Creator of Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool: Guest Blog

As most of you know, I homeschool my 4 kids and have from the beginning. Homeschooling is hard. It really is. There are many days that I'm tempted to give up and send the kids to public school. Sometimes I'm filled with doubt and frustration and I cry. Sometimes they cry. But then I think about all the good things about homeschool and how much I LOVE being able to spend the day with with kids. Yes, homeschooling is hard. But for our family, the benefits make it worth it all!

I'm always on the look out  for things that will make our homeschooling days easier and more efficient . One of the most difficult things about homeschool for me is being sure that I'm covering enough information. I'm not one of those moms that can create her own curriculum. I have to have a plan to follow. But with all the free information out there I can't justify spending big money on school books! That's why I love Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool. This website has a complete, free online homeschool curriculum that covers everything!

I've asked Lee who is the creator of Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool to explain how Easy Peasy came about and how it works.

Take it away, Lee :)
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Did you ever think homeschooling could be easy peasy? Do you ever get to dinner without even finishing the day’s work? Are you on the go with lessons, co-ops and activities, trying to make sure your kids don’t miss out and are sufficiently socialized?

I used to always say that we did school easy. My kids would do math and then they would read from our bookshelf, something related to a history or science topic. I made up English assignments on the fly, using the reading for a lesson on grammar, vocabulary or writing. Once my oldest became of age, turning eight, I started adding more subjects and more written work. I started using websites for additional learning on our history and science topics.

I was writing out assignments for my two oldest every weekend for the coming week. I would bookmark websites, tagging them with the day they were to use them. At the end of the week, the bookmarks were deleted and the assignment sheets thrown away. I knew I would just have to do it over again for the next child, and the next, and the next.

I started writing out their assignments online so that they would be saved. I made the decision to write it not to my children, but so that anyone could use it. It took some figuring, but I managed to order the assignments so that English and math were progressive for each grade level while all the children could study history and science topics together. Because I was making the assignments for anyone to use, I made another decision to only use free materials that were available to everyone.

I’ve continued putting their assignments online. I now have four children using the Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool and two others who will use it in the future. I put up assignments for every subject required by our state, so PE and health, music and art are covered. I’ve added in computer, logic and Bible as well. These extra courses, except for Bible, are just once a week, so it’s never overwhelming trying to get it all done. Bible doesn’t require work, just a daily reading with some questions to answer. It takes children through the entire Bible every four years.

Easy Peasy now goes from preschool through high school. Preschoolers learn to read with just five to ten minutes of fun a day. It’s always been my strategy to teach my kids to read before I start “school” with them. It makes learning a lot easier once they know how to read. I’ve taught four different children to read with the method I use on EP. I love getting letters from people saying that their struggling readers are now confident, excited readers after using this learning-to-read program.  

High school courses are still in the works, but a full year’s worth of courses is already available. All high school courses offer grading guidelines. Many offer midterms and finals as well as quizzes and rubrics for grading papers or projects.

This is what my children do for school. I don’t enroll them in outside classes. We don’t go to Latin or chess club. This is what we do. School lasts from 5 minutes to 3 hours or so depending on the grade level and day’s assignments. Then my kids are free to do whatever it is they love to do. One loves art, one music, one computers. They are becoming excellent at the things they love because they have the time to spend at it. They do school easy but can still solve functions and write effective essays. How are your school days? Are they Easy Peasy?

Lee

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Thanks you so much, Lee! Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool has helped me so much with homeschooling my kids and I encourage any fellow homeschooling families to go check it out!