Відео

Can you share what (code) justifies deducting your homeschool expenses from your tax filing? Our accountant says curricula and school supplies are not tax deductible. He only allowed us to deduct the tuition for classes like art camp and environmental camp which counted as "day care."

I use Singapore Math as well. We are only in Kindergarten, so my question may not be relevant for the older grades. With kindergarten there is the lesson with games and such as well as workbook and textbook. Do you split your math lessons into two days with your girls? Or do you just use the workbook and textbook? Do you suggest teacher’s guide or home educator’s guide? Do you use either?

Thank you for doing more lunch videos. Always nice to get different ideas for my youngest with Celiac. :-)

Thanks for sharing! Are you planning to continue with core knowledge for your 7/8 year old for the coming years? Or are you going to do Lightning Lit, like your older one is doing?

You are so kind for making this video! ❤ I feel the same way!

I'm breaking my brain trying to figure out the science Chemistry one. Its been really confusing

Very helpful to see how you deliver the lessons and manage multiple students. Thank you. For your 11 year old, can you please tell how much time it takes her to do the math lesson and workbook?

I budget very similarly to you, it is a line item in our budget. Our oldest is only in first grade, but we are trying to keep costs low with core knowledge and borrowing all our readers from the library with library loans and digital books on their app. This has been so helpful on a single income.

Decolonized and Secular is what I like . A lof the "Secular" curriculums are not Decolonized either . Very much aligning with the "Western Supremacist " narrative , except rhey are either suble about it or are NOT aware of it and when made aware of it , wont collaborate with the concerned people to educate themselves . This attitude is pretty problematic . And the definition of "Secular" is different is different countries . In Non-Western countries , it can mean being Inclusive of ALL people of ALL people of faith and non faith . I prefer Secular resources . I do believe but like you I like drawing the line there .And ysing Secular Curriculums for education. And though I think SEA is militant ( I am in the group and I check there for Secular resources but a different group for Decolonized resources ) I agree with them , the podcast you linked , that Evolution and Big Bang are NOT Anti Religious . Whoever came up with it that is it against religion 🙄. Oh well , thats my perspective . Cutiosity Chronicle and Mint and Bloom and Blossom and Root are very good resources. They also collaborate with people from different groups who call rhem out for their unintended but inherent biases that is there within anyone , and works on it sincerely . And I dont mind sponsored content or people making money of adverts on their YT channel or generally making money through UA-cam. As long as they are Ethical and Authentic about it . That is they use the curriculums and products they review and their review reflects their honest opinions and emotions . And I as a viewer , don't have to buy a curriculum just because someone endorses it . We SHOULD do our own research for everything , curriculums, products , publishers and authors and decide what to buy . But I understand what you mean about Vulnerable people .And that is an Important concern. And I agree 💯 about Independent learning and scaffolding Independence and different things ( love the way you do it ) . And , have you watched John Oliver's episode on Homeschooling ? It was really good .

Tamari is a gluten/wheat free soy sauce that is actually made from SOY and not wheat. Another good option for you.

Hi did you ever tried millets? It's gluten free and has many more nutrients.

I’m so glad you shared the gluten free playdoh. I will definitely be on the look out for it on my next Walmart trip.

Thank you for sharing! I have been wanting to try that sushi but was worried it wouldn't be good. I'll be trying it now.

I never know what’s safe when it says gluten free *may contain wheat. I did buy the sweet potato’s from Aldi that are shaped like that for my little but he’s not the celiac baby in the house so I knew he’d be safe either way.

I am the one that has the celiac. The husband and children are lactose sensitive. The kicker is that I have MCAS too and pesticides and MSG get me VIOLENTLY ill, so organic has to happen on top of all the rest. It's a struggle! We never eat out or order in.😢 I dislike Owyn sooooo much though. Home made caramel is superior. Have you made it?

I don’t understand why homeschoolers need to cram info in. If it doesn’t get done by a certain time that’s fine we just take longer to do the work.

When you say you do the core knowledge curriculum. Do you download the pdf and then read through with your children?

Hi there, do you link your books of where to purchase ect?

Yes! Please make a video on how you use the Core Knowledge materials without printing! 😊

I love your honesty and intentionality in your videos. So helpful and interesting!

Do you have your two older children write down vocab words or track time periods on a history timeline? We are starting CKHist3 next week and I am pondering how to keep all the papers organized. My daughter needs practice with spelling so I am adding in copy work to most subjects. I am thinking of having her copy words and definitions from the history chapters.

My son who is dyslexic really struggled with reversals and we honed in on correcting his letter formation with magic “c” and line down. I can see your daughter is working backwards and line up. I think teaching the correct formation might be super helpful. My son rarely makes a reversal now.

Thank you for sharing your homeschool day. Love how organized you are so your day flows smoothly. You’ve encouraged me to be organized. It’s starting to pay off !

Love it. You could easily tie The Writing Revolution sentence level into that sentence consular exercise at the end of CK.

Love how stress free you handle your homeschool, this year we are going to have time scheduled for it instead of when we get to it.

Love the planet box! Slowly getting rid of all plastic. Easy to clean? GF house here, too.

What books do you recommend that you've read on how the brain learns?

Hey Michelle, what brand is that investment book? Thanks!

Theories aren't fact...

You are a baby homeschooler. You will be much better served minding your homeschool than minding others'. It's not that everything you see is wrong, but you don't yet have the perspective that you need to accurately criticize. It's rather like hearing from your 7 year old about marital issues.

Last year my ex did The Good and the Beautiful for both math and reading/writing because I was too busy with our company AND she preferred programs that are self - ran (where the kid can do almost all by themselves)...BUT this year I have a lot of free time, and I prefer secular, and we both did a lot of research, and we really liked Michael Clay Thompson & WriteShop (though more parent involved, which is why we got into homeschooling in the first place) and Beast Academy with Learn Math Fast, along with other things for science, history, etc...really excited to right the ship with our 5th and 1st grader!

Agree with a lot of these red flags. As a new homeschooler, it was overwhelming with the constant changes in curriculum and inconsistencies. This made it difficult for me to weed through options when trying to use UA-cam as guidance. I also agree with your ideas on independence. You can’t just expect a child (at any age) to just grasp all things on their own.

Do you have any videos on best books to read for ADHD kiddos?

I really look forward to your videos!!

Coming back to comment from a previous video of yours on TGATB they redid their curriculum and the diversity is on point. We just started this year with their math and ELA and I was weary as a black mom but was blown away. Their book series badger hills features a beautiful little black girl as the main character and the illustrations in their workbooks are so diverse. I definitely think they got it right this time after listening to customers. For science though we use curiosity chronicles as a stand alone for secular teaching.

My homeschool red flag is unschooling 🙈 I know it's super popular, but I just dont agree with the philosophy. My oldest is 2e with ADHD and unschooling is pushed as the perfect solution. I'm so tired of hearing: make everything interesting, let them choose what to do and not to do, never force them to learn anything they find boring, they will learn it in their own time, who needs grammar anyway? etc. Learning to do things we find boring and challenging is an important skill to build! I honestly think at best it is a disservice to the child, and at worst it is educational neglect.

I agree with the free curriculum because it irks me that they do a video about how great it is and encouraging people to use it and you never see it again. They go back to their usual and it’s clear it was just reviewed for payment. Their “honest review” is for something they never intended to use. I unsubscribe as soon as I see that. And even worse, when they only have younger kids and review or push curriculum for middle or high school that is years from them using. That just raises a huge red flag

Similar to your red flag 3, I hate when a curriculum coddles me. Like when they feel to need to remind me 10 times to go at my own pace, pick and choose what I want to do, that I don't have to do everything or follow everything exactly as written. I already know I have free will, thanks! 😭 Worst of all when they tell me to feel free to skip things or go in any order i want... it just makes it seem like the creator doesn't think what they've included is important and that the curriculum is just randomly thrown together instead of logically ordered.

It almost seems like some curriculum have fandoms. Within the special needs community I have noticed a few things but the biggest is permissive parenting passed off as being pro-autistic child. Yes, some kids need a break, some kids need time to deschool. Some kids have PDA. Yet the sheer number of parents who say their kids spend most of their day on devices. I'm autistic and I'm raising autistic kids and I swear we need boundaries and expectations as much as other kids. These kids believe they can't do something but they've never been directly taught the thing. Some of these kids have been playing on their iPads since lockdown started according to their parents posts but they swear they watch lots of educational UA-cam. Obvs we have to meet kids were they are and provide the amount of supports they need but if we don't bother we're failing them.

I always love your takes, thanks for sharing!

Thank for sharing this❤

I’d love to know your opinion on Moving Beyond the Page? It kind of reminds me of core knowledge being that it’s done in units. We are in our 3rd week using it and it’s been such a great fit for my boys. I’m just curious on your thoughts. Thank you!

To be honest, this was so nice to watch. For us, independence is not something we do at all and I do get discouraged when I see first graders being so independent. I was thinking of starting to include it middle school so high school could teach her own with just my assistance.

I am a second generation homeschooler and just recently found your channel. I have to say that I particularly enjoy your videos on the importance of making sure your children are receiving a quality education in homeschool. Speaking for myself, my goal is to make sure that my education of my children doesn’t close doors for them. For example, I was interested in becoming a physical therapist when I “graduated” homeschool, but quickly realized through attempting entrance exams into the colleges in my area that my knowledge of maths and science was so lacking that I would spend a large chunk of time and money just trying to get a foot in the door. I have spent my own money as an adult on remedial classes both to actually know what an average high schooler would take for granted and to be able to teach my own children better than I was taught. But if I find myself unable to teach these crucial subjects to them, I will 100% put them in a classroom where someone can, because I don’t want to bring them to adulthood lacking the skills they need for the life they want to pursue. When I think back through it, I believe my lack of knowledge in those subjects was attributable to 2 of the things you have mentioned; both switching up curriculum multiple times through my high school years ( I feel confident that I ended up with gaps in math that made me feel like I was “bad” at it, but was only because there were steps I missed being taught), and being expected to be completely independent in my high school education. I did not receive actual instruction in math or science, but was handed a book or dvd and was expected to receive everything from that. All of this say, I think these things you mentioned are crucial in homeschooling, and it is concerning when they are lacking.

In your experience is Lightning Literature secular? We use it and love it but it can’t be mentioned on SEA because “it’s not fully secular”. I see some Christian literature courses in the high school years, but haven’t found anything religious in the 2-5 books.

Good points in your red flags! I definitely agree with them.

I agree with you on trendy curriculum… I will say I purchased the Guest Hollow American history for kindergarten through third grade I believe, and they utilize core knowledge in their schedule. I feel they’ve put a lot of good research into what they do but they try to make it really fun and hands-on.

The prep is crazy! And no, homeschooling is not easy, that’s for sure. But I love it and typically do too much bc I geek out on it. This year we tried year round schooling and I can’t do it again bc I had no window to prep and read the materials for the next school year.

Great video, thank you for this. I have never finished before lunch either!

This is such a refeshing perspective of homeschooling. Thank you for your vulnerability in sharing such a logical perspective. Your comment section speaks for itself and is proof of the issues you discussed about homeschooling with a "Christian" label.