When our son Conner was two years old, we decided to homeschool our children. We had some friends who homeschooled, and we loved the idea. We had never heard of homeschooling before meeting them. It was a totally new concept to us. I started researching and planning for the future as a homeschool mom. Fast [...]

Homeschool – it’s not just a job, it’s an adventure. I was in my junior year of high school when a Navy recruiter came to my classroom to hand out bumper stickers. I remember staring down at the shiny blue sticker and realized that I wanted more after graduation than “just a job.” In 1995, [...]

Getting little sleep, I miss my alarm. I jump up and race through my morning routine because I know that mornings before the kids get up are my best chance to get things done. Both of my boys also seemed to wake up on the wrong side of the bed. I find that my computer [...]

What kind of curriculum should I buy? How do I know if they’re learning? What kind of schedule should we use? How will they make friends? The list could go on and on. But I think the one question that I think many homeschooling moms are afraid to ask and probably want to the very [...]

  I’m not a mom but a hip (ok that’s questionable:) homeschool nanny. I’ve been watching, loving and teaching other people’s children for 12 years. I’ve always wanted to have children of my own, and the idea of homeschooling them always fascinated me, but I came to realize God might have a different plan for [...]

This week the people of Moldova, the country in which we are currently residing, celebrated Women’s Day. Isn’t that a wonderful concept? It might be one of my new favorite holidays. So in honor of Women’s Day, and because at this point in the school-year we homeschooling moms tend to start dragging and feeling rather [...]

Being a momma to three young boys has truly inspired me to make the world a better place. I look at our government, school systems, Hollywood, church, community, etc. and realize there is a LOT that needs to be done! Being a homeschool momma it is very easy to keep with our own. I don’t [...]

  What can you do with these active, restless young people? Middle School, or Junior High, is the pre-adolescent time of life most parents dread. Your child is not yet an adult, but he or she is far past young child stage. If you’re homeschooling, these middle school years can be some of the most [...]

Homeschooling Creatively on a Budget Finding your feet when starting to homeschool your child can be difficult. It’s taken me around five months to figure out how to do it in a way that works for me and my darling daughters – and that feeling of accomplishment changes daily! Initially I would have loved to [...]

As concerned, intelligent home educators, we all put a lot of time and effort into choosing the tools and supplements we feel will best enable us to teach our children. We worry and fret over our educational philosophy, our curriculum, our homeschool space, our schedule and our extracurricular activities. As I was looking at our [...]

Confession: After many years of home schooling, I still am insecure about my teaching. Which is why I have stuck with curriculum sets that include teacher’s guides and plans. Until this year. This year I’ve ventured out with some unit studies–to the utter delight of my children. Let me tell you a story as an [...]

I looked anxiously around the bus terminal, eyeing every entrance.  Would he show up for one final goodbye?  Part of me wanted a scene a la Bogart/Bacall, the one with the long looks and the even longer embraces.  I had told him of my plans to relocate and although he was not exactly thrilled, he [...]

Do you ever wonder if your homeschooled child is independent enough with his or her school work? I know I’ve been through times when I felt like I was doing more of the work than my children were doing! There have been other times when I felt like I wasn’t helping them enough and was [...]

Have you been thinking about going back to school in the new year? What happens to your homeschool if Mom is suddenly teacher AND student?  By choice, I am a homeschooler. By trade I am a pediatric speech language pathologist. I love being an SLP, but this past summer, I decided I wanted to go [...]

I’m thrilled to be guest blogging at Hip Homeschool Moms. I have a confession though, which I probably should have divulged from the get-go. I’m not very hip. Truth be told I’m more crunchy than hip; I live in an old farmhouse, garden organically, and read so much I see bi-focals in my future. To [...]

My son Jackson, has always struggled with reading.  He does not like to read independently nor does he always understand what he is reading.  Comprehension has been the biggest road block to his advancement in a number of areas.  His special education teachers spent hours on the who, what, when, where, why questions with limited success.  They [...]

Ebb and flow. Come and go. That is what life as a homeschooling mother feels like. Always moving, always changing. There are periods where life is right up close, as the wave that crashes on the sand, right up on your feet *putting in the garden *long trips and far-off-to-us places *trying new trails, enjoying [...]

How can someone “teach” compassion?  How does one show compassion? What does it mean to be compassionate towards others?   This is a topic that is in the front of my mind most days. With holiday season seems to put it into BOLD letters for me. It is important to my husband and me, that our [...]

Often as homeschoolers we get asked questions about our choices. Why/how we decided to home school is one of the more frequent questions that we hear. I thought I would take this opportunity to share a little about my answer to this often asked question. The answers to the question of, “Why home school?” are as varied [...]

Crazy?  Not really. …full of love, compassion, tenderhearted and darn right odd!  Yup, that’s how I would describe myself. I’m a city girl turned country girl.  A Mustang sports car lover turned “let’s find a SUV that fits all of us” mama. I was K-12 privately schooled girl, public college educated young lady and now [...]

We live in a small town.  When I started homeschooling my boys, I was worried that since we did not live in a big city that there would not be many learning activities we could do outside of the home. I also worried that even if there occasionally was something fun to do, then we [...]

Art has the ability to build confidence, creative thinking skills, and brings a child’s imagination to life. But, if you are not particularly artistic, it can be hard to incorporate art regularly into your child’s curriculum. So, here are 3 simple ways to introduce art to make school more fun and reap the artistic benefits [...]

Though it’s just as unsurprising as hearing someone likes chocolate or sleeping in on Saturdays, I’ll still say it: I love C.S. Lewis. When the marriage advice started rolling in after I got engaged, I wondered just what sort he give me. Our conversation may have gone something like this: Setting: Imagine a wood-trimmed room [...]

If this is your first year homeschooling, you may be feeling excited about having made the choice but a little overwhelmed at the task and maybe a bit doubtful as to whether you can really do this.  I know because last year was our first year homeschooling and that is how I felt. It took [...]

No doubt about it: being a homeschooling mom is hard work! What can make the job even harder is the fact that much of society is trivializing the role of mothering. Few people today value the position. Mothers are told that they are wasting their talents, suffocating their personalities, and forfeiting their futures. But is [...]

I am in the midst of my annual fight with myself. The first opponent, is the committed homeschooling mother, who is absolutely passionate and sure that this the right thing for her first grader and K4 kiddo. This mom is dedicated and confident. She is confident in her passion, if not her abilities. She is [...]

I had been praying about what I wanted to share with you all and God showed me while I was hanging clothes out on the line the other morning. You see, my normal morning routine includes throwing a load of laundry in the washer and letting it run while I have my “coffee with the [...]

Never in a million years did I ever expect to be a homeschooling parent. My mother was an elementary school teacher until the time of my adoption, and then stayed home with my brothers and me. I attended a private school for two years, and completed my elementary and secondary education at public school. I [...]

Hi! My name is Susan in the Boonies, which is actually, come to think of it, my name AND my location.  I’m honored to be the guest blogger here today! As I was deciding what I wanted to write about, I thought maybe “A Look at Homeschooling From the Rear View Mirror”  would be a [...]

Long before we had children we had decided to homeschool. If anyone has genuine questions about homeschooling I am happy to answer and encourage them. But, over the years I have been surprised at what people are willing to say about homeschoolers so I wanted to share some and address them. 1) “Homeschoolers are lazy” [...]

  This week in the United States of America, we celebrated Independence Day. The holiday is an important one to us, as we reflect and remember the cost of our society and culture. As I reflected on that, I realized that the homeschooling community, as a subculture, has also declared independence, albeit without official document. [...]

For many parents, homeschooling is an amazing solution to public school woes or funding issues with private schooling. Many home schooled children enjoy the slower pace and increased time with family that this option affords. But what happens when the home school environment becomes such an uphill struggle, that it’s too depressing and difficult to [...]