One of the most common questions that I am asked by those that are interested in homeschooling is, “How do I teach what I don’t know?”  Most of us feel fairly comfortable with most elementary school subjects, but we may have concerns about high school (Algebra anyone?) or elective subjects such as music and art.  There are several solutions to this problem, but the real answer lies in the fact that while homeschool moms do spend time teaching, their overall job is more of a facilitator. This is especially true as students get older.

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When my children were in the early elementary grades, I personally taught them almost everything I wanted them to learn. However, as they have gotten older there have been subjects that I did not know how to teach them. This did not mean we needed to give up homeschooling or that they would be unable to learn. This meant that I needed to find a curriculum we could use to learn together, teach them to learn and research independently, or out source the subject. Over the years we have done a combination of all of these to help them learn.

First, there are many wonderful curriculums that can help you teach areas that you do not know well. Even though I felt competent to teach elementary science and history, I found I learned a great deal right along with my children as we went through those subjects. Many parents worry about teaching phonics when their children are young, but there are many great programs that will walk you through the process including our favorite, All About Reading.

As an adult, I believe that we should always be learning.  I learn by reading, watching documentaries, doing research, and talking to other people. As my children got older, I started teaching them how to use those same techniques to learn about their areas of interest. When my oldest wanted to learn about gardening, he started doing research and talking to our experts over at the cooperative extension.  When my daughter wanted to learn about weaving, she read a book, watched several videos, and talked to a good friend that was a weaver.  This is a great way to encourage their interests without mom having to know everything.

Finally, sometimes you just need to outsource. This may mean an in person course with a local co-op, an online course, a tutor, or private lessons. For several years now we have been outsourcing both music and art. My children adore their music lessons from Practice Monkeys with three of them taking violin lessons and my daughter also taking piano. My son is even considering adding their new guitar lessons in the fall.  I cannot play an instruments would have been unable to teach these skills, but this has not stopped my children from enjoying the blessings of music lessons.  We also love our art lessons from Nana at You Are An Artist . These fun chalk pastel and acrylic lessons have allowed my children to learn about various techniques in a fun way all from the comfort of our home.

As my children have gotten older, we have begun outsourcing some of their core subjects via video instruction. Many of these are subjects that I was proficient in during my high school and college years, but much of that knowledge was forgotten over time.  For example, this year my son is going to take a video based geometry course from SchoolhouseTeachers.com as well as a video based Ancient History course.  He is also going to use Journey Homeschool Academy for biology.

No one knows everything there is to know about every topic, but that should not deter you from homeschooling. There are so many great options that will help you lead and facilitate your children’s education. If you are already homeschooling, what resources do you use with topics that you don’t know?

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is doing an amazing sale this month! Buy One year get One Year FREE! We use this for several of our courses and one price covers all the students in your home for as many of their over 400 courses and you would like to use.

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Morning time is one of my favorite parts of homeschooling, but if I am being transparent it has also been one of the most challenging to implement consistently.  When we first started homeschooling and I had a four year old and a six year old it was not very hard. They automatically did a lot together. We did not call it morning time, but we consistently did a few things together each morning. We would have Bible time, calendar time, and read a story.

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However, when you add a baby or a toddler to the mix, things can get a little more complicated. Over the last several years I’ve learned a few tricks that have helped me to make morning time happen more consistently. First, the toddler is going to be a toddler and we just have to expect some extra movement and noise. It is perfectly acceptable to continue to have morning time over the noise of an energetic toddler and not to expect everyone to be perfectly still and quiet.  Second, keep it simple and readily accessible to not being prepared is never an excuse. This allows you to utilize whatever time you have available. Even if you can only get in 10-15 minutes that day, you still have done something.

This year I am adding another challenge to our morning time, a high school student with a heavier course load. I know that he will need plenty of time to get his other work done, but we still plan to have him join us for at least part of our morning time each day. I want to continue to foster that atmosphere of family learning, but be mindful of his needs. Our plan for this year is a starting point, but I am going to be very open to adjusting it as needed.

My goal for our morning time this year is to cover Bible and one other subject each day.  We are going to put the other subjects on a loop schedule so that we just keep going through the list. This will allow us to cover a variety of topics without it feeling overwhelming and without trying to do too much on any one day. I am setting aside 20-30 minutes per day for our morning time.

For Bible study we will be using a variety of resources. First, our church is continuing our study through Core 52. We have enjoyed what we have covered so far.  In addition, we like to do monthly hymn studies where we learn more about a particular hymn and the story behind it.  My son also enjoys sharing different praise and worship songs with us during this time.  I am also currently looking over several Bible studies to find one that I think will work well for us this year.  We have in the past used the ones from Not Consumed, which we really enjoy because they do a great job of Biblical application and they have the same study broken down by age groups so they are easy for us to do altogether.

Other subjects that I want to cover during our morning time include geography, read-alouds, Shakespeare, and music appreciation.  This list may change a bit as we go through the year. I like to be able to use this time for any subjects or activities that I feel would be beneficial to all three of my school age children.

For geography we are going to continue to work through Let’s Go Geography Year 2.  It is a fun program that the children really enjoy and it is easy to break it down into short chunks that we can do during morning time.  For music appreciation, we will be using SQUILT Music. The ‘live’ courses are not actually in the morning so sometimes we will be able to catch them together in the afternoons, but we can use that morning time to watch the lessons that we do not do live. It is a bit longer than our normal morning time lesson but all three of my school age children enjoy it and the toddler will often sit and watch part of it because he enjoys the music.

I knew that I wanted to introduce more Shakespeare to my children, but honestly I had been a little nervous because it seemed so advanced. However, after listening to Pam Barnhill talk about it on her blog and in her podcast I became convinced that we could enjoy Shakespeare as a family. (If you want to have a more in depth morning time or want a resource that lays it all out for you, Pam has some great morning time resources that are seasonal or themed around different literature. She even has plans based on various times in history. ) I have purchases Shakespeare’s Stories for Young Readers as well as Shakespeare’ Theater to get us started. We have enjoyed theater adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays done by Bob Jones University. They typically will offer a free live stream each year. I’m not sure how that will play out this spring with the COVID restrictions, but they have several available in their archives.

To start off our read alouds this year, I am finishing Family Under the Bridge. Next up is Tuesday in the Castle, which we are reading as a family book club with our Read Aloud Revival Membership.  I also have One Blood for Kids, Who Was Mr. Rogers, and Who Were the Tuskegee Airmen. I will add to this list as we go through the year and would love to hear your ideas for great books to read aloud.

I am excited about the curriculum and books that we are going to start off the year with and would love to hear what you are using. Please share in the comments and feel free to ask questions as well.

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is doing an amazing sale this month! Buy One year get One Year FREE! We use this for several of our courses and one price covers all the students in your home for as many of their over 400 courses and you would like to use.

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!