When my daughter was two years old she had the cutest habit of picking up her toy cell phone, holding it to her ear, and making a noise somewhere between a growl and disgusted sigh. “Look,” we would laugh. “Where did she learn that?”

Until one day I was driving down a stretch of rural highway we often traveled and my phone dropped a call yet again. The noise of disgust was barely out of my mouth when I realized exactly where Olivia picked up that little habit. Whoops.

Listen or read more at https://pambarnhill.com/homeschool-mistake/

“Everyone was up late and needs just a quiet day.”

“We’ve been working so hard, a day off is just what we need. “

“We missed lessons yesterday, I’m not motivated today."

Do any of these sound familiar to you? They used to be all-too-familiar to me. Not only that, some of them are still tempting from time to time.

But now I know a truth: schooling consistency breeds consistency.

Listen or read more at https://pambarnhill.com/benefits-homeschool-consistency/

The morning light was thin, blue, and cold. It was cozy under my blanket though as I sipped my coffee. I had an edifying book in my lap — who am I kidding — I was scrolling Facebook on my phone.

One kid was asleep, two were upstairs watching “educational” cartoons, and frankly, I was in no hurry to start my school day.

Listen or read more at https://pambarnhill.com/sabotage-your-homeschool/

I have been a somewhat lonely homeschooler for the past several years. It began when we chose to homeschool high school — and most of our homeschooling friends did not. True story: out of the 20-30 families we knew who homeschooled back when our children were in the early elementary grades, I can think of only a handful of them that continued homeschooling through the high school years.

I confess that this bothers me.