I'm a homeschooler! I love it. Also, its so cool that you guys just got a baby cow! I've always wanted farm animals, but our town won't allow it. Oh well :DD
My daughter was in Pre-K and my son was in a homeschool hybrid. Now and for the next year we will be full time homeschoolers. I have most of our curriculum chosen. My daughter is a visual and kinesthetic learner. Any recommendations on a kindergarten phonics/reading program?
As a veteran homeschooler of 18 years with 8 children: you are right on! I agree totally with everything you said! "Raw and messy"? Absolutely! But blessed beyond comprehension!
Calves are one of the many reasons I started homeschooling. I was late bringing my child to school more than once... several times a year, due to something cattle was doing, and public school is just incredibly inflexible. They don't understand how calves are more important than whatever they are doing. Lol I bet if it were them they would choose thousand dollar assets over 20 min. Of missed mandated schooling too.
Thank you for this. Recovering alcoholic, lost my salon job, 3 kids in virtual public school, and I just pulled my 1st grader from that torture and we are loving all our chill learning and healing. Can't wait for the spring to get our veggies planted and growing. One day, maybe hubs will agree to chickens. How life has changed for the better. You are inspiring!
Jill, you and your hubby are a blessing for the way you are raising your children. They are so precious. The kids will have a fantastic "formal" education supported by the farm/ranch/animal education from your homestead lifestyle.
We homeschool our 6 littles with almost the same curriculum and philosophy that you use. We are not part of a CC community, but we still do the memory work amd timeline. Skip counting and Latin noun/verb endings have been wonderful for them to know as they do their other lessons. Homeschooling has been such a blessing for us. My husband is in retail management, so his schedule is crazy-nights, weekends, you name it. It is currently 10am on a Thursday and my kids are outside building a chicken tractor with dad because he doesn't go in to work until after lunch. So our school day won't start until 1pm or so, but this way they dont miss out on that time with their dad. We wouldn't change that for anything. Thanks for this video. 🙂
Love this! In our 10th year of homeschooling this year. It is hard to not get caught up in that mindset of "are we keeping up with other kids in classrooms." I STILL have to remind myself that we are homeschooling, NOT doing school at home.
Oh your video came at just the RIGHT time. We have recently moved to a farm to start a homestead and we have changed from a traditional method of home education to a more eclectic method. You can just think all of the feelings of "are we doing enough" and "aren't they going to fall behind".... Especially with grandparents asking when they will write exams and things like aren't they ever going back to school etc etc. But this video has just affirmed again we are on the right path. The life skills our kids are learning are SO much more valuable than any curriculum out there!!! Thank you for the honest video!!
I completely agree! I have 7 kids...4 graduated from a public high school, 1 is a senior this coming year and I have been homeschooling my 2 youngest for the past year so I know both ends of the spectrum. We do book work but its not what I feel is most important. My kids learn so much more by doing and experiencing things vs sitting behind a desk. I teach them life skills that they'll actually use and we are spending time together as a family.
Girlll....you get it!!!! 100% if you are watching this and considering home education....this momma gets it! High five friend....from a Hoosier homeschool momma of 8 years!
We already homeschooled our 9, 7 and 3.5 yr olds, so nothing has changed here on that front. I really enjoyed your video though, your style of homeschooling is so similar to ours. We don't live on a ranch, but we do have chickens, ducks and goats outside. I feel like the kids learn so much from real life, but I don't call myself an unschooler either, since I think it's important for a child to learn to follow directions and apply themselves to things that they may not love. Some children might be better at child-led learning than others.... I love when they find things that they really enjoy and give their whole hearts to it! Even if that means racing golf balls down a slide, down our brick walkway, to see which one gets to the finish line first, with my seven-year-old son announcing the entire thing like a TV car race announcer ... Not that that happened today 😊
What a beautiful day. Although I'm sure the life on a farm isn't always easy it's absolutely beautiful that you little ones are learning to care for other living things.
A fellow, big, homeschooling, RU-vid family who loves nature and the outdoors! Amazing!❤️ Homeschooling is so versatile, and can be morphed into whatever works for the kids and parents. Love the flexibility!
I am a homeschooling mom and all I can say is you are about the most refreshing, “real” depiction of what homeschooling looks like! This was so awesome!! Thank you for sharing and being so honest 👍🏻👍🏻❤️
Thank you so much for this video! I have always homeschooled my two (now 9 & 10 yrs old) in the mornings while working a 2nd shift, 40 hrs/week job. I always feel like I'm not doing enough or getting the kids far enough along, but your video was an encouragement that it's okay if things aren't perfect, as long as we just keep "trucking along." Thanks again🙂
Thank you SO much for all your wonderful words. I'm new to your channel and love the lifestyle you live. We live the same way expect I dont homeschool. Well I did because of covid and man let me tell you it was insane. We also hardly ever have our tv on. The way you are doing it with books and such is so much better. I also agree with you 100% on what they learn outside of on there own is what will benefit them. I could go on for days how crazy what they expected me myself and the kids to do but I won't even go there! Anyhow, I just wanted to tell you how much I loved this video. Bless your heart. We are so much alike. Love the calf in the front porch area...so cute. Greetings from Wisconsin. Karen
Thanks for your videos! Although I was not able to homeschool my daughter being a single parent, I did use some homeschool curriculum materials that I had my daughter do extra at home. I had her go through the Algebra Saxon math book and really liked that! I hope with my Master's degree I can open a center to help families who work full time and want their children to learn an individualized homeschool curriculum vs public school. Kudos to everyone here who is homeschooling!
I home schooled my 3 children all the way through. The last one finishing June 2019. Before we had our first child I taught kindergarten. My biggest mistake when I began is I tried to teach like when I was teaching school. I soon realized that I wasn't homeschooling and things had to change. And they did and life was much better. I was like you keeping it structure, but having the free time in the afternoon with chores thrown in. Loved it and they are responsible citizens today.
I also follow an eclectic approach with the only real bookwork done for Maths and Language. We do history through living books and geography through general life(we live remotely in the Lesotho Mountains). Science is done through experiments and general talk.
You're so right. I homeschool now. But I wish I had someone tell me what you just said in this video when i started. I have a child with ADHD that I homeschool, I need to hear that it is going to be ok. My oldest is a perfectionist and it gets hard some days when she just can't figure it out. It is going to be ok.
With ADHD you need frequent breaks. That struggle in public school because they have to force themselves to pay attention for so long. Take breaks every 20 to 30 minutes.
I am doing a preschool curriculum with my youngest child but only because he really wanted it. He wants to read and write. I love his passion for learning.
I LOVED this video. As a fellow homeschooler, I can agree with all of your points. Today was “one of those days” where my child couldn’t sit still. I fit her work in between her catching crawfish and turtles in our rain soaked yard! Some our her best learning has been out and about in the cattle pastures with family to show her the ropes. Keep up the good work mama!
Aw, you use Saxon! My two oldest went from K to Advanced Math and did very well on the SAT and in their college math courses. And you do CC! We were in CC for 6 years. My middle graduated with CC. For my third, we went with a university model classical school and I teach there, which I love! Those were wise words when you said homeschool doesn’t mimic public school. I’ve got two years left before my last graduates and I’ll cherish them indeed!
What a lovely channel you have. Really enjoyed this. I'm unexpectedly homeschooling now, but my son is 13 and his school are really good at providing the support. I'm also enjoying being more engaged in the day to day process and its been great for both of us. xx
We have been homeschooling for 6 years. It was a breath of fresh air to watch your video and know that I am not alone in not being super rigid with my schedule like public school. They get their work done and are super smart. I am grooming them to be free thinkers and entrepreneurs who answer their callings and then figure out a way to make money with it. Thanks for sharing! I love your channel!!
We love All About Spelling! The teens are on the last book. We started it a little late. Amen to free play in the afternoon... That's how it goes down here.
OMGoodness -- we do the same with the CC history cards. I started singing along with your kiddos..And I feel like we also fall between an unschooling and traditional school method. there's so much to learn in our every day life, but I do appreciate some structure, as well. ;)
Pennsylvania offers cyber homeschooling which follows the state Common Core curriculum and traditional homeschooling, where it's wide open to the parents and children. Traditional involves old school reading, writing and arithmetic, along with improvised field trips and science projects. I really like your style of schooling.
Thanks for this video. I am doing an online intro this Friday with classical conversations...my 6th grader is actually thriving at home but still fighting me on permanent homeschooling...ug...really don't want to send her back into the CA public school madness...Blessings
Are you able to find out why the resistance? Would she miss the social stuff? Can you give reassurance on her worries? It is possible to keep friends in public school even when you are being homeschooled. I know 'cause my oldest is doing just that. She chose to return to homeschool for the 2019-2020 school year...she uses social media to keep up with them and they get together on days off. We have had 5-6 teens overnight several times this year. She is very happy to be at home this year and plans on continuing homeschool thru high school graduation.
I’m due in July with my second, my first is only 15 months old... but I can’t wait for the day when THIS is my schedule and I don’t have to entertain small people all day 😅
Good video. We homeschooled our 2 kids. Son is 24, and drives semi truck, hauling a gravel train and daughter is 20 and works at a small business making and selling fishing tackle. Both are happy with what they do. I wouldn't have changed the experience we had with that venture.
Your kids are so cool. Farm kids are so responsible and self-reliant. Once they can read and do math, they have the tools to learn. Especially with the internet available. Much of the day in public school day is just filler-time to keep the class together. In homeschooling they can leap ahead.
Seeing your babies rubbing down the baby calf warmed my heart. Farm kids grow up to be some of the most well rounded adults. When we first started homeschooling we tried sticking to the public school routine and it makes for many more tears than necessary. Best to just roll with whatever works best for your family. Same goes for curriculum. What works great for one family may not work well for others.
If you’re going to mimic public schools, just send your kids to public school. Your children are already more educated, more accomplished, more resourceful, more industrious and more emotionally intelligent than many adults. I’d say exceptional parenting👍🏻 and a clear example of how a successful family thrives. Maybe another book on “Homestead Parenting?” I think a lot of parents watching your vlogs would benefit from a vlog session on your style of parenting.(hint hint) Despite grumpiness, attitude and chaos that you describe, you’ve clearly got a really good group of helpful and grounded children. The cohesion that your family life exudes is the cornerstone of family life; responsibility, cooperation, boundaries and mutual respect.
aww tin whistle! We do Classical Conversations too, but I make sure to put away the tin whistle right after we're done and it magically appears in the fall hahaha
Thank you for sharing this because this is real life. As a fellow home school mom that's what I love about doing it. I can adjust as we go, sometimes my daughter is so focused she can get alot done and some days it's gonna be an art and play day. None of us are perfect there is no such thing, we are all just doing our best!
You are my new favorite RU-vidr. I just found you not to long ago and I love your channel! your kids are such great little helpers around the house. I also teach my kids at home similar to you right now😊
I am so happy to have found your page. We are a homeschooling homesteading foster/adopt family from Arizona. I love seeing other families with similar life.
We were deciding between homeschooling and public school when the coronavirus started... We have now finalized our decision to homeschool our son, turning 5 on May 19. Currently trying to figure out which curriculum to purchase. There are so many choices that it's getting overwhelming for me. For now we started the basics. I'm hoping it gets slightly easier once everything is settled
I've homeschooled my girls for their entire lives and they are 15 and 11. If I could go back, I wouldn't stress near as much. I would just enjoy every moment I get to spend with them. It is definitely not easy, but it is so worth it!!!
Don’t spend too much time looking... you will make yourself crazy! There are many wonderful curriculums out there. A lot depends on you and your particular kiddo! You may have to switch til you find the best fit, and that is ok! For now, learning basics is/ should be fun! Just look to places like Homeschoolshare and lapbooks. I, personally, use Catholic Heritage because it appeals to my kiddos ( 4 of 6 with Autism and ADHD). Best wishes and enjoy! Also, if anyone is looking for Christian curriculum on a budget, Easy Peasy had everything mapped out pre-k to high school.
I’m in the same boat. My son turned 5 in June and I’m currently looking for Curriculum. I’m so thankful for these wonderful ladies on RU-vid showing their homeschooling life! It’s giving me so many ideas and confidence!!
My favorite curriculum has been the only one I haven’t seen videos about. Alpha Omega LifePac. Omgggg amazing for elementary kids . I have their ELA, Science and Social Studies. Also Math You See and Spelling you see have been amazing 🤩
Love your video .. I do that same math as you and I also learn as at there pace and I don't do all day learning either cause I too believe in play is important to incorporate there imagination. .. learning is not always easy or fun.. but you can do your best one day at a time. .. I know are trying a 20 min timer to not speed all day on one subject or all day trying to complete it. I been homeschooling my twins now for almost one year and my oldest who is 14 for 2 years. It's never easy always trying new and interesting ways to teach. One day at a time. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for the encouragement. We are starting homeschool back up for the year next week. I have been a bit stressed about it. Thank you for the reminder that things don’t have to be perfect and that it can be more laid back. I appreciate the “real life” video. We live on a homestead too so things can be super busy! Thanks! God bless.
We are in our fifth year of home education with five little girls between 3 years old and 9 years old. We also run a business and have gardens and chickens to care for at this time. We have also never done a preschool curriculum because we haven’t needed it. Our girls have been kindergarten ready by age four so that is when we start. We don’t have a strict time regiment and we allow our girls to have a voice in how they learn. I have some girls who are better at book work, I have some girls who are better at hands on learning. I am so grateful to be able to teach our girls how they need to learn. Our girls learn a lot from their chores and responsibility for their animals and garden.
Thank you so much for your encouragement. Its been a while and things are still crazy and at times I feel like a failure. Then my daughter said that she liked having me as her teacher and that she thought I had good ideas. I actually am a former special ed teacher of 11 years. Since being home my first grade son has taken off on his reading and read Little House in the Big Woods over Memorial day weekend. He also finished the first Boxcar Children Book. I've tried to add things in to make things special, but the amount of homework has limited me severely. I am keeping my eye on things for the fall and homeschooling is a distinct possibility. We live in NYS and things are still shut down right now. I just dont want my kids having to do wierd schedules or more distance learning. My daughter's say they are confused by the online math lessons, but are fine when I explain things to them ( obviously I'm more old school but all my kids have done common core for years so I am somewhat familiar ). We have had our share of meltdowns. I do appreciate being more involved in their learning.
Love this style of videos that you used to do!! One just popped up in my suggested feed and I was like “oh man I miss this channel!!” Not sure why you switched to only showcasing your podcast but it’s sad because it’s not what interests me necessarily… I wish you would do more videos where you do things and not just talk on a podcast!! Love you and your family and channel as well, hope to see more in the future!!
We’ve been wanting to homeschool since our first was born. He just turned four and we are expecting our fourth baby so we are looking forward to diving right in shortly. Loved this video so much! The farm is goals
Saxon math is the best! We homeschooled our children through high school and I tutor other homeschoolers for Saxon math through Algebra 2. Great job, Jill!
Thank you Jill for sharing. I’m homeschooling my Grandson he is in 3rd grade. I’ve been teaching him now from the beginning and love when he learns. I know that I’m not perfect and trying to do my best. We homeschool along the same as you. I’m so thankful for our time together and the blessings that God brings our way. Sincerely Jill Hull
I am a homeschooler by choice. We use IXL.com. Prior to a few years ago I wrote our program. Then and now we do more of an unschool. I really do like IXL, and sometimes we just don't. My children are both teenagers now and mostly they work the IXL.com program on their own (Math and English) and then learn just about anything they want to learn. We have a lot of informal History and Science. The older is working on a "graduation project" and the other will most likely do a similar project in the next 2 years.
I really loved seeing your "Man in the Arena" poster. It's one of my favorite quotes from Roosevelt. A very nice surprise in another already great video.
I just want to say that I am a sophomore in high school and I didn't even really know historical timelines due to the fact that we just learn era by era. (don't get me wrong I learned A LOT about history now), but at their age I didn't even know WWI or the Mexican-American War was a thing! Great job! Love the video. I agree that the public schooling system is screwed up-- because I probably remember about 1-2% of what I learned about Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt from 5th grade because it was so long ago (which leads me to question if it even was worth it?) There is no one-size-fits all when it comes to schooling. Some are visual learners, some learn by experience, and others just have really good long and short term memory. When it comes to learning, I believe there should be different schooling options that allow students to follow their passions and learn how and what they want to learn when they want to learn it. It takes the fun away from learning if you are just forced to slave away at math problems for example. I am by no means a lazy person or student (in fact quite the opposite), but even just doing virtual schooling last year I learned that I teach myself better with online resources and time rather than sitting in a classroom being compared intellectually to 15 other kids everyday. There was no one to compare myself to during online schooling last year except myself, which is what got me going. My parents are all for me starting homeschooling next year. I am actually thinking it over because I would still get to do school activities and clubs like marching band and Model UN meanwhile learning academics at home. I want to see if this is possible. Learning for myself seems much better than learning as part of the school curriculum. Another thing I hate about public schooling is that being me who is in A LOT of things, I have only gotten about 4-6 hours of sleep daily in the past 2 and 1/2 months.
Hi I’m your new follower! I knew you from Lisa’s podcast. Thank you for showing your home school routine! I really look forward to seeing more home school videos from you or a day of life series!!!! Love your farmhouse, and love your lifestyle!
Thank you for this, Jill. I’m currently homeschooling my granddaughter who is in kindergarten and I am pulling my hair out. She has about 3 hours of schoolwork and tablet work to do every day and we are butting heads through it all. Kindergarten is not relaxing. They are expected to write and read and math is now geometry (not just the basic shapes). I love how your son copies passages from a book. That is a great way to learn how to write. I wish I could homeschool her but I feel we clash too much and need a break from each other.
oh my goodness! that's exactly one of the reasons I homeschool! Kindergarteners should NOT be doing that much work! They need to be playing and using their imaginations!
@@chasingkiwis3665 I agree. She loves being outside and gardening and catching bugs. I feel like I am pushing her to finish all of the work for school and not letting her play and learn naturally. I fear she will hate learning after this experience.
I strongly suggest pulling her from the public program and doing your own homeschooling that works for you and her. It doesn't need to be stressful. :)
