Thanksgiving/ Black Friday 2025 Deals and Sales

*Some of these links are affiliate links please see disclosure below for more information*

I hope you are doing well this holiday season. I have compiled this list of sales to help you get the best deals from the comfort of your home. There are sales, freebies, and deals of homeschool curriculum, extras, and a few ideas for moms!

I will be adding to the list as new deals, including Cyber Monday deals become available. Our family is grateful for your support through buying from my links. We hope deals are a blessing to your family and also support the blog.

CYBER Monday Specials

All About Learning has a great deal happening with free shipping and a free review book!

Cyber Monday Sale

 

Christmas Gifts

50% off Kindles!

YWAM has some specials on books and audio books.

Curriculum

Tuttle Twins is offering several big sales through December 6th.

Not Consumed is offering some great deals including 30% off November 20-29, 2025 , Bible Studies are $10, $5 Shipping with $50 purchase, Free NC tote with $75 purchase, and Free shipping with $100 purchase. We love their missionary study and their Bible studies.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com has a great Black Friday Sale from 11/28 to 12/1. Get the Ultimate Annual Membership for just $249 using the code BlackFriday2025

Christmas Notebooking Pages (FREE)

All About Learning is offering this brand new FREE Christmas Pack full of fun activities!

#LifeSkillsNow has a couple of great deals right now!

Fine Arts

Maestro Classics has some great Black Friday deals on Nutcracker and more.

You Are An Artist has this great FREE Grinch art lesson if you want to have a little fun after all that shopping! Or if you need a gift for a budding artist, their Membership is a great value.

For Mom

Tummy Team has some new low prices on their amazing membership. Give yourself the gift of healing and health. This online abdominal and pelvic floor rehab is well worth the cost.

Fit2B is my favorite online fitness program and they are offering 50% off almost all of their memberships and courses! This is a great deal on some excellent fitness options.

HomeschoolStyleCo. is having some great sales this week. They have some cute shirts for the children and for moms!

Looking for ideas for keeping Christ in Christmas? Check out this FREE class!

If you are like me and struggle with finding clothes that work for your body type, an Adore Your Wardrobe class might make a great Christmas gift to yourself.

If you need gift ideas for your children or for other folks in your life make sure to check out these posts for more ideas.

Gift Ideas For Your Budding….

Educational Christmas Ideas (that don’t feel like school supplies)

Clutter Free Christmas Ideas

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.

Sixth Grade Curriculum Choices (2025)

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

My eleven-year-old is going into sixth grade! How is he already old enough for church youth group and moving up to the Navigators group in our Trail Life troop?

He also enjoys fishing, hiking, and all things science. This is his first year running cross country for the local homeschool team. He would love to be able to skip math, but alas, I feel math is an integral part of his education.

Reading:

Since his reading is solid and he loves to read, we are going to do a fun and easy (for Mom) Book Bingo for his literature this year. The book bingo will give him a lot of autonomy in his reading, but also make sure he is getting in a variety of different books.

We are also continuing to use the Family Book Clubs from Read Aloud Revival, which are always fun and engaging.

Finally, don’t tell him that it’s actually school work, but he is participating in a local book club where they read a book each month and gather together to discuss it. Last month, they read Robin Hood, and this month, they are reading Sense and Sensibility.

Spelling

We have been working on All About Spelling, and he will continue to work his way through that. He really struggled with spelling, but over the last couple of years, he has shown tremendous progress, and we are excited to continue. We discovered All About Spelling years ago when my oldest child was struggling with spelling, and it has been our family’s favorite ever since.

Writing

For writing, we will be finishing Master Books Handwriting A to Zoo to review some handwriting skills. He will also be doing the next level in First Language Lessons to work on some grammar.

I printed out a huge selection of fun journaling prompts, and he chooses one each day to write about in his journal to work on his creative writing. He will also be entering some essays into several contests, including those sponsored by our junior historians and the state fair, to work on those skills. Those real-life applications have been so beneficial in encouraging my children to write solid essays.

Math

He will be finishing Math for a Living Education this year. We both love the format; it worked very well for him. There is generally enough practice for him without it being too much busy work. If there are concepts where he struggles, we can add in some extra practice.

Science:

I needed to be realistic this year about the amount of time and focus I have available for schoolwork, while also managing a toddler and multiple speech and physical therapy appointments each week. Of course, it is also important to me that my children get the solid education that they deserve.

This is where Journey Homeschool Academy solved my problem. We are doing one of their elementary science courses (which is solid enough for a sixth grader) with both my second and sixth graders. The boys wanted to learn about Astronomy, and we are loving the Elementary Astronomy course so far.

The video-based content makes it easy for them to do while I’m focused on the toddler, but then we can do the hands-on activities together. The course has solid science content with a Christian worldview that is also easy for me to implement. It has been a win for all of us.

Additionally, we will conduct a nature study at least once a week (we often do it more frequently when the weather is favorable). Sometimes our nature study is as simple as going outside and observing. Still, we also love to use our Homeschool Nature Study subscription to take things a little further and help me find some great activities and ideas.

History:

We are jumping back into Story of the World Volume 3 this year. We love all the hands-on activities and recipes included in the workbook, and we have the audio version of the text that allows us to listen while riding to appointments during our busy weeks.

Art

This son is the one I refer to as my little artist. He loves to draw, paint, and create. We will continue to use our membership with You Are An Artist chalk pastels for his online art lessons and provide him with lots of time and materials to be creative.

He also requested the opportunity to learn more about drawing, and so he is going to be trying some lessons from Timberdoodle’s Simply Draw.

Morning Time:

Morning time is my favorite part of our school day. We will do our daily Bible study and watch World Watch for current events each day. In addition, we plan to do a rotation of fine arts studies, poetry, Tuttle Twins books, and more. You can find out more about the resources we are using this year at Morning Time Plans 2025.

We have a toddler in the house and seven standing appointments each week, so I am holding all of our plans in an open hand and praying for the best. We will do what we can, when we can, and trust that God will fill in the gaps.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library, you will receive a link and password to access the library. We add new items to the library each month. You will also receive a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on our current posts.

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.

Deals and Freebies

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

Tuttle Twins is having a big curriculum sale! You can also get great deals on books and their Academy.

New subscribers can get 3 months of World Watch for FREE! This is a great deal.

Family Time (aka Morning Time) 2025

Morning time has been one of the few constants in our homeschool. As my children have changed, our schedules have changed, and our goals have changed, we have adapted our homeschooling curriculum in many ways, but having a morning time has remained a constant.

There have been years when morning time more typically happened in the evening (we should rename it family time), but we tried to keep that time of learning together. We have incorporated a variety of subjects, and it looks a little different each year.

Still, two things have remained the same: we learn together as a family, and we incorporate some type of Bible study.

What is Changing in our Morning Time Routine?

Last year, I worked hard to make sure we were consistent each morning with our time, even if we kept it simple some mornings. This year, we are keeping many of the same things in our “morning time.” However, between some speech and physical therapy appointments and my daughter having an early morning dual enrollment class twice a week, the timing is going to be a bit different.

I still want to be consistent because this is one of the most essential parts of our school day, but instead of a consistent time each day, I am working on a consistent time for each day of the week.

So, for example, on Mondays and Wednesdays, we will do morning time just after breakfast, but on Thursdays, we will do our “morning time” after dinner, and on Tuesdays, it will be after lunch.  The value in morning time comes from the content and family togetherness, not the time of day.

What Do We Include In Our Morning Time Studies?

Our two main priorities for morning time will remain our daily family Bible reading and World Watch. Over the years, we have used a wide variety of Bible curricula and enjoyed many of them, but often I found it hard to be consistent when using curricula and trying to make it work for all ages. However, several years ago, I read Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible, and realized I was over complicating things.

Our Bible Study

Now, as a family, we read one chapter a day from the Bible, going through an entire book. This keeps it simple and easy to maintain, even during busy seasons. We read (or listen to it on my phone app) the chapter and then discuss it.

My husband bought me an excellent set of commentaries that we pull out if we have questions or want to dig deeper into a verse.  We have found this to be hugely impactful and easy to maintain.

World Watch

World Watch is our second priority. We even kept these two components throughout most of our summer break. If you are not familiar, World Watch is a student news program with a Christian perspective. It is ten minutes a day and covers a variety of both major news topics and fun interest stories. 

It has opened the door for many conversations, helped my teens better understand what is happening in the world, and given us all more perspective.  We have found that watching and discussing works well for our family, but I did want to mention that they now also have downloadable worksheets that you could add to your World Watch time if you felt your student needed that or to help you use it for high school credit.

In addition to our two main components, we will incorporate one additional subject each day. Those will include fine arts, hymn study, logic, poetry, books of the Bible, and any other topics that I want to fit in as a family.

Sometimes we may do the same subject each day for several weeks, and other times we may rotate daily depending on our needs. This allows us to cover a variety of topics without trying to add in too many different things in one day (which would make it unmanageable).

Our Morning Time Rotations

Fine Arts: We will be using the Fine Arts program from You Are An Artist. They have a variety of fine arts courses that focus on different eras and topics.

A few of the many fine arts options that are available!

Hymn Study: For hymn study, we will be using the studies that I have already written, as well as some new studies that I will be adding throughout the year.

Logic: We use the book, The Fallacy Detective, for our study of logic and logical fallacies. While I don’t particularly care if my children can remember the exact name of a fallacy, I appreciate how it helps them identify fallacies in different arguments. (And they have come to love calling them out by name.)

Poetry: For poetry, we love the Poetry for Young People series. It is a great way to learn a little more about a poet and their poetry through reading aloud.

We are entering this school year amid a hectic life season (we have six scheduled appointments each week for speech and physical therapy), and the routine is going to look a lot different. Still, I am excited to get back into a routine.

I pray that our morning time helps keep us focused and working together and provides an anchor in the busyness of this season.There are so many different options for morning time. I’d love to hear how you incorporate it into your homeschool and if you have any favorite resources.

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.

Find Christ-centered homeschool curriculum at SchoolhouseTeachers.com and set their hearts on the right path.

Tuttle Twins is having their BIG Back to School sale. They have up to 70% off book bundles and major discounts on their academy classes (which now has World History offerings). We love their books and their American History curriculum.

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.

High School Biology

*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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

He loves playing Gnome Sweet Gnome!

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.

Focus Word 2024: Savor

For several years now, I have participated in the trend of choosing a word or phrase to focus on for each New Year. I like the concept because it helps me stay focused without the pressures of goals and resolutions. Last year, it was Making Space, and while that is an ongoing work in progress for me, it helped me last year.

I thought about many different words for this year, but the one God kept laying on my heart was Savor. This will be a year of changes and growth for our family, and I need to focus on savoring the time and each stage as it comes.

Miriam Webster gives the following definitions of the verb savor:

a to have experience oftaste 

to taste or smell with pleasurerelish 

to delight inenjoy

Over the last few months, I’ve been experiencing part b of the definition often, as I enjoyed one or two bites of desserts or treats that I enjoyed. I experienced some gestational diabetes with this pregnancy that limited my intake of many treats. While it was a challenge at times, it did help me to savor the one or two bites I enjoyed better. However, I plan to focus more on part c of the definition in 2024.

While we do not know exactly what this New Year will bring, I have a high school senior who is slated to go off to college in the fall, and I am due with baby number five in about two weeks. We also have a big family trip planned in the spring, which should provide many opportunities to savor the memories (and hopefully not to stress out about what doesn’t go as planned.)

I can be a bit (or a lot) like the Biblical Martha, worried about so many things, making all my plans, and getting the details just right. While God designed me to be a planner, and it is a gift, if I let the planning stop me from enjoying what is in front of me, I miss out on the important things in life.

This year, I aim to ensure that I hold those plans in an open hand and savor what comes, even when it isn’t “picture perfect .”While we will still make plans and preparations for the future, I won’t let my worries about what comes next make me miss out on what is right in front of me.

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.

Deals and Freebies

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