Use a Homeschool Magazine for Learning and Teaching

I seem to look for the most out-of-the-box ways to teach my kids. They still do some bookwork style learning in a couple of subjects where they just go through the course, but overall, I like to get very eclectic in our approach to education. One of the more uncommon ways I have been approaching some subjects is using a homeschool magazine. I use both the digital and print issues for inspiration and direct resource material.

I have only used The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine for this, but I imagine other homeschool magazines could have the features for this approach as well. I also encourage you to use magazines in other industries to supplement your learning curriculum for your children. In the past, we have used Canadian Woodworking and Home Improvement, Canada’s History (both the adult and the kid’s magazine Kayak), and Ontario Out of Doors (a hunting and fishing magazine, which also has content about nature conservation and recipes!).

Using the Digital Homeschool Magazine

Even though I still love the motion of flipping through a physical magazine, I may actually use the digital versions a bit more. That is mainly because of the search feature and the ease of finding what I want when I have a subject or topic in mind. 

There are two ways to see the digital version of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine:

• In a browser at www.tosmagazine.com
• As an app, available from your favourite app store or go to www.tosapps.com

I’m more of a big screen person myself so I don’t use the app that much, but it’s pretty intuitive to use and not much besides the issues to click on and the search feature to use when you first open the app. You can tap on a magazine cover to read through the issue page by page, but if you have a specific topic in mind then tap on that little Search icon at the top and enter your words to get results from current and past issues. 

I visit the browser version for most of my searching. The bigger screen along with the additional features makes this a better choice for gathering your learning and teaching resources. There is a collapsible right sidebar with the Table of Contents, along the bottom is a zoom option, and buttons for 1 Page or 2 Page and Support if you’re having trouble with the reader. 

Then, along the top there is a button for Issue Library on the left where you can see all the issues (much like the look you get when you open the app) and on the right is a Share button and the Reading View / Page View toggle button to change between the view like an open physical magazine or the view where the articles kind of look like a blog post. In either view, you can use the side arrows to move from page to page or article to article. The Reading View doesn’t show the ads though, which can be fine depending what your focus is, but I’ve found many great options for the subject I’m searching for in a business ad so I usually stick to the Page View. 

Searching a Single Issue

One way to search in the browser version happens in the sidebar. There is a search bar right at the top of that collapsible sidebar that you can enter your search words, and the results from the current issue (or whatever magazine issue you are looking at) will show up in the sidebar below. The words that were searched will be highlighted in the results and in the pages that you click to, as shown in the image below.

The Spring 2022 issue has a section with a few articles on growing herbs, which I’m planning to ramp up this year, so I just clicked to the first article and used the side arrows to scan through the other articles of the “Keeping Home: Raising an Herb Garden” section. 

I do get the print magazine as well so I won’t necessarily read the whole article on the screen. I use the digital version to help me find what I want in the print homeschool magazine. 

Searching All Issues 

If you want to search all issues (quarterly issues all the way back to Summer 2007), just click on the words “Search All Issues” under the search bar, and you’ll be taken to a page where you’ll have a list of featured articles (likely picks of the most viewed articles of the digital versions of the magazine) and articles from the most recent issue in the left sidebar. The majority of the screen shows a grid of magazine covers of the current and past issues.

Similar to the single issue search, enter your search words in the box at the top right, and the results will show up as a list in a new page. You’ll see the words that you searched highlighted, and you can scroll through the results to find an article that covers what you are looking for. You’ve got some pop-down search filters in this view where you can choose a specific issue to search and see the Page View or the Reading View and three options for how the search is conducted: 

• Any terms
• All terms
• Exact match

I usually use those different filters for the terms and then also refine my search terms if I’m not getting quite what I want. Using the term “growing food” produced some results that I was interested in, but I was mainly interested in applying science to our fruit and vegetable gardening this spring so when I changed my search term to “gardening” I got more articles about what I was looking for. 

A Homeschool Magazine for Inspiration

Do you ever get in a learning rut? Just doing the same-old, same-old because that’s what you are all used to. Well, that’s another good reason to have a homeschool magazine on hand. Actually, it’s best to have several on hand to glance through and get inspired. 

I may get that ‘learning rut’ feeling more than others. I like to change things up regularly in most parts of my life, and my children’s education is no different. Hence, my affinity towards the eclectic style of education! 

Being inspired by what other homeschoolers are doing or what businesses are providing for homeschooling families is one of the biggest benefits of having a homeschool magazine to read through. 

I admit I don’t make a lot of time to sit and read through magazines, but there are times when that’s just what I need to do. Right now, I’m not regularly reading any other magazines besides my homeschool magazine, but in the past I’ve had subscriptions to build up my library of learning materials. As I mentioned before, I’ve used a few different magazines for learning with my children, and I still have those on the shelf and available to read through or to give to my boys to read specific pages. 

I especially love that The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine only comes every three months because at this point in my life that’s about the length of time it takes to get through the magazine. And I enjoy getting through every page!

I’m currently stopped at page 36, but I keep this sitting with my boys' lesson books. When they’re quietly doing their lessons or when it’s reading time for everyone, my homeschool magazine is my reading material. 

With article content on family matters, education, faith, parenting perspectives, and living in general, I am intrigued by most of the content. Whether you are just using the digital version or have the print issue in hand, using a homeschool magazine for your personal learning about educating your kids and for learning material for your kids is an approach you may want to try.

Motivated by her strong determination that her two youngest boys would be educated at home, Stephanie Morrison has been building businesses, mostly from home, for over 10 years. She works for The Old Schoolhouse® on the Canadian team and also coaches entrepreneurs to start and grow their business from home. She and her family are all comfortably nestled in the trees in Central Ontario. She loves being a home-body and building up her permaculture property. Learn more about Steph at www.creatingworkandplay.com.