My Homeschool Reviews and Testimonials

I like the online links and the weekly plans spelling out exactly what to do. I also like the optional extra reading so I don’t feel rushed or pressured to complete more if we are having a busy week, but I’m still able to mix and match it to another quieter week.

We got the ‘go ahead’ for our first year of homeschooling from the Assessor today and he said that he gave us a full year to start us off because he was, and I quote, “Very impressed with the level of detail” I was able to provide him with and that is thanks to My Homeschool!!

I love the weekly schedule so much; Jo – I know they will make the organisational side of my week much less of a task.

We love your whole programme. Everything is awesome! Having all the ideas and links at our fingertips has made lesson planning a dream! Also knowing you yourself Michelle and Jo are just an email away for immediate support is so reassuring!

My Homeschool has been the perfect fit for our family. It has provided the “hand-holding” I needed as a new homeschooler while still being flexible enough to be workable in everyday life.

It took the stress out of writing the application for exemption to homeschool as everything was laid out for me, and we were granted 18 months exemption.

I love that it uses a relaxed CM style, can be taught from a Christian worldview and is Australian. The weekly plans are not overly prescriptive so can easily be implemented according to the child’s individual interests and pace of learning and whatever else is happening in our week.

Hi Michelle!

I just thought I would drop you a line to let you know that I have successfully registered using My Homeschool and the AP moderator had lots of nice things to say about it. You are doing a great job and it took all the registration stress away. It was so easy. Thank you so much!

You would think that by 10:30 everyone would have gone to bed. My Y2 is doing the Lesson 2 Southern Cross in Outdoor Observance. We purchased a good pair of binoculars on Saturday to watch the night sky and Southern Cross and totally lost track of time. I could even see 4 of Jupiter’s moons! Thanks for the enjoyable lessons you provide through My Home School!

I’m really in love with the literature rich style of My Homeschool. I can see the benefit and how it will help us be closer as a family. I have a 3 month old as well and this style lends itself to the busy mum. GREAT WORK!!! I really like the links within the weekly lesson plans. While I love having a book in my hands, it is great if we are out or I don’t have the resource close by, to be able to click on it and use it. My son also likes to click on them and have a perusal before we start. For him it’s not hard to find what we are doing for the week as it is mostly all there laid out.

We are absolutely loving Dot & the Kangaroo!! what a gorgeous story, my children are captivated!!

Really loving A Book for Kids poetry. Puts a smile on our faces.

I am using it to teach 2 children. The only reason I am finding the workload heavy is because I have a 3-month-old. He hasn’t been well (silent reflux), so trying to fit everything in when I have a sick baby has been hard. I have chosen to purchase a course for my younger and give my eldest extension type work. This seems to be working so far. I am loving that I can teach them together, as it feels more like “family learning” rather than “school learning” to me. We are doing it together!!

Dear Michelle,

Zoom interview with the approved person went really well…He was impressed with the plan and said he is recommending approval for 12 Months, so we were really happy about that. It means we can get really into learning now and not have to worry about interruptions!

Thanks for My Homeschool, I am pretty sure I wouldn’t have been able to put the plans together without your resources! Even if I could have – it would have taken me hours and hours and a big headache of trying to understand what was required!

Three Cheers for My Homeschool, empowering parents to teach their precious loved ones!

I like all the core subjects (history, geography, nature study). Moodle App is handy. Weekly guide is great!

After spending a few months thinking that the grass is greener with many different and beautiful looking curriculums, I am desperate to start our homeschool life back in the myhomeschool way of learning.  I have come to realise how thorough, rounded and beautiful your curriculum truly is.

I fell into that dangerous trap of doubting whether I was doing enough and then becoming addicted to all the YouTube videos of Homeschooling mums discussing in detail their homeschool curriculums.

I regrettably jumped on The Good and The Beautiful bandwagon and tried the Language Arts and Science curriculums, and they were indeed beautifully packaged and presented, however the content was too much – I’m not sure 9 year olds should be doing sentence diagramming, or trying to wrap their heads around the difference between eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells!

I then tried Learning Language Arts Through Literature, which was more aligned to your/Emma Serle’s PLL. Unfortunately it was too Americanised. I also tried Berean Builders Elementary Science, which we are enjoying, but trying to complete 3 lessons a week, plus experiments was again too much, so we will continue with this programme, but just as a read aloud once a week.

It gets worse!

I then bought some school workbooks for Aus history and geography (ReadyEd publications from Western Australia), thinking I should be keeping up with what the schools are doing. Everytime I opened the books, my son would complain about how boring they were, and I had to agree with him. And don’t get me started on trying to work out the coloured parts of speech in Simply Homeschool whilst trying to fit in all the arts and craft projects I’d spotted on Pinterest!

I then tried to fill our already overloaded days with read alouds from Ambleside Online, Sonlight and The Brave Writer. I developed some beautiful excel spreadsheets detailing everything we were going to do each day, what pages we would be reading, what websites to be used etc. Of course none of it worked, as I’d forgotten the most crucial thing of all … My son is only 9, not 49. He just wasn’t enjoying it like we had been last year doing MyHomeschool year 3.

It was too much! Way too much!

So, it has been a great learning opportunity for me. It has made me realise I am doing enough and that simplicity is the key. A powerful key at that. I will revisit your Homeschooling 101 course and learn a lot more about the power of copywork, narrations and dictation.

Just to let you know, our moderator here in W.A. absolutely loved the curriculum! Very positive feedback.

We are so very happy with your gorgeous curriculum and look forward to our future years of study!

I started this year with my 9 year old boy, so I’m definitely not an expert at this at all. It’s been an adjustment period but I enjoy having my son home and watching him learn, he’s having more fun and I can tell how much he is progressing in just the short amount of time he’s been doing it.

Starting off the journey is scary, and we have just had our 3 month moderator visit us for the first time. I was so nervous! We passed with flying colours and she was very impressed with everything my son has been learning.

I’m really enjoying having Michelle’s years of experience to know what resources are quality, like science… The music appreciation sites are good.

I love the pick up and go nature of the Primary Language Lessons as well as the Pleasant Talk of Places. Love the copywork books!

What a relief and blessing for homeschool families to have all the nitty gritty details of daily homeschool and homeschool registration designed for us. It is wonderful to see how simple registration can be.

Michelle you have created a method for recording that oozes simplicity and that is what we all want. Michelle and Jo you are a very present listening ear and help on the My Homeschool forum and your advice is all about making homeschool work for each one. I have absolute freedom in how I use this resource.

I have not followed the schedule as is but have felt encouragement from you to make it work for my busy family lifestyle, quirks and passions. Year 5 is helping our ten year old to move into written narrations and I have found Our Sunburnt Country broken into small chunks with a notebook page for each reading, is so simple and achievable. My daughter’s confidence in writing has grown in the first term of using My Homeschool following this very natural method.

Thank you Michelle and Jo, for your commitment to making homeschool simple. What a blessing you are. Kindest Blessings Renelle x

I love that I have a place to start with organising a personalised curriculum. I love the access to the Primary Language Lessons, copy work, and  geography resources.

To have a grade by grade list of resources suggested and available for the various subjects is great!!

Although I haven’t as yet made proper use of the community hub, I plan to and it is reassuring to have that available!

We combine our Year 4 and Year 6 children together.

I have now purchased year seven semester one and plan to get year two in the next few days. I have one child nearly at the end of her homeschooling journey with three more currently all school aged. I have been receiving your bulletins for over ten years and have purchased many resources from you over that time. I have also recommended My Homeschool to many new homeschoolers I’ve supported. And now finally … After running on my own steam all this time, I’ve decided to take the plunge and make life easier for myself! I’ve watched what you’ve been doing from afar since you started and I know I can buy this resource with confidence.

I know I could keep designing my own homeschool, but you wonderful ladies have put so much thought into the content and design of this program. So I just wanted to encourage you and say thank you.

I had a chat [with my son] about our year thus far using Year 8 his comments were as follows:

“Reading. Reading books and student lessons, and especially reading the history related suggestions. I also liked watching the videos as suggested in the student notes. The variety of resources has made it (learning) much more relaxed and this makes it easier to take in the information.”

We are very much enjoying the My Homeschool course.

The My Homeschool Yr. 8 programme has been a fantastic way for my son to progress through middle school. Michelle and Jo have covered a wide selection of subjects that develop analytical, observational and critical thinking skills while immersing the student in a feast of language, history, science and the arts, all while meeting the requirements of the Australian Curriculum. We have thoroughly enjoyed discussions around the dinner table on his history units, and are eagerly looking forward to progressing through the rest of the programme. I couldn’t have implemented such a well rounded programme if I had to collate the information myself.

I love My Homeschool!

We have tried several styles of teaching but always seem to come back to the Charlotte Mason Method.

This year, My Homeschool has provided a steady rhythm for our 13 year old. The work is set out on Moodle in a clear and concise way. This has made moving from being told what needs to be done, to being a self starter a very smooth transition. We have noticed that there has been just the right amount of stimulation, information and written work to keep him interested (in the past this has been challenging) and questioning things.

History lessons have been topic of conversation over dinner and discoveries made during geography have been talked about endlessly with his dad who has geomorphology qualifications. The choice of literature is rich and the online links have been valuable resources.

We have been very happy with all that Year 8 has been and look forward to the rest of the year. I believe that this year, academically, has been his greatest leap forward.

Our family has been home educating for almost 10 years. We have used resources that Michelle previously offered through Homeschooling Downunder since the beginning of our home education journey so we were keen to sign up when we heard that My Homeschool was offering a Year 9 course.

This was our first year of using a complete curriculum through My Homeschool (we purchased 4 different year levels) and it has lived up to my expectations and been a good fit for our family. We have used a few different curriculums and are excited to find an Australian course that shares our Christian worldview and aligns with the requirements for Australian students.

Year 9 spreads a broad mind feast for the student. The subjects are cleverly integrated and the course is structured and paced in such a way that still allows our son plenty of time to pursue other interests, while at the same time being academically rigorous. The course material is well written in an engaging way and utilises excellent literature and carefully considered web links. This course seems to strike a good balance between traditional methods of education while at the same time embracing online learning. It covers Ancient History and Shakespeare alongside modern literature with internet links to current events and the latest research available. I feel confident our son is learning what he needs to and importantly he is developing a broader worldview and critical thinking skills.

Previously, this Mama keenly felt there were some gaps that needed to be addressed and was spread thin herself. We are thankful that Jo has been willing to share the knowledge gained in her studies and her professional expertise in education combined with the lived experience of being a home educating Mama with the homeschooling community. This course has been a blessing for our family particularly as the level of academic study increases. It means we can continue to home educate through high school with confidence.

My experience of the My Homeschool Year 9 course has been wonderful. The broad range of literature and the resources that Michelle, Jo and the My Homeschool team offer is exceptional.  My daughter has thoroughly enjoyed the course. Her love of History has been definitely well watered.

I am so grateful for this learning experience with my daughter, it is such a wonderful gift for both of us.

Thanks Michelle, Jo and all of the My Homeschool Team

I just wanted to say thank you for all the effort that’s been put into My Homeschool! I had my AP visit yesterday and it went great! He’s giving me 12 months registration and said if he comes next year and I’m still using the My Homeschool curriculum then he’ll give two years, even for my kindy child who’ll be a new registration. Thank you so much for helping make this transition to homeschooling so much easier and providing such detailed documents. I’m truly grateful!

It has definitely made me feel more organised (I just need to train the kids better, but I do feel it is slowly happening). I really like that I can trust that the book recommendations will be all “good” and I don’t need to lose time chasing reviews etc…Overall I am finding it very adaptable, and I like the prompts for end of term reviews (that’s one thing I just never got to before).

I love the lay out of week by week checklists. We’ve really enjoyed Y1 History which I combined with my Y1 and Y4. We have liked the complementary books recommended.

My children are enjoying the CM method, less textbook and more creative and enjoyable learning. They have something they’ve personally made or journaled to show for their work instead of a dull textbook page. I have tried to incorporate the CM method in the past but this program is the helping hand I need to implement it.

We are enjoying the Primary Language Lessons. I have printed the Weekly Checklists and subjects and have them spiral bound for each year. This has been great to have it all together and I can go through and highlight the lessons before we do them.

I’m actually really just liking the balance of everything. Thank you again for providing such a fabulous curriculum.

Thank you for putting together this wonderful course. Over the last 4 years I have taken 2 of my children through Years 7 and 8 using a distance ed programme but this year my daughter and I have found this course to be a much less stressful transition to high school. I love knowing that we are still fulfilling the requirements for the Australian Curriculum but I have also been able to give my daughter the rich classical literature-based education that I was looking for. I have been interested in the Charlotte Mason style of education for a few years but until now I was frustrated that everything I came across was based on American history/geography/seasons. Thank you for putting in the time to track down and integrate appropriate Australian resources into the curriculum.

This was my first year registering with the Qld Home Education unit myself so I also found the information that you included regarding registering very helpful.

I have also used the Year 5 and Prep courses this year and found them to be wonderful as well. Thank you again.

I enjoy the links to the weeks for ease and love the free content about music. I had to create my own schedule to fit with our family, but have used Michelle’s suggestion as a starting point. I love the Amy Mack stories and my kids are enjoying the texts this term.

Seven Little Australians is quite wonderful and opens up conversations with their grandparents.

I like that the codes for the AP are all there and we just tick them off.

We really appreciate being able to follow the Australian curriculum with your programme.  Although we are unable to register for homeschooling from here with the NDW Education department, we anticipate that evidence of her following your programme will ensure no issues if we end up back in Australia (currently on hold).

I would say I feel very comfortable with the programme as offered, and there are not really any issues with the delivery – perhaps with the exception of long wait for books which has been a bit of a problem during Covid with limited freight from Australia to Malaysia.

Although we only used your My Homeschool curriculum for a few short weeks in Taiwan, and then again during our quarantine, we feel it was beneficial in helping Isaac adjust to the education requirements and subject knowledge required for students in Australia … in particular – beyond the basics of English, Maths, Science etc. – the Civics curriculum and the introduction to Australian PMs.  Thank you also for your efforts in developing a curriculum that allows for the secular subjects whilst also giving room for Christian families like ours. On that note, your science (geology) textbook, with its focus on the God of Creation, is most excellent.

We really enjoy your homeschool program. It is really helpful and practical for us.

We found out about your program from the Internet. And your home school program makes us feel like a personal operator that is why we choose it.

Many thanks & regards,

Yadana

Thank you for the warm welcome. Yes, we are Filipino expat family of 5 residing in Malaysia for almost 4 years now. Since 2010, we have been moving countries from Pacific to South Asia and Southeast Asia. Malaysia, by far, has been our longest relocation.

The decision to homeschool came after our resident visa to Australia has been delayed due to pandemic. For the past 2 terms we were DIY homeschooling (while waiting for our visa) using Australian curriculum as a guide on lessons and topics. But after 2 terms, I realized it was just drills and exercises. The learning was not holistic. The teacher in me (I was a licensed teacher in the Philippines before moving abroad), I searched the web and look for a homeschool provider, and that’s when I stumbled upon your website. After thorough reading and inquiries (Amanda has been very accommodating with my queries), we decided to register at My Homeschool.

We are on our 3rd week now and we love everything about My Homeschool curriculum. My kids came from a British school, and it was a smooth transition for them. In fact, some of the techniques and reading materials, they had at their previous school (like the Peter Rabbit book). Plus being exposed to Australian culture for several years…topics relating to/about Australia are easily understood. One challenging, since we are offshore, is that there are topics that could have been more exciting if we are in Australia, like the Australian or lesson on Plants Life. For now, we can do cope with videos and pictures on the internet (i.e., photos of Blue Mountains and Australian money).

But in general, two thumbs-up for the My Homeschool curriculum. It is very well curated that even if we are abroad, we can easily adopt it.

Thank you.

We are an Australian family and have been living in Israel for the past 22 years, working for an Anglican mission. We have 3 children and have homeschooled since the beginning…Our youngest daughter is 12 and about to start Year 7 using your curriculum.

When we started homeschooling it was almost unheard-of in Israel. Finding resources in English was a challenge. We started with Sonlight Curriculum and My Father’s World, but they quickly became too American for us ? So we started to piece together our own curriculum using some from the USA, some from the UK and some from Australia… Homeschooling Downunder. So our oldest two kids gave had a very mixed and often disjointed education. It is just the way it turned out for them in our current situation.

At the end of last year I discovered that you had developed and expanded your resources to become My Homeschool.  I had become very disappointed with some of the American curriculum choices and was looking for something more like us ? Even though we have lived in Israel for many years, we still identify as Australians, and were looking for a curriculum that would fill the gaps in our Australian education. I am hoping that we will find what we need at My Homeschool.

As an international family using an Australian curriculum it would be nice to see a blend of World History and Australian history studied each year, rather than a whole year of Australian history without any World history and vis versa. This would give opportunity to swap out the Australian history for another country without disrupting the whole year of World History studies. Does that make sense? 🙂  But I also realise to keep aligned to the Australian Curriculum you need to study certain things in certain years.

I am curious to see how the Astronomy course will be for us in the Northern hemisphere. But many general topics apply to both hemispheres so I think it will be good too.

On the whole, I’m excited to use your curriculum and I don’t think we will need to tweak much to make it work well for us.