Utilizing facebook for homeschoolers

How much time does the average person spend on facebook? 300 hours per day?

What if you spent some of that time making your homeschool journey easier and more connected? Facebook was the first place I started when I began to consider homeschooling years ago and it is still a place I find community and inspiration.

Step one was looking for local groups in my area. Simply search “your city” and “homeschool” and I bet several pop up. I was in a few local groups before I even began homeschooling. I feel very lucky to have fallen into the perfect group for us right as Miss W was about to begin her 5k year and our first official year as homeschoolers. (shout out to GBSHF)

Some things to consider when looking at local groups. Do the group rules jibe with you? Most groups will have guidelines and it is best to check them out right away. Are they secular or faith based? Do they allow sales posts? Are any topics of discussion off limits? Do they welcome online schoolers? Do they offer events or fieldtrips? Looking for answers to some of these questions may help you decide which groups to join. Or hey join them all, you can always leave a group later if it’s not giving you the warm fuzzies.

Local groups allowed me to find real life homeschool friends for both myself and my daughter.

This is so valuable when taking a path less followed! You’ll need those homeschool hommies when you get a weird letter from your public school district you’re unsure of or when you’re stressing about your child’s penmanship or reading level. If you can’t find a local group that fits your needs make one. Once created you’ll find others who needed the exact kind of support you do. It is an “If you build it they will come” situation.

Next take a look at some national and worldwide homeschool groups on facebook. These can be great for ideas, curriculum suggestions, and articles you may never be exposed to otherwise. With often much higher group numbers you can get a wider and more varied response to questions asked there. This leads me to my next tip…

Don’t be a wallflower. Once you’ve joined some groups be active in them. Ask questions. Share your successes. Offer answers in areas you know about. If you are really looking to go for it make an introduction post (especially in local groups) let people know who you are, who your kids are, and what you are hoping to get out of the group whether it be info, inspiration, in person togetherness or a bit of it all.

Some other types of pages to look for are those created by brands, creators, bloggers, and curriculum companies you like. They often have both user groups and pages to like. You can connect with other families using the same materials you’re using and be in the know on new product offerings or sales.

You may also wish to look up buy sell trade groups. Sometimes they are homeschooling general or linked to a specific curriculum or curriculum company. I’ve been amazed to see how quickly books and printed copies get resold in some b/s/t groups. We are talking quick, like a fifteen minute old post has multiple people calling our “next” in the comments. A great way to clear our old or unused items, or to grab a deal on what you’ve been eyeing for next year.

Lastly you simply must find a page full of meme shares. Nope not joking! It could be a homeschool funny or an inspirational quote, somedays that’s all you need to turn a tough day around.

So get out there and find your facebook tribe, but…….. (in my best “mom” voice) keep an eye on your screen time peeps!

What is homeschooling

I’ve seen so many people talking about homeschooling over the last few months. Some of the chatter positive, some negative, and every point in-between. There is so much confusion out there on what homeschooling is and is not. I am hoping this post can help clear up some of that.

If you don’t know me, I’m Jessica and I have an eight year old daughter who has always been homeschooled. I made the decision to homeschool when she was just a baby. As with many things motherhood, it just felt right, that mom instinct told me this was the path to follow. I knew I wanted the lifestyle that homeschooling offers for both her and I. I wanted it for our relationship with each other. I’m also admittedly that person who kinda just likes to march to her own beat so I knew it would be a fit for us.

With several years of homeschooling behind us now I wanted to offer some insights and guidance to those of you who are NOT homeschoolers. Those parents who never had the dream to homeschool, like I did, but are now looking at every option available to them. My heart feels for you, pushed into a position with only choices that are not your first. As you read on it may sound as though I am trying to sell you on the idea to homeschool. I’m not. I know its not right for everyone. But if you have a little spark, a little voice telling you to check it out, here are some things to consider.

First I want to chat about what homeschooling is not. When schools here in Wisconsin closed this spring people started asking me for tips and secrets to make their home learning easier. What I pretty quickly realized is I was of no help because we were doing something completely different. For this reason I much prefer the term “distance learning” or even “crisis schooling” to cover the at home learning families forced out of their traditional schools due to closure were doing. One of the first things we learn as a homeschooler is not to attempt to recreate public school at home. Education comes in many shapes and sizes and what works in one setting can be a true beast in another. If you choose true homeschooling this fall this is the number one message I want you to remember.

Now for some of the things that homeschooling is. It is flexible. YOU get to choose what time of day you learn at. When to take breaks. You choose where to push your focus. At my house we happen to sleep in and can be found sneaking in some school work at 11pm (remember that part where I like to march to my own beat) and we always do learning on the weekends. That’s what works for us, and may sound awful to you. This is why flexibility is such a huge perk, its all up to you. Homeschooling is fun. Seriously, we get to do some super cool activities in our homeschool that are exciting for my daughter and for myself. I also find so much fun in researching programs to use, I would even say its one of my favorite “hobbies” at this moment. It’s a special day when a freshly printed and bound set of curriculum shows up in the mail. I enjoy looking up resources and finding out what is available at our library system. I have truly learned so much right alongside my daughter on this education journey. Lastly homeschooling is not as hard as you think it is. I hear parents struggling with distance learning. I hear them say that their children don’t see them as their teacher. To that I say great! I don’t see myself as my child’s teacher. I see myself as her mother, her mom who happens to also sit beside her and help her learn new things. No one has to be the “teacher”, remember we are not recreating public school at home.

So if you’ve gotten this far and still think this could be the path for you I am going to go over a few of the basic legalities of homeschooling. Every state has, sometimes vastly, different rules, regulations, and requirements for homeschoolers. I happen to live in Wisconsin, widely known as one of the best states to live in for homeschoolers. To become a homeschooler in Wisconsin you will need to file a form online with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. This form is called a PI-1206. It acts as an affidavit stating you will comply with the Wisconsin homeschooling laws. What requirements have you just agreed to? You are required to include reading, language arts, math, social studies, science, and health in your studies. You are required to give instruction that builds on itself as you progress in those subjects. You agree that your school year will consist of 875 hours.

Those 875 hours can be spent any way you like after you’ve covered your required subjects. You are free to add in any other subjects you enjoy or find interesting. These are not “hours spent at a table”. Life skills, art, games, read alouds, and nature study are just a few of the things that fill hours beyond the core subjects in our house. Those hours do not need to run from September to June either. We do school year round to afford us more relaxation in the day to day. Maybe you want to do more hours per day and gain a four month summer break, that’s ok too.

If you are a homeschooler in Wisconsin I think it is important to mention the group WPA, or Wisconsin Parents Association. They are the group who fought for our states homeschool laws originally and are always working to maintain those laws. They describe themselves as “a state-wide, inclusive, grassroots organization dedicated to protecting the right and freedom of parents to provide an education to their children according to their own principles and beliefs.” You can (and should) check our their website here for many clear facts about homeschooling in Wisconsin and for detailed info on our state homeschool laws.

I know this is a challenging time in many ways, one with big decisions ahead. My goal here and as I continue along with my homeschool series is to give a glimpse into what education looks like in our home and to help give you a vision of what it could look like in yours. Signing off with a wish of wellness to you all, Jessica