Chronicles of an EPIC Homeschooler is a blog series highlighting homeschool families that are particularly impressive or remarkable, in other words, EPIC. Join us as we take a peek into the lives of different homeschoolers, all with a unique approach. If you are an EPIC homeschooler, email us at info@epichsn.org so we can highlight your family next. Today, let’s meet Andrea Hall, the founder of EPIC Homeschool Network.
My name is Andrea Hall, and I am an EPIC Homeschooler!
I started my homeschool journey in 2012 when my first daughter was three years old. As an educator, I always knew I wanted to homeschool. I was not sure how it would look, but I knew it was something I wanted to do.
Now I have three kids, ages 15, 13, and 11. I am the founder and director of EPIC Homeschool Network. I am also a certified math educator teaching full-time at an online institution while creating products in two Teachers Pay Teachers stores (Non-Religious and Religious).
What curriculum do you use? Where can we find those resources and materials?
I have used a variety of curricula throughout my homeschool journey. It really depended on the season of life that my family was in. I have used everything from Time 4 Learning, Monarch to Math U See, Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW), to Spectrum Workbooks.
Currently, since my kids are more independent at this stage and I teach full-time, we use Power Homeschool, Outschool, and EPIC Homeschool Network, which has been the perfect combination for us.
Power Homeschool gives us a steady curriculum in all our core subjects: math, English, science, and social studies.
Outschool provides live classes, which is more engaging for my kids. We have done writing courses, test prep courses, and simple tutoring. Outschool offers $20 to spend towards your first class for each new user who signs up and gives the person referring a credit, which is very helpful when you are on a limited budget. To get your credit use the code VjqAdWlx.
EPIC Homeschool Network provides in-person enrichment courses like Art, Spanish, and PE. My husband steps away from his Plumbing business once a week and teaches the Physical Education class!
What is your Homeschool Schedule? Do you take breaks?
We homeschool year-round officially (from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024), but we take breaks and use the summer for more enrichment courses than academics.
As a working homeschool mom, my day begins at 6 a.m. with personal worship, getting reading for the day, and Teachers Pay Teachers product creation, etc. I start teaching at 8 a.m.
I wake up my kids at 10:30 am during my teaching break, and they get started independently on the day.
During my lunchtime at 12 noon, we sit at the kitchen table to do our “Table Time” routine, which is when we sing, do our memory verse, read the Bible or a Bible Story, and pray. After which we do any memorization facts, etc.
I head back to work at 1pm, and they continue to do their schoolwork. Once my kids are done with schoolwork, they have free time.
I finish work at 4 pm and make dinner. During dinner time, we talk. If we have a family novel picked out, we take turns reading aloud for about 15 minutes. After this, there is clean up, relaxation, and eventually bedtime. Bedtime is very fluid.
This schedule stays the same except on Tuesdays when we go to EPIC Homeschool Network’s Academic Studies Program. On Tuesdays, the kids get up at 6 a.m., and we leave the house by 7:15 am so I can get to the academy and start work. The academic studies program starts at 10 a.m., but we get there early, so I am in place. The facility has high-speed internet, so many working parents also work while their kids are in classes.
I do my other business ventures on Sundays or after dinner during the week.
I am very systems and detail-oriented, so I live and breathe by the calendar. I do a combination of digital and print calendars. We have a family calendar on Google using our Google Family Link Account, so we can all put events on it and save them to the family calendar. I use two physical planners: the Homeschool Focus Planner to organize my homeschool and the Full Focus Planner to organize my business.
Every Sunday, I take the events from the digital Calendar and write them in the respective physical calendar. It might sound like a lot, but this system is what helps keep everything organized and keeps me going.
What do you do to ensure social interaction for your children?
One of the reasons I started EPIC Homeschool Network (formerly known as South Cobb Homeschoolers) in 2012 was to ensure social interaction. EPIC has classes or activities at least once a week, so we are always connected there. My kids are also very active in church.
What other extracurricular activities do you do?
In January 2023, my oldest daughter took advantage of the Dexter Mosely Act and joined the tennis team at our local high school. She enjoyed the experience. My daughters are members of the Beta Club with Global Leadership Academy for Homeschoolers and EPIC Homeschool Network and sing in the youth choir. All my children participate in Pathfinders, a Christian-based organization that teaches life skills.
How do you assess your child’s progress?
I have tried multiple ways to assess my child’s progress in the past, such as writing a description or performance-based report, but now I simply do quizzes and tests as well as keep a portfolio to evaluate their writing.
What kind of records do you maintain in your homeschool? How do you keep track of them?
In Georgia, it is required that “The instructor shall write an annual progress assessment report in each required subject area for each student. These reports shall be retained for at least three years” (Georgia Department of Education). So I create a report card for each student every year. Actually, now EPIC Homeschool Network does that for us since we are part of the Academic Studies Program.
I have a three-ring binder that acts as a portfolio for each one of my children.
In the binder, I put their printed report cards, standardized testing records, and declaration of intent for the year in a plastic sleeve cover. I also have a digital folder on my computer that has duplicates of all my records.
Where do you find support?
I find a lot of my support with the EPIC Homeschool Network Community. Talking with other moms and bouncing ideas off them has been very helpful. I also have a few friends who have been homeschooling longer than I have, and I look to them if there is something I don’t know. I am a Homeschool Legal Defense Association member, which also lends support.
How do you balance being a parent and a teacher?
I don’t know that you can ever separate being a parent and a teacher. A parent is a teacher. I try to make sure I don’t make EVERYTHING a learning experience if it is a lesson they have already learned.
How do you balance working and homeschooling?
I have gone through different stages in my homeschooling journey. I have not always worked full-time AND homeschool. When the kids were younger and still learning to read, I worked EXTREMELY part-time, teaching online in which no or minimal live classes were required.
Now that my kids are older and independent, I am able to work full-time and still homeschool.
Something to point out is that I work from home, which makes it easier.
Something else I need to mention here is that I laid the groundwork to teach my children to cook and wash dishes while I was NOT working full-time. My husband taught the kids how to vacuum and clean the car.
Now the kids are sometimes in the rotation to cook. The entire family pitches in to keep the house clean by doing the laundry, washing dishes, vacuuming, etc. I barely participate in housework (outside of cooking and my own laundry) because my children do it all!
This is how we homeschool!
We hope you found something useful in this blog post. If you have any questions about any of the things mentioned in this post, feel free to reach out to us at info@epichsn.org.