Turning Crisis Schooling into Homeschooling

Over the past several months, parents have been initiated into at-home learning whether they wanted to be or not. When COVID-19 arrived, things began locking down and families were forced to remain at home 24/7. At that point many parents became educators instantly. It wasn’t their choice, it wasn’t the best situation for them to begin, but they grabbed hold of the moment and did the best they could.

Maybe you are one of those parents who thought you could never teach your own kids. I must confess, I said those exact words back in 1991 when someone announced that they were considering homeschooling. I had a choice and time to prepare and I still didn’t think I could do it.

In 2020, many parents have had to juggle teaching their children and working full-time from home simultaneously. Not an easy task! I’m sure many felt like they were thrown into the sea with no life jacket. But here we are in July and everyone survived the end of the school year.

So what now? With the schools scrambling to come up with a plan while the virus case numbers keep climbing, there are many who are considering not sending their children back into a brick and mortar school setting. Perhaps you are one of them or know someone who is.

So how do you turn crisis schooling into effective homeschooling in such a short time? It may not be as difficult as you think.

Here are some resources to help you navigate, or just explore your options.

Online public K-12 schools are just like public schools in that they use set curriculum and have designated teachers that your student is assigned to for the school year. They follow a formal school calendar and have a traditional grading system. Most are under the education department of your state government so each state has slightly different systems. Here is a list of free K-12 programs in the states that have them.

Tuition-based online homeschooling is also available from many reputable schools. These schools choose their own curriculum and each have their own set of expectations for their students and families. Some offer completely online options and other have workbooks and other assignments for their students. You can find several of them listed here.

Boxed curriculum programs are just what they sound like. You find a program you like and you order all the books, tests, and resources needed to cover whatever school year your child is in. There are dozens of options here. Some, like Curriculum Express, design packages based on whether you child learns best by listening, watching, or doing.

Parent-designed programs are fine-tuned to meet your child’s specific needs. It isn’t as hard as you might think, to design your own program. You can pick and choose parts of the free materials available and create a homeschool experience that works best for your family’s strengths and schedule.

The most important decision you will have to make, if you embark on a homeschool journey, is to give yourself grace when things don’t seem to be flowing very well. Over my 26 years as a homeschool mom of 7 boys, I can tell you, things won’t always go smoothly!

My most important goal as a homeschool parent was to instill a love for learning in my boys. We didn’t always get everything right, some subjects got much greater attention than others, but I learned that the ebb and flow of homeschooling is one of the best parts. We were able to focus on what my boys were excited about at any given time and let the rest go for a while. It all came into balance and we covered most of what we needed to and the areas I felt we may have given too little attention were not as far off as I feared. In the end, I was very proud of how my boys took responsibility for their own learning and excelled in the areas that interested them, turning their passion into careers they love.

Something else to consider is that you can find a homeschool coach to assist you with ALL of the options I mentioned above. What I do as a coach is to come alongside my families and give them encouragement, help them pick curriculum, provide private tutoring when needed, and help them stay on track to meet the goals they have set for the school year.

If you are considering moving from crisis schooling into homeschooling, even if it’s just for a year or two to see how things work out in the public schools, there are plenty of resources available to you. If you are interested in discussing your options with me, you can check out my homeschool coaching and tutoring services page and click here to book your free 30-minute phone consultation.

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This option allows you to request information and assistance that may take research or planning on my part. I will do this research or planning at a billable rate of $45 per hour. You will be emailed a document of recommendations with relevant links. Click here to purchase.

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This option allows for 4 email exchanges over a 12-month period. It is for quick questions for things such as:

  • Grade-level recommendations
  • Curriculum assistance
  • Lesson planning
  • Accountability
  • Homeschool structure and scheduling

This option is billable at $60 per 4 emails per year, nonrefundable. No credit will be given for unused emails. Renewable as often as needed but the original nonrefundable agreement expires after 12 months. Each additional email will be invoiced at $20 each. Click here to purchase.

When Sheltering Your Children Goes Too Far


I’m all for sheltering your children—to a point. It’s good to protect young children from the violence and ugliness of the evening news. They also don’t need to see the violence, sexuality, and profanity that shows up in some movies and video games. They deserve an opportunity to enjoy their childhood without worrying about whether an enemy will invade our country or fearing they might get shot by a drive-by shooter.  While those things may happen, we don’t need to instill that fear in our young children—they just aren’t equipped to handle it. Yes, there are children in other parts of the world who are exposed to unspeakable atrocities, but it isn’t an ideal situation. Their parents would prefer an alternative for their little ones just as we would.

The point is, it’s good to protect our children from things even adults struggle to understand. But, whether it’s because of our own fears and anxieties or because we feel a great responsibility to “get it right” with our kids, we sometimes overdo our protective measures.

This is especially true in a Christian home. When we are raising our children to put their trust in a powerful and loving God, we can try too hard to make life perfect. We want them to believe that God’s ways are always right and that he always answers prayer. That everything he does is for our good. Those statements are all true.

But, if we try so hard to keep our kids from having to deal with difficult situations, we fail to equip them to process life’s events. They don’t know what to do when their prayers don’t seem to get answered, or when something tragic happens that we can’t explain.

I’ve prayed for my grandchildren ever since the first one was born. I’ve prayed for their health and their safety. But the fact that my little granddaughter cut her hand and lost the full function of her index finger, or that my grandson developed type 1 diabetes doesn’t mean God ignored my prayers. It simply means he has a different plan than the one I asked for.

When one of my sons was six, he lost his best friend in a car accident. How do you tell your little boy that his friend is gone but God is still good? It wasn’t easy, but we had already laid a foundation of trust in our boys through the many difficulties we had faced as a family. We tried to protect them from the ugliest parts of life but not from all the sorrow and suffering. And a few years after that accident, one of my older boys lost a friend in a hiking accident and do you know who understood his grief? That younger brother who’d lost a friend when he was only six.

I think this is particularly important to me because I had to learn this much later in life and it shook my faith for a while. I was quite sheltered as a child, but not raised in a Christian environment so when hard things happened, I had no place to turn. My parents did their best to make our childhood a time of peace, security, and love. I certainly felt loved by all of my extended family but didn’t understand that there was a loving God who was there for me. When the adults in my life couldn’t explain why life could be so hard, I didn’t know how to turn to God.

When I was in middle school, I watched as my great-grandmother slowly died from cancer. She was 82 and died at home with my mother and grandmother caring for her. It was a natural progression, and I was sad but not shaken by it. Then when I was 21 and had become a Christian, my grandmother died from a series of strokes. I sat with her for several days as I watched her slip away. But even being in the room as she breathed her last, I wasn’t asking questions with no answers. I still felt peace at the natural passing of my beloved grandma because she knew the Lord and would spend eternity with him.

Then when I was 30, my mother was diagnosed with cancer. I wasn’t ready to lose her even though she was a believer and her eternity was assured.  I needed her; my children needed their grandma in their lives as I’d had mine until I was an adult.  I watched my mom suffer for 18 months as I cried out desperately to God to heal her. But he didn’t heal her. And I was angry. I decided it was no use praying about things because God did what he wanted to regardless of what I asked. It took me years to resolve this because I had believed that God always answered prayer and my faith had never been tested to this extreme. Until my mother died, I’d never been to a funeral in my family. (My grandmother and great-grandmother didn’t have a service, honoring my grandfather’s wishes.) I had no idea how to handle this loss.

I didn’t want this struggle for my children so I allowed them to see me wrestle with the difficulties of life, and with seven sons, there were many opportunities! Here are some things I learned that may help you find a balance for your family.

Allow your children to see you disagree with your spouse. This doesn’t mean fighting in front of them. You’re to be a role model of how a healthy marriage works by demonstrating healthy responses and methods to resolve issues. Show your kids that you can love someone and still disagree with them.

Allow your children to experience loss. Whether it’s the loss of a pet, or a parent’s job, or losing a loved one, you can show them how to grieve in a healthy way. And point them to God as the ultimate source of comfort.

Allow your children to experience disappointment. This was the hardest one for me. I never wanted to see my kids disappointed, so I sometimes went too far in preventing this from happening naturally. It broke my heart to see them sad! But don’t set your kids up for disappointment on a regular basis by telling them to expect things and then never following through. This just builds distrust and frustration instead of resilience.

Teach your children to wait. Impatience is at epidemic levels in our society. Everyone wants what they want—right now! Our children need to learn to wait for things. Surprises are great but it is also important that they know about things ahead of time and learn to wait patiently. Besides, anticipation can be part of the enjoyment as they wait for an event or activity. Waiting is also a good skill to teach regarding change. We get impatient when we don’t see the outcome we are hoping for and must learn to leave it in God’s hands and wait for him to move. 

The principle that pulls together these suggestions is this: while it’s good to shelter our kids from things they shouldn’t have to handle, we live in a world where those things will happen. If we shield our kids completely, when they face these inevitable challenges, they will have no idea how to process them. They will be in danger of a crisis of faith like I had when my mother died. 

Providing situations for this exposure to the difficulties of life can sometimes be done intentionally but often things happen without warning. We need to consider these scenarios and plan ahead of time how much we want our children to experience. This isn’t always possible, but any forethought we’ve applied to these situations will be helpful in the long run.

Great Reasons to Read Real Books – As If I Need a Reason!

I love it when somebody else concludes what I have already discovered. I want to share with you an article that confirms that reading is good for you!

I love reading and have wonderful memories of walking the library by myself ( in the days when kids could be outside unsupervised for more than 5 minutes.)

I remember how it felt to have the entire children’s section at my fingertips. I would browse the shelves collecting everything that looked interesting at the moment. The only thing that kept me from checking them all out was the fact that I had to carry them for three-quarters of a mile back home. In the summer I made at least two trips per week since it only took me a few days to read all I could carry.

When my boys were young I took them to the library on a regular basis. We went several times a week while we were homeschooling. I finally had them stop signing out books on their own cards because it was too hard to keep track of all of them. Thankfully, our library didn’t have a limit on how many books you could sign out. I remember our record of books on my card at one time was a whopping 176.  I wondered if I should take out some sort of rider on my homeowner’s insurance to cover library books in the event of a disaster. Fortunately, we never had a disaster. Once or twice we lost a book and once we had to pay for damage to a book. The damage occurred when one of the boys took the Calvin and Hobbs book into the bathroom with him!

I’m sure by now you get the idea that I am an avid reader. My husband is too. He wasn’t when we got married, I think I converted him. My boys always had books and we read aloud daily.

But then technology began to encroach. The boys spent more time on their gadgets than with a book. I even got a Kindle for myself. I have thousands of books on my Kindle. I could read for years and never get them all read.

But guess what? I still go to the library on a regular basis and usually have about 25 books checked out at any given time. I can’t help it. I love to hold a book in my hands, to flip back and forth in the pages. I love to mark places with post-it notes to find again later.

This article gives some reasons that researchers have discovered to encourage us to read more real books. They are good reasons, but then I didn’t really need another reason anyway! My favorite saying in regards to reading has always been,

“so many books, so little time.” – Frank Zappa

Find a good book to read and enjoy!

 

Dyscalculia? It’s in the Numbers

You have probably never heard of dyscalculia. I hadn’t either when we first started homeschooling back in the 90s. I was working with my three oldest boys and finding the younger one was moving much faster through math than one of his older brothers. He could figure things in his head while older brother struggled. By the time my older son was in the 6th grade, I was aware that there was a problem. He still couldn’t memorize his multiplication facts. I had figured out that he reversed his numbers without realizing it. If we were doing 7×8 he would put down 56 sometimes and 65 other times. He didn’t notice his mistake. He had the same problem with phone numbers at times.

So I did some research and came across some articles about dyscalculia. What I learned is that dyscalculia is generally understood to be a mathematical equivalent to dyslexia. If you have a child who is struggling with math, perhaps you should consider this as a possible cause.

It has been determined that children with ADHD are at higher risk for dyscalculia.

 

Here are some resources to help you get started in understanding dyscalculia and how to address it.

11 Facts About the Math Disorder Dyscalculia

Understanding Dyscalculia

How to Help Children with Dyscalculia

 

Even Homeschoolers Can Benefit From a Tutor’s Assistance

So we are at the end of the first semester according to some school calendars. Whether you closely adhere to such a calendar or just do your own thing, you have some idea where your child could be struggling by now.

I think homeschoolers are sometimes hesitant to engage a tutor because they feel it reflects poorly on their ability to teach. But the fact is, NO ONE is an expert in every subject at every grade level. It just isn’t possible.  There are several other reasons a tutor might be helpful.

  • Your child may have a learning disability that you are not able to address on your own.
  • Your child may get easily frustrated and may work better with someone who is not so focused on their success. Not that a tutor doesn’t care about the student’s success, they just don’t have an emotional attachment to the child the way a parent does. Sometimes the stress of the parent wanting them to succeed so badly puts pressure on the student. This can cause a disconnect between the parent and the student. A tutor is a neutral party and can focus just on the subject or subjects she is addressing and leave all the other areas to the parent.
  • There may be many students for one parent to work with and having a tutor for specific areas eases the load a bit so each child can get the attention they need.
  • Perhaps a parent is also trying to work outside the home and just doesn’t have the time and energy to address something more challenging right now.

No matter the reason, there is evidence that having a tutor for a season is of great benefit.

What makes tutoring a successful investment?

  • Consistent sessions – usually an hour long and no less than once per week.
  • One-on-one rather than group sessions.
  • Working on processes and skill building rather than “studying” information. In other words, teaching the student how to study effectively, not spending a lot of time helping them study for specific exams.
  • Not giving up too soon. Learning takes time. Bad habits that have formed need time to be relearned in a more productive way.

There are several ways to set up a tutoring relationship. I personally do much of my tutoring at my home. It sets the mood to learning for the student because it isn’t the comfort of home with all the distractions. I also sometimes work with a student at a library. With the ability to do sessions over the internet, there is also that option and online tutoring can be much easier to schedule. It’s still a one-on-one relationship and can have great benefit to the student in an easier format for the parent. All you need is a quiet room and a computer that will run Skype.

Here is an article to check out as you consider whether tutoring is a good addition to your homeschool.

Does Your Child Need a Tutor?

My latest experience was with an elementary student who was bringing home Ds and Fs on his language arts papers. We began working together and after a couple of months, he brought home these two papers. He was so proud of his improvement!

A tutoring relationship can be a short-term activity. Usually, a student just needs help to get beyond a specific skill challenge. Sometimes a more long-term plan is good, especially in the case of a student with special needs. Working closely with your child’s tutor can help direct you as you make the best decisions for your child.

If you would like to discuss your situation on a personal level please contact me.

Sometimes Unconventional Learning Works Best

What do I mean by unconventional?  I mean anything other than textbooks. Most of us were brought up to believe that the only way to teach is with a textbook that you assign to the student, they study it and then they take a test to see how much they’ve learned.

But is this the way we learn as adults? Not me. When I’m interested in learning about a new topic the first thing I do is go to the library and find out what books they have on the subject. Now I know, some of you are already thinking that I’m behind the times. Many of you would be quick to point out that the Internet is a far better resource than the public library. Call me old-fashioned, I am a reader and would rather have a book in my hands than stare at a screen. But since you brought up the Internet, there are lots of ways to gain information there too!

Some homeschoolers are uneasy with a truly unschooling method. This is where you allow the student to completely control their learning environment and the topics they choose to explore.  I am not necessarily saying that to go unconventional, you have to go completely unschooled. There are many degrees of learning between conventional schooling and unschooling.

I’ve collected a selection of resources that might help you feel more comfortable with a less structured learning model.

Carschooling – when you have to spend a lot of time in your vehicle and can’t seem to get any schoolwork done, here are some ideas to make the time profitable.

 

 

Project Based Learning – Choosing projects that help your child explore their interests in depth. The possibilities are endless. What is your child interested in?

Notebooking – Creating notebooks to collect information as the student learns about a topic.

 

There is also a website called, “Lifestyle of Learning Association of Christian Home Educators” (LOLACHE). The founder is Marilyn Howshall. I read several of her books on homeschooling about 20 years ago. If you can find them, they are very helpful for a more relaxed homeschool experience. They are out of print but if you go to Marilyn Howshall on Amazon you can see what is available used. I bought the 4 book set.

Delight Directed Homeschooling – a method of learning that follows the child’s interests but is more structured than unschooling.

There are also many classes that you can sign up for at your local library or community center. Check for co-ops in your area for group experiences for your students too.

Life After Homeschooling

I’m not sure I actually remember our first day of homeschooling. I guess I can ask for a little grace in that department. After all, it was 1991 and we’ve had quite a few first days since then. Twenty-six to be exact.

But this year is different. As I saw many friends posting pictures of their cute little scholars getting ready for school I got a little sentimental.  It’s the first year I have no student starting a new season of learning. They are all finished. All 7 have gone on to other things. Hopefully, I succeeded in instilling a love for learning in each of them and that will never end. But the days of working at the table with a little boy whose eyes lit up when he completed his math assignment with no mistakes are long gone.

Actually, I haven’t had any of those moments for a long time. High schoolers don’t normally get too excited about assignments! Sometimes I wish I knew at the beginning what I know now. If I had it to do over again, I would be less concerned about performance and focus much more on character building. I think we got better at that towards the end but even so, I still felt pressure to aim for some man-made standard.

I have realized how much time and energy we put into competing with others to see how we measure up and it’s just not worth it. In the end, you just do your best and keep moving. The things I remember worrying about with my boys, the areas of learning where they seemed to be struggling, caused so much stress at the time. And now, looking back, I can say that all those times of striving for something more have had no visible impact on my boys’ success in life. They are all doing just fine.

How do you measure success anyway? Isn’t it simply about setting goals for yourself and working toward meeting them? At this point, none of my boys have bachelor’s degrees. None have letters after their names. So what? They each have found their sweet spot. They are pursuing what interests them and doing it well. And…most of them have no school debt! I couldn’t be happier for them.

And for me? How do I embrace this next season?  Right now I am looking for ways to share what I’ve learned. First is this blog. Hopefully, I will continue to share insight that will help other homeschoolers. Also, I have taken on some students to tutor. I am looking at ways to tutor online as well. I see myself as a homeschool coach that can offer strength and encouragement to other moms who may be at the beginning of their homeschool journey.

But it’s also a season to dust off the things I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Quilting, genealogy, reading the zillions of books I’ve been wanting to read, and writing.  And I get to spend time with my grandchildren which gives me great joy.

If you are in need of someone to come alongside you as you travel this homeschooling path, contact me and we can discuss how I can help you. I know it was a great help to me when I was just starting out to spend time with veteran homeschoolers. It made the journey less daunting to see those who had survived!

How Not to Be a Smothering Parent

As a homeschooler, I have always been very aware of the cultural trend toward keeping children overly supervised “for their own good.” Because of this, I found myself becoming concerned about letting my kids outside while others were in school. What would people think? Would my kids be in trouble for having such freedom? But then I would think, “how will they ever be independent if I keep them tied so close to me?” It brought to mind that saying we used to hear about being “tied to your mother’s apron strings.” It was considered a negative observation.

I finally decided that I was going to let them grow up. Let them be individuals. But as I watched people around me, not just homeschoolers, but all parents, I saw something unsettling.

The cord between parent and child is getting shorter instead of longer. It used to be that the parenting model was to gradually give your children more and more responsibility and freedom with their own lives. Now it seems that a parent becomes negligent if they so much as let their child walk around the corner out of sight for a split second.

I’ve read many articles lately that discuss the challenges that parents are facing from the general public as well as the legal system concerning what is seen as responsible parenting and what is not. I am a baby boomer and my generation remembers well the freedom that we had as children.

I remember my summers as times to take off on my bike and ride anywhere I pleased in our small college town. I could ride to the local swimming pool six blocks from home, stay for hours, and then ride home on my own. As long as I was home for dinner and then again before the street lights came on, I was fine. I walked to school with just the neighborhood kids, or sometimes by myself when I was in the first grade. No big deal. I suspect that the very idea of sending a first grader several blocks to school alone horrifies a young parent today.

How did we get here? How did we become so deathly afraid of letting them grow up? I know, everyone immediately jumps to the argument about human trafficking and the dangers that exist for a child in our culture. But why has American culture become so fearful?

I recently read an article titled, From Tokyo to Paris, Parents Tell Americans to Chill, that discussed free-range parenting from an international perspective. It seems we are lagging behind the rest of the world in training our children to be independent. Or perhaps it’s that we used to be better at it and have lost perspective.

If you research the crime statistics over the past fifty years you will find that the number of crimes has steadily decreased. This includes those committed against children. It is actually, statistically safer for kids today than it was when I was growing up in the 60s. So why all the hyped stress?

I think we are more fearful today because we have been trained to fear EVERYTHING. We fear illness, having our identity stolen, mass shootings, being injured in an accident, having our home broken into, and having our children abducted. And the list gets longer every day. We spend more money on safety measures than ever before.

And in the process of being more fearful, we have become smothering parents. Our kids can’t do anything unsupervised. So why are we surprised when 20-somethings are still living at home and expecting their parents to make all their decisions for them?

I think the remedy lies in a few common-sense principles.

First, learn to trust yourself as a parent. You know your kids better than anyone. You can judge when they are ready for an increase in responsibility and freedom. Stop listening to the running commentary about how it’s reckless to allow your kids to learn to think for themselves before they turn eighteen. There will be times when you have to trust your gut. You just know that something is good or bad for your child. It must come from inside you, not from the opinions of others. God gave your child to YOU for a reason. I have said this often to homeschoolers that I’ve coached over the years. You are the person best equipped to parent your child.

Trust your children. They are smart. Probably much smarter than you think. They can figure things out if given time and encouragement. They want to feel successful in their decision making. They want to explore their own interests.

One of the most important things I learned as a homeschooler is to trust my boys to make choices. Sometimes I didn’t agree with them at all. Sometimes they went ahead and did something against my advice. Most times, after a while, they finally came around and realized their mistake. They learned valuable lessons from those times.

Give your children a firm foundation of your values and let them learn from their mistakes. They won’t always get it right. But did you? I’m sure you can instantly think of actions you took when you were young that were less than responsible. Maybe they are even embarrassing to think about now. But you still grew into an adult that can manage your life. They will too.

Finally, trust God with your children. He designed them. He has a plan for them. He placed your children in the right environment to allow that plan to be birthed. He can protect and guide our children much better than we can. But He’s chosen to give us the privilege to participate in the amazing process of raising a child. You can trust yourself and your child all day long but if you don’t entrust that precious one to God, you will always be fretting and worrying about their safety, their choices, and their future.

So try to loosen your hold a little and let your children experience childhood. There are so many opportunities that will encourage them to become independent individuals. But they can’t do it if they are still tied to their mother’s apron strings. Let go and see them fly!

Want to Encourage Creativity and Curiosity? Check Out This Website

 

I was introduced to the Colossal website a while back and spent way more time than I expected exploring their offerings. My first thought was of course, from a homeschool perspective.  I am always looking for something that sparks a new burst of enthusiasm for what is possible.  Being able to experiences other people’s genius is an incredible way to encourage creativity.

The website has several categories that are all very interesting. If you only want to take a small amount of time on each visit, I would recommend choosing the Random button.  It will give you an endless supply of some of the most interesting things you’ll see on the web.

This morning, after clicking the Random button three times, this is what I found.

Three Great Stop Motion Shorts Not to be Missed

Sparebots

Delicate Pencil Lead Carvings

 

The homepage for the website is This is Colossal.   Enjoy!

 

 

 

3 Ways to Use Smilebox in Your Homeschool

I am a grandma. All eight of my grandchildren live at least a day’s drive from me. I don’t get to see all of their accomplishments and milestones. My daughter-in-law has found a fun way to keep all the long distance relatives up to date on the kids’ activities.  I regularly get emails from her containing Smilebox photo collages.  She does them for birthdays, new skills like riding a bike, vacations and even encounters with the tooth fairy.

Recently when we visited our Florida family we got excited about their tadpole adventure. A neighbor gave them some frog eggs which they  put into a fish bowl and added pond water and plants. We watched the eggs for a couple of days but had to return home before the babies arrived. We were disappointed that we couldn’t participate in the experiment but that disappointment dissolved quickly as we started getting regular updates about the tadpole population explosion.  There were pictures and video on almost a daily basis. One day I received this Tadpole Smilebox in my email. As I watched the videos and looked at the pictures I realized that this would be a wonderful way to share what goes on in our homeschool adventures.

Perhaps you don’t know what Smilebox is all about. Smilebox is a photo sharing service you can subscribe to that allows you to use your own photos and videos to make birthday cards, announcements, and many other personalized creations. You can add clip art and music too. It works like an online scrapbook that you can either keep for yourself or share with anyone who has an email address.  Over the past several years, my daughter-in-law has sent out over 300 Smilebox creations to share the activities and celebrations of her children.

Sharing with friends and family

Smilebox is a great way to share what you are doing  in your homeschool with family. It certainly is a wonderful surprise to be included in the lives of my grandchildren but it might also be a good way to convince the critics. We all have those who might think our homeschooling efforts are not so wonderful. Perhaps sending a Smilebox would soften their opinion a bit. You never know!

Family keepsakes that don’t take up physical space 

The longer you homeschool, the more “stuff” you seem to accumulate. It’s hard to part with all those projects and the memories that go with them. Creating a Smilebox is a great way to preserve the memories without taking up shelves of space in the basement. Younger students can contribute  to a Smilebox that mom is designing while older ones can easily learn to create their own Smileboxes.

Student designed projects

Once students learn the techniques to creating a Smilebox, the possibilities are endless. They can use them to document unit studies and book reports. If they include video, it gives them a chance to work on their narration skills as they describe what is happening. They can learn about design and layout for the best visual effect. It’s like creating a documentary all their own.

To get started making your own Smilebox creations go to Smilebox.com. There is a free version but for $3.99 a month you can access the full selection of designs. I would recommend subscribing to get the most out of the service.  To subscribe to Club Smilebox go here.