You’ve heard that homeschooled kids are smart.

What about your kids?

Are they smart enough? Do they measure up? How can you tell if you are doing a good job homeschooling? How can you tell if they are learning what they need to learn?

When I was a nurse, I had to take vital signs on all my patients every shift. I had to check their temperature, pulse, respiration rate, and blood pressure. This was just a quick way to check their overall health. If the patient in 202B had an infection, his temperature would rise. If my post-op patient was in pain, her blood pressure might be high. 

As a mom, I like to assess my children’s academic health by looking at 5 key factors that reveal their academic progress. These are the tools of learning my child needs for a lifetime of success.

Reading

“Jimmy can you read this page aloud to me while I fix dinner?" I hand him a book that is a little harder to read than he is used to. This gives me a picture of his reading ability.

“Shine, did you like Wuthering Heights? Tell me about it." This gives me insight into her reading comprehension.

Math

This is easy. When I grade their math work, I see how many answers they get wrong. I see if there is a pattern. Are they getting the same type of problem wrong each time? Are they making careless mistakes or are they missing the concept.
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Communication​

Flip 3 Pancakes with 1 Spatula by Cheryl Bastian is book filled with hands-on learning ideas for teaching math without a textbook. It's a handbook to teach to the heart of your child, who most likely LOVES your kitchen and is constantly asking if he can "help." Cooking is fun. Math can be learned by cooking with mom in the kitchen. Ergo, learning math can be fun. That sounds logical to me!

You will love this book! Set up like a cookbook, it is divided into the following categories: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks & Desserts, and Holidays & Celebrations. Each page contains a complete math lesson set up unit study style with a yummy recipe. You start out by reading one or two picture books. After gathering the needed materials listed on the page, the math lesson takes place while you are cooking. There are also Add Ons. The Ad Ons include additional math lessons, social studies activities, more books to read, science projects, writing or language assignments, and art projects. All are easy and fun!

"There is just so much to cover this year!  How can I get it all done?" has been asked of me more times than I can count. 

  My favorite subjects to teach are music and history!  What fun we have had exploring these subjects over the years. But I have found that it is important to "major on the majors" and "minor on the minors."

There are subjects and then there are tools and skills that are needed to learn all subjects.  When we give our children the tools of learning, they can explore every subject to their heart's content. 

After homeschooling for 21 years with a sixth, eighth, and eleventh grader still being educated at home, I have found that there are seven things (7 R's) that make a big difference in the success of our family's homeschool.  From Kindergarten through twelfth grade, I try to keep these things predominant in my homeschooling: relationships, rhetoric, reading, (w)riting, (a)rithmetic, research, and right living.  I weave them in to all that I teach or that our family explores through unit studies. These are not the only subjects in our homeschool curriculum, but they are the ones that get priority.

Relationships

Lives are changed in the context of relationships!  People, including your children, hunger and seek to be loved and understood.  The security that comes with healthy relationships allows people to learn and grow, reaching their full potential and destiny. 

The most important relationship that your child will ever have is his/her relationship with the Lord. Let your little ones see how much you love the Lord, especially by setting aside time each day to spend in prayer and Bible reading. Be committed to church, tithing, obedience, and serving because you love Jesus with all your heart.  Teach your children to have a relationship with Him too!

Children (and adults too!) want to model people they admire and trust, especially if they believe those people have their best interest at heart. When your child enjoys a healthy relationship with you, he/she is more likely to try to imitate your life, as well as attempt to please you!  This desire to please parents is present in almost all children, but ebbs away in teenage years if the relationship does not remain strong.

Rhetoric (verbal communication)

Rhetoric refers to communication both written and oral, but I'll use it to refer to verbal communication from casual conversations to formal speeches. 

Casual conversation, questions, and answers are the beginning of education for young children. "Why is the sky blue," your toddler asks you and prattles on with more questions.  From the time your little ones can talk, engage them in conversation. "Did you like the pretty pictures in the book?" you might ask after you finish reading them a book.  "What was your favorite part of our day," you query as you and your toddler set the table.  Don't shoo children away--talk to them about everything!  Speaking requires thought processes that stimulate intellectual growth! Ask questions and answer them!  Put down what you're doing if you need to and give your child undivided attention. But learn to talk with your child as you wash dishes, run errands, and cook dinner.

Before formal speeches, give your children plenty of practice reading the Bible, stories, and poetry aloud.  Encourage expression, inflection, and enthusiasm in the presentation. It is a great idea for older siblings to read to younger siblings, especially for the three years after they've learned to read. 

Eventually you will graduate to speaking in front of people to formal speeches to debate.

Reading

Listening to well-written beautifully illustrated story books make toddlers and pre-schoolers look forward to the day that they will read for themselves. As Christians, what joy there is in reading and obeying the Word of God!  No matter what career they choose or lifestyle they live, we all want our children to be Bible readers, understanding everything the Lord has to teach them. Reading is a necessary skill for growing in your walk with the Lord!

Phonics is the method I have used to teach all my children to read (Sing, Spell, Read, and Write) and they have all learned in about a year's time. The goal was to get them reading!  My son was less enthusiastic about reading then all his older sisters, so I had to "make him read."  I had to search for books he liked.  The "Three Cousins Detective" series and "Childhood of Famous Americans" were both series that he enjoyed, so I bought every book I could find in the series. 

To foster a love for reading, I allow the children to choose the books the want to read within parameters.  I have book lists for various ages (feel free to download these lists:  http://joyfulandsuccessfulhomeschooling.com/readinglists.aspx ) that are based on my actual bookshelves. 

Reading aloud is fun to do together as a family or with only one child at a time. We love reading aloud and snuggling. Reading and speaking lay the foundation for writing.

'Riting

Writing concretely, concisely, and graciously is the goal of Understanding Writing, the writing curriculum I have used through the years. Written by a homeschool mom, she stresses writing to glorify God. We have added poetry, stories, journalizing, and other fun writing assignment to our writing lessons over the years. 

Reading good writing and expressing yourself clearly through speaking set children up to write well. You need both to lay the foundation a writer needs. 

Start with sentences. A sentence has five things. (noun, verb, complete thought, begins with a capital letter, and ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation point) Teach your children to examine their sentences for these five things.  Once that is down, help them to write clearly. Teach them to use adjectives and adverbs to express themselves and to avoid clutter words such as very, a lot, and really.

The next step is paragraphs. My children write a paragraph once a week from second grade until sixth grade.  Sometimes they write longer papers, but they always at least write a paragraph, I correct it, and then they rewrite it. Re-writing should be part 2 of every writing assignment. A good writer always rewrites! Don't be negative about it, though. Praise their papers and then move on to the next part of the assignment--making their paper better!

'Rithmetic

"Is this an exercise video? Is this a math video?" I wondered aloud when Exploramania Gymathtics arrived in the mail to be reviewed.

The answer to my question is YES! It is an exercise video and it is a math video.

What a fun, colorful, exciting video to watch! Our hostess, exercise leader, and math teacher is energetic and upbeat. She reminds me of my spinning teacher at the Y. Her name is Carrie and she is the creator of Exploramania. The exercise video is a high-energy aerobic workout with a twist. The twist is that you are always doing math while you move and sweat.

"Isn't exercise fun?" perky Carrie asks throughout the 30 minute workout.

"Yes, Carrie," I have to agree. "This is fun!"