You Have What it Takes to Homeschool {Episode 048 with September McCarthy}
Finally, and episode on Homeschooling!!
For many months now I’ve had countless requests for a podcast episode about homeschooling. And now, more than ever, families are scrambling to find some order to the potential chaos of having kids at home all day. Whether they are “homeschooling”, or just trying to survive doing school at home, I’ve heard the message: Please help!
Hopefully this episode will be a lot of help! September McCarthy is a homeschooling mom to 10 kids (well, many of them are grown now, but she’s done the work!) and I have so much respect for her heart for family and homeschooling. She has so much wisdom to share — both in a grounded perspective, and in practical ideas for making a homeschool day go well.
SHOW NOTES:
September’s Website (find lots of beautiful writing there!)
September and Co: (Etsy shop)
September’s beautiful book: Why Motherhood Matters: An Invitation to Purposeful Parenting
September’s Podcast, with Kate Battistelli and Jamie Erickson: The Mom to Mom Podcast.
Some of the CURRICULUMS that September and I have used:
Abeka. My boys have used this for the bulk of their Bible, history, and Language arts, and in late elementary and middle school for science and math. We use Abeka “Academy” but I do all of the grading, quizzes and tests at home. They watch a teacher in front of a classroom for instruction, and then do seat work, projects, quizzes and tests. Abeka is challenging (definitely “college prep”) and if students watch all videos and do all seat work it can be a long day. It has a very conservative, Christian, traditional flavor and we are really grateful for what our boys have gotten from it.
DIVE — Math and Science with a Biblical Foundation. The boys use this for math and science beginning in Middle School. We love this curriculum (it is also an online video format with some seat work and some online work.) We are good friends with the founder and teacher, Dr. David Shormann. (His family lives here on our North Shore and we go to church together. :)) Jonah and Josiah have taken classes up through AP Calculus and Physics with DIVE and passed AP tests and also gone on to feel very comfortable in college classes following. I highly recommend.
Sonlight. (We used this for the first few years of my boys’ homeschooling when they were in elementary school, and still order many of their suggested reader books.)
TEACHING TEXTBOOKS. An award-winning math curriculum. Kids love this!
CLASSICAL CONVERSATIONS. This is a classically based curriculum done through group meetings. (I have never used CC but a lot of people I know use it and love it!) September’s kids have used this.
My past blog articles related to homeschooling:
Homeschool Updates and Books the Boys have been Loving (from 2019)
On Homeschooling High School (A guest post but very good!)
Homeschool Updates (from my boys High School years — from 2016)
Homeschool Updates (from Elementary and Middle School — 2016)
A Typical Day in our Homeschool Life (an oldie but goodie. 🙂)
You can find the Boy Mom Podcast on all of the podcast platforms…here are just a few of them:
Or you can listen right here! 🙂
More about September McCarthy:
September is a wife, mom to 10, author, and speaker. September co-hosts the Mom to Mom generational podcast with Kate Battistelli and Jamie Erickson. September is also the author of {Why} Motherhood Matters and founder of September & Co., an Etsy shop for whole-family Biblically based and hands-on learning for every family. September lives a rural life, with her growing family, chickens, gardening, shelves overflowing with books and a project always on the horizon. Her family is her #1 priority and her heart is always at home. She believes in new mercies every day and fresh grace on everyone she meets.
Connect with September on her website at https://www.septembermccarthy.com/guest/ or she’s @septemberanne on Instagram.
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My book, BOY MOM, was released in August of 2019 (Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers) and is full of practical advice and helpful resources for raising boys. It’s a great study for small groups!
Order it here: Boy Mom: What Your Son Needs Most from You
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Hello Monica! I was so excited to see this episode this week and was so encouraged by it. I was also encouraged to hear that you use Abeka, as I was also drawn to that. I am wondering what route I’d like to take that…if We should go accredited and use the teachers or not. I heard you mention that your family uses the teachers. Could you speak any more to that? Is that the route you have always been on? Does it make for a pretty long school day going that route? Did you basically Order exactly what was in a certain grades “package” or did you have to choose different classes to meet your kid’s comprehension?
Thanks Monica!
-Stephanie