The Homeschool Solutions Show

Cindy Rollins, mom of nine and "Mama of Morning Time" (so-named by me!), is back on the podcast this week to chat about Stratford Caldecott's Beauty in the Word -- specifically the portion on grammar, or what Caldecott calls "remembering." Join us as we chat about anamnesis, what it is and how it is alike and different what we already associate with memory. Listen for: The idea of anchoring or tet...

Is your husband against homeschooling? I know what you're going through. Wanting to homeschool, but not being able to. I've been where you are and can help. Dear Mom, I see you. Wanting to homeschool, but your spouse is against it. I see you. Counting down the days until Christmas break. Yearning to have your kids home with you each day. Listen or read more at https://www.findingjoyinthejourney.ne...

Today we have another installment in our veteran's series on the Homeschool Solutions show. Ann Karako, mom of five, joins us to talk about her experiences homeschooling high school with five kids, graduating four of them, and living to teach others that they can do it too. On today's show we chat: What Ann's kids have to say about their homeschool experience. The things Ann worried about when she...

Your little one knows many letter sounds and it's time for the magic of putting them together and reading their first words. Use these top 10 tips for teaching short vowel sounds to start your child's reading adventure! Listen or read more at https://pk1homeschoolfun.com/tips-for-teaching-the-short-vowel-sounds-to-beginning-readers/

On today's episode of the podcast we are joined by Jamie Erickson from The Unlikely Homeschool to talk about how she uses Morning Time as a forum to teach her kids manners. In the show we get a glimpse into Jamie's Morning Time including: What makes Morning Time a good setting for teaching manners. What kinds of topics have she covers in her Morning Time manners lessons. What are some of Jamie's f...

It's the question that haunts many homeschooling parents – how do I know that I'm doing it right? I'm responsible for the education of my children and there's no-one and nothing to tell me WHAT to do and WHEN to do it and HOW to do it and argh! It's enough to cause a meltdown. To extend the question, without strict curriculum, and standards, and lots of other children to compare to and rank with,...

Today I am joined by Homeschool Solutions Community Manager and fellow convention fan Dawn Garrett to talk all about the homeschool convention. Dawn and I are both long-time attendees of Great Homeschool Conventions and are looking forward to meeting many of you there this year.   In this episode Dawn and I dish: Why go to a homeschool convention at all. Our favorite panel or talk from a conventio...

Have you seen the video where someone is trying to line up a litter of cute, cuddly kittens? If you haven't, let me spoil it for you: it doesn't work very well! As you can imagine, it's a full thirty seconds of constant redirection, repositioning, and mayhem. To everyone watching, it's hilarious, but to the poor person trying to herd those kittens, it was exhausting. This image hits close to home...

Today on the show I am joined by homeschool veteran and writing guru Julie Bogart. Part of our veteran's series, Julie has graduated five kids and now helps homeschool families the world over not only with writing skills through her Bravewriter program but also with how to homeschool bravely through her Homeschool Alliance and her new book The Brave Learner: Finding Everyday Magic in Homeschool, L...

I've noticed that my attitudes get passed along to my children with pretty much zero effort on my part. When I am happy, things mostly flow along happily. When I worry, their worry amps up. When I am frantic, so are they. When I am calm … well, there's always an exception to prove the rule. Listen or read more at https://pambarnhill.com/how-to-homeschool-with-confidence/

Today we welcome Christopher and Christine Perrin to the podcast to chat about prayer in your homeschool, Morning Time, and personal time. It is a fascinating conversation. Join us as we discuss: How prayer can be both a personal discipline and a corporate practice What are the best ways to teach and model practice of prayer. Tips for modeling something when we are just learning it ourselves. D Di...

We've all been there. You're tired. The kids are bickering. Again. If only they would just stop fighting. If only they could just quit all the arguing. If you had a magic word, you'd say it, right? (Hey, magic words might be better than the other kids of words you're tempted to say when the children are fighting!) Listen or read more at https://hswotrainingwheels.com/children-stop-fighting/

Today we are joined on the podcast by Heather Woodie of Blog She Wrote , mom of four young adults. Heather has been practicing Morning Time in her family for a number of years, and has seen a shift in the practice as she has graduated two kids and is now left home with two more teens to go.   In this episode of the podcast we chat about: how Heather's Morning Time changed has changed over the year...

Welcome to the NEW Homeschool Solutions Show. In this episode of the podcast I chat about the changes to the show. Instead of just being an audio blog, the show will now alternate between audio blog and interview formats. I am super-excited about the changes and hope you are too. You can find the webpage for the podcast at pambarnhill.com/solutions.

I wrote last week about how your quiet time could be sabotaging your homeschool morning. This is so true for moms in particular seasons of life — especially when you are still waking multiple times each night or you have small children still. But what about the mom whose kids are pretty much school age. Why might moms of older kids still be struggling with getting mornings off to a good start? I h...

It was dark and rainy outside. I slowly peeled back the covers and eased away from the warm little body bedside me and into the cold. If I woke him, all bets were off. I fumbled around in the dark for my glasses and slippers as I eased quietly from the room to make a cup of coffee. I was lucky. I had groggily slapped the alarm right as it began to beep and my early-morning visitor snoozed on unawa...

I saw a photo the other day of a worn out, exhausted mother collapsed onto a chair, hand to forehead. The caption under the picture read "I put my symptoms into Web MD and it turns out I just have kids." I couldn't help but giggle. I knew exactly how she felt. Listen or read the rest here: https://rinellafamilyoutdoors.com/2017/07/17/symptoms-of-a-homeschool-mom/

Everyone wants a  perfect holiday . The candlelit dinner with the gorgeous turkey and delicious pumpkin pie dessert; the immaculately wrapped presents with bows that were made by a  bowdabra ;  the family memories of adorably dressed children with matching holiday outfits; they are all part of the Norman Rockwell painting version of Christmas you aspire to create each year. Christmas is the holida...

I am often asked a lot of things when out and about with my family. Are all those kids yours? Do you know what causes that? You Homeschool, Aren't you tired all the time? Not only are they all mine and yes we are very aware of how it happens, we like having a big family and I love being at home and educating them. Choosing to homeschool for my husband and I, was one of the easiest decisions we hav...

Have you looked into the tired eyes of a public school teacher lately? Have you crossed paths with an overwhelmed mom scrambling to cook dinner, do laundry, and help the kids with homework an hour before bedtime? This homeschool life is a gift to so many of us, yet we often take for granted the privilege of homeschooling. If you haven't recently spent time outside your homeschool walls, it's possi...

I'm not going to lie. Having multiple people in the room all at once is often the hardest part of homeschooling. Harder than choosing curriculum. Harder than keeping up with the laundry. Harder than teaching math. (I know, right?) Not only are you dealing with personalities and relationships but also with multiple levels and multiple subjects. And it never fails that everyone seems to need you all...

I asked a question in my It's Not that Hard to Homeschool K-8 Facebook group recently: "Do you feel like a success as a homeschool mom? Why or why not?" As you can imagine, there was a wide range of answers — but more "no's" than I expected. But as I think about it, it makes sense to me that we don't feel confident that we're doing a good job. I think we've got an idea stuck in our heads about wha...

John and I have a combined 30 years of homeschooling experience, and more like 40+ years if you count each of our children's education separately! Some of that is our own experience as homeschooled students, and some comes from our perspective as homeschooling parents. We are a team, but we definitely have our own perspectives on homeschooling, both the big picture and the day to day reality. What...

If you've got struggling or reluctant readers , this one is for you. I hope this post inspires you take a break from your everyday reading instruction and read the world around you. Don't worry! Learning will move forward. You just have to think outside the book . Teaching a child to read is an amazing experience. I've been lucky enough to work with over 100 children learning to read in my career...

This is part four in my series on memory work. Find the other parts here: Help Your Kids Memorize Anything Recite, Recite, Recite Sing Me A Song Up to this point we have largely focused on the auditory elements of memory work. This is mainly because learning memory work is largely an auditory skill. This is not to say, though, that there are not some helps to offer kids who have a visual learning...