Assigning Grades for Homeschool High School Transcripts: Special Replay

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March 14, 2023 by Leave a Comment

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Assigning Grades for Homeschool High School Transcripts.

Assigning Grades for High School Transcripts

Assigning Grades for Homeschool High School Transcripts

Homeschooling gets serious when our teens hit high school! No more simply learning for the love of learning. Rather, our high schoolers can still love learning but there must definitely be grades because there must also be a transcript!

Many of us homeschooling moms never assigned grades in elementary or middle school. We wanted our kids to learn to love education and not be pressured by grades. However, in homeschool high school, we need to doing some special training:

  • For perfectionistic teens on what a stopping point is. What is GOOD ENOUGH…and learn to stop there!
  • Also, for teens who do not care at all about grades: learning to discipline themselves. What is GOOD ENOUGH for them? (Then work on school assignments until reaching good enough.)
  • Us moms who are too soft or too hard on their teens how to stick to guidelines. Assigning grades helps both our teens and ourselves develop self-discipline!
    • Self-discipline is the key for successful grading.
    • AND self-discipline is a necessary life skill.

SO, grading is serious but it is also helpful! How can we homeschool moms manage grading homeschool high schoolers? In this episode, we share some thoughts about assigning grades for homeschool high schoolers.

Follow Sabrina’s Guideline: Good grading comes from goals

Good planning for your homeschool high schoolers helps you clarify goals (for high school overall and for each course). Clear goals make grading easier!

Make a formula that takes in the goals for each course for each student, including:

  • Effort
  • Mastery
  • Cooperation with peers (in a group class or co-op class)

Remember: You set the goals for your teens. There’s not ONE right way to homeschool high school- or to set goals for a course! If you would like suggestions: check out this episode of Homeschool Highschool Podcast where we discuss goals and grading of writing in high school.

BTW- One way to help set goals for each homeschool high school course is to create a course description. Course descriptions are brief but detailed descriptions of your homeschool high schoolers’ courses. There are lots of details on how to create course descriptions in this post.

Create a rubric for grading.

Rubrics can be enormously helpful when grading. Rubrics help homeschool parents know WHAT to grade. Not only that, but rubrics also help students know what is expected of them. Rubrics are adaptable to any different course or assignment. Start with your goals, then decide what and how to grade.

Explain the rubric to the homeschool high schoolers so that they know what is expected and what will be graded.

Use rubrics, especially in courses that include writing, projects or labs. (Also, avail your teen of the peer review process if you have a co-op class.)

  • In concrete courses like math, you simply need to explain the grading process.
    • % of grade that comes from tests
    • % of grade that comes from daily assignments
    • % of grade that comes from attitude
    • Explain to teens that they will experience *subjective points* occasionally in co-op classes and in college
  • Homeschool moms have the right to adapt rubrics in textbooks for their goals.

For more on rubrics, check out these posts:

For more on assigning grades for homeschool high schoolers, check out these posts:

Join Sabrina, Vicki and Kym for an informative chat about grading homeschool high schoolers.

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Helping Teens Prepare for Their First Job Interview, Special Replay

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March 7, 2023 by Leave a Comment

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Helping Teens Prepare for Their First Job Interview, Special Replay!

Helping Teens Prepare for Their First Job Interview, Special Replay

 

Helping Teens Prepare for Their First Job Interview

Do you remember your first job interview? Remember how it felt trying to think with a clear mind when you’re SO nervous and feel so inexperienced and unprepared? The entire process of job hunting, followed by harrowing interviews is an important rite of passage for teens. If your teen is just starting out with the job hunt, listen to this HSHSP episode first.

Besides being a 7Sister and homeschool coach, I am a Career Coach. I’ve worked with teens and college students as they’ve searched for their first jobs. Sometimes things go great and sometimes the experience happened for character building 😉

Here are some of the goofy experiences teens have shared with me about their first job interviews:

  • Several of the have gotten lost on their way to the interview, so arrived late or almost late (and thus, flustered).
  • One told me about the crabby person who interviewed him. One of the questions she asked (a standard question for many entry-level jobs) was, “What is your greatest weakest?” His rehearsed answer was, “Sometimes I get nervous but I’ve practiced breathing and grounding skills so I’ve always been able to overcome the feelings.” (I thought that was a pretty good answer, myself.) His interviewer became irritated and asked why he had even applied to the job, if that was so.
  • One told me he realized about halfway through the interview, that his his zipper was down.
  • Some have told me they got stumped by a question and felt flustered.
  • I remember early in my career, interviewing in a Human Resources office where the painting behind the interviewer was hanging dramatically crooked. I never knew whether it was a goofy test (how do I address odd things) or they simply didn’t know. What I did decide was, I can’t work at an organization that can’t straighten paintings on the wall.

What I have learned is that preparation is key!

The key to success for your teen's first job interview: prepare, prepare, prepare.

So how do you go about helping teens prepare for their first job interview?

Help guide your teens, this first time around, with these simple tips:

  • Research the company they are applying with.
  • Most companies have a website.
  • Read the history of the company and find out about the corporate culture.
  • Look for buzzwords, “Respect and helpfulness”. Memorize those buzzwords and drop them into the conversation. In fact, prepare a phrase you can throw in. This shows respect for the company, the interviewer’s time, and your teen’s initiative.
  • Look on Linkedin and see if you can find out about your interviewer.
  • This is not an option most of the time for an entry-level job, but if your teen DOES know who will be interviewing him/her this will be helpful:

Rehearse with your teen, the common, basic, entry-level job interview questions. Have him/her write the answers:

  • Tell us about yourself?
    • Prepare ahead of time an elevator pitch (a statement SO short that you could say it between the first and second floors of an elevator ride). For this elevator pitch have them include some vital things about you and where you’re going and what you would like to do for the company.
  • Why do you want to work for us?
    • Think of something that makes you look interested in the company.
  • What is your greatest strength?
    • Sometimes homeschool high schoolers have a difficult time with this question. They feel like they are bragging or prideful if they truly answer the question. However they are not being braggadocious if they have a strength that will help them in the job. It is simply a strength God has helped them build.
  • What is your greatest weakness?
    • Name a mild weakness and what you are doing. Never give a weakness like this:
      • I argue with my parents a lot.
      • I am sort of lazy.
  • What are your salary expectations?
    • The going rate for this position.
  • How you have handled a failure in life?
    • Pick something that shows your problem solving and bounce-back skills
  • Who has mentored you?
    • Tell a story of someone who has been influential in your life. Give details of the story.
  • Why should we hire you?
    • Say something along this line: I believe I can serve this company and make you glad you hired me.

Now it’s time to rehearse with your homeschool high schooler:

  • Have them get dressed in interview clothes.
    • Interview clothes are clean professional clothes. Shirts with buttons (ties optional for guys but do give an edge in some jobs). Clean, closed-toed shoes.
  • Have them enter the room with magic non-verbals (shoulders back, chin up, Mona Lisa smile), carrying 2 extra copies of resume and a notepad and pen.
  • If this is your teen’s first job, have them prepare an experiential resume. 7SistersHomeschool has an easy how-to guide.
  • Offer them a handshake.
  • Offer them to take a seat. (Teen should then sit down, straight-backed and both feet on floor.)
  • Ask them the above interview questions.
  • At the end, have them say, “Thank you, Mrs. __, for the interview.” Then stand and leave calmly.

For the day of the interview, tell your teen:

  • Know where you’re going (maybe drive there the day before just to make sure).
  • Arrive 15 minutes early.
  • Bring 2 extra copies of their resume.
  • Bring a notepad and pin.
  • Make sure all buttons are buttoned and zippers are zipped.
  • Take a few deep breaths before entering the building.
  • Also stand arms akimbo 15 seconds before entering the building (maybe while still in car).
  • Walk into building and interview room with magic non-verbals.
  • Greet interviewer with a professional (firm) handshake.
  • Stand until interviewers sit down.
  • Use interview non-verbals (back straight, feet on floor).
  • Try not to fidget (or jot a few notes instead of fidgeting).

The job interview isn’t over when the interview is over!

  • After the interview, send an email thank you to the interviewer.

First job interviews are stressful, but necessary to gaining that first job. Give your teens the skills for this important life event by joining Vicki for this chat.

You’ll also be blessed by these posts on Career Exploration:

Join our Facebook Page and 7SistersHomeschool Facebook Group for good conversation and encouragement!

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Helping Teens Prepare for Their First Job Interview

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Exploring Engineering for Career, Interview with Engineering Expectations

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February 28, 2023 by Leave a Comment

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Exploring Engineering for Career, Interview with Engineering Expectations.

Exploring Engineering for Career, Interview with Engineering Expectations

Exploring Engineering for Career, Interview with Engineering Expectations

One of the most important subjects for homeschool high schoolers is Career Exploration. While they cannot know everything about the future, it is important for teens to begin to think about what happens after graduation. Many teens do not have a clue until they spend some time in a comprehensive Career Exploration course and discovering various careers.

These days, one of the most in-demand (and good-paying) career is engineering. So Vicki was excited to meet Megan from Engineering Expectations (a program that gives teens a chance to explore this valuable career).

Exploring Engineering with Megan from Engineering Expectations

Megan decided she wanted to be an engineer probably in her high school years. Her interest in it soared when she fractured her spine and had to wear a brace for six months. And even though she was required to wear it twenty-four hours a day for six months, it only had a fifty-percent chance of healing. 

When she went to get fitted for the brace she walked into this big warehouse that was filled with all different braces and prosthetics.

She was flat out amazed at all of those different devices! She started looking into who makes these devices and how she could turn this into a career. Her  parents told her about engineering, so that is when she started digging in. Megan had always excelled at math and science, and those are the subjects she also really enjoyed. She really wanted to pursue it. However, she did not have any engineers in her family, so she really did not understand what engineers do. 

Megan had tons of questions about it, since there are so many different types of engineering. Thus, she wondered how all these types align with what she actually wanted to do in the real world. 

Overcoming discouragement

In her senior year of high school, she took a career aptitude test with her guidance counselor. It actually came out that she should be a social worker. And because her SAT scores were not very good, she was discouraged about pursuing engineering or getting into a good engineering school.

However,  even though she was a little intimidated, Megan decided to trust herself, brave the future and move forward with it! So, she ended up getting into a really good engineering college at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester.

Through hard work she was able to get three internships each summer.

Her last internship was working for a global multi-billion dollar medical device company, Boston Scientific. That is where she fell in love and stayed on part-time throughout senior year.

Tip for homeschool high schoolers:

Megan learned that getting any sort of engineering experience and hands-on work is key to success! That’s what employers really want. Her internships allowed her to get a full-time job working there immediately upon graduation and has been very successful there.

Because of the frustration Megan felt about the opposition of pursuing her engineering dreams from her guidance counselors she started helping other high schoolers through their engineering expectations. 

Engineering Expectations provides tools and resources to help engineering for teens. It delivers information so they can understand what engineers really do and help them figure out what type of engineering is best for them so they can feel confident going into college that they made the right choice. 

How Megan Got Started Investing In The Next Generation 

For starters, Megan wanted to offer the help she never received in high school. She remembers wishing she had a resource or mentor in high school that could give her a little bit of confidence and direction when she was exploring engineering.

The job is so rewarding and much more hands on and more practical than theoretical. For instance, her experience from her medical device company: where she was designing medical devices and mentoring a team of seven younger engineers. 

The mentoring showed Megan how much she loves teaching. 

Because she enjoyed teaching so much, she left the engineering industry and went into academia!

Not only that, Megan noticed so many kids graduating from school with a huge gap between academics and industry. Engineering industry is looking for experience, not just what college is teaching you. Megan really wanted to bridge that gap.

She went on to assist the engineering program at a college and taught a freshman course. Additionally, she was also an academic advisor for engineering students. And there she witnessed so many of the same questions the kids were having about engineering as a whole, what it is, and what they would be doing in  the future.

And this is how Engineering Expectations began.

Exploring Engineering for Career Exploration For High Schoolers

Engineering Skills List

If you go to their website, Engineering Expectations, you can get their engineering skills list for free. Within this list, kids will learn:

  • more about exploring engineering and
  • about soft skills and hard skills (the technical stuff).
    • The key to separating good engineers from great engineers is the competency of the soft skills.

Are You Fit For Engineering Workbook

High schoolers can also see the Are you Fit for Engineering workbook on their website. This workbook walks kids through their 3-step process to figuring out if engineering is the right path for them. It explains more about engineering for teens and goes through the engineering skillset as well as how it aligns with the teen’s skillset and their interests.

The workbook also:

  • dives into what engineers really do and
  • delivers information about the design process
  • as well as gives an example of a day in the life of an engineer.
  • And then it gives an overview of all the different types of engineers
  • and recommended strategy for how to choose a type because that can be really challenging.

Engineering Major Exploration Database

This database is really fun,  and Megan had a blast making this product. She interviewed over twenty different engineers in all different stages of their careers where they give career advice. 

They discuss what degree they pursued and then what they are actually doing with it now so students can really understand all the opportunities available for engineers.One woman Megan interviewed worked with NASA who is trying to design satellites that have been orbiting around for about five years that need a battery replacement. And she is trying to design it from here on Earth.

Engineering Expectations Academy

This is a hands-on course that teaches teens the design process in depth, which is really how engineers actually solve problems. Teens will be exploring engineering by experiencing what engineering is and then they get to work through a real life example on their own. 

Connect with Megan at Engineering Expectations

If you have any questions or follow up, feel free to email Megan at megan@engineeringexpectations.com or head over to the website, Engineering Expectations. 

Thank you to Richie Soares with Homeschool and Humor for writing this blog post!

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Homeschooling in Canada, Interview with Teresa Wiedrick

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February 21, 2023 by Leave a Comment

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Homeschooling in Canada, Interview with Teresa Wiedrick.

Homeschooling in Canada, Interview with Teresa Wiedrick

Homeschooling in Canada, Interview with Teresa Wiedrick

If you Google “homeschool life coach,” the person you come up with is Teresa Wiedrick with Capturing The Charmed Life. As a homeschool life coach Teresa helps homeschool mamas with their own self-care. Isn’t that the best? Isn’t this what we all need?

In addition to this, Teresa and her family live Canada. We love to hear about homeschooling in countries besides the US! (Have you heard the interview with Kat Patrick about homeschooling in the United Kingdom?)

About Teresa Wiedrick

Teresa has been homeschooling for about two decades now and she has four kids. Her oldest is now 21, and her youngest is going on 14. She lives in British Columbia, Canada, which is across the continent from the 7Sisters (we are in Maryland and Delaware)! In her before-homeschooling days, she was a nurse and then began officially life coaching.

In her non-homeschool years, when her two oldest were in private school, she came across a book called The Homeschool Option by Lisa Rivera. She did not pick up the book for the reason you probably think though. She really picked up the book to get her arguments against homeschooling. 

But by the end of the week, she was convinced to homeschool! Therefore, two years later they started homeschooling. 

Then she picked up Susan Wise Bauer’s Well Trained Mind book and decided to put all that she learned in the book into practice for the next three-to-four years. But that homeschooling practice was not a good fit for her family. In fact, she was ready to find any yellow bus to take her kids back to school.

The overwhelm of this time is the inspiration of her own book: Homeschool Mama Self-Care, Nurturing the Nurturer. The book addresses the overwhelm you can sometimes feel as a homeschool mom as well as boundary issues and all the big emotions that come with it. She literally lived the experiences and shares help for those tough times. 

As her family got busy homeschooling, Teresa got the opportunity to connect with moms from all different walks of life, with very many different kinds of homeschooling approaches and with different challenges. She loves this! For her, that’s the joy of homeschool and the joy of life coaching – walking with people through the different joys and challenges of life. 

What It’s Like Homeschooling In Canada

Although Canada is not far away across the sea, there are differences (and similarities) for homeschoolers there.

To put into perspective, the United States has about 332 million people. Canada, on the other hand, has 39 million, which is a lot fewer people. The general sense of the United States is that there is a lot more homeschooling going on, especially in certain zones. 

In contrast, homeschoolers in Canada are about 0.7% of the school-aged population. However, are many more homeschoolers in the last few years than there ever has been.

If you think about the size of the population and the population distribution is that people are more spread out over wider distances in Canada. There are thirteen provinces and territories in Canada. The prairie provinces, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba have the highest numbers of homeschool students.

The way that you go about homeschool enrollment is a bit different from province to province (similar to the United States’ varying rules from state to state). 

Homeschooling In Canada

To homeschool in Canada, you submit your child’s name and pin number to tell a public school you are homeschooling. Many schools will try to dissuade you from homeschooling. 

But you can legally homeschool (by section 1213). You are able to take your kids home, create an academic program for them that seems fit to them, and you do not have to have anyone overseeing your program. It is a lot of freedom with very little supervision. 

You can also participate in what is called a distributed learning program, which could possibly turn into an online learning program very soon. British Columbia is specifically changing to that type of oversight, meaning you will be under the auspices of the entire education system. A distributed learning program means that the British Columbian government can dictate what you use or what kind of learning outcomes you need to meet. So for a family that really likes that structure and oversight, that would be a choice.

Some homeschoolers are very dependent on the province, thereby very dependent on the government. The province determines how liberal or how conservative you can be in your homeschool. It very much depends on the culture of the government. 

Unfortunately, the homeschooling laws now seem to be about to shift. Many people are currently disappointed at how things are tightening up in the British Columbia (although each province is different). 

When we are self-aware, we really can transform challenges into charms. -Teresa Wiedrick

About Capturing The Charmed Life

Pretty much right from the beginning, Teresa knew she needed her separate time away to keep balance in her homeschooling. Therefore, every Wednesday night for two hours she would go to Starbucks and write about homeschooling. Within four or five months, she started a blog called Capturing the Charmed Life.

She has considered changing the name of the website because she did not want to give this impression that homeschooling is one large wonderful utopia…Because some days it is, but then some days it’s not. 

At the end of the day, Teresa kept the website name because at our core, that is what we really want. We want that charmed life. One which is filled with freedoms and sometimes requires ourselves to become self-aware and to show up on purpose in our lives. And not just in our homeschool, but in our everyday lives. Because when we do that, we really can transform those challenges into charms. 

Teresa’s website, book, and podcast are not about capturing the perfect life. They are about challenges being transformed to charms and looking for those beautiful things in your daily life. They are about showing up on purpose in your homeschool and life. There are moms who are having real challenges yet are being how they want to be in their homeschools without losing themselves in that homeschool role.

There are also moms with significant or mild boundary issues, where they are dealing with big emotions or are overwhelmed. They do not actually know how to get out of that overwhelming state. Teresa helps these moms find clarity on what’s going on. And that does not just mean finding the right curriculum. It means she helps moms feel encouraged and calibrated to do that calling of homeschooling, to help enhance who they are in the homeschool realm. Not just as the homeschool parent and showing up in that role, but also who they are beyond that. 

Teresa elaborates this in her book, which happens to be the origin of all the reasons why she discovered she had to figure out how to approach homeschooling in a different way. She helps other moms know how to show up on purpose in their life rather than just going with the flow of the present day.

Connect With Teresa Wiedrick

You can find Teresa on her website called Capturing The Charmed Life.

Check out our other interviews with Teresa: How to Engage Homeschool High Schoolers

Also, Teresa is one of our special Cousins at 7SistersHomeschool. Our Cousins are special friends we trust to share ideas and resources with our homeschool community.

Thank you to Richie Soares with Homeschool and Humor for writing this blog post!

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Resources for Special Needs Homeschoolers, Interview with Dr. Rochelle Matthews-Somerville

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February 14, 2023 by Leave a Comment

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Resources for Special Needs Homeschoolers, Interview with Dr. Rochelle Matthews-Somerville.

Resources for Special Needs Homeschoolers, Interview with Dr. Rochelle Matthews-Somerville

If you are looking for information and resources for homeschoolers with special needs, you are in the right place today. Because today we are with Dr. Rochelle Matthews-Somerville, an expert in special education and provides helpful tips on how to create a successful homeschooling environment for special needs children. 

About Dr. Rochelle Matthews-Somerville

Rochelle is a wife and mama of six boisterous kids, all very, very different from one another. She has been homeschooling for almost fifteen years now, and her biggest accomplishment was graduating her oldest son in 2021. 

They did not know if they would be able to make it happen but they did, and he was homeschooled all the way through. And now, her son is about to graduate at the University of Maryland as a mechanical engineer.

But before this great accomplishment, Rochelle did not necessarily know if she wanted to homeschool, having not been a homeschooler herself, although she knew she loved learning. 

She had very intimate, passionate and positive images and memories of her schooling. Her mother was a teacher, and what she remembers in her childhood is a deep love of learning. She enjoyed learning about everything around her all the time even when she was not in school, such as during days trips with her family and at church. 

What she grew up with was a positive understanding and idea of learning. And this was exactly what she wanted for her own children, to have that same positive image of their childhood. 

When She Decided To Homeschool

Fast forward to the birth of her first-born son who was actually born two weeks after she received her doctorate degree. And as he grew up, they had tons of rich learning experiences out in the community, and she ensured she was very present with him, soaking up education all around him during his first few years. 

At that time, she was also working at the university, and it was time for him to go to school. Rochelle did not want him to stop loving learning. And she did not want it to be shoved “in the box.” 

She did not want his learning to be tamed

Because what he had learned so far was not necessarily systematically appropriate for his age level, or what society or the public school system considered “ready” as a kindergartner. 

For example, if he learned a piece of calculus, he learned that’s what it was. If he learned a piece of social studies that was typical for sixth grade, that is what he learned. This reasoning prompted her with the final decision to homeschool her son.

When she decided to homeschool, she wasn’t running away from anything. She always tells people she was running to something, like the ability to be free with just learning. 

It was the most exciting time in the world for Rochelle. And their homeschool style was very eclectic. But her family was skeptical if any learning was happening. 

Because their homeschooling looked very different from what they were used to seeing for educating a child in a traditional sense. Rochelle still worked full-time and after she got off work, she would come home, eat dinner with her family, and then would do a little school for about one to two hours in the evening.

Her Professional Experience

Rochelle has had a myriad of experiences in her homeschooling years. She is a full-time consultant with Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). She is also the team leader of the Special Needs Educational Consultants.

In addition to that, Rochelle owns her own educational consultant company. Furthermore, she is a mentor teacher, and she pours into the community. She’s also a director for Classical Conversations, which is her local homeschool group.

She believes that she is a vessel in the mission field for God. And she absolutely loves every single minute of it! 

Her website is full of richness and wisdom for you, especially if you have a child you are curious about whether there’s some learning disabilities or differences, and you want advice.

A Mecca of Resources

Rochelle was looking for support for students with a special needs because there weren’t many from what she could find. She decided she was going to be a change maker and step out on faith. She created her own company called EFM Education.

What she did was create small groups and programs and just community support that included not only students with special needs, but also non-disabled students. 

And because she also has a personal investment in it with three of her kids being neurodivergent, she created a space for homeschool moms to get some encouragement and guidance from somebody who is trained, an experienced expert and also a real life mom who understands.

Rochelle is a mecca of resources, as she puts it. Sometimes families just don’t know where to go to find resources. Although she cannot necessarily list every resource, she can get moms or dads on the right path. 

What she says to moms feeling insecure about homeschooling or to moms who went to college to get a degree and became a homeschool mom:

How can you not give the best of you? They may be experts in the curriculum, but you are the expert in your children. Nobody knows your children like you. Nobody is invested in your children like you. Our children are our richest investment. You are not wasting anything investing in these kids.

Tips For Moms With Neurodivergent Kids

Let’s focus on the important things 

Reset and focus before you begin to plan. Think about the reasons why you are even homeschooling or considering homeschool. Think about what is unique and special about your child. Do not think about the obvious answers, think more about the deep-seated ones. 

Then think about your goals. What are your personal goals for this particular child? 

Once you do that, you realize you do know your child, and you start believing you can do this. Because if you only focus on remediating, you forget that you are bringing lots of strengths to the table. 

Hone in on what your child is good at and what their strengths are

Anything that your child is good at, start working from that strength, not from what he is not good at. Whatever the strength is that your child, he or she is bringing that to the table. 

If your child is funny, work from that strength. If your child is a good artist, start there. It doesn’t matter if your child is not reading by the third grade because you can work on those strengths.

For example, you can take that funny personality and work through all these others. There is a place for everybody. There is a skillset that you can shape. 

Know that there is something for everybody

When discouraged parents say they do not think their child is ever going to get a job, that is not true. There is something for everybody. Every job is gracious and valuable in God’s eyes. 

If the Trashman did not go up and down the street, if the mailman did not go up and down the street, if the person did not stock the shelves or did not stack the books correctly, this world would be total chaos. Every little bit counts. 

Some require you to interact with people. Some require you to never talk to a person.You really just have to process what your child’s strengths and weaknesses are and figure out where they belong.

If your child is not a communicator, you can find a job where they never have to talk to anybody.

Not everybody has to be a rocket scientist to have a place in society. You just have to figure out what their strengths and weaknesses are and what you need to do in order to get them to that space. 

How To Connect With Dr. Rochelle Matthews-Somerville

Now you know why you need to work with Dr. Rochelle Matthews! As insightful as this is, there’s so much more you can learn from her through her website and resources. Her website is EFM Education and you can contact her via email at info@efmeducation.com or directly on the phone at (240) 528-0867.

You can also find her at HSLDA.org or via email at special needs@hslda.com. 

Also, check out these resources:

Thank you to Richie Soares with Homeschool and Humor for writing this blog post!

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How to Talk to Your Teens about Drugs

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February 7, 2023 by Leave a Comment

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: How to Talk to Your Teens about Drugs.

How to Talk to Your Teens about Drugs

How to Talk to Your Teens about Drugs

Are you wondering how to talk to your homeschool high schooler about drugs? Many of our homeschool kids are not going to be directly exposed to drug use. It is not going to be a rampant thing in their communities or experiences. However, they are going to run into it out in the work world when they go to college. 

They may have friends that may have some issues, and they will have to make their own decisions once they are out there on their own. Knowing how to talk to teens about drugs is an extremely important topic. 

Talking To Your Teens About Drugs

One of the things to think about is that while we have our teens pretty sheltered in lots of homeschool situations, our teens will have exposure to drugs. They need to have some idea of what is going on in the world and how to handle it. 

One of the things to do is just start with a good health curriculum. 7Sisters has a health curriculum where we gently talk about drugs, drug use, abuse prevention and more called High School Health for the Whole Person. This is a no-busywork, no-nonsense, not-preachy approach to talking about all aspects of health:

  • spirit
  • soul
  • body
  • social
  • cultural pressures and more. 

Make An Intentional Plan To Talk

Every family should plan to have that the uncomfortable sex talk with our homeschool high schoolers, but we should also have a talk about drugs and our culture regarding them. 

This does not mean you have to know all the things drug related. It just means that you need to actually talk about the substances in general, what your family norms are and what you want them to be.

Alcohol and drugs are pervasive in our culture. There are drugs that are illegal. And then there are drugs that are not really illegal, but they are very addictive.

Just sit down with your teens and let them know there are mind altering substances out there. Alcohol is the most common. Also, once they are in college, they might have opportunities these days to go down to a dispensary to try marijuana. Talk about this, what would be the risks and realities of experimenting?

Melanie Wilson talks more about this in her Homeschool Sanity podcast episode on preparing teens for college.

Explain Your Family Norms and Rules

Let your teens know what your norms are in your family, and then talk about what your family rules are. Be open and honest because it is extremely important when you have the talk. 

Be Genuine

Approach it in a way that is very authentic to you. Do not lecture and do not act like you know more than you know. Also, do not cover up your discomfort if you feel uncomfortable talking about drugs. Be genuine in how you feel and let your teen know if it is weird for you too.

Deliver The Talk In Five-Minute Chunks

One way to deliver this talk is in five-minute chunks. Find a way that is going to be congruent with you, whether it is a spread out little talk or a one big sit-down-together talk. It can be for fifteen minutes or be for an hour. 

Talk about what you understand and what your expectations are in a non-lecture approach. Also, be sure you include why you think about things the way you think about them. 

Listen To Your Teen’s Opinions and Questions Calmly

One of the most helpful things is to let teens ask you questions and give their opinions. If they have a question or an opinion, listen to it calmly. Even if they ask a snarky question because sometimes teens are snarky and ask curious questions about the things they do not know. 

Research Information About Drugs

You can find information about drugs at several legitimate sources:

Tell your teen that you are going to learn about it together. 

If they are exposed to a negative role model in some aspect of their family or friends, talk about that and let them know what they can learn from that.

What to Do If They Have A Friend Who is Using Drugs

When talking to your teens about drugs, let them know what to do if they have a friend they are concerned about. Teens do not want to be tattletales, so help your teens to start formulating a plan if they see their friends making a mistake. That way they will know how to handle it.

Help them understand the value of a gentle confrontation. Also, discuss what to do if they are afraid somebody is in danger. 

Leave The Door Open For Future Conversations

Just as important as talking to your teen, prepare for the future by leaving the door open for future conversations. Sometimes teens will talk to you about uncomfortable topics and sometimes they won’t. Keep that door open regardless.

Every teen does their own development and as they go off to college, they are going to have their own experiences. So if you have talked enough ahead of time, they will be more comfortable about knowing what to do if they have a concern about something like this.

One of the most useful episodes we have at the Homeschool High School Podcast is an interview with Seth and Caroline Tillman, my youngest son and his wife, called College Safety and Fun for Homeschool Graduates. Seth and Caroline went through the whole state-college experience with their friends. Some of the topics they shared on the podcast episode is not just about what to do when you run into a drug use situation at a friend’s party, but also how to keep safe in general.

How to Talk to Your Teens about Drugs

Drug use is not our favorite topic to be talking about, but we live in a world where it is just a real problem. And not talking about it doesn’t help – it hurts, not helps. It is critical to know how to talk to your teens about drugs. Then discuss it with them because when your teens are out on their own, they will be prepared. They will be ready to manage life for themselves and if they have questions, they know they can come back and talk to you.

Our 7SistersHomeschool Facebook group is such a good place to ask questions and have a discussion with your 7Sisters and the 7th Siblings. We have got lots of homeschooling moms and dads who you can throw a question in the group and people will share their experiences and ideas. And that’s why we want to do this homeschool thing together – to support each other. 

Thank you to Richie Soares with Homeschool and Humor for writing this blog post!

Join Vicki for tips on talking about drugs with your teens.

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Why is Junior Year SO Important for High Schoolers? Special Replay

A Production of the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.
January 31, 2023 by Leave a Comment

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Why is Junior Year SO Important for High Schoolers? Special Replay! This is a special replay of a classic episode.

Why is Junior Year SO Important for High Schoolers?

Why is Junior Year SO Important for High Schoolers?

Junior year is a VERY important year for homeschool high schoolers. Whether they are college bound or career bound, there are some important goals for junior year.

Remember, there’s not ONE right way to homeschool high school. However, homeschooling parents must face the fact their teens face a pivotal year in 11th grade. A big year. A really big year.

Stressed already?

  • Take a couple of deep breaths
  • Pray!

Okay, let us calmly explain why junior year is such a big deal for non-college-bound teens and college-bound teens. 😉

Non-college-bound teens

During 9th and 10th grade high schoolers tend to work on discovering their strengths and weaknesses and defining some interests. By junior year, career-bound teens need to:

  • Develop those strengths and start exploring the skills needed to move into a career
  • Catch up the subjects that are behind
  • Build solid life skills and preparation (including necessary networking skills)

If they are caught up as well as life and career aware, career-bound homeschool high schoolers will have senior year mostly free for serious apprenticeships or internships so they graduate ready to work in a skilled area.

If your 11th grader is not sure about career choices, look at a good Career Exploration curriculum and see if you can arrange some shadowing experiences.

For subjects teens are straggling:

College-bound teens

Junior year is the FINAL year that college admissions advisors will view as completed on the high school transcript. When teens apply to college they will only be able to show what they are studying. This is the year that everything than needs to look powerful, looks powerful.

  • Begin college search discussions
    • What are teens and parents both expecting and willing to contribute financially
    • What types of colleges will meet your teens academic, financial, career-goal needs as well as healthy-atmosphere needs
    • Check out this post for college search help
  • Make sure enough Career Exploration has been done if teens need help choosing college major
    • If you need help, choosing college majors with your teens, contact Vicki at VickiTillmanCoaching.com and/or visit 7SistersHomeschool.com for Career Exploration courses.
  • Set expectations that your teens will work hard during junior year
    • Tell teens: Wear yourself out academically and get enough sparkle on the transcript (leveling up and sparkle courses)
  • Build the extracurriculars, service and competitions
  • Check on life skills
  • Have enough off-the-clock fun and rest to stay healthy and avoid burnout

At the end of the year, teens should be tired (but not burned out)!

Join Sabrina, Vicki and Kym for a big episode, a really big episode…well, anyway, join us for fun and encouragement! Also, check out these posts.

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Why is Junior Year SO Important for High Schoolers?

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Helping Teens Handle Winter Blues

A Production of the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.
January 24, 2023 by Leave a Comment

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Helping Teens Handle Winter Blues.

Helping Teens Handle Winter Blues

Helping Teens Handle Winter Blues

Many folks do not like winter. That is okay. However, at times the not-like-winter actually becomes more than that. It becomes winter blues.

The official name for Winter blues is “seasonal affective disorder.” But sometimes it is not a full disorder, it’s just a “who likes winter?” mindset.

The winter is cold and the days are short. The sky is gray most of the time and seems to just hover six inches above our heads (especially in the mid-Atlantic, where we live). 

Closed in and gray. That makes it hard to have the energy to do your best at homeschooling. With that in mind, here are some ideas for you from real life experiences and trainings I have had as a mental health counselor. In my career, I have worked with number of homeschool families and clients who have the winter blues. (It is probably more common than you think.)

What Are The Winter Blues?

Have you noticed that you and or your teens are feeling kind of down? Where your body feels lethargic, like you have to almost carry yourself around or drag yourself from place to place? It would be easy to just sit on the couch and watch YouTubes all day long.

Teenagers may feel like hibernating. That is, they might want to just sleep all day long. Unfortunately this messes up their biorhythms. Then they stay awake later and later into the night. And that just becomes this vicious cycle of everything being off rhythm…which actually adds to that lethargic and winter blues feeling.

Many people will also experience carb cravings. As if your body is saying, I need ice cream and chips all day long. I need it. I need it. However, what your body (or your teen’s body) is trying to say is that it is running low on serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that is in charge of much of our energy, concentration and our good moods.

Our serotonin will often dip during the wintertime. That is related in part to a lack of vitamin D because there is not enough sunshine for the lifestyles that we live. Therefore, we have to do some things to help our serotonin along.

Here are some things we can do for helping teens handle winter blues (and anyone else, for that matter). 

Ways To Beat The Winter Blues

There are several ways to help make the winter blues get better.

Get Full Spectrum Lamp or Light Bulbs

The first thing is really practical, yet easy to miss. Get a full spectrum lamp or a few full spectrum light bulbs. Put them in any lamp that is sitting around the house. 

These are lights that have all of the light rays except for the dangerous ones. It is not the kind that gives you a sunburn, but you are getting a mimicking of sunlight from this light bulb.

If you get one of these lamps or light bulbs in one of the family lamps and put it within three or four feet of your teen while leaving it on for about fifteen minutes as they do their schoolwork, on most days, they will usually start feeling a bit better after a while.

However some teens don’t like that much intensity of light around them. In this case, just stick the light in a corner of a room and leave it on for about an hour during the day. You will be able to get enough light  to raise energy levels. This helps with focus and with those carb cravings. 

God made light to be a therapeutic thing for us, and when we can’t have it from His natural sun, get these fancy little lights that don’t cost all that much from the hardware store or the grocery store or simply order one. 

Take Walks

Another thing you can do for helping teens handle winter blues is to take a walk. Even though it is cold outside in the wintertime, if you can get outside and move your bodies you’ll be able to walk off daily stress hormones that burn off stress which increases a neurotransmitter called dopamine. 

Dopamine can work together with serotonin with the full spectrum light to significantly improve mood and specific direct focus on the things teens need to pay attention to. 

But sometimes you just aren’t able to get outside and go for that walk. When that happens, find YouTube videos with exercise. In fact, 7 Sisters has a fitness curriculum with exercise videos, taking kids through safe and healthy physical activity. It doesn’t particularly matter what the movement is; it just needs to be some form of movement. 

However, according to the research at the University of California, if you go outside and have trees around you, simply seeing the trees will increase some of the neural activity that improves mood. A bare tree in the wintertime is somehow good for mood. 

Eat Healthy Food

Another thing for helping teens handle winter blues is eating healthy food. Healthy foods mean good proteins, colorful fruits and vegetables because good protein and colorful food have micronutrients that work together to literally make those neurotransmitters work. 

Teens are short on these micronutrients, which are like the Legos you snap together to make a neurotransmitter. And the most important one is serotonin. 

And teens learn about this in a 7 Sisters homeschool health curriculum because we want them to know they are not just eating healthy food because mom said so. There is really a neurological reason to eat healthy foods besides all the obvious health benefits of it.

Monitor Sleep Patterns

Monitoring and watching sleep patterns can be difficult because it becomes an active will sort of activity. A lot of times, teenagers in the wintertime want to sleep and sleep and then sleep some more. And, true, teenagers do need a lot of sleep, and they probably need a little extra sleep in the wintertime. 

But more than 10 hours is going to overdose them with melatonin, which is the hormone that keeps them asleep while they’re sleeping. This will cause them to feel groggy which can lead to depressive kinds of feelings. Literally, over 10 hours becomes toxic. 

Somehow, you have to work out a deal with your teen that 10 hours is the max. They can sleep in every once in a while, like once a week perhaps, because they’re teenagers, and they deserve to sleep in one day. They shouldn’t go under seven hours very often, but ten hours should be the max.

If they mix up their day and night schedule, you can help them slowly get back to normal so that they are sleeping during the night and awake while the sun is up.  

Have them up and awake in the hours when the sun is up, which is really just the way the body needs things to happen because it does its healing hormones while they sleep and does it best in the dark. And similarly, they have other things their body needs to do while they’re awake

Get Them Laughing

One of the best things you can do is to get your teen laughing. To feel better, everybody needs some laughter in their lives. We know from scripture that a Mary heart does good like a medicine, and it really does. 

Research shows when we laugh, our body releases endorphins and oxytocins that improve mood, but are actually good for our immune system. Isn’t that wild? 

This means if you haven’t had a chance to laugh together, find something funny like movies or Netflix or YouTube videos or things you know will get good giggles out of each day. 

You will find laughter is healthy for the body and soul, and a family that laughs together likes life better together.

Do Fun Stuff For School

Grab the curriculum that is boring you to tears and set it aside. Then take two weeks off that curriculum and, in its place, do fun things that count as school. 

You can read a silly book like JIS and Wooster and do a study guide for it or even do some cinema study guides for literature learning. You can count those as books instead of the usual books and field and study guides. 

Just mix things up or go on some unusual field trips, like a museum you haven’t been to in years or go drive to a different indoor state park or national park if there’s one nearby. 

Changing the boring things up will cause a change in rhythm and when you get back to the rhythms, it is actually very healthy for the brain. It helps the brain to calibrate, reduces anxiety, and helps them feel better. So change things up on the academics and in the experiences for helping teens handle winter blues.

Helping Teens Handle Winter Blues

What are some ideas or ways to beat the winter blues that you found? Are there some fun things that you do to mix things up and make it fun? We would love to hear about it, so send us an email or throw something out in the 7 Sisters Homeschool Facebook group because we all learn together. You matter and we all appreciate you being there.

Join Vicki for some helpful tips on handling winter blues.

Thank you to Richie Soares with Homeschool and Humor for writing this blog post!

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We Don’t Mom-Shame at Homeschool Highschool Podcast- Special Replay

A Production of the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.
January 17, 2023 by Leave a Comment

This week on HSHSP: We Don’t Mom-Shame at Homeschool Highschool Podcast- Special Replay. This is a replay of a classic episode.

We Don't Mom-Shame at Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Special Replay

We Don’t Mom-Shame at Homeschool Highschool Podcast

Join Vicki and Sabrina, together in the same room for this week’s episode! It’s been a while since they have found the time to get together, what with Sabrina traveling so much. Hey, if you need an inspiring speaker with a gripping story, contact her.

In this episode of Homeschool Highschool Podcast, we are talking about *mom-shaming*. In short: we don’t mom-shame!

Mom-shaming is easy to fall into: When life isn’t working out how we want it to, it is easy to project our frustrations onto other (whether we know we are doing it or not). Then we begin to judge. Next we begin to correct others (whether they asked for it or not). Then we begin to fix others (whether they asked for it or not). That’s mom-shaming.

Mom-shaming is especially easy when we are on social media, because the barriers to slow us down are so low. That’s sad because when we mom-shame, we create a culture of fear.

We don’t mom-shame at 7Sisters or here on HSHSP.

Motherhood is all about guilt, so it is easy to feel guilty without our friends’s help.

We don’t mom-shame! With age we 7Sisters have learned a thing or two about grace and patience over the years (whether we asked God to teach us that or not). All our homeschoolers have graduated and we found that they all have different:

  • Personalities
  • Needs
  • Abilities
  • Interests

We could tailor their academics and extracurriculars into a box that some friend, some speaker or some publisher says we should use.

But tailoring our many kinds of kids into another person’s box is a destructive strategy.

Instead, we recommend that you look at each child. Ask yourself:

  • What can you invest in them?
  • What tools can you give them individually?

Then boldly begin to invest in your homeschoolers the best that you can, knowing that you will be good enough by God’s grace…but that you will need His grace.

boldly begin to invest in your homeschoolers the best that you can, knowing that you will be good enough by God's grace...but that you will need His grace.

In the early days of homeschooling, there were a few big voices (opinionated thought leaders who sometimes said that homeschooling needed to happen THEIR way). Now that we have the internet, there are not just a few big voices. Rather, there are many voices and a some of them will say THIS is the way to homeschool. They sometimes imply the ominous: If you don’t homeschool OUR way, you are dooming your kids!

The real truth is: Our kids and our families are on a journey of growth and discovery. Each journey is different. We need to be sensitive to the needs of each of our homeschoolers. That’s why we don’t mom-shame.

Remember: We invest in our kids the best we can but God is in charge of the outcomes. (Thanks to our friends, The Fletchers at Homeschooling in Real Life, for that quote.)

So, want our advice?

  • Motherhood is all about guilt.

    • We will never do good enough in our own eyes. We can do the best we can.
    • The needs are infinite and we are finite, so we must daily go to HIM on how to handle things.
    • Sometimes this looks like a programmatic curriculum or philosophy, sometimes it doesn’t.

  • While each of us are individuals, we are also in need of community.

    • We can be good sisters in community.
    • When we feel the need to fix someone, pray first, ask a question…privately.
    • A kind question, not a leading question, not a point-out-your-problems question
    • If done in public, questioning is unkind and invites little but defensiveness.
    • Ask yourself: What is my intent?
    • Are you guided by humilty (beware of pride or fear on your part)?
    • Look to be a sister, a support, do not fix your sister.

  • Model this for your kids.

    • With curriculum: You kid-shame if you have feel you “have to do it this way, kids, suck it up and just do it.”
    • That could lead to shaping character that is harsh and rigid and teaching them to feel helpless and frustrated.
    • If they are writing a paper with seven tabs open that do not have anything to do with. If they are clearly doing something wrong, it is a parent’s job to point that out.
    • If they are struggling or bored, try something like this: “I see you are not liking Chemistry. What is not working for you?”
    • Ask questions that show you care, you are curious about what is working and what is not.

This is why 7SistersHomeschool.com’s curriculum exists. It is adaptable, no-busywork to fit many homeschoolers’ needs. However, we know that it will not fit everyone because there’s not ONE right way to do homeschooling! (So, we have a money-back guarantee.) To help adapt curriculum to needs: In each text or literature/writing guide, there are instructions on how to adapt to various goals and abilities. Also check out the syllabus available for many of the texts.

We want you to feel more confident as you grow in God’s work in you and your homeschoolers.

Check us out at 7SistersHomeschool.com

Join Vicki and Sabrina for encouragement and support and NO mom-shaming!

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We don’t mom-shame at Homeschool Highschool Podcast

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How to Get Started Starting Things, Interview with Natalie Mack

A Production of the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.
January 10, 2023 by Leave a Comment

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: How Get Started Starting Things, Interview with Natalie Mack.

How to Get Started Starting Things, Interview with Natalie Mack

How Get Started Starting Things, Interview with Natalie Mack

We have our friend, Natalie Mack, with us today to discuss starting things. Natalie is a mom of homeschool high schoolers (and graduates), a military spouse, author, speaker and consultant to the military homeschool community for HSLDA. You already know her from previous interviews such as Tips for Homeschooling High School.

One of the things that homeschoolers seem to do a lot is: starting things! And Natalie understands that sometimes you just start things because your kids need it to happen. A few of the things Natalie has started in her community include:

National Beta Club,

About Natalie Mack

To start, Natalie usually has to sit on her hands to keep herself from starting another project. However, because her teens have had so many interests AND because there were not ready opportunities for them to get involved with those interests, Natalie has had to start a number of new activities for her area.

When you want to get started with starting an organization, simply contact them, tell your story, ask what needs to happen in order to start a branch or local group. That is what Natalie has done over and over. Her teens and others in the community have been truly blessed.

In no particular order, let’s talk about the things she has started for her homeschool high schoolers and homeschool community! 

Congressional Award

As a military spouse, Natalie’s teens have volunteered a lot. Her family has always been a family of service – specifically, military service. But separate from that service in their military communities, they have given back, a charitable service very important to them as a family.

Having said that, Natalie realized years ago in her military spouse service that there was something called the Presidential Service Right Award. She was being asked to give her hours so that they could be calculated, so she looked into it, and by doing so, she found the Congressional Award.

She started the Congressional Award for the volunteers of her support group, Ft. Belvoir Home Educators. She wanted them to be able to get credit for their services, along with anyone over the age of thirteen to get credit for their volunteer work. At first, Natalie thought no one would respond to the Congressional Award when she promoted it on social media channels. But she did get responses and people came out of the woodworks to volunteer.

Natalie saw this opportunity and did not keep it to herself. She shared it on social media and that is all it took to give other people the confidence to jump in on the process.

National Beta Club

Next on Natalie’s to “done” list is the National Beta Club, a club for homeschoolers. It started in 1934 in Spartanburg, South Carolina and has lasted over eighty years so far. 

Many famous people have been a part of the National Beta Club, such as Kevin Duran and President Clinton to name a few. It currently has 445,000 active members and 9,600 clubs nationally and internationally.

So what is the National Beta Club, exactly? Beta has four principles that they seek:

  • Achievement
  • Character
  • Leadership
  • Service

They recognize and honor “Achievement,” which means students can compete in their state and national conventions to take tests in academic subject areas.This helps pre prepare young people for life and empowers them to be successful. 

Beta club chapters have presidents and offices that the students serve. They present leadership skills and make speeches for their peers to choose who should serve in office. It is leadership developing the leaders of tomorrow, which is what the Beta club focuses on primarily. 

The Beta club has done charity work in homeless shelters, where a representative will go and speak to the people there. This is one way for the kids of the club to know about those who are less fortunate and teach them how important it is that everyone is all in this together. 

This Club was the only homeschool club available in their area in the Washington, DC area. There are two different ones depending on age, beginning with a Junior Beta from 4th grade to 8th grade and then a Senior Beta from 9th grade to 12th grade, and they had both clubs. 

Natalie got involved with the Beta Club when she heard they opened the doors to homeschoolers. She felt God was tapping her on my shoulder to join. And so she did!

Homeschool Moms: If our teens need it, we can start it!

A few of the other leadership opportunities and services Natalie’s teens have been a part of are:

  • The Fairfax County Watershed Cleanup
  • A military organization called Blue Star Organization

They also partner with Starbucks to put yellow ribbons on Christmas trees in the Starbucks so people can acknowledge the military service and give thanks to them. 

Toastmasters Youth Leadership Group

Natalie loves public speaking, even though she’s never received official training. And Toastmasters Youth Leadership Group is a program that enables young people under the age of 18 to develop their communication and leadership skills through practical experience.

Toastmasters International is a nonprofit educational organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of clubs. Headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, the organization’s membership is approximately 280,000 in more than 14,700 clubs in 144 countries.

Natalie had an opportunity for her and the kids to participate in a Youth Leadership Group (YLP) for Toastmasters. The YLP has a training they recommend students go through first in order to set up a Toastmasters Youth Leadership program. 

Once they went through the training, the kids absolutely loved it, so when they moved to Northern Virginia, Natalie started the YLP again. 

4-H

Natalie has always been fascinated with 4-H. One thing she appreciates is that 4-H to no longer just agriculture. It is an organization with so many opportunities now, more than just about farm animals. They have summer camps and several leadership opportunities. 

Homeschooling brings to so many opportunities, such as Toastmaster or 4-H, and it allows kids to discover and use their passions and interests. Teens are able to take those passions and interests and put them into established programs or even start a club, much like Natalie did.

Homeschooling gives kids the opportunities to shine.

To all the homeschool moms out there who want to start a club: 

Be confident that you can do it. If you have an idea for your teen, there are likely one or two other moms who have that same eagerness too. The beauty is in coming together and making it happen together.

Join Vicki and Natalie for some ideas about getting things started.

Thank you to Richie Soares with Homeschool and Humor for writing this blog post!

How Get Started Starting Things, Interview with Natalie Mack

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