May I help you?
Here are some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS) that arise during months of Spring:
We seem to be falling behind in getting through our book, what should I do?
First, it’s important to look at the learning more than the book. Has your child mastered the
material that you have covered?
1. Use the book for two years
2. Readjust how much material your child can handle.
3. Option is to change the book
4. Adjust your time in the material
Option Number One, if learning is progressing slowly but surely and you are seeing steady
progress, please consider continuing with you curriculum for more than one year. The beauty of
of home education is that we DON’T have to push our children just to get through material. We
can progress at their rate.
Number two: It might be good to look at the material carefully to see if there is anything that
can be skipped. Can you Double-up to Catch-up? Perhaps lessons can be minimized and still
mastered. Learn the concepts, pass a quiz and move on! If not, rethink option one.
Option number three: If you and your child are not happy with progress or master, then we
may have the wrong book. TIME TO CALL TERI AND FIND SOMETHING BETTER!
Option number four: Add more time. Here is where life can be challenging in home school.
Maybe you need to add an extra block of homework time to get that book finished or that high
school credit completed. If your child works one hour on a lesson and nearly finishes, you are
wise to stop the lesson and assign the remaining portion as “homework” to be done at another
time in the day or evening.
First, this gives your child a break because long lessons drag slower and s-l-o-w-er. Better to
come back and give it a fresh start. (This may also be necessary to help high schoolers complete
their credits in certain subjects.) It is no crime for a high school student to also work on school
outside of class time.
We would often finish our school year with “finish it days… “ This is when a student would focus
only on one subject just to get it entirely done, then move to the next. It can be very motivating
and even rewarding when you celebrate.
If you should choose to stretch a book over two years or find ways to speed it up, you may find
you have more time to add some of the activities listed next to add intrigue and excitement to
the learning process during both years…
We seem to be running out of curriculum before school is over, what do I do?
This is a nice “problem” to have! Congratulations on finishing your original assignments! If your
books are completed with months still remaining in your school schedule, here are some
options to consider:
1. Go to the next level and get a jump on next year.
2. Change the subject:
3. Change the approach: Textbook to project-based learning (unit studies)
4. Extend the studies: Go deeper and wider in the same material
Option One: If you should choose to go to the next level in a math book, you can have a longer
time to master more advance concepts. You will also be able to slide through that review
because you won’t have forgotten material over the summer.
Option Two: Change the subject! Here are ways to keep the course, but change the content.
grammar to creative writing, Skill Series to great books, math to math appications such as
physics or consumer math, government to current events, animal studies to weather studies…
Option Three: Change the approach. This is a great time to experiment with different styles of
learning. You may never return to the textbook or workbook. Project based learning can take
many forms. We have entire unit studies here in our office to guide you into project activities.
Some we ever wrote ourselves for you. Science becomes lab-focused, History and geography
can include cooking, acting, computer research and model building. High schoolers may enjoy
investing hours into real-world service through volunteering and internships.
Option Four: Extend the studies. Now you can use those extra school days to revisit a few things
you might want to review or learn more about. Now you can read a biography about a hero or
heroine in history, write a research paper about a question that makes you wonder.