Category: Homeschool Helps

When I first began incorporating internet links into my unit studies years ago, I often encountered resistance from parents. It was understandable as the internet was entirely new territory for many families. 

At the time, there was genuine uncertainty about its role in education. As an educator committed to ensuring homeschooled children had access to the same research tools as their traditionally-schooled peers, I knew I needed to thoroughly understand this technology myself before recommending it to others.

After extensive research into the educational potential of the internet, I updated my unit studies to include tens of thousands of carefully selected links. These digital gateways opened extraordinary opportunities for students including virtual whale-watching expeditions, behind-the-scenes tours of baseball bat factories, thrilling Ferris wheel rides, and immersive journeys to destinations around the globe. The internet proved to be an invaluable learning resource for children of all ages.

I loved how it create so many wonderful learning options for my children and for yours. Most importantly, what remains at the heart of each unit study is something I consider irreplaceable: curated book lists. Books continue to be my favorite educational resource because the combination of children and quality literature creates something truly magical—lasting knowledge and a genuine love of learning that digital devices alone simply cannot replicate.

Artificial Intelligence: A New Educational Frontier

As we live in an era where artificial intelligence has emerged as a significant force in education, and even grocery shopping and medical care! Commerce. Whether we are aware of it or not,  AI now influences everything from personalized shopping recommendations to decision making in colleges, governments, and corporations. Our children are already likely to encounter AI in various platforms, making it essential that we help them understand and navigate this rapidly evolving technological tool. 

My commitment remains unchanged: to help students build a robust foundation of knowledge while preparing them to thrive in our dynamic, technology-rich culture. AI represents an additional tool in achieving this goal, but like any tool, it must be used wisely and purposefully.

Intentional AI In Your Homeschool Learning

Just as we approach internet resources and books with careful consideration, we must use AI to capture children’s attention and nurture their natural curiosity. AI should never serve as a student’s primary educational source, nor should it complete assignments, write papers, or compose essays on their behalf. Instead, AI should function like an engaging book, gradually building curiosity layer by layer while developing solid skills and foundational concepts. 

Our updated unit studies are designed for versatility and work seamlessly across tablets, laptops, phones, and desktops. Each study maintains its curated book lists as a foundation while incorporating age-appropriate “Ask AI” prompts. Every topical study guides students through essential concepts, introducing them to relevant history, geography, science, and key figures associated with the subject. Additionally, hands-on project suggestions help demonstrate and reinforce important ideas through experiential learning.

The “Ask AI” prompts serve as another avenue for engaging students at their individual learning levels. AI responses can illuminate topics in age-appropriate ways, serving as springboards to books and websites that encourage deeper exploration of both the main subject and the fascinating tangents that naturally arise during learning.

Fostering Critical Thinking With Educational Technology

There’s a fundamental distinction between using AI as a learning catalyst and allowing it to replace student thinking and creativity. When we use AI to help children explore topics more deeply, enabling them to write original responses based on enhanced understanding, we’re developing analytical skills. This approach requires significantly more cognitive engagement than simply asking AI to generate content on a student’s behalf.

Critical thinking skills are not just important. They are essential and they are at the heart of what we teach in our homeschools. 

The Most Important Part Of Any Homeschool 

I’d like to close with a quote that really encapsulates my approach to educational technology:

“We believe every student is made in the image of God, and that shaping a soul requires more than a circuit board… Let’s use technology, but never be used by it.”
—Dr. Kent Ingle, Southeastern University

It is a reminder that while technology can be a powerful support in education, it is the curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, and character development of our families that remain the most important parts of any meaningful learning.

• Using AI Resources in Your Homeschool
• Keeping Homeschool Science Simple
• Helping Your Homeschooled Children Pursue Their Dreams
• What is a Unit Study?
• Unit Studies with Multiple Ages
• How Does this Method Compare to Others?
• Take the Tour: Learn About Unit Studies

Happy homeschooling,

Many of you are now at least a week or two into the new school year, and your days are transitioning from summer social calendars to autumn events and scheduling school hours. I know how that feels, with plenty of changes in the works, and the responsibility of teaching your children weighing heavily as you begin this new year.

In the midst of it all, if you’re like me, you are beginning to pull out the autumn-scented candles, decorations, and a sweatshirt or two. It’s molasses cookie and apple pie season, along with time for Crockpot cooking of applesauce and banana bread baking. Busy times, and so many memories to be made! Let’s not forgot the autumn learning opportunities, too!

Autumn Learning In Your Homeschool

One of the first things that I learned as a homeschool mom was the importance of connecting learning to the seasons that were going on just outside the window. While I could immerse them in all kinds of learning that was strictly focused on books, memorization, and test-taking, that wasn’t what grabbed their attention and left them wanting to know more. Their interest was focused on the outdoors with each change of the season, and that is natural and a great springboard for learning. Captivate them, encourage their curiosity, build up creativity, and connect it all to things that are happening in this season of their lives.

Fall Interest-Led Learning

Remember this, please. Work with what is right in front of you, and you’ll capture their interest. With topics like autumn, trees, baseball, football, soccer, and digital photography, you won’t have to look far to find one topic that they are interested in. Build on that interest. Simple learning simply lasts. Enjoy these days, and go on Autumn Treasures’ nature walks each day with your child. So much to see out there, and to see it through the eyes of your child is such a gift!

Crockpot Applesauce Recipe Perfect For Autumn Learning

Wish you could be here in the kitchen with me to smell this delicious applesauce that is simmering in my slow cooker!

Here’s the recipe I’m using, if you want to try it out at your house:  Crock Pot Applesauce (I add a pinch of ground cloves to give it a bit more sparkle!).

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Looking for more ideas to excite learning during the Autumn season?

We’ve got a beautiful set of unit studies that can help. Perfect for the months of September through December, the Autumn Download N Go® titles include:

• Autumn Treasures
• Tremendous Trees
• Football Frenzy
• Baseball

With more newly updated titles coming soon!

• Soccer
• Bountiful Bread
• Crunchy Cookies
• Thanksgiving

Never stop dreaming,

True confession: I was one of those kids that was always in trouble for daydreaming. There were a few people in my family and our circle of friends that wouldn’t tease me about it –they would actually take the time to ask me what I was thinking about. It is those people that kept helping me define and pursue my dreams that made all the difference in my life.

I kept dreaming and building and designing, received a degree in engineering, and worked, and then came home to be with our children – an amazing turn in my life.

Encouraging Our Children’s Dreams

I determined that I would encourage their dreams, keep them talking, pursuing, and having fun along the way. Homeschooling opened that door in a big way for our kids. I tell you this to suggest that you take time when the opportunity arises, to do the same thing with your children.

Helping Our Children Pursue Their Dreams: A Part Of Homeschooling

We get so busy educating them that we sometimes lose sight of the goal. The goal is not to fill them up with random bits of information to complete checkoff. The goal is to discover what God has placed in them, and to find ways to encourage them and help them pursue these special gifts and talents. 

We raised a gifted veterinarian, a visionary tree farmer/entrepreneur, and a computer scientist extraordinaire. God knew what He was doing when He knit them together, and we discovered that focusing primarily on His creation was the path to success.

Take time to ask them about their dreams – dream Lego creation, dream art project, dream computer they’d like to build, dream tree fort, dream invention, dream cake, and on and on. Their answers may be very simple at first, and that’s always the best place to begin.

You might also be interests in our Unit Study Homeschool Planner!

Never stop dreaming,

What are your favorite childhood traditions? Most of us would answer with the simplest traditions, not the more elaborate ones. Your children are no different – they will remember the simple family traditions that you create for them, whether old or new traditions.

Simple Family Traditions For Your Fall Homeschool

Finally, with the arrival of the cooler weather of autumn, we begin observing an interesting collection of traditions here on the farm. We make quite a production of the first fire in the fireplace, enjoying the beauty of the fire and using the occasion to thank everyone for their labors of cutting and splitting the firewood for the coming winter. We also begin our autumn weekend sky-watching parties around large campfires. We watch for stars and planets and satellites, and enjoy the Milky Way as it spreads out across the dark country sky. Family and friends come from all around the country to join this endeavor, and while we don’t work out ALL of the problems of the world, everyone seems to benefit from the time spent together.

Family Bucket Lists For The Season

Autumn, the list-making begins for the projects that we enjoy—making gifts, preparing special treats that will keep in the freezer, and coming up with ideas to bless others and meet their needs. From making blankets for the abused children’s shelter to helping stock the local food bank, there have been so many great service projects that started on autumn evenings around the fire.

As we approach this new season, I know that there are plenty of decorating traditions that are observed in American homes. With the start of autumn, I make sure that we have chrysanthemums on the front steps. After spending their season of blooming on the steps, they are planted in my “Love Garden” that I can see year-round from the kitchen window. Dad collects several bales of hay, some corn stalks, and a few pumpkins and gourds to make a fall decoration by the driveway—”Dad’s masterpiece”, as the kids call it.

Why are Autumn Traditions Important?

• They help families come together
• They remind us of times together in the past
• They give children a sense of security and predictability
• They help our values and character span generations
• They remind families that love and continuity go hand in hand
• Traditions can be old and many are new
• Traditions give children something to anticipate, a perspective on time passing by

We created our family traditions when our children were very young, building them up as time went on. We lived far from family and grandparents, and we wanted our children to have family traditions to treasure and savor in the years ahead.

Autumn is a great time to kick off a few new traditions in your own family. From autumn star-watching to s’mores over a campfire—the possibilities are there, waiting!

More Homeschool Resources And Support

Learn more about the unit study approach to homeschooling – where standard is not the goal:

• What is a Unit Study?
• Unit Studies with Multiple Ages
• How Does this Method Compare to Others?
• Take the Tour: Learn About Unit Studies
• 3 Tips to Start Your Homeschool Day: What About You Mom?

Blessings,

The most important lesson I learned as a homeschool mom had nothing to do with academics. Over the years, this is what I’ve learned matters most in our homeschools.

This is an important lesson I learned from homeschooling and one that I know will bless you and your homeschool as well! The time to believe in children and their dreams is now—when they are just being formed. I have always loved this quote:

“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person; he believed in me.”
-Jim Valvano

If I have done nothing else for our children, I have worked hard to help them understand our faith, and given them every opportunity to dream big dreams. They knew they could always run ideas by me, test a concept, or simply see if I understood what they were considering, whether with building blocks, a robot concept, or an idea for an art project. I learned to listen first, and then ask questions that encouraged and helped them frame the steps they would need to take. “That will never work” was a phrase I avoided.

“If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.”
-Albert Einstein

The Most Important Homeschool Lesson Of All

Believing in them and showing it on a daily basis—these are among the many benefits of homeschooling. Relationships are strengthened, trust develops, and their self-confidence grows in knowing that you believe in them. No matter what, they need to know that you are with them as they follow their dreams.

It’s never too late to change your approach, and there’s no time like the present. There are no do-overs in life, and this is not a dress rehearsal. God gives them gifts and talents, and we help them by teaching and nurturing them, getting them ready to have the faith and confidence to follow the path He has in mind.

More Homeschool Helps

We invite you to learn more about the unit study approach to homeschooling:

• What is a Unit Study?
• How Does this Method Compare to Others?
• Take the Tour: Learn About Unit Studies
• The Advantages of Using Unit Studies In Your Homeschool

Blessings,

Don’t waste your time on textbooks! If you are trying to choose homeschool curriculum here are some creative tools for learning!

Trying to Choose Homeschool Curriculum? Here’s What I Want You To Know

For those of you that are puzzling over curriculum choices, here is some food for thought: an educational model that uses textbooks is not one that fosters creative thinking or innovation, and more egregiously, it is limiting our children’s knowledge base to one that is below that of a modern day robot. While robots don’t threaten me, the thought that our children are spending the first eighteen years of their lives learning a fraction of the same content that a robot was programmed with before these kids were born is mind-boggling.

Consider this – robots already “know” this same information in textbooks or how to access it. When your child goes out into the “real world” many of the jobs that are now done by people will then be completed by robots. Right now, there are robots that drive cars, read x-rays, build things, fly an airplane, and so much more. They are programmed with knowledge, and LOTS of it (look up artificial intelligence) – much of the very same knowledge that textbooks teach a child, over and over again, for twelve years.

Homeschooling With The End In Mind

While robots will replace many human workers in the near future, the jobs they will not be replacing are ones that require creativity and innovation. These jobs will require the people that can creatively solve problems, connect concepts in creative new ways, and keep the “human” quotient in the future working world. Why use the centuries-old textbook model of education when new educational models and tools are at YOUR fingertips? #dumpthetextbooks

I had one of those aha moments the other day. Over and over again, I’m told that kids love our interactive studies much better than textbooks and that they tend to remember the lessons learned for a long time. At the same time, I watch as parents get frustrated teaching math or spelling or (fill in the blank) and are thrilled when they find an app or online resource to help their child.

Textbooks vs. Technology

As an engineer, I am also very much aware of the exponential growth of robots in the workplace. In the meantime, parents are wasting those vital twelve years of education using textbooks that are boring and already out of date the instant that they are printed – textbooks that could someday be created by a robot, having gathered and formatted the content, inserted images, and then printed it.

And that thought alone brought a sense of urgency to my message – dump the textbooks and use the twelve years to teach them to think, make connections, create, explore, and much more. They will thank you for that step one day in the not too distant future.

Here to help,

Here are our best tips for homeschooling with a toddler in the mix! Our three children cover a ten year age span, so I know just what it means to try to keep a VERY active toddler busy while the older kids are studying.

Our Best Tips for Homeschooling With a Toddler In The Mix

1. I learned to plan our school day around the toddler’s nap schedule. When he slept (or was supposed to be sleeping), I worked one on one with the older kids with subject areas that required individual attention with each child.
2. When the toddler was up and roaming, and yes – he was a VERY busy toddler – I learned how to entertain him while we worked on unit studies. He might be busy with building blocks or rearranging magnetic letters on a cookie sheet, or he might be enjoying a math lesson with an older sibling from books like “M&M Addition” or “M&M Multiplication.”
3. I learned to limit the toy cars that were constantly zipping across the floor during reading time. Since he couldn’t sit still for long, he would quietly send the cars flying across the room. I learned to leave only a few out at a time – recycling them so that there were always a few he hadn’t seen in a while.
4. I learned (the hard way) to make sure that some of our school projects included things for him to do – whether it involved log cabin construction with craft sticks or creating Bethlehem using modeling clay on the kitchen table.
5. I learned the importance of keeping a toddler involved with the big kids – better learning opportunities for everyone. And memories more precious than gold, with plenty of pictures to keep us laughing for years to come.

More Homeschool Resources And Support

Learn more about the unit study approach to homeschooling – where standard is not the goal:

• What is a Unit Study?
• Unit Studies with Multiple Ages
• How Does this Method Compare to Others?
• Take the Tour: Learn About Unit Studies
• 3 Tips to Start Your Homeschool Day: What About You Mom?

Helping parents follow that new path now for over 20 years and blessed to be be able to help.

Happy homeschooling,

If your child outgrows their shoes, what do you do? Make them keep wearing them? Of course not – you replace the shoes with a pair of shoes that fits, and childhood continues. But, shouldn’t this apply to their curriculum, too? 

When Your Homeschool Curriculum Doesn’t Fit

Sadly, I see people doing just the opposite with curriculum that just isn’t working. The child hates it, and the parents hate using it – the year is lost and that time can never be found again. Forcing a child through ill-fitting curriculum can build resentment toward learning in the child – a resentment that is tough to turn around.

If you are struggling with curriculum that just doesn’t fit – your child, you, or your current situation, please consider trying something else that could bring the joy back to learning again. I know just how it feels to be where you are, frustrated parent and child bored to tears – I have been there. Textbooks just weren’t working. They were boring, and the retention of the material was minimal. Within a week or two, the information the child had to memorize for a test had vanished, only to be replaced with new information for this week’s test.

The Homeschool Unit Study Advantage

All of this led me to find an answer that would help our children love learning again – putting an end to the “how many pages do I have to do TODAY?“ routine. That’s when I began writing unit studies that kids love – first for our children, and then for yours.

I’ve worked hard to create complete unit studies (no simple outlines or task lists that you, the parent, have to prepare for). I’ve worked hard to create studies that are easy to use, complete and ready to go – no prep required, and definitely affordable.

I made a decision to spend this time homeschooling our children to help them love learning, not battle boredom. This is not a dress rehearsal, and the comment “we’ll just power through this curriculum because I’ve spent so much for it” just doesn’t work any more.

If you find that your homeschool curriculum doesn’t fit, Try a few of my unit studies – perhaps Oceans or Incredible Insects – and see if you notice a change in their enthusiasm for learning.

A love of learning is a gift that you can give them that will last a lifetime, and we are here to help.

Blessings,