Well, you clicked on this blog post. Were you curious? Do you have doubts on teaching your child? If so, why?

Who has the best intentions for your child? You do.

Who is willing to sacrifice the most for your child? You are.

Do you admit you don’t know it all? I hope so! (None of us do.)

Guess what? School teachers don’t know it all either. (And many of my teacher friends are willing to admit that about themselves or a colleague.)

If you don’t trust yourself, WHO are you trusting?

Short answer: Homeschooling can take as much time as you need or want it to take. There’s so much freedom to customize for your child’s needs that I can’t make a blanket statement for everyone on how much time it takes.

Is your child struggling in a particular area? Maybe it’s reading. Maybe it’s math.

If your child is enrolled in a school, then there can be many things to keep up with regarding regular weekly tests and homework.

If your child is homeschooled, there can be many outside-the-home activities to attend.

Either way, when your child is struggling academically, you need to be able to recognize that and prioritize some things in your schedule.

Most importantly, you need to be able to PARE DOWN YOUR SCHEDULE. Please listen, take a breath, and hear me out.

What is real learning?

Do you know what your child is learning in school right now?

Are you seeing growth at home? I hope that you are.

Unfortunately many parents I speak with are either:

a). not plugged in to what is being taught (and how) because their child is making “good enough” grades.

b). struggling to help their child bring up their grades on unfit assignments and tests.

A huge reason for new homeschoolers giving up on the idea is that they felt like they were doing a bad job or failing at it.

Listen up. I’ve been homeschooling since 2014, and I can say without a doubt that BAD DAYS HAPPEN. UNPLANNED THINGS HAPPEN.

Here are a few unplanned things that have happened to us:

You’ve likely heard about some parents whose children learn to read simply because they were read aloud to. Don’t feel bad if this hasn’t happened with your child! Learning to read involves recognizing patterns and applying rules. Some children pick it up easier and quicker than others.

You can start simple and gradually get more difficult.

Also, newsflash: There are different ways of learning to read. Just look at some old time books and you’ll see ways people learned to read 100 years ago might be different than what your child may learn. Some of these ways are better than others and some are about the same.

There is not a third grade parent out there who wouldn’t like another tool to help with memorizing multiplication facts, right?

It’s usually a complaint of middle school and high school teachers that their struggling students lack basic math facts, so it’s best to just have a way to get facts taken care of in elementary school. After all, math is just going to get progressively more difficult each school year.

If you have a third grader who is just having to start learning multiplication facts—or even an older child who can’t seem to remember the facts—skip counting will help.

…Although I love the specifics you can get into in the upper grades, it is a satisfying thing to teach the basics and see children form a solid foundation for learning.

No matter what realm of schooling one chooses: public, private, or homeschool, there are certain things that ring true for the goals of elementary school. Sometimes, it is EASY TO GET SIDETRACKED (depending on testing, grades and curriculum).

Perhaps homeschooling is a new thing to you. If so, I completely understand how you’re trying to learn the terminology, make connections to other homeschoolers and find your groove.

One of the first tasks that homeschool parents have before them is to come up with a plan and choose a curriculum.

It can be overwhelming, like going to an ice cream shop with 200 flavors. (Do you get the one you always get or try something new?)

In my Kindergarten Made Easy mini-course for parents, I include a curriculum guide to help parents on their way to choosing what works best for their child.

Today, I share those principles with YOU!

I actually started as mostly a math teacher, with a few additional subjects. Throughout my 12 years as teacher, I always taught math but sometimes switched grade levels and schools. What an experience to see how math looks at different grade levels!

That’s my experience and background.

Now for my opinion:

Hear me out.

There are plenty of emotions around the way we choose to “school” our children.

There are plenty of teachers out there with preconceived notions about homeschoolers who think it is wrong or take offense to parents teaching their children at home.

That said, I fully acknowledge that not every home life is the same.

Not every parent is the same. Not every child is the same.

You don’t want to interrupt the reading or create negativity with reading.

First let’s look at some of the common mistakes in reading:

—skipping a word

—mispronouncing a word

—substituting a word

—dropping or adding a suffix

—skipping a line

—paying no attention to punctuation (periods, commas, question marks)

Here’s several ways I help “clean up” reading:

Did you ever wonder, “What do kindergartners learn?” or “How do I make sure I’m teaching my kindergartner what he’s supposed to know?”

How do you keep kindergarten simple AND enjoyable for your family?

How do you stay focused on kindergarten goals no matter what curriculum you choose?

How do you even begin to choose a curriculum?

All those questions and more are answered in my mini-course, Kindergarten Made Easy!

You’re the parent. Ask yourself if you’re getting what you want from your child’s teacher. Help your child’s teacher to understand where you are coming from and show appreciation for the teacher’s efforts. A good relationship and communication between parent and teacher is invaluable! Sometimes, you must take the first step.

Teachers are no less important than your child’s first babysitter or daycare teacher. You entrust teachers with what is most precious in your life: your children. Hold those teachers to that responsibility and speak up and speak firm when the responsibility is not being carried out well.

Here are 5 Things that parents want from their child’s teacher.

Oh how “out of control” it can feel when your child is failing a class.

You’re not there to see what’s going on.

You might lack some actual communication to find out what’s the root of the problem.

You might even find out about the problem a little late.

How frustrating! Here are some action steps you can take to get the ball rolling on improvement.

This is a blog for parents. It is a blog for parents and their child’s education.

I am a parent. I am not a perfect parent.

But there is something I have thought about a great deal as I see a younger generation of parents growing (many of whom technically could be my own children, had I started young enough).

I know what I see in online forums and social media communities and it bothers me:

If you’re a beginning homeschool parent or someone just thinking about it, it can be incredibly helpful to see how someone else does it.

Before I started homeschooling, I met up with a friend from college to see some of her materials and what she was doing in her homeschool.

Do you have a child who isn’t “getting it” when it comes to math?

Here are some ideas to try at home to help!

An effective math curriculum will include these game changers, but you can easily supplement ANY math curriculum or school experience by adding these ideas in!

Don’t wait. Always be learning. One easy way to do that is to spend time with your child talking and asking questions. You’ll soon find out what they know and don’t know. From there, you teach, you show, you guide. And you DON’T STOP.

In fact, you might not realize it, but you have been teaching your child from DAY ONE.

Does your child read painfully slow because EVERY. SINGLE. WORD is sounded out? It can be painful to listen to, especially for a tired parent!

I challenge you to take the approach of having your child read WORDS and SENTENCES before jumping into books right away.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m in no way discouraging reading books. If your child is desiring to read, do not dampen that desire.

However, when talking about smoothy and steady reading, we often use the word FLUENCY. If your child is not fluent and every single word needs to be sounded out, then your child needs more practice simply reading words.

I’m not talking about memorizing sight words. I’m talking about comfortably blending sounds together in words.