If you are new to homeschooling like me, you can use all the help you can get! There is tons of info out there for homeschooling elementary school kids, but it can be a lot harder to find good resources for parents who are homeschooling teens! Thankfully, there are some great YouTube channels out there to help you homeschool your teens and tweens. Homeschooling middle and high school kids can be daunting, but I have learned that it is totally doable! In fact, it can be a lot of fun! YouTube homeschool moms have been a HUGE help for me this year. I find their experienced voices to be reassuring, motivating, and even calming when I need it. I've done lots of digging for months and months, and I am excited to share with you the best YouTube channels for homeschooling high school and homeschooling middle school! For each one, I'll include a sample of one of my favorite videos for you to take a look-see. Without further ado, here are the best YouTube channels for … [Read more...]
Teaching Teens and Tweens US History: Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Road to the Civil War
As I was preparing to homeschool my teens for the first time, I asked my kids which social studies topics were the most interesting to them. My daughter told me she wanted to learn about the Civil Rights movement and slavery. Race relations has always been one of my favorite things to learn about, and that curiosity led me to major in sociology in college. So I set out to plan how to teach my teens about the history of slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Civil Rights Movement. If you want to understand the present, you first need to understand the past. Let me repeat that: If you want to understand the present, you first need to understand the past. There are way too many adults in America who are yelling about how things should be even though they don't have any understanding of how things came to be, or frankly any understanding of what is. As with everything I do, I've spent a ridiculous amount of time researching, and I want to share what I've found with … [Read more...]
Teaching Tweens & Teens About the Presidential Election
With the 2020 presidential election in the US quickly approaching, many parents are wondering what is the best way to teach their kids about voting and elections. Tweens and teens are old enough to learn about the issues and the process of the 2020 election. Unfortunately, being old enough does not go hand-in-hand with having an educated opinion. Understanding politics and issues has become sooooo sticky and tricky in the modern era! Tiktok, YouTube, and other social media are inundating our kids with opinions and "facts," many of which are biased, oversimplified, or just plain wrong. It can be very hard for parents to figure out how to intelligently present their teens and tweens with information about politics, civics, and voting. Like usual, I've been spending tons of time researching this, and I'm here with some suggestions! Whether you are homeschooling your teens or you just want to have some intelligent family conversations, I've got your back. As I see it, … [Read more...]
