Instructor’s Guide is a powerful tool you can customize to fit your family’s preferences. Here are a few things you might consider.
1. Discover Your Child’s Learning Style
You know your family best. Consider the Instructor’s Guide (IG) your road map to homeschooling and use it as a launching point to create a learning environment tailored specifically for them.
With neurodiverse kids, the opportunity to teach to their strength is particularly important. While they may struggle with attention challenges in a traditional classroom, as their teacher you can choose curriculum and activities to keep them engaged.
Your guide offers suggestions for activities to suit all learning styles, but you can always add others to supplement what best meets your student’s needs. My kids love Hands-on History kits, and learning styles are also a consideration when choosing a math curriculum. In our house, Math-U-See blocks often become cities or even people who talk with one another.
2. Allow for Interest-Based Learning
Many differently-wired kids may get laser focused on a topic or a subject and enjoy spending a lot of time in one area or finishing an entire week’s worth of reading in one day!
You might consider a loop schedule if this works for your family, focusing on one subject at a time, rotating so you never feel behind. Our family likes to supplement topics our kids are very interested in with library books, crafts, or videos. Supplementing works well if you happen to get ahead in reading or you’d like to delve deeper into a history or science topic.
3. Chunk Your Work
When my daughter had an IEP in public school, one of her accommodations was for her work to be broken into chunks to help her focus. Chunking can mean doing a few questions at a time or writing only small amounts.
By teaching our kids at home, we can chunk their work into a smaller, more manageable day than a typical, lengthy school day. And the great news is your Sonlight day is already chunked for you! You can open and go, choosing to group together as many boxes of your IG as you like–all, none, or a few at a time.
Most Sonlighters are familiar with Couch Time and Table Time. But for wiggly kids, sitting still for either one of those can be difficult. We’ve had luck breaking those up into shorter sections:
Ten minutes of school work, followed by a brief break.
Ten more minutes, then break.
For our family, that usually looks like one or two check boxes on our IG at a time. Chunking work can also mean physically chunking:
Cutting Activity Sheets into sections
Covering sections with another paper as you go
Writing individual questions on notecards or on a white board
Using task boxes (like these) as a fun way to promote independence and break work (or even play or therapy) into manageable sizes. (They’re great for spelling word activities and math manipulatives.)
4. Make Your Instructor’s Guide Work for You
Remember you’re on your own timetable. Your guide is set for 36 weeks, but the pace is up to you. Make sure you are meeting your state’s homeschooling requirements, but generally you can take longer (or less time) to complete your IG if you like. You may fly through some subjects but go more slowly on others. That’s ok!
In our family, we work at a different pace in each subject. As such, I keep our complete IG in a blue Sonlight binder and pull out just a week or two at a time of each subject into a smaller binder, to help keep track of different weeks at once.
Your guide can also be your one-stop planner. In our family we incorporate occupational and speech activities, scouting, and other extracurricular activities right into our guide. Therapy counts as school, too!
5. Put the Right Tools in Your Teaching Toolbox
When you’re working with an out-of-the-box thinker, you may need some out-of-the-box tools to keep your lessons on track. A few that have helped the Instructor’s Guide work for our family include:
Visual timer: Using visual timers can help kids with ADHD and other neurotypical thinkers see time–and they provide a tangible reminder for you of how much time and attention your student can really devote to an activity.
Laminated pockets or a laminator: Using any sort of material that helps you turn an Activity Sheet into a wipe-clean activity can help add variety and fun. Writing on a vertical white board can also help if your child has poor hand strength.
A sensory diet: Think beyond the fidget spinner. A variety of sensory tools–or the right sensory diet, when appropriate–can help make your homeschool day run smoothly. Whether it’s starting your day with outdoor play, offering frequent breaks for heavy work around the house, or a simple basket of fidgets during Read-Alouds or wobble cushions for Table Time, there are many ways to incorporate this into your day. A tip we like in our family: write a sensory break right into your guide and check it off as you move through your schedule.
Alternative seating: You’ve probably heard of using a yoga ball as a desk chair. But if your child is struggling to sit at a table, how about ditching the table altogether? Take table subjects to the floor, outside, or to whatever spot suits them best. At our house we love clipboards (with paper holders) for this.
6. Reach Out and Speak Up Because You Are Not Alone
At times, we can feel alone on this homeschool journey. But there are others who have been on journeys similar to yours, and mine. I’ve learned so much from other homeschool mamas, on this blog, in the Sonlight app and Facebook groups, and elsewhere.
Don’t be afraid to be honest, ask questions, and share your experience.
Remember God is using you to create something beautiful in your home. Your Sonlight Instructor’s Guide is a tool as you teach your children every day. As author Sally Clarkson writes in her book, Different, The Story of an Outside-the-Box Kid and the Mom Who Loved Him, “I often thought of my role in our home as that of a conductor of God’s beautiful music there–planning and directing the details of atmosphere and activity in ways that would convey His love, His mercy, and His grace to all who entered my home.”
all the supplementary activities we would be doing
But R, my older daughter, was a world-weary 9-year-old with five years of private school experience under her tiny belt. She resisted my plans with the refrain “But my teacher said…”
Our Sonlight program happened to be History / Bible / Literature D+E, which is American History. R always questioned why she had to study American History, since we aren’t Americans.
One of the perks of homeschooling—the ability to set our own schedule and pace—actually worked against us because it turns out that we are a family of laid-back crammers. We enrolled under a local homeschool provider because we thought we needed the accreditation with our Department of Education of the Philippines. So when it came time to present the kids’ portfolios, we were stressed out and cramming like crazy.
In other words, our first year of homeschool was not the serene, Sonlight catalog-worthy picture I had in mind.
In fact, it took us about three years to get into the right groove. And we still keep tweaking our homeschool as we go along. Now going on our sixth year, I feel that we’re more relaxed and closer to my homeschool ideal. Also, I have somehow redeemed myself in my daughters’ eyes, and am now an acceptable source of knowledge.
I do wish though that I had known then what I know now. Here are three things I learned along the way.
1. Plans Don’t Always Go as…Planned
I was a box checker. So we followed the Instructor’s Guides faithfully. I also added other language arts workbooks, art history and art activities, a formal P.E. curriculum, music theory lessons, and life skills lessons.
You can guess what happened next.
By the third or fourth week, we were behind on the schedule I had so carefully laid out. The kids started dreading school, and sometimes I would catch R muttering that she “liked real school much better.”
B, my younger daughter, wasn’t as mutinous, but I could see that she was struggling to keep up with the frenetic pace Mommy set. Also the History / Bible / Literature B+C I was using with her was just too heavy for B at that time.
A couple of months in, I knew I had to rethink what I was doing. What did I really want for my kids and why did we decide to homeschool in the first place?
Although I wanted them to love learning, and I wanted them to learn how to learn, my regimented schedule and the heavy workload certainly wasn’t getting to those goals.
So, first we slowed down. We decided that R would cover History/Bible/Literature D+E over two years, and we halved the number of Readers, Read-alouds and discussions we did in a week. For B, we also decided to do the individual History / Bible / Literature B and History / Bible / Literature C instead of doing the condensed version, even if this meant that we would need to buy new IGs and the required books that we didn’t have.
And we simply had to drop a lot of the activities and supplements that I lined up. There was no way we could do everything I had planned unless we slept only three hours every day
Lesson learned: It’s good to plan. It gives me direction and helps me focus. But I also need to be flexible enough to let go of my beloved plans even if they took me two sleepless weekends to put in place. Also, I need to plan for unexpected disruptions.
2. Sometimes They Just Have to Eat
While I am not the most domestic of people, I do try to make sure that my kids eat yummy, healthy meals, with the recommended balance of veggies, fruits, protein, and carbs. But there are days that I simply cannot cook a decent meal.
These are usually the days that I have multiple deadlines looming, and I just have to tell the kids, “Girls, can you just fix yourselves some sandwiches or something for lunch? Mommy needs to finish stuff.” These are also the days that I let the girls read their books on their own, correct their activity sheets, score their math tests…And I feel so much mother guilt.
But on one such Bad Mother episode, I actually looked up from my computer and saw my girls gleefully preparing what they called their “treat lunch.” They actually looked forward to the times that they could have peanut butter sandwiches as a legitimate main meal.
That was a liberating lesson, that I don’t have to make fantastic meals each time. Sometimes, they just need to have some food in their tummies.
That goes for most things.
Perfection isn’t required. I don’t need to check off every item on my lesson plan.
The girls don’t need to finish every worksheet (or score perfectly each time). The house doesn’t need to be House Beautiful-ready; relatively tidy will do. My more-fastidious husband has also learned to live in slightly wrinkled, but clean, clothes.
By letting go of the need for perfection all the time, I save myself from mother guilt, and I have more energy for things that matter more. Like spending time with the girls watching movies or playing board games or settling down on the couch for an extra chapter from their Read-alouds.
3. You’re Unique, Just Like Everyone Else
Before we started homeschooling, I looked to other homeschool families for guidance. I followed dozens of mom and homeschool blogs, bookmarked countless pages, added homeschool-related quotations to my ever-growing OneNote Homeschool References folder.
In my imagination, I wanted to do everything that looked fun.
We would do nature walks and narration.
We would gather around the kitchen table doing photogenic Science experiments.
And my children would always be smiling and eager.
This ideal picture in my head led to my overzealous planning. I wanted to do one field trip a week like Family X and make handicrafts like Family Y. If Family Z can stage their own Shakespearean plays, then so can we! I tried to incorporate all the books and suggested activities. And we kept yo-yoing between doing school like this, and after two weeks, doing school like that.
Experimentation is not bad, and flexibility and adaptability are good things. But what I was trying to do though, was be like all those Pinterest/Instagram moms. We all know that what can work splendidly for one family can crash and burn with another.
We had to find what worked for us.
For example, most moms love the Read-Aloud times. I used to, until we came to the really long chapters in the higher levels. Besides, the girls preferred to read the books themselves. So even if reading aloud was meant to go on until before high school, we stopped doing it by the time R was on History / Bible / Literature F and B on History / Bible / Literature D+E.
I’ve also discovered that what works well one year or one season may not work for the next. While I learned my lesson about over-scheduling and micromanaging, my children needed a more detailed routine when they were younger. Now that they’re older, they’re free to set their own schedules as long as they get the required school work done. We used to check for done-ness at the end of each day, but now they’ve graduated to a weekly check-in.
I found out that what works for my family will not always work for any other family. I need not be scared to make adjustments or feel that I have to stick with something obviously not working (we have switched math and language arts materials midway through the school year).
One caveat though: there is a fine line between tweaking our homeschool so that it works better for us, and constantly trying out new things just for the sake of it. The first will make things run more smoothly; the second will lead to endless chaos. Ask me how I know.
The bottom line? We just keep going back to the reason we homeschool. And even if things don’t work out the way we plan it, homeschool is still one of the best decisions we made for our family.
Are you wondering if now is the right time to homeschool your high schooler? Do you want to be sure you are able to cover all of the homeschool requirements for high school? Whether you are a first-time homeschooler, or a pro with a middle schooler approaching high school for the first time, this post will cover what you need to know to successfully begin homeschooling in high school.
Ava C., age 18, of Whitewright, TX
Ava has homeschooled since Kindergarten using Sonlight for 10 of 13 years.
"When planning for her senior portrait session, Ava knew she wanted a shot with a few favorite books. Here is a view of how we have seen her for much of her life….behind a good book! Sonlight has nourished Ava’s enormous hunger for books, and it has been the best investment we have made in her education so far." — Ava's mom
How Do I Homeschool My High Schooler?
Many high school curriculums are written to be self-directed. These put your teen in the driver's seat for the first time. Much like driving, it’s wise to stay close and give plenty of directions. As the leader of your homeschool, you will teach your high school student how to study intensively, manage their time, and plan their schedule to be a successful student. So where do you begin?
Find State Requirements for Homeschooling
Legal compliance is a must to protect your family and the homeschooling community at large. Thirty years ago in Iowa, parents were threatened with jail time for choosing to homeschool their children. Several families challenged the laws and fought to reclaim their rights to homeschool. The conviction of families like these and the continuing work of many other men, women, and homeschool-friendly legislators maintain our freedom to homeschool in all fifty states.
To find your homeschool laws by state, search the Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) website. HSLDA offers detailed descriptions of state laws, supportive videos, and documents with links to help you fulfill the requirements. When you choose to homeschool, you will submit any necessary paperwork to your local school district if it is required.
The first year of homeschooling is a great time to make corrections in areas of weakness. If your student is coming from public school, you will have a history of grades to help you determine where they might need more teaching support.
Create an Outline of Daily Requirements
To know what courses to plan for the full four years of high school you will need to know what subjects your student is required to cover. By knowing their academic goals, grade placement and interests, and the courses required in high school, you will have the components you need to create a complete transcript for your student.
You can compare a few local high school graduation requirements. I had better results by checking college websites for their incoming freshman requirements. If you are unsure about which college or if your child will attend college at all, don't worry. The colleges we looked at varied little. See more on this process at How to Create a Four-year High School Plan for Homeschool. With a good snapshot of the minimum requirements, we were able to build out a plan for the next four years of high school, adding electives that were meaningful to my teens.
How Much Does It Cost to Homeschool a High Schooler?
The average homeschooling family spends between $700 and $1,800 per year. Since high school materials are typically more expensive than elementary ones, expect to spend on the upper side of that range.
While some families brag about homeschooling for free, a DIY education for your teen has hidden costs in terms of the time you’ll spend cobbling together resources and possibly a more fragmented and less rigorous education.
There are ways to reduce the purchase of physical books and materials while still offering a high-quality experience:
Use free educational resources like DNR, library programs, and college extension classes
Take advantage of a season pass to a science center or museum that offers free classes for teens
Join a co-op where members teach a few classes each week
Ways to Stretch Your Homeschool Budget
When we first started using Sonlight, it was a financial stretch for us. We were a young family with seven little kids, a mortgage, and a new business. But because it was the curriculum we knew would meet our goals, we found ways to save on other expenses so we could afford it.
Teaching Multiple Students to Save Money
One of the biggest reasons I chose a literature-based curriculum for high school was that students from several grades can share books. Multiple students using the same curriculum means savings. I have been fortunate to use the same curriculum from Sonlight three times with different students, making my original purchase price a real bargain.
How Do You Homeschool As a Beginner?
Homeschooling is a journey of learning—for you and for your children. Starting to homeschool is about making a choice. That choice is different for everyone. But it’s important to know your homeschool why.
Don’t let your education or position in life keep you from your goals. I was a dismal failure in the public schooling system as a student. There is not a better example of how you can overcome your educational deficits than me, a high school failure. If I can get three kids graduated (and into college) in one year with seven little ones running around, I guarantee you’ve got this!
I was not the best or most cooperative student. My past as a poor student has never hindered my success as a homeschool mom. Instead, I have homeschooled like I wish I had been taught, and we all love it.
Before you start this year, write yourself a note about why you are homeschooling. Put it in the front of your teaching binder and don’t forget to read it, especially on hard teaching days. Read it when negative voices say you can’t.
I’ve been reading my homeschool why page for seventeen years, and every time I do, it’s chiropractic for my homeschooling spine.
Begin with the Basics
You don’t need a lot to homeschool. Although I love to look at Pinterest school rooms and window-shop for teaching tools, we are a pretty basic family. For many of our homeschool years, we had little disposable income, so every homeschool purchase had to work for us!
Basic Homeschool Supply List
Tote or half crate
Pencil case
About a million pencils (hide half for next month)
High-quality colored pencils
Notebooks
Working folder for each student
Designated turn-in box
Great big book bag
Necessary Supplies at the High School Level
Up-to-date computer
Noise-canceling headphones (if working with siblings)
When you begin homeschooling, start smaller than you think. If things go really well, add more to your day. This is what I still do at the start of every school year even though we have been homeschooling for nearly twenty years.
Each year we begin with our core high school subjects: math, reading, language arts, science, and history. Before we add electives, world language, or other non-core classes, we nail down our school day routine. My goal is to be fully up and running in a few weeks. This incremental pace helps us build up to a full schedule without getting behind.
Sarita from Sonlight says, in regard to transitioning from public school to homeschool, “Consider planning some memory-making fun the first week to celebrate the change to homeschooling and share with your kids a positive vibe. Go to the zoo in the middle of the day, or eat donuts in your pajamas. Let it sink in that you can do that now!”
How Does Homeschooling in High School Work?
Unlike middle school where you are the leader, homeschooling for high school is about helping your teen take the lead in their education. These years are preparing your students for life, college, and the workforce. The more leadership and responsibility they master in high school, the less they need to learn through trial and error in life.
There are two key areas of struggle in the transition from middle school to high school.
1. The Transition to Independence
The best high school homeschool programs have a schedule for the student to control and follow. For example, Sonlight offers a Student Guide and a Parent Guide at the high school levels so teens can be accountable for their own work (including grading and transcripts). With their own high school schedule to follow, the excuses are gone. They are responsible for their daily production. This is life as they will experience it as adults.
There is a greater benefit though. Because they have the whole schedule in front of them, they will begin planning their calendar and learning time management. For example, my kids have learned to delegate their assignments around their desired activities. If they want to go on a trip with Grandma, they know how to work ahead to be sure they are free.
2. Motivating the Reluctant Student
If this is your first year homeschooling or if you are experiencing a season where getting work done is more difficult than it has been before, you may need to make some changes to how you homeschool. It’s okay to scrap your schedule if it no longer fits your high school student. The workload at the high school level is completely different. You have to learn how to navigate high school with your reluctant learner in the lead while boosting motivation. That means new tools to support learning. I have used a number of tactics to help support my high school learners.
Non-Academic Way to Support Your Learner
Tackle difficult subjects early in the day
Provide good nourishing foods
Use charts and lists to keep students on task
Get outside
Talk about caring for mental health needs
Make your relationship a priority
What Is the Best Homeschool Program for High School?
The best homeschool program for high school is the one that meets your family's needs, one that helps you accomplish your academic and spiritual goals as a family.
Before you choose a high school curriculum; you need to know what goals you want to accomplish. Asking, “What English curriculum should I use?’ is a very different question from asking, “What is a good English program for a high school student who needs a review of the basics before graduation?”
The closer you can get to the right question, the closer you are to getting the BEST program for your student. Get out a piece of paper and write down all you would like to accomplish this year in various subjects. Circle your top three or four highest priority items. Now formulate a question with these goals in mind. These will help you determine the best high school program to meet your specific homeschooling goals.
If teaching your high schooler to think critically, to write well, and to comprehend science are primary goals for you, Sonlight is an excellent choice. It’s literature-based approach (no traditional textbooks) means that learning is not dull but fascinating.
Ask the Sonlight Advisors for help in choosing a program that fits your high schooler. Then make use of Placement Tests to find the best curriculum fit for a skill-based subject like math.
Is Homeschool Good for High School?
Study after study has shown that homeschooled teens are well prepared for the future, not only in academics, but also socially. Among this body of research is the study, Home Educated and Now Adults, by Dr. Brian Ray. His survey of 5,254 adults, ages 18 through 24, found that homeschoolers are more involved in civics, community building, and higher education than their peers.
More telling is that 95% of those adult homeschool graduates responded to the survey that they were glad they were homeschooled. 92% felt that homeschooling gave them advantages in adulthood, and 82% agreed that they would homeschool their own children.
You can read the full report commissioned by Homeschool Legal Defense. The results of the survey indicate that homeschooling not only produces successful adults, but ones who are an asset to their communities and value education for themselves and their children.
Colleges Love Homeschoolers
Three of my own homeschool graduates were given multiple scholarships, both academic and athletic. The evidence is far from anecdotal. According to the study by Dr. Brian Ray, over 74% of home-educated adults ages 18–24 have taken college-level courses, compared to 46% of the general United States population. Nearly half (49%) of the respondents in the study were still full-time students and many had not yet received their degrees, so this number could actually be higher than reported. So why do colleges love homeschoolers?
Homeschool Graduates...
are self-disciplined
are familiar with self-directed projects
have independent study skills
know how to respond to deadlines
have advanced writing skills
are effective researchers
are collaborative learners
develop and balance extracurricular interests
tend to occupy leadership roles on campus
What is Homeschooling Like for High Schoolers?
While attending the Homeschool Iowa 2021 Conference, I had a chance to interview quite a few teens between workshops. I asked them, “How do teens take the lead in their homeschool experience?”
High School Credit for Current Interests and Activities
Almost every teen I interviewed offered several topics of study or areas of interest that they had contributed to their homeschool workload. Several chose to learn an instrument, one joined the local high school band and drama club. Several chose what world language they wanted to study.
As each student spoke in their interview, they were excited to tell me about what they were learning. When was the last time you talked to a high schooler who was passionate about what they were learning in school? Every one of these kids has something they wanted to share with me.
These kids aren’t learning only to earn a credit or a letter grade. Their learning is desire-driven —giving our teens skills for life. I recognized this difference at our son’s Senior Night. A homeschool education provides a wealth of rewards far beyond ribbons and mementos handed out during an awards banquet.
Homeschooling gave the teens I interviewed a meaningful way to incorporate their extracurricular interests into their transcript and earn high school credit for them. One student chose to study Latin as a freshman and thus discovered she had an interest in learning languages. She now intends to attend college to study linguistics and translation. Homeschooling gives students time to explore topics and to pursue their interests to a fuller capacity. This is why many high level professional musicians and athletes have transitioned to homeschooling at some point in their careers. With homeschooling, education does not have to be sacrificed for training. With increased training hours, homeschooling creates a way for parents to stay central and maintain a home-life balance.
What Grade Should a 16-Year-Old Be In?
As with all homeschool students, your sixteen year old should be in the grade that best serves them academically. Their learning level can be found by taking placement tests or using outside testing services if you are unsure.
In the homeschooling environment, your student can work above and below grade level in individual subjects as they gain mastery. As a homeschool advocate and coach, I have had the pleasure of celebrating with parents of a twenty-one-year-old student who had overcome great learning struggles to earn his diploma and have also helped advanced learners dual-enroll for college classes and even full time college before they were old enough for their driver's license.
Taking Control of Your Student’s High School Success is Possible
By determining that you are ready to take on the role of homeschool leader in your home, you have taken the greatest step. The rest is a matter of compliance with local laws and determining what your student needs to achieve over the next four years both in terms of earning credits to graduate and in personal goals for character and spiritual development.
The greatest gift of homeschooling is the fact that you get to be central in your teen’s life, building a relationship that will last throughout their lifetime.
There has never been a time in history with more support, tools and options to meet the needs of every type of student. Whether your student is struggling in school or needs the freedom to grow beyond grade level, homeschooling allows you to personalize each subject to their needs.
Making the choice to homeschool in high school means the ability to build a custom education for your high school student where both of you are working together to prepare for their future.
I’m a COVID homeschooler who has been wrestling with the decision to continue homeschooling next year or send my kids to public school. After a lot of prayer and discussion, my husband and I have decided to continue the adventure and homeschool next year! Woo hoo! Here comes the fun part: shopping for curriculum! Now that we’re in it for the long haul, where should I start?
Ignorance Can Be Bliss
When we made the decision to homeschool last summer, I had just a couple of weeks to choose our curriculum. Fortunately, I discovered Sonlight early in my search. Its literature-based, Christian approach appealed to me from the start. My biggest challenge was deciding which HBL to start out with for my 4- and 6-year-olds, and then selecting math and science programs. I loved the idea of using a tried and true curriculum from a company that had been serving homeschooling families for years.
We dove into HBL K and began learning American history and laughing along with some very entertaining read-alouds each afternoon. My son progressed nicely with phonics, and handwriting—no tears, as advertised! My 4-year-old begged me to do school like her older brother, so I ordered the kindergarten language arts program for her to do at a slower pace so that she would feel included in our new adventure.
Our homeschooling journey was off to a great start.
At that point, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I had spent very little time pondering the different educational approaches to homeschooling such as traditional, classical, Charlotte Mason, unschooling and so forth. As the year progressed, I began to feel called to consider homeschooling beyond this year. I started to read blogs and reviews, listen to podcasts, and check out or purchase many of the books mentioned in these resources. I joined several social media groups and spent a little—no, let me be honest — way too much time scrolling through posts.
Classical, Charlotte Mason, Traditional, Oh My!
Even though I was happy with our choice of curriculum and knew in my heart it was a great fit for both my children and me, I couldn’t seem to stop reading about other programs or looking up a new curriculum once I saw it mentioned by another mom. This was especially true anytime we had a rough day or my son balked at doing his work. Boy, that would send me searching for that unicorn program that would engage my children 100% of the time in productive, happy learning.
Spoiler alert: this program doesn’t exist!
While I did learn a lot about home education and curriculum by doing this research, soon it became overwhelming and sucked much of the joy out of educating my children. I realized I was spending so much time trying to make sure I was using the best program for my kids, that I was forgetting to spend time with my kids. Which was, for me, the whole point of this adventure!
So, as I set out to plan our curriculum for next year, I am going to rely on the following tips I learned from veteran homeschoolers to avoid getting overwhelmed when choosing curriculum, and how to stop agonizing once the decisions have been made!
1. Consider Learning and Teaching Preferences
Knowing our preferences was critical for me as I considered our language arts options for next year. I heard about so many different programs for elementary aged children, each of which has a devoted following. It’s so hard not to believe that the grass might be greener over there. I’d see a few people comment that, “In all my years of homeschooling, Program A is the best program for teaching _______ I have ever seen” and I’d start to think, “Surely I’d be crazy not to at least try this amazing program?”
Then, a few days might go by, and I’d see a few people comment that Program A did not work for their children, but once they found Program B, their child was reading chapter books and writing paragraphs within a few weeks. I heard a seasoned homeschooler comment that all moms seem to torture themselves by second-guessing their choices, and at the end of the day what is most important is remembering not only why you initially chose what you did, but what will work best for you and your child.
See which math program will work for you with this handy comparison chart.
2. Stick with the Curriculum that’s Working
It’s uncanny how many social media posts begin with, “We’re using program A this year and it’s working well. But I’m considering switching to program B for next year.” I might have even written a few of these myself! It’s such a blessing to have so many wonderful curriculum options out there, each one with its unique strengths. However, as the parent of a first grader learning to read and working on foundational math skills, I felt a lot of pressure to find the best, the unicorn, program out there for each core subject.
It was so hard to trust my decisions, especially on those tough days when the kids just didn’t seem interested in learning. It is so tempting to wonder if the problem is the curriculum. Each time my 7-year-old boy refused to sit and work on his math, or made a comment that writing was too hard, I’d run to my computer, scouring the internet to find that magical program that would engage him every day. It took me several months to realize that most 7-year-old boys probably balk at sitting to work on math or do copywork from time to time!
However, by the time I reached this conclusion, we ended up with 3 (three!) different first grade math programs. To teach addition and subtraction!
Changing the curriculum so much presented its own challenges. My son didn’t ever really have a chance to settle in and develop a routine. As we head toward the end of our first year of homeschooling, I think I might have finally learned not to assume that a bump in the road should automatically trigger another curriculum search.
3. Don’t Let FOMO Create Overload
My primary reason for choosing Sonlight was its focus on reading aloud and exposing my children to great books. However, my FOMO, or fear of missing out, was intense. First, I bought the 4-day bonus books for history and read alouds. Then I added a few books from earlier HBL’s to our shelves. Since we started with HBL K, our library holds list quickly filled with books for further reading on early American history. I even purchased six additional picture books recommended by other moms to supplement the program.
My husband jokingly asked me one day just how many children I planned to homeschool this year!
I knew I might be taking things a bit too far when my 4-year-old asked me one day, “Mom, how many more books are there about the Three Sisters?”
As exciting as this new adventure has been, I have learned that for us, at this stage, limiting additions to the curriculum is a good idea so that we can focus on reading, writing and math. We’ve got a marathon ahead of us rather than a sprint, so I need to adjust my pace accordingly. There's no need to keep hunting that unicorn curriculum.
4. Connections Are More Important than Curriculum
Lastly, and most importantly, I was surprised as I listened to many homeschool veterans this year go out of their way not to recommend a specific curriculum. Instead, they encouraged me to focus on my relationship with my kids and to make sure that we enjoy learning together. It was hard for me to trust this advice, as I was pretty sure that the answer really must lie in that free trial of online curriculum that just popped up in my inbox. Yes, we tried that one, too!
But, over this past year, I heard the suggestion enough times that it has begun to sink in. I started homeschooling because of COVID, but we’ve decided to continue because I love getting to spend more time with my children. As good as this year was, I hope that next year I can relax and savor those precious afternoons of reading aloud in our backyard, sprawled on a blanket, munching popcorn just a little bit more.
If you are parenting a 3- or 4-year old, you need to know about Sonlight's new preschool program! It's the same literature-rich style that all Sonlight programs are based on but with dozens of improvements for 2021.
With this new preschool program, you will instill wonder, excitement and a love of learning that lasts a lifetime. Enter to win a package for yourself and then keep reading for more details about all this program entails.
Sonlight's New Preschool Program
What's the Same about Sonlight Preschool
Sonlight Preschool was created around great books. And it's still based on Read-Alouds that you will love savoring with your children and adding to your home library. These are books that keep young children's attention and beg to be read and re-read without being wearisome for the parents.
It can be difficult to weed through all the titles at the public library, and with the Preschool program, the best of the best are already picked out for you.
These books convey cultural literacy that your children need. For example, all children need to know the story of The Gingerbread Man and his familiar refrain "Run, run, as fast as you can. You can't catch me. I'm the Gingerbread Man." Kids also need to be familiar with Cinderella so they can understand a Cinderalla story means a transformation from oppression to glory.
Reading aloud also helps children slowly increase their listening skills and attention span in an enjoyable and age appropriate manner. And of course, kids are exposed to hundreds of new vocabulary words that they learn in the context of meaningful communication (versus word lists).
Emme Kim's Vision for Sonlight Preschool
The 2021 update to Sonlight preschool came about because Emme Kim, a Sonlight consultant, reached out with suggestions of how to make it better.
Emme Kim, Sonlight consultant
Emme is a Sonlight curriculum consultant and the mom to three girls ages 18, 16, and 12. Her oldest is in her first year of college while her younger two are still at home being homeschooled.
In college she studied bio-psychology at UCLA and had originally planned to go into public health. But after sensing God's call, she earned a master's in theology with a concentration in children's ministry from Fuller Seminary. Eventually Emme discovered the Montessori method of education and became certified. She both taught and supervised teacher training in different schools for about seven years.
Sonlight is blessed to have her leverage this expertise in updating the older Preschool program into this new even more robust Preschool Package.
What Is a Montessori Approach to Preschool?
Sonlight's newly updated (in 2021) preschool program takes a Montessori approach. Dr. Maria Montessori devised this way of teaching young children in the early 1900's. It's based on self-directed activity, hands-on learning and collaborative play within a social environment.
Three- and four-year-olds are learning so many new things every day. In a Montessori environment opportunities are structured to give youngsters a sense of "I can do this!" Feeling capable gives them confidence! They know that they can do many simple tasks such as
cutting a banana
pouring water
washing and drying dishes
putting things away where they go
sweeping
making a snack
Sonlight's new preschool program provides preschoolers age-appropriate activities like these so they can experience success.
Montessori calls these preschool years the absorbent mind. With this new program from Sonlight, 3- and 4-year-olds are absorbing the wonderful read-alouds, listening to the language, and learning empathy through the stories. They begin to learn how to connect with people in different situations and understand how it might feel in somebody else's shoes. They grow emotionally and spiritually through the Bible devotionals and through the stories. But they also activate their senses through the hands-on materials.
They're smelling and tasting their food that they've cut and prepared.
They are learning courtesy and grace by sharing that food with family members.
They grow in responsibility by taking care of their things, washing and drying their dishes, helping out, and putting things away where they should go.
These activities set the stage for your child to feel successful and have a lifelong sense of accomplishment.
What's New About Sonlight Preschool
The program includes all of the activities that we had in our previous little parent guide, so we haven't taken anything away, we just really added to it.
1. A 3-day Weekly Schedule
The new Sonlight Preschool provides a very doable 30-week schedule of 3-day weeks that tells you exactly what to read daily.
2. Bible Questions
We've always had Bible readings, but now the Preschool program has questions that help kids focus their attention on what they've read. It's very simple and natural.
3. Pre-Academic Activities
We've added different activities for pre-reading, pre-writing, and pre math. These are things we hadn't had before, but Emme's Montessori training enabled her to provide the perfect way to integrate these in a no-pressure way.
For pre-reading, children use cards to learn the letters of the alphabet and their sounds.
For pre-writing, children learn how to hold a pencil, develop pincer grip and fine motor coordination, and begin to write the letters of the alphabet.
For pre-math we help children conceptualize numbers through counting physical objects. They also learn the geometric shapes.
4. Foreign Language (Spanish)
Studies have shown that when kids pick up a foreign language at a younger age, it sticks more easily. So we added a little Spanish book with Spanish words and pictures. For moms who aren't familiar with Spanish, we added an audio so they can nail the pronunciations.
5. Science
We added science by way of a little book on animals and another book about how the body functions.
6. Music
Emme also scheduled weekly songs for the kids to sing and memorize.
The Tools in Sonlight Preschool
Children learn best by doing, so we've selected tactile materials that are especially effective for reinforcing pre-writing, pre-reading, pre-math as well as daily life skills. The program automatically includes these helpful teaching tools in a Supply Kit:
11 tactile numbers (0-10) with textured surface
26 tactile lower case print letters with textured surface
10 plastic geometric shapes with knobs and frames
large number flash cards 1-10
nylon knife
bingo markers
12 colored pencils with grip
6"x9" clipboard
child safety scissors
Preschool Add-ons That Are 100% Worth It
These extras are not part of the basic program, but are absolutely worth adding to your purchase.
Sonlight’s preschool program embraces a nurturing learning environment where children are not even aware they’re developing critical reading and math skills. They are simply exploring the world around them and enjoying life! As your children work through this homeschool curriculum, they will learn these skills:
SOCIAL & BEHAVIORAL SKILLS
Gain self-confidence, independence, and personal responsibility
Master listening skills
Develop compassion and empathy
LANGUAGE & LITERACY SKILLS
Begin learning a foreign language
Strengthen pre-reading skills through a sound of the week activity that emphasizes the phonetic pronunciation Build pre-writing skills by learning how to write lowercase letters
Hear cadence and rhyme
MATH & SCIENCE SKILLS
Gain an introduction to early math skills and understand quantities and numerals from 1-10
Wade into rudimentary science
Introduce science and social studies they can see by exploring a farm with animals, how food is digested, our five senses, how we grow, and what people do for work in the community
ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCE SKILLS
Grow in their cultural literacy
Explore various styles of music: praise and worship, classic preschool songs, the phonetic alphabet song, and songs that make you move
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT SKILLS
Develop spatial reasoning and fine motor skills through hands-on play
Strengthen fine motor skills in preparation for writing by tracing shapes and letters, using scissors, and sorting
Practice fine motor coordination through daily practical life skills—cutting food with a safety knife, pouring liquids, sweeping, and washing their own dishes
CHARACTER & SPIRITUAL SKILLS
Pray in order to help them dig deeper into the truths
Meet Sarita and Emme
Dive more deeply into Sonlight's new Preschool program in this interview with Sonlight founder Sarita and Sonlight consultant Emme Kim.
Enjoy the Relaxed Pace of Sonlight Preschool
Sonlight Preschool is a 30-week program scheduled just three days a week. It's light enough to stay enjoyable for such small children. You can use the schedule in whatever way works best for you. Follow it closely if you like the structure. Or veer from it and enjoy the activities and books more buffet-style.
A true Montessori environment allows children a lot of freedom to move and to choose. You have that freedom here as well. I suggest you start your day with a Bible devotional. Then move on to some of the scheduled read-alouds. Then identify the tools and Spanish words that are scheduled for the week, and lay them out on a table so your child can choose the next thing to enjoy. Let the morning flow naturally, moving from interest to interest.
If you'd like a bit of structure for your 3- and 4-year-olds, and something that tells you what to cover each day, Sonlight Preschool will be a great fit! This program demonstrates to every mom or dad that homeschool is not hard. With this program, you'll feel confident that you can have a lovely preschool experience at home.
You’ve probably heard rumblings about homeschooling for a while. Your best friend’s sister homeschools her children; your husband’s work colleague homeschools his children. The idea sounds intriguing but you are asking yourself...How does homeschooling work?
Having a daily quiet time has become an essential part of our busy homeschool day. I love being with my kids, which is one of the reasons we started homeschooling, but we have all benefited from a daily quiet time in our house.
We first started a daily quiet time years ago when my oldest transitioned out of naps. Even though he didn’t need a nap, I found that he still needed to rest in order to make it happily to the end of our day. I found that I needed some peace and quiet in my day, too. So when his younger brother went down for a nap, I would start quiet time with my oldest by reading a few stories and then allowing him to play by himself while I recharged.
What Quiet Time Looks Like
Quiet time is a daily scheduled length of time where everybody in the house takes a break and does their own thing quietly.
This pause in the day is a chance to hit the refresh button.
Whether you have young children or high schoolers, it is the perfect time of day for everyone in the house to take a break from stimuli and rest.
For your younger children, quiet time may be their nap time.
For your older children they may like creating something with their hands, listening to audiobooks or podcasts, or resting in their room. My boys enjoy hands-on activities, so their activity of choice is often building with Magnatiles and LEGO, drawing, painting, or completing puzzles and activity books.
For mom or dad, quiet time may be you reading a book or your Bible, working out, sipping your coffee on the back deck, or even taking a nap. Do something that will recharge you.
Adding a Daily Quiet Time to Your Homeschool Day
If you’ve never had quiet time in your house, you may wonder how to get started. Here are a few things to consider when adding quiet time to your daily homeschool routine.
Decide how long quiet time will be. Start small and build up time from there. The goal may be an hour or more, but it can be tough for your children to be quiet for an hour when it hasn’t been expected of them before. Begin in increments and work up to your desired length of time. Maybe start with 10 minutes, slowly adding time over the next few weeks until you reach an hour.
Decide when quiet time will be. Think about what time of day you can consistently dedicate to quiet time. Before lunch? During baby’s nap time? Right before dinner? Make it a time that, no matter what day of the week it is, you are typically home. If you have a different time each day of the week, it will be hard to instill a consistent quiet time.
Pick a location. Select designated spots for quiet time. You can choose to have everyone together, or they can be in separate rooms, such as their own bedrooms. In our home, my youngest naps in his room, and my two oldest have quiet time together in our homeschool room/playroom. The two oldest are together, so that their shared bedroom is open if one of them decides to nap.
Develop a routine. Having a predictable routine signals and prepares everyone for quiet time. At our house, we eat lunch, get the baby down for a nap, and then read from our current Sonlight Read-Aloud. Once I am finished reading, I leave the room, and their quiet time begins.
Set clear expectations. Setting expectations for your children and holding to them is important! These are the rules we have for our quiet time:
Stay in the room unless you need a bathroom break.
Do something quietly.
Clean up after you are done. Everything must be put away before you move on with your day.
Quiet time lasts 1 hour from start time.
Lastly, be consistent. When starting any new habit, consistency is key. It may take time for everyone to adjust to your new routine, but with clear expectations and consistency, it will happen.
Why Daily Quiet Time Is Important
Quiet time is important for everyone. For parents, it is a time for slowing down and quieting your mind. It creates a space for nurturing your soul.
Your presence is a source of stability for your children, and your heart and open arms are their haven, so take the time to pause in your day to nourish and rejuvenate yourself.
When you take the time to rest, you will be recharged and ready to pour into your children again.
For children, creating time for quietness gives them a mental break from their schoolwork, and helps establish a habit of rest and creativity. It gives them space and time to explore and discover their own passions and interests.
Margaret Wise Brown of Goodnight Moon said it well,
“In this modern world where activity is stressed almost to the point of mania, quietness as a childhood need is too often overlooked. Yet a child’s need for quietness is the same today as it has always been—it may even be greater—for quietness is an essential part of all awareness. In quiet times and sleepy times a child can dwell in thoughts of his own, and in songs and stories of his own.”
If you need time to rest, create space in your schedule for it. Quiet time is not misspent time. The magic of homeschooling does not lie in the hustle and bustle of constant activity, but in our intentional decisions made throughout the day.
