In the middle of the year...resources for families with kids who are suddenly staying home

It has been a crazy busy season for me and my family, but amidst all of it suddenly the Coronavirus is making us all slow down!

As homeschoolers, that doesn't mean we stop doing school, though.  I always chuckle when public and private homeschools close for snow days.  My kids usually get part of a day and then--back to the books!  Those are the days they wish that they went to a brick and mortar school!

But, on the other days, they don't.  ...They don't on the days when they get up at 8 am and start school at 9 am.  Or the days when they don't have to deal with drama day in and day out.  Or the days when they're grateful for getting to learn from a math curriculum that makes sense to them!  Or on the days when we sit and have a discussion around the dinner table about the deeper messages that are in a particular Marvel movie.

A lot of parents might take time while they're home to think about homeschooling.  You may be one of them or you might not be!

Can you start homeschooling in the middle of the year?

Yes.  You can.  But, it is easier to plan ahead though and start at the beginning of a year, so that you can sign up for co-ops and groups for the coming year.  If you decide to start in the middle of the year, it's important to figure out where your child is in math in particular so that you do cover the concepts that your child was working on learning.  But, it can totally be done!

What if you don't want to homeschool, but you'd like some educational resources for your kids to work on at home so that they don't lose ground if schools close for a time because of the Coronavirus?

Here's a list of resources that easy to access off the top of my head:

1.  Writing:  NanoWriMo youth workbooks.

2.  Math:  Working on Math Facts is great!  XtraMath is a great free resource that is ad-free.  You can modify what you assign your kids and give them  longer time if they need it at first by using the 6 second program.

3.  Crash Course Videos from PBS  These are great short videos on various subjects, including science, history, and others.

4.  Great Courses Plus is a subscription service that has a myriad of courses.  There are guidebooks that you have access to print when you subscribe.  I use the United States History for my daughter's high school US History course and she learned so much from it!  She also really loved the series on the psychology of color.

5.  For high school students, Modern States.org has lectures that a student can watch and work through.  When complete, they can get a free voucher to take a CLEP test to get college credit.

6.  Time for Learning.com  is also a very popular resource among homeschoolers that has curriculum for every subject and is an inexpensive monthly subscription.

7.  For math, Teaching Textbooks also has an online 1 year subscription rate that's pretty reasonable.

Well, that's a very quick list.  I'll try and add more later if it would be helpful!