Manisha Answers Homeschooling Questions on Reddit

Hi, everyone. I'm Manisha, the founder of Modulo, and I thought it might be fun today to try to answer some homeschooling questions on Reddit, and so I selected the 30 questions that were on Reddit homeschooling group today, and I am going to attempt to answer them for you. All right, so our first question. High school. Hey, all. My son is going to be starting high school next year and has been homeschooled for most of his education, aside from first and fifth grade. Both times I put him in public school, I ended up regretting it due to the influences from other kids and the lack of time we got to spend together. However, I'm completely intimidated by high school. I think I can figure out the academics eventually, but I'm torn on what to do as far as the experience of it all. I don't want to take away the experience of prom and everything else that comes with high school. Thoughts? Wow, this is so great. And you know, there's so many less resources about high school than there are resources for younger kids, so I totally understand where this parent is coming from. So, first of all, it's great that this parent is confident about academics. And when they say the experience of it all, like prom, I'm assuming they're talking about making friends and also things like school sports. So the good news is that a lot of homeschooling groups do have prom and they do have team sports. And it really depends on what area you live in, if your area has those types of activities. And the first thing that I would recommend to this parent is just check out what are your local homeschooling groups. And. And then from there try to find out if there are these types of activities. And if there aren't, it's actually not too tough to organize them. You might say, post on your local group that you want to organize a prom. See if there's another parent that's willing to help you. But before you go that far, I would also consider asking your child what they want to be involved in. Perhaps they're not interested in prom or team sports, or are there anything that they're looking forward to in high school that they're afraid that they're not going to get. But do know that homeschooling communities are vibrant and diverse, and you'll likely find some activities. All you really have to go do is maybe check Facebook, look for, you know, prom in the Facebook group, or look for just unschooling groups in your area and ask if there are these types of activities going on or if anybody would be interested in organizing them with you. Sweet. Next question. Needing some advice? Sorry, this will be kind of long. We are here for you. I homeschooled my son for the first half of first grade. Before that, he went to a nature school. He's now halfway through second grade. His first year at this private school was great. This year started off great. Unfortunately, things have gone downhill. A couple months into this year, it was announced money had been stolen from the school by an employee who was then fired. This is more common than you would think. There is allegedly an ongoing investigation, but there has been rumblings of this case of being a case of mishandled money, not stolen money. Anyway, since that happened, it seems the administration has been preoccupied and things are slipping through the cracks. We have decided to homeschool next year and hope that my son will do better than he did in first grade. However, the last couple weeks, it seems it has been one thing after another at school and I'm considering just pulling him out now. This is what happened. Number one email from a teacher saying, my son son was being a bully and I needed to do something about it. More eloquently written, but that was the gist. Why did this teacher email this parent this information? Can't anybody pick up the phone? I talked to my son and he said the kid was picking on him first. We obviously worked problem solving in a nicer way, but when I talked to the teacher, she said, oh, yeah, the other child is very hard to get along with. That's correct. I feel like two kids not getting along is totally different than my son is bullying someone. And I'll just highlight here that sometimes children are singled out for bullying and it's really not fair. So it's good that this parent is asking questions about what happened. Sadly, I've seen teachers take a dislike to a student for a variety of unfair reasons, including their race and their gender or just not a personality fit. So it's really good that she's digging in deeper. And I don't agree with a teacher sending an email about this. Number two. Couple days later, my son told me there were kids cussing. I told the principal and she thought it was funny. I didn't. Yeah. This is also another thing that I can't stand when school officials don't take parents seriously. You know, it's fine. I mean, everybody has laughed at kids cussing. It can be funny. But if a parent is concerned about that, especially kids, you're paying money. It's a private School, the principal should be listening and trying to understand why that's bothering you. And I will just point out that this is one of the advantages of homeschooling is that you can just really shape your environment to be how you like it. And if language and choice of words is something that you value, then homeschooling is an opportunity not to be around kids who cuss or to be able to deal with it as it happens. 3. The next week I found out there are boys trying to play tappers with my son. They walk by and tap you on the penis. Oh my gosh, that's not nice. My son said they got put in time out but kept doing it. Same teacher as the bullying issue. I really feel for these teachers because so much of your work is simply managing a large classroom of kids the same age and there's so much little time you actually have to teach. And that is just, you know, if that is a situation. I mean, the son is being sexually harassed. That's final. Number four. Yesterday I found out there's a child there letting dress up as a wolf and go by the name Wolfie. He's an older student, but it's a small school and he gave my son his phone number on the playground. I don't know what to make of this situation. Yeah, I don't really know what to make of this situation as well. I think it's really good that her child is communicating these issues. It sounds like she's a little bit concerned for her son's safety but doesn't really know what to make of the situation. She might be concerned about this child's influence. I would just, you know, if it were me, I would reach out to the parents and say, you know, hey, this happened. You know, would love to be friends. Okay, so this parent, you know, I think she has all the reasons she's not happy with the environment, the school, and has every reason to be. I want the transition to be to homeschooling to be exciting and fun and I worry it will seem more like a punishment punishment if I pull him out before the year is over. If you made it this far, thank you. And what would you do? Lol. I really appreciate after this heartfelt and honest question to a group of people this parent ends it with lol. It shows that even though she doesn't find the same or they don't find the same things funny that the school principal did, they're still able to have humor about their situation and humility. So I like this parent. I really feel like they're coming from the right place. And. And I would first of all say that she has every right to trust her intuition. Even though she might not have the clearest logical explanation about why this behavior is bothering her, she is in her full right to feel bothered. Now, the first thing I would recommend is that this parent has a conversation with their child about what's going on and what they feel about it and the reasons why the parent might think that the child would benefit from a different environment and what that might look like. So if they want the conversation to be successful, I would give the child the benefit of the doubt. Now, you want to approach this conversation with some delicacy because you don't want the child to stop sharing this information with their parent. So a good place to start might be, you know, I'm concerned about, you know, that you were called a bully and that some of the children were bothering you. And I was thinking that maybe we could consider homeschooling. Maybe there is a great homeschooling community already in your area. You might say, hey, is that something that you'd be interested in trying out? And give the child some ownership over the decision. Now, it's possible that the child might not want to homeschool right away, but then the more they think about it, the more they think that could be quite another approach is to offer a trial. So say, you know, I feel like school hasn't been the best fit for you, and you might have better friends and be learning better and have more fun with homeschooling. Would you be willing to try it out for a week or two? And that way they can be more acclimated and I think just really giving your child some ownership over the decision and talking through these questions alongside them and helping, you know, get their opinion on what they think is the best choice for their education is going to turn into something that's not a punishment, but an opportunity. But again, tread delicately because you have this amazing gift and that your child is communicating with you what's happening. And so you absolutely don't want to shut off that chain of communication. So, again, I would approach it more as, you know, hey, you know, I've been thinking about what's going on in school, and I was wondering if you might be interested in homeschooling and then kind of see what they have to say and have a conversation about it and make them part of the decision as well. And you can even ask them what their own goals are for their education and friendships. So another option is that you could go to a homeschool meetup with your child just or enroll them in a homeschool class and they might find that they really like the kids and the community and are inspired to be part of it. Moving on. Recommendations Does Student hates to write anything, especially creative writing does fine with grammar language suggestions on what to use other than IEW my son is in 5th grade and hates to write anything. He especially hates creative writing. We have done a little of the IEW workbooks in his younger years, never finished, but I'm looking for something different. We currently use Abeka for language and he does fine with grammar in general if it's anything creative writing that he hates. We have never done a book report which I would like to have him do very soon with steps and time to get there. Obviously I'm looking for suggestions from others on a good resource that will help us, perhaps even in bite sized ways. We may need to go back a grade or two to get to where we need to be with creative writing and I'm okay with that. Reading and grammar are fine. Please let me know any suggestions you may have or something that has worked well if you have experiences a similar situation finally, an easy question. I recommend Brave Writer to this parent. This is an extraordinary writing curriculum that was exactly designed to support students who have writing blocks and make it easier for them to express themselves. Be creative, cure any trauma that surround writing. So I would just run, don't walk to Brave Writer. I've actually done some interviews with the founder of Brave Writer and I'll just show you. We do have a review of Brave Writer on the Modulo website. I think if you go to Writing Night, Zookeeper is a really fun one too. It's an adaptive app, but Brave Writer is just my top choice. It's inspiring, eclectic, and everything about it is addressing this exact problem of what do you do if your child doesn't like creative writing? And this is an interview I did with Julie Bogart, who is a wonderful homeschool influencer and the founder of Brave Writer. It's for grades K through 12. It costs around $49 for the curriculum or $249 for an asynchronous online class. So that's just a terrific program. Phew. All right, let's see if this next one's easy. Okay, Switching curriculum and sites too long tl Dr. What site could I use for homeschool that's less than $50 USD, so I've been using Mia Prep for two years now. It's $42 a month. And for a while I didn't have any problems. Now every time I have to open a PDF it doesn't load gives me five error notifications. Man, you need to tell me a prep about this. Does anyone know other homeschool site I could use that is less than $50 a month? First of all, there are so many homeschooling programs that are less than $42 a month and even free ones. When someone is looking for curriculum, I first ask them obviously what grade they're in and it looks like this person is in 11th or 12th grade. Then I ask them what activities they typically enjoy, whether that's playing video games or movies or playing outside or hanging out with their friends. And then last but not least, I'll ask them if they have any special needs. So it's a little bit difficult to recommend something without knowing more about this student. However, I will say that they could try Khan Academy. It's a really wonderful, totally free online homeschooling curriculum. There's also K12 IXL can be a great option if you are really looking for a curriculum that aligns with state standards and that's pretty affordable. You could try something completely different and homeschool yourself by going to the library and picking books that you like. If you prefer a more physical curriculum, I think Critical Thinking Company has its really rigorous, wonderful curriculum. And if you are looking for something online that's adaptive and works really well. And I would recommend Time4Learning if you do decide to go out and read books and maybe do research projects on your own. Another option you could consider is piecing together most of your curriculum, but using a math curriculum and an English language arts curriculum. And for math again there's just such a huge range of options, maybe less so. For high school I really like think well homeschool. For high school math and art of problem solving is also really great. But if you just kind of want an alternative to me, a prep and the style isn't as important to you, I think that time for learning would probably be your best bet. Another consideration, I'm not sure if this person is looking for an online school or if they're looking for a homeschooling program. But if you go to modulo and are looking for curriculum, you can also actually find online schools. So you can just go to online school. And there is our blog on the best online schools for 2024 and also if you just want to look at everything that's a resource for 11th grade, you can click on 11th grade. And there's everything from robotics curriculum to foreign language to scratch for learning to code to learning Spanish. You can see the prices for everything. Okay, moving right along. Excel high school diploma. Hey, I'm thinking to get a high school diploma from Excel website, I thought of using gud, but it was for art subjects. I want to ask that does Excel fast track high school diploma prepare me to get into engineering or computing fields later like BSCS or bsce? Is it approved by ibcc? Okay, so this is quite a load of information. I mean typically we could probably ask. Let's just take a look at Excel High School because I am not really very familiar with this site. Excel High School. Let's see. Earn an accredited high school diploma. Oh, and here we have their full course list, so standard. Okay, so they have language arts, STEM courses. That was what they were looking for. Yeah, it looks like they have coding, electrical engineering, computer engineering, mechanical engineering. These also seem like great options. And in terms of ibcc, I mean there's nothing really here about ibcc. So I would probably lean towards. No. And then, you know, if the key thing this person wants to do is get into engineering or computing fields, I would recommend going straight to a source like UDEMY or something that was specifically designed for engineering or computing. Instead of taking classes through this online high school that offers tons of different courses, I would probably just look for what are some really great engineering courses. And so for example, on Modulo we have a category for coding where you can take, you can figure out things like Code Spark, codewizards, hq, Tynker, Roblox actually is a great way to prepare for engineering. And then these UDEMY development classes are really just fantastic and definitely good. Career prep. Pre algebra recommendations. My current 6th grader was using Math Mammoth. We recently subscribed to MIA Academy. Oh, MIA is back. I noticed that he pays attention to videos way more than me explaining things. I swear I'm the teacher from Charlie Brown. The issue I have is that he completes the lesson so quickly that I worry it's not rigorous enough. Can anybody recommend an online math curriculum for pre algebra? We're finishing this year with MM MIA Academy. I'm looking for pre algebra curriculum for next year. So in regard to I am the teacher from Charlie Brown. If the videos are enough to explain things to him, there's no reason for for this parent to chime in. I would say, you know, I also just want to recommend that if you are in that role of guide or for your child, it can work a lot Better than being in the role of teacher. So if you want to be there and help them, if they have questions, learn along with them. They're probably a lot more likely to pay attention than if you're trying to give them a lesson. On top of the videos in terms of pre algebra, I am absolutely in love with Dragonbox Algebra. They have such a fun and unique approach to teaching kids the concepts around algebra. And in general, MIA Academy is a great program, but I always suggest that parents get a separate math curriculum in addition to their full curriculum, just because math is a very challenging subject to design and people who are focused solely on making math really amazing tend to do a great job of it. So curriculum that I enjoy for pre algebra. If your kid loves video games videos, I think Beast Academy is a good fit. If they prefer they're really obsessed with comic books, I would choose the physical version of Beast Academy, but any other kid I think the online version is a bit better. And if you're yeah, Dragonbox Algebra is just so much fun. There's another if your kid really likes watching videos, there's a teacher who has a channel called Math Antics and they also have videos that accompany it. And that is just. He is just so fun and engaging. So that can also be a really good choice for pre algebra. And then if your child is perhaps if you're looking for something that they maybe they find Beast Academy a little bit too challenging. Again, if they really like video games like Pokemon, Prodigy Game is just a great way to practice. It sounds like your son is moving through lessons really quickly. And so in that case, Prodigy Game is going to be a great fit because essentially when you start Prodigy Game you basically just dive into solving problems and it tracks what level you're at so you don't get the same problems that you already know, but they have little videos that you can play as well so that if your son does get stuck, he can watch the video and teach himself. And it sounds like this kid really has quite the potential to be an autodidact and very self directed and I would really lean into that. Happiness must start with homeschool. I've been homeschooled for medical reasons and I can get so much work done in like half the time. Wake up and doing what makes me happy is so worth it. Let this be assigned to anyone who needs it. Okay? Not really a question, but such a great point. You would be shocked by how many people decide to homeschool just because they can sleep in. And there's so much research that shows the benefits of sleep, especially for teenagers and they are waking up way too early to go to school and sleeping in is just so great for their cognitive function. So good for this person. We love sleep Petty pet Peeves maybe it's just me, but I hate it when printables have a border around the edges when you're meant to cut it. That sounds annoying, but the inside's border is the same width as the outside border. And then you have to choose between having even borders that are really skinny or uneven borders. Or if you are really picky, you print out multiple pages just so you can have the thicker border that is even anybody. Just me. Okay, I'll go now. Isn't online community wonderful? Homeschool parents need to have pet peeves just like everybody else. But I will have to ask why is this person still printing stuff in 2025 when there are so many great online resources? I mean, I understand the value of hands on work and workbooks, but on the other hand, you know, I mean I can understand the value of hands on projects and having an abacus and blocks, but if it's just a worksheet, can't you do it online? Then you're not going to have to print anything and spend all this money on printer ink. But I just want to say I feel your pain and maybe you could teach your kid how to cut. Too early. Too early. My first only. So this is still new to me, kids. 19 months. Is it too early to start looking into options or resources? Most of the people in our area choose homeschool for various religious reasons and all of the local resources are geared toward that sort of flavor. That's not my wife and the reason for considering homeschooling. So I'm not sure where to start. So I came here. If it isn't too early, where should I look or start? Thanks in advance. Hey, if you want to start looking for homeschooling resources, you can start whenever you want. Probably the most important thing for you to figure out right now is how you're going to structure the homeschooling. So one option you do have at this stage is to move to an area where there are more secular groups like Richmond, New York City, San Francisco, Minnesota. There are some really, really great places to homeschool in Maine. So if your kid is 19 months, you have time. There is absolutely no urgency to start academics at 19 months. As many people know, I'm a big advocate for play based learning not because I'm some loosey goosey hippie but because play is so vital for cognitive development and children, most children are not developmentally ready to learn how to read or understand abstract math until round five or six or later. So there's just no point in pushing them. It's just going to give them a distaste for those subjects. That said, there are some really wonderful resources that you can use when your child starts becoming two or three if you feel like they're ready. Homer is a wonderful adaptive learning app. Blossom and Root is a beautiful homeschooling curriculum. I would also recommend getting your own community going if you want to connect with more secular people in your area. You could start a group, perhaps a Facebook group or a group on Modulo and just start getting parents together to grow the community in your area. But my biggest tip might be to move Piano apps on iOS for five to six years old. My daughter practices on her keyboard multiple times a day and is playing extremely well by ear. She needs more guidance on hand position and some instruction to notation and it needs to be not super dry material. We're willing to pay a subscription for the right one. We tried working with Hoffman but she found him boring. That's too bad. Hoffman is a great online piano program. I'm looking at Simply Piano. So far. Anyone using a good early app for piano, I would say that SimplyPiano is the best fit. Everybody loves it, it's beautifully designed, it's one of the top apps on the app stor and frankly I don't think that you can do better. I am just going to check here to see what else we have in music and prodigies. You know, it's more of a music appreciation curriculum, but Simply Piano is really fantastic. So if you just look go to Simply Piano. You can read the review. It was built by Joy Tunes, which also has some other apps and you can start out either your basic or intermediate level. And I mean there just really isn't anything better out there. So I would just go with this one. Simply Piano ivla Anyone have experience with International Virtual Learning Academy? Good or bad? Thanks so much for your time. So I did do some research and I could find nothing in my homeschooling groups about ivla. I did also go on Niche that can be a good way to find information about online schools. This person says they're looking for an online school for a 10th grader and I have to say because I love modular learning so much is why are you doing an online school when you could curate your child's education? Is it because you're Afraid that they're not going to learn everything that they need to learn. Do you just not want to have to pay attention? Because another route, which will be probably less expensive is to choose an all in one curriculum and a math curriculum. It should only take an hour or two a day and they can work through it at their own pace. Add in volunteer opportunities, extracurriculars, especially if your child's in 10th grade. There's so much they can do independently. So I'd really take a good look at what's driving you in choosing an online school. That said, I did take a look at this niche page and you can look at any online school. There's a lot of interesting reviews and I found that first of all, it's pretty cheap. I haven't seen almost anything that inexpensive for 3750 a year. Number eight, best private high schools in Nevada. There is actually some really great learning stuff going on in Nevada. So that is good to know. And then most of this is pretty high. Fifteen students, one teacher. I mean that's one of the disadvantages of traditional schools is that you don't get that great one on one learning. But yeah, let's take a look at the reviews here to see what people say. And, and I really like to dig in and see the good ones and the bad ones. So starting with this really enthusiastic review. Looks like rigorous is a key word here. And there's some real world experiences. Educators recommend it. That's always a good thing to look for. People are just very, very happy about it. Oh, kids engage with in discord. So there's some nice community elements there. Now I kind of look. What do people say who's very good? What did they not like about it? So let's see. So she doesn't. So the advantage here is that the parent doesn't have to put in time. Teachers are really good, but they want more resources preparing for college. Fair enough. Let's see what else do people say that isn't positive? All right, let's just skip to terrible, terrible service and communication. I don't know. I don't think you can really blame an experience because of bad customer service necessarily. Let's see what poor people say. Oh, if you're an extroverted person, I wouldn't suggest joining this school. Also, if you want to make typical high school memories, you're not going to meet in person friends at an online school. But there are other ways to meet them. By joining a local homeschool group. Do not go to the school unless your Kid is super organized. Okay. This, I would say is more of a red flag if your child does need a little more motivation and then this might not be the best fit for them. You know, some kids can really only be motivated more in person. And they also said that it's very hard. That kind of. I noticed a couple reviews that were negative kind of mentioned that they were making people feel. Here it says stressed and overwhelmed. So if your child is getting stressed in school or has anxiety, this is another kind of suggesting it might not be a good fit for them or maybe if they're just not being organized in the typical way. I tend to find that if a child really loves their curriculum and their experience, they are going to be super organized and super motivated. So it seems like this just really wasn't a good fit for that kid. Let's see what the average person. Oh, people bullied them for being trans and gay. So that wasn't so inclusive. You know, that might just be one person's experience. But it is important to look at how that type of online learning is moderated. And I did see something that kind of backed up maybe some concerns around how the online learning is moderated because we do want to avoid cyberbullying. So 80% of kids said teachers give engaging lessons. That's not the highest. 87% say teachers care. I think that's pretty strong. Students that teachers adequately lead, not very good. But it does seem like. Yeah, so let's just see what they said here. Engaging lessons. So that's kind of all we have to go for about that Creative and artsy school. Not very great with athletics, Somewhat competitive. Yeah, so that's. It seems like. It seems like a probably better. Okay one. But if your child is not motivated in organizing themselves, I wouldn't blame your kid for that. So overall, I would say ivyla seems pretty good compared to some other online schools that I've seen. But if you do have the option to try a class to see if it's engaging for your kid first, then I would definitely go that route. Any game schoolers here? Oh, so many. We love game gamified learning. I just found this game. Curious to know your thoughts. Well, let's take a look. Bauergatan game. Build a world with stem. Okay. Interesting. I mean, it looks fun enough. First, math game. You can play without math. That is not true. There's tons of math games out there. Learn by guessing, play by guessing. Okay, so I guess people are kind of guessing and then if they get it wrong, it's explained These people look pretty cool. There is more info us on us on Steam. Let's see what that has to say. Oh, here we go. Let's see here. It's an empire builder. So it sounds like if your kids like Minecraft this could be a cool thing to try. I don't know how much I love about post apocalyptic world that seems a bit intense for kids, but in general it seems like something that's worth a try. Tell me if you try it out. Okay. What curriculum after All About Reading we are in the middle of our first grade year and are about to finish AAR level 3. I am thinking we might start level 4 since we have all of March June to go after level four of all about reading. What curriculum is a good option to continue on with reading in English? Honestly, my Stassin is doing so well that the AAR lessons take us hardly any time to complete and he's fluently reading. So I've been wondering if I should add something else in now. Any suggestions? Awesome. Well it's great that AAR has been such a good fit. I think that another good choice after all About Reading is Critical Thinking company. It's kind of aligned in that it's a workbook based reading curriculum. And then I think just reading a lot of books is a great idea. If you can read books together, ask questions, do research reports, those are another one that's pretty good is Logic of English which is really fun. But just go to the library, check out books and that will really improve your son's critical thinking and reading skills. How do I convince my parents that doing online high school won't ruin my future? Oh, I feel for this kid. They said I could do it junior senior year, but not this year, sophomore year because the colleges will see that I went to our public high school which is good school so it is better to have half and half. My mom thinks I don't care about my future what But I do and I'm prepared to face any difficulties this may bring and to work hard to get into college. So how do I convince them that it won't? Sounds like this kid is doing is really motivated to do online school, you know. So one thing I might recommend again, we're more in the modular learning business than the online high school business, but what's really critical is what this student wants. So first of all I would say to the student, have you considered homeschooling using a combination of online resources like Time4Learning or Khan Academy? And it does seem that the parents are Concerned about the future. I mean, it's very easy on niche.com to see how many kids from the online school are getting into college. So if this student takes the opportunity to go to niche.com, look up online high schools. Online high school. Okay, so Stanford online high school is considered the best online high school. But we can click on this category best in private online high schools and you can actually see where students are going after their online high school. So maybe we won't pick the top top one, but let's just click this one at random. And rankings, academics. There should be some information here about best college prep private high schools in New York. So that gives. Okay, popular colleges where students are interested in niche college admissions calculator. Okay, so basically here in this admissions calculator you can understand your chances of getting accepted into any college in the country. So you can select a college. So let's say Harvard. What are your chances? See your chances. Okay, this is a special feature, but sorry, we get a little bit distracted there, but most high schools actually do have information about where kids are going to college. We can just see here. I thought that niche had that information. Let's just see student rankings. Okay, Popular colleges where people are interested more about school academics, college enrollment. 94% percentage of seniors who go on to four year colleges. Okay, so this is really the place to look. So if you just go to any online high school, scroll down to more about school academics and that's where you're going to see the college enrollment. So there's your information that is going to really help you determine what is the best, you know, that'll give you information to go to your parents. Now the other thing that I wanted to recommend to you is that on modulo we have a newsletter, teach your kids.substack.com and we recently did a really fantastic interview with college students. Homeschool to college and it's a video with a high schooler who's in homeschool and then these four incredible students. Sebastian's at Bard and Henry here is at Stanford and these two girls are in medical school now. So they all, I mean, I think that if this student can get their parents to watch this video, that will convince them, you know, finally, you know, your, the parents say that they're not really convinced that the student cares about their future. So maybe you could, you know, tell them what you want for your future and then see why each of these schools is a better fit to achieve those goals and present them with your reasons. Responsibility. Do you remember doing this in high school for home economics? Oh yes. I had a flower baby. Some of my friends had egg babies. You had to take care of a crying doll or an uncooked egg for a day or two to teach responsibility, being a parent skills, et cetera. Did this before in our homeschooling and are doing it today to refresh forgotten or unlearn things skills. Sometimes in whole schooling you should revisit material you already taught because you may have new connections to the material or you may have forgotten or your learner may have as well. Have a good day. Keep going in your journey. I loved taking care of my flower baby. It was so fun. But pretty much that lesson is just don't have sex when you're not ready to have a baby because then you're gonna have an egg that you're gonna break because you're not gonna be a good parent. And on modulo we have a lot better resources available for people who want to learn about sex ed. I was personally so disappointed by how little I knew about sex ed. So you can go to our category. Let's just find it here, Sex Education and see some of the wonderful resources that we have available. So I'm just going to click on Amaze. Amaze is one of our favorite resources. They have really terrific videos that explain every aspect of sex ed. You can watch them with your child or just hand them off for them to look at alone, depending on their comfort level. It's so amazing. Is a wonderful book for younger children. Or it's not the Stork classic. Amaze just has fantastic digital content. Sex is a Funny word. Hilarious book. Your kids love it. The Unitarian Church is a whole comprehensive program about sex ed. If you're looking for more of a class or something more workbooky. Scarla Teen I interviewed the founder of this project. It's just tons of blogs about sex for teenagers written by experts in the field. I've been reading it myself a little bit to learn about stuff I didn't know. So there's just you can go so much deeper than an egg baby. And I'd really recommend checking out some of these resources. If your kid is a little bit older, then I think definitely check out Amaze. It's so great. And then if your kid is younger, Sex is a Funny Word is a great start. Teaching accurate history. Oof. This is such a charged topic, but I want to dig in. We read the Heartbeat Drum, the Story of Carol Powder, and inside on one of the pages there was an illustration of indigenous women with red handprints across their mouths. My daughter asked why, and I did my best to explain what I knew about the symbolism. Still, I realized I needed help. What resources do you recommend for teaching children about accurate historical and current events? I don't want to sugarcoat things or whitewash events, but it also needs to be age appropriate. Ages 2.5 and 6 ISO of blogs, curriculums, and books. For me and them, anything helps Tia. So the top resource that I would recommend is called Blossom and Root. And I'm just gonna go to the history It's Blossom and River of Voices. Curiosity Chronicles is wonderful for world history, but it looks like this person is looking for US History. We have a ton of different resources on modulo. And what I look for when I'm recommending history curriculum is that, first of all, it's developmentally appropriate, so it's such a balance. As a parent trying to understand how much is my child ready to learn about history because so much of history is really quite violent, and then also how much of the history should be representative of my child's own experience. So if your child is African American, you might want to be learning more about black history. Or if your child is Asian, you might want to be learning about Asian history. If your child is white, you might also want to be learning about other histories. And, you know, we live in such a diverse world, and it's just really tricky to find that balance and our comfort level. But what I really like about Blossom and Root's river of Voices is that it has these levels. So you can choose the most gentle level, which is just absolutely the least violent, least anything awful, or you can choose a more challenging level that's going to go more in depth into difficult topics, and it recommends a reading list. The other thing, you know, we do try to find history curriculum that tells more than the perspective of a white man, you know, and I think that is reasonable given the makeup of our country and our world. But, you know, some people feel like there's too much about a certain group than another group. I think any good history program is going to have the stories of women and minorities. And it's impossible to find a completely accurate history curriculum because facts and dates even sometimes aren't known. But at least good curriculum is actually going to have honesty about what is known and what's not known and constantly updating that. So we have all of these really great resources on history and social studies and modulo. For this parent, I would definitely recommend the Blossom and Root, river of Voices, just because it does have those different levels, which is looking what it looks like she's looking for for her child. And then for world history, Curiosity Chronicles is just fantastic. It has audio, visual. It's a whole narrative. And, you know, every parent has to choose what's right for their child. The other thing I would recommend is really taking advantage of. I'm just gonna go here to our history article. And, you know, some people get kind of mad when I use the word inclusive. I think that word has become politically charged. But what I mean by that is that it's a curriculum that doesn't just talk about white people seriously. And actually, okay, there's a percentage of different groups in our country. Let's kind of try to reflect that and those people's contributions in a somewhat representative manner. And, you know, it's not that hard to look at what percentage of different demographics there are in the US and the world and see that our current history curriculum isn't really covering that in a way that reflects those experiences. But I would say it's impossible to touch upon the experience of every single group. And so one thing that you can do as a parent is take advantage of colleges and universities. A lot of times they have online curriculum, they have libraries, and if you just, you know, for instance, if you're interested in learning about Irish history or Africana studies, you can check out what kind of resources your college or university offers. You can do your own research projects. So I think that history is really an area where you can have a lot of fun. There's some great resources on YouTube. But, yeah, I definitely would recommend exploring this. And please don't be offended by the word inclusive. It's just, you know, we want everyone's history to be taught as well as possible. But, you know, again, I just want to say that, you know, there's this. It's really sensitive in this kind of line between sugar coating what happened and exposing your children to areas that might be too much for them because children have different levels of sensitivity. If you have a highly sensitive kid, you don't necessarily want to be telling them about all these horrible massacres that took place in our history. And so I really recommend as a parent that you think about your child's developmental stage and get information about that, but also really check in intuitively about what they are ready for. And children can handle a lot more than we might think. And it's good to talk to them about these things. But too much violence at a young age is not necessary. It's like exposing a child to too much news. So just, you know, take some time to check in and figure out what's right for you and for your child. We started homeschool after situation at preschool. Kids want to go back. I don't know what's the right choice. This is a really tough conundrum when you want to homeschool and your kid wants to go to school. Most people would just say, well, do what your kid wants to do, send them back to school. But it's not really that simple. So to make a long story short, my 3 year old and 5 year old go to the same school, preschool and VPK. I think that means kindergarten. We had an incident in school with my youngest, safety and pulled him out while child services did an investigation. Without a doubt. I thought we were starting to homeschool. We planned to do it in September, so I thought this just sped up our timeline. It's barely been a week. I know it's a big adjustment, but both my kids are asking to go back for their friends. They said they feel safe, but I don't know if I feel like sending them. The teacher in question was fired after neglect was determined, but I feel the school will hold it against us at the same time. I know they learn a lot in school plus being with other kids. I run a business from home, but I'm willing to drop all for them. My husband says to send them back so I have a break from them and they can socialize. But I don't know. My gut is telling me to keep going with this even if it's hard. I am sorry this is long. I guess I need an event and advice. Has anyone been in a situation like this? It's been a crazy week. I don't want emotions to cloud what's best for them. Person, please go and make homeschool friends. There are so many amazing homeschoolers. I just say like the first thing to do is go to a local homeschool meetup and if you're having trouble finding one in your area, just send me an email manishamodulo app. I'll help you do the research. Takes 5 seconds to email me or to look on Facebook for your local group. But you can have friends and homeschool and I would strongly suggest that you go to a meetup if there isn't one in your area. You can host a board game night at your house. You can host a park day. Sometimes going to playgrounds during the day is also a great way to meet homeschoolers. But just, you need friends. That's gonna be. Then your kids can have friends at school. Now, the other thing that I would add to this is that, you know, just trust your gut and you know, what you. What you feel about your child's safety. But I think that it's also really important, even though your children are only three and five, to talk them through, Talk it through with them so they understand why we're trying at homeschool, why we're not doing this right now. Kids are capable of complex reasoning, and the more you involve them in the decision and talk things through and get their feedback, the more on board they're gonna be. But first of all, have some friends. You need friends. You need community. Connect with your local homeschooling community and start making some friends there and just talk things through with your child in a way that respects their intelligence and what they know is best for them. Logic of English pacing. I'm tutoring a homeschooled kindergartner with Logic of English Foundations A and I love it. So far. I did three lessons a week with him, but now I'm slowing down to two a week because the lessons are getting longer, which is okay because he's still working on fluency with letter sounds. My question is, if you used all of your finger's foundations with your child, how long did it take you? My friend used it before I did, and she went through A, B and C before 6. They didn't do D because they changed to the GTB. I know kids do move at different paces, so I just wanted to see how others move. Pace this curriculum with their child. Okay, so first of all, pacing. The great thing about mastery based learning is that you can move forward at your own pace. And I would just say take as long as you need. If your kid does the whole curriculum in six months, that's great. If it takes them 10 years, that's also fine. As long as they're enjoying it, it seems like you love it. So I would just say that if two times a week is good and there's consistency so that he's able to remember what he did the day before, that's great. Another suggestion might be to do 20 minutes a day, which is a good attention span for a kindergartner. And it's okay if you don't get through the whole lesson, but at least that way the lessons are a little bit more consistent and closer together so you can build upon the momentum and. Yeah. And just really try not to look around too much at how Fast. Other people are moving through it and think about what's best for your child and move at their own pace. There was a study by Angela Duckworth recently that showed that a group of children over the course of several months worked through a curriculum at different rates, but they all finished and achieved mastery at exactly the same time. So honoring your child and pace is the key. Sounds like you're doing great. They have a curriculum they love. You're moving at your own pace. Focus on what's working well for your own child, and keep doing it. How much time do you spend on compliance each month? Would you say, whoa, Hi, all. Just trying to understand how much time others spend on state compliance each month. And for those of you who had to create a transcript for college, how much time did that take you? Okay, so first of all, this so depends on the state. Some states require annual reports, some states require quarterly reports. In Texas, you don't have to do anything. Sometimes you have to do something once a year. Some states require a teacher narrative. The other thing is that transcripts, I mean, it's just so easy. You can use ChatGPT to create a transcript honestly. And if you are not, you know, if you're worried it's going to take up a lot of time, it's not going to take up a lot of time. The probably the fastest way to create a transcript is just to look at someone else's transcript, keep a spreadsheet of the courses. You know, honestly, colleges do not really care that much about a grade a homeschool parent gave their kid. It's going to be more about what they got on their AP tests or other things that the school can measure. So really, this. This is not going to take a lot of time. AI detection technology used by educators in the virtual learning environment. Whoa. Lots of words there. Wondering if anyone can explain this to me or possibly help with my rebuttal argument. My daughter's essay, about 300530 words total, came back as 22%. AI on. Ugh, this is so annoying. And the teacher sent only the highlighted flag portion of the paper. About 120 words through 0 GPT, GPT 0 and scribbr. Oh, my gosh, this is going to set me off on a rant. Because first of all, this technology is not detecting AI well. And also, teachers are being trained to stop kids from using AI when AI has become a vital tool for writing that they should be using. Okay, question is, shouldn't the teacher be scanning the entire paper through those services if she's using them to double check. My husband is a data engineer and checked her computer. She doesn't even use Grammarly, let alone AI. Our daughter does virtual school from home, so we're pretty watchful of her work. She's a spelling bee whiz, so has amazing vocabulary. We found her using the Oxford Dictionary online for three words to avoid repeating herself, but this is contained in the part that the turnitin flagged. We are meeting with a teacher next week. I would love to hear your thoughts on AI detection being used by homeschool parents. It seems more and more colleges and user cities are disabling this feature and not allowing Instructure to use any AI detection. Oh my gosh. I have so much more to say here, but where I want to start out with is why? What is the point of writing a paper? The point is that you're applying research skills, you're coming up with a thoughtful analysis, and you're developing your ability to learn. And so all of this focus on cheating is so unfair because what it's actually measuring is how well a teacher is doing, not how well students are doing. So, you know, first of all, it's just. It's just so frustrating. I mean, I would say, you know, one thing that these teachers can do and if you really want to understand a child's level is have them do essay tests. And then it's also just such a, you know, it's so. I just despise this punitive approach that's accusing a girl of cheating when obviously she's not even cheating at all. And so in terms of AI detection being used by homeschooling parents, I don't know a single parent who's using AI detection because they don't need it. Because kids are motivated to learn and they love learning and they want to improve their skills because they understand why they're learning what they're learning, and they use a variety of tools available to support that learning. This is why companies are not using AI detection tools. If someone is successfully answering customer queries and they're using ChatGPT, who cares? It only becomes a problem if people don't like the responses that they're getting. So this just frustrates me so much, and it just shows how far away our schools have become from actually caring about if children are learning. And it's all about catching cheaters. So frustrating. My daughter's preschool experience has made me question whether or not I'm caught out to homeschool. I've loved the idea of homeschooling since my daughter was less than a year old, but because I was overwhelmed with stay at home mom life with her and her brother. She's currently in preschool five days a week. She says that she doesn't love it and would rather stay home, but she's learned so much there that I would have never even thought of teaching her at home. She knows how to count in Spanish. She's doing union on feelings right now, does all these fun crafts and activities, has made friends and recognizes all her letters. She ran into a school friend at swim lessons yesterday and it warmed my heart knowing that she's actually meeting other kids. She had no friends when she was home with me. I feel like she has grown so much and they're providing her with things that I wouldn't even have thought to give her. She is naturally a homebody and would probably be thrilled to be at home instead of school. And I'm still drawn to the flexibility of homeschooling, the ability to go at her own pace to get more time as a family. But what if I can't do as good a job as a school kid? Well, there's really only one way to find out, which is to try. And I definitely think your daughter is going to learn more one on one than she is going to be learning in a group environment. I mean, it's lovely that she can do these visible things like count in Spanish and you know, these things that entertain her like crafts and activities. It makes parents happy to see the outcomes of the work. But it's very. I mean, maybe if she was at home, she'd be fluent in Spanish and she would be developing her own crafts and activities that came to her through her own natural curiosity. Most importantly, find a homeschooling community. This whole split that if you have school, if you're at school, you have friends, but if you homeschool, you don't have friends is a totally false idea. So I would say if this girl wants to be at home, absolutely, it's so good for her. And listen to that natural intuition and find a homeschooling community in your area. Go to park days, participate in local art classes. You don't have to be at home to homeschool. Homeschool. In the early stages of considering homeschool, looking for recommendations of where to begin and good resources. I am aware to review my state's requirements, which I have done. Not looking for religious affiliation. Honestly, any help or thoughts are appreciated. Okay, great. So step one, join a community, go on Facebook, contact modulo, find out where your local community is and attend a meetup that is an absolute essential for beginning. You need your group of people to share skills, to share resources, to share support. You need friends. That's step one. Step two. If you really care a lot about academics and you don't want to take a more free flow unschooling approach, I would go to modulo. I would first of all pick an hour to a day when your child is feeling fresh. And secondly, choose a full curriculum and a math curriculum or an English language arts curriculum and a math curriculum depending on your child's age and carve out that table time every day where they can take on their core academics. And then I would choose one, at least one weekly social activity that could be a homeschool class you could sign up for. That could be something. For example, what would be another good example of that? You could do an unstructured park day meetup. You could host a board game at your house and then I would just start there. Get your group going in your local area, carve out those one to two hours of table time. If your child is in kindergarten, an hour is plenty. If they're older, I would go for two hours. It really depends on their concentration level and then one local class. Parents have a tendency to layer in on a ton when they first get started and then their child just becomes way over scheduled. So in terms of finding your curriculum, you can use the modulo curriculum planner. Everything is vetted, secular accurate and you can search by category or you can see our recommendation for the perfect curriculum for your unique child. So you might select kindergarten, how well they know how to read, if they can write, and then how well they can do math. Because just because of their age doesn't mean they're not an advanced algebra whiz. What types of activities they most enjoy. So let's say watching videos on YouTube, how much screen time you feel comfortable with and if they have any special needs. Let's say that this child is gifted and then what your most pressing concerns are right now and then what your budget is and how much time you want to be involved. So for this child we recommend Khan Academy Kids. It's a wonderful adaptive learning app. And that's because probably they like watching videos and math for right start math, which is a more hands on curriculum, which is a great fit for children who are gifted. So that's a great place to start homeschooling. And that's where I would begin. Very simple. Find a group, go to a meetup, choose your Math and all in one curriculum or your ELA and all in one curriculum and then one local weekly activity and then you'll have time to build from there. BYL High school commitment. So I think they're talking about Build you'd Library, which is a great literature based curriculum. Is anyone using or has used BYL for the upper levels? Been looking over the website and I can't find any place where she tells you how long it's meant to take. Per day, per week. Obviously it's not going to be the same for every student, but can anyone suggest an approximate number of hours, please? Just wanting to know how much other stuff can fit into the week. Okay, so first thing to know about Build you'd Library is they have. It's basically a bunch of books that they recommend. Many people feel like there are way too many books recommended to actually complete in a given book. So they have something called a spine, which is pretty much the minimum of books that they suggest getting at the library or ordering. And in terms of how much time per day really? I mean an hour is plenty every day, but also if your child wants to do five hours a day because they love BYL so much, then by all means do it. That's pretty much all I have to say about that. And complement it with an hour of math. Harbor and Sprout A lot of people want recommendations about specific homeschooling curriculum that I've never heard of. So I did look into harbor and Sprout and essentially this family wants to know if anyone uses it and appears. No one in Reddit has. My friend uses their patchwork studies and she showed me some of the PDFs. It totaled over 500 pages for just four weeks. Unfortunately there's still so many homeschooling curriculum that are PDF prints and they're so expensive to print in color. I really wish people would just upload them to an app, but that will come soon. Now obviously she's not printing everything, but I can't even fathom having to look through all that and hand select what we'd want from every subject and study. I've been researching Ambleside for next year and suddenly that is looking utterly simplistic. Haha, it's so cute. I'll give it that. And it has some great ideas, but holy smokes, that's a lot of content. Anyone use these? So it is a little bit weird that there's 500 pages for four weeks. I would assume that probably you don't have to do everything. You can pick and choose from the curriculum. I looked a little bit into harbor and Sprout and the one thing that you might want to know is that they use neutral science. And neutral science is something that we tend to avoid at Modulo because instead of basically saying evolution did happen or evolution did not happen as some Christian curricula would say, but not all, or saying climate change is real or climate change is not real, they decided to take a neutral point which is either to kind of position them as two sided issues or just not talking about it altogether. Personally, I think that a science curriculum that doesn't include evolution and doesn't include climate science is not a full science curriculum. And come on homeschool curriculum creators. You have got to start doing something a little bit more technologically advanced than PDFs. If you need any advice on how to create digital content, I'm happy to help. Just contact us at modulo. But you are developing such a beautiful curricula. I think the era of PDF printouts is coming to an end. Advice my 5 year old daughter is already reading well in both English and Arabic. Good for you. And she enjoys writing. Lovely. However, math has been a bit of a challenge for us. We're starting homeschooling and I'm wondering how realistic it is to aim for completing the first grade learning objectives this year. We're working on improving her writing skills and have a good foundation in language, but I want to make sure we stay on track with math and science as well. Does anyone have advice on how to approach this and any recommendations for STEM based curricula that could help? So it sounds like this child in kindergarten. And by the way, it's totally fine to do none of this in kindergarten and just do play based curriculum. But it sounds like she's doing well in ELA but has some more struggle in math. And so what I would say here is first of all go to the Modulo curriculum planner, find the curriculum for homeschooling, enter your child's ages, what activities they enjoy, if they have any special needs, and then once you have entered that, we'll give you a recommendation. But given that she does enjoy writing, you know, I think that a nice place to start with is Homer. They have it's an adaptive learning app that has really fun early math exercises. Math Tango is also a really fun one that could be a great place for her to start. If she loves books, she might actually enjoy Beast Academy comic books series because they present math in a really fun storybook way. And in terms of science, there's just really some great, great science out there. If you want more of a workbook approach, I think that Real Science Odyssey is fantastic for online. Mystery science is really fun. There's also some more quirky curriculum like biochemistry literacy for kids or science is weird. That could be fun to play around with. But I would say there's not really a rush to start science and you might just want to kind of supplement what she's doing with a math curriculum. So she's more of a hands on learner I would say. Right. Start is a good choice even for kids who don't like math. If she likes video games, you could try Prodigy game as well which is you answer questions. It's kind of Pokemon like and then you know. But it seems like based on this, her kind of literature mindset, the Beast Academy comic books could be a fun one for her. But I would definitely check out the modulo curriculum Planner and see what we recommend. Based on her special needs, what activities she most enjoys, her age and what your primary concerns are. I hope that helps. IHIP example Using online platforms instead of textbooks hey there. I'm curious if anyone could share some examples of an IHIP where they are using primarily online platforms as opposed to textbooks. Textbooks. I'm in New York State if that helps. My son is in 10th grade. I just want to make sure I'm providing enough information. Thanks in advance. All you have to do is put the name of the online curriculum. You are not, you know, I don't. It doesn't sound like this person is looking for, you know, a recommendation of an online platform. If they are, you can go to modulo and you can find online curriculum. But I think that they just want to know if it's okay to use an online program. And really in New York State, all you have to do is show that you're providing the number of hours for each subject that's required. So just write the name of the subject, write the name of the hours and write the online platform that you're using. Done and done. Any other parents homeschooling high schoolers? Hey everyone. I've noticed that there are a lot of discussions here are focused on homeschooling younger kids, but I was wondering if there are parents who are out there homeschooling high schoolers. That is so true. I'm trying to navigate things like advanced coursework, dual enrollment, college prep, and making sure my teen stays motivated and engaged. Feels like there are a ton of resources for elementary and middle school, but finding the right fit for high Schoolers has been more of a challenge. How are you all handling curriculum choices, keeping up with state stant requirements and making sure your teen is prepared for college or whatever the next step is. Would love to hear what's working for you. Wow, there is so much packed in here. And first of all, let's just take this through one by one. In terms of advanced coursework, there is a lot of ways that you can support your child. If you can afford a tutor, that's helpful. But there's also free tutoring in platforms like Schoolhouse World. I'd also suggest just taking an attitude of learning along with your child. Udemy can be great in terms of dual enrollment, that's signing up at a community college. A lot of homeschoolers do it. It's fantastic. Do it if you can. In terms of college prep, absolutely. These colleges love homeschoolers. We did a whole episode last week on four homeschoolers that were attending Stanford and Bard and two in medical school and it was really incredible to watch. They just had so much motivation and engagement and great research skills and their advice was really, you know, just in terms of getting into college that it's great to take things that schools can measure like AP tests so schools can really see how well students are doing. Also, these dual enrollment classes just show the college more than a grade. But I do want to recommend that if you are looking into college, I'm just going to show you. This is our substack, Teach your kids and you can look up college and find our episode on Homeschool to College. There was just so much information packed in here from these kids and once you see them talk, you just get really excited about homeschooling your children because they're so wonderful. We also have an extensive post on homeschooling high school, so I'm just going to show you that post and walk you through some of the key findings. How to Homeschool High Schoolers so basically, first of all, homeschooling high schoolers is really awesome because they're very self motivated and they can work independently. You don't have to watch them all the time. This is an interview I did with a lovely high school homeschooler named Jasmine and you can really get a sense of everything she does on a day to day basis and how her parents motivate her. Transitioning to homeschool as a high schooler can be a bit more difficult because kids are used to being told what to do in school and it can take them a little while to tap into their own inner motivation. And it's okay to give them a period where they kind of do nothing until they realize, wow, I have autonomy over my own existence now. In terms of community kids communicating around learning, I would say that the best thing you can do is guide them, not instruct them. Be there to learn along with them. There's a great book, how to Talk so Teens will Listen and Listen so Teens will Talk that can give you some just sense of different communication strategies. Common concern with teens is what happens when your child outpaces your own learning. And I would say in that case, you know, if they're learning math and it's too hard for you, which can happen in fifth grade just as well as in high school, you can find a mentor. You can go to a free tutoring site like Schoolhouse World. You can get a tutor on a site like Modulo and. And the best thing is really just to learn with them and show them tools as they're working through a mastery based math curriculum. Try to support them in how to ask the right questions and find the right information, whether that through YouTube, ChatGPT. But you're really going to be giving them a really great framework for learning if you're learning with them because you might not know the subject, but you might know how to learn it. But then there's also some really great resources for homeschoolers in particular. I love think well, it's so great for government and math and other high school subjects. Khan Academy is awesome. If your kids learn well by watching videos. There's a ton of content. I love Dragonbox, Algebra, critical thinking companies, a fantastic high school curriculum. Oak Meadow has a homeschool curriculum that's project based and an online school and then time for learning. It's great, it's aligned with school standards, it's adaptive, very easy to work through on your own. But as in all these curriculum, I really recommend get a full curriculum and get a math curriculum and really give your child time to explore and direct their own learning. I hope that's a helpful start. It is hard to find resources for high schoolers. A suggestion for the subreddit Daily weekly discussion threads possibly separated into parents or students. Okay, so this person is looking for an online community that feels more like community. Hello? Yes. Oh, maybe like in 15 minutes. Is it? Okay, thank you. Bye bye. A suggestion for the subreddit Daily weekly discussion threads possibly separated into students and parents. I am in another subreddit that really feels like an online community because there are daily discussion threads posted by an auto moderator Things that aren't noteworthy enough to want to make a standalone post, but just a daily thread to put a little blurb about how your day went. Share a small success or a minor question? I would love to see a regular discussion thread where people actively educating their children at home can share little tidbits of what they're doing, what's working for them, or where homeschooling teens on Reddit have a place to check in. Share a little blurb about their day. An online community that cares about how your random Monday went, a math concept is kicking their butt, whatever. Especially when some lament that they're lonely and lack for interaction. Right now, the subreddit hasn't been enormously helpful for me personally, but I see potential for what it could be for easier to foster discussion on a regular basis. What do you guys think? Especially moderators if they see this. I think it's an amazing idea to have an online community like this and it just shows you that Parents are craving community. Teens are craving community. People want to check in about their day. We have this on Modulo. If you join Modulo and become a Premium member for $15 a month, you can join our WhatsApp group for parents or teens. Different threads like Chess or Minecraft or Math. You can share about your day. You can get tips and resources. Local community is great, but online community is so fantastic too, just to give each other different ideas. If you're feeling overwhelmed one day, ask for support. You can always see someone's a little further along in every issue that you're confronting with, and someone is always a little bit behind. And that's the great value of community. So if you're craving a community like this, I definitely encourage you to come to Modulo. You can go to teachyourkids.substack.com or Modulo app. Sign up for the premium membership. There's also a free trial. Join our WhatsApp group and be part of a regular discussion thread where parents are sharing little tidbits of what they're doing, posting photos and projects. It's a really fun and wonderful group of people. How do I handle the act? This is a really funny point to land on because in our interview of homeschoolers who went to college, everybody said that they wish they had more experience taking tests. So this person I'm currently in 11th grade and I'm supposed to be taking the ACT soon. Being homeschooled, I'm not used to standardized tests or a classroom atmosphere. Has anyone else gone through this? If so, any tips on how to focus and calm nerves? My biggest advice would be practice, practice, practice, practice. Just set up sessions in your home, timed sessions where you practice taking the actual and then go back and dissect your answers. You should be taking as much time as you possibly need, even going over time. And then as you take more tests just you will naturally start getting faster and faster as opposed to pushing yourself to go faster. In terms of calming your nerves, know this. These standardized tests are ways to make sure that most people are doing a mediocre job overall in the school system or to give colleges kind of a sense of did you actually learn anything at school? They're not really representative of your potential, so it's nice to kind of approach them as a game. This is a certain system of thinking and you can figure out how these people think. And systems thinking is really valuable as you enter the real world. And there are different systems and different workplaces for building companies. So it's good to understand how systems work and how to enter into them and then leave them. In terms of calming your nerves and focus, there's a couple things I would recommend and one of them is music. So there's a platform I like called Equisync and it has something you called Binaural Beats. And I found basically you put on headphones and then you listen to this music and they have some free ones for you if you just want to start. It's amazing how much it improves your anxiety. Not improves your anxiety, lessens your anxiety and helps you to focus. Binaural Beats. I also discovered recently activations, which just has these really powerful manifestations. It's a little bit more motivating than your typical meditation where you're sitting in silence. Although meditation is also a great tool as well. But I would recommend listening to Activations or Binaural Beats. Those are really good ways to calm your nerves and then really just like practicing that test as long as much as you can until you just feel really confident with every type of question and feel like you're beating the game. Just like a video game. I know you can do this. All right, everyone. So that is. Manisha answers questions on Reddit about homeschooling today. I hope that you learned something new and if you have any more questions or thoughts or comments, please drop them in the comments and I'll be happy to answer them. Have a great day.