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High School Homeschool Help

We all have difficulties to face, fears to overcome, and crazy things that life throws in our way. As homeschoolers, one of our greatest stresses as parent educators is "What if we're just not enough?"

When a child attends public school, the parent has a false sense of security. The teachers are the ones involved in the day-to-day instruction, so the parent will often blame the teacher when things go wrong. They neglect to realize that the ultimate responsibility lies with those it truly matters to, the individual family.

As homeschoolers, we don't have that buffer. We know exactly who is responsible, and it's very important to use that our children be educated well, or we wouldn't have started  homeschooling in the first place.

As homeschool parents, we also tend feel a bit isolated. It can be difficult to find another parent we know personally who has survived the same challenges we're now fighting - and uncomfortable to admit that we're seeking support.

One solution for this is inspirational and encouraging books, written by other homeschoolers who have been there. Read them ahead of time, and refer back to them in times of crisis. There is always someone who has taken the path before you - take heart from them, and let God guide your steps.

Help, Lord, I'm Getting Ready to Start Homeschooling My High Schooler! published by The Old Schoolhouse, is a collection of essays in ebook format from parents who have successfully navigated the high school years, despite a variety of roadblocks. The homeschooling methods and the challenges vary, but common factors remain: a determination to do the best they can for their children, and a faith in God to help them through, knowing that with His guidance, anything is possible.

These are real families, with real circumstances. Their experiences range from homeschool only to homeschool/public school hybrid and transfers, and their reasons for homeschooling cover the entire spectrum: medical issues, learning disabilities, family preferences, extracurricular activities, and God's will. There is something here that every family will connect with at some point: yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

So your children aren't high school age yet, or you don't have any special medical or learning issues. I'd still recommend that you check out this book, for a couple of reasons. First, that homeschooling may be easy sailing at the moment, things can always change. The problems and ideas that these families share aren't just for those families - reading their stories as a whole helped me to realize that while the details may differ, many of the solutions have an underlying similarity and grace - we just need to seek it.

We ARE enough. We're better then the alternatives, because it matters to us, the parents, more then it could possibly matter for anyone else. A book like Help, Lord, I'm Getting Ready to Start Homeschooling My High Schooler! can help us remember that - and give us strength and courage for the journey.

I found this book to be excellent encouragement as my oldest child completes his last year of middle school, and my only real complaint with it is a style issue. The quote circles in the center of some pages are a bit rough on the eyes, but that's a slight visual annoyance, well worth ignoring for the wealth of positive affirmations!

Help, Lord, I'm Getting Ready to Start Homeschooling My High Schooler! can be purchased for $12.45 from The Old Schoolhouse Store.

If you're looking for additional homeschooling high school resources, check out Homeschooling The High Schooler from The Old Schoolhouse Store. With a focus more on details then inspiration, it makes a good complementary text, and will allow you to cover most possible concerns between the two books.

Fun & Frugal

We all like to save money, and it's even more important when the economy is uncertain. Busy in our day-to-day lives, used to doing things a certain way, it can be hard for us to see where we might make little changes and save some of those hard-earned dollars. Outside sources can be extremely useful for suggesting ways to enrich our lives without sacrificing our bank account.

One of my favorite resources is Econobusters. I joined the Econobusters A Minute With Molly mailing list about a year ago, and always enjoy reading the tips and applying the relevant ones in my life. I check out the blog on a semi-regular basic, and at some point, I added myself as a Econobusters fan on Facebook. (Those quick little tips always seem to come at the perfect moment.

But until recently, I'd never had a chance to check out the e-magazine, Molly's Money-Saving Digest. (Our finances have been severely limited lately so spending money to save money wasn't something I could justify, no matter how curious I was.) This month, though, I've had the privilege of checking out the January 2010 issue to review, and I'd like to share my thoughts with you.

My family isn't very good at implementing and making huge changes stick all at once. It's a lot  more effective for us to change small habits – and though they seem minor at the time, they add up significantly in the long run.

Geared toward families that are interested in frugal lifestyle changes, Molly's Money-Saving Digest is written for parents, but the advice, projects, and recipes within could be implemented by older children on their own, or by younger children with guidance.

One column, Kids' Corner, includes projects specifically for the younger ones. For January, the focus was on money and finances. A hands-on craft, building a paper-mache piggy bank, had clear instructions and a list of supplies. A mini lesson on checking accounts and writing checks, complete with practice check forms to print, rounded out this section of the magazine. My only wish was that the practice checks were less “girly”. My oldest three, boys, would not be very happy with the pink flowers, so I had to create some on my own. Something a little more gender-neutral, or two patterns to choose from, would have been appreciated.

A large portion of this month's magazine was dedicated to pie-making. Despite my enjoyment of baking, pies make me nervous, and I haven't experimented with them much. The detailed directions and variety of tips and suggestions makes me willing to try these out. I've printed these out and saved them in my recipe binder – sometime soon we're going to have a pie-making day.

I like the color and the layout of the magazine – it makes it easy to read on the screen. But when I'm printing, I want to use as little ink as possible. It did seem a bit bizarre to me that a magazine focused on frugality didn't include printer-friendly recipe pages, especially with as graphics-heavy as the pie-making section was.

There are several included forms for adding to a household binder, including a clothing inventory sheet that I would like to use. I ran into the same issue with the included forms, and will probably recreate my own version in black & white. The green shading and lettering is pretty on the screen, and would look nice printed in color, but it's not economical, and gray-scale in this case makes it rather difficult to read the words.

Don't get me wrong – visually, the magazine layout and colors are appealing and easy to read on screen. But I'm a miser with ink, and I appreciate it when both color and black/white options are included, so I can make that choice.

I'm eclectic at heart, not just as homeschool style, so it's rare that I ever do anything by following the directions exactly. The Feather Your Nest Frugally section, I've twisted and adapted for my own use – and I'll have to share them as I finish them - but I wouldn't have come to those innovations at this time without seeing them in this magazine. Since they're home decor, I'm restricting myself to a few small projects, but hopefully we'll be moving soon, and then I'll get to really redecorate. (I'm planning on seasonal or monthly variations... and I may have each child be responsible for one of their own, allowing them to choose and create the inspirational statement and images for that frame.) I'll share the results as they come.

Each issue also includes a week's worth of menus, and several of these have gone into our menu-planning rotation. The grilled-cheese sandwiches with tomato were definite hit – it's a strong illustration of how a minor, but flavorful, change can make a old standby like grilled-cheese seem totally new and appetizing – and at little extra cost.
Molly's Money-Saving Digest subscriptions are available for $3.95 a month, or current and back issues can be purchased individually or bundled at The Old Schoolhouse Store.

Spring, right? Then what on earth is THIS?

Would anyone care to kindly explain to me what on earth it thinks it's doing SNOWING today?

Last I noticed, my flowers were blooming. Even nature is all the way ready for spring. Snow, go AWAY already! We're supposed to start swimming lessons next week.

See you soon!

We're going to be taking a short break. There's a lot going on in our personal lives, and right at the moment I feel called to focus on my family.