This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Organizational Tool for Homeschool High School with Rebecca Farris. This post is running concurrently on the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.
Organizational Tool for Homeschool High Schoolers with Rebecca Farris
Working on getting organized now that the year has started, and you are finding out what is working and what is not? Congratulations! Today we are talking to Rebecca Farris, whose planners have been organizing homeschooling families for years!
Featured in this article:
Our 7SistersHomeschool meets Rebecca Farris story
- Rebecca Farris’ story
- Serving the homeschool community
- Organizing Homeschooling teens and moms
- Organizing homeschool high school
- Chore charts and planners build lifetime rhythms
- Each homeschooler is unique, so planning is unique to them
- A planner is a tool no different than a hammer
- How do high school planners work?
- A hint of things to come
- Contact Rebecca Farris and the Well Planned Gal
Our 7SistersHomeschool meets Rebecca Farris story
When we 7Sisters were new in the entrepreneurial business, we decided to participate as vendors at several homeschool conferences. At one of them, right across the walkway from us in the vendor hall, was a lovely, gracious, kind woman named Rebecca Farris, the Well-Planned Gal.
Rebecca and her kids were the most welcoming people ever. The memory of their kindness to the new vendors on the block has stayed with me for well over a decade.
That’s why Vicki was so excited to finally have a chance to talk to Rebecca on the Homeschool Highschool Podcast!
Rebecca Farris’ story
Rebecca was a first-generation homeschooler. Unfortunately, she did not have the best experience. In fact, as she grew up, she did not even want to get married or have kids. She said to herself, “I am just gonna go my way!”
From childhood, Rebecca was business-minded, so she planned on a career in corporate America. However, Providence had different plans for her!
Rebecca often says, as the Well Planned gal, her life did not go as planned, and that’s okay. She ended up getting married and having children after all. She had Jenny, my first child, followed by five kids within seven years.
When her youngest was four years old, Rebecca started thinking about preschool for her oldest. She had already taught her to read through playtime. So, she decided to wait another year.
Then kindergarten came, and she said, “Well, I’ll just wait one more year.” And so on.
They homeschooled one year at a time until suddenly, all five are grown, and she’s an empty nester.
Serving the homeschool community and her grandchildren
As a grandmother of five grandkids, Rebecca has had time to reflect on what she did right, what she did wrong, and what she wishes she had done. One of her key takeaways from her reflections is that she learned more than her kids through homeschooling.
I learned more than my kids through homeschooling. -Rebecca Farris
Rebecca also feels called to help other homeschool moms now that she is on the other side of it. She loves sharing the gifts God has given to her through homeschooling with homeschooling moms.
Organizing Homeschooling Teens and Moms
Rebecca receives questions from moms such as, “My teens haven’t learned how to organize their lives and their time.” Another frequent question is, “How can I get myself organized?”
Because Rebecca did not have a great homeschooling experience as a child, she decided to make sure her own kids had a wonderful time homeschooling. One way to do this is to make sure she was prepared and planned.
One of the tools she developed was a set of assessments to help homeschooling moms understand where their children were academically, as well as their personal achievements. This series is called Well Planned Start.
Organizing Homeschool High School
Rebecca reminds homeschooling moms that every single high schooler is different:
- They learn differently.
- They make decisions differently.
- They value different things.
“The best thing you can do as a parent is to understand your teens.”- Rebecca Farris
She helps moms appreciate each teen’s uniqueness and leverage what they know about them to motivate them to :
- Do their chores and schoolwork
- Learn time management
- Grow into responsible humans
Some of the tools that Rebecca makes available are chore charts and planners for teens, so that teens and moms can find the best fit for that unique homeschooler.
Chore Charts and Planners Build Lifetime Rhythms
One benefit of training children and teens to use charts and/or planners is helping them build a neural structure of daily routines and rhythms.
Rebecca remembers working with her oldest daughter, who was not a naturally organized child, to understand the routines of daily and school-year life. She would work with her to help her understand the end goals for every school year. At a young age, Rebecca also worked with her daughter on internalizing daily rhythms and routines such as:
- Brushing her teeth
- Washing her face
- Making her bed
- Having a Morning Five devotion time
Rebecca remembers the day that her daughter got married. She went up to her daughter’s bedroom and asked, “Hey, what are you doing?”
Her daughter replied, “I’m almost finished with my five.”
She is an adult and still doing the same practice! It was internalized.
Each homeschooler is unique, so planning is unique to them
One of Rebecca’s daughters was “super smart but super quiet, very introverted”. She did not need to long-term plan. Rather, she just needed to know the plan for today. So, Rebecca would help her each morning assess what happened the day before and make the plan for the day.
This daughter’s planner was a tactile way to help her keep her “boots on the ground”, as Rebecca called it. She could keep an eye on and celebrate each day’s progress.
One of Rebecca’s sons needed to move freely to learn. Rebecca photocopied his planner and posted it on the wall. He would walk around and occasionally, throughout the day, check his progress on his own planner on the wall.
A planner is a tool no different than a hammer
A planner is a tool no different than a hammer. How do we use a hammer? There are a thousand ways to use a hammer. You must read the situation, and then you adjust how you use it. However, in the end, hammers are used to hit a nail in some way.
Planners are tools. There are lots of ways to adapt planners to our kids’ needs. In the end, when you use a planner, you write down what needs to be done. Then you acknowledge what was completed.
How do high school planners work?
Teens are not simply completing their academic credits. They are preparing for life. Planners can reflect this by including:
- Academics
- Relationships
- Responsibilities such as chores or other obligations
- Time management
- Career preparation such as apprenticeships or entrepreneurship
- Sports and other extracurriculars
By using a well-rounded planner, teens learn self-management and build practice for life success.
A hint of things to come
Rebecca has many homeschooling-related projects. She dropped a little teaser about some new federal legislation. This legislation provides a way for homeschooling to be 100% funded by our taxes. Rebecca is part of a team that is building the infrastructure right now. She hints that in 2027, every single homeschooler will have the opportunity to have their curriculum, enrichment, supplies, and technology fully funded. To find out more, check out the latest information at her Curious Mind Network.
Contact Rebecca Farris and the Well Planned Gal
Visit Well Planned Gal for resources and how-tos for teens and moms
More on planning and life skills from 7SistersHomeschool and Homeschool Highschool Podcast
- Helping Teens Learn Productivity Skills with Dr. Melanie Wilson
- How to Get Your Homeschool High School Organized with Dr. Melanie Wilson
- Time Management: Teaching Teens to Use a Schedule
- The Real Secret to Time Management
Come join the 7SistersHomeschool Facebook group, where you can share questions or cool things that you have learned.
Thank you to Seth Tillman for editing.
