The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

Flexible Planning

Planning is one of the biggest struggles of homeschooling. So many of us feel like if we plan and then don’t achieve everything, we feel like failures! Listen in as we walk you through how to plan flexibly so you can see your successes and use planning for your benefit. Do you overplan? Do you have flexibility built in? Planning is so important for success, but there are a lot of pitfalls you don’t want to fall into. In this episode of the podcast, we’re discussing how you can make planning work for you and use it to truly make your homeschool more effective and in line with your goals and your kids’ overall progress. Put your homeschool on cruise control as you let effective and flexible planning work for you!

Here Are A Few Topics You’ll Hear About In This Podcast

• Using planning to help you see the big picture of your kids’ progress and goals
• Using planning to make sure you have things on hand for your projects and lessons
• Planning in levels – yearly, by unit, and by week
• Using a highlighter in your planner to mark things as you complete them
• Allow yourself to move things around after you plan them…do not be married to your plans.
• Have a flex day for catch up…Friday flex days are the BEST!
• Plan very little during the last week of a unit so you can use the last week as a catch-up flex week
• Don’t let your planning get out of control. Resist the urge to overplan. Don’t over-purchase supplies and feel trapped. Be thoughtful.
• Recognize your plan for what it is – a flexible framework to guide your homeschool.

The post Episode 75: Flexible Planning appeared first on Layers of Learning.

The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

Introducing Units

In this episode, Michelle and Karen talk about fun ways to introduce units and get your kids engaged and interested in what you’re learning about. None of this is necessary; it’s the fun, extra fluff of homeschool that can be fun when you want to get your kids excited about learning. We’re sharing some simple ideas for games and activities that you can use at the beginning of a unit to introduce the topics and get kids engaged and excited for what you’ll be learning about that month. Each month, you can choose just one of the new topics you’ll be learning about and play a game or challenge your kids in some way to get them ready to learn. Introducing units doesn’t need to be complicated or overplanned.

Here Are A Few Topics You’ll Hear About In This Podcast

• Clearing out the last unit and getting your school area prepared for your new unit
• Hanging up quotes or fun facts about the unit
• Watching an interesting video
• Playing a game like 20 Questions or Spot It
• Playing word games or clues
• Having a memory tray
• Providing a unit scavenger hunts, checklists of things to find during the unit, or a game of BINGO for kids to check off as they learn about different things in the unit
• Write the unit vocab words on note cards, hide them, and let the kids find them all…then go over each word
• Creating a word wall
• Introduce the topic with a high-interest picture book to read aloud

The post Episode 74: Introducing Units appeared first on Layers of Learning.

The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

Is Homeschooling Dangerous

In this episode, Michelle and Karen get into the political side of homeschooling. We’re discussing this article: “A Warning on Homeschooling” that was published in the Harvard Gazette. Elizabeth Bartholett and others have made many of these same claims against homeschooling numerous times, saying there is a dark side to it that needs to be remedied and regulated. This discussion aims to address some of the claims. Issues like these are often very divisive and are approached with polarizing and absolute arguments. The truth is that the world of homeschooling is not perfect but the world of public school certainly isn’t either. We have never believed every child should be homeschooled, but we also reject that claim that homeschooling is inherently dangerous and wrong for all children. We believe in parental rights. We believe in children. We support all people who work to educate kids and understand the value of providing kids with a solid foundation of education and a love of learning.

Here Are A Few Topics You’ll Hear About In This Podcast

• Abuse in the homeschooling world
• Education laws and regulations in the United States and globally
• Academic expectations in homeschooling
• Places kids are vulnerable to danger
• Assumptions about homeschoolers and assumptions about public schools
• Parents’ rights – Are they granted from the state or are they natural rights?
• National Center for Education Statistics
• The wide range of educational opportunities – homeschools, public schools, charter schools, online schools, pods, and more
• Educated by Tara Westover
• How opinions about homeschooling have evolved over the years
• The public school/homeschool debate

The post Episode 73: Is Homeschooling Dangerous? appeared first on Layers of Learning.

The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

A Magical Blend of Homeschooling Styles

Layers of Learning is an oddly eclectic blend of lots of different homeschooling styles—Classical, Charlotte Mason, unit studies, Montessori, unschooling—it has a bit of each. It begins with the 4-year cycle organization that is the framework of the Classical style. It is intentionally organized and repetitive. Layers of Learning also borrows from more relaxed Charlotte Mason style, including lots of living books and hands-on experiences. The units of Layers of Learning loosely resemble unit studies because of the interrelated topics, additional layers, and rabbit trails. We borrow from Maria Montessori’s philosophy by encouraging you to create a learning environment in your homeschool. If your school day is truly fun and rewarding, your kids will be able to independently learn far beyond your normal school hours and your checklist of to-dos. The curriculum is also a great scaffolding for unschoolers and can become a plan for those times when you need ideas and plans.

Here Are A Few Topics You’ll Hear About In This Podcast

• What the Layers of Learning program borrows from each style
• How this style of learning can help your kids both remember what they are learning and learn how to learn and research
• Every single Layers of Learning unit can stand alone. You can work in any order and skip around.
• Let your kids help choose the explorations and be a part of your planning.
• Create a home that is centered around learning.
• Take advantage of the book suggestions for a really rich homeschool experience.
• Let narrations be a regular part of your homeschool to help your kids remember what they are learning and become an active learner.
• Decide on the bits and pieces of Layers of Learning that you love, and implement those. Leave behind anything that doesn’t work for your family.

The post Episode 72: A Magical Blend of Homeschooling Styles appeared first on Layers of Learning.

The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

Middle Grades in Homeschool

In this podcast episode, Karen and Michelle talk about teaching in the middle grades. Middle school is that in-between period where kids aren’t quite learning at a high school level but are beyond the simple, elementary school years. Listen in as we discuss what it looks like to homeschool in the in-between years and also some tips for helping kids prepare for high school. Beyond your kids using the middle grades to prepare for higher learning, you’ll also be preparing yourself, as the mentor, for higher learning. The middle grades are actually are favorite age to teach because most kids still have the enthusiasm for learning and fu projects, but also the maturity to be able to handle deep conversations and some independent work.

Here Are A Few Topics You’ll Hear About In This Podcast

• Benefits of teaching in the middle grades
• Building on the knowledge they have and making connections
• Continuing read-alouds
• Your main job is to scaffold middle grades kids in reading, writing, and thinking
• Fostering independence
• Teaching kids to use planners more independently.
• Middle school kids can begin to apply the six traits of writing and begin learning bigger spelling and vocabulary words
• Watching the news and discussing current events
• Learning to see the world through other peoples’ experiences
• Begin true experimentation and making predictions in science
• Discussing art and relating it to events and causes
• Layers of Learning and accreditation

The post Episode 71: Middle Grades in Homeschool appeared first on Layers of Learning.

The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

Listen as We Plan a Unit

In this podcast episode, we are doing an off-the-cuff planning session and showing you what it looks like when we open a unit and begin planning out what we will learn and do with our families during the unit. Listen in to see our process and our train of thought as we delve into a few units we will learn as a family. Michelle and Karen plan and do things very differently, so you can see a few ways of doing things, and hopefully get some inspiration for your own planning process.

We’ve been homeschooling for a long time, and the truth is, our planning process changes and grows with our families and our homeschools, but we hope that this little peek helps you with your homeschool planning.

Here Are A Few Topics You’ll Hear About In This Podcast

• Michelle is planning a science unit about rocks. Hear what she is choosing to do, what her process is, and watch her method unfold.
• How we get the supplies we need.
• How we get the books we need.
• Karen is planning an arts unit about ancient art around the world. Observe how she chooses the explorations and makes a note of any books, videos, or supplies that will be needed. You’ll also hear about how she wraps up a unit with review, trivia, and the Big Book of Knowledge.
• When we plan, we consider these things: time, age, variety of activities, materials, schedule, and what we’ve covered before.

The post Episode 70: Listen As We Plan a Unit appeared first on Layers of Learning.

The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

Skills Versus Content

There are two types of knowledge you are teaching your kids in your homeschool – skills and content. A lot of homeschool parents worry about covering everything; they stress over missing something in their kids’ educations. Most often, what they are worrying about is content. They don’t want to miss teaching the Korean War and they worry that if they don’t learn every fact about the Periodic Table of Elements, their kids will be stunted. They are afraid of failing as a homeschool parent if they miss something. The key though, is understanding that if you teach your kids the skills, they can learn ANY content. You don’t have to teach everything!

During this podcast, we’ll walk you through the skills you can teach your kids that will help them to become lifelong learners. Mathematics, writing, reading, spelling, thinking, analyzing, communicating, creativity, and much, much more are all learning skills. You can master them by applying the skills to whatever content you’re learning about.

Here Are A Few Topics You’ll Hear About In This Podcast

• As you learn content, you can build your skills. The content provides the interest, but the skills are built as you learn about it. You might be learning chronological order as you build a timeline in your Book of Years or analyzing analogies as you write an animal report.
• As you finish each unit, think about not only the content from the unit, but about the skills you developed. For example, you might
• Note taking, memorization, writing outlines, measuring, comparing & contrasting, questioning – all of these skills can apply to any subject and can be used for any content knowledge.
• There is no master list of content you must master, but it is important to have a broad knowledge of the world.
• You can compare, write, analyze, think, write, converse, and truly understand so much once you have a basic cultural and global literacy about all kinds of content knowledge.
• Once you become aware of the differences between content knowledge and skills, you will be equipped to help your kids truly learn by dovetailing both of these in meaningful ways.

The post Episode 69: Skills Versus Content appeared first on Layers of Learning.

The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

Unit Overviews

Every Layers of Learning unit begins with a sidebar that includes a Unit Overview. This box is a bit bolder than the other sidebars and includes key concepts from the unit, a list of vocabulary words, and also a list of important people, places. scientific laws, artwork, or other important information the unit will cover. The whole overview is just there to help you get your bearings and quickly see the important things that will be included in each unit.

During this podcast, we’ll walk you through examples of what is included in each Unit Overview and offer tips for how you can use it as you work through the Layers of Learning units.

Here Are A Few Topics You’ll Hear About In This Podcast

• You can use the Unit Overview to help you select the parts of the unit you want to focus on.
• You could use the vocabulary words as a spelling list, a list of concepts to cover, or to help you create fun learning games for the unit. It can also be used alongside the trivia questions at the end.
• The vocabulary words are also inside of the glossary at the end of each paperback book.
• Let it enhance your learning by creating a word wall to help your kids with their Writer’s Workshop writing about the unit topics.
• Visual reminders of what you’re learning about are important learning tools. Hang the list of words up on your wall and use it as a jumping off point for learning.
• Personalize your lists and tailor them to what you are learning and focusing on in your homeschool.
• Have your kids try to define words to help them think deeply about the words and concepts you are learning.
• Let the Unit Overview sidebar be a tool for your learning!

The post Episode 68: Unit Overviews appeared first on Layers of Learning.

The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

Sharing The Pen

For emergent writers, placing a blank sheet of paper in front of them and asking them to write can be absolutely overwhelming. We forget just how many processes go into writing even a single word or sentence. As homeschool parents, too often we fail to break down the process. We think kids should just be able to write and don’t take the steps to teach them. Things that are automatic for us aren’t so simple for emergent writers.

During this podcast, we’ll give tips for breaking down the writing process and help you know how to actually teach writing instead of just expecting it. This process will help your kids to learn that writing is fun and creative instead of just getting overwhelmed and discouraged to the point that they begin hating it.

Here Are A Few Topics You’ll Hear About In This Podcast

• The Levels of Writing—modeled writing, shared writing, interactive writing, guided writing, and independent writing
• No one is an independent writer. Every writer has an editor. Kids should too.
• A lot has to happen for kids to even write a single sentence. Scribbling, making circles and lines, and tracing pathways are all beginning writing lessons. Letter formation is the next step, followed by learning the sounds of each letter. Soon, kids can write simple words by combining letters together. Not long after that, they can put strings of words together and begin to form sentences.
• They will soon be learning about how to make sentences complete.
• As mistakes come up in your kids writing, take a bit of time to teach them the correct ways. Think of yourself as a partner and mentor rather than an editor as you’re teaching them out loud.
• Overall, your task is to take the pressure off of young writers by sharing the pen and having lessons be interactive and vocal. You can make the difference between your kids hating and loving writing.

The post Episode 67: Sharing the Pen appeared first on Layers of Learning.

The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

Lessons We’ve Learned As Homeschool Moms

We been homeschooling for several decades and the truth is, we don’t even know who we are without the role we’ve had as homeschool moms. It’s changed us in so many ways that it’s hard to articulate. Our day-to-day lives, our homes, our families…they have all been changed by homeschooling in countless ways. Along the way, we’ve learned a lot. In this episode, we talked about the lessons we’ve learned as homeschool moms.

We chat about how our perceptions of education have changed over the years and the misconceptions we had to let go of to finally feel successful. You’ll hear what we’ve learned about ourselves, the things we wish we knew when we were young homeschool moms, and the things we’ve internalized.

Here Are A Few Topics You’ll Hear About In This Podcast

• Education can be relaxed and casual.
• Textbooks aren’t required!
• YOU ARE ENOUGH. You are smart enough and dedicated enough and capable of providing your kids with the exact education they need.
• The details of the schedule don’t matter nearly as much as just being consistent. Start your homeschooling day consistently, even if your school days aren’t perfect, be in the habit of being consistent.
• You can teach things even if you aren’t good at them or don’t know much about them. You just need a good guide.
• You have to make your homeschool fit your personality. If you’re a type-A organized mom, don’t try to be an unschooler. If you hate checklists and order, don’t try to be a classical homeschool. You will love this life if you accept who you are and thrive in it.
• You will never be a perfect homeschool parent or have a perfect homeschool. That doesn’t exist.
• Pace yourself. More is not always better. Take breaks and give yourself seasons of homeschool to keep fresh enthusiasm alive.
• You don’t have to teach every subject every year or every subject every school day. Adjusting the schedule can actually contribute to more success in your homeschool. Organize your homeschool in your own way instead of mimicking public education.
• The 4-year cycle is an easy system of organization for learning that allows you to learn things in an organized way that repeats itself for deeper learning. It also allows you to relax your planning and organization and lets you see the big picture of what you’re learning together.
• RELAX and enjoy learning together.

The post Episode 66: Lessons We’ve Learned As Homeschool Moms appeared first on Layers of Learning.

The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

Raising Bookworms – Our Favorite Family Read-Alouds

Reading aloud to our kids has turned them into bookworms! Starting a read-aloud tradition when they were young is the single best decision we made as we’ve homeschooled our kids over the past twenty years. In this podcast episode, we share what reading aloud has done for our families and also talk about some of our favorite read-alouds.

During this podcast, we chat about the favorite read-alouds we’ve read to our families over the past twenty years. No need to grab a pen and paper! You can just visit our Amazon “Favorite Read-Alouds” Idea List to find all of the books we mention in this podcast episode. We hope you’ll enjoy perusing them and find some fun read-alouds for your family to snuggle up with and enjoy together.

Here Are A Few Topics You’ll Hear About In This Podcast

• Reading aloud will spark discussions and build relationships in your family.
• Look for books that open your eyes to new experiences, have deep themes, and are action-packed or have a great plot .
• Choose modern books with fairly simple language, characters you connect with, and that appeals to a wide age range.
• If you want to read the classics but your kids aren’t ready, start with Great Illustrated Classics.
• Choose a variety of genres – picture books, historical novels, non-fiction, fantasy, biographies, mysteries – choose all kinds of stories.
• Layers of Learning has sidebars called “Bookworms” to help direct you to good family read-alouds that accompany the units. You won’t have time to read them all, so just choose your favorites.
• …and finally, we discuss our favorite read-alouds…45 in all! Remember to check them all out on out Amazon “Favorite Read-Alouds” Idea List!

The post Episode 65: Raising Bookworms – Our Favorite Family Read-Alouds appeared first on Layers of Learning.