Every Child is Different

Looking for a course to help you homeschool with confidence?

If you are just starting out homeschooling or you have been homeschooling for a while, but you feel like it’s just not working for you, we have just the thing for you.

In this course, my oldest son, Shawn, and I take you through the basics of learning and homeschooling. We cover topics like “Every child is different”, “Watch for readiness”, “Stages of Development”, “Learning styles” and much more.

You can find this course HERE

Some people think of homeschooling as something that is only for young children, and then at some point you need to put them in “school”.

I disagree. I think the best thing we can do for our kids is to homeschool them all the way through high school.

If you desire to keep that warm, close relationship that you’ve been building with your teen instead of sending him or her away just because you’re afraid you can’t do a good job of covering the high school years, I’ve got good news for you. It’s not hard to homeschool high school. By the time they’re in high school, they can do everything independently. All you have to do is find out what they’re interested in and let them major in that. You can find curriculum for the basic subjects like English, Math, Science, and Social Studies and let them work through it on their own.

Just think about what high school was like for you. Did the teachers really teach you by their lectures, or did you learn by reading the books? Or did you really learn at all? Or did you just do whatever you had to do to pass the tests and make good grades.

Homeschooling your child through high school is your best chance to let them learn what they really need to learn in life. And to keep them from losing all of the values and ideals you worked so hard to instill in them. To me, putting them in school is tantamount to undoing all the work you did up to that point. That’s how I feel about it.

So to help you feel more confident about homeschooling them through high school, I’ll give you a few tips.

1. Making a transcript is not hard. I have made transcripts for many people. I have a template I use that makes it very easy.

2. You don’t even have to keep grades in the different subjects unless you want to. I estimate grades for the transcript based on the student’s effort and their interest in the subject. The grades given by teachers in schools are often subjective and don’t always reflect the level of knowledge of the student. You may need to think differently about grades and how important they really are. Give your student a grade that reflects how well they learned the subject, not how well they did on tests.

3. Let your teen help plan what they want to study. Give them the chance to take the reins and make their education their own. This is their education, not yours. All you need to do is facilitate. Help them get whatever supplies, courses, or opportunities they need to dig deeper into the things that they are interested in and may want to do as a future career. You can even help them with hobbies they enjoy and give them time to enjoy them.

4. There are ways to get your kids into sports if they are great athletes, and it means a lot to them. There are some schools that allow homeschoolers to play, some Christian schools. You just have to research and find a way to make it happen. It may not be easy, but God will guide you and help you find everything you need for your children.

5. They can get a job, and their employers will love them, because they are available at times other students are not available to work.

6. You can find a group that has a nice graduation ceremony if that’s important to you. Again, just research and find out what’s available in your area.

7. And you can get a nice diploma for your student. I like to use Homeschooldiploma.com. I have used them many times, and their diplomas look very professional and authentic. You don’t need to feel like you aren’t qualified to give your child a diploma. You are more qualified than the teachers who would have barely known your child and could only assess them based on a few hours in their class. You know your child. You know the time and effort they put into their studies. You know their interests and their hopes and dreams. You are the most qualified to pronounce that they are ready to move on to the next stage of life. 

        So I hope this helps you to feel better about your ability to homeschool your child all the way through high school. It may take more work to find some of the things that schools provide, but, in the end, it will be a much better experience for you and for your child.

Here’s the Transcript I like to use. 

If you have any questions, email me and I would be glad to help you! penneymaried@yahoo.com – Use the subject heading “Homeschooling High School”

                            Huge opal at the Houston Museum of Natural Science

Wow! I have been inspired to create lately! I knew an accountability session was coming up in a coaching group I’m in, so I thought I’d better look again at my goals and try to get some of them done. Do you ever do that? Thank goodness for accountability. I saw that I had said I would make a copywork journal for homeschool students. So I opened up Canva and started figuring out how to make a copywork journal. It started flowing, and I worked on it all day and had it finished by the end of the day. It’s here on Amazon.

Then today, I looked at my goals again and saw that I had said I would write a journal to go with one of the books I wrote, the book called “Short, Powerful Prayers for Busy Homeschool Moms”. I put some thought to how I wanted to do it and realized that it’s going to involve just adding lined pages to the prayer book in its original form. Gary can do that for me when we get back to a place where we can set up our desktops in our own home someday.

So then I looked at the next thing on my list and saw another journal – I’m really into making journals right now! I was kind of unclear on what kind of journal I wanted to design. I had seen some journal pages by a Facebook friend, and they inspired me. In fact, I had a great epiphany in the shower about how I wanted to design my next journal. But when I got back to my laptop, I couldn’t remember what it was!

So I just started thinking about any kind of journal I could make. Then I remembered that I had considered making a journal to go along with the book I wrote called, “5 Steps to Becoming a Great Homeschool Parent”. So I just started creating in Canva, and next thing I knew I was writing and writing about why homeschooling is so great, and how we should do it so that it’s a joy and not drudgery by making it a learning adventure for the whole family.

So I finished writing my 5 Steps Journal today. I’ll have Gary finish that up for me, too, and publish it on Amazon. I’m glad I just started writing!

Getting out of that house that had so much pressure hanging over our heads seems to have broken the dam that was holding back my creativity. Or maybe it’s this great Airbnb that we’re staying in. Or maybe just the change of scenery. Maybe it was the trip to the museum…

Whatever it is, I’m thankful for the burst of creativity.

Check out my Author Page at Amazon to find my other bursts of creativity.

Amazon.com/author/penneydouglas

And my curriculum page at:

Amazon.com/author/safehavenhomeschooling

Other places you can find me: linktr.ee/penneydouglas

Love,

Penney

How are you doing? Really. Is homeschooling as good as you thought it would be? Do you feel like your kids are getting the best education they can get? Do you feel like your family is thriving with homeschooling?

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, I have something that will help you.

I have 25 years of experience homeschooling my 10 children. I LOVE homeschooling. I still have another 5 years or so of educating my children at home. And I don’t want it to ever end!

I have graduated 6 students from homeschooling. They all have jobs, and some have started families.

And I’m still homeschooling my 4 youngest children.

So, you might say I’m an expert in homeschooling. I’ve learned how to keep on homeschooling all the way through, with your relationships intact and your nerves unfrayed.

Well, I have written an e-course to help you to relax your homeschool and to free yourself from fear.

This course will help you to gain confidence in your ability to teach your children. Go from overwhelmed to peaceful. From feeling lost to feeling capable. From fearful and insecure to confident.

My dream for you is that you enjoy homeschooling your children. In this course I share techniques and approaches that will help you do that. Here’s a tip: If you let your children know how much you love them and provide resources to help them learn, you will find that the experience is beneficial to the whole family.

Please check out this course, and see if it is what you need to adjust, tweak, or completely overhaul your homeschool routine/method/mindset.

Here is a video that describes the course in more detail.

And this is where you can go to sign up for the course.

https://changed-by-love.teachable.com/p/the-basics-of-homeschooling

Dear Readers,

I have written an e-course for new homeschoolers and for those who just feel like things are not going well with their homeschool – maybe you even feel like throwing in the towel. Don’t do it! Homeschooling is SO worth it.

Or you might just wish you could get some training in Education and figure out why this is so hard.

It doesn’t have to be hard. It can be enjoyable if you understand some basic concepts about Learning and apply them to your Homeschooling.

This e-course called “The Basics of Learning and Homeschooling” will teach you basic ideas about learning theory and how to apply them to your children. There’s much more in this course, like how to choose curriculum, how to help children with learning differences, preserving relationships in your family, especially your marriage, and building a strong family culture.

Check it out here:

https://changed-by-love.teachable.com/p/the-basics-of-homeschooling/

You will become more confident about your teaching and fearless about your homeschooling.

If you know someone else who would benefit from this course, please forward this link to them! Thank you!

I also wrote this book that has similar content:

https://amzn.to/3hEtZMw

1. Start with Living Books

Find some good book lists that contain Classics (because they have stood the test of time), historical fiction, biographies, autobiographies

This is what living books are according to Simply Charlotte Mason:

“Living books are usually written by one person who has a passion for the subject and writes in conversational or narrative style. The books pull you into the subject and involve your emotions, so it’s easy to remember the events and facts. Living books make the subject “come alive.” ”

Some good book lists are found at Read-Aloud Revival, a website for parents who like to read aloud to their children: Honey for a Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt; Read for the Heart by Sarah Clarkson; Books Children Love by Elizabeth Wilson; and All Through the Ages by Christine Miller. The Sonlight catalog also lists wonderful books as readers and read-alouds that are grouped by grade level and periods of history.

Take your book list with you to the library. Or if you would rather have your own library, you can buy them. If you are studying a certain period in history, find books that have stories that take place during that time. If you are looking for a particular science topic, find a book about it. Or find a book that is told in narrative or story form that explains that topic. There are even living books for math and language arts. Just keep in mind the definition of living books, and you will find wonderful books that will captivate the interest of your children and yourself.

2. Add some narration.

As you are reading to your children or listening to an audiobook together, have one of them tell back what happened in the last chapter. This is narration, a telling back in one’s own words.

I do this in a sneaky way by reading a chapter or two one day. Then the next time we pick up the book to read, I ask one of the children to get us back into the story by reminding us what happened last. This works out very well. The kids usually remember much more than I do. This shows that they were listening. It helps them to remember it even better. And it prepares us for the next part of the story. In the Charlotte Mason method, there are more rules, and you can have older children do written narrations, but I have found my little sneaky method to be natural, easy, and fun for my children.

For more ideas of how to add Charlotte Mason elements to your homeschool, get my Charlotte Mason Lite printable here.

Get it here!