Tips for Using Free Homeschool Summits and Conferences

Each fall and spring, there is a small window of time when my email and social media become inundated with various free homeschooling conferences and summits. They all sound wonderful, with great topics, engaging speakers, and exciting ideas. However, I wondered how I would find time to actually teach my children if I did all of those workshops.

If you feel the same way, you might be tempted to click delete on those emails, scroll past the social media posts, and ignore all the conferences. While I totally understand that temptation, I think there is a third option. Instead of spending all your time in conferences or ignoring all the summits, you can choose the parts of the summits that will be most beneficial for you, but not try to do it all.

Choose One or Two Applicable Sessions Each Day

Generally, my favorite way to enjoy one of these events is to pick one (or maybe two) session from each day that I think would be most beneficial to me. Then, I work out a time each day to watch those sessions. This lets me benefit from the workshops without having it take all day.

For my schedule, that time is often just after lunch. The baby is napping, we have completed school for the day, and I can send the big kids outside to play while I listen and learn.

That time of day is often when I would be getting other household tasks or computer work done, but the encouragement and inspiration that I gain from the sessions make it time well spent. Other good options are taking a walk and listening, listening while cooking dinner or folding laundry has also worked for me in the past.

When I remember that homeschooling my children is a calling and an important job, it is easy to see that it is not wasted time but time used to gain valuable knowledge and inspiration.

Have a Teacher Workday

Sometimes, the best way to take advantage of a homeschool summit is to pick the day that the sessions you are most interested in and call it a teacher workday. Give your students the day off, make yourself a cup of hot tea or coffee and your favorite chocolate, grab a notebook, and settle in.

You can watch the sessions, take notes, and spend some time planning and implementing the things you learn in the sessions. In addition to some great ideas, a day like this can provide refreshment and help you be ready to jump back into the work of homeschooling.

Buy Yourself Some Extra Time

If you are going through the conference and really enjoying your sessions but feel like you want to watch them all, most of these summits and conferences offer you the opportunity to purchase the sessions for a small fee. Once you buy the conference or summit, you will have access for a year or a lifetime (depending on the conference). Then, if you need encouragement or help or have a little extra time, you can watch a session.

Upcoming Conferences and Summits

These are some of the conferences and summits that are coming up. Take a look at some of the wonderful speakers and see how you can use these to encourage you in your homeschooling journey.

Such a great opportunity for encouragement and resources.

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Gnome Sweet Gnome a Timberdoodle Review

Children learn so much through play, and I love it when I find tools that can help guide that learning while still being fun and enjoyable for the child. I recently had the opportunity to review the game Gnome Sweet Gnome from Timberdoodle.

Gnome Sweet Gnome is a game that children can play independently. It has several different skill levels, making it great for developing skills. It works on fine motor skills, critical thinking, comparing sizes, and color recognition and is great for preschool through kindergarten or first grade.

What is Gnome Sweet Gnome?

The game includes three different gnomes, each gnome is a different size and color. The Gnomes each come with a matching flower pot, each with a different depth. The different sizes and depths mean that when stacked in different combinations, you can see different amounts of the gnome. For example, if you put the smallest gnome in the deepest flower pot, you can only see the top of his hat.

There are forty-eight challenges included with the game (each challenge is a different picture that the child needs to recreate). The challenges vary from easy to expert levels. I loved that the challenges were all enclosed in a spiral-bound book. That means no loose cards that are easy to misplace.

How Do We Play Gnome Sweet Gnome?

The beginning challenges use only a few pieces, and the challenge card shows the color for all of the pieces used. Then, they get a little more challenging by using more pieces but still showing all of the colors. On the final levels of difficulty, some or all of the colors are grayed. Other than the easiest level, all the challenges have a solution picture on the back of the page so the child can check their work.

This game can be completed independently, or a parent could work with the child to check their work and help them problem-solve. Depending on their attention span and ability level, children can work through anywhere from one challenge to the whole book. Younger children can start with the easier levels, and as they get more practice and confidence, they can move up to the more challenging options.

Overall, we really enjoyed this game. My six-year-old wanted to check it out and went through all the levels in one sitting. Even though he had completed them all, he still wanted to play again on other occasions, so it was not a one-and-done activity.

This is also a great game to prepare students for the more challenging IQ Gears that we reviewed a few weeks ago for Timberdoodle. They work on similar skills at different levels.

Where Do I Find Gnome Sweet Gnome?

I highly recommend this game if you have a young child and want to work on fine motor skills (stacking), colors, or problem-solving. You can find out more and purchase Gnome Sweet Gnome at Timberdoodle. It is also included in their preschool kit.

Evan-Moor Skill Sharpeners Geography Grade K

Geography is a hugely diverse subject that can be taught in many ways. Some years, our family includes geography with our history, and at other times, we do independent geography. We have a big family trip coming up in honor of my oldest son’s graduation. With that in mind, I wanted to give my kindergartner a good overall exposure to geography to prepare him for the trip. That made the opportunity to review Evan-Moor’s Skill Sharpeners Geography from Timberdoodle an easy choice.

What Is Skill Sharpeners Geography?

The Skill Sharpeners Geography Grade K book is a consumable text designed to introduce kindergarten students to various geography concepts, including map skills, landforms, bodies of water, the globe, and weather in our world.

The book contains four units: Map Skills, Looking at the World, Landforms and Bodies of Water, and Weather in Our World. In addition, those four units are separated into two to five lessons per section.

Each lesson includes a couple of pages of introductory geography texts to teach the concept to the student. There are also ideas for talking to your child about the covered concepts. Next are written practice activities and a hands-on activity. Finally, at the end of each section, there is a certificate of completion to celebrate their hard work.

The written work is designed with kindergarten students in mind, including activities like coloring, tracing, connecting similar objects, crossing out wrong answers, or circling correct pictures.

The book contains full-color pictures to help non-readers understand the concepts (though the parent will need to do some reading and explanations).

How We Used Skill Sharpeners Geography Grade K

There are a variety of ways to use this book. In our family, we chose to do one lesson each week. This makes the book last about fifteen weeks, perfect for completing it in one semester with a little wiggle room for busy weeks.

My son enjoyed doing all of one lesson in a day; it usually took him about thirty minutes to complete an entire lesson. However, you could spread the lesson out and do one activity per day. If you want the book to last for a whole school year, you could spread the lessons over two weeks and add additional reading or activities.

The hands-on activities were often cutting and pasting, which my son enjoyed, but were also very simple for me to facilitate. The only additional materials required were scissors and a glue stick.

There is also an answer key at the back of the book in case there are any questions about correct answers (though generally, at this level, the answers were self-explanatory).

What We Thought/Conclusions

Overall, we were delighted with this book. I felt like the concepts covered gave my son a general understanding of the fundamental physical geography concepts. This will make it easier for him to learn more as we travel because he will have the basic vocabulary and understanding already mastered.

My son enjoyed the book and looked forward to that part of our weekly school time. He loved the pictures, and the activities were engaging. I appreciated that it kept things simple so that it was not overwhelming.

I would recommend this book to any student in Kindergarten (or even first and second grades) who needs a basic understanding of physical geography concepts. The book is engaging and easy to implement. Go to the Timberdoodle website to learn more and purchase your copy. You can also check out the other levels offered for older students and to continue their geography studies.

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.