Top Ten Tips for Homeschooling By One Who Has Done This Forever!

Hey all, with an effort to share more joy and blog more comes a new blog for our time, and for what so many are facing right now. This is no ordinary ramblings of my brain sort of blog, but a different sort of blog, today I am going to shake things up a bit by offering you all a guest blog. 

My amazing mother, Cynthia, homeschooled all four of us crazy kiddos, and we kind of turned out alright! So, she knows first hand the struggle of the at home juggle. She has been through what a lot of you are going through right now as the call to teach from home has been issued. With this new call and this craziness many parents have been asking for  tips for teaching at home, mom has put together a great set of ten tips to help teach at home. Enjoy! 



I am a mother of four children ages 28, 23, 20, 17. We began homeschooling our children when my oldest was in fourth grade. We needed to be able to travel in the winter since we
own a business that specializes in industrial cooling equipment and so we cannot vacation in summer. The lawmakers in Colorado passed strict truancy laws that no longer allowed me, as a parent, to call in for my child and use family trips as a valid reason for missing school, even though my child was near the top of the class and we always did make up work. These “unexcused absences” meant that my daughter might be in danger of needing to repeat the fourth grade and so we wrote our letter of intent and walked away and never looked back. Schooling my children has been a privilege, albeit, a difficult choice. I wouldn’t trade the relationships formed for anything now that I am in a place where I can look back. Good luck to all of those who are now embarking on a homeschool journey!

Top Ten Tips for Homeschooling By One Who Has Done This Forever:

1. One size does not fit all. 

All of your kids are different and each one will need their own approach and their own plan. Yes, this means more work for the parent but you really do have to make a separate plan for each child involved.

2. You set the tone.

You really do have to set the example by putting your phone away and picking up a book and studying right along side your children. And not just reading, you need to be journaling and writing along with them as well.

3. Use your core book. 

Nearly every family has a book that is scripture or written word that defines their moral code and their approach to the world. Make that your first tool in lesson plans and plans for the way the day plays out. These words need to be the foundation for everything.

4. Make play the basis of all activities. 

There’s so much stress in the world at this time, find a way to make a game of nearly everything. Again, each child will think that different things are fun so you have to come up with a variety of ideas. Break out the games in your family’s game closet and find ways to use them in your school day.

5. Use music and the arts in all of your schooling. 

Sing and dance together. Draw and sculpt and don’t just use the ordinary materials for these things. Carve faces in potatoes, make an entire village of veggie people, use blue jello to create an underwater scene with gummies and candy while learning about what a real underwater scene would contain. Be creative and even silly.

6. Make the children an integral part in planning the day.

Never simply dictate to them what they are doing. Allow them to control their schedule and, even then, don’t set any schedule in stone. Allow a ton of flexibility.

7. Teach through loving touch. 

These are scary times. And during all times but especially scary times there is nothing like a mother’s touch. There needs to be a lot of hugging and touching and dancing and high fives and snuggling while reading aloud. With a lot of hand washing of course. 

8. And…there it is…reading aloud. 

There should be so much reading aloud. There should be picture books and chapter books, family time reading together and one on one time reading with each individual child. Let them choose the books and share the reading duties with the child, as it is appropriate. We are not limited to the books we own in our homes as so many outlets are opening up resources to us right now to get books, audible and written, for us to enjoy as we all work through this time in our homes. And we should also be writing together and sharing (if they are comfortable with sharing) what we are writing.

9. Be patient with both your children and yourself. 

You are doing better than you think, so keep it up! Spend plenty of time working on life skills and working on projects around the house, inside and outside. We all have a lot of time on our hands and so now is the time to work on some of those things that we never seem to get around to with our busy lives. Walk into every room and look at it carefully and decide what things that room offers that you could teach your child. Do they know how to properly wash windows? Is there a room that needs painting? Every meal can be managed by a different child. It is that time of year to begin preparing a garden place. And so on and so on.

10. Finally, utilize the computer (carefully). 

The museums and zoos of the world are opening their digital doors and allowing us to peek inside. I don’t recommend using the computer for all of your schooling but there are so many things to see and learn about right now that we should take advantage of those opportunities.


There are some tips from the master herself! Follow for more and feel free to ask any questions you may want to be covered in future blogs and posts!

Thanks for reading and good luck out there!