Websites:

http://sherylmaxey.com/ (clickable links for resources listed)

http://www.home-school.com/ (lists articles, groups, events related to homeschooling)

http://homeschooling.about.com/od/magazines/Magazines_and_Publications.htm (a list of homeschool magazines)

http://www.nathhan.com/index.htm ( homeschooling special needs children)

http://www.homeschool.com/ (has message forums, resource lists and Podcasts)

http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com (huge variety of homeschool information)

http://groups.yahoo.com ( search for groups that interest you. If you type in “homeschool” you will get over 7000 results, also try “unschooling”)  Homeschool-Iowa and  Idea-2 are two of the largest state groups.

Books:

Homeschooling from Scratch (1996)  by Mary Potter Kenyon

Homeschooling: Take a Deep Breath-You Can Do This (2004)  by Terrie Lynn Bittner

Local Support Groups:

http://www.the-niche.org NICHE – state organization

http://www.sheepgroup.org SHEEP – Christian group in Pleasant Hill

http://www.homeschool-life.com/ia/heed/?public=1 HEED – Christian group in Johnston

http://www.iahomeeducators.org/index.php – inclusive group with a great page of other local groups to consider.

I think  that the saying “anything worth having is worth working for” can be appropriately applied to homeschooling. But the truth is that the fruits of our labor can be hard to spot at times. It may be that the fruits are just small changes, small steps toward growth or that some fruit has an especially long growing season.

Our homeschool journey is coming to the end of its nineteenth year and some days I feel really tired. I have taught the same math lessons seven times. I have taught five children to read. I have had countless conversations with teen sons about the importance of finishing the journey strong. I have tried to teach consistency while I have struggled with it myself.

But for all the struggles, all the weariness and frustration, I still know that this is the right thing for our family. Truthfully…I have asked God on more than one occasion if He could possibly have been wrong about this call to homeschool. I know, God doesn’t make mistakes.  When I am thinking more clearly, I can see so many blessings that have come our way because we have remained faithful to this call. But sometimes I’m just plain tired.

A couple of things help me when I get in that place where I need to refocus. First, of course, I go to God. He never fails to reassure me that I am still on the right path. Then, after I get my heart in the right place, I work on getting my mind to come into agreement. An excellent way to quickly remember the benefits of homeschooling is to be reminded of what our kids are missing by not being in school. That’s right, I said what the are MISSING. I know we are constantly faced with people telling us what our kids are missing by being home but the truth is they are missing a lot of things I am glad they are missing.

I have gathered a list of  a  few resources I have found helpful in this exercise of refocusing.

John Taylor Gatto was a public school teacher who has written several books exposing the true foundations of our public education system. His book entitled  The Underground History of American Education can be read on his website.

Peter Gray is a research psychologist who has some very interesting ideas about traditional education practices that help me remember why I am doing what I am doing. You can read his blog here.

Another thing I find helpful is to read other homeschooler’s blogs. I have found several that I find helpful including  Why Homeschool Sometimes I just log on to Homeschoolblogger.com and just read random posts. There is also a nice list of blogs on A to Z Home’s Cool Homeschooling.

Hopefully, if you find yourself needing a little boost to help you over a challenging season, some of these resources will help.

We’re hanging in there!

When we began homeschooling in 1991 we used the kitchen table for our book learning and the living room sofa for the other activities, like reading aloud, that worked better in a cuddling position.  As the years went on I dreamed of a room that I could use just for school  where we could spread out our materials, projects and experiments and not have to move everything when the school day was over.  I dreamed about this for nine years and finally when my oldest student was 17 and the youngest a newborn, I got my schoolroom. It wasn’t just any old room, it had TWO walk-in closets that I turned into a library and a reading room with a futon mattress on the floor and  lots of pillows. It also had  a set of large East facing windows that let in the morning sun. I had one wall of cabinets with shelves to the ceiling and a filing cabinet. I also had several individual desks and a large table that had come from the local elementary school when they sold it to buy new furnishings. The best part was the authentic 1950’s blackboard salvaged from the same elementary school. My husband hung the blackboard and even designed a chalk tray much like it must have had in the original classroom.

It was a great room, everything that I had ever dreamed of. There was only one problem.  We didn’t use it. We still preferred to do our learning all over the house at all times of the day. What I had thought I wanted was what I remembered as a child; a classroom with lots of supplies and all sorts of wonderful things to explore. We had the supplies alright, we also had the space. But it wasn’t all I had hoped it would be. There was something rather sterile and squelching about trying to force learning to take place in that one room.

Something I had learned during those nine years of waiting for the perfect room was that you can’t confine truly exciting learning to a single space. We had discovered that we could learn anywhere and in fact, that was what we had come to do naturally. We had our school room for four years and it mostly became a storage room for our materials. We still did our learning in the living room and at the table in the kitchen. We also learned on a huge quilt on the front porch and on the picnic table in the backyard. We learned in the van, at the library, at the park and at other people’s houses. 

When we moved from Ohio to Iowa in 2005 we spent many hours looking at houses. The requirements that we felt we needed didn’t include a school room. We ended up in a home that has a room with bookshelves to the ceiling  on two walls and they are filled with books. We have space for the kids to play with their legos and build with other materials but we have no desks or other schoolroom furnishings. We do our schoolwork all over, just as we did in Ohio. Learning has become such a part of living that we really don’t feel comfortable confining it to a separate place as though it is something that we do apart from our everyday lives. At our house, learning is living, so we do most of it in the living room!

-Sheryl

As my children have grown we have chosen more challenging stories but while they were younger we listened to books like these:

The Magic Tree House Collection by Mary Pope Osborne ( many sets to choose from)

Little House on the Prairie Collection by Laura Ingalls Wilder ( there are several of these to choose from)

Your Story Hour collections (there are many of these to choose from)

The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner ( there are many of these to choose from)

Charlotte’s Web by E B White

When the boys got older we listened to books that required a little more concentration like these:

The Chronicles of Narnia by C S Lewis

Adventures in Odyssey by the AIO Team ( there are many of these to choose from and they are all good!)

Homer Price by Robert McCloskey ( this one is hard to find. Check your library)

Bud Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Anne of Green Gables by L M Montgomery

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

The Great Turkey Walk by Kathleen Karr (this one is hard to find. Check with your library)

A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck ( also by this author: A Long Way From Chicago, Here Lies the Librarian, and A Season of Gifts)

The Hoboken Chicken Emergency by Daniel Pinkwater ( and the sequel – Looking for Bobowicz)

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

The Penderwicks by Jean Birdsall

The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit

Right now we are listening to the third book in a series by Trenton Lee Stewart called The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma. This is by far our favorite series to date. The first two books are called The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey.

These titles and many others are available at your public library. You might also consider using a digital download service that many libraries are offering. This service in Iowa libraries is called WILBOR and is easy to access from your home computer. For more information about WILBOR check out my Examiner.com article.

One book I have been enjoying is Food Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 Extraordinary Places to Eat Around the Globe. This is a fascinating culinary tour of the world that highlights a vast collection of foods and places. From the cherries of northern Michigan, to vanilla from Madagascar, to the mushrooms of central France, you are treated to delicacies that will intrigue you. And the book is published by National Geographic so the photos are amazing. This book reminds me of the Peter Menzel books that I reviewed in an earlier post. You can find that review here.  Books like these allow you to experience the world from the comfort of your home. I know it isn’t quite like being there, but for large families like ours, on one income, the opportunity to actually travel the world is not really an option. This is one way to bring some of the worlds diversity to your family in a very satisfying way.

Another book I’ve been reading is called Homeschool Your Child For Free by LauraMaery Gold and Joan M. Zielinski. This book contains more than 1,400 resources that you can take advantage of for free.  The book is divided into subject areas and then further grouped in smaller subtopics. Every entry has a brief summary of what is available and then the web address. Most are totally free. Some do have subscription options that give you access to more of the website’s resources should you choose to pay the fee. I have found some great websites that I will be using with my boys.

Finally, a book that has given me much to think about is Living With Confidence in a Chaotic World by Dr. David Jeremiah. This book is sort of a follow-up to a previous book he wrote called What in the World is Going On? Last winter we listened to a series of Dr. Jeremiah’s messages (on the prophecies from the book of Revelation) that became the book What in the World is Going On? We were fascinated by the information he shared. Now I am reading this lastest book and find that his suggestions about how we are to live, in light of the end times message, are very helpful. His focus is on what we can do that is positive in an increasingly negative world. It has really helped me to redirect my energy to something more productive than living in fear of the future. I highly recommend any of Dr. Jeremiah’s books. He seems to have a very realistic view of how we can face the future with anticipation instead of apprehension.

Well, that’s all I have for now. I’ll have a new list in a couple of weeks when I finish these books and start on the pile I have waiting for me!

Happy reading!

–Sheryl

We have found several resources that have been particularly helpful in our studies of Creation and of the ongoing controversy surrounding it. I have listed some of the best that we have examined so far. We are certainly not finished with this subject and will probably find many more reference materials being published in the near future. Therefore, consider this a list in progress, subject to change as more information becomes available.

Probably THE best source of information concerning the study of Creation comes from Creation Ministries International. They have the most up to date information and the greatest presentation that I have seen so far. You could spend days on their website and still not see everything.

Another great resource is Answers In Genesis. Founded by Ken Ham, this organization has spent 30 years sharing information on topics such as the age of the earth, the flood and the significance of archaeological discoveries. There are many answers to the questions that people have been asking for decades.

Some excellent books on Creation can be found on both of the websites previously mentioned. There are also several other titles that we have found helpful so I will list them here.

In the Beginning by Walt Brown – This book is available to read online on the Center for Creation Science website.

Unlocking The Mysteries of Creation by Dennis R Petersen – This book is a wonderfully illustrated volume of information concerning Creation. It is available on the Creation Resource Foundation website.

Since our homeshool method is pretty relaxed, I usually use mostly library books for history. No dry textbooks for us. We’d rather find a story, be it fiction or biography, that helps us imagine what it was really like to live in a particular time period. So I am always looking for interesting titles that I can read aloud to my younger boys or recommend as independent reading to the older ones. I try not to assign them specific books but rather allow them the freedom to choose titles that they find interesting.

There are many resources available that help you choose a variety of books to interest your children. Since I have all boys, I have found a book called Great Books for Boys by Kathleen Odean particularly helpful. The author has organized her recommendations first by reading level and then by genre. She gives short summaries of each book and the age group recommended.

Another general title is What to Read When by Pam Allyn. This resource begins with a section of ideas to get your child motivated to read and then she gives a list of books recommended by age group. Finally, she lists suggestions of books that relate to 50 different topics that she has chosen to address. Some of the topics she deals with include adoption, death, divorce, siblings and loneliness. All the topics are things many children are going to face in their lives and the author has given several books in each catagory to help kids grow through the challenges they face.

Several other titles that offer help with finding good books for children are Honey for a Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt, Books Children Love: A Guide to the Best Children’s Literature by Elizabeth Laraway Wilson and Susan Schaeffer Macaulay and Books That Build Character:  A Guide to Teaching Your Children Moral Values through Stories by William Kilpartrick.

I have also found a couple of more specific resources helpful. As I said, I often rely on historical fiction when I am talking about history with my children. A couple of resources have been designed to make this easier. One is Let the Authors Speak by Carolyn Hatcher.  This book goes through the eras of history with recommendations for books that are sorted by setting. The author has noted the reading age and type of book as well as a comment to help you in your search. There are hundreds of titles that you might not ever run across on your own. This book has been a valuable resource for us for many years. It is out of print now and available used at a pretty high price. The best way to get your hands on this book might be through inter-library loan. Check with your local library.

Another similiar title, Turning Back the Pages of Time by Kathy Keller is also out of print but available used at Amazon.com. This is just a small, 35-page booklet but it is packed with great reading suggestions sorted by era and then by reading ability. It is worth finding if you are using fiction to teach history.

That’s all I have for now. If you have come across other resources of a similar nature I would love to hear about them. Feel free to add a comment to this post with your recommendations.

–Sheryl

I’ve noticed one similarity shared by all types of homeschoolers. They desperately want to do what is best for their children and, because of the skeptics they must constantly answer to, they doubt their ability to do what they desire most.

This is where I come in. One of the most rewarding aspects of this job is the opportunity I have to look these sometimes very discouraged moms and dads in the eye and say, “You can do this and I will help you succeed any way I can.”  Some visibly relax when they hear those words. Somewhere inside them, they know that they can do what is best for their child but the outside influences have slowly eroded their confidence.  My goal is to help rebuild their confidence and help restore some excitement about this homeschooling adventure they are on.

And, it is an adventure! Everyday presents the opportunity to explore new ideas and make new discoveries. That’s what learning is supposed to be, not the drudgery of taking tests and completing assignments. While some find they need that sort of feedback, that isn’t where the joy of the journey is found.

The joy comes when you see your little boy read his first Bob Book all by himself or when you see the satisfaction on your daughter’s face the first time she gets all her multiplication facts right. But even better are those times when you watch a thunderstorm move in and learn together about the power of the weather. Or when you watch a bee on a tiny spring flower and you marvel at the incredible way creation comes to life after a long winter.

The best part of homeschooling is getting to experience these things with your children, not just hearing about them second hand when your children come home tired from a day in the classroom. That’s what makes it all worth it.

And, after a week of meetings, if I have been able to encourage my families to look at the bigger picture, I feel like I’ve make a difference. Yes, there are curriculum decisions to make and challenges to deal with but in the long run what matters most is the day to day interactions between parent and child. The homeschooling  adventure happens a day at a time and sometimes a moment at a time.

Enjoy the journey!

–Sheryl

From a homeschoolers perspective it goes without saying that the library is a vital part of daily life — at least at our house. I don’t know about you, but for our family the library is actually our main source of curriculum. I use the word “curriculum” loosely.  It isn’t uncommon for me to have more that 100 books signed out on my library card at one time. Fortunately for me, my library has no limit to the number of books you can take home!

Years ago, when I began homeschooling I spent hours with the curriculum catalogs and then spent more hours in the vendor hall of our state homeschool convention in search of the perfect curriculum.   I collected boxes of different programs all designed to be the perfect means by which to educate my children.

Now, eighteen years later, I have tossed most of those texts and also tossed the concept that we need some sort of canned program at all. These days you will find us on any given school day, reading a variety of books — most, if not all, from the public library.

At this moment, because of the current economic challenges we are all facing, libraries are becoming endangered.  Many state and local governments are considering cutting funding for libraries at a time when  the resources available there are more important than ever.

As homeschoolers, we are quite familiar with the need to make our voices heard about issues of importance. This is another cause that we can get behind wholeheartedly. Institutions like the public library are part of what makes our country a great place. Let’s get informed and get the word out that we need our libraries to be a priority.

You can start by visiting GeekTheLibrary.org and sending the link to anyone you feel would be interested. No one will know that we think this is important unless we tell them.

What do you geek?

–Sheryl

One of my favorite activities, especially on rainy or snowy days, is to color with my kids. Now I’m not talking about the box of crayons and the dime store coloring book sort of coloring. I am talking about artist quality colored pencils and Dover Publications coloring books. Dover Publications has hundreds of coloring books on a huge variety of subjects that can really enhance your child’s learning experience. Some of the titles ar just for fun and for the joy of creating art but others are very informational. There many historical titles that could be incorporated into unit studies.

Comparing this type of coloring to the old fashioned crayon variety is like comparing sirloin steak to hot dogs. Hot dogs certainly have their place but for real quality you might look for something a little more sophisticated. In the realm of coloring books, Dover definitely is the quality you are looking for.

You can purchas a set of 120 Prismacolor colored pencils on eBay or Amazon.com for a fraction of what they cost in even discount art supply stores. Then we gradually put together a pretty impressive collection of books. Some we ordered new and some we picked up at yard sales for a quarter. We have books that cover all different time periods, nature topics and geometric figures.

We don’t worry about who colors in which books for the most part. We usually just choose a book and a picture that suits us at the moment. There is one exception — Mom has a Victorian House book thatis off limits!  I have worked my way slowly through this book one room at a time and am almost finished with my masterpiece.  I also have one which contains pictures of the outside of houses that I am enjoying. Of course I  like the nature ones, too especially the ones with flower gardens in them. My boys aren’t too picky but they really aren’t interested in my house coloring books. They prefer the historical and the natures titles.

Another title that has been particularly useful is the Human Anatomy book. It shows the body systems in very detailed illustrations so you can learn how our bodies are designed as you color. A great resource to combine with biology or health studies.

There are a couple of tips I’ve learned that will help the experience to go smoothly. One thing I would suggest  is to purchase a pencil sharpener that is strong enough to handle the harder lead of the pencils.  We ruined an electric one with overuse. I finally just bought a metal  hand-held one designed for artists. It works fine, just remember to give your artists a place to collect the shavings while they are sharpening. A paper plate or something like a piece of poster board will work fine.  Also, we have learned that if we want our books to look good when we are all done with them, it’s a good idea to use a piece of plain white paper between the pages so the pressure you exert while coloring on your current page doesn’t “transfer” the colors on the previous pages onto each other. The white paper picks up any color that is transferred by your pencil pressure.

Happy coloring!

–Sheryl