Sonlight Homeschooling Blog

Nov. 2, 2018

4 Benefits Homeschooling Affords Parents

For obvious reasons, people want to know the ways homeschooling can be good for their children. Many people also talk about how it benefits the adults, but always in context of their role as a parent or the family as a whole.

What about the parents as individuals? What opportunities will homeschooling give a parent to grow as a person, not only as a mom or a dad?

Homeschool Benefit 1. Managing Your Time

There’s simply no way to add the major commitment of homeschooling without it impacting the pace of your days. Regardless of your natural bent in this area, you’ll have to make some changes as a homeschooler.

If you tend to be a structured person who thrives on schedules, you’ll have to flex. You will discover the ability to set aside your plan and move forward with a smile on your face.

If you’re one who usually goes with the flow, you'll have to be disciplined. You will experience the value in setting firm boundaries and enforcing timelines.

Learning to swing a little toward the opposite end of the time management spectrum is one big way you will grow as a homeschool parent.

Homeschool Benefit 2. Appreciating Your Strengths

What is your homeschool super power? Is it one of these:

finding creative ways to memorize facts
having lots of patience when people are slow to understand
knowing how to encourage without enabling
coming up with activities that are both fun and instructive

Whatever it is that you’re good at, homeschooling gives you a chance to either discover an latent strength or confirm one you already knew about.

Although a prideful attitude that believes your strengths determine your worth is a problem, an awareness of what you do well is a positive thing when you look for ways to use your strengths to improve your own life and bless other people.

Homeschool Benefit 3. Identifying Your Weaknesses

There’s nothing like sharing a roof with people to make your own weaknesses clear as day! Homeschooling ramps up the intensity of that awareness.

How is this apparent negative actually a positive? First, it keeps us humble. As we see and accept that areas of our life need improvement, we’ll more easily accept and have patience with the flaws in others. Second, it gives us an opportunity for personal growth. As the saying goes, acknowledging a problem is the first step toward resolving it. Rarely does a weakness manifest in only one area, so our efforts to make changes pertaining to weaknesses in homeschooling will have a ripple effect in the other parts of our life.

Homeschool Benefit 4. Growing Spiritually

Homeschooling provides ample opportunity to seek the peace and wisdom that only God can give:

contemplating whether to homeschool our kids in the first place
being thankful for the blessings that homeschooling brings
feeling overwhelmed in the hard stretches of teaching
adapting to changes in our family’s circumstances

Whether it comes from frazzled desperation or contented gratitude, anything that consistently drives us to our knees in prayer and leads us to read our Bibles is a good thing. The more our own spiritual tank is filled, the more we’ll have to share with others.

These four benefits will clearly make an impact on your family as you homeschool, but they’re also life skills that will serve you and those in your life well long after your nest is empty or your kids have transitioned to other schooling options. Homeschooling, after all, isn’t just about the kids. It’s about everyone in the home, including the parents.

Curious to see what a homeschool lifestyle might look like for your family? Go to SmoothCourse to explore your curriculum options.

Tagged advantages, benefits, dads, Homeschooling, moms, parents, pros, why homeschool | Leave a comment

Oct. 31, 2018

5 Tips for Reining in Young Kids When It's Time for Homeschool

By Erika Evans

Your Instructor’s Guide is highlighted and indexed. Pencils are sharpened, and your basket holds all the books for the day. Your coffee is hot. The Bible is open to the right page.

Everything is perfect. Then, it dawns on you. Something is missing. Where are the kids?!

I can relate to this scenario because it happens to me regularly. Reining in a first grader, a kindergartner, and a preschooler is no small feat. Add in the infant who equates napping with medieval torture, and wow! I’m sure you can understand why I hum the Mission Impossible theme song as I make breakfast each morning.

Fortunately, I have a tried and true arsenal of tricks to rein in my kids. Through trial and error, toil and strife, I have found joy in homeschooling, too. I have a strong belief that homeschooling, although hard (cue that Mission Impossible music), is the right choice for our family! I also come equipped with a lot of caffeine and complete faith in Jesus: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)

1. Rein in Kids with Food

Truth? You have to feed them anyway! Use this fact to your advantage. While your kids are eating, you have a captive audience. After you satiate their minds with knowledge and their bellies with food, they’ll be ready for a mind break and off to play. In the wake of the storm, your coffee will taste so much better!

2. Rein Them in Outside

All those books that are wonderful to snuggle up to on the couch are just as enjoyable, if not more so, outside. Read under a favorite tree, on a picnic blanket at the beach, or on the front porch just before a storm.

3. Rein Them in on the Go

Homeschooling would be a piece of cake if it weren’t for all our other earthly needs. Still, cars need oil changes and pantries need groceries. No matter how hard I pray, dinner still won’t make itself. Being portable is the solution.

Couch Time

Take your Couch Subjects™ with you! I keep our current Read-Aloud, Readers, and reference books in a ready-to-go bag that I can grab on the way out the door. We have spent many an oil change reading up on Greek myths. Just ask Bill, our service guy. He’s learned a ton too!

Table Time

Table Subjects™ work the same way. Invest in a few clip boards with internal storage, so the kids can quickly unearth copywork or science worksheets on the go. I recommend keeping a glue stick and a pair of safety scissors handy as well.

4. Rein Them in On the Road

You’re going to be in the car anyway. Plus, the kids are trapped. Go for it!

Sing and memorize scripture verses.
Listen to audio books.
Quiz your kids with flashcards on a ring.
Discuss your latest Read-Aloud

Lyrical Life Science is a current favorite with my kiddos! You really haven’t explored all science has to offer until you’ve sung about cold blooded vertebrates to the tune of When Johnny Comes Marching Home!

5. Rein Them in with Music

Sometimes I need everybody in one place when it’s not meal time or driving time. My solution? I play chopsticks on the piano. Seriously, it works!

When they hear chopsticks being played, the kids run to the room and have a seat on the carpet for announcements. I make sure to reserve this method for when I’m calling them to do something fun like poetry tea time or hands-on history!

Now, here’s the whole truth about what happens when I have finally achieved the perfect homeschool flow:

The baby will wake up and need a diaper change.
The timer on the stove will ding.
The mail carrier will drop a package at the door.

Fear not! Just take a deep breath, pray, and pick any one of the options above to get back on track!

Your turn! I’d love to hear and try some of your suggestions! What methods work for you? How do you reign the kids back in when they go off course?

To find out more about Sonlight's complete book-based homeschool programs, order a complimentary copy of your catalog today.

Tagged attention, children, Homeschooling, kids, motivation, tips | Leave a comment

Oct. 29, 2018

Why I'm a Fan of Singapore Math Curriculum

By Gina Munsey

Singapore Math is just one of many fantastic math options Sonlight offers. If you are happy with your math program, don’t switch! I’m not raving about Singapore to stir up discontent or doubt. I'm just sharing our experience which may help you find your place in the wild west of math curricula.

Continue reading →

Tagged choosing, curriculum, Homeschooling, math, singapore | 2 Comments

Oct. 26, 2018

The Importance of Knowing Your “Why” for Homeschooling

By Bethany Weathersby

We’re faced with a variety of decisions every single day, but occasionally we have to make one that’s life-changing. Perhaps it’s a career switch, uprooting to move to a new place, choosing to expand our family through adoption or pregnancy, or pursuing a risky medical treatment when there are no great options available. Sometimes it’s deciding to homeschool our kids.

Have a Clearly Defined Why

People choose to homeschool for a myriad of reasons and their why can change over time.

The reasons may be very practical.

A parent’s work schedule conflicts with a traditional school schedule to the point they’d rarely see their kids.
You live in a place where other schooling options would require an incredibly long commute or sending a child to boarding school, but you don’t feel either of those options are best for your circumstances.
Ongoing medical situations in your family require a student to miss too much class time in a brick-and-mortar school or for a parent to spend far too much time coordinating rides to and from school around doctor and therapy appointments.

Perhaps the reasons are more about personal convictions and values.

You believe kids should spend all, or at least most, of their time with their own families.
The ability to integrate religious beliefs into academics is important to you.
You’re not comfortable with the curriculum, approach to discipline, and/or general atmosphere of the local public and private schools.

Although some people’s motives for homeschooling aren’t ideal, what generally matters more than a motive itself is that you can articulate what yours is.

The Why Pushes Us Forward

The first reason it’s important to know our why is because it will light a fire under us, helping us move forward when we’d otherwise remain stagnant or retreat. No matter how strongly we believe that homeschooling is the best option for our family at a given point in time, there will be moments when the only thing we want is put all the kids on a bus and have the day to ourselves. A particular subject will get boring, we’ll feel overwhelmed by all the responsibilities on our plate, or we won’t feel like researching the best method of helping a kid who’s struggling to learn something.

In those times, it’s critical to remind ourselves of our why. There’s nothing wrong with acknowledging whatever aspect of homeschooling is difficult at the time, and we should certainly make adjustments when necessary, but most of the time we simply need to keep our eyes on the prize. By remembering what prompted us to take the homeschooling plunge in the first place, we’ll find ourselves more motivated to persevere through the parts that are less than dreamy.

The Why Pulls Us In

The second reason for clearly defining our why is that it reins us in, keeping us from chasing every homeschooling wind that blows by. It’s a blessing to live in a time and place with a plethora of resources and options available to homeschooling families. However, that vast array of choices becomes a burden if we feel compelled to follow each new trend or experiment with every approach. We lose continuity and stability if we’re always jumping from one thing to another, trying things simply because they look fun or are working well for people we know.

Sure, there will be times when we need to shake things up a bit for one reason or another, but focusing on our why will help us stick with what’s working for our family. It serves as a checkpoint to make sure that we’re only doing those things that serve our homeschooling purposes, saying no to everything else.

What’s Your Why for Homeschooling?

Why have you chosen to homeschool? Is that a question you can easily answer? If not, I challenge you to think it through until you know exactly what it is. Then allow that why to be what both pushes you forward and pulls you in along your homeschooling journey.

Take advantage of our 100% guarantee. No other homeschooling company can match our Love to Learn, Love to Teach™ promise. You can order with confidence that either you will have a great year, or you will get a full refund.

Tagged motivation, reasons to homeschool, why homeschool | 1 Comment

Oct. 24, 2018

5 Ways to Bring the Great Commission to Life in Your Homeschool

By Heather Mills Schwarzen

No matter your reason for choosing to homeschool—the academic advantage, an education tailored to your child’s needs, the opportunity to experience math, science, and history through the lens of faith—as Christians, we know that our job as parents is a multi-faceted one. Yes, we need to give our children solid math instruction, but our greater call is to mentor them in Biblical truth.

Chief among those truths is The Great Commission, which calls on Christ’s followers to multiply His Kingdom:

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." --Matthew 28: 19

It’s a tall order, and one that we need to be active in as we gather around our dining room table and explain the difference between nouns and verbs. But to fully complete the circle of instruction, our children need to realize that it’s their job to do the same.

Thankfully, it’s not hard to give your children a vision for what they can do to partner with Christ in spreading the Good News. Here are five ideas to create a family culture that introduces others to Christ.

1. Join Sonlight’s Giving Campaign

Each year Sonlight partners with a missions organization. The 2018 giving campaign is Experience India with Mission India. Your family will learn more about the Hindus and Muslims in one of the world’s largest mission fields and begin to understand exactly why the light of Christ brings freedom to those trapped in false religions. Through the Children’s Bible Club, Indian children meet Jesus, and your children will begin to grasp how they can pray, fund raise, and spread the word about projects working to share the Gospel.

2. Read Missionary Biographies

Sonlight is chock full of incredible missionary tales; you’ll meet Mary Slessor, George Mueller, William Carey, and a host of other believers who sacrificed much to devote their lives to serving Christ. But don’t stop there! The biographies of missionaries are great tools for showing children that God uses all kinds of people in all kinds of ways… and they may be called on to do the same!

3. Adopt a Missionary Family

If you don’t already support a missionary family personally, I urge you to do so. Even $10 per month can make a huge impact in the work of reaching the lost. If your church is active in supporting missionaries, ask for contact information and assemble a small care package for them, or ask what their needs are. Not everyone can go to far-flung places, but everyone can play a part in supporting those who do.

4. Create a Missionary Prayer Album

Nearly every missionary has a prayer card—a postcard-sized photo listing their location, outlining their work, and sharing their needs. Collect these cards as you meet those engaged in the work of spreading the Name of Jesus. Punch a hole in the corner, and place them on a ring. When your family gathers for devotional time, pray for one of the families on your list by name, and remind your children where they work and how they are being used to fulfill the Great Commission.

5. Find a Local Gospel-centered Ministry

My town has a nighttime homeless shelter which allows believers to visit during daylight hours, when it’s empty, to leave cards on each bed and pray over the space. This is a great way to make an impact close to home, and to sow the seeds of outreach in even very young children. Soup kitchens, clothing drives, knitting for infants in NICUs… there are countless ways to tell others about Jesus in your own community.

Now, go! Make disciples of your own children… and give them opportunities to do the same.

Tagged Gospel, great commission, Jesus, missions | Leave a comment

Oct. 22, 2018

How to Avoid the Crushing Cycle of Exhaustion as a Homeschool Mom

By Veronica Soto

The crushing cycle of exhaustion is easy for any homeschool parent to fall into. Parents work so hard to take care of everyone else, they don't have time to take care of themselves. They get worn out, and then every step gets harder.

This exhaustion creates a cycle where a mom is so tired it takes twice as much effort to do anything. Now she needs more time to take care of herself, but she has less time to do so. The circle can keep spiraling until there's a breakdown of some sort—an angry outburst or stress-induced illness, for example.

When the cycle of exhaustion happens, a parent feels so guilty about it, that she redoubles efforts to take care of others, which leads back into the same cycle once again.

I've been on this cycle of exhaustion. I know how it feels, and I want you to know that you are not alone. There are lots of homeschool moms who feel it, too.

It's okay to ask for time alone. It's okay to be a little "selfish" now, so you have more of yourself to offer to take care of others later. It's not wrong to take care of yourself as much as you take care of your spouse and children.

Just like Jesus, we need time to refresh and rejuvenate, and thankfully we have a Biblical precedence to do so.

Jesus Knew How to Ask For and Receive Help

Jesus directly asked for help at times. For example, he asked the disciples to come to the Garden of Gethsemane and pray with him. Twice he got upset with them for not staying awake and supporting him as he asked. To emphasize: He asked for help and got upset when he did not get it. It's okay to ask our friends and family to help out and to be hurt or upset when they don't come through for us in our time of need.

When help was offered, Jesus graciously accepted help. He allowed the angels to attend to him and accepted the help of Simon to bear his cross. When friends and family ask if they can help us, it’s good to consider the heart of their request and take them up on it from time to time.

Jesus taught his disciples how to do part of his job and then sent them out to do it. In the same way, we can teach our little ones to help us with our work, and—when they are ready, send them out to do it. We don't have to do it alone.

Allowing Others to Help Us Gives Them a Blessing

Reach out to your husband, your family, your children, your friends, and your church when you need help. Don't let pride and embarrassment get in the way of allowing others to be blessed by helping you.

If you need extra funds so you can hire someone to help with the worst of the cleaning, it's okay to ask for it. I know you are thinking that your budget can't handle it. But maybe your husband is willing to give up $20 a week so you can afford an hour of assistance with cleaning or a babysitter to take the children for a couple hours. Hiring help means you get the self-care time you need and the helper is blessed with the job.

Or maybe your husband, mother, or sister is willing to give up and hour or two a week to help with the housekeeping or watch the children. If you don't ask for help, they might never know how badly you really need the help. They might think you're doing okay when really you're on the verge of drowning in the cycle of exhaustion.

We too often expect other people to intuit when we need help instead of directly asking for what we need. Others may realize that things are hard for you, but they don't understand how hard because you are so good at masking the exhaustion.

If our wonderful, amazing, awesome Jesus asked for and graciously received help from his friends and family, how much more should we ask for help from those willing to help us?

Allowing friends and family to help gives them a blessing. Think of how good it feels when you take care of your children (when you aren't in the grips of the cycle of exhaustion). It's rewarding and fulfilling, right? For many people, being able to help a friend or family member feels equally as good! Let them bless you, and they get blessed in turn.

What it Doesn't Mean When You Take a Break

Taking a break doesn’t mean you don’t love your children or that you are failing them.

When you allow yourself space to rest and breathe, you find yourself less annoyed, more caring, and more giving. By allowing yourself even a 5 minute break to sit quietly in your room and pray or meditate, you find that you can reach for the extra bit of patience later on in the day. By taking an hour or two a week to go window shopping or exercise at the gym, you find you have more happiness inside—happiness you share with your children and spouse.

It’s a Phase, But It's Still Very Real

The truth is this cycle of exhaustion is a phase in your life, but that doesn't make it any easier today. One day, you’ll think back on your homeschool years as a memory, and your children will be in a new phase with new problems and new blessings. And a new phase will occur right after that. Life is a series of phases, and they are all at once both wonderful and difficult.

Trying to live like Jesus means taking care of ourselves as much as it means taking care of others. If you don't take time to take care of yourself, you're not giving your spouse and children the best of you. You're giving them what's left of you. And the cycle of exhaustion leaves nothing to offer.

One step towards self-care is a curriculum that does the heavy lifting for you. Go to SmoothCourse to explore your options with Sonlight.

Tagged exhaustion, fatigue, Homeschooling, moms, self-care, Time Management | Leave a comment

Oct. 19, 2018

5 Ways Read-Alouds Foster Mature Oral Communication Skills

By Erika Evans

My whole crew was sick with walking pneumonia and journeyed en masse to the doctor’s office. At the appointment, my six-year-old daughter and four-year-old son collectively informed the nurse that they felt feverish, fatigued, and as if they must gasp for breath. My two-and-half-year-old added that we were miserable.

By way of explanation to the somewhat surprised doctor, I laughed and said, “We read a lot!”

As a Sonlight family, our kids use words that surprise others. Sometimes they even surprise us with their advanced vocabulary and complex grammar! I attribute their beyond-their-years communication skills directly to our habit of reading aloud.

Reading aloud has loads of benefits for speech acquisition and communication in general. Yes, it enables our kids to use an expansive and descriptive vocabulary to wow doctors, mail carriers, and the unsuspecting check-out lady at the grocery store. More importantly though, reading aloud develops language skills that empower our kids to communicate with others and make sense of the world. Here five ways I have witnessed Read-Alouds benefit my children's oral communication skills.

1. Exposure to a Diverse Vocabulary

The bulk of a child’s vocabulary is formed by the words they overhear at home. Thanks to reading aloud our Sonlight books, our kids know and use words that we might not typically use in conversation.

Just yesterday my daughter yelled, “Look, Grandma is emerging from the car.” This is not a sentence I have ever uttered. By reading aloud, she’s been exposed to the word emerging often enough to feel comfortable using it in her own speech.

Great literature makes a great vocabulary doable by providing pronunciation, articulation, and phonetic awareness. Children need to hear words in context multiple times before they can use them themselves. Reading great books to your children makes vocabulary development painless.

2. Using Words in Appropriate Context

Instead of prodding them to recite spelling and vocabulary words, I see my children voluntarily using new words throughout the day. This is especially true in their pretend play. For example, our homeschool study of Greek mythology has sparked weeks of imaginative play. I hear them shouting, “Watch out, Bellerophon! Pegasus is descending from the sky!” This is shouted as my sons encircle my laughing daughter, pretend wings flapping. The kids retell the stories using colorful and wonderful language in an appropriate context—words they gleaned from Read-Alouds.

3. Building a Large General Knowledge Bank

One Sunday we arrived at church to find the entire front field covered in yellow dandelions. My son proclaimed, “It’s a flock of dandelions!” Although the noun flock is typically reserved for animals or humans, you can absolutely derive his meaning. And in my opinion, his use of the word was delightful!

From an early age, kids gather an immense amount of information about the world around them from stories. As they are introduced to new vocabulary or the new application of a familiar word, they pull examples from that general knowledge. Literature fosters an ability to draw parallels and comparisons between the known and unknown.

4. Developing an Ear For Grammar

Ever cringe when someone says something like more better? Me too. More importantly, so do my kids. Someone uttered this nails-on-chalkboard phrase at a recent dinner. My daughter turned to me with a frown line between her brows and a squished up nose. “Mom,” she said, “that just doesn’t sound right.”

Even though we haven’t started any formal grammar study, she knew something was off with the phrase more better. Kids with vast exposure to language will know when something just doesn’t sound the way it should. We’re building amateur proofreaders simply by reading aloud! Kids internalize what they are exposed to and build an inner grammar compass against which to evaluate what they hear, what they say, and eventually what they compose when they begin writing.

5. Inspiring Curiosity and Desire to Use Language Correctly

“Mom, what does it mean to comb the beach?”

I had to laugh. Reading the story it hadn’t even occurred to me that comb would be a novel word for them. Now, we are combing everything:

the backyard for flowers
their bedrooms for lost items
the refrigerator for a snack

My kids ask what a word means at least once a day. I love it! It’s almost always a word they hear in a Read-Aloud and want to understand and use it correctly. Read-Alouds inspire them to think about language in a way that they likely wouldn't otherwise.

Our family connects with each other over stories. Since our kids are used to us reading aloud, exploring language is relaxed and fun. Our kids are comfortable asking for the meaning of words and using them in their oral communication. Sonlight’s great selection of literature is a blessing for the language development in our homeschool.

Switch to a curriculum that builds communication skills the easy way—by reading aloud. Try three weeks of any Sonlight Instructor's Guide for free. Click here to get one for any level, preschool through twelfth grade.

Tagged books, language arts, oral communication, read-alouds, reading, speaking, speech, vocabulary, wrad | 1 Comment