Layers of Learning Podcast

The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

Planning is one of the biggest struggles of homeschooling. So many of us feel like if we plan and then don’t achieve everything, we feel like failures! Listen in as we walk you through how to plan flexibly so you can see your successes and use planning for your benefit. Do you overplan? Do you have flexibility built in? Planning is so important for success, but there are a lot of pitfalls you don’t want to fall into. In this episode of the podcast, we’re discussing how you can make planning work for you and use it to truly make your homeschool more effective and in line with your goals and your kids’ overall progress. Put your homeschool on cruise control as you let effective and flexible planning work for you!

• Using planning to help you see the big picture of your kids’ progress and goals

The post Episode 75: Flexible Planning appeared first on Layers of Learning.

The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

In this episode, Michelle and Karen talk about fun ways to introduce units and get your kids engaged and interested in what you’re learning about. None of this is necessary; it’s the fun, extra fluff of homeschool that can be fun when you want to get your kids excited about learning. We’re sharing some simple ideas for games and activities that you can use at the beginning of a unit to introduce the topics and get kids engaged and excited for what you’ll be learning about that month. Each month, you can choose just one of the new topics you’ll be learning about and play a game or challenge your kids in some way to get them ready to learn. Introducing units doesn’t need to be complicated or overplanned.

• Clearing out the last unit and getting your school area prepared for your new unit

The post Episode 74: Introducing Units appeared first on Layers of Learning.

The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

In this episode, Michelle and Karen get into the political side of homeschooling. We’re discussing this article: “A Warning on Homeschooling” that was published in the Harvard Gazette. Elizabeth Bartholett and others have made many of these same claims against homeschooling numerous times, saying there is a dark side to it that needs to be remedied and regulated. This discussion aims to address some of the claims. Issues like these are often very divisive and are approached with polarizing and absolute arguments. The truth is that the world of homeschooling is not perfect but the world of public school certainly isn’t either. We have never believed every child should be homeschooled, but we also reject that claim that homeschooling is inherently dangerous and wrong for all children. We believe in parental rights. We believe in children. We support all people who work to educate kids and understand the value of providing kids with a solid foundation of education and a love of learning.

• Abuse in the homeschooling world

The post Episode 73: Is Homeschooling Dangerous? appeared first on Layers of Learning.

The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

Layers of Learning is an oddly eclectic blend of lots of different homeschooling styles—Classical, Charlotte Mason, unit studies, Montessori, unschooling—it has a bit of each. It begins with the 4-year cycle organization that is the framework of the Classical style. It is intentionally organized and repetitive. Layers of Learning also borrows from more relaxed Charlotte Mason style, including lots of living books and hands-on experiences. The units of Layers of Learning loosely resemble unit studies because of the interrelated topics, additional layers, and rabbit trails. We borrow from Maria Montessori’s philosophy by encouraging you to create a learning environment in your homeschool. If your school day is truly fun and rewarding, your kids will be able to independently learn far beyond your normal school hours and your checklist of to-dos. The curriculum is also a great scaffolding for unschoolers and can become a plan for those times when you need ideas and plans.

• What the Layers of Learning program borrows from each style

The post Episode 72: A Magical Blend of Homeschooling Styles appeared first on Layers of Learning.

The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

In this podcast episode, Karen and Michelle talk about teaching in the middle grades. Middle school is that in-between period where kids aren’t quite learning at a high school level but are beyond the simple, elementary school years. Listen in as we discuss what it looks like to homeschool in the in-between years and also some tips for helping kids prepare for high school. Beyond your kids using the middle grades to prepare for higher learning, you’ll also be preparing yourself, as the mentor, for higher learning. The middle grades are actually are favorite age to teach because most kids still have the enthusiasm for learning and fu projects, but also the maturity to be able to handle deep conversations and some independent work.

• Benefits of teaching in the middle grades

The post Episode 71: Middle Grades in Homeschool appeared first on Layers of Learning.

The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

In this podcast episode, we are doing an off-the-cuff planning session and showing you what it looks like when we open a unit and begin planning out what we will learn and do with our families during the unit. Listen in to see our process and our train of thought as we delve into a few units we will learn as a family. Michelle and Karen plan and do things very differently, so you can see a few ways of doing things, and hopefully get some inspiration for your own planning process.

We’ve been homeschooling for a long time, and the truth is, our planning process changes and grows with our families and our homeschools, but we hope that this little peek helps you with your homeschool planning.

• Michelle is planning a science unit about rocks. Hear what she is choosing to do, what her process is, and watch her method unfold.

The post Episode 70: Listen As We Plan a Unit appeared first on Layers of Learning.

The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

There are two types of knowledge you are teaching your kids in your homeschool – skills and content. A lot of homeschool parents worry about covering everything; they stress over missing something in their kids’ educations. Most often, what they are worrying about is content. They don’t want to miss teaching the Korean War and they worry that if they don’t learn every fact about the Periodic Table of Elements, their kids will be stunted. They are afraid of failing as a homeschool parent if they miss something. The key though, is understanding that if you teach your kids the skills, they can learn ANY content. You don’t have to teach everything!

During this podcast, we’ll walk you through the skills you can teach your kids that will help them to become lifelong learners. Mathematics, writing, reading, spelling, thinking, analyzing, communicating, creativity, and much, much more are all learning skills. You can master them by applying the skills to whatever content you’re learning about.

• As you learn content, you can build your skills. The content provides the interest, but the skills are built as you learn about it. You might be learning chronological order as you build a timeline in your Book of Years or analyzing analogies as you write an animal report.

The post Episode 69: Skills Versus Content appeared first on Layers of Learning.

The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

Every Layers of Learning unit begins with a sidebar that includes a Unit Overview. This box is a bit bolder than the other sidebars and includes key concepts from the unit, a list of vocabulary words, and also a list of important people, places. scientific laws, artwork, or other important information the unit will cover. The whole overview is just there to help you get your bearings and quickly see the important things that will be included in each unit.

During this podcast, we’ll walk you through examples of what is included in each Unit Overview and offer tips for how you can use it as you work through the Layers of Learning units.

• You can use the Unit Overview to help you select the parts of the unit you want to focus on.

The post Episode 68: Unit Overviews appeared first on Layers of Learning.

The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

For emergent writers, placing a blank sheet of paper in front of them and asking them to write can be absolutely overwhelming. We forget just how many processes go into writing even a single word or sentence. As homeschool parents, too often we fail to break down the process. We think kids should just be able to write and don’t take the steps to teach them. Things that are automatic for us aren’t so simple for emergent writers.

During this podcast, we’ll give tips for breaking down the writing process and help you know how to actually teach writing instead of just expecting it. This process will help your kids to learn that writing is fun and creative instead of just getting overwhelmed and discouraged to the point that they begin hating it.

• The Levels of Writing—modeled writing, shared writing, interactive writing, guided writing, and independent writing

The post Episode 67: Sharing the Pen appeared first on Layers of Learning.

The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

We been homeschooling for several decades and the truth is, we don’t even know who we are without the role we’ve had as homeschool moms. It’s changed us in so many ways that it’s hard to articulate. Our day-to-day lives, our homes, our families…they have all been changed by homeschooling in countless ways. Along the way, we’ve learned a lot. In this episode, we talked about the lessons we’ve learned as homeschool moms.

We chat about how our perceptions of education have changed over the years and the misconceptions we had to let go of to finally feel successful. You’ll hear what we’ve learned about ourselves, the things we wish we knew when we were young homeschool moms, and the things we’ve internalized.

• Education can be relaxed and casual.

The post Episode 66: Lessons We’ve Learned As Homeschool Moms appeared first on Layers of Learning.