We’ve been homeschooling for a year and a half and while I’m still learning every day, we are in a great groove and really enjoy having our 5 boys home and being so much more involved in their learning. I get asked all the time about our homeschool curriculum so I wanted to give you an update on how it’s going!
If you want to read my first post about homeschool, I’ll leave that right here!
It was surprisingly not a difficult decision to pull our boys from school. The #1 question about homeschool is is “Why do you homeschool?!” and what I mentioned on my previous post still rings true – we just love the flexibility and personalized instruction. I have 5 boys with 5 different personalities and not all of them thrived in a traditional school environment. I had become so much more involved in their curriculum when schools were closed and it made me realize that it was something I could manage if it was a priority to our family.
Will they be homeschooled forever?
We don’t have plans right now to go back to traditional school. We take it year by year but right now we are very happy and I don’t see that happening.
Can they still go to college?
You can absolutely be homeschooled and be accepted into a university. The umbrella program we’re in has an extremely high homeschool to university acceptance rate. You can even start community college courses to graduate high school with an associate’s degree, which is what we plan to do with Carter in the coming years.
How we started homeschooling in Tennessee:
We started by researching homeschooling in our state. Every state is different in it’s requirements so don’t skip this step!
While I was researching homeschooling in Tennessee, I stumbled upon a Homeschool Umbrella program through a local private Christian Academy. My kids are technically enrolled in this school, but do all of their instruction at home. Their administration handles our attendance, helps me meet state requirements and even offers a diploma at the end of high school for homeschool students. We are so happy to partner with them and get some of the benefits of traditional school. They’ve been so helpful to me as we find our groove with homeschooling!
Essentially, they double check that my kids are on track with their peers. They also help coordinate co-ops, find curriculum, and even sports if you want to participate!
Our Homeschool Curriculum:
We use The Good and The Beautiful, a Christian-based curriculum, for all of our classes except Math and extracurriculars.
We use a program called CTC Math for Math. It’s an online math program that teaches via instructor led videos. We also use Mathway for extra support.
Homeschool curriculum list:
- The Good and The Beautiful
- CTC Math
- Mathway
- Kiwi Co + National Geographic kits for fun, hands-on activities
- P.E. in our gym and playing outside each day
- Sports and extra-curriculars based on each kids’ interests (music, martial arts, football)
Thankfully, our umbrella school has been such a huge support for me as I try to navigate the curriculum and overall experience of home education. It’s not easy to find the *perfect* curriculum, so it’s nice to be able to combine a few to meet our needs. That’s the beauty of homeschool!
We also add in fun activities like Kiwi Co. boxes or these fun kits from National Geographic for hands-on learning. These are a treat and are SO fun even if you don’t homeschool.
Kiwi Co. Activities ages 5-8:
Kiwi Co. Activities ages 9+:
Are you in a co-op?
Not currently, but we are open to it!
Are your kids in extra curricular Activities?
Yes. They do sports and activities based on their interests as part of our homeschool curriculum. What we love about homeschool is that they can incorporate some of them into their day. For example, my oldest has loved learning piano and has a designated time in his studies to learn and practice.
We also do activities together like P.E. in our gym! We do yoga classes, stretching, or the older boys will use some of the equipment like the peloton or treadmill.
They play outside together with neighbors and friends every single day. We are definitely not concerned that they aren’t getting enough exercise or socialization haha!
That’s a bit about our homeschool journey and homeschool curriculum so far! It’s been such a blessing to our family and I hope this helps answer any questions you had about our day to day. If there is anything I missed, please leave them below!
You are amazing! Thanks for giving me the courage to pull my kids out and give them the attention they need! My kids need a spiritual foundation and personalized learning- not crazy “woke” public school ideas. (It is getting wild out there!) it is so nice to watch you do YOU and rock it. Thanks so much Mallory!
Love this so much, Mallory!! I appreciate your sharing about your homeschool experience. We homeschool also and are really thankful to be able to. It’s so great being at home together!
Well Done You! 👏🏻 When you look back on your years, it will be one of, if not the most important and best decision you ever made! I have homeschooled five kids with four going straight into college – all 4 year universities that include engineering, computer science & business majors and still have one in high school. My young adult offspring ( they don’t want to be referred to as kids 😂) are my favorite people to be around! They are FABULOUS! Enjoy your boys at home – it goes by soooooooo fast! Homeschooling is great and worth it!
Love it! Thanks for all the info. My nephew was homeschooled throughout K-12 and he received a 4-year academic scholarship for college. He’s currently in his second year at college. So, it is very possible to make that transition. I’m wondering if homeschool and distance learning is the same? I’m wondering which direction to take. We personally loved distance learning during covid and the year after. It worked really well for our family.
Thank you for sharing. I love your posts, you are amazing.
Thank you, Karen!! Thanks for being here!
That’s so interesting 🤩 thank you for sharing your experience! How old are your boys?
Hey Mallory! Fellow homeschooler of five kiddos here! What Umbrella program do you use? Thanks for all you do!
Hi! We use a local private Christian Academy. If you’re in knoxville, I can send you info!
I homeschooled all of my 5 kids. The last one graduates this year and is college bound. The upper three have graduated college with two having masters degrees, and the third doing post-college classes. Number four is thriving in college. Success rates are high with homeschooling. My kids are normal and grounded. You can do this! There are SO many resources available. If anyone is intimidated, seek out the resources in our state. You’ll be blown away!
As a veteran homeschool mom that has homeschooled boys. If you have a child that has trouble with creative writing I highly recommend brave writer and if you have a child that is having trouble with the understanding the mechanics of writing. IEW is amazing. I loved the hood and the beautiful for almost everything but writing. But every child is different on what works for them. You’ll never regret homeschooling!!
I second Karen’s comment! As a homeschool newbie I love hearing of positive experiences from people! Thanks so much for sharing!
We loved The Good and The Beautiful curriculum! Our son is in half traditional school and half homeschooled. We homeschool for the “core” subjects, and he goes to middle school every other day for some extras like band, which he loves. Thankfully our district allows dual registration so we can do that. We also have 5 boys, although we only have one left at home now. We loved homeschooling and wish you all the best!
That is so cool! I love that that’s available for him!
We started homeschooling 5 years ago because one of my children was not thriving in traditional school.
I echo your sentiments about flextime and activities being one of the draws that would be hard to give up.
Curious about the following;
“You can even start community college courses to graduate high school with an associate’s degree”
I have never heard of that. Can you elaborate or link a resource? How did you find out about what was available?
Yes! I would reach out to community colleges in your area and see what the acceptance requirements are. My understanding is that in the later years of high school they can enroll in community college courses to work towards their associates. Some high schools also have programs where classes are dual credit. If you are homeschooling under an umbrella school, they might also have more info. We aren’t there just yet so I’m sorry I don’t have more specific info to share!