How Do I Get Started Homeschooling?

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No Two Homeschools Are Exactly Alike

There are as many variations on homeschooling as there are children. Each family has the flexibility to choose what works for them and sometimes that even varies from child to child with-in a family. That said, I hope these resources help provide a path and support to get you started on your own journey.

The very first thing you need to do when you are thinking about homeschooling or have just decided to homeschool is spend some time in prayer asking God for his guidance and talking with your spouse so that you are both on the same page.

Homeschool Laws

Then, check your state’s laws. Each state has different requirements for starting and annual reporting. In some states you do nothing, some you simply register, and some have testing or portfolio requirements. I will discuss North Carolina’s laws because I homeschool in North Carolina but if you live in another state I encourage you to look up the laws of that state. The HSLDA website is a great place to get information on the laws of each state.

In North Carolina you must register your homeschool with the state once your children reaches compulsory attendance age, which means that you register during the school year your oldest homeschooled child turns 7. In order to register you must hold a high school diploma or equivalent. If all of your children are younger than 7 there are no requirements and you do not need to register or report. You do not register each child in North Carolina so once your homeschool is open any, or all, of you children can attend your homeschool without further registration.

Once you have registered your homeschool, you are required to keep attendance, immunization records (or waiver), and complete a nationally standardized achievement test annually. You are required to “operate the school on a regular schedule, excluding reasonable holidays and vacations, during at least nine calendar months of the year.”(NCDNPE) You are also required to notify them when you close your homeschool. There are other recommendations but those are the only requirements in North Carolina.

Picking a Homeschool Curriculum

Once you have registered, you will probably turn your attention to curriculum. One of the most common questions I answer is, “What is the best curriculum?” There is no one right answer to that question. As we mentioned earlier each family and each child is different.

There are many wonderful curricula available and before you dive into researching them I highly suggest researching homeschool philosophies and determining which one you lean towards. This in no way means that you need to dogmatically follow one philosophy but by narrowing down your preferences you can narrow down the curriculum choices and help you find one/s that will work well with your family.

Personally, we lean towards what I like to call ‘Charlotte Mason Eclectic’ which basically means that I use some of the ideas and Charlotte Mason methods but I adapt them to meet the needs of my family. I have friends whose children thrive under a classical education and others who prefer a Montessori education, even a couple who ‘unschool’. For more information on the various styles I recommend this post by eclectic homeschool.

Based on our preferences, I tend to spend more time looking at resources that align with the Charlotte Mason approach though I keep an open mind to others as well. Once you have found the style/s that aligns best with your family, you can use that information to narrow down curriculum choices.

Homeschool Curriculum is Not One Size Fits All

There are many good programs available and it is important to remember that just because it works for one family does not mean it is the right fit for your family. Honestly I recommend buying used, or at least on sale, whenever possible, especially that first year. In addition to lowering your initial costs, it means that if you need to resell it because it is not a good fit you should be able to get close to what you originally paid for it.

I have many reviews here on the blog and the Review Crew also has reviews of hundreds of programs to help you get more information about what is available.

Research philosophies, read reviews, talk to other homeschoolers, and then make your selections. This should help you find curricula that will be a good fit, but most (if not all) of us have purchased curriculum that turned out not to be quite right.

This does not mean that homeschool isn’t the right fit nor does it mean you have to settle for a bad year. If a curriculum isn’t working for you I suggest first trying to tweak it to work for you, but if it simply doesn’t work ditch it and move on. Resell it if you can and try something different.

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Creating a Flexible Homeschool Plan

Now that you have prayed, talked to your spouse, followed you state laws, researched philosophies, and chosen a curriculum it is time to make a plan. I am a big proponent of having a flexible plan. A plan gives you a road map to get where you want to go and the flexibility allows you to make it work in real life. Many veteran homeschool parents will tell you that it takes the first two years to really get your feet under you and you still need to be prepared to change as you go through various stages and life events.

You can decide to school year round, five days a week, four days a week, on a traditional school schedule, on a modified year round or anything in between as long as it falls with-in the laws of your state you have a great deal of flexibility. We personally tend towards four days a week of ‘book work’ with the fifth for field trips, special events, appointments, or catching up on housework. For more information on how I plan out our year check out my planning post here.

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Finding Your Homeschool Tribe!

Now that you have a plan you are ready to get started. I highly suggest finding a ‘tribe’ of homeschool parents to help you along this journey. This could be in person through local groups, co-ops, or it could be online. There are many great Facebook groups including Schoolin’ Swag where you can ask questions, share successes, and get encouragement. You may also want to read some encouraging and informational books about homeschooling. You are ready to begin this difficult but completely worthwhile journey. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them or point you in the right direction for assistance.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

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This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies!

If you have not tried SchoolhouseTeachers.com, you don’t want to miss this sale! I have multiple reviews on the blog about different courses we use from them.

If you are looking for a fun way to encourage reading this summer, check out the FREE summer reading materials from Your Morning Basket with Pam Barnhill. The passport and reading bucket list are a great way to encourage reading!

Homeschool Complete is offering a special 10% off discount to my readers! Just use code: SWAG

Evan-Moor is offering their Daily Fundamentals book FREE right now to help out during this time.

Get a FREE Literature Kit from LitWits using Code 11READ4FUN. We are currently enjoying the Heidi kit but have also previously loved the My Side of the Mountain kit.

IEW is offering some great free resources right now.

FREE Baby Yoda Art Lesson from Nana!

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Friday Favorites: My 5 Must Have Supplies That You Might Not Think About

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Today’s blog hop theme was Friday Favorites and I decided to share five of my favorite homeschool supplies that you might not have thought about. There are other supplies that we need as well (pencils, paper, books). I also did not include chocolate milk which I find to be necessary for me to function homeschooling or not, since I know many of you prefer coffee or tea. However, these are supplies that make my life as a homeschool mom a lot easier. I’ll share what they are and how we use them in no particular order.

Velcro Dots

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I am not sure how I would have survived homeschooling without velcro dots. Especially the preschool and early elementary years. I used them for our calendar time, I used them for counting games, for matching activities, and for identifying things on a map or timeline. I recently realized that I could use them on sheet protectors to make an extra pocket in our three ring binders. This was really helpful in keeping the pieces in my four year olds calendar notebook. I love that with velcro dots it is easy to keep reusing things and to switch things out as needed. They are also inexpensive, you can get 250 sets for less than $10.

Primary Journals

These are my favorite nature journals for young children (even through upper elementary). It gives them lines spaces to write and blank spaces for drawing, leaf rubbings, or even gluing flowers or leaves. They are fairly durable and handle being in and out of bags on nature walks without being overly heavy. My children get new ones whenever they fill one up and at the beginning of the school year. They are also great for young children who are learning to write and want to illustrate what they have written.

Boogie Boards

When I hear the term ‘boogie board’ my mind immediately goes to the ocean, but this is a different kind of Boogie board. This is more like a high tech etch-a-sketch and we love them in our homeschool. You draw or write on the board with the stylus and then when you are done you simply push the button and it erases. My children use them for school and play. One way we use them for school is spelling practice. They find it to be more fun to write it on the board than in their notebooks. They also use them to work out math problems and for doodling while they listen to me read aloud. It saves paper and clutter while being fun and reasonably inexpensive.

Magazine Holders

I love these for sorting books, particularly books that we are using during the current year or unit study. I sit them on top of the shelves and for example I can put all of our “Ancient Greece” books in one, and all of our “Skeleton Books” in another. I also use them to sort loose papers, extra folders, and extra notebooks. This allows me to keep those supplies handy and available without having them cluttering up desks or tables. The children could also use one on their desks to store folders or notebooks that they need throughout the school day.

Glider Rocker

Almost 13 years ago my husband bought me a glider rocker when I was pregnant with our first child. I have used that chair ever since. First, it was in the nursery but when we began to homeschool when he was six and his younger sister was four we moved it up to our school room. It provides me with a comfortable but supportive place to sit while I read, teach, or monitor progress. Even if you do not have a separate school room I highly recommend a comfortable and supportive chair. The glider rocker is also a great place for me to hold my littles and read. I even ‘sneak away’ to sit and relax or read in it by myself occasionally.

Those are five of my favorite homeschooling items. What items do you love in your homeschool that people don’t always think about?

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Deals and Freebies

Back to School Bundle Sale going on now!! Back to Homeschool Online Course Bundle

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is doing an amazing sale this month! Buy One year get One Year FREE! We use this for several of our courses and one price covers all the students in your home for as many of their over 400 courses and you would like to use.

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Check out these other posts:

Amanda @ Hopkins Homeschool
Angie @ Run Ran Family Adventures & Learning
Annette @ A Net in Time
Ashley @ Gift of Chaos
Betty @ Let’s Get Real
Brenda @ Counting Pinecones
Carol @ Home Sweet Life
Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses

Thankful Thursday: The Three ‘F’s

FriendsField Trips&Family Time

When I decided to homeschool our children everyone from family to strangers had an opinion on what was best. Some folks thought we were crazy, some assumed I had lots of patience, some were encouraging, and some shared their concerns that our children would be missing out. For the record homeschool moms do not naturally have more patience than non-homeschool moms, but that is a post for another day.

Some of the most common concerns that people had are actually reasons that I am most thankful to be going ‘back to homeschool’ for another year of learning and growing as a family. Today we are going to discuss the three ‘F’s. Friends and field trips were two things that some people assumed my homeschooled children would be missing out on. The thrid ‘F’ concern was family time, not a lack of it but having too much time together.

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Friends (or socialization) is a homeschool concern that is shared so much that it is a running joke in most homeschool circles. While there are exceptions both with homeschoolers and traditionally schooled children, homeschoolers in general have no lack of friends or social opportunities. In a regular school setting my children would spend the majority of their waking hours with the same group of same age children each day. In our lives as homeschoolers my children interact with many different groups of people throughout the week.

They have friends that are younger, friends that are older, and they interact with a variety of adults. When I look at my life outside of a classroom, my social interactions and my friends are made up of a variety of people from all ages and walks of life. In the natural flow of life we interact with a variety of people and I’m thankful that my children get that opportunity so frequently. They have friends they hike with, friends they do 4H with, friends in church, Trail Life, American Heritage Girls, friends that live in our town, friends that live several towns over, and a even a few friends we have to go visit out of state.

20170601_142510 — Field Trip to Roanoke Island Festival Park

Field trips are one of the best educational opportunities available. When I was a student I enjoyed them and then as a teacher we used them to help provide experiences that would supplement our classroom instruction. In a school setting those opportunities were limited by funds, logistics, and often county policy. Funds can still be a limiting factor in our homeschool at times but we are able to take advantage of many opportunities for field trips and real life learning experiences. Everything from our twice monthly group hikes to a family trip to Washington DC become fun and educational trips. My children have had far more field trip opportunities in our homeschool than they would have had in a traditional school setting. I have not set up all of our trips but I already know in September that they will attend a concert, two hikes, apple picking, a visit to the mountains, and a trip to a cheese factory.

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The third ‘F’ is family time and honestly it is the one that makes me the saddest. This is the one where they tell me they couldn’t’ stand to be with their children all day. I don’t want to paint some unrealistic rosy picture where I never get frustrated with my children and I don’t enjoy a quiet dinner out with my husband on occasion. However, I am so very grateful that I have the opportunity to be with my children each day. I am the one that gets to teach them and share life with them. Of course there are days when I just want to lock myself in the closet with a candy bar for a few minutes of golden silence, but all in all I love doing life with my family. Homeschooling means that we can travel together, eat our meals together, spend time with my husband around his work schedule, and continue to learn and grow together.

Those are three of the many reasons that I’m thankful to homeschool. I’d love for you to share the reasons you are thankful to homeschool.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

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Deals and Freebies

Back to School Bundle Sale going on now!! Back to Homeschool Online Course Bundle

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is doing an amazing sale this month! Buy One year get One Year FREE! We use this for several of our courses and one price covers all the students in your home for as many of their over 400 courses and you would like to use.

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Check out these posts from other Review Crew Members:
Lisa @ Farm Fresh Adventures
Lori @ At Home: where life happens
Margaret @ Creative Madness Mama
Marla @ Jump Into Genius
Meredith @ Powerline Productions: Being World Changers/Raising World Changers
Michele @ Family, Faith and Fridays
Missica @ Through The Open Window
Monique @ Mountain of Grace Homeschooling

Work it In Wednesday: Evening Education

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*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

If you have been in the homeschool world for very long you have probably heard about morning baskets, but in addition to a morning basket we use our ‘Evening Education’, not to be confused with night school, to fit it all in. ‘Evening Education’ is the term I coined for the parts of our school day that we do in the evenings with my husband. With children at varying ages, homestead chores, household duties, 4H and American Heritage Girls/Trail Life our days can get pretty busy and it is easy for certain subjects to get pushed to the side. Our ‘Evening Education’ time allows for us to utilize that time together in the evening for subjects that are fun and enjoyable as a family.

What Do You Use For ‘Evening Education’?

This can certainly vary from family to family based on what you enjoy and what you want to cover. For us we want to keep it fun and engaging so that they enjoy the family time while still covering areas that we need to cover. We love using Drive Thru History Adventures during this time. The children feel like they are being rewarded with a movie and I know that I’m covering Bible or history. We can sit back and watch the movie with popcorn and then discuss what we saw. We also use other movies and documentaries that correlate with our studies.

20180124_195815 — We use a cable to stream the videos from our computer onto the television.

We also use simple family discussions. My husband will ask them about what we are covering in a subject like science or history and then share more information and discussion. He’s really great at extemporaneously coming up with content and guiding a discussion.

This year we are going to use our ‘Evening Education’ time to cover our music appreciation studies. We will be choosing a different genre of music each month. A couple times a week we will use Prime Music or YouTube to share various songs and artists from that genre. I prefer Prime Music because of avoiding commercials. The children love to sit and listen to music with us, so this should be a fun experience. We also hope to attend some free or inexpensive local concerts to represent as many of the genres as we can.

We also enjoy using board games for our ‘Evening Education’. Sometimes that is a common board game like Yahtzee that teaches math skills and sometimes those are the history games from Home School in the Woods that go along with whatever we are learning (or something we have already covered.)

How Often Do You Do ‘Evening Education’?

We do not have a set schedule for our Evening Education time. We generally do something three or four nights a week depending on our schedule for that week. It may be as simple as a discussion at the dinner table or as elaborate as pizza and a movie or game night.

What Are The Benefits of ‘Evening Education’?

We have seen several benefits of ‘Evening Education’. One big benefit is that it allows my husband to be involved in the children’s education. Many dads are interested in what the children are learning but work schedules can make it difficult for them to be active participants but this allows them to stay connected and included.

It also frees up time during our regular days and allows us to cover those ‘extra’ things that we may not otherwise have time to complete. Instead of feeling pushed and not doing music or watch that documentary we simply switch it to a different time of day.

Finally, we find that it creates lots of fun family memories. They truly enjoy our game nights, family discussions, and movie times. I love that it connects learning with fun and family. They do not feel like they are being made to do ‘school’ at night but simply that they are learning through our family time.

I encourage you to consider if ‘Evening Education’ could benefit your family. Is there a subject or activity that you could move from your regular school day and enjoy as a family whether that is in the evenings or even on the weekends. I’d love for you to share ideas for ‘Evening Education’ in the comments.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

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Deals and Freebies

Back to School Bundle Sale going on now!! Back to Homeschool Online Course Bundle

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is doing an amazing sale this month! Buy One year get One Year FREE! We use this for several of our courses and one price covers all the students in your home for as many of their over 400 courses and you would like to use.

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Check Out These Other Posts!!
Christine @ Christine Howard
Christy @ The Simple Homemaker
Debra @ Footprints in the Butter
Diana @ Homeschool Review
Felicia @ Homeschool 4 Life
Jacquelin @ A Stable Beginning
Jeniffer @ Thou Shall Not Whine
Jennifer @ A Glimpse of Our Life

Take a Look Tuesday: Our School Room

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*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

I need to start off by saying, you DO NOT have to have a dedicated school room to homeschool. That said, we are blessed to have a room that is our ‘school room’. This does not mean that all of our learning is done in that room, but it does give us a place to focus on our school work and to keep the books and materials ‘mostly’ contained. We had an unfinished upstairs and my awesome and handy husband finished a section of it for us to use for our school room.

My cozy window seat might just be my favorite part of this room. I had dreamed for years of a comfy window seat for reading but we never had the right space. When we build this room in a space that had a dormer window it was a perfect fit. Sometimes I sit here to read or teach and sometimes the children sit here and work. We can also use the space to look outside at the trees and watch for birds, squirrels, and other wildlife.

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My second favorite spot is my glider rocker area. I have spent many hours sitting in this seat reading to my children, watching them work, teaching them, and praying over our homeschool. When I sit here to read or teach the children can sit at their desks or bring out the pillows or bean bags and sit on the floor in front of me. During different seasons of our homeschool we have had a calendar area just above the rocker as well as a magnetic board for our All About Spelling tiles. There is a CD player just to one side of this so that we can listen to music or audiobooks.

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My handy husband also built dual purpose bookshelves. In addition to holding books they serve as a room divider. We have some of our book collection on these shelves, separated into broad categories such as chapter books, picture books, history, science, and Bible. We have a fairly extensive book collection (thanks to yard sales and Amazon) and not all of our books fit into our school room but I try to keep a good variety of fun books to read, books for extra studies, and books that go along with our current curriculum.

My son loves his surplus military field desk!

On one side of our school room we have a round table that we use for working together or when one of the children needs a larger work space for a project or assignment. My children, particularly my older two, also like to have individual work spaces so they each have a small desk on the other side of the room. The four year old never likes to be left out so he has his own small desk as well but spends most of his time in his preschool space.

Beside the round table I have our preschool area. There is a book shelf which holds bins of educational toys that are only used during ‘school’ time to keep them exciting, books, and crafting supplies for the four year old. In addition he has a small vertical book rack/shelf that makes it easy for him to see the books he has and to put them away when he is finished.I am also working on a container of file folder games to go in this area so that he can work on those with this older siblings.

I hope you have enjoyed this closer look at our school room. We enjoy using this room as well as our kitchen table, front porch, and even the van to learn and grow. I would love to hear about your school room and I’m happy to answer any questions you might have about our space.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

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Deals and Freebies

Back to School Bundle Sale going on now!! Back to Homeschool Online Course Bundle

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is doing an amazing sale this month! Buy One year get One Year FREE! We use this for several of our courses and one price covers all the students in your home for as many of their over 400 courses and you would like to use.

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!>

Check out some of the other Take a Look Tuesday Posts:

Jennifer @ Dear Homeschooler
Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory
Karen @ Tots and Me…Growing Up Together
Kellyann @ Walking Home …
Kimberley @ Vintage Blue Suitcase
Kristen @ A Mom’s Quest to Teach
Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break
Laura @ Four Little Penguins
Linda @ Apron Strings & other things

Motivation Monday: A Letter to the Overwhelmed Mom

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Dear Overwhelmed Mom,

You are tired and overwhelmed, it feels like you can’t keep up and you aren’t sure what to do next. Maybe you have a baby and you were up last night, maybe it is a busy time of year and you are spinning lots of plates, maybe you are new to homeschooling or in a new season of your homeschooling. I don’t have a magic wand and I can’t make it all go away, but do want to encourage you and give you a few tips that I’ve learned along the way. These tips and tricks won’t make the baby sleep or all of your problems go away but they can help you feel less overwhelmed and more ready to press on!

Bring it to God!

First, even though it feels like you don’t have time take the time to bring it all to God. This does not have to be an hour of solitude and quiet ( I know that can be impossible to come by). But by simply taking a few minutes in prayer and Bible reading. This can be while the children are sleeping, while you nurse the baby, or even while you watch them play outside. The Bible tells us to, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” ~ Matthew 11: 28-30

Make a Plan!

Once you have taken the time to pray about your situation, I recommend stepping back from the busy and making a plan. It may feel like you do not have 10 minutes to make a plan but taking those few minutes will reap big dividends. Once you put it all on paper (or computer screen if you’d rather) it will free up space in your mind to start working through your plan. I like to start by listing out everything I need to do and then make a plan for what order of completion works best. Simply having that plan and knowing you do not have to remember it all because it is on paper can make a big difference in calming the overwhelm. Another component to this that is helpful to me is to get a lot of small things done and marked off my list. Sometimes I have multiple 1 or 2 minutes jobs that need to get done (e-mails sent, bill paid, respond to a text, etc). Taking a few minutes and being able to cross those things off the list is powerful.

One Thing At A Time!

Next, do one thing at a time and remember the most important things. There are many things calling for your attention and it is easy to focus on the urgent things or to feel like you can not get it all done and freezing up and not knowing where to start. When you feel that way simply start with the most important thing on your list and focus on that, then move onto the next thing. Always remembering that time spent with your children is important and it is okay to prioritize that time.

Streamline

Finally, streamline where you can and know that there are different seasons in life. I love to cook big meals and make homemade bread. However, some days or weeks I know that what is best for everyone is a quick meal thrown into the crockpot and a loaf of La Brea from the grocery store. Some days we can spend an hour reading and doing science and some days I need to play the audio CD that accompanies our text in the car while we travel to events or appointments. Think about what is most important in this day, this week, or this year and give yourself grace when you can’t do all the things that you want to do. The days are long but the years are short and soon enough you will be in a different season.

I am praying for each person who reads this post that you may have find and peace in the middle of whatever overwhelming season you find yourself. Take this verse to heart and remember that raising and homeschooling your children is hard work but it is good and worth the effort. “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” ~ Galatians 6: 9

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

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Deals and Freebies

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is doing an amazing sale this month!

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

You can click the image below for the main page or check out a few of the participants below!

Nicole @ Bless Their Hearts Mom
Patti @ Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy
Rebekah @ There Will Be a $5 Charge For Whining
Rodna @ Training Children up for Christ
Stacy @ A Homemakers Heart
Tess @ Circling Through This Life
Wendy @ Life at Rossmont
Yvie @ Gypsy Road

God Schooling: How God Intended Children to Learn (Book Review)

godschooling

This was our ‘summer of books’ so I was delighted to add God Schooling: How God Intended Children to Learn by Julie Polanco to my list when the review opportunity arose. As I share my thoughts on this book, it is important to note that I do not believe that education is one size fits all. There are many educational philosophies and different styles work for different families and sometimes even different children with-in those families. That’s one of the beautiful things about homeschooling!

This book does a wonderful job of explaining and exploring the unschooling approach to education. While I do not think that unschooling is the approach that best suits our family, I enjoyed hearing about what works for her children and the research behind that methodology. I also gleaned a lot of great information and tips that will work well for our family.

One of the points that really stuck out to me in the beginning is how she explained unschooling. Julie says, “Unschooling can be a very deliberate endeavor, not necessarily haphazard.” She spends a great deal of time explaining how she deliberately sets out to provide her children with a good education in this manner. Sometimes unschooling is assumed to be doing nothing but letting your children play video games all day while you go about your business. However, she talks extensively about how she interacted with her children and helped guide them while providing natural learning opportunities and plenty of time for play.

She talks about how children, particularly children under eight, need a lot of free time and play. I wholeheartedly agree. They learn so much through play and exploration and if we are not careful we can fill up their days with school work and not allow them the time needed to play and explore.

Her chapter on children ages eight to twelve touches on many areas but I really liked what she had to say about entrepreneurship and service. In our family we believe that serving others is a Biblical command and we try to teach our children to serve from a very young age. During this eight to twelve range, they become capable of more complex service and taking more ownership in serving others. It is an important part of learning and development. Entrepreneurship is another important component of education for that age group. Learning to do meaningful work and contribute is a vital skill for successful adulthood. It is also a Biblical command and she shares several scriptures including 1 Thessalonians 4:11 and Ephesians 3:28 which talk about working with your own hands.

She also goes into experiential learning in that chapter. Children learn much better when they can experience that which they are trying to learn. She gives multiple examples from field trips and nature walks to living books and hands on crafts. These have been a vital part of our educational experience and I appreciated the encouragement to continue with this type of learning even as my children get older.

The section of the book that I needed to read most was probably the chapter titled, “Giving Teens Wings So They Can Fly”. My oldest son is twelve and so the teen years are very near for our family. Unintentionally, three of the books that I have read this summer have discussed how the modern age group of ‘teenagers’ is really a new lifestyle/category. Before somewhere around the late 1930s you did not see ‘teenagers’ as a separate culture. Most often once a child reached that age he/ she began working or contributing to the family in some way. Popular culture today paints teens in a negative light and holds them to very low expectations. However, Julie Polanco shares how she provided her children with opportunities to be involved in real life and contribute. It is important that we have high expectations for our teenagers and give them the opportunity to succeed and do great things.

If you want to know more about what unschooling looks like, especially from a Christian perspective or if you just want some encouragement and ways you can integrate more real life learning into your student’s education God Schooling: How God Intended Children to Learn is a great book. ** Also, she has a 1/2 price sale on the e-book version until August 22nd**

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Branch Out World Paddington Literature Study (Review)

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Our summer break was finally beginning and I was honestly not sure if I wanted to review the Paddington Bear study by Branch Out World. I asked my daughter how she felt about it, since it would mean doing school work on her first week of break. Looking back I’m so glad she said yes! I have loved the book Paddington for a long time but always thought of it as a book for young children so it had been several years since my 10 year old daughter had read the book. I was a little concerned that it would be to ‘babyish’ for her but my concerns were unfounded.

I used this study primarily with my 10 year old but also included my four year old son in many of the activities. We all enjoyed the book and they were excited to complete the activities. My daughter did more of the research activities but the four year old joined in for coloring and cooking. He also enjoyed looking at the pictures and talking about the book.

I was very curious prior to receiving the study about how much they would be able to do with what is a fairly short picture book but the study included geography in relation to the setting, science, vocabulary, pictures study/architecture, cooking, crafts and even math. There were a variety of activities to choose from and if you did them all this could easily have been your entire week’s school work. However, it was also laid out in such a way that you could pick and choose which activities worked best for your students. So if you had younger students you could choose the activities that worked best for that age and older students could do the more in-depth and research based ideas.

Once we read the book together, we started on our day one activities. The theme for the day was setting and the activities focused on learning about both London and Peru as they were important settings in the book. They included map work, flags, timelines, and even a lesson about migration. The study also included a tourist brochure project that students could complete to demonstrate reinforce the geography components of the lesson. My four year old enjoyed hearing about the areas and coloring the flags. My daughter went more in depth, using her atlas and other tools to research the area, find it on the map, and share with us what she learned.

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The second day focused on exploring words. We learned about the author, discussed the story using questions and narration, and worked with some vocabulary words. There was a lapbook style activity with the vocabulary words that my daughter enjoyed because she loves the cutting and pasting of lapbook pieces. We also could have done a great creative writing activity but skipped it since it was summer and she was on break. I may go back during the school year and assign the writing prompt because I think it was a great way to encourage creative writing. It involved them writing and adaptation based on the novel.

The third day involved learning about the illustrator, studying the pictures and then learning about architectural design and several artistic techniques that were used in the illustrations. There was an art activity, a lapbook component, and a game that could be used in working with these ideas and concepts. Illustrations are such an important but sometimes overlooked part of picture books and I was glad to see a day devoted to their study.

The fourth day was exploring science. There were several fun science experiments in this section, even one that was edible. I think edible components tend to always be the favorite in this house! There was also a nature study component which I really appreciate. My son enjoyed observing nature and then telling me all of the things he saw that he wanted me to write in his nature journal (since he is four and not yet writing on his own). We are planning on expanding that study over the next few weeks at various locations to talk about how different places have different plants and animals.

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The final day was exploring maths, crafts, and more. This was probably our favorite part of the study. There were several activities with math from learning about parallel lines to finding numbers in the illustrations (a great activity for my young son). Another activity that my son loved was the packing activity. He had to work on packing a suit case and deciding what he would need and what would fit. It actually worked out beautifully to coincide with an overnight trip that we were taking. Then came my daughters favorite activity: baking. They had a recipe for Strawberry Tart. She worked on these and made them as a special afternoon treat when her grandmother came for a visit.

There were a variety of other activities from field trips, tea parties and other fun snacks. Some of them were quite simple (popcorn) and others were a little more involved. I will note that this is a British company and since we are in the United States there were a handful of supplies and ingredients that I had to adapt or look up to determine what they were as they were terms (and spellings) not commonly used here. This was a great learning opportunity for the children and did not hinder our ability to use the study.

This was a fun unit study and I think we would enjoy using other literature studies in Branch Out World‘s Picture Book Explorers series would be a great way to bring a little excitement to our school year. Check out their site and let me know which study sounds like fun for your homeschool and don’t forget to click below to check out the reviews done by other Review Crew members.

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5 Days of Homeschool Encouragement!!

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Stay tuned next week for a wonderful blog hop full of homeschool encouragement. As many of us are getting ready to start our new school years the Review Crew will be bringing you encouragement each day. You can come to this page or the blog post I post that day to read my thoughts and click over to the Review Crew page to get encouragement from other homeschool moms. I pray that we can help give you the encouragement you need to start your year off right and remain strong even through difficulties.

Motivation Monday: A Letter to the Overwhelmed Mom

Take a Look Tuesday: Our School Room

Work it In Wednesday: Evening Education

Thankful Thursday: The Three ‘F’s

Friday Favorites: My 5 Must Have Supplies That You Might Not Think About

What About Preschool?

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I find myself in an interesting position this year. I have a four year old that really wants to ‘do school’. When my older children were his age I believed that earlier was better and that we needed a strong academic emphasis when they were young. However, over the last few years I’ve come to realize that less really is more when it comes to academics and young children. Children learn through play and exploration. However, I also want to support his desire to learn. To that end I’ve decided on a few academic activities that we will do each week as his ‘school work’. I will also provide him with plenty of opportunities for free play and exploration.

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Math: In addition to working with numbers in everyday life we are going to use 1-2 lessons per week from the Schoolhouse Teachers Preschool Playground Numbers, Patterns, and Cognitive Skills class. These lessons are short and fun and will give him varied exposure to age appropriate topics. I am also going to do a calendar notebook that we can do together each day. In this notebook we will work on numbers as we talk about dates, months of the year, days of the week, weather and seasons. Some of the calendar printables are coming from Schoolhouse Teachers and I am adding in a few freebies. This will be a great chance to start this habit and next year I will build upon that with more concepts included in the calendar notebook.

Reading/Phonics: He has been interested in learning all of his letters (thanks Letter Factory) and so we are going to work on a different letter each week. I found the book Eating the Alphabet Fruits and Vegetables from A to Z to get us started. Each week we will do four activities with the letter of the week. One day we will work on tracing and writing the letter, one day we will have a snack with foods that start with that letter, another day we will put pictures of objects that start with that letter into our sensory bin to play with, and the fourth day will be making the letter with Play-Doh or some other sensory material. I am creating the sensory bin cards for each letter and will have the available to download from the blog each week as we get to that letter.

Preschool Picture sensory cards

In addition to the letter of the week we will be reading lots and lots of books together. He loves reading and we will continue to read old favorites and introduce some new books. I am blessed that my older children also enjoy reading to him, so he gets extra reading time. If he wants a little more practice (or just to do a craft) we may do some of these free ABC Crafts from All About Learning.

Bible: He participates in our Bible Study Guide for All Ages studies and sits and plays while we listen to the Daily Audio Bible App.Schoolhouse Teachers

Science: He really enjoyed the sensory science bins from Schoolhouse teachers last year so I may keep some of those on rotation. We love hiking and doing nature study and I am going to give him his own nature journal this year to draw and narrate to me.

He loved helping me get is stuff ready for school next week. It all fits nicely into his tub.

Art: He loves doing chalk art pastel lessons with Nana at You Are an Artist and their Clubhouse Membership includes special preschool lessons that are a perfect fit for him. He also tries doing the lessons that the older children complete, but the preschool lessons give him his own special time.

Life Skills: He loves helping in the kitchen so we will continue to allow him to help and learn in the kitchen. He will be learning how to complete some new chores this year like making his bed.

This may seem like a long list but the ‘seat work’ portion of the list should not take more than about 30-40 minutes total four days a week. I believe this will be enough to keep him excited about school but still give him plenty of time for free play and exploring. As always I will see how this system is working and adjust it as needed.

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Deals and Freebies!

You Are An Artist Clubhouse Memberships are now Open for enrollment!!

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SchoolhouseTeachers.com is doing an amazing sale this month! Buy One year get One Year FREE! We use this for several of our courses and one price covers all the students in your home for as many of their over 400 courses and you would like to use.

Free ABC Mouse Trial: Looking for a little summer education for your children when it is too hot to play outside? ABC Mouse is offering a FREE 30 day trial. This is a great way to give it a try and see if it works for your child.

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!