A Hidden Gem: National Wildlife Refuges

Most of us have heard many things about our National Parks and the other types of sites within that system, from the Big ones like the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone to the small ones like The Wright Brothers Memorial and Pipestone National Monument.

*Some links are affiliate links, see full disclosure below*

We love traveling to visit those sites, and my children naturally look for the National Park Service “arrowhead” signs as we travel. However, we have discovered another resource that I consider a bit more of a hidden treasure: the National Wildlife Refuge System.

What is the National Wildlife Refuge System?

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages the National Wildlife Refuge System, which offers various educational opportunities at multiple locations.
Each site focuses on wildlife that is native to that area. Some sites focus on a single specific animal, while others focus on a variety of local species. Each site is unique, but most feature a visitor’s center that has educational displays, restrooms, water fountains, and often a small gift shop.

At the visitor center, you can find out more about what each site has to offer, get maps of the sites, and sometimes enjoy educational programming. Many of the sites provide hiking or biking trails, and some also have areas that you can drive through and look for wildlife.

Our Experience with Wildlife Refuges

During our visits to various sites, we have seen a wide variety of birds, deer, alligators, bears, wolves, and many more. We recently visited a site and had the opportunity to learn more about red wolves, as well as observe a pair that were part of a rehabilitation program. The boys were also able to measure themselves against the wing span of various birds and create animal tracks using molds.

These refuges are generally free to visit, offering a fun and educational experience, providing time outside and some exercise (hiking the trails), and helping to create fun family memories. In my book, that makes it perfect for a homeschool field trip.

Helpful Hints For Planning Your Wildlife Refuge Field Trip

The most obvious way to incorporate these is a simple day trip to a local site. Those are great, but another idea is to find the sites that are along your route as you travel. They often make a great lunch and bathroom stop. They give everyone a chance to stretch their legs and learn a little something before continuing your journey.

If you decide to visit a wildlife refuge near you, you will want to obtain a refuge passport. It works much like the national park passports, with a stamp at each location. However, instead of generic pages by area, this one features a specific page for each site. You may also want to grab our field trip journal, available in paperback or digital so that your children can write about what they see and learn. (You can use code: SWAG25 to get 25% off the digital version.)

Do you have a site near you? What animals are you hoping to find?

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.

Resource Library

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.

Have you signed up for #LifeSkillsNOW? This is such a fun and beneficial program!

Life skills help kids be confident, capable, and ready for anything.
Your kids and teens will build critical thinking and know deep down that they can do hard things.
Productive screen time instead of passive scrolling
The #LifeSkillsNow Screentime Promise: We promise to give your kids the shortest amount of (productive) screentime possible, and then OFF into the real world.
Expose your kids to topics you’ve never thought about (and might not know yourself).
Bridges the gap in traditional education with practical life skills, critical thinking, tech savvy habits, and understanding money

Journey Homeschool Science has some great online summer camps starting this month! They are a fun way to keep the learning going for the whole family.

What If You Could Give Them an Education That Truly Aligns with Your Values?Education shapes the worldview of your child. Did you know early learning forms lifelong ethical foundations? Use coupon code MAMABUG25 by June 20th, 2025, for a $44 Family Quarterly Membership (regular price: $89/Quarter). Find Christ-centered homeschool curriculum at SchoolhouseTeachers.com and set their hearts on the right path.

More Tales From Circle C: A Circle C Adventures Book Review

Several years ago, we were blessed with the chance to review Susan K. Marlow’s Goldtown Beginnings series. My children loved it, which led me to try even more of her books. She has some wonderful, wholesome series that our whole family has enjoyed.

*Some links are affiliate links, see disclosure below*

One of the things that is different about her books than many authors is that she often has several series for a character that follow them at different ages and are written for different-aged (or ability) readers.

The Circle C books follow Andrea Carter, a wonderful, horse-loving young lady. From the Beginnings series, where we meet young Andrea (Andi) at age 6, to the Stepping Stones books when Andi is 9, up next are the Circle C Adventure Books when she is twelve. There are also the Circle C Milestones books that feature her as a teenager.

Throwback to our first time with Goldtown

More Tales From The Circle C Ranch (Book 8)

This review focuses on the newest book in the Circle C Adventures series, book 8, More Tales from the Circle C Ranch.

This book is a compilation of six short stories featuring Andi and her family and friends. The stories range from an unfortunate roping incident to a summer on the pond. The book is about 139 pages long, and each story is from twelve to almost forty pages long.

The stories are broken up into short chapters and their are a few black and white sketch style illustrations sprinkled throughout the book.

Throughout the stories, Andi has adventures and mishaps. You get to see her handle trouble and grow through the process. For readers who have read the other books in the series, we also get to visit a few “old friends” from previous books.

More Tales from the Circle C Ranch takes place in 1880 and 1881. While they are not primarily history books, they introduce readers to various events and the lifestyles and cultures of the historical period.

This is a great way for students to make more connections with their history study and better understand the times. For example, in one of the stories, Andi’s friend’s brother had just gotten a bicycle. Bicycles were a new invention, and the girls did not even know what they were.

Who Should Read More Tales From the Circle C Ranch?

Overall, I highly recommend this book for independent reading for upper elementary and middle-grade students or as a family read-aloud for all ages. The short story style makes it easy to use as a read-aloud and could also benefit children who struggle to read or get frustrated with longer selections.

If you want to start at the beginning, you can try Circle C Beginnings for young readers, the very beginning, or the first book in the Circle C Adventures series.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Resource Library

Picto Kits Mountains: A Timberdoodle Review

As a homeschooling mother of five, with one of my boys especially interested in art, I am always looking for fun new art projects. Art helps develop fine motor skills, creativity, and many other skills. Timberdoodle recently gave me the opportunity to review a product that was new to me: a Picto Kit.

What is a Picto Kit?

There are multiple designs within the Picto Kit line, but we reviewed the Mountains kit. These kits use wood and fabric to create a fun and beautiful work of art. The child gently removes precut shapes from the wood, chooses fabric from the variety included in the kit, and covers the wooden pieces with different colors and patterns of fabric. The kit comes with a wide variety of upcycled fabric scraps to choose from (or you could use your own).

Once the wooden pieces returned to the frame, it is screwed onto the included block of wood using the included screws and the predrilled holes. The overall size is 7.5 in x 9.5 in. The Mountains kit makes a beautiful picture of two mountains with clouds in the sky and a big round sun at the top.

A short video tutorial (about four minutes long) explaining how the kit works can be accessed through a QR code. The directions were simple enough that my eleven-year-old son was able to watch the video and complete the project independently.

The kit includes all of the materials necessary to complete this project, but you will need a hammer, screwdriver, and scissors.

If your child wants to paint the wooden block, you must provide paint and brushes. My son chose not to paint his, and it still turned out beautifully.

From start to finish, the project only took him about thirty minutes to complete.

Five Things We Loved About Picto Kits

You can unscrew the frame and trade out the fabric to make new designs as many times as you want, so it does not have to be a one-and-done project.
The different fabrics and geometric shapes encourage creativity.
Adding tools to art was a lot of fun for my son.
It was simple enough for younger children but creative and fun enough for even adults to use.
The wooden block and frame make the completed project very study.

The artist with his completed Mountains Picto Kit.

Who Should Use Picto Kits?

Overall, I think these are great projects for a variety of ages. They are beneficial as a part of your homeschool art studies or just as a fun project for your art-loving child. They would be a great summer project to sneak in some learning through play. The various colors and textures of the fabric, along with the fact that you can keep changing the fabrics, allow for a great deal of creativity and imagination.

You can hang the wooden frame on the wall to show off your child’s work, have them re-do the picture as often as they like, or even gift their artwork to a friend or relative. The sturdy wood and beautiful fabric easily make an art project suitable for gifting.

Find out more about these kits, and check out all the different designs at Timberdoodle!

My Unsolicited Thoughts About Journey Homeschool Academy’s Elementary Astronomy

I’ve been telling you how much I love Journey Homeschool Academy for high school science ever since my son tried out biology several years ago. He went on to college sciences and said that he was well prepared because of his experience with Journey Homeschool Academy.

*links are affiliate links, see full disclosure below*

First, I love that the lessons use a Christian worldview. As a busy mom of five, I appreciated that at the high school level, they were designed for my students to complete independently with video instruction, lab guides, and online tests. It was so simple for me to set them and get them started. Finally, I appreciated that it was approachable, engaging, and rigorous.

What’s New in Our Journey Homeschool Academy Experience?

I am excited to try out one of their elementary courses this year. I have generally done teacher-directed science in the elementary years (mostly with Apologia and the geology course I created). However, in this particular season of life, I really wanted a science that could get done even when I needed to have my attention focused on a busy toddler or when I needed to be shuttling the baby to physical therapy or other appointments.

We will officially start Astronomy in September with our new school year. However, I have been checking out the video lessons and materials to get ready and to share more with you guys in case anyone else needs a helping hand with science this year.

The Basics of Elementary Astronomy with Journey Homeschool Academy

This elementary astronomy course has thirty lessons. Each lesson includes a video (around fifteen to twenty minutes long), a hands-on activity, memory cards (with a two to three-minute memory video), copy work, and suggested additional reading.

The videos cover the concept for the week and often share footage from a different location, like a virtual field trip. They are very reasonable in length and engaging, not just rote lectures.

A sample of the resources included in an elementary astronomy lesson.

The hands-on activities use primarily materials that would be found around most homes (especially homeschool homes, which tend to have a nice crafting collection). They are simple enough to complete but help reinforce the concept for the week.

The memory cards include a few of the most important facts from the week, and each week, a short two—to three-minute video discusses them.

There is copywork for each week in cursive or print form, and there is a quiz that you can use if you wish.

There is a lot of flexibility built into this curriculum, and you can use as many or as few of the resources as you choose and go at whatever pace you would like. Unlike the high school courses, you have lifetime access to this course.

Seven Things I love About Elementary Astronomy

I love that the video lessons are long enough to cover the material well but short enough to keep the attention of my active boys!
I love that they honor the Creator and give glory to God.
I love that it includes hands-on projects that are easy to complete.
I love that the course is only 30 weeks long, so we can easily complete it in a school year while still taking December off for Christmas schooling.
I can use it with multiple ages at one time.
It will give us another excuse to go outside and study God’s creation.
I love that I have lifetime access so we can go as slow or fast as we want, and I can use the course again in a few years with my youngest.

What Will I Add to Journey Homeschool Academy’s Elementary Astronomy?

This course easily stands on its own as a science course and would not need anything added. However, we love art in our house, and Nana over at You Are an Artist has some wonderful space-themed art lessons that will be the perfect complement to this course. You can purchase them separately as a course, or they are included in the art membership (which we love because we can choose whatever strikes our interest that day).

Overall, I am very excited about using elementary astronomy next year. It will simplify science instruction and help me ensure that it does not get pushed to the back burner. My children are excited about astronomy, a topic that I think the whole family can enjoy. Overall, I think the Journey Homeschool Academy elementary courses would be a great fit for families struggling to make time for science, wanting something easy to implement, or having a strong interest in astronomy.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Resource Library

Field Trip Friday: Canyon de Chelly National Monument

When you think about big canyons, your first thought might be the Grand Canyon. However, many other beautiful canyons are worth the time to visit. Canyon de Chelly National Monument may not be as big as the Grand Canyon, but it is lovely and has a rich history.

(We have been taking advantage of my son’s Every Kid Outdoors Pass and visiting as many National Park sites as possible. For this post, I will use the term National Park to mean any park site, including historic sites, monuments, etc.)

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

Our Suggested Itinerary

Start your tour of Canyon de Chelly at the visitor’s center. They are a great source of information about the history of the canyon and the native people who called it home. You can also pick up your Junior Ranger packets and get those passports stamped.

Then, head off along the road to view the canyon from any (or all) of the nine available overlooks. A tenth overlook is also available seasonally for a fee, but it was not open when we were there in the off-season.

If you are limited on time and have to pick and choose which overlooks to visit, I recommend making sure Spider Rock is on the list. It is one of the more notable rock formations and was really neat to see.

We had limited time at the canyon (only about half a day and then overnight in the campground), so we did not get a chance to take a tour. However, if you had more time, I think that would have been a great way to see more of the canyon and learn more about the history of the people who lived there.

Once you have seen the canyon and completed your junior ranger books, stop by the visitor’s center to get your badges and check out the restaurant at the motel just behind the adjacent campground. They had some delicious fry bread.

History at Canyon de Chelly National Monument

This beautiful canyon was home to Native Americans for 5,000 years. As you stop at overlooks, you can see where they carved homes in the canyon walls. At the visitor’s center, there are exhibits that show various styles of homes used over time by the people of the area, as well as some other exhibits that share more about the people’s culture. The National Park Service runs the park in conjunction with the Navajo Nation.

We bought some beautiful art from this local artisan at one of the overlooks.

If you get a chance to visit, let me know how you like it. Don’t forget to take your park passport and get it stamped! We have found that the passport is a great way for the children to get a souvenir at each park with no additional expense after the initial purchase.

Where:

Information Center: Chinle, AZ

Hours of Operation:

Information Center is open 8 am to 5 pm seven days a week (closed major holidays)

Costs: Free

Homeschool Discount: n/a

Website: https://www.nps.gov/cach/index.htm

Food: There is no food available on site, but there is a restaurant in walking distance of the visitor’s center and campground. (We did not eat a full meal at the restaurant but the fry bread was delicious.)

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Resource Library

Deals and Freebies

Schoolhouse Teachers is now offering a lifetime option! They are a great place for a one stop shop curriculum or a way to have a lot of options to fill in different electives and courses into what you have already chosen.

For 3 days only—March 10–12— you can upgrade to a Lifetime Membership with SchoolhouseTeachers.com with code LIFE25!

$990 (Reg. $1,850) = One Payment for a Lifetime of Homeschooling!

Tuesday Tips: Beating the Winter Blues

The beginning of a school year offers a lot of excitement and energy. There is new curriculum to explore, a desire to get back into a routine after a break, and often lots of field trips and opportunities. Then comes the crazy of the holidays with extra crafts, fun events, and various opportunities.

*Links may be affiliate links, see disclosure below*

However, after the holidays comes the winter season. This can sometimes be the hardest time of year for homeschoolers. The newness has worn off, the weather is often less than ideal, there is less sunlight (which affects mood for many people), and it can feel like a long, hard road to spring.

While it can be a challenging season, there are a few simple ways to help improve attitudes (both yours and your students) and get the most out of homeschooling in the winter.

Four Strategies for Beating the Winter Homeschool Blues

Change Things Up

Add some type of fun extra into your homeschool day. For example, maybe this is when you finally get to those science experiments you have been putting off, or maybe you add in a handicraft that your children are interested in learning. Maybe now is the time to try out a STEM learning kit or an art subscription. Try to think about things that your children would be excited to do.

2. Bundle Up and Get Outside

One of the reasons winter is so hard for many people is the lack of sunshine and the monotony of the days. Someone once said that there is “no bad weather, only bad clothes.” While that is not always true, if we dress appropriately, we can easily get outside for an hour and get fresh air and sunshine to brighten up our day. Check out this post for more ideas on getting outside.

3. Tea Time

Another fun way to add excitement to your winter days is having a daily or weekly tea time. You can enjoy a read-aloud, some poetry, or just share a good conversation with a warm drink and a snack. This could be something homemade that you bake together, or it could be as simple as a package of store-bought cookies and some hot cocoa mix. Remember you can make memories with a box mix.

4. Lean Into the Slowness

While not always the case, winter is often a slower time of year. There are fewer field trips as people slow down and recover from the busyness of the holidays and wait for the warmer days of spring. This could make the days a bit monotonous, or we can lean into it and consider it a blessing. This gives us time to enjoy a long read-aloud on the couch with a warm drink, wrap up in a blanket, and watch a movie that coordinates with our studies.

Do you notice the winter homeschooling blues? How do you help overcome those days and enjoy your time in the winter? I would love to hear additional tips and tricks in the comments.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Resource Library

Tuesday Tips: How Meal Prepping Helps My Homeschool Day

Meal prepping may sound more like a homemaking than a homeschooling issue, but it can significantly benefit my homeschooling day.

When I plan ahead and have lunches that are quick to make, can be thrown into the crockpot that morning, or are made ahead of time and just warmed up, it benefits my homeschool.

My children are more focused in the morning, and we try to do the majority of our schooling before lunchtime. While everyone’s time schedule is different, we try to have chores, breakfast, etc., done by 9 a.m., and then we jump into our morning routine. Morning time is complete by ten, which leaves us approximately two hours before lunchtime.

For my elementary school children, two hours is sufficient to complete most of their daily schoolwork (we do music and art lessons in the afternoons). However, if I do not have a good lunch plan, I am cutting into those two hours, and we cannot finish everything.

We can finish after lunch, but that cuts into outside time, hobbies, house cleaning, my work schedule, etc. It is also harder for them to refocus and finish up after having the lunch break.

When I meal plan for lunches, I think about things that can be made in 10-15 minutes or can be prepped ahead of time. As an added bonus, I find that when I plan and prep for lunch ahead of time, it is far easier for me to make sure that we are eating well-balanced meals with plenty of protein and vegetables.

Some of our favorites:

Salads (chef, fried chicken, taco, etc.)
Soups
Calzones (prep a batch and freeze, then pop them in the over)
Chicken Salad
Pasta Salad
Nachos
Quesadillas with fruit and side salads
Loaded Baked Potatoes (cook the potatoes in the crock pot or instant pot)
Pasta with veggie and meat sauce (sauce in the crock pot and boil noodles for lunch)

I would love to hear more about your favorite quick and easy lunches and how you set things up to make your homeschool days more efficient.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Resource Library

Check out this upcoming Summit! You can attend for FREE or upgrade to the VIP Access to have it for a life time.

Benefits of Outside Time for Children (and Moms)

Are your kids feeling restless?

Trouble with attitudes?

Feeling a little gloomy?

Want to encourage a love of nature and science?

Need to add in some healthy movement for you or your children?

Trouble focusing?

Benefits of Time Outdoors

Time outside can be the remedy for all of those concerns and more. Spending time outside in the fresh air and sunshine can make a tremendous difference in the atmosphere of your home and homeschool. This is true for both parents and children.

(Please note that I am not a doctor, and I am not trying to treat health problems. If you are having serious depression, etc, please seek medical care.)

I have noticed that when we are super busy, or the weather has been less than ideal, and we have not spent much time outside, my children struggle to focus on schoolwork, their attitude and behavior suffer, and they tend to be more sedentary.

While I do not start “bouncing off the walls” or appear like I’m vibrating because I’m restless like my children, I also notice that my attitude and focus are better when I spend some time each day outside. The sunshine brightens my mood, and the fresh air helps clear my mind. I try to go for a walk each day, and that 45 minutes of time outside gives me more focus and clarity for the rest of the day.

Educational Benefits

In addition to the physical and mental benefits of time outside, there are also educational benefits. Time spent outside in nature helps students learn by observing the vast world around them. As they begin to look and learn, they tend to become more appreciative of God’s beautiful creation.

While we sometimes take nature walks specifically to observe and study, I find that once you show children how to look for things around them, they begin to do it naturally during their free time outside. We might go for a walk and look for birds one day, but months later, they are still pointing out different types of birds as they spend time outside.

I will not discuss all the research on spending time outside, though I will include a list of good resources at the end of this post. Instead, I want to focus on simple ways to add more outside time to your schedule.

Strategies for Spending More Time Outdoors

1. Dress for the season

While there are some days when the weather is too bad to get outside, most days the key is just being well-dressed. When it is cold, it is easy to decide to stay inside, but I often pay for those days with challenging attitudes and bouncing children. It really is worth the effort to layer up and spend some time outside. In the summer, we use lots of sunscreen, light clothes, and water activities to battle the heat.

2. Take the books outside

Sometimes, going outside would be wonderful, but there is no time. You need to get reading, math, etc. done, as well as whatever else life throws at you. Taking school outside to a picnic table or blanket on the ground is a great option. The novelty and fresh air can make school a little more fun, and it is time you would already be spending with the added benefit of sunshine and fresh air.

Specific nature study is another great way to spend time outside while checking off the educational boxes. It can be as simple as observing what is around them and choosing something to learn more about. If you like to have ideas and more resources for nature study, check out the Homeschool Nature Study Membership.

3. Keep it Simple

We love to do fun things, try new parks, gather with friends, and explore different nature projects. However, spending time outside can be as simple as allowing children to play in the backyard, ride bikes, or walk in your neighborhood. Do not feel like every day or every time outside has to have a plan or special activities.

4. Think Outside the Box

Finally, field trips are a great way to add some time outside. We enjoy going to our state and national park sites to learn more about science and history while exploring the outdoors. There are also local parks, conservation programs, and more that offer outdoor experiences. Sometimes, these fit into our curriculum; other times, they are just fun educational opportunities. If you are in North Carolina, our state parks offer an amazing assortment of outdoor events that you can learn about on their website.

Resources and Research

1000 Hours Outdoors Outside

Until the Streetlights Come On

Last Child in the Woods

North Carolina State Parks

National Park Sites

Kids in Parks

Homeschool Nature Study Membership

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Resource Library

Tuesday Tips: Creating Buy-In With Choice

How do you get your children to buy into your homeschool curriculum? First, what do I mean by “buy-in”? I am not talking about purchasing or spending money but instead having students engaged and motivated to work through the curriculum.

Deciding What Choices To Offer

Some things in our school are not optional. For example, you are going to learn math, and you are going to learn how to read. However, we often have flexibility in how we accomplish those goals, and allowing students choice whenever we have flexibility helps them buy into their education and be more motivated.

For example, if I want them to compare and contrast a novel and a movie, I can let them choose which novel to read. When doing art history, I can let them choose the time period to study. When it is time for art lessons, they choose the lesson they want to complete.

While there are certain topics I want to cover in science, I often let them choose each year which topic we are going to study from the list.

For history, I might give them options among a variety of activities that accompany the lesson for the week.

Choice on Timing

Another way that I can provide choice is by allowing them to choose the order in which they complete their subjects on a given day. While I do have to control that to some extent based on the subjects we do together and the ones they need direct instruction in (and balancing that with my schedule), they have a list of what needs to get done each day and can do their independent work in any order they so choose.

Benefits of Offering Choice

I have found that these choices reduce the number of battles we have over completing schoolwork. Please note that I did not say it completely eliminated them; we still have those days when they do not want to do any schoolwork. Overall, it has proven to be a simple way for me to give them a voice in their learning while still accomplishing the goals that we have set forth for them.

How do you encourage buy-in in your homeschool? What choices do you give to your students?

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Resource Library

Deals and Freebies

If you have not tried SchoolhouseTeachers.com, you don’t want to miss this sale!

Journey Homeschool Academy is offering sale if you need a new science program! We love their high school programs and plan to try their elementary astronomy next year.

This is a great resource for lots of amazing printable materials from pre-k to 12th grade and they are offering 40% of lifetime access.

Focus Word 2025: Intentional

Last year, my focus word was Savor, and it was perfect for the stage I was in. We had highs and lows last year, but overall, it was a year of many beautiful changes.

We had baby number five on January 11th, 2024, we took an epic seven-week road trip in March and April, my oldest graduated from our homeschool in May and began college in August, my daughter got her driver’s license in January, began dual enrollment in August, and so much more.

Through it all, I tried to savor and enjoy the experiences and make memories with my family. It was a good year, but I want to focus more on being intentional this year. With the baby and so many things going on last year, I feel like I let some things slide (out of necessity). However, as we begin a new year, I feel like I am in a place to begin to be more intentional.

What Does Intentional Look Like For Me?

I am making conscious decisions about different areas of my life where I want to grow and spend time, and instead of just hoping to get to those things, I am making intentional plans but still holding those plans with an open hand.

Bible:

While we continued with our family Bible reading last year, I feel I was not intentional about spending personal time in the word. So, this year, I started a very simple Bible plan to read through the New Testament in a year. It should take me about ten minutes daily, which is doable even with the baby.

Family:

Making realistic but intentional plans to spend time with my husband and children. I know I can’t plan weekly date nights out at this stage of life, but we can plan to walk 4 or 5 days a week and do something special together once a month or so. I can’t take each of my kids out one-on-one each week.

Still, I can make sure to spend a few minutes checking in with them each week and be diligent about finding opportunities to spend one-on-one time, even if it’s just taking one of them with me to run errands or grabbing a quick treat together.

Hiking with My People..Savoring the Moment and Intentionally Focusing on my Health.

Health:

Complications from my pregnancy caused me to really focus on my health in 2023, and I was doing a great job eating well and getting in movement. However, the busyness of life with an infant and teenagers caught up with me last year, and I noticed I was not as intentional about making good choices.

So this year, I want to get back on track by being intentional about drinking more water, staying active each day, and getting plenty of protein. When I do those things, I feel better and have more energy for the other things on my list.

Social Media:

I believe that social media is a double-edged sword. I love being able to keep up with friends who aren’t physically close to me anymore; I enjoy learning from other homeschool moms and seeing encouraging posts and scriptures. However, it so easily becomes lost time.

When the baby was born, and I was up with him at night, I felt too tired to read, but I hated just sitting there, so I often would watch silly videos on Facebook. However, I really want to focus on intentionally using social media to keep up with the people in my life and to share and learn from other homeschoolers.

So, I will limit my time on social media (using an app on my phone) and be intentional about what content I view while using social media.

Blog:

Finally, I want to be more intentional about sharing ideas and resources on the blog. I was very quiet on the blog for the first half of 2024 because I needed to focus on the baby, my other children, and our travels. However, this year, I am intentionally putting work time back on my weekly calendar to be more consistent about sharing in this space.

My seventeen-year-old daughter will be babysitting a few hours each week in exchange for car insurance and gas, and I will be able to return to sharing new content with you each week.

I am looking forward to 2025 and continuing to savor the time with friends and family while also being more intentional about how I spend my time and making sure that my priorities are getting the attention they deserve.
I would love to hear your word of the year or your resolutions or tips on how you are intentional with your time.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Resource Library

Deals and Freebies

If you have not tried SchoolhouseTeachers.com, you don’t want to miss this sale!

Journey Homeschool Academy is offering sale if you need a new science program! We love their high school programs and plan to try their elementary astronomy next year.