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Our Homeschool Curriculum for 5th Grade, 2nd Grade, 1st Grade, and Tot

July 12, 2015 by Selena Robinson 6 Comments

Hi everyone! Today is a wonderful day, because it’s the start of my favorite time of year – homeschool planning season!

After briefly experimenting with public school last year, I’m thrilled to be resuming our homeschool life this fall and I’ve had a great time choosing our curriculum for the 2015-16 school year!

Today I’m sharing our homeschool curriculum for 5th grade, 2nd grade, 1st grade, and Totschool!

Image: Africa Studio / Dollar Photo Club

Our Homeschool Curriculum for 5th Grade

I honestly cannot believe that Tigger is entering fifth grade. It seems like it was only yesterday that I planned her preschool curriculum. Amazing how fast time flies.

The book What Your Fifth Grader Needs to Know will serve as our curriculum spine for this year. I always appreciate the Core Knowledge books, because they give me a framework to use for designing my lesson plans.

I’m not a classical homeschooler, but I love the classical approach to history. So we follow the history method outlined in The Well-Trained Mind – a chronological approach with a four-year rotation of the same time periods.

This year, the bulk of our history lessons will come from The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History.

One thing I actually liked about public school was that it introduced Tigger to the rigors of Common Core Math. I am actually a fan of the Common Core curriculum, though not necessarily the instructional method. (I’ll share more about why I use Common Core Math in our homeschool in an upcoming post.)

This year, we’ll be using enVision Math Common Core Grade 5 by Scott-Foresman Addison-Wesley.

To supplement our math lessons and to accommodate Tigger’s ADHD, we’ll be using a few other math resources, including the Math Mini Office Lapbook from A Journey Through Learning. (See our review here.)

Our science curriculum will be based on Harcourt School Science for Grade 5. I’ve been able to find this book (and other school books like it) for just a couple of dollars on Amazon. Win!

We’ve been using the Homeschool Fitness Package from Family Time Fitness for years and we’re sticking with it this year too! It’s an easy and fun way to get everyone moving, which is absolutely critical for kids with ADHD.

Family Time Fitness - Fitness 4 Homeschool

We have a Lifetime Membership to Notebooking Pages and we’ll be putting it to good use this year! There are pages for all kinds of topics, including history, nature study, geography, and more!

For geography, this year we’ll be learning about the continent of Europe. And we’ll be using the wonderful notebooking pack Discover Europe to explore each country!

Both Tigger and Pooh will be using the program Keyboard Classroom to practice their typing skills. I think Pooh, in particular, will love it because he hates to write things by hand.

Our art program this year will be the Art for All Ages from Southern Hodgepodge. We got to use the Shark Chalk Pastel ebook last year and my kids loved it so much that we’ll be sticking with chalk pastels this year as well.

For music this year, we’ll be using SQUILT Volume 1: Baroque Composers by Homegrown Learners. This will be our first time studying classical music as a family, so I’m excited to get started! (If you’re interested in SQUILT, you can save 25 percent on any volume through July 17th!)

Our Homeschool Curriculum for 2nd Grade

For second grade, we’ll be using the book What Your Second Grader Needs to Know as our curriculum spine.

Our math curriculum for second grade will consist of Khan Academy, which Pooh loves, and a continuing study using the Life of Fred: Apples and Life of Fred: Butterflies.

This year, we’ll be using several resources from the EHM Members Only Website for Pooh. Some of our picks include:

The 2nd Grade Daily Math Activities Book
It Just Makes Cents Money Book
Geoboard Activity Pack
Foam Dart Physics
Landforms Around the World
and the US State Study Packs

Our Homeschool Curriculum for 1st Grade

Roo and Pooh have a lot of their lessons together, but I still like to make sure that he masters his concepts. His first grade curriculum will be centered on the book What Your First Grader Needs to Know.

Like Pooh, he’ll also be using Khan Academy and Life of Fred for math. And he’ll be using some of the resources from the EHM Members Only site as well, such as:

All About My Community Pack
Days of the Week Activity Pack
My Plant Journal
and the Children of the World Pack

Since he also has ADHD, we’ll have to break out the Ultimate Guide to Brain Breaks to help him burn off a little activity in between lessons.

The Ultimate Guide to Brain Breaks eBook

Our Homeschool Curriculum for Totschool

For Totschool, I’m keeping things simple with little Piglet this year. We’re going to be using the oldie-but-goodie Teach Me Mommy by Jill Dunford.

I’ve had this book since Tigger was a toddler and I love it so much. It’s a wonderful introduction to preschool themes but it has all of the book suggestions, activities, and crafts laid out for you each week.

Since Piglet will be three in December, we’ll begin using this then and probably continue with it until she reaches PreK. And I guess this is the last child I’ll use it with! *sniff*

We use a lot of unit studies with our kids, so I’ll also be including some of the themed Tot Packs from 3 Dinosaurs and 1+1+1=1. That way, Piglet can get in on learning about the same things as her older siblings!

Before we begin officially Totschooling this winter, we’ll be using the book Learn with Play from the Kid Blogger Network to help her get involved in making things and having sensory fun while learning. I suspect the older kids will want to get in on the fun too. 😉

Those are our choices for homeschool curriculum for 5th grade, 2nd grade, 1st grade, and Totschool! I’d love to hear what you’re using this year, so tell us your choices in the comments!

This post is part of the 2015 Not Back to School Curriculum Week Hop from iHomeschool Network! Click over to read even more great posts from our fellow bloggers!

Teaching Math with Math Mini Office Lapbooks

July 10, 2015 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

We have a small problem in our homeschool. Tigger doesn’t like math. And I’ve been so frustrated with her about it, because when she puts forth the effort, she does a good job. She just doesn’t like it enough to try.

I talked about one of the hallmarks of ADHD in our review of Math Bafflers – lack of desire to sustain mental effort on a challenging topic. That symptom always rears its head when it’s time to learn math.

So – I was glad to get a chance to review the Math Mini Office Lapbook from Knowledge Box Central! And the great thing is: Not only did it work wonders for Tigger’s attention span, it was also good for all three of my oldest kids!

Here’s how I used the Math Mini Office Lapbook to teach math to multiple ages. 🙂

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this resource in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own and I was not required to post a positive review.

Teaching Math with Math Mini Office Lapbooks

Knowledge Box Central is a homeschool provider that specializes in fun and engaging lapbooks. In fact, I’ll be sharing a couple more of their resources in upcoming weeks. 🙂

But when I saw that the Math Mini Office Lapbook was an option, I jumped on it!

I will say that putting the lapbook together took a little time on my part. But, Knowledge Box Central includes extremely detailed instructions with pictures to help you know what to put where. There are even suggestions as to which pages to print on what color paper!

I love how you can assemble the lapbook and then stand it up to work as a mini-office. Tigger loved that idea! She wanted to sit behind it and do “real work”.

So we handed out scratch paper and got to work! Here’s a closer look at what’s inside the lapbook.

As you can see, this math mini-office is basically a stand-up reference chart. There is a number line, a math symbol chart, a 100 chart, an addition chart, and a subtraction chart. There’s also a telling time activity that helps kids practice representing analog time and calculating time forward and back.

On the other side, there is a multiplication table, multiplication chart, fraction equivalent chart, division chart, and a place value practice activity. If you use the hand trick for learning 9 time tables, there’s a handy reference for that and for recognizing patterns in the 9’s tables.

For Tigger, I wanted to focus on fraction equivalents first. Fractions were one of the last math concepts she reviewed during the school year.

Teaching Math with Math Mini Office Lapbooks

We talked about the relationship between multiplying and dividing in order to increase or reduce fractions. As we learned, we multiply to increase a fraction and we divide to reduce a fraction – just like with any other number.

The fraction equivalent chart shows that you can increase any fraction by multiplying the numerator and denominator by the same number.

Seeing it represented that way was very helpful to Tigger. Plus, we were able to test it out with any fraction on the chart!

Here’s where the Math Mini Office Lapbook really became helpful to our family. The resource is listed as appropriate for Grades 3-5. But some of the concepts are also good for younger learners!

The lapbook instructions recommend laminating it before you use it, and for good reason. That way, your kids can use the Telling Time, Place Value, and Number Line activities again and again!

I decided to focus on the number line with Roo.

We practiced a few addition and subtraction problems with the number line. When we drew the line on the board, Roo would copy down our actions using a dry-erase marker in the lapbook. He loved it!

Pooh worked on telling time. Since we usually have digital clocks around the house, telling analog time is a skill my kids really have to work on. But once he remembered how to count minutes (by 5’s), he did fine!

And when we were done, we just erased our marks to get the lapbook ready for next time!

It even folds back up for easy storage when you’re done!

We loved using the Math Mini-Office Lapbook from Knowledge Box Central! I’ll be using it with all three of our kids during the upcoming school year. 🙂

To get one for yourself, check out Knowledge Box Central’s huge list of lapbook offerings!

Art and Sensory Activities Galore with Family Fun Friday!

July 9, 2015 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

This week’s Family Fun Friday is all about art and sensory activities for kids! We use sensory play a lot in our homeschool, especially because some of our children are living with Sensory Processing Disorder.

Interestingly, though, I’ve found that sensory activities and art projects can be particularly helpful for learning. And that’s why I’m excited to announce the release of the book Learn with Play by the bloggers of the Kid Blogger Network! It’s filled with even more art and sensory activity ideas!

Disclosure: I received a copy of the ebook free in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own and I was not required to post a positive review.

As I mentioned above, Learn with Play is a brand-new ebook packed with over 150 different activities for young children! A lot of resources offer suggestions for activities to keep your kids busy during the day, but only a few are focused on educational activities.

What makes this book special is that all of the activities are geared toward helping kids actually learn something.

To get an idea of what’s included in Learn with Play!, check out the two activities below.

As you can see, each activity features a clear picture, a supply list, and full instructions. No having to jump pages on blog posts to know what to do next! 🙂

During Launch Week, Learn with Play is available at the discounted price of $9.99 – a $5 savings off the regular price! To get your copy, click the image below!

Now – it’s on to Family Fun Friday! Be sure to scroll all the way down to the bottom to see this week’s posts! 🙂


Monica created Family Fun Friday and blogs at HappyandBlessedHome.com where she shares free preschool tools and printables, encouraging words for moms, and ideas for having fun together as a family. Follow: Blog / Facebook / Pinterest / Twitter /Google + / Bloglovin’/ Instagram. Monica will feature Family Fun Posts.

Selena is a homeschooling graduate and a veteran homeschooling mom to four super special kids. She blogs at Look! We’re Learning! about unit studies, foreign language, and homeschooling with ADHD. Follow: Blog / Facebook / Pinterest / Instagram / Twitter. Selena will be featuring homeschooling and kids’ crafts.


Herchel enjoys blogging about parenting, organizing, crafting, and having good old-fashioned kid fun her blog Scrggbug Corner. Follow: Blog / Facebook / Pinterest / Twitter /Google +. Herchel will feature organizing and family fun.

Here are my favorite posts for this week!

1. Letters in the Sand shares a fun sensory play activity you can make yourself: DIY Moon Sand!

2. Learn how to make DIY Chalk Paint for Kids over at Mini Monets and Mommies!

3. Mosswood Connections features an Exploring Owls Art Project – perfect for a fall unit!

4. Make your own Homemade Gak with the directions from One Little Project!

5. Learning about Picasso? Art Club Blog explains how to make Picasso-Inspired Pots!

6. Ever think about using sidewalk chalk to make powdered paint? You can with the instructions from P is for Preschooler!

Were you featured? Grab the Family Fun Friday button below!

Stop by to see what my co-hosts are spotlighting this week!

Bloggers are invited to share their best family-friendly and mom-inspiring posts in the link-up below.

Link guidelines:

Link your post.
Link back to the link party.
Follow your host(s).
Spread the word. Share and pin your favorites.
Mingle! Bloggers love comments.
Grab a button.
If you link up, you permit the hosts of Family Fun Friday to use your pictures/ideas as part of future posts and/or social media.

Family Fun Friday is a growing link-up with over 200 bloggers sharing their posts each week. Each host shares her favorites from the week before, increasing your chances of being featured. Co-hosts will also be pinning their favorites to a community Family Fun Pinterest Board. This link party opens up at around 4 pm EST on Thursdays.

Please be aware that by linking in Family Fun Friday you give our hosts permission to use your images to create a collage for our features. We may also use the collage to promote Family Fun Friday through our individual social media accounts.

Math Bafflers Review: Introducing Logic to Kids with ADHD

July 8, 2015 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

One of the challenging things about homeschooling a child with ADHD is helping him or her learn to think critically. Kids who have classic ADD tend to avoid any kind of sustained mental effort, especially when the topic is challenging.

And that’s my Tigger. She’s linguistically smart, but she’s not a natural at math. When there’s a concept that’s hard for her to grasp, she tends to tune out or get frustrated. But we can’t just skip those parts, right?

Recently I got a chance to try the workbook Math Bafflers from Prufrock Press and I found it to be a great way to teach logic to kids with ADHD! Here’s our Math Bafflers review.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own and I was not required to post a positive review.

Math Bafflers Review

Just to give you a little background:

I’m pretty sympathetic to Tigger on the whole “avoiding sustained mental effort” thing, because…

I’m the exact same way.

Last semester, I took Honors Logic and I’m here to tell you that it was rough. I can do the work, but there are times when I sit down to concentrate and my head pretty much feels like it’s filled with bees. Kind of like a mental static.

So if that’s what Tigger deals with, I can vouch for the fact that it’s irritating and it interferes with your ability to concentrate.

However, logic is SUCH an important skill to learn that I was determined to find a way to teach it. And Math Bafflers was a great way to introduce it.

Math Bafflers is not a logic curriculum, but it is a logic puzzle workbook. The first thing I loved about it was that the activities are fairly short – perfect for Tigger’s short attention span!

Look at her expression. That is the face of a child who is NOT interested in this subject at all…lol.

Using Math Bafflers to Introduce Logic to Kids with ADHD

I loved the way Math Bafflers provided a gentle intro to logic for children. In the very beginning, the book acknowledges that logic is not the easiest subject to learn.

So there are a list of steps to follow to help kids (and their parents) make sense of how to solve each puzzle. I summarized the steps and wrote them on the board.

Then I had Tigger copy them down. Having her write things down seems to “ground” her in a way. Then, she’ll have something to refer back to when she can’t remember how to solve a problem.

We started with the very first Math Bafflers puzzle. Basically, it requires kids to sort through a list of criteria to determine which television program comes on when. There are clues such as: “Program ABC comes on after Program XYZ, but before Program DEF.”

I’ll be honest. Those kinds of puzzles stump me too.

Which is why I was so glad for the problem-solving steps in the beginning of the book. Finding the answer seemed overwhelming initially, but as we followed each step for each clue, we ended up narrowing down our choices fairly quickly.

Something I noticed about Tigger is that she tends to read “more into” a sentence than is actually there. For example, a clue might say “Leah does not breakfast while watching Program XYZ. She eats breakfast between 8:30 to 9:30 a.m.”

When I asked Tigger, “What does that mean about Program XYZ and when it doesn’t come on?”, she would answer, “It doesn’t come on in the morning!” But the clue didn’t say that. It simply said that it didn’t come on during her breakfast time. There were other morning times outside of the time when Leah eats breakfast.

I chalk that up to her desire to hurry up and get through a problem quickly. So helping her slow down and develop patience with her schoolwork is going to be one of our focuses this school year.

Tigger kept trying to give up, but I wouldn’t let her. And sure enough, we solved the puzzle! Whoohoo!

Now I will say – After we finished the first puzzle, we stopped with this subject for that day. I didn’t want to overwhelm her and I didn’t want her to hate learning logic. But this will definitely be part of our curriculum for the 2015-16 school year. 🙂

And that’s our Math Bafflers Review! If you’re just getting started with a study of logic in your homeschool, I highly recommend Math Bafflers! It’s perfect for kids with ADHD, kids who struggle with math, or anyone else!

10 Easy Ways to Have a Fun Summer with Your Kids

July 7, 2015 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Spending time together in the summer can seem like something that just comes naturally. But, unfortunately, that’s not always the case.

Between busy summer activities, taking care of the home, and managing kids during summer break, moms can actually become even more frazzled than usual.

Kids can also lose inspiration as they get into a more relaxed summer schedule.

If you’re running low on inspiration for summer activities as a family, this list of 10 simple ways to have a fun summer can help!

10 Simple Ways to Have a Fun Summer with Kids

We have tried all of these with summer ideas with our kids over the years. And we loved every single one.

If you decide to plan your summer using any of these, let me know which ones were the biggest hits with your family!

Keep reading to see the full list. Plus, score a free summer bingo activity you can complete with the kids!

Looking for more summer fun? Take a look at our list of 50 summer books to share with early readers!

Make this summer one to remember with these easy ways to have a fun summer with kids!

10 Easy Ways to Have a Fun Summer with Kids

1. Get outside.

We live in the Deep South, so if you’re in a hot climate, I can understand why you might be a little hesitant to go outdoors in summer.

It’s hot. Hot beyond all belief.

But spending time outside is one of the simplest ways to have a fun summer with the kids.

We usually go outside early in the morning – right after breakfast. That way, we get some outside time without melting.

2. Have a backyard campout.

Summer nights are just perfect for camping out. If you have a decent-sized backyard, pitch a tent or two and sleep outside with the kids.

You get the experience of camping out – with the convenience of using your own bathroom.

Be sure to grill something for dinner and start a campfire for s’mores!

3. Plan a quick getaway.

You might not have the time (or funds) for a long summer vacation.

But if you have a free weekend, taking a getaway to a nearby destination can be an awesome way to reset with the kids.

We’ve found some beautiful spots within a few hours’ drive of our town. And, even when we didn’t plan to do anything “special”, we still had a great time.

4. Hold an indoor movie marathon.

This is one of our favorite ways to have a fun summer. We literally do this every year.

Since we have four children, each one gets to choose a movie and we watch each one together. To make it into an event, we bring sleeping bags into the living room and have snacks the whole time.

It’s awesome.

5. Try a local summer camp.

I don’t like to have the kids scheduled for the entire summer, but spending a week at a summer camp is an annual highlight for us.

We’ve tried several with each of the kids, including computer engineering, swimming, and tennis. Once we find a camp they like, that becomes a regular for us.

If you’re new to summer camps, take a look at seven ways to help your kids get ready!

6. Add water play activities.

I would love to have a pool in our backyard. But we just don’t have the space.

We still plan water play with the kids, though. We just keep it very simple.

Running through the sprinkler, water balloon fights, and water painting are some of our regular summer activities.

And those are perfect for summer afternoons when it’s too hot to do anything else.

7. Try a “staycation”.

Take a week or two and live like a tourist in your own town with a “staycation”. We’ve done this a few times also and the kids loved it.

When you live in a city that has attractions for tourists, it’s easy to get so busy that you never actually visit them.

Let the kids pick a few places they’ve always wanted to go and get tickets to as many as possible.

Sightseeing in Your Town During Summer with Kids

8. Make DIY summer treats.

When you’re planning ways to have a fun summer with kids, you don’t have to look much further than ice cream and popsicles, right?

We don’t have an ice cream maker, but thankfully you can make plenty of no churn ice cream recipes. And the kids can help!

If you’re in the mood for something a little easier, try making some simple popsicle recipes and take them outside to eat!

9. Play a few classic childhood games.

How many classic games can you remember from your childhood?

I remember playing hopscotch, keep away, four square, freeze tag, dodgeball, and duck duck goose. (I learned most of those in elementary P.E. class.)

Kids don’t get a chance to play as many of these games now as we did growing up. But our kids have loved learning to play them all.

Actually, I think I might have had a little more fun playing those games with them than they did.

10. Slow it down.

And, finally, when you’re planning your fun summer, remember to slow it down as much as you can.

Overscheduling makes for a miserable break and that’s the opposite of what we want for our kids.

To help with planning a fun, relaxed summer, try this printable Slow Summer Bingo activity board!

It has several activities that are low-prep and perfect for spending time with the kids over the summer.

Plus, there’s a pretty summer-themed wall art printable you can hang on the wall!

To get your free copy of this Slow Summer Bingo Activity board and wall art, click the image or the link below to have it sent directly to your inbox!

You’ll also get our weekly newsletter – coming this Sunday!

>>> Slow Summer Bingo Activity <<<

Don’t miss these other fun summer ideas for kids!

This fun confetti ocean slime recipe is perfect for summer sensory play!

This simple paper bee craft is a fun way to make an easy spring or summer craft with kids!

Keep learning all summer with this list of 40 at home summer learning activities for kids!

Easy Science and Math Ideas with Family Fun Friday!

July 2, 2015 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

Are you trying to keep your kids interested in learning over summer break? Last week’s edition of Family Fun Friday featured some easy science and math ideas for kids that I wanted to spotlight today!

Don’t forget to scroll on down and read this week’s newest parenting, homeschooling, and cooking posts!


Monica created Family Fun Friday and blogs at HappyandBlessedHome.com where she shares free preschool tools and printables, encouraging words for moms, and ideas for having fun together as a family. Follow: Blog / Facebook / Pinterest / Twitter /Google + / Bloglovin’/ Instagram. Monica will feature Family Fun Posts.

Selena is a homeschooling graduate and a veteran homeschooling mom to four super special kids. She blogs at Look! We’re Learning! about unit studies, foreign language, and homeschooling with ADHD. Follow: Blog / Facebook / Pinterest / Instagram / Twitter. Selena will be featuring homeschooling and kids’ crafts.


Herchel enjoys blogging about parenting, organizing, crafting, and having good old-fashioned kid fun her blog Scrggbug Corner. Follow: Blog / Facebook / Pinterest / Twitter /Google +. Herchel will feature organizing and family fun.

Here are my favorite posts for this week!

1. If your kids like simple science experiments, they’ll love this one from Planet Smarty: A 5-minute Molecule Attraction Experiment!

2. Research Parent shares a free printable you can use to explore the Relative Sizes of Planets in our solar system!

3. Kim from Life Over C’s shares how you can Use Beads as Math Manipulatives – perfect for little hands!

4. Shark Week is coming up! Brain Power Boy shares a roundup of fun Shark Activities to do with your kids!

5. Grab a set of free Animal Number Puzzles for Kids from Totschooling!

6. And for another early math printable, stop by Life Over C’s to get your Printable Bird Counting Play Dough Mats!

Were you featured? Grab the Family Fun Friday button below!

Stop by to see what my co-hosts are spotlighting this week!

Bloggers are invited to share their best family-friendly and mom-inspiring posts in the link-up below.

Link guidelines:

Link your post.
Link back to the link party.
Follow your host(s).
Spread the word. Share and pin your favorites.
Mingle! Bloggers love comments.
Grab a button.
If you link up, you permit the hosts of Family Fun Friday to use your pictures/ideas as part of future posts and/or social media.

Exploring Mexico for Kids with Pack-n-Go Girls Books

June 23, 2015 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

Hi everyone! This week our Laugh and Learn linky is going global! We’re sharing a review of one of the entries in the Pack-n-Go Girls Books: “Mystery of the Disappearing Dolphin.” We decided to use the book as a springboard to exploring Mexico for kids!

As you might know, Tina and her family live in Mexico, so be sure to head over to her blog Los Gringos Logos (listed below) if you want to learn even more about the country. 😉

In addition, we’ve all chosen our favorite posts from last week’s linky. Read the features and then check out the newest parenting and homeschooling posts below!

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Exploring Mexico for Kids

When I read the description of the Pack-n-Go Girls book series, I knew it would be a great fit for Tigger. She loves to read, she loves learning about world cultures, and she really loves books with female characters. Win-win-win! 🙂

Naturally, we started our lesson by reading the book.

I have to say: It’s a very well written book. Izzy, the lead character, is traveling on a sailboat with her mom and dad. They’re docked in Barra de Navidad, Mexico, where she’s made friends with Patti, a Mexican girl who lives nearby.

After Izzy’s uncle, who is uncomfortable with other cultures, comes to visit, the trip takes a turn for the worse, especially when Izzy is accused of stealing a handmade glass dolphin from the local market. We talked about the value and beauty of handmade items with the kids. Coincidentally, a dear friend of ours just returned from Mexico last week and brought our kids some handmade toys.

Aren’t they gorgeous? I’m seriously considering placing them on the mantle and never letting them play with them all. 🙂

After reading the book, we gathered around the computer to learn even more about Mexico and dolphins.

We took a virtual tour of La Merced, the famous outdoor market in Mexico City, so the kids could get a look at the huge variety of things that are available for sale.

Then we watched this video showing pictures of Barra de Navidad. Unlike Izzy’s uncle, I don’t think I’d ever complain if I had the chance to visit. It looks absolutely beautiful.

Finally, we watched a very interesting video from National Geographic Live about the way dolphins communicate with one another. Scientists are discovering that they have very advanced methods for cooperating and feeding. It’s a little advanced for younger kids, but you can definitely watch pieces and look at the pictures. (That’s pretty much what we did…lol.)

Finally, we headed to the table to draw pictures of dolphins based on the pictures we saw. It was a great lesson, an adorable book, and a wonderful way to begin exploring Mexico for kids!

To learn even more about Pack-n-Go Girls and support the Kickstarter campaign (Open through June 25), click the image below! 🙂

Now for the linky!

Welcome to our 38th week of Laugh and Learn – Homeschool and Parenting Linkup!
Laugh and Learn – Homeschool and Parenting Linkup will be open by 6 am every Tuesday morning. We will pick our five favorite posts and feature them on the following weeks linkup. Be sure to link your best content and maybe we will pick you! When you link your post with us it will be featured on five blogs.

We pin our favorites to a special Pinterest board for #laughlearnlinkup – homeschool and parenting posts. Check the board out here: #LaughLearnLinkup {Featured Favorites}. It’s added exposure for your awesome content!

Your Fabulous Hosts 😉

Tina

Tina lives abroad in Latin America with her husband and four children. Currently in Mexico, Tina is active in homeschool, travel, and her Bible ministry. She blogs about all of their adventures and more at Los Gringos Locos.
Find Tina at her blog link above, and on the following social media networks:
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Google +
Linkedin
Tsu

Selena

Selena is a writer and a homeschooling mom to four kids, including three with ADHD/SPD. Selena and her husband, Jay, are committed to teaching their children at home and loving every minute of it! You can read about the family’s homeschooling experiences at Look! We’re Learning, written by Selena!
Find Selena at her blog link above, and on the following social media networks:
Facebook
Pinterest
Twitter
Google +
Instagram

Sarah

Sarah lives in Kentucky, USA, where she and her husband homeschool three children. Sarah writes for and about, families with special needs. She hopes to provide support and encouragement to all special needs parents in the homeschool community. Visit Sarah at Dedicated Homeschooler.
Find Sarah at her blog link above, and on the following social media networks:
Facebook
Instagram

Haley

Haley hopes to encourage stay at home moms. She wants to help moms learn how to make an extra income, to stretch a budget, to make crafts, and other useful information. Haley always has updates on the kids and funny things that happen. Visit Haley at Haley’s Vintage Finds & Deals.
Find Haley at her blog link above, and on the following social media networks:
Pinterest
Instagram
Facebook
Twitter

Lindsey

Lindsey is a joyful mother, happy homeschooler, scatterbrained housewife, and passionate blogger. She writes about the joys and challenges of home educating, conscientious parenting, and “loving the simple life”. Get inspired with Lindsey at Simply LindseyLoo.

Find Lindsey at her blog link above, and on the following social media networks:
Facebook
Twitter
Google+
Instagram
Pinterest

Our Favorite Posts for the Week of June 22th:

Hands-on Homeschooling: Outdoor Language Arts Games

Reduce Screen Time With These 3 Easy Steps

10 Tips on How to Paint to Music

PRE-HOMESCHOOL YEAR PLANNING CHECKLIST – 7 STEP HOMESCHOOL PLANNER

PATIENCE, CONFIDENCE, KNOWING ALL THE ANSWERS – NOT REQUIRED TO HOMESCHOOL

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5 Things That Make ADHD Homeschooling Easier

June 22, 2015 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

I’ve been sharing about my decision to return to homeschooling this fall after enrolling my kids in public school for a few months last school year. One of the major reasons why I decided to take a homeschooling break was because I was burned out. Three of our kids have ADHD, as do I, and keeping everyone on task (including me) was becoming a challenge. It was time to take a break.

But now that things have settled back down, I’m planning for how I can make this upcoming school year our best (and most relaxed one) yet. And so today, I’m sharing five things that make ADHD homeschooling easier!

By the way, this is one of those posts that contains great advice that I really need to take myself. So if I ever write about being burned out again, please remind me to come back and read this post. 🙂

5 Things that Make ADHD Homeschooling Easier

1. Math Manipulatives

Tigger is not a math fan. But when we use math manipulatives, she enjoys it much, much more. That means taking math off the textbook page and making it interactive.

We use both Unifix Cubes and Counting Bears to help our kids visualize their math problems while learning. We’ve also used a literary approach with resources such as Life of Fred and Arithmetic Village to make the problems more of a “visual” exercise for her.

2. Flash Cards

Flash cards are a huge help with covering homeschooling topics with our kids. Roo, in particular, loves them because he is partial to holding items while we cover lessons.

He’s continually fidgeting, so if he can move cards around by flipping them, matching them, or using them for memory drills, he learns critical terms and pictures much faster. (See all of our free printable flashcards available here in the store!)

3. Music

All of our kids love to dance, so we use music pretty often. We take dance breaks in between lessons and when we clean up the house, we play music to encourage them to relax.

Personally, when I have trouble focusing on a task for our homeschool, such as planning lessons or organizing my resources, I use Focus @ Will. It’s an online streaming music service that plays instrumental tracks according to the mood you select. They even have a channel for ADHD, and it works wonders for my concentration.

4. Educational Games

Another big part of making learning interesting for my kids with ADHD is to use educational games. I try to pick games that are either short on directions or short on time, which keeps my kids from getting frustrated as they learn how to play.

Stare Junior! is one of our very favorite games. It’s a game that helps kids practice observing by staring at a picture for two minutes and then trying to remember details from it. We also like BrainBox Nature, because it’s a super short game (2 minutes each round) and it’s a perfect way to break up lessons while continuing with something educational.

5. Brain Breaks

I mentioned Brain Breaks in a post I wrote over at The Homeschool Post about my favorite things about homeschooling with ADHD, but the ebook deserves another shout out here. Brain Breaks are great for helping our kids “let off steam”.

They get to choose their own activity and then complete it in a short round. Plus, there are lots of activities to choose from, so they never get bored with their choices.

For even more helpful suggestions for homeschooling with ADHD, see our series 31 Days of ADHD Homeschooling to get tips, suggestions, and ideas for your family!

This post is part of the “Things My Homeschool Couldn’t Do Without” linkup from iHomeschool Network! Click on over to read even more fabulous posts by our fellow homeschooling bloggers!