Latest / The Christy-Faith Show / Ep. 130 - 7 Homeschool Systems That Make Your School Year Run Smoother (Part 2 of 2)

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Ep. 130 - 7 Homeschool Systems That Make Your School Year Run Smoother (Part 2 of 2) · The Christy-Faith Show

• 0:00
  Christy-Faith: Hello, everybody. Welcome back to part two, quick lay of the land. If you are just joining me, this is the second half of a little two part set of episodes on how to set up your homeschool year. This whole thing got way too big for one episode, which tells you everything about how much we pile on ourselves in this season, and I'm glad you're here for part two. Part one was all about the mindset, the expectations that we quietly carry that wreck our first weeks, if I'm honest.
• 0:27
  So if you skipped that, go back and start there so that this one makes more sense. So if part one was about getting in the right headspace, today is about building with our hands. Here's what I actually do every summer to get ready for the school year. Seven systems from start to finish. And every single one is something I'm teaching my kids to run as well, so I'm not hauling this whole operation on my back come October.
• 0:51
  That's not good for me, and it's not good for them. Homeschooling is not about coddling. It's about support, but not coddling. And this is what all of this is gonna buy you. Mornings where your kids are starting on their own, logging into their own programs, opening to the right page, not asking you what they're gonna do today.
• 1:08
  Kids doing their chores at a clip. They know how to execute them well without you. And hopefully, mom standing in the kitchen with a hot cup of coffee, not a cold one, just watching it all work. And I know what you're thinking. Who is she?
• 1:21
  That's crazy, Christy. This is so unrealistic. And I'm here to tell you that it's possible. Calm days are possible. So today is about building yours.
• 1:31
  Let's go. Alright. Welcome to The Christy Face Show. This is a podcast for homeschool moms who take their craft seriously. Is that you?
• 1:49
  That's me. It's also a place where you're gonna find a host who deeply cares about you and your kids and your family. And I love my job of helping you be a better homeschool mom. It lights me up, and that's what this show is about. It's about having conversations that sharpen how we think about education, motherhood, parenting, and ultimately the life that we're building.
• 2:11
  I'm Christy-Faith, homeschool mom of four, twenty plus years in education, author of Homeschool Rising, available wherever books are sold, and also the founder of Thrive Homeschool Community. That is the place where if you want more than a podcast can give, and that might be you, I don't know, that is a place where we go deep with the training, and we do it with you. If Thrive Homeschool Community sounds like something that would really help you, please make sure that you are on that wait list. That is the only way to guarantee your spot, and spots do go fast. Okay.
• 2:41
  Let's get into system one today, and this is all about chores. Number one, kids should have chores. I mean, they've done a lot of studies on this that it is really good for them to contribute to the household. And chores need to be trained. It just is what it is.
• 2:55
  They don't know how to clean a toilet unless you teach them how to clean a toilet. But here's where I got derailed in my early years of homeschooling. I tried to teach my kids chores and vary the chores while we were trying to homeschool, and that never worked well. So when I shifted to the system that I'm about to share with you, life changed, and it was awesome. And what that system is is during the summer, we train on our kids' chores, and my kids keep the same chores all school year long.
• 3:22
  Remember in episode one, I said the worst possible time to teach new content and teach new things is during the first couple of weeks of school? That's what I'm talking about here. Chores are exhibit a. So I refuse to roll out a whole new chore system in September. My kids get all new jobs every summer, which has been really cool because we kinda rotate, we talk about it, we work out the kinks to make sure it's a fair amount of work for all the kids.
• 3:46
  We do our best to do that. We observe, we adjust, we help. We try to get all the kinks worked out before we start our school year. I make it a goal that our house really runs itself by the time our school year starts. And everybody knows exactly what they are supposed to do when they are supposed to do it, me included.
• 4:04
  We even have laundry days. I have a laundry day and so do the kids. We have one kid who empties the dishwasher. We have one kid who's in charge of rotating all the laundry. We have one kid who puts everything in the dishwasher away and what we call corner dishes, which are those hand wash dishes that you let sit overnight.
• 4:19
  Yeah. The kid who empties the dishwasher also does the corner dishes. We have the same kid who does the counters and the floors after every meal. That's the same kid who does the kitchen. Everything is laid out.
• 4:28
  Everything is assigned. Hopefully, all of the bickering is out of the way before we start our school year. And I don't know if that particular system will work for you and your family, but here's the big takeaway for this section. Please don't try to teach new household tasks while you're trying to do a full homeschool day. That can be a full homeschool day and a worthy homeschool day because they're learning how to live life.
• 4:51
  And also learning how to manage a household while they're managing their schoolwork really is kinda how adults have to live anyway. So it's a beautiful lesson to figure out how to do that. Alright. Let's go into system two. The printed schedule is the security blanket for both you and your kid.
• 5:08
  Now this one I am most excited to tell you about because I feel like it's a little bit avant garde, especially in a society today where we want our kids to roam free, and we want everything to be interest led. And I love that. And I don't wanna go into the research, but kids do thrive and feel more secure with routines. Now I'm not talking about rigid schedules, I'm talking about routines. When they know when they're gonna have a meal.
• 5:31
  Now I used to think that a schedule was just for me, and it turns out it's really for them too. So let me back up. So in our house, we print out our daily rhythm. I actually have an Excel spreadsheet for each day of the week because each day of the week is different. Right?
• 5:45
  One day of the week, we have co op. Another day of the week, we have this class. And I put that schedule where the kids can see it. In the beginning, and I know this takes a lot of ink, but I give each kid their own schedule so that they can mark it up and bring suggestions to me. There does come a point where we can laminate the schedule and it's pretty much set, but that's not for a while.
• 6:02
  The beauty of having a schedule, especially in the beginning of a school year, is you can sit your kiddos down. You can walk them through the schedule out loud, the whole thing. Mommy's gonna be here while you're doing this, and I'm so excited for you to be able to start this page in your book without me when I'm your brother teaching him his reading, that type of thing. This is when we're gonna have lunch every day. And then after lunch, we're all gonna spend the next half hour doing our chores, including mommy.
• 6:27
  You'd be amazed how much this helps kids. It's really hard to never know what's next in life. I mean, think about it. Their brain doesn't have to sit on high alert trying to predict the whole day. A printed visual schedule lowers their stress, and researchers have measured this.
• 6:45
  Kids on predictable routines carry lower stress hormones, and they bounce back from hard moments faster than kids in a more chaotic setup. And you wanna know the exact tools that clinicians name for pulling this off? Visual schedules, verbal previews, and transition warnings, which is a fancy way of describing the thing that you already do when you tape the day to the fridge and you talk it through with your kid. But isn't it nice to hear from a third party that what you're already doing is helpful and good for your kiddos and something to keep doing? Now, the part I really love, my kids don't just see the plan, they also see on the plan when they get me.
• 7:25
  Now what I mean by this is I actually put myself on their schedule. They can see on that daily rhythm. They can see me. I have a whole column and each of the kiddos has a column. So everybody knows where everybody is and what they're doing at any particular time.
• 7:40
  This has been really helpful for my kids, especially because I podcast, I write, I have a lot of Zoom calls. It helps my kids to know when my working block is, when they know they're going to have me, when they know I'm gonna be with their sister. But also when they see that schedule, they're not pining or nagging. They know exactly when they're gonna get me and be able to ask me all the questions they need to. It's been a game changer.
• 8:04
  Now I always had printed schedules for my kids, but they were individual. But things really changed in my house when all the kids could see everybody else's schedule too. So something to think about. Also, side note, I travel a lot for work. Right?
• 8:17
  As you know, I've met a lot of you at homeschool conferences and conventions, and I have two years up on the wall upstairs as a calendar, and the girls are always referencing when is mommy gonna go, when is she gonna be back. They absolutely love seeing my schedule, when our vacations are gonna be, when grandparents are visiting, birthday plans, all sorts of things like that. So not only do we have our daily schedule that we print out and then eventually laminate, but we also have our monthly and yearly calendar visually as well. And speaking of schedules, if you're curious about what other homeschool moms schedules look like, I have a free download for you. And on that download are all sorts of schedules based on your kid's age and stage.
• 8:57
  And my schedule is actually on there. I'll put the link for that download in the show notes. It's completely free. Alright. When we come back, I'm gonna go over system three, and this is about organizing your home.
• 9:06
  I can't wait for this one. I'll see you on the other side. Homeschooling for kids means I'm juggling roughly 24 different subjects at any given time. And a few years back during a particularly busy season, I hit a wall. I needed some serious help with the heavy lifting of teaching everything myself and managing schedules for four kids.
• 9:23
  That's when I found BJU Press Homeschool, and we've loved their courses so much that we keep going back. Some families use them for everything and love it. I use them for certain subjects. Either way, total mental load relief. Here's what my mornings look like now.
• 9:37
  Let us take science for example. My three girls do that one together. They fire up the lesson taught by a real teacher, well produced, actual teaching, not just click through busy work. And I sit there with my coffee, watch them, or make breakfast, and we discuss the big ideas. Every BJU Press homeschool course prioritizes critical thinking, a biblical worldview, and hands on learning.
• 9:57
  I just guide the conversation and pick which activity or pages or projects we want to do, and everything's already planned out. They have an online platform included for you called the Homeschool Hub, and it keeps everyone on track, both me and my kids, without micromanaging or nagging. And when I have questions, I call my HomeWorks consultant. These people don't just help you get set up. They're available for you whenever you need them.
• 10:18
  It's like having a homeschool expert on speed dial. Go to bjupresshomeschool.com or click the link in the show notes to find out more. I wanna talk about homeschool math for a minute, specifically CTC Math, who I'm so glad is sponsoring this episode because you need to know about them. I'm picky about curriculum, and there are a few subjects I won't compromise on, and math is on the top of that list. CTC math is what I use with all four of my kids, and it's an excellent k to 12 math program.
• 10:48
  Rigorous, thorough, comprehensive, everything I want my kids to have in their math education. But without all the stress, the tears, and me having to learn long division all over again. Here's what happens at our house now. My kids log in. A real math teacher walks them through the lesson four to nine minutes clear step by step.
• 11:08
  They do their lesson and finish up with practice problems. The program grades them, and I don't have to remember how to do fractions with unlike denominators or where exactly they left off last week, which means I get to be the mom in the room. I can sit nearby, listen in, encourage, fold the laundry, and watch math get done beautifully. Easier on mom? No sacrifice on academics?
• 11:31
  Yes, please. Join me and tens of thousands of homeschool families using CTC Math for their go to math curriculum. Link's in the show notes. Grab your free trial today, and you'll see why we love it for our kids. Okay.
• 11:46
  So number three was something that I wasn't gonna put in the episode, but then when I was on a Zoom call in Thrive Homeschool Community, Alexis, who is a lifetime member, made this joke about her homeschool setup. And all the moms in the Zoom room were laughing because they related. So I was like, I have to mention this in the episode today. So, Alexis, this one's for you, and you are helping a ton of moms right now. Okay.
• 12:09
  So this is what it is. She said that when she first started homeschooling, she had an extra spare room in her house, and she made it a beautiful homeschool room. You can probably imagine it now. The posters, the tables, the resources, the pencils, the whole shebang. When she was describing her room, a huge smile came upon her face and she goes, and we never used it.
• 12:29
  So here's the thing. A lot of new homeschooling parents think that they have to have a setup like the schools. But the benefit of homeschooling is that it's not a school. And you know what happens when you have a separate dedicated room that you are in all day? You're not getting your life done.
• 12:44
  And I don't know about you, but I like my kids to sit and do their spelling work while I'm preparing lunch. I wanna sit with them and watch one of their video lessons because we have a couple of classes where the lessons are a video and fold the laundry with them. Well, that's a living room. If I was stuck in a spare room with them all day long, I wouldn't be able to get anything done. That's not the style in which I homeschool.
• 13:04
  In fact, and no shade because I will say my beautiful sister has a dedicated homeschool room, and she actually homeschools in that room. And it's beautiful, and she loves her setup, and that's awesome. I just want you to know that if that's not you and you feel like that's stifling your daily rhythms, you don't have to homeschool in a separate room. And permission granted with this next one, you don't have to have a house that looks like you homeschool. So I have been homeschooling from the very beginning.
• 13:31
  I homeschooled other people's kids before my own. And the one thing that was really important to me from the get go was I wanted my kids to have all of the resources. Yes. But I wanted my home to feel like a beautiful home. And to me, that meant not having tons of posters on the walls.
• 13:47
  Now you might want that and that's totally cool, but for me, that's not what I wanted. So what does this look like in real life? You're probably thinking, well, what does Christy's homeschool look like with her four kids? Well, the kids are all in different rooms at any given time. Sometimes they're with me in the kitchen as I'm cutting vegetables.
• 14:02
  Sometimes they're with me in the living room. Often, they are on my bathroom floor because they want to, not because I put them there while I'm getting in hair and makeup, getting ready to film an episode that this happened today just because they don't wanna be alone doing their work, and that's awesome. And they're doing a worksheet by themselves that I'll check later. But the trick is when you don't have a dedicated schoolroom, and I'll get into this trick later, is to make sure everything does have a home because otherwise, the kids are always losing their books and can't find a pencil, yada yada. We'll get into that in just a second.
• 14:30
  My point is is your house doesn't need to look like a school. Mama said that it was okay. Mama said that it was okay. With system three, where most of us are kinda homeschooling all around the house, here is one important thing and a system that really changed everything for us. Everything has a home.
• 14:47
  Now the home might not be in the same exact room, but all of my kids have a home for each of their subjects. And that is how we're able to keep our house tidy. So even though you don't need a school room to organize everything, you do need a place to put all the school y things. So in my dining room, I have one of those buffets that normally you keep all your fancy dishes in. There are no dishes in my fancy buffet thingy that I have.
• 15:13
  What is the actual name for that? Armour? I don't know. But what that is filled with is school supplies for my kiddos, and that's how we're able to tuck things away because we do a lot of schooling on the dining room table. We do a lot of schooling in the living room.
• 15:26
  And what's interesting is we do a lot of the same subjects in the same places. So with math, because we do worksheets, we're not gonna do math on the couch because we need to sit at a table and work on the math with graph paper. So we tend to keep our math things in the dining room tucked away. And then the subjects that my kids do on the couch that are a little bit more casual, those school supplies are tucked right next to the TV, and then some subjects are in their room. So even though you don't need a school room, it is smart to have a place where all the school things go.
• 15:59
  Alright. Let's get into system four, and this is set up your tech and your passwords, the binders, and all of that ahead of time before your technical school year starts. So this is so unglamorous, but it couldn't be more important. Before the first day of school, please go into all of the portals, set up the passwords, get the iPads set up, make sure the logins are working, get the kids their binders that they need with the curriculum in it. Do it together with them.
• 16:30
  Because I've lived every second of doing it the unplanned way, and it's just a disaster. 8AM, first day of school, everyone's sitting down looking at me. Their pencils are sharpened. Their hearts are full, and the website won't load. Or I can't find the book that I was wanting to read.
• 16:47
  Or that other password is wrong. Or somebody needs a verification email sent to an account that nobody even remembers making. Meanwhile, three kids are watching me slowly lose my religion over a spinning wheel on my computer screen. K? Not the vibe.
• 17:03
  Get all your tech squared away before your school year starts. You can even do it with your kids, but do it slowly because it's good for them to learn. If something you think is gonna take fifteen minutes, schedule an hour because you know you know. And then when this inevitably happens during homeschool lesson days, one tip that has kept me from stressing out is I like my kids to have something on the ready always when I do have to get in the weeds with something regarding the homeschooling. So for example, if a code isn't working or a portal isn't working, I like them to have an activity ready where they aren't far and one that they can leave easily and come back to me when I'm working that out.
• 17:41
  It's a nightmare when they are running off to another room to play on their Legos, and then you're screaming come back, and then they're in the middle of something. I think it's really good to set expectations that when mommy's in the weeds with something, these are the activities that you can do. Please stay close, and then when mommy's done, you can come right back. It helps things run so much more smoothly. So this one is short and sweet.
• 18:01
  Figure out all your tech before the school year starts. Things will run so much easier. Okay. Before we go any further, I need to tell you about something that has saved our family a ridiculous amount of money. It's Summit HealthShare, my husband's company, and it is one of the most amazing organizations.
• 18:17
  Thank you for sponsoring this podcast. Now, if you're not familiar with health sharing, here's the short version. It's not health insurance, but it does replace it. What it is is a community of people sharing medical costs, and it's well established and safe. It's actually been around for over a hundred years.
• 18:34
  With Summit HealthShare, families who move over save between 4060% on what they were paying for traditional health insurance, and they have 98% customer satisfaction. And what's cool is you can see any doctor you want, even holistic ones. There are no networks, no permission slips. And there are different plan options depending on what your family needs, including just major medical only. On our plan, which is a little bit more robust, we get free prescriptions, free labs, and no co pays.
• 19:02
  And our family of six saves a thousand dollars a month. And I know it sounds too good to be true, but it's not. It's actually how health care should work. It's just not how insurance companies do it. So here's what to do.
• 19:12
  Go to summithealthshare.com. I'll put a link in the show notes. Take the savings calculator. You can do it in under two minutes, and it will tell you what you should be paying for the care that you need. And when you see that number and how much lower it is than traditional health insurance, you will sprain your ankle running to the phone.
• 19:29
  And when you call, they will walk you through everything. And please tell them that you listen to the show because I want you to have the VIP treatment. So you know how when you meet another homeschool family, you end up talking for, like, an hour? Swapping recommendations, sharing what's working, telling them about the pediatrician who actually gets it, or that you go and see this speech therapist or that OT. That's just how we are.
• 19:49
  We love to take care of each other. That's the whole idea behind The Christy-Faith list, which is entirely free for homeschooling families. It's a directory of colleges, businesses, doctors, reading specialists, any kind of business, you name it, who share our values and want to work with homeschooling families. All those recommendations that you're always passing around, now they're all in one place. And if you're a business owner or part of an organization that loves to work with homeschooling families and wants more business from us, sign yourself up.
• 20:18
  We wanna know who you are, and we wanna support you. Search The Christy faith list today and find the people who know you, get you, and want to work with you. Let's support the people who support us. I will put a link in the show notes. System five, we're going over seven today, so we're chugging along really beautifully.
• 20:35
  And this system is teach the plan for when mom is in the weeds. So number five is my sleeper pick for today, but it marries perfectly with what we just talked about with the tech. So rewind to old me mid morning trying to reset a password with three small people stacked up behind me like planes waiting to land. Everybody needing something. Everybody needing it now.
• 20:56
  The tension you feel when the lesson that you had planned is not happening because the tech isn't working or you can't find that particular book. And what swallows us whole is this lie that we believe that a good homeschool mom is always available, always has an answer on the ready, that we need to be on call every waking second. But what that does is that just trains kids who can't take a step without me. I don't know about you, but those of you who've been homeschooling a while, that pressure that you feel when you're in the middle of a homeschool day and something you have to take an important phone call or you need to figure out how to do that math thing that you haven't done since you were in eighth grade. And then everyone's kinda just sitting there and all the lessons have just stopped because no one knows what to do if you're not telling them what to do.
• 21:36
  That's what we wanna avoid. So think about how to set your kids up that when mom is in the weeds or mom has to step out of the room, what the expectation is for them to work on. And if it is something in particular that they can't move forward on without you, a plan for what is step two that they do do. This is key to homeschool days that run at a clip. So one thing we do in our homeschool is if this is the case where I have to take a phone call, but we're in the middle of something and they can't move on without me, they need me to move on.
• 22:06
  What I've trained my kiddos to do is look at the end of their day with their independent work, whether it's spelling or it's copy work or it's working on their math facts, and I've trained them to go ahead and jump ahead and do one of those when I'm on that phone call. That way they're knocking that off their list. They feel really great about it. And then when I come back, we can move on with our day. It's things like that that we can train earlier than we think.
• 22:26
  Like if mom's unavailable, you pick up your meth fax. If mom's unavailable, you start doing your copy work. Things like that. Your kids are probably always gonna be in some sort of a novel or a book or a reading assignment. So that's what they can work on if you're unavailable for a few minutes.
• 22:39
  It's crazy that just saying this out loud and having it as a plan makes all the difference. But I would suggest one rule, and that is to stay close. Because when you're done being wrapped up in that particular thing that you need to do, that they can come back quickly as well, and you can move on with what you were doing before. That's something we do take it or leave it. With all of the things that I'm saying today, like, if it sounds like it's gonna work for you and your kids are at that age and stage, great.
• 23:03
  If not, shelf it for later. That's okay. Which reminds me, quick note, before we keep building and finish out our systems for this episode today. As you guys know, this show is free to you because our sponsors make it free, and I love them. So make sure to click on the links.
• 23:18
  If you're buying that kind of stuff anyway, man, please click the links and check out what they're doing. We love our sponsors, and as you know, podcasts are not an inexpensive thing to produce. So it is a wonderful way to say thank you. And also don't forget to like and subscribe or give me the stars if I deserve it. Those little robots behind the screen, they push out episodes that have a lot of engagement.
• 23:38
  So if you like watching this show and you think a friend could benefit from it, send it to her. Comment a word of encouragement. Ask a question. We read all the comments, and they help boost the show and put it in front of more eyeballs. So thank you so much.
• 23:51
  It fills my cup. It really does. Alright. Let's get into system six. It might be the big one, and it ties a bow on everything we've said in part one.
• 24:00
  The biggest thing I do to prepare for the school year has nothing to do with curriculum. It's me. I try to do my homework first. Remember in episode one where we talked about you being the variable that curriculum has very little to do with successful homeschooling? It's more in the leader, which is why I even have this show.
• 24:18
  And I don't know if you've gathered it yet, but this show is about leadership development of you, homeschool moms. You can do this well and give your kids what they need now to prepare them for a bright future. That's what we're all about here. So one of the things I make sure to do every year is in the summer, I block off time and not a little time, like consistently regular time during the summer to go subject by subject to read the teacher manuals and to get things set up. We talked about getting the tech set up.
• 24:47
  That's part of this. So if it's a video program, I watch the teacher videos for it. If it's a printed curriculum, I read the teacher pages. I decide how I'm gonna organize it. Will that plan change?
• 25:00
  Yes. But at least I'll have an idea. I have found that it never works well for me to meet lesson for the first time with the kid right next to me who's staring at me with big eyes. It's a little bit tedious. It's not very glamorous, but it really does make a big difference.
• 25:13
  And I just wanna put it as part of the expectation management that the first time you crack open a curriculum probably shouldn't be the first day of school. Now I don't like to say shoulds because I feel like it's talking at people. So maybe a better word for it is just wisdom. It's wise to not be looking at your first exposure to a particular curriculum or a particular lesson right with the kid next to you when you're gonna try to execute the lesson. Some prep is a good thing.
• 25:37
  Alright. We have one system left, and it's the one that flips everything, and I can't wait to get into it right after Is your child struggling with attention, memory, reading, writing, or math? If you're experiencing this, you know how heart wrenching it is to watch them face these hurdles. You've poured love, time, and attention into their education, yet the struggle persists, leaving you feeling stuck and desperately searching for answers. You guys, I want you to know about LearningRx, a proven program designed to help your child's cognitive skills, enabling them to think faster, learn more easily, and perform at their best.
• 26:10
  I'm talking getting real long term help here with things like ADHD and dyslexia. LearningRx is backed by thirty five years of research, and their results are transformative. Use code HOME 50 for $50 off your cognitive skills assessment. Go to learningrx.com or click the link in the show notes. Think homeschooling means doing it all yourself?
• 26:30
  Let me stop you right there. If you're looking for a partner you can trust, one I trust with my own kids, check out True North Homeschool Academy. They're Cognia accredited and offer live online classes and flexible self paced options for grades six through 12. Your teen can pursue a dual degree track or a tech and trades diploma, all with teachers who share your family values. Small classes, college ready rigor, real world skills, and it all fits your schedule in a faith friendly environment.
• 26:59
  Ready to learn more? Head to truenorthhomeschool.academy or click the link in the show notes to explore courses and get started today. Okay. Let's talk about system seven, and this is layer subjects in as you're beginning your new school year. This is something that we teach in Thrive Homeschool Community.
• 27:16
  In one of our modules, we have something called the fail safe homeschool setup. It helps you with every single logistic for setting up your homeschool year. Every single thing. And we're talking scheduling, day, month, year, staying legal, all the things. And in one of the last modules, this is one of the items that we teach.
• 27:31
  Slowly layer in your homeschool subjects. This could mean that the first day of school, you're doing one subject, taking pictures, and then going out for ice cream. And then the next day, you're doing one subject, a read aloud, and then you're exploring a particular curriculum or a portal with your kiddo. And then you keep it there for a while until they feel really good, and those three items are running at a pretty good rhythm. And that could take a week, it could take a week and a half, it could take two weeks.
• 27:58
  And then when they're ready, you layer in the next subject. This works thematically with everything that I've been saying that starting your year with a ton of overwhelm, feeling like a tidal wave, it isn't a peaceful way to start your year. It's a way to feel really overwhelmed, to overwhelm your kids, and to feel like you're not cut out for this when you are. Not only are you cut out for this, but there's no other person on earth that can do this better. But sometimes we just need a few little tips, tricks, and hacks along the way to help things run smoothly.
• 28:27
  And this is one of them. Layer in your subjects. It is perfectly reasonable depending on your kid's age and stage that for the first six weeks, you haven't gotten to all of your subjects yet. That's okay. I wanna set that expectation now.
• 28:40
  In fact, it's probably better. Our co op doesn't start until after Labor Day, so we start our school subjects in early August and kinda get things running at a clip before our co op even starts. And we attend an academic co op. So those are school subjects that then get layered in after that. And here's the cool thing.
• 28:58
  I now have a high schooler who plans his own schedule. And as we were talking about his summer work and his responsibilities and how the school year is going to start, he was talking about layering in his own subjects, and he's already started some of his work now. And it was so cool to hear him think through that because that's how we've been thinking through things and doing things for most of his homeschooling. Now with this before you panic, because you might be and you might be thinking, well, Christy, if we do it that way, we're gonna get our lessons behind and we won't be on schedule. And I get it.
• 29:27
  If you are a mom right now who's feeling tense about ticking the boxes, getting it done, making sure your kid is on grade level, I wanna invite you to buy my book, Homeschool Rising. It's on Amazon. It's very inexpensive, and I have a chapter in there on deschooling. And what I talk about in that chapter is that an education is not about content, it's about the cultivation of a human being. And society has gotten it really wrong and it's so hard to deprogram ourselves.
• 29:52
  But when we finally get to a point where we realize that one, education is not content, and two, even if it was, there's no possible way to cover everything. And let me add a third one. Success in life has very little to do with the content that was covered in grades k to 12. It's more about the skills that were learned in the grades k to 12 because we forget so much of what we've learned. Are you going to abandon academics?
• 30:16
  Absolutely not. I don't either. I'm an academically rigorous homeschooler, but I also try to be age and developmentally appropriate for my kiddos. I try to make sure that our days are peaceful, run at a clip, have a good rhythm, that whatever we're doing, I'm making sure that it's not too much that we can't preserve our relationships. And that is what is going to give them a beautiful, enriching, loving childhood.
• 30:40
  The one that they need with a secure attachment to you. So I hope that is a little bit freeing for you to hear. Now I got lots of freebies on my website. I'll put some in the show notes. I got curriculum recommendations, five minute homeschool style finder.
• 30:53
  I even have a homeschool wellness check. So many free downloads for you. Make sure to get on my website and check out everything I have free for you. And before you go, one thing that I'd hate to leave out, remember Alexis and her gorgeous, never once used schoolroom? That confession and that camaraderie happened in one of our community Zoom calls.
• 31:12
  So if you are hungry to find your people who think the way you do, who want to grow and become better homeschool moms, consider joining Thrive Homeschool Community. It's not always open, so make sure to get on the waitlist because I don't want you to miss when we open. Plus, I like to spoil my waitlisters. And Thrive Homeschool Community is way more than just community Zoom calls. We actually give you the training that you need to do this job well, and we support you all along the way with experts and mentors.
• 31:38
  It truly is a beautiful training community, and I can't wait to meet you in there. So there you have it for today, seven systems. Retrain the chores. Print the rhythm so they can see it. Give everything a home.
• 31:50
  Set up your tech. Teach the plan for the stuck moments, do your own homework before the school year starts, and layer in your content slowly. In part one of this series, we worked on your mindset, and today, we worked on the nuts and bolts, how to build this thing with your hands. And hopefully now, I feel like you got more of the whole thing. Thank you for joining me today.
• 32:09
  I'll see you next time. Doctor. Jimenez