Why homeschool

As I sit here absorbing the news of school district after school district scrambling to decide their approach to this school year, and then many of them reversing or amending those decisions last minute, I have never felt more happy to be a homeschooling parent. I am happy to be the boss of our school year. I'm also grateful for all those extra minutes with these humans I made. So with gumby like flexibility, the Kastners are going to weather this pandemic right from the comfort of the place we've always been... schooling at home. I don't believe in telling other people what to do; however, if virtual school is being thrust upon you (for some of you at the last minute), could I please tell you something? It's not too late to homeschool. 

With virtual school someone else sets the rules, curriculum, time frame, everything. If you homeschool, you are the boss. You pick the subjects and curriculum. You can choose to use the subjects and curriculum your public school was using, you can choose a different curriculum, you can make up your own! We have always used a mashup of many different curriculums: we love Abeka for language, science, and history, but Saxon is our math choice. I've found other things I like too: Apples for spelling and phonics review and Khan Academy for math support. I make up my own sometimes. For senior year, I create a literature course based on my child's interests. We've done military literature and graphic novels so far. You can go with free options or pricey options or anywhere in between. The choices are literally limitless, and YOU are the boss.

Homeschooling has been the hardest, best thing I have ever done. But what I have valued the absolute most is time. More minutes with these awesome humans I'm molding is something I will NEVER regret sacrificing for. If you can find a way I recommend figuring out how to get more minutes with your humans. You will love being the one there when a light bulb moment occurs. As long as your kids have to be home, why not be the one interacting with them instead of a teacher on a screen.

When Noah was approaching school age, we investigated virtual school. Ultimately we did not choose that route. The biggest reason we opted against virtual schooling was the rigorous specifications that would be imposed on us. We like to school all year long. The start and end of our school year is dependent more upon when we finish our coursework than a date on the calendar. Our school day never really starts or ends. Algebra at 8 p.m., math at a picnic table while on vacation, diagramming sentences on the driveway, these are all real things that happen in our homeschool. For me, the flexibility is one of the biggest reasons we continue to chose homeschool over virtual school. As I hear people lament about logging on to zoom meetings at specific times and enforcing teacher chosen assignments,  it just occurs to me that homeschool would be a more flexible option. 

I'm sure the thought of homeschooling sounds overwhelming, especially in the middle of a pandemic, at the last minute. But having done this for 13 years, I can with absolute certainty say you CAN do this. I know you can! I would be HAPPY to be a resource to you. The very first thing you would need to investigate is your state's regulations.  Use this link:

State Homeschooling Regulations

Then please reach out to me if you want any advice, help, ideas about homeschooling. Wherever you land, good luck! And remember there is not a perfect option for this unprecedented situation we are facing. Find freedom in picking the flawed option that works best for YOUR familt.

Research Projects: Note Cards

It's time to get down to the nitty gritty! Let's get ready to RESEARCH!

A few things before you start....

*only put one thought/idea on a card... 

*write notes in your own words!

*if you are quoting a source, put the information in quotations on your note card

Just a few more things:

*you need A LOT more note cards than you think

*it's better to scrap some note cards when you start to write than to run out of research halfway through your rough draft

*not to be repetitive but USE YOUR OWN WORDS or quote it! Plagiarism does not look good on anyone.

Research Projects: Bibliography Cards

Cite your source! When you write a research paper... heck! When you state a fact of ANY kind! It's important to give credit where credit is due. That's what your bibliography cards are for.

For our assignment, a minimum of one book, one magazine article, and one Internet source were required. Before doing any research we made our bibliography cards.

(I forgot to highlight the punctuation on the Internet card... 🤦🏼‍♀️)

Research Projects: Preliminary Outline

Once you pick a topic, the first thing you need is an outline.... a road map for your paper. This first outline is your preliminary outline. Easy on the details... HEAVY on the organization.

A couple of points:

*Roman Numerals... then capital letters... don't need to go any farther than that right now.

*K.I.S.S. - keep it simple silly.... we're using just a few words for each point... really just skimming the top of the subjects

*it's a good idea to do this one in pencil so you can make changes as you research (but I'm too in love with blue ink to use pencil 😉)

Research Projects: Plan It!

It's research project time! Yesterday we started with planning our projects. Our first task was narrowing down a topic.

I gave them 3 large index cards. Two of the cards had a topic on the front. I gave them a few minutes to jot down as much as they knew about those topics on the back of the card. This was our brainstorming.

Then we talked about the three types of sources they would need to have:

-book

-magazine/newspaper

-Internet

Finally we talked about needing a topic that was not too broad or too narrow, and a topic that they knew enough about to start, but also one they would like to know more about.

Assignment for tomorrow:

*choose and brainstorm a 3rd topic

*think about sources

*rank your topic cards