Veto Your Homeschool

Hi everyone. I am so glad you decided to join me again this week at The Homestead Education. I hope that you are having a great holiday season so far. I know I Thanksgiving’s one of my favorites. The food’s good and I don’t know, it just brings back some great memories for me. We’re quickly moving into the Christmas season, which is exhausting but exciting. We got our tree up. We never get our tree up this early and it’s beautiful. We recently remodeled our living room and I realized that all of my decorations did not match my living room, so I had an excuse to go out and buy all new Christmas decorations. So I guess that wasn’t horrible. I have some exciting announcements for everybody before we get to today’s topic. The first one is, I’m shipping to Canada now. My homeschool curriculum is available everywhere in Canada.

I do have semi reasonable rates for shipping too, internationally. They’re not great, but they are better than I was originally getting. So if you’re interested in getting my curriculum in Canada, head over to the website and that can be done. Now, if you are okay with the digital one, I actually can sell that one in both Canada and Australia. if I were to get enough interest in Australia, I can get similar shipping rates to Australia as Canada, but I haven’t had a whole lot of interest there yet. I am starting to get some digital orders, though, so that might change in the future. Two weeks ago, I released all of the favorite homestead stories from the Little Learner’s edition as storybooks. They can be purchased, individually for $10 a piece or as a boxed set for $79.99.

That comes with a free gift of all of them as audio books as well. They’re really cute little stories that teach, they’re wholesome, they teach quality of character, they’re all about homestead activities, traditional values, traditional families, and, they’re funny and they’re cute and they give kids something to think about. So, if you want to get those under the tree for Christmas, be sure and head over to my website, thehomesteadeducation.com and get those ordered. I’m shipping as fast as I can during the holiday season to make sure everybody gets what they want. Now, talking about new products, this week I’ll be actually releasing two new digital products. Actually, one of them is brand new. The other one is a different way to buy one of my other products, so keep an eye open for it.

I’m pretty excited to be able to release those. And as far as other things going on this week, my goodness, my daughter and I are heading off to Louisburg, Tennessee for the Rogue Food Convention. And we are so excited to be able to meet everybody there and hopefully get to hear some of the talks. We’re going to have a booth, so we’re going to be working the booth, most of the time. But I’m just really excited to be a part of another type of convention especially when it’s something that I believe in so much. So if you’re going to be there, be sure and pop over and see us. If you have a homeschool homestead, any type of event like that that’s either near North Idaho or has a large number of attendees that come, I would love to travel and do a booth.

I also am available for speaking at workshops and things like that. So I’m really excited to really take our business on the road. It gives me an opportunity to meet so many more of you. One last thing on the holiday season – don’t forget to sign up for my 12 Days of Homestead Gifts. I will link that in the show notes. It is all gifts that the men, women, children, and teens that live on the homestead or homeschool in your life actually want. And these are great gifts for year round. They aren’t just for Christmas. So be sure and get over there. I will leave this link up year round. 

All right, my topic for today is actually going to be on our homeschool. I’ve done episodes on our homeschool before, but I really feel like we allow for such a fluid homeschool, especially our schedule and what we teach, that I really want to share with you what we’re doing as we make some of these changes. I feel like what I have to say on this will really help families that are struggling within their homeschool, or just with raising children or having a homestead in general. So the topic of this episode is Vetoing Our Homeschool. Some of you’re probably looking at that and thinking I’m crazy because we are a homeschool family- I write homeschool curriculum. What do you mean, veto your homeschool? And it’s actually about our veto rule and that’s that every curriculum doesn’t work for every family. 

We are kind of eclectic in what we teach, meaning that I don’t buy a boxed set every year. We don’t always stick with the same program for math every year. We don’t use the same company. It also means that we bounce around sometimes and we just use what works best for our family that year. Kids change in the way they learn, they change in the level, they change in their interests. So what we do is, during the year, if there is a curriculum that just is not working, that means the kids don’t like it or I don’t like it or we don’t like it together, or it’s challenging to get through and not like challenging in a good way, it’s just really redundant or a lot of busy work that, just nobody’s enjoying the curriculum anymore. We veto it and we do that about this time every year. 

So that also means this time of year the kids are getting to start at least one new curriculum if not a couple, because if we vetoed something the year before, we’re ready for a new curriculum at this point or the next level. And also, sometimes, I only teach things for a semester at a time if they’re an easier program to get through. So right now we’re actually starting three new curriculums, between the kids, this year in our homeschool. We actually got a really late start because of our trip to Virginia for the Homesteaders of America conference, taking three weeks instead of less than two, off almost four weeks. It was 24 days we were gone, and then just trying to recuperate from that. We got a really late start, but the kids are doing good. 

We started co-op this year. This is the first time they’ve ever done a homeschool co-op. They enjoy what they’re learning there. I don’t really incorporate it in our learning at home because I feel like we have a really good program in what we’re doing. What I do like about them being in a co-op is that, of course, there’s the social part of it; however, it’s not just about making friends. It’s about learning in a social situation where there’s a little bit of competitiveness happening where they want to do better than another student or they see another student really excelling and they’re like, “Oh wow, maybe I need to be doing that, too.” I don’t feel like we have that at home a lot. There’s a little bit of competitiveness between the twins, but they’re also good at different things, so they’re okay with the fact that maybe they aren’t keeping up to par with some other kids. 

Now this also is an opportunity for them to see the writing levels of other kids just learning good language and communication skills. Some of the classes they have at co-op include debate and logic, which I think are both really excellent courses for them to take in a group setting. They just do it one day a week. Each class is about an hour. Like I said, I don’t integrate it at home because I don’t want to add to what they’re doing, and they have very little homework through co-op. They might have a worksheet that comes home once in a while or one of their classes had a larger project that took all semester, but they don’t really have homework with it.

So I really like this concept and I think we’re going to stick with it. I’m actually going to be teaching one of my curriculums there next year for the five to seven year olds, for the little guys. So I’m excited for that one. Give me an opportunity to improve the curriculum actually because in reading it out loud to a group of children and doing it in a co-op setting, not only will I be able to make improvements to the curriculum, I might be able to give more insight to co-op teachers on how to teach it. So I’m really excited for that one, even though with my travel schedule it’s going to be hard. I do have another parent who’s agreed to help me, so that’s something, a good one. 

Now to go over what we’re actually teaching this year. Wade is five, he’s starting kindergarten now. I really feel like every child’s different because at two and a half, Wade had excellent communication skills and he wanted to do school like his siblings. He was two when I started him doing school. He was very little. When he turned three I actually went ahead and got him some beginner curriculums and he did really great with them. So as a kindergartner this year he’s doing a full load and he’s handling it just fine. I do his class, his official sit down learning and maybe an hour, tops, every day. And I say every day – I only school him a couple days a week when it feels right and comfortable and he’s in a good mood and ready to learn. He’s doing The Good and the Beautiful for English.

He’s actually still working on their pre-K one because he struggles a little bit with his letter sounds. I do have the kindergarten one sitting on the shelf ready to go. So we’ll be probably starting that one in about a month because he is moving through the pre-K one pretty well, especially now that he started co-op and sees the other kids learn letters, too. He’s not a big letter fan. Now, he’s been doing Saxon math, which he likes, but it’s moving a little slow for him when math is kind of his thing. He loves numbers. So I did a little research and I ended up picking up The Good and the Beautiful kindergarten math for him. It’s a little bit more straightforward, adding basic stuff. There’s flashcards that come with it. He gets to really work on writing his numbers, whereas Saxon is moving a little bit slow working with learning his calendar and his colors and patterns and those types of things, which I really feel like there’s value in. I asked him, “Do you want to do two math curriculums?” And he was so excited that he got to do math twice a day. So I think that this is a good one for him. 

For history, he is actually doing civics with the older kids. So I’ll get into that later, and that’s actually through The Good and the Beautiful as well. I guess this year is a lot about The Good and the Beautiful and he has a little coloring book that he does while I teach the older kids. For science we do have a mammals science that I got through The Good and the Beautiful. Man, I’m really seeing a pattern here this year. But we only use that one a little bit. I think it’s a little too far over his head. So I just make sure that I take an opportunity every week to talk to him about some science concepts that are appropriate for his age.

In our house it’s a lot of biological sciences just out of being a homestead and the life sciences and what I teach and what the other kids are doing. And then there’s a couple of YouTube channels I really like and I wish I would’ve written down the names of them because they’re cartoons that teach about amphibians and volcanoes and he really likes it and it’s super cute. So I’ll let him watch those. And you know, his terrorist little brother likes them too, at least for a few minutes. So sometimes it buys me a second and a half of peace and quiet. And then there’s days with Wade where he asked if he could just draw a picture instead of doing school. So I said, “Sure, go for it. Yeah, let’s do that today,” because I was really busy and it worked for me and I had no clue what kind of picture he was going to come back with. He came back with a picture of him and his brother playing in the grass and this kid had drawn the grass and then drawn the dirt under the grass, then drew the sky and the sun and clouds and then came over and explained to me how they all kind of worked together and he had to make sure he had the dirt for his grass to grow. I was just so proud of him and that was all he did for school that day. I’m okay with it because it really showed how he sees our whole world working together, as well as just having some time to be creative, and work on his drawing skills. And he wrote his name on it all by himself, and you I’ve already mentioned that he hates letters, so getting him to write his name is like pulling teeth and he actually did it right. So I was super proud of him for that. 

Now moving on to Savannah and Wyatt, my 14 year olds, they are in the eighth grade, I guess. Those of you who homeschool know that that is a fluid concept, but they are doing Saxon for math. They’re doing algebra this year. We have tried a few different math programs. I did Saxon the whole time growing up and I am kind of a math nerd. I really love math. And so when I started teaching the kids at home, I taught them in the way that I learned it through Saxon and they found Saxon to be a little dry. So we switched to Teaching Textbooks so that they could have some more colors and you’d get to use the computer. We did that for two years. After that they asked me, “Can we go back to Saxon?” This doesn’t make any sense to us. I’m not saying that Teaching Textbooks is bad, I’m just saying that the way that we teach in our house, Saxon makes more sense. So we actually opted to take a year off from an official math curriculum and they did IXL, which is an app that they can use on their computer, their phones or iPads or whatever, that they can just practice math skills. So what I did with that is I set it at the level they needed to be at. They had to do a certain amount of learning every day and it just really helped them reinforce some skills from us switching back and forth between math curriculums. They actually did Teaching Textbooks Algebra in the sixth grade and they passed it, but wanted to transition back to Saxon. We did a year of practicing some of the core skills that you’d learn in sixth and seventh grade. Then I moved them back into Saxon this year and they’re doing fine. We’re having a little bit of a transition issue, but it’s not terrible. 

Now for English, they really struggle with English. That has been the hardest for them, overall. Savannah has pretty severe dyslexia and Wyatt is high functioning autistic, so he struggles with the creative part of English and writing where Savannah does great with the creativity but struggles with spelling and some of her punctuation. So I was just going to focus on those two this year and just pull from different sources like Teachers Pay Teachers. As far as writing, just maybe assign them things verbally. I found that with my schedule I just didn’t have the time to create a curriculum on a day-to-day basis. So I decided to look into a few different curriculums for them.

I didn’t want to, and this was actually my veto for the year. I ended up going with The Good and the Beautiful because I was needing two copies. I like that they have a free version, and I have a really great printer, so I could just download it and print it here at home. And they’re working through that and I think it’s going to be really good for them because it teaches grammar and larger writing assignments and encourages the reading of quality literature. Not that I don’t know how to teach all those things, but I feel like I have a hard time enforcing them where, if I have an outline, I can just enforce what the outline says. So I think this is going to be a good transition for us. We just started last week, but I’m enjoying it so far. And I think the twins are. It’s pretty intensive, but I mean as a seventh grader when the rest of their schoolwork only takes them about an hour, if they have to spend another hour or so doing English, I’m really okay with it because this English is also geography.So I think that’s super awesome. Wyatt loves geography and Savannah I’m pretty sure would get lost coming out of a paper sack, so this is actually good for her, too, because it’s helping her understand her world a little bit more. 

For science, I have to admit, I am not teaching them my science, at least not as their science curriculum. I feel like they know a lot of these concepts already from the time we’ve spent in 4-H and they’ve actually helped me write some of these units and they’ve read them in order to help me write questions for them and stuff. So I just didn’t feel like it was a good fit for them for science, especially when they both have goals of majoring in some form of science when they get out of school. I felt like I wanted a science that really worked on experimental design and that type of thing. Not saying that mine isn’t good, I guess I’m not doing a very good job of promoting my own curriculum. However, my curriculum, I think, teaches the life skills that I’m teaching my kids the four days a week that we don’t do sit down school. And I’m working on a college prep track with them right now. So we’re actually using Apologia physical science, which I started them on their life science. It’s for seventh graders. They’re doing the eighth grade one this year. I feel like I like the way their experiments are set up, as far as the reporting on them and doing their logs and their lab sheets. Now my son did choose to do my curriculum as his extra, or his elective. He was doing a Bible study and it turned out that it needed a lot more of me hands-on teaching him and I don’t really have time for that this year.

So he opted to switch to my curriculum as his extra and he’s really enjoying it because he’s kind of a dairy cow buff. And so he’s excited to learn something that he feels confident in. So I think this is actually a really good one for him. Now, this year, the twins are doing eighth grade civics and econ. So they’re doing The Good and the Beautiful Civics, which is the one where Wade actually sits in and colors his pages with them. And I really like it because it’s got a storybook with it, and the twins are both loving the storybook and I just read it out loud to them so that Wade can hear the story as well. And then we discuss things that are going on that went with creating the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation.

That’s where we’re at right now in the spring. I’m hoping that we will be transitioning to Tuttle Twins economics courses. We haven’t really covered any economics and I think that it’s an important topic for them to understand, especially the way our world is right now. And I feel like our family aligns with what Connor Boyack teaches, who is the author of the Tuttle Twins series. So I’m excited to try those curricula. Prrobably, sometime in the spring, we’ll start them when we’re done with civics and if it takes us to fall to finish them, then so be it. Savannah chose to do handcrafts for her electives this year, which I think is really good because part of her dyslexia, she also has dysgraphia, which means that she’s really weak in the hands and she does see an occupational therapist for that every week.

And then she has hand exercises that she does, but then her handcrafts are like knitting and crocheting and painting and beading, just kind of really intricate things like that that’ll help her with her dexterity. So I’m excited that that’s what she chose and she kind of just leads that herself and she comes to me every day and says, “Hey, for my handcraft today, this is what I’m going to do.” I mean, even yesterday was just doing a gingerbread house with her brothers, and I was okay with that because again, it just helps with her dexterity doing detailed work.

So that’s what’s going on in our homeschool this year. As I’ve mentioned before, my 17 year old, he’s working on his GED, so that’s something that he’s kind of doing on his own. And as far as Branch goes, he’s three and he’s one of those kids that, I mean, he’s not even talking at almost three right now, so I am not worried about any type of formal education with him at the moment, although he gets really excited with what his brother’s doing. So I do try to make sure that he has something to do at the same time that is similar or especially like working with the math manipulatives, whatever Wade’s not using at the time I’ve been letting Branch play with. And I think that’ll just get him excited about the school day and also an opportunity for him to start understanding these concepts and knowing that this includes him as well.

So anybody who receives my newsletter, hopefully you saw the part where I asked if anybody has questions on things that you need to solve in your homestead or your homeschool that you would please reach out to me. The reason I say that is, I am a problem solver. This is something I’ve always enjoyed doing. I’m really good at implementing new programs and thinking outside the box. This was something I did in my previous career. I was a food safety specialist, but I really think that a lot of times my job was just a problem solver. And I find that I really miss that and some of the directions I’m wanting to take in my business. I would love to know some of the questions that you guys really have when it comes to homeschooling, parenting, your homestead, personal finances, any of it.

I do offer a coaching strategy call. It’s a two hour coaching call where I sit down with you, hear what’s going on, help you come up with a plan, and then follow up with either a business plan or a household management plan. But that is not why I am asking you to reach out to me with these questions. It’s because I want to start being able to answer your questions either through the podcast or my reels or in emails. I just want to be able to give some value back to everybody. I know a lot of questions that I had when I got started, or I see a lot of questions that people have for some of the other homestead homeschools, I don’t know, I guess they’re called influencers or content creators. I consider myself a homestead educator.

If you can reach out to me with these questions, I will feature them on my podcasts, reels, Facebook, my email newsletters, and some new projects that I’m considering in the future in a way to make sure that I’m answering the questions that you guys really have. Anything that falls under the homestead, homeschool parenting, life management, household management, personal growth, all of it. I’m game. If I don’t know the answer, I will research it. I’m just excited to hear what you guys want to know. So, I hope that that gives you something to think about and that you’ll continue to keep growing. 

Well, thank you for joining me today at the Homestead Education, and I hope that I have given you something to think about this week. To help others find me, please comment and leave a review on your favorite podcast player. You can also follow me on Facebook and Instagram at The Homestead Education. Do you have questions that you’d like answered or just want to say hi? Please email me at hello@thehomestead education.com. Until next time, keep growing.