How to Get Your Homeschool Organized, Interview with Tatiana Adurias

This week on HSHSP: How to Get Your Homeschool Organized, Interview with Tatiana Adurias. How to Get Your Homeschool Organized, Interview with Tatiana Adurias Our friend, Tatiana Adurias from Purposeful Motherhood, joins us for a discussion about teaching homeschoolers organizational skills. Tatiana is the mother of six homeschoolers ages....through college graduation. She has learned by necessity the necessity of an organized homeschool. Here are some of her experiences. Tatiana began homeschooling when her oldest son was in third grade. He asked to homeschool! Tatiana, at that time, was finishing her teaching credentials so was not excited about that! However, circumstances made homeschooling important in his third grade second semester. Tatiana gave in and started homeschooling him and his younger sister. She felt unprepared and did not enjoy the experience. So back to school he went next fall. When Tatiana's son was in sixth grade he came back to her and asked to homeschool again. He explained to her that he was more mature now and could manage himself better. He also researched homeschooling, created a powerpoint presentation with twenty-five reasons he should homeschool and gave a speech about it to his parents. Tatiana respected his requests and began to get started. Tatiana is very authentic. She explained that the first three years were rough for several reasons, but they kept learning together. Before she knew it, she was homeschooling comfortably and had all her children learning at home! Vicki really appreciates Tatiana's honesty. Homeschooling is not all easy, not every day goes smoothly, but when we are determined to grow together, homeschooling is a beautiful thing! What shifted for Tatiana so that she loved homeschooling? She began to actually see the benefits. She saw her son's ability to: * Excel in his academics * Had time to explore his interests in filmmaking * Develop his own personality Tatiana's most strenuous three years homeschooling were the years she was educating all six kids, with three in high school down to kindergarten. What helped? She learned how tot get her homeschool organized! Here are Tatiana's tips: * Focus energy on the needs of the oldest. * Adapt the curriculum to his/her needs and then teach the curriculum (adapted) to the whole family. * Teach the same history to the entire family. * If they are able, have the near-aged youngers go ahead and take the same high school maths and sciences and languages as the oldest homeschooler. * (BTW- one of 7Sisters Literature Study Guides is especially designed to work with the whole family: Anne of Green Gables Literature Study Guide...and it is FREE!) * Tatiana has found that working together creates close family bonds and good friendships between siblings. They also can do some group projects together. * Teach your homeschoolers independent learning skills. * She sets expectations. She lets her kids know that she believes they can meet the expectations. However, she concentrates on warmth and grace. This is a balance. * She teaches her middle schoolers that working rigorously is good preparation for life and for high school learning. She also teaches them that she believes they can do it. * She teachers her high schoolers to do independent work. * See 7Sisters post on developing independent learners for more specific skills. *