This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: How We Homeschool High School with Laura Varey.

Most of our listeners at the Homeschool Highschool Podcast know that we are all about community! However, for those of you who are to the 7SistersHomeschool community, there are six of us 7Sisters (Vicki, Sabrina, Kim, Marilyn, Sarah, and Allison). So, who’s the 7th Sister?

You are! We’re all in this homeschool process together!

One of our favorite podcast topics is learning how our various 7th Sisters homeschool. In this episode, we were SO excited to talk about how our 7th Sister, Laura Varey, and her family homeschool.

Laura and her family were originally from the United Kingdom. (Check out this Homeschool Highschool Podcast interview about homeschooling in the UK and the US with our friend Kat Patrick.)

Her eldest children started school in the UK, in the public school system. They did one or two years there. Then they moved to the US, nine years ago. When they settled in Washington state, they started off in public school.

After a couple of years, they were looking for more academic challenge. They moved to a private school that had some advanced classes. It was a Christian school (which they had never come across in the UK). They enjoyed the benefits of education through a Christian worldview.

That went great for a few years, but they hit some bumps in the road there, so they started praying about what to do. Their eldest was in sixth grade, which was still part of the elementary school. Laura and her husband prayed and both said to each other, “What about homeschooling?”

It felt like God had put it on both their hearts.

Laura notes that homeschooling has been more unusual in the UK than in the US. Because they were so unfamiliar with homeschooling, Laura and her husband began to investigate it. They talked to some friends who homeschool. They found that some of their friends homeschooled at home, some at home and in co-ops, and others used different sorts of systems.

They were very impressed that there were so many good homeschooling tools available. After a while, they agreed to go for it! They have now been homeschooling for three years and have two high schoolers and one in fifth grade.

Laura’s homeschoolers could take classes there two days a week. She found that the co-op covered “quite a lot of subjects and then they directed a lot of their learning at home”.

The co-op was a good stepping stone for Laura’s family. It gave them a homeschool community (including homeschooling friends for mom). Homeschooling with the help of a co-op built her confidence because the subjects they were teaching were Laura’s my weakest subjects. She had time to develop skills and resources for teaching things she did not know.

Laura says, “First of all, just understanding high school was a huge learning curve for me, especially because my husband and I were schooled in a different country!”

So, not only was homeschooling different, but the education systems were different. Laura felt the weight of responsibility of getting high school right. After all, in high school, everything counts. The pressure was on her to get it right!

So, Laura read as much as she could from different sources. Also, she tried to learn as much as she could from her homeschooling friends. She also avails herself of the support she finds in digital support groups like 7SistersHomeschool Facebook Group. (She has found that homeschoolers are very generous with sharing their knowledge, experience, and even resources!)

Over the last several years, Laura has found that she has been enjoying the high school years the most. She and her husband have noticed that, in some ways, homeschooling high school can be easier because their teens are now fairly independent.

Laura and her kids have built some strong friendships through homeschooling. These friendships have been a real blessing. She and the other moms can help each other out when needed. And when she’s having one of those crazy weeks where she feels like pulling her hair out (because we ALL do, sometimes!), her friends encourage her.

Laura has learned to provide educational experiences that build her homeschoolers’ strengths.

Her daughter is a fast reader. She prefers to read books over watching video curriculum. However, at her daughter’s request, Laura learned to scale back if she noticed that her daughter was stressed with the amount of reading. Laura and her teens have learned to communicate well about the types of learning materials and expectations for coursework. Teens need a voice in their education.

Laura works with her high schoolers on planning and organization for their academics and non-academic parts of life. For instance, she and her teens map out the week: commitments, appointments, or whatever.

Her other high schooler was born diligent and perfectionistic. Laura learned that with some students, she could say, “Do your best.” For her second teen, she has noticed that it’s never good enough. So, Laura has learned to say:

Here are some things that Laura and her family have learned in their time homeschooling:

Join Vicki and Laura Varey for encouragement for homeschooling!BTW

The post How We Homeschool High School with Laura Varey appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Career and College Major Guidance with Tonda Bean.

Choosing a career and a college major can be a huge stressor for homeschool high schoolers. That’s why we were so excited to talk to a subject matter expert in that field, Tonda Bean from Wisdom in Minutes.

When Tonda was in high school, she had good grades, so she thought, “I will just go off to college and everything will be fine.” As she got closer to graduation, she realized that she would need to choose a college major.

Unfortunately, she had no idea what to choose! So she talked to her father, who was an engineer. He thought it would be great for her to be an engineer. However, he was wise. He knew she needed to find her own path, so he asked her, “Well, what do you like?”

Tonda liked chemistry, so he suggested chemical engineering. That made sense to her, too, so she chose chemical engineering as her college major.

Unfortunately, when she got to college and started studying chemical engineering, she did not enjoy the work. However, she felt like she needed to stick with it.

Then there was an optional weekend trip to a chemical plant. Tonda thought, “Let me go and see my future. This will inspire me to keep going.”

And when she got to the chemical plant, she was not impressed. She said to herself, “Ooh, no. No. Oh, not this, no!”

After she got back to college, she changed majors to the school of business.

Tonda enjoyed her studies as a business major. She also liked the possibilities for a career better.

It was a good choice, but she did lose time because she had to start over on her major courses. She also lost a full-ride scholarship. Tonda ended up needing to take classes at three universities to stay on track for graduation. She did graduate and enjoyed her career in business.

Tonda got married and had children. When they were in high school, she realized that they were on that same I-don’t-know-I’ll-just-be-a -good-student kind of path. So, she said to herself, “Let’s not do that again!”

So she started working on a system to help them envision their own future. For instance, she explored with her teens to explore their interests and ask questions like:

“What do you like, what do you not like?”

During that time, Tonda also became a scout leader. When the scouts would ask her for recommendation letters for college or other opportunities, she found that they often did not have a resume that they could give her. Resumes are helpful for recommendation writers because they give recommenders more understanding of the teen and their experiences.

She would tell the teens, “If you don’t have a resume, you’re not ready for people to like you! As you grow up, if people like you, they ask for a resume!”

By the time Tonda’s teens applied for college, they knew what they wanted and needed for college majors and career choices. Her teens went to New York University and Harvard. Since their graduation, they both entered careers that they wanted to be in, doing the work that excites them.

So many high schoolers go to college without being settled on the right college major. This costs them time and money. National Student Clearinghouse says the average is only 62% complete undergraduate work in six years. (Six years is now the average number of years for graduation from college.)

Today, Tonda works with high schoolers using her four-stage program.

They look at possible careers to see if that career matches their dream and personality. I call it “dream big”. She asks questions like:

They discuss the teens’ interests in different careers, then start planning what the high school educational needs will be so that their transcript is college-attractive.

Apprenticeships are one way to do this. Teens learn that there are two kinds of work. There’s work done for payment, and there’s work done for enjoyment. Tonda works with teens to see if they can find the overlap where they can enjoy more or less, and the things they’re doing to get paid.

Sometimes, when teens look at a possible career close up, they find that they do not like that career after all (like Tonda’s trip to the chemical plant). That’s good news! That teen found out that a career was a poor fit without wasting time in college!

They can also interview several adults about their careers!

Tonda helps high schoolers choose a college that has a strong program in that major, along with the degree that fits them.

When a college and a college major are chosen, Tonda works with teens on resume development. They will give this resume to people whom they ask to write their recommendation letters.

Thanks to Seth Tillman for editing.

The post Career and College Major Guidance with Tonda Bean appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Homeschooling Middle School Your Way- Special Replay.

We don’t often talk about middle school because we are so busy talking about high school. However, there are many, many homeschooling families that not only have high schoolers but middle schoolers as well. Not only that, but there are more and more families with middle schoolers who will be homeschooling all the way through graduation.

SO we get questions about the RIGHT way to homeschool middle school! (Can you guess what we are going to say? You are correct! There’s not ONE right way to homeschool middle school!)

Thus, middle school turns into a pressure-filled situation. Is that what your tweens need? Must middle school be filled with pressure?

Remember what we said: There’s not ONE right way to homeschool middle school.

With that in mind, let’s think about statistics: Most middle school students are average academians. That is because “average” is the statistic describing the middle of the population (usually the “bell” in the bell-shaped curve, if you like statistical graphs).

This means that some middle schoolers can start doing the higher-level maths (such as algebra or geometry) and enjoy them. This is especially true for the more academically bright tweens.

However, for many middle schoolers, these higher-level courses are not necessary. They will get to them in high school just fine and will not experience life failure as a result. They are not trying to compete for the most competitive colleges, such as Harvard. Rather, many homeschoolers will start out:

These middle schoolers are free to work on their academics at a more relaxed pace… in the right timing for them!

Really, really, really: You do not need to impress anybody…and neither does your middle schooler!

If your middle schooler thrives on doing seventh-grade math at seventh grade, followed by eighth-grade math at eighth grade, it is OKAY! If that is what is best for your family, put your shoulders back and chin up and do NOT be pressured to do otherwise!

After all, middle school years are the last years where students can be free to truly experience learning adventures without being overly tied down to textbooks. High school can wait until high school for many middle schoolers.

Homeschooling high school (even for many unschoolers) will have a fair number of textbooks in order to earn the credits for graduation.

However, middle schoolers do not need to worry about earning credits. Instead, they can concentrate of building their love of learning. Just be sure to record all their cool experiences in their portfolios so you have a good record.

There are endless rich experiences that your tweens can build during middle school. They will extend many of these experiences into electives during high school but this is a good time to start. Think about:

If you can allow your tweens to explore and interest or gifting without pressure, they often will run with it. Some middle schoolers will ask about competitions in their interest areas. If so, go for it. However, if they just want to explore an interest for interest’s sake, why not?

By the time these kids are in sixth or seventh grade, you know these kids. You understand that they are competitive academically (and often otherwise). You can see that they will be driven and WANT to go to a powerful college.

In that case, have them blast through their maths and other courses at their paces and interests. If they are:

let them run with it.

Give them resources: textbooks, mentors, courses…whatever is best fit for their learning styles. To hold them back to grade-level texts would stifle them with boredom. For these tweens, their interest and talent IS their academics.

Of course, with these tweens you often have to help them develop the life skills of work/life/social/self-care balances. Help them disrupt academics regularly with other activities.

It is good for young people to be the people they are! All kids are gifted in the way God made them to be gifted (check out this discussion on all kids being gifted).

Homeschooling middle school in the best way for our unique kids is wonderful at home. However, sometimes it can be a challenge for us moms. Especially when we are at co-op or with a group of other homeschool moms and someone is talking about their tweens’ WONDERFUL accomplishments!!

And you are sitting there thinking, “My tween is plugging through seventh grade Math but he LOVES hiking and sketching what he sees. He doesn’t want to do a competition with the things he loves, he just wants to enjoy them.”

When your buddies ask you, “SO, what’s your kid doing?”

So you answer:

My kid is being the best HIM that God made him to be.

Because that is what he is called to do. AND we are called to help them be their best selves…not someone else’s best self.

That’s because there’s not ONE right way to homeschool middle school, so homeschool middle school your way.

7Sisters offers middle school literature study guides that promote a love of learning and reading while introducing literature analysis and comprehension skills.

Treasured by horse-lovers everywhere, the tale of the ponies of Chincoteague and Assateague Islands becomes a rich learning experience for your student. This ten-page ebook guide was created to complement Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry. It is our gift to you and your family!

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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind Literature Study Guide introduces middle schoolers to the story of William Kamkwamba. As a boy in Malawi, his family lived through a time of drought and famine. Using his natural inquisitiveness and books he borrowed from the library, William constructed a windmill to bring electricity to his home, even though he had very little formal education.

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Snow Treasure Literature Study Guide introduces middle schoolers to literary themes using a favorite story from World War II. This thirteen-page ebook guide was written to accompany Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan. The book, based on true stories about Norwegian school children helping to rescue the national gold supply during that country’s Nazi occupation.

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The Boy on the Wooden Box Literature Study Guide introduces middle schoolers to the plight of Polish Jews during World War II. This ebook guide was written to accompany the compelling story: The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson. This guide helps students develop the literature skill of understanding the concept of a memoir.

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The Watsons Go to Birmingham Literature Study Guide introduces middle schoolers to the civil rights movement and the Birmingham bombing through the eyes of a young African American boy. This ebook guide was written to accompany The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis. Students begin to explore the concepts of hyperbole and flat versus round characters.

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The Phantom Tollbooth Literature Study Guide introduces middle school students to a charming fantasy that uses vocabulary and idioms literally, expanding their creative thinking and language skills. This ebook accompanies The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. The straightforward questions encourage exploration of allegory and symbolism without unnecessary busywork.

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Esperanza Rising Literature Study Guide introduces middle schoolers to the plight of Mexican migrant workers during the time of the Great Depression. This ebook guide was written to accompany Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan. This guide helps students explore the concept of foreshadowing, as well as the theme of courage and perseverance.

Click image for full description.

So, avail yourself of resources as needed and homeschool YOUR way!

The post Homeschooling Middle School Your Way- Special Replay appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Homeschooling Multiple Teens.

All of us at 7Sisters at one time or another, homeschooled multiple teens at the same time. We have definitely got life experience around this topic, and this appears to be a topic of concern for some of our 7th Siblings who have asked us about how to handle homeschooling multiple teens at the same time.

We remember back in the ancient days where we were getting ready to add our second high schooler. It felt almost as intimidating as starting off the first one! (We can remember a few tears and some of them were from each of us!)

However, we all made it through! Along the way, we found out that homeschooling high school years were the best yet, even with multiple teens at the same time!

Let’s start with some of the simplest pieces of lived experience.

Be encouraged! Here are some of our favorite bits of wisdom about homeschooling more than one teen.

You just need to know this. It’s true: you CAN do this!

You might find that what was working for teen number one will probably need to be tweaked for team number two. That’s okay!

(Also, you do NOT need to feel pressured into homeschooling high school like some expert tells you that you must. There’s not ONE right way to homeschool high school. You do what is best for your family.)

You can work together on some subjects, even if your homeschoolers not in the same grade or age level. That could be anything from literature studies, to unit studies, to doing the same math curriculum (according the the abilities of the homeschoolers).

Every homeschool high schooler is different. When they have their own gifts, interests, and transcript goals, it is wonderful to work independently. That’s because there’s not ONE right way to homeschool high school, even within a family.

Our homeschoolers have access to so many resources these days. These resources can help when you and your teens need to change things up, want an outside resource, or you would like a teacher with some extra expertise. Some of the ways homeschooling families with multiple teens make use of resources include:

It’s a good idea to have teens’ buy-in on their homeschool high school plans. (Here are some how-tos for planning high school.)

We could call this independent learning, or simply, teaching themselves when appropriate.

High school is a time when teens need to be taking greater and greater ownership of their own educational experience. You probably do not want to send them out to college or into the workforce or into the military needing you to hold their hands! Independent learningbuilds teens’ confidence.

For teens, developing a growth mindset, the ability to bounce back from problems and believe in themselves is really important. Here are some resources for growth mindset.

The world is full of endless opportunities, but our budgets are not limitless. Discuss what the family can afford. (Make it part of their Financial Literacy credit.

For example, Sabrina called a family meeting and said, “I can afford about this many tanks of gas this month. It will enable us to do this many extracurriculars. Now, pick which ones are most important to you.”

We 7Sisters met in homeschool co-op many years ago (that is, four of us met in co-op, the other two are real-life sisters)! Co-ops are great support systems for moms, so think about volunteering at your local co-op.

Not only that, but there is a digital world full of support, including:

Support can also mean, teaming with other homeschool moms on those days when you have too many teens going in different directions:

Remember, these are good years. You can do it! Make up your mind to have fun!

The post Homeschooling Multiple Teens appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Homeschooling when Mom is Sick.

Moms are human, too. Which means that no matter how hard we try to stay healthy every day, sometimes things do not work out. Even moms get sick sometimes.

When Vicki caught the flu recently, it got Sabrina and Kym to thinking about the ways they have all handled homeschooling when they were sick. We know from experience that sometimes homeschool is running with everybody at 102%, and other times it’s running with a bunch of the family at full speed and one not so much.

When that one is a parent, it can be a little difficult!

BTW- If you are listening to this podcast episode, you will occasionally hear the noise of the seeing eye puppies the Kym is raising. For an entire episode about raising service dogs for your teens’ service projects, check this episdoe out.

As you know, there’s not ONE right way to homeschool, but here are some thoughts that have helped us with homeschooling when mom is not feeling well.

Your high schoolers are learning in the Health curriculum how to listen to their bodies and feelings. You can help them also learn by watching you listen to your own body and soul. Try the three questions (here’s a free journal to help):

Remember: Resting to recover is role modeling for your teens!

We all tend to have some “rules for the universe”. These are things we think we must do or they must happen. One frequent rule for the universe that many of us homeschool moms come up with is: I have to get everything done, every day.

The truth about rules for the universe is that no one can follow them, not even homeschool moms! SO:

It is important not to get your priorities stuck on having to sustain and maintain all the things like you normally do them. If you have tried this before, you have probably found that it ends up to the detriment of your own health and the dynamic in your family.

Try doing a little bit on the important homeschool subjects. If you have the energy, try to touch only the most important subjects. The rest will wait, even if you have to have a longer school year. It’s okay!

How do we communicate with our kids without setting ourselves up for them to take advantage of the situation?

Sometimes in our culture, we females are “not allowed” to have bad days or use our words about what we are feeling. Therefore, we can sometimes have the tendency of acting a bit passive aggressive: we might expect our family to see what is happening and make their own adjustments…or at least bring us a cup of tea!

That usually does not work.

Instead, use your words: “I’ve got a fever. My nose is running. I’m coughing today. I have the flu. So, let’s adapt and do homeschooling in low-key way. What do you think is the best way for us to readjust our day?”

Get their input on what they can do for homeschooling that day (and housework, too)!

With your teens, many of them are doing independent learning and can carry on (although they might have to call a friend for a ride to homeschool co-op classes, if they have any). If there are tough things they need help on, those might need to wait for a couple of days. It will wait.

Elementary aged siblings might need to have a “video-learning” day. Or maybe help on some curriculum from their older siblings. It is okay to do that!

Chronic illnesses, or even inconvenient phases of life like perimenopause, require more self-awareness, communication, and asking for help with the family. Work together as a team to adjust the school day or year. Communicate and adjust teaching methods when you need to (such as more online coursework with asynchronous classes from 7Sisters or live classes from our friends/Cousins Natalie Mack or Karim Morato, and our friends at FundaFunda Academy).

No mom is an island (apologies to John Donne).

We need homeschool mom-friends! There are so many kinds of homeschooling communities:

When we have a network of mom friends, we can ask for advice or help, or get encouragement when you are overwhelmed. Sometimes, that boost from a mom who understands makes all the difference! (Download this freebie for homeschool moms: Carry Each Other’s Burdens.)

Remember: invest ahead of time! Build these relationships, not just because you might get something out of it, but also, because it’s fun to have homeschool mom-friends!

When we get sick, it reminds us just how human we are. If we are wise reach out to the God who does not have the limitations and who can be our strength in times of weakness. Our homeschooling does not, and cannot, be perfect. That’s okay, because we are human and are loved by God, who is perfect.

As Kym always says, “Pray first, last, and always.” We all need prayer!

Join Sabrina, Vicki, and Kym to discuss homeschooling when mom is sick.

Thanks to Seth Tillman for editing.

The post Homeschooling when Mom is Sick appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Help for Overwhelmed Homeschool Moms with Whitney Whitten.

We have all been there at some point: feeling overwhelmed. That’s why Vicki was so excited to talk to a read homeschool mom who really has some real advice for helping with the overwhelm!

Whitney is a homeschool mom and life coach at Sensational Moms who works with homeschool moms. Vicki met Whitney Whitten at a workshop together with a mutual friend (and a 7Sisters Cousin) Teresa Wiedrick from the Homeschool Mama Support Facebook group.

Whitney calls herself one of those “accidental homeschoolers”. She did not know that I valued homeschooling until she had four kids that were five and under. She looked at reality of their family schedule would be if we went to traditional school.

Also, Whitney served as pediatric occupational therapist, so she worked with kids. She knew just the value of having time to play and learn through life. She thought to herself, “Well, how are we going to be able to do that if we’re in two different carpool lines?”

So she started off homeschooling when her oldest was in kindergarten.

Now, six years later, those core values of wanting to have the time together as a family and be able to explore stay the same. Also, Whitney found that as her kids grow, the family has time to invest in their individual interests, as well as develop those real life skills together.

The homeschooling families that Whitney coaches are not so much the “how do we choose curriculum?” families. Rather, these are homeschooling moms who are experiencing on real-life things like feeling “overwhelmed, overstimulated, too much stuff”.

You will love Whitney’s refrigerator story:

“We went to a couple of states, stayed in three different hotels over the course of six days. This, as you know, with a family of six can be a lot in itself…A good thing, but a lot!

So, we were glad to get home.

We get home, open the door to the refrigerator… and something smelled funny. But you know, maybe just leftovers?

So, well, it wasn’t leftovers! Our whole refrigerator had spoiled!

This created an “off week”. But, as you know, returning from a trip is always a bit of an off week. A broken refrigerator made it more so! 

So, we ordered a new refrigerator but it was broken! So they replaced it.

And you know, here we were. After five days of being back, trying to get into a routine of homeschooling. It had just been one constant inter interruption after another. Not to mention, the dentist appointments besides all the refrigerator chaos.

I knew that we could all homeschool fairly easily if we had a nice, little, tidy window of time that would never be interrupted or bombarded! But that’s just not how life is.”

Whitney realized that she, like many homeschool moms moms spend so much of our time like a ping pong ball. It can be a lot. It can be overwhelming and depending on the way that your particular nervous system is set up, we can hit overstimulated really easily.

We can find ourselves, realistically asking ourselves:

“How do we hold things together when most of our weeks aren’t going to be uninterrupted weeks?”

Whitney is like many homeschool moms, all her children are different and have different interests and needs. (Some are neurodivergent.) She also has  refrigerators and everything else going on in life. At the same time, she and her family love homeschooling, even when she is ping ponging back and forth.

“That’s the way us moms do is we’re doing this and then we’re doing that- whether with our kids or in our heads, trying to keep track of everything!”

So, Whitney has worked in her homeschool life and with her coachees to calm the overwhelm, settle down the overstimulation, and get a handle on the “too much stuff”.

When we homeschooling are feeling overstimulated and overwhelmed here are some tips.

Stress starts with a soft simmer. Then the little bubbles before the rolling boil and then the lid blows. Busy moms can be so quick to ignore their own body signals.

So intentionally take some time to really learn your body’s cues. Sometimes we have to work hard to describe what’s going on inside us. It can help to ask yourself, “What words would I describe that feeling to my children?”

These are two places that are really helpful to start calming your body. Here are a couple of examples:

What will that do for our bodies? These movements tap into a sense called proprioception. That is a sense that is lets you know what is going on in your muscles, joints, and your fascia in your body. It helps you feel that you can “be in your own body” and feel safer.

Oxygen is important for calming down. Try taking a few deep breaths. While it’s not a magic pill, it helps lower the stress hormones in your body.

Sometimes homeschooling can cause a lot of clutter. You will feel better when it gets tidied up. However, in the middle of a busy homeschool day, there is no way to get everything done. So, sometimes you need to go to another room for a few minutes or take the kids outside. These things help calm the body.

Try not to waste time worry about the future unnecessarily. Instead, try to live in the moment with your family. Try make those moments better moments.

Just like with any parent anywhere, you will sometimes need a little support. When you contact Whitney, she will listen and help you with:

Join Vicki and Whitney Whitten for helpful tips for dealing with overwhelm while homeschooling!

Thank you to Seth Tillman for editing!

The post Help for Overwhelmed Homeschool Moms with Whitney Whitten appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

This week on the Homeschool Highschool Podcast: How I Homeschool in South Africa with Grietjie Thorne.

As you know, all of us homeschooling moms are in this together! In fact, at 7SistersHomeschool, there are six of us 7Sisters: Vicki, Sabrina, Kym, Marilyn, Allison, and Sara. So who’s the 7th Sister? All of our friends around the world who are homeschooling moms. That’s why we are so excited to visit with one of our international friends, Grietjie Thorne from South Africa!

Today we are talk about Grietjie’s adventures in homeschooling and what it’s like homeschooling in South Africa.

One of the beauties of homeschooling in this digital era, is that we can learn about geography and homeschool lifestyle from friends around the world. For instance, we learned a little weather geography when we recorded this episode. It was March springtime weather in the U.S. but it was full-on heat wave in South Africa (36 degrees Centigrade, which is 96 degrees Fahrenheit). Grietjie explains that March is their hottest month!

When she married an Australian who she met on a missions outreach in Kenya. (More geography: Kenya is in the other hemisphere of Africa.) The moved to South Africa and now have four children: three teenagers and an eleven-year-old.

When she was pregnant with my eldest daughter, Grietjie met a mother who became a very dear friend. She had eight children and was homeschooling them. In fact, she was really one of the homeschool pioneers in South Africa!

Grietjie saw the fruit of homeschooling in watching her friend’s children. She knew that she wanted this life for her own children. There was never been doubt in her mind about it! Now, that baby is a senior and will be graduating from homeschooling high school!

This is how Grietjie and her family describe their homeschool adventures:

It’s Been just a hoot! It’s been wonderful!

Homeschooling is a little different for each of Grietjie’s four children. This is influenced by the fact that three of children have severe dyslexia, while eldest is very much neurotypical and academically very strong.

All four of my children are extremely creative, but do not love math. They love to write stories, put on plays, make movies, and draw. So, Grietjie leans into building their strengths and interests while helping them develop the more challenging core subjects.

The key to homeschooling high school with four creative but very different-styled learners was:

I have had to learn to adapt and really get to know my children! (And stay on my knees constantly!)

Grietjie and her family’s needs change with the seasons, just like all of us! Now with a house full of teenagers, she has found more need community of mothers who understand what we are going through (you know: “the twenty-four hour day and the moods and everything that carries on”.) …We all know about that!

She has found that Lord just provides friends who are also in the thick of it to walk through the homeschooling adventures together! (Just like in the States, homeschooling in community is a blessing!)

Grietjie found that for some of her high schoolers with dyslexia that 7Sisters ELA Literature Bundles are perfect. He can listen to the audio version of the books while he works on his Legos. This fits his learning style best. He also enjoys completing the PDF study guides on his computer because they are in fillable format. Thus he does not need struggle with the writing while he is working on his inferential and literature analysis skills.

Her family chooses science curriculum that fits their interests and needs. For ideas on inspiring teens with learning differences check out these Homeschool Highschool Podcast episodes:

Grietjie gives them plenty of time to build electives in their interest areas:

In the primary years, it was easy to eclectic route for homeschooling. (Kindergarten, called “Grade R” in South Africa, is mandatory.)

Their academic year runs from January to the beginning of December. The year is two semesters broken into four terms.

However, at high school level, teens must take a completion exam.

Recently, South African homeschooling families were given  the opportunity to follow an American high school diploma, which is what Grietjie’s family has chosen.

Thus her family is pretty much doing what an American teen will be doing. In South Africa, the American high school diploma and the British System are recognized by universities.

There are changes happening in South Africa’s homeschool regulations, so Grietjie is watching to see what will be unfolding. Currently, homeschooling families are required to register their children with the Department of Education through grade nine. There is friction between the homeschool community and the government as they are all trying to figure out what do they want from homeschooling families now. For example, the Department of Education has mentioned wanting to see report cards, which is not something many South African homeschooling families have ever done. Many have chosen a more organic, eclectic approach in the line of Charlotte Mason.

Currently, the homeschooling regulations are applied differently in each of the nine provinces in South Africa. For instance, in one of the provinces, the Department of Education is now demanding that homeschooling parents must be university graduates. However, in other provinces, that’s not something that is being asking for.

So, homeschooling families and the province governments are all trying to figure out how to apply regulations.

Grietjie loves to encourage new homeschooling moms. Here are some of her tips:

Join Vicki and Grietje Thorne and learn about her family and homeschooling in South Africa!

Thank you to Seth Tillman for editing.

The post How I Homeschool in South Africa with Grietjie Thorne appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: College-Attractive Transcripts for Homeschool High Schoolers.

In my eighteen years of advising homeschool high schoolers, one of my favorite tasks was helping teens develop the transcript they needed to fulfill their goals. Our homeschool umbrella school graduated hundreds of teens, many of them college bound. These teens graduated with transcripts that opened the doors they needed for the next phase of life.

Each college is looking for something special in their incoming freshmen. They may simply be looking for teens who completed state high school graduation requirements. However, many colleges are also looking for courses that show that their future students know how to develop an interest, work through rigorous academics, and live an active life.

Many teens are also competing for scholarships that depend on a powerful transcript.

A transcript is a snapshot of your teens whole high school academics and more, all crammed together on one sheet of paper.

Let’s start with the transcript form. Just like homeschooling: there’s not ONE right way to make a transcript form. With that in mind, let me talk to you about the editable transcript form we used with our umbrella school (and is offered by 7SistersHomeschool).

The 7Sisters editable transcript includes step-by-step how-tos for completing the transcript.

Remember, there’s not ONE right way to do a transcript. However, these are the items we include.

The most important thing to put on that transcript is your teen’s name and date of birth, because otherwise colleges will not be able to discern WHO this transcript represents.

Not all transcripts include this. However, it is useful for admissions officers (and you want to make them happy).

Look at the top left corner. There is a little section on the transcript that looks at the core subjects. That box shows the core courses and what years those courses were completed.

It is wise to include a legend or a key that tells what the levels of rigor for your teens courses. (You can see that in the top-right box.)

In the box with the legend, you can also include SAT or ACT scores (or other pertinent tests).

Note on the sample transcript, each year has it’s own section (grades 9, 10, 11, 12).

Colleges want know that your homeschool high schooler is capable of pulling a good, strong GPA in high school so that they can transition well to college.

With traditional GPAs, you have a letter grade and a number assigned to that letter. So

Um, some high schools would break that down even further:

There are even more ways to break down a GPA.

A weighted GPA, on the other hand, is for high schools who want to show that their teens are working at very rigorous levels.

So they might give a highly rigorous course (like an AP course) more “points”. For instance:

That is why colleges want to know grading scales, and the GPAs!

In their admissions algorithm,

And so everybody ends up in the same kind of algorithm. In other words, one transcript is comparable.

Levels show the amount of rigor a student has worked on each core course.

Check college websites. They will tell you what they are looking for. For instance:

Transcripts should show the ability to develop interests in the future college major. For instance, future English majors could spend a whole semester or a whole year on like CS Lewis studies or world literature. So they’ll, they’ll go in depth on a topic and not just stay at the surface.

Courses in personal development help teens build their own transcript, but also their lives, with courses like career exploration or really dive into health and make it an enriched credit. Those kind of things show academic richness.

Then very important is you want to include, not for credit but for richness, extracurriculars or activities.

Teens build a powerful transcript with they volunteer at the museum, church, or some other cause.

This is an optional suggestion. Teens who compete in some way are showing that they have competitive drive. One of our favorite podcast episode about a competition that homeschooler Nathaniel Mack participated in for the conservation district in Virginia. (Nathaniel is the son our friend and Cousin Natalie Mack.)

Remember, there’s not ONE right way to create a homeschool transcript, but these suggestions have worked well. Join Vicki for a discussion on college-attractive homeschool transcripts.

Thanks to Seth Tillman for editing.

The post College-Attractive Transcripts for Homeschool High Schoolers appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Women in STEM with Emily Hockey.

You will love this interview with our friend, Dr. Emily Hockey, as she tells about becoming an astro-chemist and shares tips with young people on going into the STEM fields!

Emily came into our friendship circle through 7Sister Kym’s twins, Kendall and Carly. As many of you know from previews interview with the girls, they played ice hockey through high school and college. Emily was on their University of Delaware team.

(Check out these interviews with Kendall on How Homeschoolers Find Success in College and Carly discussing Homeschooler’s Tips for College.)

The freshman cohort of the UD women’s hockey team was close. They studied, practiced hockey, and relaxed together. Emily and the twins became good friends.

Kym remembers when the twins visited from college and told her that there was a girl on their hockey team whose last name is “Hockey”! How fun! Soon, Emily had simply become one of Kym’s family, and through Kym, to us 7Sisters!

The girls have all graduated now and are busy with their careers but all are still good friends. In fact, in a few weeks, Emily will be in Kendall’s wedding.

Today, Dr. Emily Hockey holds a PhD in Physical Chemistry. (Her doctoral research was in laboratory Astro Chemistry.)

Emily grew up in around the Washington DC area. She loved visiting the Smithsonian museums, especially the Air and Space Museum. She loved the rocket ships and the pictures of earth from space.

Her father worked for the EPA, so Emily was surrounded by the sciences. By the time she got to high school, Emily knew that she was going go into some sort of science as her career.

During her junior year of high school, I took Honors Chemistry and I had the most wonderful teacher ever. She was not everybody’s cup of tea, but she was Emily’s cup of tea. She was one of those teachers who would comment if Emily got a 98 on the test, “You can do better”. In Emily’s case, this was not discouraging. In fact, she thought, “Somebody sees something that I had never saw… that I can do this.”

During her senior year of high school, Emily took AP Chemistry. This teacher also inspired her that, “You can do this!”

This phrase has become a guiding thought for her:

You can do this!

Emily’s father encouraged her to take lots of sciences during her homeschool high school years. This paid off! Emily advises young women who might be interested in STEM:

When Emily applied to college, she did not get into her top school. She felt heartbroken. However, she was accepted into University of Delaware. At UD, she received a scholarship because she was a good student, volunteered, did extracurriculars, and had played hockey in high school.

When Emily was not accepted at her preferred college, her parents helped her remember to believe in herself and bounce back from the disappointment. They helped her to stay open to the idea that good things will happen for her at University of Delaware, where she was accepted. This was true! At UD, Emily could continue playing hockey, met Kendall and Carlie and LOTS of new friends, and had a wonderful education.

Interestingly, when Emily graduated and was applying to graduate programs, she was accepted to University of Maryland (which had been her preferred college for undergrad.) So, she got to attend her dream school after all.

Emily learned an important fact about timing through this!

In the end, that just wasn’t the time that I was gonna go to that school.

Emily, just like lots of teens these days, are often pressured to believe that they need to go to the top school or else life is a total disaster and nothing good will ever happen again!

Fortunately, Emily has the kind of parents that said, “That just wasn’t your school.”

Then, they helped her trust that when she went to UD something good would happen… and it did.

One of the important aspects to look for in a college (especially for young women thinking about STEM majors) is good advisors. Emily had great advisors in her program. In fact, Emily ended up with the same advisor that her father had had when he was there, years ago! (When he first saw Emily, he laughed and said, “A hockey! I need to retire. There are too many of you!).

Good advisors spend time with their students. Emily’s advisor got to know her and could give her advice like, “I really think you should go this route.” Or he would ask, “What do you want to do later in life? Maybe we should go with this route.”

Emily found that she was healthiest when she kept a balance of activities and friends all through college. This included:

These things helped encourage her when classes get really hard and she did not have her parents right there for encouragement.

Of course, Emily reminds college students not to spread themselves too thin, but being busy is a good thing.

When it was time to apply to graduate programs, Emily had learned to keep her options open. She was interested in STEM, however, she knew there are few openings in the sciences, so she should be open to exploring the specific degree. Emily was accepted at the University of Maryland to study with a young female astrochemist. Her program was looking for graduate students who had a more well-rounded lifestyle and Emily fit the bill.

That’s how Emily narrowed her degree to astrochemistry!

Because it was a new program, Emily had the honor of helping her new PhD advisor build their lab from the ground up. You can see the Dodson Lab and watch a video about the ongoing research there with this page and video from University of Maryland.

Then COVID happened which forced them to experience delays. However, her advisor modeled resilience and was able to move much of their research online. When they were able to work in the lab in person, Emily worked with an instrument called a matrix isolation spectrometer. It was comprised of a cryogenic vacuum chamber.

Emily helped design and an instrument that could reach 10 degrees Kelvin (-460 degrees Fahrenheit). ultra high vacuum pressure. She could deposit gas samples into the instrument and freeze them. Next, she could shoot a laser at it and obtain molecular information.

These instruments are important because the help scientist learn about the molecules in space. Space temperatures go down to  -400 Fahrenheit degrees. So Emily would simulate those conditions in the lab and “do chemistry” to try to gain an understanding of what is actually happening in space. She and her fellow scientists would ask, “When all of these observers detect a new molecule in space, can we help provide information?”

Emily had some exciting opportunities during grad school. She was able to spend time at University of California at Berkeley and work at a national lab on one of their specialized instruments. She also did some experiments at NASA Goddard because one of my committee members worked on James Webb Space Telescope.

In the end, Emily’s dissertation research involved all these instruments. Incidentally, Vicki loves to hear the names of dissertations, so she asked Emily. The name of her dissertation is:

Matrix Isolation and Gas-based Kinetics of Astro Chemically Relevant Species.

Today, Emily is in Florida, working in a fellowship (post-graduate research) with the Air Force Research Laboratory.

It is not as unusual to have women in STEM majors and with STEM careers these days. However, in fields like chemistry, physics,  astrophysics, and astrochemistry, Dr. Emily Hockey is still in the minority. However, her PhD advisor was a female and had made it her mission to help women grow interest in STEM careers. This worked because Emily’s PhD cohort was majority women.

Emily still runs into some awkward moments. (For instance, at a conference, a male scientist told her that she was too pretty to be a scientist.)

However, she know that this did not mean that she was “less”. She had learned from her advisors and her parents to believe in herself.

Today, at Emily’s current job there are twenty-four scientists with PhDs and only three of those are women. However, she has learned to say to herself:

I just have to show them that I got the same degree that you did. I did the work. I’ve got the brains.

Almost everyone has imposter syndrome at some point in their careers. Especially women in STEM because there are just now many women in the field. With impostor syndrome, our brains begin to doubt and start to ask, “Am I good enough to do this?

It is important to remember healthy self-talk, “I am good enough and, yes, I earned this.”

It is also important to have people who believe in you and encourage you.

Today, Emily works with scientists in the field who have been at this job for twenty-plus years. These scientists are excited to see the new generation come in and hear what we have to say. She has found that they are respectful, encouraging, and they really push the new generation. So, while there are fewer women in the field than men, things are going well.

If you are starting high school and you are excited about STEM, just keep going. There’s so much stuff online now that you can go get resources; you can read books.

Learn what you can about this generations scientists. Ask questions. Check out this non-profit that works with high schools to encourage women in stem through mentorship opportunities!

You will be standing on the shoulders of those who came before you!

Join Vicki, Kym, and Dr. Emily Hockey for encouragement for young women interested in STEM!

Thank you to Seth Tillman for editing, and thank you Dr. Emily Hockey for your time with us!

The post Women in STEM with Emily Hockey appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Learning Like Lewis: Oxford-Style Tutoring with Justin McGeary.

Most people who know 7SistersHomeschool and Vicki, know that she LOVES the writings and the story of C.S. Lewis. Thus, she was to have a conversation with Justin McGee, who shares about Oxford style tutoring (the education that Lewis received from Professor Kirkpatrick)!

Justin is a homeschool graduate himself. He remembers, back in the day, his family going to homeschool conventions and buying their curriculum for each school year! (BTW- Homeschool conferences are still great continuing education for homeschooling parents and great opportunities to meet people and look at curriculum.)

When they started homeschooling, his mother was excited, while Justin and his father were a bit reluctant or nervous about it. But then one of my siblings was diagnosed with leukemia. Homeschooling part time became necessary because of his brother’s treatments. During that time, Justin would talk to his teachers every day or every few days and get his homework for him.

Then, when Justin was in middle school, his mother took the dive because the Christian school they were attending closed. She homeschooled five children at some points. In those days the were mostly doing “traditional school at home”. Mm-hmm.

Over time, they gained the confidence to became more flexible, adding learning experiences like traveling, projects. and co-op classes. One co-op class that Justin enjoyed was physics with a physics professor!

Actually, the teacher was their dad, who taught physics at a major university nearby. He tested out one of his physics textbooks on the co-op teens!

When Justing was gearing up to graduate and go off to college, a lot of people would say to him, “Oh, you’re homeschooled and you’re going off to college! Oh, I hope you’re okay!”

Because of the questions, Justin wondered if going into college after being homeschooled, if he I must be at a disadvantage compared to my peers. However, it turned out to not be the case. It turns out that his home education actually better adapted him for the college level academics. This was, in part, because homeschooling high school is about developing independent learning skills that are needed in college.

During his junior year of college, Justin had the opportunity to study at Oxford, which he loved. He was part of a Christian liberal arts college consortium that have a program in Oxford. The name of the program is Scholarship and Christianity in Oxford. During his term of Oxford study, he was able to experience the tutorial system, go to lectures, see all the libraries, as well as traveling and experiencing British culture and history.

Justin’s turorials were in Modern English Literature and 19th century American Literature. He also attended different types of lectures. One of the most interesting was a lecture series on JRR token and the use of old English literature in The Lord of the Rings.

He was fascinated by how different the college educational system in Britain is from the US. It reminded him of the difference between his experiences with home education versus his experiences with traditional education. These created a real interest in understanding how we learn.

At the heart of the Oxford education is the tutorial. The goal of the tutorial system is to create independent learners with good critical thinking skills.

There are two key features of the tutorial. One is the importance of essay writing, and the other is then the importance of the conversation. Through each course, the tutor gives the student a list of essay topics with resources for the week.

The student reads through them and decides which essay question they want to tackle. The tutor then discusses with the student  the most important things that have been said on this topic.

The first tutorial Justin attended in his Oxford Modern English Literature course was on TS Elliot’s poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Proofrock. His tutor assigned him to read the poem, a list of the important things that had been written on that poem, and then come back with an essay.

Then he read the essay to his tutor. The tutor gave him feedback, discussed other things he had learned, and asked what he thought about what he read.

Justin discovered that the difference between the Oxford tutorial model versus American college instruction is the emphasis on asking, “What does the student think? What are the students’ arguments?” 

The goal is not for them to regurgitate what another important person in order to pass a test. It’s about learning through writing, thinking critically, and discussing critically. Students learn to develop and defend their ideas.

Justin was so impressed with his education at Oxford that he wanted to share it with homeschooling high schoolers. That’s why he started Trinity House Tutorials.

Tutorials with Justin at Trinity House work like those he experienced at Oxford. Students are given topics to select and research materials. They do research, write essays, have conversations with the tutor, get feedback, and learn to refine their thinking processes.

Teens are telling Justin that they are enjoying the writing because it matters, and because they receive feedback on it. It’s rigorous, but it’s enjoyable in many ways. Teens learn that they can strengthen their discipline and hard work skills.

Not only that, teens tell Justin that they appreciate the relational learning part of the tutorial system. The conversations with the tutor are helping them build their thinking skills.

Parents also appreciate that tutorials at Trinity House come from a Christian worldview.

There are number of courses offered at Trinity House Tutorials. These have included:

If you have students that are kind of motivated looking for a unique learning opportunity or gifted, who wants to learn like Lewis, check out this inspiring conversation with Vicki and Justin McGeary at Trinity House Tutorials.

Thanks to Seth Tillman for editing.

The post Learning Like Lewis: Oxford-Style Tutoring with Justin McGeary appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.