Weird that it is considered unpopular. Many, many homescgoolers i know use all in one. Im surprised thus is even an issue for you.

I really wish I could do it. I would have saved myself so much stress! But from the beginning I have pieced it together because we are a bilingual family. I just found something from LLAMITAS Spanish for my second that I think I could limit myself to and I would have almost everything I will need. Very good video! Thanks for sharing this opinion

I almost purchased this to use with my soon to be 5th grader too, but I decided on Sonlight Core D. I’m keeping this in the back of my mind incase we need to pivot. Thanks for the flip through!

I am going into my 3rd full year of homeschooling my youngest. Her brother is in public school so during the school year, she is basically the only child when we are doing activities and such for homeschool. She is more socialized now than when she was in public school. I remember public school being some of the loneliest times in my life. I think personality plays a huge role in that. My daughter struggled in school with social interactions and now she is so much more comfortable. She has friends from all her activities. It’s been wonderful for her. My son loves public school so it works out well for our family doing it this way. It’s been a learning experience for sure!

We are so excited to get started with this in the fall!

Wow this shines a light on somethings that may be happening with children who have a differiental diagnosis.

With the utmost respect, this isn’t an unpopular opinion at all. Sonlight, MFW, BJU, Abeka, Masterbooks, Generations, Memoria Press, Timberdoodle & many others have thousands (more likely tens of thousands) of customers each, who only use the “grade kit” made by that company. Sure a lot of people go eclectic, but thousands and thousands are ordering grade kits from the aforementioned companies (and companies I forgot or don’t know about).

After watching your video I guess I have advanced learners too. I’ve never looked at them as advanced learners because we’ve just spent the last 12 years following their lead. My 11 year old twins are starting “8th grade” and my 14 year old is stating “11th grade” and has been dual enrolled in college for the last year. I always celebrate them in the home and socially. Especially when we get around family and friends at Basketball, volleyball and cheerleading practices. I’ve never had anyone turn their noses up at us but maybe I’m just lucky to be in a highly supportive community. I hate that so many people seem to share your experience. That really sucks. I hope that changes for you and everyone else who feels judged by celebrating your achievements. I do want to say great job to you and your husband for creating an environment that allows your child to thrive and feel supported. 🎉❤

Thanks for being honest and sharing.

You have to do what makes sense for your homeschool when it comes to this! I have ALWAYS (11 yrs) schooled year round, but this year, I am feeling like a little longer break is in order for this year, so I am rolling with it. For some reason, I am needing this break. My kids in a way too, but I just need a break. So this week we are doing "project school". You know, all those hands on things we just didn't get to that I wanted to do. We did cave painting today (Story of the World) and my kids had so much fun! I did have my older ones do math too because we are trying to fill some gaps with Math U See. I do LOVE year round schooling mainly for the flexibility that it gives me all year long. I never have to worry about "getting it all done". There is always ample time to finish things each year - our school year runs July to May. Then June is "summer school".

Advanced learners "scare" people just as much as special needs learners. Thank you for sharing this!!!

I say we school year round but we don’t follow a strict schedule. I do two weeks off for each season, with the second week as a slow start back, like just morning time, bible curriculum work, and an interesting subject like geography right now. So there’s 8 full weeks without core subjects or strict lesson plans.

My son was slow to talk, he struggled with reading. He did start to read better in 5th grade. But he struggled with comprehension. We did not have the money to get him tested. I was able to adjust things to his needs without needing a diagnosis. I just saw what he was capable of and where he was at and we just did things the best we could. In some ways a diagnosis didn't really matter. He was advanced in math and science. However, when we got to high school when the work got more challenging he was really struggling and we paid 3K to have him assessed by an educational psychologist. He has dyslexia and all the struggles we were having just made so much sense. I am not sure an earlier diagnosis would have changed what I did but i may have helped me to not worry so much. The psychologist was impressed that I did all the right things in our homeschool because I was just paying attention to his needs and abilities and kept moving forward. Sometimes I wonder if a diagnosis earlier would have helped or harmed. I know the diagnosis has helped him in college, i has helped him to not feel like he is stupid and he gets accommodations to take tests and things like that. He understands his struggle with reading and comprehension and he can not feel like something is wrong with him, he knows he has this disability and it's okay.

I wanted to school year round but my kids always wanted to have a big summer break. Mostly because of friends who also had this big break and wanted to spend time with them. So we have always followed a public school schedule as well for same reasons. I will say as years have gone on I have really liked having this big break, it really feels like a break and it takes me so long to rest, so a big break has been very helpful. We are done as well. I think if I had my way and we did year round I think I would have missed not having a big break. I would feel like we were always schooling. We have never struggled with the summer slide, we always review when needed during the school year. We do no academics during summer, reading is only if people want. I read alot.

My kids have a very big age difference so I have been homeschooling my daughter by herself since she was 11. She is now 15. My best friend only has one child and has homeschooled her since preschool and she is also 15. You absolutely can homeschool one child. You can join a homeschool group or not, they can have tons of friends and social activities or not, It depends on who they are. That is the key, pay attention to them and their needs and interests and not what society tells them they should or should not be doing. Even homeschool society has it's way of telling parents how it should be. My number one advice to those homeschooling an only child is don't let all the voices run you down and tell you how it's supposed to be. Pay attention to what your child is interested in and what their needs are based on what they want or need not what others say they need or want. Homeschooling has always been about letting your kids grow up to be themselves and not conformed to a box education and a box environment. Homeschooling has become so popular now that it's become another box and we have to be careful .

Homeschooling can be so exhausting and a struggle. I have loved all my years of homeschooling but it's not been easy and even as a veteran I have used All In One. I love Sonlight. But even if your not new, homeschooling is a challenge and there are seasons where you just need that. Even using an All In One curriculum you can add and subtract and change it around. Sometimes trying to piece together curriculum can make it so hard and overwhelming whether you are new or a veteran.

We're in our 16th year of schooling at home. I've never subscribed to grade levels; when people ask, my kids just share how old they are. My go-to booklist is Ambleside online for challenging yet not too mature content. In our home, it's important to us that our children do not derive their value from earthly achievements; hard work and diligence is worthy of praise, but acing standardarized tests? No way-- I don't share the results unless they ask because in the whole scheme of things standardized tests are meaningless. If your goal is to have a family culture that is curious about God and His creation and to raise up children who are hard working are life-long learners, it shifts the focus away from all these wordly labels and comparison traps.

I don’t even know what to call what we do because we don’t school year round but we don’t take our break in the summer. So instead of taking a break in the summer we take it November-January. The weather is great and we can go everywhere and it’s not crowded. Also traveling before the holiday season starts its cheaper. If something pops up in the summer we take time off and enjoy it too. That’s one of the benefits of homeschooling. Last year we did take almost two months off because I had surgery- so I just took the break in December instead of November (added the month there) and it was still good. I like hearing other families experiences and what works for them.

We have done both as seasons made it necessary. We started schooling the traditional school year. Then I had 3 babies in 4 years and the year round schedule worked better. My youngest is 2 now and our year round cycle will finally end next year in May so we will be transitioning back to the typical year so we can have summers off again.

Are you a summer break family or a year-round family?

Socially, our kids tell others the grade they’d be in if they were part of the school system. At home, we just buy whatever curriculum meets their needs no matter how much higher than their “real” grade level.

This was really helpful to hear! I have an only who is almost 3 and I want to homeschool but have been nervous about doing it with an only. You mentioned buying/selling curriculum secondhand- do you have a store or website you use for it? Any tips for buying curriculum so it’s not so expensive all the time?

This is helpful! I also might add that even if you’ve been in the homeschool game for a while, and have never used an all in one, it is still an option! I’ve never used a boxed curriculum but when my season of life is crazy, I definitely think it would ease some of pressure and decision/planning fatigue.

10000% Agree. I spent my first 2 years using Abeka only, until I felt I had the confidence to swap other things out. Love Abeka as an all in one program to start with, and you can leave things out if it feels like too much. 😊

We started with an all in one because I wanted hands off and Christian, but we soon found out that an eclectic way fit us. I agree that families are different. If it works for you, use it! 😊

I totally agree with you! All in one can be very helpful when starting out and I sometimes envy people who can use an all in one years in to homeschooling 😂 I am very elective 12 yrs in! Edited to add: okay I was curious how many I’m using this upcoming year (4 kids) 1. Classical Conversations (2 in challenge & 2 in foundations) 2. Math U See 3. Fix it grammar 4. Logic of English 5. Happy Cheetah 6. Handwriting without Tears 7. Gather Round unit study (Africa) 8. Beautiful Feet Books Around the World 1 9. Story of the World vol 1 10. Let’s Talk Science Level 1 11. Essentials in Writing The only two I use across the board for my kids: Classical Conversations & Math U See.

What All in one curriculum Do you recommend? I am starting and very overwhelmed!

As a former teacher who is told all the time to not have homeschool look like school, I’ve learned that it’s okay if it looks a little traditional! We have homeschooled off and on. We homeschooled then when I started teaching again, my kids went back to school. Then I pulled them back out last year. My kids do best with structure. I do allow them to do things with their hands while they learn, take breaks, etc which I guess is a bit different, but not for me as a teacher. I’ve tried doing things other ways and it seems to fall apart. Just do things the way you feel is best!

The relatability of this video is everything. Thank you for sharing

We are so similar in how our homeschool journey has looked. Used the same all in one (except math) for 7-8 years. Finally broke away as we had gradually replaced many of the subjects, and looking ahead, I knew that their high school program wasn't right for our family.

I started homeschooling with all in one curriculum the first few years as well and for the same reasons you had. 10 years later I am now completely eclectic. This would have completely overwhelmed me at the beginning.

What’s your homeschool unpopular opinion? 😅

Oh my.... Your video really resonated with me and our three children. We knew very early on that our oldest which is now 11, he was very advanced for his age when he was about 4 years old and didn't really yet talk much. We put him in school and soon found out that the grade he was in at age 4 ½ was a little bit easy for him. He didn't really go to school much before then but like a little preschool. The preschool really didn't teach him anything. He read pretty much early. It was hard for us to find books that will keep his interest because I knew that he could read really good but I didn't want to put mature content in front of him that could be inappropriate. When he turned 7, we decided to homeschool all three of our children because we just thought that it would be best. The pandemic hit and we started homeschooling. Come to find out, he got really bored of learning fast and didn't want to learn anymore. He didn't want to do any of the assignments because he said that they all too easy for him and he wanted to have more material that was challenging. At the time, our middle child was in kindergarten and we found out that he was also an advanced child. He picked up on things pretty fast. We saw that could add numbers really fast in his head. I was like wow he just is 5 years old. He was able to read like in a month. Also he shown us that he was able to articulate words beyond his age. Everybody would tell us what school did he go to, he's very smart. I'll say homeschool. They'll say, huh what. They did not believe me that my child was homeschooled maybe because their beliefs on homeschool. Then our last child, our daughter didn't want to learn at the beginning. She wanted to learn, but she didn't want to learn how to read. I say she didn't want to read until about age 6 ½. When she did read, we found out she was also an advanced child. I say all this to tell you that you aren't alone in this advanced child situation. Some children are just like that. Sometimes us homeschooling them is the worst thing because they my need more than just us parents teaching them. Have you ever truly sat down to think that your child might just be advanced at home with you, but needs to be challenged more. Sometimes we as our children's parents aren't able to do that because there's no other child that we can challenge them with. It's in school settings with their peers where there're other children that may be smarter than them so they get challenged those type of situations. Still just what you said in your video I just our children still very young and you don't want to take that away from your child. This is so true to me. That's why we decided not to homeschool our 3 children anymore and put them into the real world. We found a really good Christian school in our area that we can trust and believe they have good morals and materials to teach them. Because our children are very much advanced for their young ages (11, 10, and 8), we want them to see if they would be very advanced with other children their ages. Letting them be other children to see how they do in a school setting would help us become humble about this advanced child thing. I told our oldest son that when he go to school that you're going to have reports, projects, homework and may get classmates that are smarter than you. So, I informed our 2 boys that because they think that school is the best way in learning and they don't want me nor my husband (their dad) to teach them because they got bored and more, that the grass is not greener on the other side. Have you ever tried to put your child into a school to challenge her more. I believe that will help her to calm down a little bit when it comes to feeling like everything has to be so correct, which is our middle child's personality at the moment. He believes that when he's wrong how come he's wrong, why do he get it wrong, and what could he done better. It's crazy. Right? That's just children's personalities. Have you ever thought about finding a Co-op with other children where she could see other children's getting taught and how they respond to failure. You should tell her she's not going to get it all correct every single time. I appreciate your video. Thanks!

I got the eco tank printer this year and love it!!! I can print all day and not worry about having to buy ink every week! - now I need a laminator and binder like you show thanks for the inspiration

My kiddos are only 5 and under so I’m just getting my toes dipped into this world. But so far I’m in love and obsessed 😂. I too have told my husband I should start a KZfaq and document my journey if for nothing other then for my own records. Welcome to KZfaq and glad I found u!

Can I tell you what a blessing it was to hear your testimony. I know it is hard to share your struggles, but this came to me at the most perfect time. We just finished my son’s kindergarten year and he taught himself multiplication and is independently researching black holes. Sometimes, it is a struggle with advanced learners. Although I have an amazing homeschool community who praises my son and take joy in his achievements, I don’t have many friends that can relate in the struggle of challenging the advanced learner. Thank you, this was a blessing,

4 yrs into homeschooling. My son has been HS from the beginning. I came out of Public School. My biggest struggle has been the "sit still, be quiet, don't interrupt" part of trad school. I know he needs to move and talk. He's a whole body learner. I still fall into trying to follow those trad school rules.

If you homeschool an only, what’s been your experience?

Honestly, you could do both. :) Fix It takes no more than 5-10 mins so it is so easy to add on to another program if you are wanting to do both. My daughter will be starting Level 3 in the fall. It is such a great grammar program!

Yes my daughter developed neuro problems that effected her eye muscle control after her shots. She had wall eye, depth perception problems, and quivering...i used to know all the medical names but she had alot of what he has. She did eye therapy and glasses helped alot.

I’m so glad to hear you say all of this. I’m a working mom who “after schools” my advanced kiddo and I know it is bragging. I also know that I am so proud of the work we are doing TOGETHER, and I’m playing the long game here…. Not everything is about staying in the moment. We can get these kids into elite schools or to pass high level equivalencies early so they can pursue passion projects. Just like you said. We slow down for the kids who need and we don’t shame moms for meeting their kids where they are at or “intentionally” slowing down to keep them on level. I’m teaching her to deal with normal expectations and not bragging. I’m teaching her to value that God made her smart but maybe not as strong - to see what others have and value them. I’m teaching her that her hard work early on may* allow her to choose more of how she spends her free time. I’m also trying to teach other parents that “gifted” can also be attained, and we should stop shaming smarts as a culture.

Thank you for sharing this. I personally know how much vision-neurological disorders can impact your ability to read, comprehend and function day to day. I have Visual Snow Syndrome plus some other visual difficulties and it feels like the past 15 years I’ve developed a learning disability even though I never had that in the first 25+ years of my life. It’s now very hard to read and comprehend what I’m reading, or even what others are saying. It proves very difficult to help my kids with their homeschooling and they have to be independent mostly. My 13 year old son also has Visual Snow Syndrome and I suspect it’s affecting his reading comprehension too. Though I do this he may have ADD too or possibly highly functional on the spectrum. But your video reminds me I need time look closer at getting him help, even though no local dr here believes in any treatment for VSS.

Colleen at Raising Lifelong Learners has a podcast all about this. Sevin In All has some good KZfaq videos about this as well. Read Aloud Revival has a podcast episode about young kids with advanced reading levels and how to navigate that. I have found all these really helpful. You're definitely not alone!! I'm so glad to hear another voice talking about this. Thanks for being brave.

Yes. All of this!! Thank you!! 🙌🏻 I'm so blessed to have a SIL who also has an advanced learner, so we have each other to encourage and rant to lol. Half the time, most people are just asking for age/development reference, so I always base my son's grade on public school enrollment cut-off, not the academic work he's doing. He's an emerging Kindergartener by age, but doing 1st/2nd grade work. This helps me (and everyone else) keep non-academic expectations in check. He's still 5 and neurodivergent. Just bc he's able to do higher level work, doesn't mean he's socially and behaviorally at that level. Same with reading material. Perfectionism is definitely a struggle here too (on both ends 🤦🏻‍♀️). Would love to hear more about navigating that! We're hoping the rigor of Memoria Press is the right fit for us. Love the customizability of their program and academic rigor. Keep on keeping on and thank you so much for sharing ❤

💯 % YES!!! Thanks for the video, I needed this today 🙏🏽

Same here i homeschool my granddaughters my 8 years old also do 4 and 5 grade levels.My 5 is going to do second grade but also feel like im moving to fast. Thanks for your video.

Welcome! So glad that you decided to start your channel. Looking forward to seeing more of your content.

Im certain its adhd and dyslexia. I had a head i jury at about fourteen months but yes i eas also colic and a yough child who was super sensative . My iq was 149 when tested

This is timely for me. One of sons learned phonics & letter recognition fairly easily & has always been 'ahead' with other milestones & cognitively & is so intelligent but struggles to learn to read & spell even the easiest things. We're currently trying a program for dyslexia with a little improvement but not alot. Seems like he could actually grasp it but there's just some kind of invisible block that I can't put my finger on. & he's recently been to a regular eye dr. but says the glasses he has don't really make a difference & he still gets exhausted/exasperated quickly while trying to read, like you were describing. He is our 7th child & none of his other siblings have struggled quite like him with reading & now his younger sister is excelling at it so it makes him a little discouraged. So thank you to you & your friend for sharing:) I'm going to look into vision therapy now.

I hope this can shed some light on something I’ve not seen mentioned very often. Let me know if you’ve had any experience with a child that has a vision disorder.