By Joy Adams

Homeschooling is not for the faint of heart. It is hard work and yet, so rewarding. As a third generation teacher, and a second generation homeschooling mom, here are some tips to help you succeed.

Tips For Successful Home Learning:

•  Don’t attempt to create structure and rigor simultaneously. 
  • Instead, create the structure first and slowly increase the rigor by increasing the length and difficulty of the tasks.

• Do create independent learners through activity stations. 
  •  For the elementary level learners, set up stations throughout the house that provide opportunities for independent activities.  Have stations that are both enjoyable and allow for creative thinking. Start doing this with fun activities and then you can slowly add more academic stations once your learners are ready. 
  • When I first started doing this, I would set-up individual stations for play dough, Legos, puzzles, drawing/painting, and a place for silent reading/looking at picture books.  Each kid would spend 10-15 minutes at each station.  With 3-5 minutes for transition time between stations.  Once your students are able to stick to the rotation without leaving their station prematurely or requiring a lot of assistance, you can add a station in which you provide direct instruction, catering to the individual needs of your individual learners.
  • By having your students rotate through independent activity stations, they develop the skills and character needed to be an independent learner/worker.

• Don’t expect that your kids will know how to be independent learners. 
  •  The reality is, very few individuals feel equipped as independent learners.  Most of the traditional school system does not teach students to find the answers, rather it tells them what the answer is and then teaches them to memorize it.  Most students, regardless of their grade level, will struggle to be able to identity the main point or the significance of a text on their own.  Students are accustomed to teacher lectures, multi-media (YouTube videos), and group/“pair share” type learning to guide them through the learning process.    While, our modern educational system has adapted to make the given curriculum more accessible, it has also produced lethargic learners. The reality is students who have been educated in the traditional settings prior to homeschooling have been taught what to think, not how to think. Making the transition to a more Socratic method where students learn through critical thinking and inquiry takes time, patience, and endurance.

• Do recognize that EVERY subject, including math, is READING. 
  •  If you have a student who struggles with reading or is an emerging reader they will need a lot of assistance AND they will need more frequent breaks. 

• Do include physical activity. 
  • If your student gets stuck on an activity that you know is within their ability have them take a break. Send him or her outside. Sometimes a little fresh air and some pressure on their joints (jumping jacks, jogging, carrying something heavy) can really help reset the mind and help your student get a fresh perspective for learning. 

• Do recognize that home education takes a lot LESS time than the traditional school day. 
  •  The traditional school day is filled with non academic procedures. Taking attendance, collecting lunch orders, explaining directions multiple times for the benefit of struggling and/or distracted students, fire drills, and the list goes on. Most students with average to above average intelligence should be able to complete just as much learning, if not more, in about half of the time. 

• Do link subject areas whenever possible.
  •  A nature hike can be both science and physical education.  Have your student make predictions of what they will see based on the current season, recent weather, and terrain.  After the hike, make nature journals to document findings. 
  • Kite flying can be science, P.E., and English.  Before you go, watch YouTube videos about the science behind kite flying. After your kite flying adventure have your student write about their experience using grade level spelling, grammar, etc. and the academic science terms they learned from the YouTube videos.

• Don’t attempt to do every subject every day. 
  •  Focus on reading, writing, and math.  Recognize that at the elementary school level, science and history are only taught once or twice per week.  Also remember that science and history can both involve a lot of reading.  If you have an emerging or struggling reader be willing to decrease your student’s other daily reading assignments. 

• Do realize that your homeschooled student may be exhausted at the end of the first few school days.  And so will you.
  • Homeschooling requires active on task learning.  Whereas many traditional school students can get by and even do fairly well in school just by using a passive approach to learning.  Even students who may receive smaller group intervention during their regular school day have frequent breaks and times of rest and/or passive learning as they wait for their turn.

• Don’t throw in the towel because you have a bad moment or a bad day. 
  •  Homeschooling is hard.  Homeschooling my five children is just as much work if not more than when I was a full time public school teacher with over 120 students.  Take it slow. Give yourself grace (undeserved kindness/favor) and give your kids grace too. 

“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”

Proverbs 22:6

** This post was revised from an original post from 2020 “Homeschooling Tips for a Nation of Unexpected Homes Educators.”

Cover photo by Kimberly Farmer on Unsplash

The post Tips for the First-Time Homeschooling Parent appeared first on Inspiration of Joy.

This past summer, my kids, (two boys, ages 4 and 7) along with my niece, age 8, who was at the time visiting with us, all attended Vacation Bible School (VBS) together.  One of the theme songs for the week, which quickly became one of their new favorites was Whole Lotta Change.  At the time, I did not know it, but in reality that VBS week became a pivotal time for our family and what started as a fun VBS song, has now become a theme song to our current season.  A season of change.

There’s a whole lotta change coming your way

’cause like it or not, nothing stays the same

so hold on tight, and follow real close

’cause God is good and He’s in control

Whole Lotta Change, Lifetree Kids, Roar VBS

By the end of that VBS week, we, my husband and I, offered to open our home to our niece, who we now consider as a daughter.  She has been with us since early August, 2019 and we could not imagine our lives without her.  She has become an amazing big sister to our boys and has added so much beauty, laughter, and love into our home.

Adding an additional family member has come with blessings too numerous to count.  It has also stretched our family and myself personally further than I thought possible.  We were unsuccessful in getting an inter-district transfer for my niece into our older son’s school.  This resulted in me spending three to four hours per day commuting to and from their separate campuses (two towns away from each other). In addition, the two separate schools had very similar start and end times, requiring the impossible, for me to be in two places at once. I was going to need help, but it was not easy for me to be in a situation that I needed help.  Being in a place of needing help, often left me feeling inadequate or as if I were still a kid. 

I am the youngest in my family, with two older sisters.  Growing up, I loved being the youngest, even though at times, between my actual mom and two older sisters, it sometimes felt like I had three moms.  I was well protected and well provided for.  As an adult, I have found that family dynamics are hard to change and that no matter how old I am, I will always be the little sister.  Within my family, I have come to be okay with this, but outside of the family setting, I have worked hard to become strong, to be a resource to others, and to not walk through life in ‘little sister’ mode.   It is for this reason, that it can be difficult for me to ask for help.  When my heart’s goal is to be a resource to others, it is really hard when I have to admit to myself and others that I need help.

Welcoming my niece into our family has brought so much joy into our home.  It has also exposed my inability to do everything on my own.  I have been humbled almost daily, as I have required help with the daily tasks of motherhood, such as drop offs and pick-ups from school.   I have had amazing friends (and family) come by my side to help me, including one special friend who helped me get my niece to school each day, effectively helping me to do what seemed impossible.   These friends have loved me, encouraged me, and have physically stepped in to help me when I fall short.  These types of friends are amazing and God sent. They also expose my areas of pride, self-reliance, and areas of vulnerability.  It is easy for me to give, it is harder and humbling for me to receive. 

I have often heard preachers say things such as “Sometimes God will ask us to do something bigger than ourselves”.  I, myself, have often found myself in a situation that was bigger than me, but generally in these circumstances, what is required is living a life of prayer and allowing God to work before me.  Lately, however, life being bigger than me, has required me to accept help when it is offered by others and to even ask for help before I am at my wits end. 

This season of change, has helped me to grow.  I am learning to be more organized, and I am realizing that asking for help does not equate to failure or being juvenile.  These are good and valuable lessons for me considering that another change is now underway.

This month, a new change has presented itself.  We have worked diligently and quickly to prepare for an unexpected increase in our family.  Another niece, age 15 and nephew, age 13 (older siblings to our niece that has already been in the home) have both just joined our family.    This most recent change is brand new.  It is both exciting and terrifying to think that we have suddenly become the parents to five kids, two of which are teens. 

Just to prepare for our newest additions, we have needed to call in the cavalry.  Friends and family have helped to organize and set up the kid’s bedroom, organize the linen closet, rearrange the pantry, and help pick up new cabinets for the garage, A.K.A. the homeschool room. (Did I mention I am homeschooling all five!)  Sheets and blankets have been purchased for the kids, as well as new shoes. Friends near and far are praying for the smooth transition of our beautiful blended family and we have received a few little white envelopes with cash inside.  I am humbled.  Humbled not from embarrassment that I couldn’t do this all on my own, but humbled with gratitude that we have so many loved ones who are cheering us on and who are willing to partner with us on this brand new adventure, that is far bigger than we are.

As we now move forward, as a newly established family of seven.  We know that this is only the beginning.  More changes are on the horizon, and I am not embarrassed to say that we will need prayers, hugs, love, support and most certainly, an occasional shoulder to cry on.   Our kids will need this too, all of them.  

Please keep us in your prayers.

The post A Whole Lot of Change appeared first on Inspiration of Joy.

By Joy Adams

Before becoming a stay at home mom, I was a public high school teacher for 9 years.  During this time, I learned a lot about myself, others and the power of prayer.

Teaching high school was both extremely challenging and rewarding.  During those first few years, the days were long and the nights were even longer.  Managing lesson planning, classroom management, school responsibilities, and grading were seemingly never ending.  The level of multitasking required, especially those first few years, is comparable to the around the clock nonstop schedule of raising babies and toddlers.  Similar to parenting, teaching can often be exhausting, mentally draining, and especially in the beginning, thankless.

I learned quickly that if I did not know all of my students’ names by the end of the first week, I was like a car without gas, powerless.  By my second year of teaching, I made it my goal to know all their names by day three.  Depending on the year, this was 80-140 students.  Everything is a balancing act.   On the good days I was like the circus master at a three ring circus but on the rough days, I felt like I was herding cats. In the beginning there were a lot of herding cats days.

Every year there would be a few students who would challenge me with their behavior.  They were the natural born leaders who lacked discipline, the disruptive class clowns, the troubled and rebellious souls, and the socially unaware.  Each class had its own unique balance of these special characters and of course they were mixed in with their counter parts the natural students, the quiet observers, and the trying to be invisible.

Learning to take charge of and creating a healthy and safe learning environment for ALL my students was like going into battle.  A battle in which casualties were not an option.   The very students whose big personalities, daily tried to derail the learning process and whose very presence could be like a toxin in the environment, were in fact the prize.  In fact, each and every one of my students was the prize and so I had to learn to battle in the invisible realm.  Like a stealth bomb squad, I had to learn to deactivate the triggers before it was too late and I had to learn to forgive yesterday’s indiscretions, before they poisoned today’s chance for new beginnings.

Early in my teaching career, I attended a teacher’s workshop in which the presenter asked us to close our eyes and think of the student that caused the most disruption in our classroom.  It was an easy activity to do.  Immediately I had about three students in mind who were daily challenges and on many days I felt like I was losing, big time.   Then the presenter told us to get out a piece of paper and write down all we knew about them.  What was their favorite sport?  Did they have a mom and dad at home?  What did they want to do after high school?  Did they walk to school or get a ride?  What is there favorite subject? I quickly realized that I did not know anything about these students.  I only knew their behavior in my classroom. I was so embarrassed by my empty page that I placed my hand over the paper to hide its emptiness.  I had some work to do, it wasn’t going to be easy, but if I wanted them to care about the things I cared about, it was time, I started to care about what they cared about.

I began asking all of my students more questions.  Sometimes through conversation, sometimes through a random short answer question on an assignment, I began finding out who they were outside of their daily time in my classroom.  This helped but in many ways teenagers, like many of us, are still discovering who they are and sometimes they have found such agreement with the social identity that they have been assigned, “class clown”, “popular girl”, that they are only confident in presenting themselves to be a very limited version of themselves. I began to ask God to show me a glimpse of who he had created my students to be so that I, within my interactions with them, could call out their destiny.  Prayer became my key.

I started by going into school extra early about once a month to pray.  I would pray over the entire room, over the atmosphere, over each individual desk and for the students who would sit in them.  When I began to do this, a shift occurred.  It was easier to maintain an atmosphere of peace within the classroom. There were still behavioral hiccups along the way, but God was giving me new ideas to be able to address these hiccups from a place of peace and strategies to help stop the indiscretions before they even started.

On testing days, I would take advantage of the quiet and stillness of the room and I would, silently, in my head, pray over each and every student.  I would ask God to show me who they were, what about them was special, and for keys to unlocking them into their destiny.  I was amazed at the change that occurred. I began to see glimpses of my students in their future.  I saw future fathers and mothers, I saw innovative business leaders, and I saw community members.  Often the very characteristics that could get them into trouble at school, were also the same God-given characterizes that would launch them into their future.

Prayer made me see my students from God’s perspective.  It changed the way I interacted with them and it changed my expectations.  The goal was not for them to know the four reasons for World War I, or how to factor polynomials in Algebra, although I taught both those things, the goal was to empower students  to go after their dreams and to not allow them to let the “tests” of life stand in their way.

During my last year of teaching, my principal honored me by nominating me for our county’s Teacher of the Year award.  I did not make it any further in the county’s selection process, however just the honor of this nomination was special to me.  Generally this type of award gives the impression of some kind of teacher magician who produces academic prodigies, but the reality is my students never aced the SATs or were awarded full scholarships to anywhere.  My students were the ones who persevered and overcame homelessness, teenage pregnancy, the death of parents/siblings, the deportation of a parent, learning disabilities, personal and family illnesses and just plain old high school.  Many of my students would never be on the honor roll, but I would not have traded them for the world.  My students knew that they were more than a letter grade to me, and that was the reason my principal nominated me for teacher of the year.

I am a third generation teacher.  I am gifted in the area of teaching, but no matter how knowledgeable a teacher is on a subject matter, it does not mean a thing, unless that knowledge is able to transfer to its subjects.  The reality is, people do not care about what you care about, until they know that you care about them.  This is true, not just in the area of education, but in every aspect of life.  For me, it was prayer that unlocked my ability to see and truly care for my students.  It was prayer that transformed an angry sophomore from ‘hating’ me and my class, into a senior who requested to be my TA and told my class of freshmen “Don’t mess with Mrs. Adams, she actually cares about you.”  It was prayer that caused a girl who stormed out of my classroom during her sophomore year, to return to me repeatedly as a junior and senior (even though she no longer had my class) for guidance and to celebrate her successes.  It was prayer that convinced my undocumented student to not drop out to go work in the fields, but to stick with it and graduate.  Remembering the sincerity of his “thank you” on graduation day, can still bring tears to my eyes.

Prayer is a game changer.  It alters mind sets, transforms atmospheres, and unlocks people’s ability to care, forgive, and grow.  Jesus had a lifestyle of both prayer and compassion for the cares of others.  It worked for Jesus, worked for me, and it can work for you too.  If you find yourself in a position of “just not caring”, being stagnant, or daily losing your battles, the best thing you can do is pray.  Never underestimate the power of prayer, just be forewarned, the person it changes the most is you.

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The post My Secret Weapon appeared first on Inspiration of Joy.