by Erica Johns | Feb 28, 2017 | Mom to Mom
In nearly 20 years of homeschooling I have certainly heard an abundance of absolute BALONEY about the wonders of home education. Regardless of the fact that I’ve homeschooled my six children for a long time, and overall we’ve been very happy with that decision, I am not afraid to tell it like it is.
Today, my friends, I’m going to start myth-busting for you. Not because I want to burst your bubble or make you seem even worse to your mother-in-law, but because I think, even if it hurts, the truth is worth saying and hearing.
Today I’m starting with the myth of the academic superiority of homeschooled kids. I’m sure we’ve all seen the articles about families with a dozen homeschooled children that have all somehow turned out to be child prodigies and geniuses that are graduating from college when other kids are still struggling with long division.
Every now and then some enthusiastic homeschool proponent will bring up the high ACT and SAT scores that some homeschoolers get, or how many National Spelling Bee champions were homeschooled, or how top Ivy League colleges are actively recruiting homeschoolers because they are dripping with academic awesomeness.
Yeah. That’s all well and good, but here’s some more reality:
All kinds of kids are homeschooled. Smart ones. Struggling ones. Genuises. Kids with learning disabilities. Kids that like to hang out with their mom all day, and ones that seem to hate everybody and everything. Kids that pick their nose. Kids that like to volunteer at animal shelters. Kids that enjoy reading books, and kids that would rather play Guitar Hero for 12 hours straight. (cough, cough) Kids that memorize Bible verses, and kids that talk back to their parents. Kids that take up a vegan lifestyle, and kids that want to eat candy and soda all day.
Yes, it’s true. There are lots and lots of homeschoolers, and they are not all the same. Shockingly, they are not all super-driven, academically-oriented geniuses. I’m willing to bet that the vast majority are normal, average kids that like some stuff and not other stuff, and go on to be fairly normal, average people. AND WHAT ON EARTH IS WRONG WITH THAT?
Your kids are wonderful, unique, precious people, and I heartily recommend that you get busy enjoying them as they are, and stop worrying about how you measure up. Yes, certainly you need to help them, and you should do your best to bring out their potential. Give it your very best shot! And in the meantime laugh and smile and join them in playing a game or two and know that having normal kids is…..normal.
Homeschooling is not a magic panacea for all the ills of adolescence, or society, or childishness, or YOUR own humanity, dear mother. Homeschooling will not turn your child into a genius nor you into a woman who sips tea while wearing a flowing dress in the middle of a spring meadow. Homeschooling is simply one of many educational options available to you. You may love it. You may hate it. You may feel both in equal measure. It’s ok. It’s normal. You’re not alone with your average (or below average!) kids. You’re not alone in any of it. All the regular moms with the regular families are out here looking cross-eyed at pinterest right along with you. I promise.
Come connect with other normal, average homeschool moms in our private group for the Enrichment Lifestyle. I’d love to get to know you better!
by Erica Johns | Feb 21, 2017 | Art
Getting out and experiencing art in person is the best way to really make it a part of you, and to get your kids really interacting with it and asking bigger questions about how it all fits in with the rest of what they know!
Today I’m really excited to share this post from fellow homeschooling mom Mary, who is sharing about her family’s visit to the Jepson Center. I’ve never visited Georgia, and now I want to go!
The Jepson Center is located in beautiful historic downtown Savannah, Georgia. It features contemporary arts and rotating exhibits.
It is within walking distance of so many great places and beautiful sights. If you are planning a trip there with your family, you will already be getting a good dose of history and beauty, but if you choose to make it a trip that is part of your homeschooling, then don’t miss out on the Jepson.
A few tips on the area right near there, just to help you out in case you’ve never been, is that much of what you’d go downtown to see is all within a few blocks, for the most part. There are a few parking garages, too, that make it easy to get in and out, unless you luck out and find a spot on the street. There is a garage not too far from the museum.
Now, there are several areas in downtown they call “squares” that all have historical meaning and normally have benches and gorgeous large oak trees, and every one of them is different. The Jepson is near Telfair square and is one building in the Telfair museum group. It is the more modern of the buildings and the main one that houses the new exhibits that change periodically and has the kids’ area in it, which is why for a homeschool visit, it is the one I suggest. It is also free for the kids, so that’s a plus!
You can read all about the museum and history, as well as see the exhibits and hours here.
The museum has some great sculptures, of both modern and classic style, and a few balcony and outdoor areas that there is some artwork on as well.
The entry alone is a breathtaking space, with hugely tall ceilings, and some of the walls made of glass, so as you enter the museum you and your children will already feel excited to tour it. They have some neat and colorful seating and a really great gift shop in that area. The shop has a lot of items that are not just exclusive to the museum, but some collectibles, some art, many books and more. It isn’t your typical, touristy type of shop.
They have a changing exhibit area upstairs, and when we visited it was an impressionist feature that had many Monet pieces. We had just studied Monet and his work and so it tied right in with our studies. I would suggest that if you know you are going there ahead of time, see what exhibit they have and use it to your advantage in your studies, so the kids can get a little more out of it. If they have already heard about the artist and learned about his or her life and story, and learned about what type of artwork they did and what was important to them, then they will get much more out of seeing the art in person.
There is also a café if your trip happens to fall at lunch or dinner time, but there are also places nearby to eat, within walking distance as well.
The kid’s interactive area is very cool. It is also in a large and beautiful room that has high ceilings and lovely light. They have a literal “glass house” for them to walk through that an artist designed. The walls are glass and some of them house small pieces of glass, and some house actual pieces of art, like vases. It is very cool.
They have an area about architecture with wooden blocks they can build with, and an area about recycling and upcycling with things for them to play with and learn at the same time.
There are areas with interactive sounds and recordings too, and right near this part of the museum is one of the wonderful parts you will enjoy with some of the classic sculptures, including the very famous Bird Girl statue that is so well known from the movie, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It was originally in the famous cemetery there but now is a permanent piece in the museum. She is really lovely in person and you can get right up to her also.
The kids have an area where they learn about sculptures as well and can make their own on a large magnetic wall with various metal items. My son who was 8 at the time really enjoyed that part.
Overall the Jepson for us was a really great experience. It was not crowded at all and did not feel like your average museum. It is not overly large, so you will not be dragging your kids through half of it like you can be at some of the other large ones and if you plan the exhibits to your advantage and put the kid’s part after you do some of the things they may not enjoy as much, then they may last a little longer for you, too.
Teaching them about art and the history that ties in with it will be something they will really look back on with good memories and will be grateful you spent time on that, and not just the math, science, reading and writing. The cultures are important for them to learn about and it is something that can get lost at times in schools when the focus becomes more on the test scores, so spend the time with them on this while you’ve got it.
by Erica Johns | Feb 15, 2017 | Reviews
As a mother of six children, three of whom are 18 or older, I know very well the joys and concerns that go along with shepherding our children into their adult years! As a fallible parent limited by my own experiences and perspectives in life, I know that it can be difficult to know or think of everything that my children need to know to safely and responsibly navigate the adult world. That’s why I’m so glad that I found out about this cool new opportunity for my young adults: Illumenedge18.
Created by an attorney with a background in social services who saw many young adults facing difficult consequences due to ignorance or irresponsible behaviors, this site is designed to quickly, carefully, and thoroughly educate a young adult on their rights and responsibilities in the adult world.
I was pleased to be able to check out this site and utilize it with my children that are 16, 18, 20, and 24 years old. The courses included at Illumenedge18 are:
- Personal Relationships & the Law
- Driving Laws Every Young Driver Must Know
- Tenants, Landlords, and Leases
- Cash, Loans, Debts, and Promises
- Safe Surfing
- Collateral Damage: Consequences When You Damage Your Legal Reputation
- Crime…and its Aftermath
- Work and Paying Taxes
- License, Insurance, and Registration Please
Each course is easy to navigate and work through, with short sections to read, explaining the topic in a clear, personable way that anybody would be able to understand. Even for those that do not like to read on screens, the amount of text is short enough and formatted in such a way to make it easy and pleasant.
Some of the courses can be worked through in as little as 20 minutes, some up to about 45 minutes. After going through all of the topic information, there is a quiz at the end of each course, so you can see how well you understood the information.
I noticed that amidst the general information there is quite a bit of Tennessee-specific information as well. I asked the owner for more information about this, and she said that the site currently does feature TN-specifics since she is a Tennessee resident and has particular knowledge of those laws. As she sees the interest in this site grow, she will be seeking to expand into a more comprehensive site. Although I was puzzled about the Tennessee specifics originally, I still felt that the general information was valuable and useful to use even though we live in a different state.
Just to give you an idea of the Tennessee content, for instance when discussing laws about getting married, it refers to the age for that state for getting married with and without parental consent. In the section about jobs, it refers to specific laws for TN. So of course if you live somewhere else you’d want to refer to the specifics for your location, but you’ll still have the general idea about the laws that are common within the United States.
My teens and young adults enjoyed the courses and felt that it was an easy site to navigate, and that the information was presented in a way that was helpful and informative. They also mentioned that it felt good to see all of this information in one place, where they could learn about things that they may not have ever thought about before, and to help them know how to think and prepare for upcoming opportunities and decisions (like living on their own).
One thing I felt good about was the range of course topics. I’m sure most parents hope (and expect!) that their children are not going to grow up and have issues with crime, dangerous driving, problematic relationships, or unscrupulous employers or coworkers. Unfortunately, everybody makes mistakes, and sometimes things happen that surprise, shock, or disappoint us. We may never think to explain to our children some of these topics, but they or their friends may truly benefit from understanding these legal responsibilities and consequences that they could be facing for foolish behavior. This site has done the legwork to tell our young adult children what they need to know, and removed the burden from parents to have to think of each and every one of these topics. I think that’s a very valuable service.
Illumenedge18 has a very easy structure to work with. You pay one flat fee of $40 for unlimited access to all the courses for your whole family for a month. If you have ever had the misfortune of having to pay legal fees, court costs, increased insurance rates due to poor driving habits, or had to hire a lawyer, you know that this is a huge bargain. I would absolutely recommend this to all parents with students that are 17+ years of age, and would require them to work through all the courses. A motivated student could get it all done easily in a week, or you could spread it out a full month if you wanted to.
This review was underwritten by Illumenedge18. All opinions are those of myself and my family members that utilized the courses.
by Erica Johns | Feb 12, 2017 | Great Stuff for Homeschool Moms, Reviews
I think most parents today realize that, while awesome and helpful and fun in so many ways, the internet also has inherent dangers that we need to be careful of. And don’t even get me started on all the issues with screen time and sensible limits!
In our family, we’ve used an internet safety filter on our computers for probably at least 10 years or more, and while it has been a comfort to have it, it’s not been all that I needed it to be. Every time my kids get a new kindle, phone, or game system, I go through the dance of trying to set up parental controls, and hoping that I’m doing it right, but never really feeling sure that I’ve covered all the bases to keep them safe. And THEN, what about when their friends come over and brings their phones or devices with them? I don’t know what’s safe or not safe on those items at all. Eesh. It’s a lot of responsibility, and even if you trust your kids, you definitely can’t trust that nothing bad will pop up in front of your kids and lead them on a path that you don’t want them on.
Recently I found out that the service we’ve been using is going out of business, so I knew we needed something else for our basic coverage on our computers. Thankfully, I found out about Torch, and it’s a solution to most of my additional concerns about the other devices as well.
Torch is a wifi router that has internet filtering built right into it. Basically, it works to filter content before it comes into your home. Every device that’s connected to it will be able to be made safe for your family, according to your specifications. As a person who really, really hates setting up new technology, Torch is fairly painless. They say it should take about 5 minutes. For me it was a little longer because I didn’t realize that our setup with a combo router/modem required a different approach than it will for folks that are just replacing a router. Once I understood that, it was fairly straightforward to get it going.
Parents can login to the Parental Dashboard to set up users and devices, set bedtimes or other time limits for users, and select what types of content you want filtered for your home. You can choose categories, as well as enter specific sites that you want blocked. There are currently over 30 categories, including adult sites/porn, various types of social media, violence, extremism, weapons, hate, gambling, and more. You can customize this as you see fit.
The Parental Dashboard can be accessed on your computer, tablet, or phone, so even if you’re off at the store or at work, you can manage what’s going on if you need to. The Dashboard also offers you Reporting, so you can see what your kids have been doing online.
Things I liked about it the most:
One thing that I really appreciate about Torch is that it is a tool that helps me control when devices are available. We’ve tried various methods over the years for handling this issue, but overall none have been entirely successful. (Yes, if my kids were perfect, that would have helped, but alas, they are normal kids….) Torch allows me to set my time frame solution once, and forget it. It’s done. So if I want the kindles and game systems to stop being available for my teens at 10pm on school nights, that’s how it goes down even if I’m not there to enforce it. Boom. The end. Parent power!
And if we’re having a hard time getting people to focus on chores or some other task because of all the bright and shiny things vying for their attention on their devices? I can easily hit Pause for the whole house, and amazingly, chores can get done at lightning speed! It’s amazing how motivating the lack of internet access can be. lol
As a family that uses out laptops for school time, I wanted a solution that lets the computers be on, but the rest of the devices off. All I had to do was create a user for School and attach the laptops to that, and give it the parameters I wanted, and then each kid can have their personal devices set for other parameters. For instance, if I don’t want any gaming or kindle access til after school, and stopped before bedtime, that’s easy to set up too.
What it won’t do:
- While I think Torch is a great help for keeping my family safer, it isn’t a replacement for actual parental oversight and awareness.
- If someone turns their phone from wifi to 4G, Torch is no longer working for them. Internal parental controls on all devices are still important and you need to learn how to use them. For my kids, all devices other than computers have parental controls with browsers turned off, app store turned off, and limits on types of music, TV, and movies that can be watched. All that still needs to be there, because most of their devices are portable and aren’t always home, having their content filtered by Torch.
- If you, like us, have a combo router/modem, your Torch is going to connect to that, instead of replacing it. That means that you’ll have to change the password on your old wifi network, therefore forcing everybody to link up with Torch for their wifi instead. If they can still use the old wifi, they can bypass Torch, and that’s not what you want.
Specs and Details:
Torch covers up to 4000 square feet and offers 1 gig per second connection speed
It’s attractive! You won’t hate seeing this on your desk.
Torch will help you
- Pause the internet
- Set bedtimes
- Customize for each child
- Block bad content including adult content
- See reporting and insights to know what your kids are doing online
Torch is available for a one time purchase of the wifi router, and then a monthly fee of $9.99. The purpose of the monthly fee is to support the continuous need for indexing new sites as they come up, and keeping ahead of all the new ways that bad guys have to try to mess with your family through the web. Having seen my own longtime filtering service go out of business, I can see that it is essential for a business like this to have the proper financial setup to be able to keep doing their job of keeping our families safe. That being said, you are not locked into any time commitments for the monthly fee. If you ever choose to stop paying that, you’ll still have the working router and the ability to manually block websites through the Parental Dashboard.
Click here to visit the Torch website.
This review has been underwritten by the kind folks at Torch.
by Erica Johns | Feb 11, 2017 | Freebies, Great Stuff for Homeschool Moms
If grammar gets groans at your house, you’ll love Grammar Galaxy. Using story to engage children in every aspect of language arts, Grammar Galaxy isn’t your typical English curriculum. In fact, moms tell author and homeschool mom, Melanie Wilson, that their children beg to do the lessons every day!
This week I’m hosting a fabulous giveaway from Grammar Galaxy Books. One fortunate winner will receive:
Grammar Galaxy Nebula (Volume 1 for 1st – 6th graders) in the winner’s choice of print or digital
Grammar Galaxy Protostar (Volume 2 for 3rd – 6th graders) in the winner’s choice of print or digital
Winner can be from anywhere in the world! YES, even a non-US resident can win and choose the physical books! Woot!
The value of this giveaway is $120!
What Your Child Will Learn in the Galaxy
Short, comical stories teach concepts in a memorable way. Students discover the havoc that ensues when the evil Gremlin tampers with the English language. Fiction books are labeled as nonfiction and begin coming to life. Rhyming poems and books are ruined when Word Harmony matches words that don’t rhyme. Classic books are relegated to a long-term care library and can’t be checked out.
The royal English children invite students to become fellow grammar guardians in order to save the galaxy from crises like these. Students or teachers read one of the mysteries. Vocabulary words are defined in the text. Discussion questions follow each lesson to check for understanding. Students then complete a corresponding mission in the mission manual that reinforces the concepts. Missions require a minimum of written work and typically include a game or activity to engage students.
Grammar Galaxy: Nebula, the first in a series of language arts texts for first to sixth graders, teaches:
*reading skill development
*literary concepts
*vocabulary
*spelling
*grammar
*composition and
*public speaking
Grammar Galaxy: Protostar, the second in a series of language arts texts for first to sixth graders, teaches:
*literary concepts
*vocabulary
*spelling
*grammar
*dictionary skills
*composition and
*speaking
Grammar Galaxy is a great choice for homeschoolers, teachers, and parents:
*Who want their student to have excellent reading, writing, and speaking skills
*Who want their student to spend less time doing seatwork and more time reading and writing
*Who have a student who is a beginning or reluctant reader (1st/2nd grade and up) or who has mastered Nebula skills (3rd grade and up)
Free for all!
Everyone who enters will be able to be guest guardians with a free, complete lesson from Nebula and Protostar.
This giveaway is now closed. Thank you for entering!
