Dr. Marie-Claire Moreau

Educator, Coach, Life Strategist

  • About
    • Marie-Claire Moreau
    • Press
    • Testimonials
    • Privacy, Terms & Conditions
  • Homeschooling
    • Articles and Free Courses
      • College Prep High Schooling: Free Mini Online Course
      • Intro to Homeschooling: Free Mini Online Course
      • More Articles
    • Homeschool Consulting – Advising – Guidance Counseling
    • “Suddenly Homeschooling” Book
    • Florida-Specific Homeschooling Information
    • Homeschooling High School Book
    • Science fairs for homeschoolers
      • Science Fair Information
  • Services
  • Speaking
  • Shop Books
  • Cart
  • Contact

Mar 21 2021

High School Planning & State Scholarship Eligibility

I’ve written previously of the importance of planning for high school, and about mapping out a list of courses and experiences needed to reach the finish line with a successful goal in mind.

If you haven’t looked at one in a while, see what a comprehensive, four-year high school plan might look like, for a traditional or college-bound student, to refresh your memory:

Now, what if scoring ‘the big state scholarship’ is also part of the plan? How should families include scholarship requirements on the high school plan, and is it reasonable to expect teens to complete any extra courses by the time they turn the tassel, too?

The answers to these questions lie in the scholarship handbooks themselves. In Florida, for instance, a new Bright Futures Scholarship Handbook comes out every year. Inside, all the requirements are shown in table format, plus any revisions to the program are clearly explained. Georgia’s HOPE scholarship program also comes out with annual web updates, as do all the other big merit scholarships offered across the United States every year.

Look up your state’s scholarships by starting with your department of education’s website, or the office of financial assistance. Chances are, there’s a big scholarship opportunity available to your homeschooled teen, and your goal is help him/her find out about it — early enough to make the right choice.

Reviewing Requirements / Making Decisions

For the best chance at earning scholarships, parents and their teens should carefully review scholarship materials, making a list of classes, test scores, volunteer hours, GPA scores, letters of recommendation, or anything that could potentially be needed upon application. Ideally, this review should take place during Freshman year, or even before, to get a jump on everything that needs to happen over the next four years.

With the requirements in hand, it’s time for important decision making, including knowing whether the student is genuinely planning to attend college (assume yes if they’re not sure), whether funding is definitely going to be necessary, and if the student is willing & able to follow [at least a semi-] traditional curriculum path that preparing to earn the scholarship might require.

Florida: A Case Study

As an example, take a peek at Florida’s 2020-2021 requirements for the Bright Futures Scholarship, keeping in mind these eligibility requirements can change from year to year:

As you can see, in some cases, the choice is clear and easy. Students already planning to attend college and already planning to complete a traditional and rigorous curriculum may find they were already going to be eligible for the scholarship anyway. Or, at least, with a few simple course substitutions or alterations, scholarship eligibility is already closely within their reach.

For students pulling together a unique or non-traditional high school experience, however, the decision may be a more difficult one. Weighing the value of doing high school one way versus the potential of meeting scholarship requirements is something to think strongly about. Or maybe the choice is already quite clear, as the student may be unwilling to cater to an institutional view of a high school education, favoring a more personal and meaningful approach for the next few years.

[The same choices are made for dual enrollment degrees, by the way, but that’s a topic for another day.]

In general, state scholarship requirements closely resemble a rigorous high school public education, or some set of courses which typically prepares graduates for entry into competitive public colleges and universities. In Florida, for instance, students must take 4 math courses, 4 English courses, several science classes, and so on. Since these programs are merit-based, scholarship committees must quantify what they’re seeking in terms of what the best high school graduates have to offer every year — forcing homeschoolers to fit into those frameworks, too.

What I Recommend

The best advice I can offer — and what I tell my own clients – is to first have a heart to heart conversation with the student, or many conversations over a period of time, going over the possibilities for homeschooling high school, and trying to ascertain to some degree what the student’s goals are for graduation. Then, armed with that information, it immediately becomes obvious whether planning for state scholarship eligibility falls easily within the high school plan the student might have followed anyway, or whether aiming for big state money requires a major change of focus and intent.

I also try to guide my clients to look at all sides of the decision making, if they can. Whereas free scholarship aid is an excellent goal and can make the difference between the student attending the college of his/her choice, or going to a less expensive local, part-time or online option, the lure of college funding can also blind us to leveraging the power of a home education during the high school years. That power, of course, includes the freedom to customize an education for our specific learners and to meet them exactly where they are, with exactly what they want to do. Why, then, would we turn our backs on this freedom and potential for a crack at winning free college later on?

It can be hard to look away from free money and set aside our desire to make high school a practical and enjoyable learning experience for the student. But, in the end, prepping for college and scholarships with a student who is interested in neither, can make high school overwhelmingly difficult and time-consuming, not to mention miserable, too.

Final Thoughts

In summary, I advise tackling these important questions early and often during the high school years. It is only by talking things out that families can determine whether state scholarship goals are necessary and realistic, or will underserve the teen’s only chance at making the most of his/her high school years. And this is a very personal decision indeed.

Take my free high school mini-course

See my high school e-book to learn more


Dr. Marie-Claire Moreau is a college professor who traded in her tenure to become a homeschool mom 20+ years ago. A homeschooling pioneer and the founder of many groups and organizations, she works to advance home education, and is an outspoken supporter of education reform coast to coast. Her book, Suddenly Homeschooling: A Quick Start Guide to Legally Homeschool in Two Weeks, is industry-acclaimed as it illustrates how homeschooling can rescue children and families from the public school system, and how anyone can begin homeschooling within a limited time-frame, with no teaching background whatsoever. A writer, a homeschool leader, and a women’s life coach, Marie-Claire mentors in a variety of areas that impact health, education and lifestyle. A conference speaker, she has appeared at FPEA/Tampa, H.E.R.I., HECOA, Start Homeschooling Summit, Luminous Mind, Vintage Homeschool Moms, iHomeschool Network, and other events. Her articles have appeared in and on Holistic Parenting, CONNECT, Homefires, Homemaking Cottage, Kiwi, Circle of Moms, and hundreds of sites and blogs nationwide. Marie-Claire can be reached at contactmarieclaire@gmail.com.

Written by Marie-Claire · Categorized: Homeschool · Tagged: college, customization, florida, free, high school, planning, record keeping, scholarships

May 28 2018

What to do when you stumble (includes activation exercise & free printable)

Change takes time. But, you already knew that.

Or maybe you forgot. Because when the pain of a situation is great, it’s normal to become impatient for change. When we’re desperately wanting results, it can be really, really hard to wait it out.

Look back to a time in your life to see what I mean:


Exercise:

When was the last time you made a pretty big change? Think back to a time when you either changed your diet, did a detox, made a career change, experienced major weight loss, started an exercise program, made a relationship change, or anything else that comes to mind.

Think for a moment about where you were at (physically and/or emotionally) when you first started and why making that change was so important at the time.

Now, try to remember when you first started noticing results. Remember any other times when you noticed change, growth, or saw visible results in whatever you were doing. 

How long did it take to notice that first subtle shift? Days, weeks, months? How about the next time?

How long did it take for you to believe — really believe – change might actually be coming?

Did you consider quitting any time along the way?


While some transformations are immediate (just ask my EFT tapping clients), others can take quite a while. To make matters worse, some things even get worse before they get better.

When making big change, a natural reaction is impatience. When results are slow to appear, we can lose faith that anything is happening at all. For many people, there’s a point when they simply decide to give up.

When reaching that level of frustration, especially if quitting is imminent, I recommend the following:

  1. Being kind to ourselves, since change truly isn’t easy. I’ve written about how to treat yourself like a good friend. At times like those, self-love and care is essential.
  2. Remembering that growth isn’t always pretty at first, but that it’s beautiful and worth it at the end.
  3. Having a reality check, by looking back to exactly where we started, and noticing how far we’ve come in a short period of time.

When clients tell me they’re struggling, I remind them of those 3 things and then we celebrate! Struggling is a signal of budding growth. Discomfort often precedes a major breakthrough.

Struggling is a signal of budding growth. Discomfort often precedes a major breakthrough.

Click To Tweet

If you stumble, bring yourself back to where you started from. It’s amazing how quickly this little reminder can be an an incentive to keep on going.

I designed this poster to be that reminder for you, too:

See and/or print it here

It says, “When I stumble, let me always remember where I started from”.

Keep moving forward,

As a coach, writer, recovered over-doer and busyness addict, I understand the challenges of creating a balanced, healthy lifestyle while the mind tries to sabotage your success. In my journey to vibrant health, I created a personalized health system of nutrition and supplementation, lifestyle changes, and I retrained my mind and the energy of my body. I view my success as the formula to my happy, healthy life. I now empower other women to create their own personalized formulas, including the tools and strategies just right for them! Amazing life shifts come from our relationships. I look forward to helping you, too!

Written by Marie-Claire · Categorized: Women's Mind Body & Spirit · Tagged: awakening exercise, breakthrough, free, freebies, moms, poster, struggle, Women

Jan 30 2018

25 Great YouTube Channels for Students

People have long watched YouTube for entertainment. But, as the amount of educational content keeps growing, YouTube is increasingly becoming a valid learning tool for today’s students.

For myself, YouTube is one of the first places I go to learn something free. I see and hear of its benefits from families I work with throughout the year. I imagine a not-too-distant future in which people learn directly from YouTube and similar platforms, and no longer need anything else. Strange as it seems, a world without the need for books or organized curriculum may not be very far away.

I spent this morning trying to recall some of the YouTube channels my family really enjoyed over the last few years. I created a list of some of our favorite channels, and added several I recently discovered on my own. With so much content, it wasn’t easy choosing only 25 channels to share with you. Once you begin watching, you’ll probably find others that appeal to you, too. Stick with a couple of topics, or branch off as you desire. Sometimes, following rabbit trails and discovering new things can be part of the fun.

To protect your students, I must suggest you preview all videos first. Then, enjoy some of my picks with your students this year.

My Top 25 YouTube Learning Channels

in alphabetical order, each opens new window

Brain Bubble TV

Crash Course

Finding Stuff Out

Geography Now

How It’s Made

It’s OK to be smart

Life Noggin

Minute Earth

Minute Physics

Mythbusters

National Geographic

Nova PBS

Numberphile

Periodic Videos

Popular Mechanics

SciShow

Smarter Every Day

Sick Science!

TED-Ed

The Backyard Scientist

The Brain Scoop

The Slow Mo Guys

Timeline – World History Documentaries

Today I Found Out

Veritasium

Know of a great learning channel I missed? Add a COMMENT for my readers.

And SHARE with friends, will you? Other parents want to hear about this!

Happy viewing!

Dr. Marie-Claire Moreau is a college professor who traded in her tenure to become a homeschool mom 20+ years ago. A homeschooling pioneer and the founder of many groups and organizations, she works to advance home education, and is an outspoken supporter of education reform coast to coast. Her book, Suddenly Homeschooling: A Quick Start Guide to Legally Homeschool in Two Weeks, is industry-acclaimed as it illustrates how homeschooling can rescue children and families from the public school system, and how anyone can begin homeschooling within a limited time-frame, with no teaching background whatsoever. A writer, a homeschool leader, and a women’s life coach, Marie-Claire mentors in a variety of areas that impact health, education and lifestyle. A conference speaker, she has appeared at FPEA, H.E.R.I., Home Education Council of America, The Luminous Mind, Vintage Homeschool Moms, iHomeschool Network, and many other events. Her articles have appeared in and on Holistic Parenting, CONNECT,Homefires, Homemaking Cottage, Kiwi, Circle of Moms, and hundreds of sites and blogs nationwide. Marie-Claire can be reached at contactmarieclaire@gmail.com.

Check out Marie-Claire’s new book for Florida home educators…it’s on Amazon HERE.

Written by Marie-Claire · Categorized: Homeschool · Tagged: classroom resources, curriculum, e-course, elementary, free, freebies, high school, lesson planning, middle school, online, saving money, unschooling

Nov 16 2017

What’s your adrenal story? Are you lazy? Are you crazy?

I am not a medical doctor. Use this information at your own risk. 

I’ve been writing about my journey to adrenal health (starting here), sharing my research, and explaining what has worked for me and countless sufferers I’ve met over the years. In the previous article, I recommended adding nutriceuticals to your diet. In upcoming articles, I’ll share even more tips for achieving adrenal balance.

Today’s topic is about looking back on your adrenal journey. This exercise is important since it identifies behaviors leading to adrenal imbalance in the first place. Looking to the past is crucial in avoiding the same kinds of problems in the future.

I’ll use myself as an example. Bear with me as I describe how long this took me to finally figure out.

Back to My Story 

The first time I experienced adrenal fatigue, I was married and in my early 30’s, juggling a challenging job with a stressful daily commute, and trying to deal with several difficult people who just wouldn’t go away. I didn’t know what it was then, but I see clearly in the rear view mirror. I was skipping meals and skipping sleep. Most days, I was even skipping going to the bathroom. I wasn’t taking proper care of myself.

The second time I had adrenal issues, I was chasing around a toddler and expecting another child, trying to maintain a successful career, and still be the kind of wife and mother I thought I should be. Also, those stressful people were still making me miserable — I hadn’t learned how to disconnect from others who stole my happiness. Again, I didn’t know what was going on. But, looking back, I see the stress I put on my adrenal glands (and, frankly, other parts of my body too).

In those early cases, I tried different things and eventually felt a little better. But I didn’t have a comprehensive plan for healing (articles like these weren’t available). Worse, I went back to the same habits after every crisis.

Which explains why it happened a third time after delivering a third child and enduring a houseful of foreign guests a few weeks later. I was beginning to understand myself at that point, so I knew some of the things that sent me over the edge (overscheduling myself, too high expectations, energy vampires, and house guests). Though I finally started disconnecting from people who caused me stress, I remained stubborn about the other life changes I really needed to make.

By the fourth time my adrenals went out, I studied about hormones and the human body and learned everything about natural healing I could get my hands on. Feeling the worst I’d ever felt in my life, I was desperate for answers. With no other choice, I finally put all the pieces together, and healed myself for good.

Examining past behaviors can prevent the same crisis from happening in the future #adrenal fatigue…

Click To Tweet

What’s Your Story?

The reason I told you my history was so you would understand how these things can go. It isn’t mysterious, but a clear pattern of not listening to the body as it gradually falls apart.

As you can see, I wasn’t lazy and I wasn’t crazy — what happened to me was real (and perfectly understandable). No amount of being told I needed  exercise or a trip to the psychiatrist would’ve helped. In fact, those things only added guilt and frustration to a struggle that was already hard enough to figure out.

Maybe your story is like mine, or maybe it’s quite a bit different. Your body might be like mine, but probably it’s a little different, too. I could tell you what I did each time my adrenals broke down, but could never guarantee the same results. It’s like that list of stressors I wrote about. I felt better after eliminating certain stressors of mine, but there are likely others that really bother you.

What’s important, then, is to review your own life story. What kinds of things set you over the edge? What are your exact symptoms? When do you notice your adrenal fatigue is at its worst (morning, late at night, after a meal)? Do you notice anything different when you eat/don’t eat certain foods? Keeping a journal for a few weeks can be really helpful when answering these questions. If you’ve got recent labs or blood work, tuck those in your journal, too.

You’e not lazy or crazy. Here’s what to do. #adrenalfatigue #notlazyorcrazy

Click To Tweet

Stick with me as we conclude this series in the next few articles (SUBSCRIBE on my home page if you like). If you start doing the things I’m suggesting, I think you’ll notice improvements very soon.

As a coach, writer, recovered over-doer and busyness addict, I understand the challenges of creating a balanced, healthy lifestyle while the mind tries to sabotage your success. In my journey to vibrant health, I created a personalized health system of nutrition and supplementation, lifestyle changes, and I retrained my mind and the energy of my body. I view my success as the formula to my happy, healthy life. I now empower other women to create their own personalized formulas, including the tools and strategies just right for them! Amazing life shifts come from our relationships. I look forward to helping you, too!

Written by Marie-Claire · Categorized: Women's Mind Body & Spirit · Tagged: e-course, free, me, mini e-course, moms, scheduling, support, time management, work-at-home

Nov 14 2017

Struggling with times tables? These tools can help.

May contain affiliate links

Students of all ages sometimes need help learning “times tables” or other math facts. While this can be inconvenient, it’s not at all uncommon, so I urge parents not to worry.

When math facts seem to be taking a while, it’s a good idea to step back and try other ways to approach it before moving on.  Since all children are unique, finding the right system could take a couple of tries…but the facts will come (take heart, eventually…) either thru learning, rote memorization, some other way that makes sense to the student, or all of the above.

Here’s a short list of products, printables and services to try:

  • a basic “times table” you can print from your desk top (see photo of my desktop, above, for examples)
  • Times Tales book and/or DVD system, purchase required, free sample download
  • Learn Math Fast system teaching basic math facts, counting money; free online samples and placement tests
  • MobyMax free and subscription based math practice online for grades K-8
  • Xtramath free practice in basic facts, requires a login; resources for students, parents and teachers
  • Fun4TheBrain’s  Alien Munchtime Game Free online game for younger students, olders may enjoy, too
  • Master Math free middle school math instruction using videos, worksheets and self-grading quizzes
  • Multiplication dot com free practice with math facts, requires a log in, resources for students, parents and teachers
  • Instructables free instructions for learning times tables using fingers and hands
  • Quick Study Laminated Guide quick reference sheet available for purchase
  • Multiplication Wrap Ups hand-held learning tool available for purchase
  • Times Tables the Fun Way book of stories and rhymes
  • Multiplication War card game available for purchase
  • Multiplication Rap CD available for purchase
  • Schoolhouse Rock videos found free on Youtube
List of products to teach multiplication “times tables”:

Click To Tweet

For math facts, there’s almost always a method, tool, or product that resonates with each unique student. For us, homemade games, visuals, rhymes, and all kinds of silliness worked well, too!

If you’ve had success with a method not listed here, please leave a COMMENT so my readers can give it a try.

To your success,

Dr. Marie-Claire Moreau is a college professor who traded in her tenure to become a homeschool mom 20+ years ago. A homeschooling pioneer and the founder of many groups and organizations, she works to advance home education, and is an outspoken supporter of education reform coast to coast. Her book, Suddenly Homeschooling: A Quick Start Guide to Legally Homeschool in Two Weeks, is industry-acclaimed as it illustrates how homeschooling can rescue children and families from the public school system, and how anyone can begin homeschooling within a limited time-frame, with no teaching background whatsoever. A writer, a homeschool leader, and a women’s life coach, Marie-Claire mentors in a variety of areas that impact health, education and lifestyle. A conference speaker, she has appeared at FPEA, H.E.R.I., Home Education Council of America, The Luminous Mind, Vintage Homeschool Moms, iHomeschool Network, and many other events. Her articles have appeared in and on Holistic Parenting, CONNECT,Homefires, Homemaking Cottage, Kiwi, Circle of Moms, and hundreds of sites and blogs nationwide. Marie-Claire can be reached at contactmarieclaire@gmail.com.

Written by Marie-Claire · Categorized: Homeschool · Tagged: classroom resources, elementary, free, high school, math, middle, middle school, struggling learners

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 9
  • Next Page »

· Copyright © 2022 · Marie-Claire Moreau ·