Today we are joined on the podcast by Heather Woodie of Blog She Wrote , mom of four young adults. Heather has been practicing Morning Time in her family for a number of years, and has seen a shift in the practice as she has graduated two kids and is now left home with two more teens to go. In this episode of the podcast we chat about: how Heather's Morning Time changed has changed over the years. why is Morning Time still a valuable practice in the teen years. what kind of adjustments and chall...
Jan 15, 2019•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to the NEW Homeschool Solutions Show. In this episode of the podcast I chat about the changes to the show. Instead of just being an audio blog, the show will now alternate between audio blog and interview formats. I am super-excited about the changes and hope you are too. You can find the webpage for the podcast at pambarnhill.com/solutions.
Jan 08, 2019•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast I wrote last week about how your quiet time could be sabotaging your homeschool morning. This is so true for moms in particular seasons of life — especially when you are still waking multiple times each night or you have small children still. But what about the mom whose kids are pretty much school age. Why might moms of older kids still be struggling with getting mornings off to a good start? I have a few theories that might explain what is standing in your way. Listen or read more at https://p...
Dec 28, 2018•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast It was dark and rainy outside. I slowly peeled back the covers and eased away from the warm little body bedside me and into the cold. If I woke him, all bets were off. I fumbled around in the dark for my glasses and slippers as I eased quietly from the room to make a cup of coffee. I was lucky. I had groggily slapped the alarm right as it began to beep and my early-morning visitor snoozed on unaware today. Listen or read more at https://pambarnhill.com/how-your-morning-quiet-time-is-sabotaging-y...
Dec 21, 2018•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast I saw a photo the other day of a worn out, exhausted mother collapsed onto a chair, hand to forehead. The caption under the picture read “I put my symptoms into Web MD and it turns out I just have kids.” I couldn’t help but giggle. I knew exactly how she felt. Listen or read the rest here: https://rinellafamilyoutdoors.com/2017/07/17/symptoms-of-a-homeschool-mom/
Dec 07, 2018•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Everyone wants a perfect holiday . The candlelit dinner with the gorgeous turkey and delicious pumpkin pie dessert; the immaculately wrapped presents with bows that were made by a bowdabra ; the family memories of adorably dressed children with matching holiday outfits; they are all part of the Norman Rockwell painting version of Christmas you aspire to create each year. Christmas is the holiday of holidays. Between the presents, the food, the crazy relatives – it can be super stressful to try t...
Dec 07, 2018•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast I am often asked a lot of things when out and about with my family. Are all those kids yours? Do you know what causes that? You Homeschool, Aren’t you tired all the time? Not only are they all mine and yes we are very aware of how it happens, we like having a big family and I love being at home and educating them. Choosing to homeschool for my husband and I, was one of the easiest decisions we have made for our children. Both of our parents started out with similar foundations and choose homesch...
Nov 30, 2018•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Have you looked into the tired eyes of a public school teacher lately? Have you crossed paths with an overwhelmed mom scrambling to cook dinner, do laundry, and help the kids with homework an hour before bedtime? This homeschool life is a gift to so many of us, yet we often take for granted the privilege of homeschooling. If you haven’t recently spent time outside your homeschool walls, it’s possible that you’ve been missing one of the greatest gifts of the homeschool lifestyle. Sure, we’re all ...
Nov 23, 2018•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast I’m not going to lie. Having multiple people in the room all at once is often the hardest part of homeschooling. Harder than choosing curriculum. Harder than keeping up with the laundry. Harder than teaching math. (I know, right?) Not only are you dealing with personalities and relationships but also with multiple levels and multiple subjects. And it never fails that everyone seems to need you all the time and all at once. Listen or read more at https://pambarnhill.com/juggling-multiple-kids/...
Nov 16, 2018•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast I asked a question in my It’s Not that Hard to Homeschool K-8 Facebook group recently: “Do you feel like a success as a homeschool mom? Why or why not?” As you can imagine, there was a wide range of answers — but more “no’s” than I expected. But as I think about it, it makes sense to me that we don’t feel confident that we’re doing a good job. I think we’ve got an idea stuck in our heads about what makes a “successful” homeschool — and it’s the WRONG idea. Listen or read more at https://www.anni...
Nov 09, 2018•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast John and I have a combined 30 years of homeschooling experience, and more like 40+ years if you count each of our children’s education separately! Some of that is our own experience as homeschooled students, and some comes from our perspective as homeschooling parents. We are a team, but we definitely have our own perspectives on homeschooling, both the big picture and the day to day reality. What if you could ask us a series of questions about homeschooling to see the similarities and differenc...
Nov 02, 2018•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you’ve got struggling or reluctant readers , this one is for you. I hope this post inspires you take a break from your everyday reading instruction and read the world around you. Don’t worry! Learning will move forward. You just have to think outside the book . Teaching a child to read is an amazing experience. I’ve been lucky enough to work with over 100 children learning to read in my career teaching first and second grade. Each child was different, and each one prepared me to teach my own ...
Oct 26, 2018•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is part four in my series on memory work. Find the other parts here: Help Your Kids Memorize Anything Recite, Recite, Recite Sing Me A Song Up to this point we have largely focused on the auditory elements of memory work. This is mainly because learning memory work is largely an auditory skill. This is not to say, though, that there are not some helps to offer kids who have a visual learning preference . There are a few things you can do to add visuals to the memory work to help those kids ...
Oct 19, 2018•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast “Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.” “I might as well be talking to a brick wall!” “In one ear and out the other.” Clearly, kids who don’t listen is a thing. We have tons of cultural idioms about not listening, and they’re often used to describe children. Some of this probably comes from a combination of immaturity and the fact that they are still developing habits like attention. But in my own family, I notice it’s something I do that actuall...
Oct 12, 2018•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast I do not think it necessary to expound on why we want to avoid overwhelm in our homeschools. Overwhelm equals stress, chaos, and uncertainty, none of which complement a healthy lifestyle. Overwhelm can be a rather quiet beast, creeping in gradually until one day you just CAN’T. I find keeping overwhelm at bay starts with intention. We first need to believe it is important and recognize that it will take life-long effort. In our homeschools, our children are constantly growing and changing, and s...
Oct 05, 2018•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast For some kids all it takes is to hear something set to song just a few times, and it becomes embedded in their memory. Olivia is a kid like that. I think she can learn just about anything if we set it to a tune. So using songs for memory work is something we do all the time. Many times there are already songs written for a topic we want to memorize. We use songs from Classical Conversations even though we are not in a community. The skip counting songs, timeline song, and Latin chants are all av...
Sep 28, 2018•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is sibling conflict a problem in your home? Maybe you think that question is just a joke. Maybe you think it's a nice way to begin a post by making everyone feel normal and right at home because DUH! of course sibling conflict is a problem. In everyone's home. Always. But it may not be for the reason you're thinking. Listen or read more at https://hswotrainingwheels.com/sibling-conflict-problem/
Sep 21, 2018•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast It must be kind of hard to be J.K. Rowling. I had that thought the other night as I tucked into the first in her crime series , which she wrote under a pseudonym. I think if I were her I would do everything under a pseudonym.* I’d grocery shop under a pen name. Because she has already kind of done The Most Amazing Thing … Can you imagine that pressure? It must be crushing sometimes. Listen or read more at http://www.karasanderson.com/youre-not-homeschooling-for-likes/...
Sep 14, 2018•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Be proactive, not reactive. You know you are going to have good days and bad days. We’ve been talking the past couple of weeks about how we might be the ones sabotaging our homeschools. We also discussed the importance of having our attitudes ordered rightly because someone might be watching. But what does this look like in the day to day of our home? We have meals to cook, errands, appointments, and a house to clean. And then there are the unexpected problems that come up in our week. Listen or...
Sep 07, 2018•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast You’ve met her. Maybe you’ve been her. Maybe you are her. Some homeschool moms might scare you. Some homeschool moms scare their children. But I think we’ve all experienced another kind of scary homeschool mom: the one who scares herself. Are you scary? Who do you scare? Is it always wrong to be scary? If our fears are pointing us toward our weaknesses, and we then reinforce those areas, we can become scary in all the right ways: Scary not to our children or to ourselves, but to the world, the f...
Aug 31, 2018•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is the second post in the series: Help Your Kids Memorize Anything. You can see part one here . No doubt, the heart of any memory method is recitation. By saying the words over and over again, the language patterns, information and the very essence of words become ingrained into our being. Often when we read, especially as better readers, we skip over words or read by phrase instead of word for word. It is this reason that simply reading something to memorize it is not enough. The better wa...
Aug 24, 2018•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Guilt is a universal feeling though it rears its ugly head in different ways, using different strategies for each person. We must all learn to tackle this beast in our own way and find the strategies that work for us. I have been working hard to be reasonable, rational, and really honest with myself as I attack the ridiculous guilt that creeps up on me. Yes. Ridiculous. Some guilt is just plain ridiculous. Listen or read more at http://www.notbefore7.com/2017/06/21/mom-guilt-over-it/...
Aug 17, 2018•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s no good looking all calm and serene in the face of criticism if you then go home and collapse into a snivelling heap, all confidence destroyed, convinced you’re setting your children up for a lifetime of failure. Here’s how to build your homeschooling confidence so criticism enters one ear and sails straight out the other, never thought of again. Except for a giggle with your homeschooling friends about the ridiculous things people say to you, of course. Listen or read more at https://fearl...
Aug 08, 2018•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Memory work is a big part of what we do around here. And while for some people, memory work would suggest feelings of drudgery and drill and kill, the reality couldn’t be farther from that. We love our memory work and have fun with it. The kids get great satisfaction in learning a new poem or a series of math facts. These “hooks” become saved in their brain to be excitedly called forth during the liturgy at church, at a science museum or demonstration, or during story time at the library. We mem...
Aug 03, 2018•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast I’ve found myself listening to opinions about home education, advocating it, and answering homeschool questions in some of the most unexpected places and times since we began homeschooling in 2009. From family and friends to acquaintances to complete strangers, people have plenty of concerns and questions about homeschooling. Some of those questions come so frequently that it feels like deja vu and some come so frequently that I’ve developed canned answers. Shameful, I know! Here are my 5 most-a...
Jul 27, 2018•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Struggling to squeeze all of your children’s math lessons into your homeschool day? Here’s 6 ways to streamline your math teaching so that you can fit multiple grade levels into your schedule! I recently received an email from Tiffany, who was debating whether to continue using Singapore Math. Along with some other issues, she wrote: “I’m finding it difficult to fit 3 separate Singapore math lessons in each day.” Whether you use Singapore Math or not, and whether you have two, three, or five kid...
Jul 20, 2018•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Laura wanted to do this homeschool thing just right. She had struggled in the past, but this year was going to be different. Her homeschool planning was going to be perfect. So she started by buying a fresh, new homeschool planner . You know the kind. It had months of lesson plan grids that started in August and went all the way through the following summer. Laura began the year feeling compelled to write things in every box. Successful homeschoolers have a plan, and she wanted to be a successfu...
Jul 13, 2018•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast The oldest just graduated from high school. For the last year, while preparing for him to leave the nest and live on his own, my husband and I began to realize we may have failed him when it came to essential life skills he needed to survive. We spent 17 years educating him, providing for him, making sure he was well-rounded and knew how to play most sports. But, we failed him on some of the simplest of tasks that we took for granted. Don’t fail your kids like we almost failed our son! Here are ...
Jul 06, 2018•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast History has been one of my favorite subjects since childhood. Some of my best memories involve family read-alouds, historic road trips, and abundant field trips. One summer our vacation involved traveling for 2 weeks to various Civil War battlefields, stopping at every single historic marker along the way. When we got to one museum it had already closed for the night, so my mom knocked on the door until the caretaker came. Mom being Mom, she got us in for an after-hours tour. Listen or read more...
Jun 29, 2018•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast When Matt and I were first married, one of our ongoing fights was about counter space. Matt took a practical approach. Anything you use on a regular basis should stay on the counter top. In the bathroom, the toothpaste, deodorant, and shaving cream should be stored on the counter. In the kitchen, the cutting board and toaster stay up top all the time. In my view, spaces should be clear and free of clutter, save the cute color-coordinated themed containers we registered for and received as weddin...
Jun 22, 2018•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
