Recording keeping is to a homeschool mom as air is to lungs - required to survive and thrive. For years I have managed assignments by creating a spreadsheet and printing it before the school year begins. I still do that, but there are so many things that don't fit into a chart like that. When I recently changed my bullet journal over to a discbound system - where I can add and take out pages as needed - I put a section in it for our homeschool. Terryn from over at Just a Simple Home asked me to review her Simplified Homeschool Planner, and I was excited to try it out in my new ... Continue Reading...
Our Homeschool Curriculum Choices (2017-18)
Every year in the spring I start researching and choosing our homeschool curriculum for the fall. This is probably my favorite thing about homeschooling (from the mom side of things anyway). I love browsing and comparing and choosing, I even love the ordering and especially the part where it all comes in the mail! First, a little about our homeschooling style and schedule. In Georgia we are required to school 180 days per year. In the past I've tried to use the M-F scheduling method, but with our family's comings and goings we often do school on weekends and I needed our schedule to be ... Continue Reading...
How to avoid sticker disasters
Way back when I had just one child I had few worries of mishaps and disasters related to stickers. I simply didn't see a problem. Of course there came an incident where he left the doctor's office and they gave him a sticker for good behavior. He stuck it on his shirt and we both promptly forgot about it. I remember the shirt. It wasn't particularly nice or even special to either of us, but when the sticker went through the washer and the dryer and made a huge mess on said shirt, I knew there had to be a better way. We've all seen (or maybe you own) a car with stickers all over the inside ... Continue Reading...
Final Christmas Preparations
This week we've been having fun around here with our final preparations for Christmas! My homeschooling goal was to have 90 days done before we took a break for the holidays. 90 days is our halfway point of the school year and for my 7th grader this was his midterm break so it is a nice time to stop. During our break I like to take time to do some projects we wouldn't normally do. First on our agenda was baking Christmas cookies. The hubby found a super easy sugar cookie recipe and he and the kids had fun cutting out the shapes then decorating them. Our final decoration project ... Continue Reading...
Vacation turns into homeschool
In the homeschool community we jokingly say that just about everything can count for homeschool. Why? Every moment is a learning opportunity. I'm not one to say "She played with her toy kitchen and food, so that's home economics." because in reality there were no new skills or knowledge being acquired so for us there are limits. Where the flexibility of homeschooling becomes a beautiful thing is when real life meets a true learning opportunity. My mother-in-law is not big on getting Christmas gifts. She prefers to take small trips or spend time doing something fun with her kids and ... Continue Reading...