SR 826: Little by Little: Strategies for Individualized Learning – Leigh Nguyen, Part 2

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We get to guide our kids. We get to discover alongside them what are their

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gifts, talents and abilities. How has God naturally wired them?

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And as we spoke in our last conversation about what are some things that God

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really needs to work in their hearts? And so we can focus on those, but

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we can also focus on the really good things.

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Hey, everyone, this is Yvette Hampton. Welcome back to the Schoolhouse Rocked

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Podcast. I am back with my new friend, Leigh Nguyen.

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And we’re talking about homeschooling because, you know, it’s a homeschool podcast and that’s what

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we talk about here. And if you missed Monday’s episode, go back and listen

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to that. We talked about just kind of setting the stage for homeschooling, what

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that looks like for maybe someone who’s just getting into homeschooling. We talked about

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character development and habit training, and these are all things

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that we deal with as homeschool parents. And so it was a great episode. Go

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back and listen. Today I want to talk a little bit more about, like how

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to really focus in on, on creating an

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individualized education for our kids and just some

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practical day to day tips to accomplish what it is that we are doing with

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our kids and how to get things done that we need to get done. But

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before we get into our conversation, I want to say thank you again to our

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well, Leigh, welcome back to the podcast. I am so glad to have you

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back with me today. Let’s talk about

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create an individualized education because you’ve got three kids

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and you’re kind of nearing the end. You said your youngest is

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16 and so you’ve got a few years left, but you’ve already

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graduated too. And every kid is so different. I think it’s one of

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the most exciting things about having kids, but it’s also one of

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the hardest things about homeschooling is that our kids don’t

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just fit in a box. Right. Every one of them is different. They’re all unique.

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They have their different learning styles. They have their different talents. So

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how, with your kids, did you go about creating an

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individualized education for each one of them that really worked

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for them? Well, let’s go back and start at the beginning, when I first started

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homeschooling, and everybody got their own

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age range for every subject, and because that’s just what you

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think you have to do, first grade history and third grade history,

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and the preschooler just kind of rolled around and tried not to get into trouble.

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And so we continued with that, and I realized we don’t need to do all

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of those things. It helped the budget to cut some of those

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things out. But we think of, we just are so

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overwhelmed by homeschooling when we especially first start in the

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first, you know, handful of years, that we just need all of this different

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stuff and that we have to have certain grades for every single thing.

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Now, that probably works well with language arts and math. I’m a big

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proponent of that. Get what will work for them doesn’t even have to be the

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grade that they’re quote unquote, in at that time, but just

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really looking at it then, like, what do you want to study? So, in

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individualized way, also as a family, so what do you want to study for history

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this year? Nobody says you have to. In fifth grade, study the Revolutionary War.

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Maybe you did that a couple years ago because they really wanted to do it.

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And so I think when it comes to individualized with kids, we don’t have to

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just stick to what a curriculum is saying that we have to do for that

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age range. So think outside the box, because, again, like you said, kids aren’t,

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we can’t put them in a box, and they’re all different. Even if we did

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put them in box, they’d be different shape boxes, right. And different sizes, and they

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would just be very different and which can be overwhelming,

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especially in the younger years when you are, there’s

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just so much every day. There’s meals, there’s snacks, there’s places to get. There’s getting

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everybody dressed, there’s getting naps, there’s getting baths. There’s all the

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things that have to happen. And so you might think, how am I going to

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do such an individualized well, focus on the math and the language arts and then

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just let the little, the younger ones just let them play. If their science is

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digging in the mud outside and they’re finding worms and they’re asking about the birds,

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and that is then that’s perfect. I found that as I got

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older, just creating an individualized education was fun.

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It was fun to be able to see them really dive

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into things. And it just, again, as we start

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off and just found so overwhelming. And when we want to look at maybe some

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long range planning like we had talked about and our vision, we have to remember

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that we get to homeschool our kids. This isn’t a drag. This is something that

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we get to do. We get to spend all these years, these years that we’re

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with them is never, it’s not wasted. And we’re going to look back. I look

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back now, and I’m like, it was intense. There was a lot, and there was

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emotions and up and down. But I’m so glad for all of that, all of

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that time. And so we get to guide our kids. We get to discover alongside

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them what are their gifts, talents, and abilities. How has God naturally wired

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them? And as we spoke in our last conversation about what are some things that

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God really needs to work in their hearts? And so we can focus on those,

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but we can also focus on the really good things. I have kids,

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three kids are just vastly, they’re all vastly different. You might have one that’s

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really good at arts and fine arts and maybe all kinds, whatever falls into

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all the arts. I’m thinking, like, you know, she likes dance and watercolor and all

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these things. She just naturally taught herself. And then I have a kiddo who loves

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business stuff, and then I have one who loves building and creating

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and engineering, and they’re just so different. But how exciting that

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we get to help them discover those. How many of us left high

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school and didn’t really understand ourselves, how God

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wired us? And so we had to take some time to try to discover

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ourself. Imagine if kiddos, I still, again, I say

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kiddos. They’re, even though they’re 18, you know,

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leaving their time of homeschool, whether they’re staying home, going to college or

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getting a job or whatever they’re doing beyond that, imagine if they understand

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how they’re wired. They understand how they learn. Yeah. How,

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how amazing would that be if you get to go out and know, well, I

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actually learned really well by reading something, or I get to actually, I

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learn really well.

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There we go. With my hands, understanding that instead of feeling

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like something’s wrong with you because you’re not learning it

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well from a book, you learn better by doing. And so

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we get to then spend some time. And I have found that kids,

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they’ll get really into something, and they could be really into something for a while,

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and they end up, all of a sudden, one day, they’ll say, I’m done with

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that. And you’re like, well, we didn’t really get as far as I thought because

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they feel like they’ve mastered it for the age that they are. Maybe they’re ten

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and they’ve mastered that, and they’ve mastered maybe

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getting really into horses or something. A horseback riding. My daughter was into that for

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a few years, and then we moved, and I said, so she’s like, no, I’m

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done with that. I was like, okay, I guess we’re gonna move on.

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So we get to spend the time, pull along the resources that they’re really

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interested in. And I think a lot of times we think, we can’t do this

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in high school. I think high school is the perfect time to really

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dive into what they’re interested in. And how can we

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pull along resources and people? How can we get them matched

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up with people that have the same interests and to spend. To spend time with

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and to learn from those people? Yeah. Yeah. When we watch our

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kids grow into really who they are and who God made them to

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be, it’s really fun to ask them, you know, what is it that you

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want to do? Because in the early years, of course, we’re dictating all of the

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things. This is what you’re going to do. This is the curriculum you’re going to

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use, and this is the direction we’re going to go with your learning.

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And even with, you know, we talked about character development

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on Monday, but even with character development, as they get older, we can say, you

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know, what are some things that you’re struggling with as far as character? You know,

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what are some of those fruits of the spirit that you want to grow in?

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And sometimes as parents, we might need to say, okay, let me just tell you,

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these are the things you need to grow in. But it’s fun to

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involve them in that because it gives them the chance to make the

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decisions for their own lives, and then we can help guide them and direct

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them into making wise choices and good decisions. And, uh, you know, again, man, it’s

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just such a great privilege to be able to do that with our kids. And

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I love that you talk about that. We get to do this because

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oftentimes as parents, we think we have to do this,

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or it just seems like a drag. Parenting can kind of

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seem like a drag. Homeschooling can seem like a drag sometimes, right? We get tired,

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we are overwhelmed, were weary,

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all the things. And instead of having that attitude of

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I have another day that I have to get through with homeschooling, it’s waking

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up and saying, you know, this is the day that the Lord has made rejoice

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and be glad in it, because I get to do this with my kids. I

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get to be the one who speaks life into them and who

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walks alongside them in their journey of growing up

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and growing into who God made them to be. And, and it’s fun, but it’s

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hard. It’s not for the faint of heart. Exactly. It is.

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today Apologia.com. dot

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we are back with Leigh. Let’s talk about

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just practical tips on how to, how to

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accomplish homeschooling on a day to day basis. Because I know that this is

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something that every homeschool mom at some point has to

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face. And we probably face it in a different way every year because as our

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kids are growing, the needs are changing. How do

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we just, how do we get it all done? And I don’t mean all

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done because obviously, and we’ve talked about that so many times, we can’t possibly get

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it all done. We can’t do all the things, all the housekeeping, all the

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family, all the relationships, all the church stuff and all the

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homeschooling and academics, but just focusing on

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the academics, how

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can we, in a practical way, get done what we need to get done in

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a day first? I love that you said that every year is different because it

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really is. We have to remember that because there’s some years that are going to

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be harder. There’s going to be some years where you have maybe a wide range

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and you have a lot of kids that you’re homeschooling. And I remember the years

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where I had elementary, middle and high school, or just even elementary, the middle school,

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and it was just. There was a lot. And as they get older, they become

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more independent, and it wasn’t as much. So there are going to be years that

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are going to feel harder. And maybe this year that you’re in right now

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is hard. Maybe next year won’t be hard. It might still be hard. But just

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know that putting in that time of the hard will get you to the

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point where it doesn’t feel as hard and you become more used to it.

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So really, just some practical things is, when it comes to

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curriculum, focus on math and language arts for each kiddo, if you don’t

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accomplish the other things, it’s okay, you will. And a

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lot of times, I don’t. I hate to say this, but I went through history

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with my youngest when he. With the other

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two, and he has remember any of it through the elementary years. So we’re like,

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okay, we got to do it over again. So it’s just, you know, sometimes we

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get so much into our own brains and we think that if they don’t learn

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about these certain things and these certain wars and the battles and all this stuff,

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that they’re not going to 18, that they’re going to be

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not good in society or something like that. Yeah, but just knowing,

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just focus on those and know that if we add too much,

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we have too much in our day, we’re not going to accomplish everything. And then

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we’re going to feel at the end of the day a little bit like a

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failure, going to go to bed at night and say, I didn’t accomplish everything. We

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didn’t get all the curriculum done. I’m a terrible homeschool mom. And that is absolutely

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not even true. So really pare down. And what you’re

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going to get, especially now, if, as you’re maybe looking for the next

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homeschool year, just purchase the math and the language arts and know that you can

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add in, you can add in those other, those other subjects as the year,

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as the year goes on. So a couple of things, though. Let’s talk about the

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math. I love to just do math first thing, like ASAP

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in the morning. Like, let’s just, let’s just get that done. For some reason,

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math tends to evoke tears. I don’t know if it was like that in your

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family, in your home, I don’t know. But it tends to be

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something that kids get stressed out about. Not all kids, but I feel like most

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kids do. So if you can get the math lessons done first thing in the

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morning, I tended to allow my kids to do some of it on

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their own. If they were up and I’m still making breakfast, and they became a

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little bit more diligent because they knew that if they got that done, it would

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feel good. And then sooner they got that done, we’d accomplish our other stuff and

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then they would be free for the rest of the day. So they could do,

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they could get up in the morning and get themselves ready while I’m making breakfast,

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they could go ahead and work on some of the review for their

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math. And I was totally okay with that. I found that

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it is helpful to plan out a week at a time

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for me. Maybe it’s just my brain. I just couldn’t focus on the entire

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year. I would gather curriculum and resources and things I wanted to use, but I

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couldn’t map out an entire year sitting down sometime in

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August and planning out for September through June. It just because

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there’s so many variables, things come up, right. So I found that just

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planning one week at a time. So on Sundays, I would sit down, I would

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take a look, I could look at the weeks, know what was going on. I’m

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like, okay, we have dentist appointments on this certain day. Well, that’s completely going to

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alter the course that day and take a look at what do we have going

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on and just plan out that week around our family life.

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And that just really ease it up. Like, okay, just one week at a time.

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Just really looking at one week at a time, and then looking at one week,

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one day at a time, then I always then would set up

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the night before. I still do that last night. I was just doing that myself.

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When I have a 16 year old who could very easily do it and he

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did set it up. I still kind of just double check to make sure. Just

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get out the resources, get out everything that maybe you’re going to need for

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that just the night before so that the next morning you’re not scrambling and trying

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to get those things together and finding this and finding that because it

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just makes it a little bit more hectic. So just setting up the night, the

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night before. Can we pause there for just a second? Okay, so, so as you’re

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doing your planning, do you use a, like a checklist

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for your kids and say, and you’re homeschooling one now,

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but do you use a checklist for them? You started out at the beginning of

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the week and say, okay, here’s what I want you to accomplish on Monday, on

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Tuesday, on Wednesday, and go from there? Or is it, this is what I want

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you to accomplish for the whole week. Do it however

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it works out best for you. Have you found an easy way

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to do that for me? Maybe it’s just my personality. Maybe I want to type

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a as well. I found it better just to go day by day. And they

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also appreciated that, too, just understanding and also their personalities,

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knowing what they can accomplish instead of requiring a child to do

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something who maybe isn’t a very quick reader and doesn’t comprehend as fast

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to have them read 20 pages in the history book is not going to. So

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why don’t we just do a couple at a time? And so, yeah, so just

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a week. And I, and I think that that work can work great for some

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kids and some families to give, like this week, I want you to accomplish this.

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So I have nothing against that. That way of doing it was just me just

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being a little bit more, more picky about it. And as they have

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gotten older, I’ve tried to give that to them, and I will be honest.

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And my daughter, I could give that to her by high school and she

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would write out what she needed to do and get it done. My boys just,

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they wouldn’t do it. They wouldn’t sit down and kind of figure it out and

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they just kind of would wing it. We wouldn’t get things done. So I still

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do it for my high schooler and then he just accomplishes it. It’s just understanding

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kids and setting everybody up for success. Sure. Sure.

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Which, you know, we’re going to talk a little bit later, probably tomorrow, about

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helping our kids to become entrepreneurs. But there definitely

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are two different mindsets. You’ve got the entrepreneurial

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type, you know, mentality, the kids who are just naturally born that

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way, who are the go getters, and they can get things done without always having

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to be told. And then you’ve got those who really do make better

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employees, you know, if you will. And that’s totally fine. And, okay, that’s what most

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people are, but they’re the ones who need to be told what to do and

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when to do it. And so one way is not better than the other. One

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way is not wrong. It’s just that our kids are different.

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So. Yeah, yeah, that’s fine. Okay, so let’s move on from

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doing the weekly planning. You. You had another step there, and I totally

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interrupted. No, no, that’s fine. And yes, that’s just setting up the evening

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before just getting everything out, getting ready to stack a book. So my 16 year

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old’s 10th grade, I just get out his stack of books, and I flip in

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his notebook his assignment book just to the next page. And

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sometimes I know that things come up and I might make some adjustments, but

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I’ve just found that it just. It just takes. If you do it

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for five minutes in the evening, it’s so much faster than if you try to

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do it in the morning when the kids are up and they’re hungry and the

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dog’s barking and all this stuff is going on. It might take you 1520 minutes.

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But if you just do it in the evening, kids are all in bed, the

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house is quiet, and you just kind of step into your space, whether that’s the

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dining room table or you have a homeschool room or it’s the living room, wherever

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it is, just take a moment to look over. Maybe you don’t do what I

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do with the assignment notebook and have different books. Maybe just kind of taking a

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look over what is maybe a plan or what can you do? What do you

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have lined up for the next day and just getting, I think, into our minds

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what’s going on the next day, and then we can just the next day get

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up and just implement that. Yeah. Do you have a specific place in your house

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where you keep everything ready for your son? Like, for us,

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we have a bookcase, and on that bookcase, we have a specific shelf, and that’s

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where I keep all of our curriculum that we’re using

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currently and the books that we’re reading currently, that it

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all goes on that shelf. I know Christy Clover. She

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uses, you know, a file box, and she’ll even tear

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out the pages of, like, if her kids are doing a textbook, she’ll tear out

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the pages of the textbook and put them in different file folders for her kids,

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and it’s all organized that way. How do you organize your curriculum so

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that your son knows? Okay, here’s what’s next. So this looks very different

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because now I’m just down to one. I guess this is maybe my second year

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with just one kiddo. I graduated my older son a year early, so we’re

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down to the second year with him. And so it looks different.

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I’ve had homeschool rooms. I’ve had homeschool corners. I’ve

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had part of a finished basement and where we had just

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bookshelves and an actual dining room table that we sat around and did it.

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So I’ve had all kinds of different scenarios, and I think that that

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kind of went. We’ve also lived in multiple homes, so each of those places fits

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with a certain. With a certain home and how that would work for us. So

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at this point, now we actually do have what I call the homeschool

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nook. It was off of our kitchen, and we moved here five years ago. I

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was like, I don’t know what we’re going to use this for. I was like,

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oh, wait, I know we’re going to use it for homeschool. We just put some

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tables in there and have some floating shelves. And I just had,

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I liked having everything all in one place. And even though there was no

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door to that space, I could just walk away on the weekends and not have

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to think about it until Sunday afternoon. I would sit down for maybe half an

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hour and kind of plan out the week at this point. Now I’m like, we

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don’t need the homeschool nook anymore. And now I have a fun little space. I

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get to do some diy stuff in. So we have an extra

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space down off of our living that we call our library. Just built, my husband

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just built some shelves, and so I’ve just been using that to store his stuff.

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And I have a table in there, and he loves it. He loves kind of

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just going in there and just by himself, just kind of working on his stuff.

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And I can see him and peeking on him. And then we get together and

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we do our morning time. I still do morning time with him. And do

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you read to him still? I do. I love that. I do. I

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still. I have found, I mean, we could do a whole episode just about morning

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time and how, how much just doing things together,

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really, the relationships. And to be honest,

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I’ve learned a lot. We’ve done some amazing books and some amazing resources that

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I’m like, I’m like, when’s morning time? I’m excited to read this next chapter in

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the book or something. Yeah, it’s so much fun. I love that you read to

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your 16 year old son because I think sometimes people think, oh,

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as they get older, they’re not going to read with mom anymore. And, you know,

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maybe if you didn’t start it when they were young, it might be a little

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bit more difficult. But we’re the same. I mean, I still read to my 18

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year old. It’s so much fun. And it’s exactly as you said. The

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relationship that we have built around reading books together

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is like none other. I mean, I think it is the

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greatest part of homeschooling. I love sitting on the couch

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with my girls. We were going through pictures recently

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of my oldest daughter because we were having to pull some

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senior pictures, you know, pictures for her slideshow for her graduation.

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And so we were looking at some old pictures, and I have a picture of

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the three of us sitting on the couch together reading. Beverly, Clary and Lacey, my

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youngest was little, she was maybe three. And she’s snuggled up

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next to me on one side in Brooklyn, who I guess would have been eight

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at the time, was snuggled up on the other side of me. And we’re just

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reading, you know, Ramona and Beezus together, and it’s so much fun. I love that.

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But I just have even that picture, that image of this is what we’ve done.

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This is our family culture. We just. We read together and. And

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then you get to share in those memories of, you know, walking through books together

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and stuff. It’s so much fun. So, so much fun. Well, we are out of

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time again. Um, this time is going by so quickly, but we will be back

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tomorrow. And tomorrow I do want to talk about, I mentioned this, um, just raising

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entrepreneurial homeschoolers and leaders and teaching our kids how to be

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entrepreneurs because they know that you have one who has done a really good job

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with that. Maybe talk a little bit about gap year. I’ve got

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one who’s coming into her gap year and maybe a few

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other things. So we’ll see where the Lord takes the conversation. But we do have

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more to talk about, so we will be back tomorrow. Leigh, tell people one

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more time where they can find out more about you. Yeah, you can find

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pretty much everything at LittleByLittleHomeschool.com. or if you are listening right now on a

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podcast app, you can go ahead and head over to Little by Little Homeschool in

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your podcast app. Awesome. We will put links to those in the show notes.

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Thank you guys so much for listening. If you are watching this on YouTube, would

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you please be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and then share this

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podcast with your friends, whether it’s the YouTube video or

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00:22:46,942 –> 00:22:50,726
an actual, actual podcast, whatever, um, app you’re listening to this

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00:22:50,750 –> 00:22:54,030
on, share this with your friends so that they can have the encouragement that you

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are getting as well. We love you guys and are so grateful for those of

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you who continue to do that. And again, you can find everything Schoolhouse

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Rocked at our website, SchoolhouseRocked.com. stay tuned to the very

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end to hear what’s coming up next on the podcast, and we will see you

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back here tomorrow. Bye.

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In the beginning, yes, it was dollar signs. It was looking at the money that

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I have and looking, even if it was just $300 he made from cutting

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firewood. And so that really was a big thing. And that’s been very intentional. And

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it’s been a lot of my husband speaking into him as well, because especially as

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teen boys get older, mom is great, but

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dad really needs to step in and be able to speak to them man to

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man.