Family Life Archives

5 Tips for Positive Discipline Parenting

July 30, 2014 by Selena Robinson 25 Comments

Positive discipline is a parenting style that encourages the use of positive language and redirection when teaching children. I was very new to the idea of finding positive ways to discipline my kids, so I have truly appreciated the following five tips for using positive discipline with my kids.

When we use positive discipline, we focus on teaching our kids what to do, instead of what not to do. It’s funny, but until I started watching my language, I didn’t realize how much of my conversation with my kids was negative. “Don’t do that.” “Stop it!” “You can’t do that!” What child wants to obey a parent like that?

So – I’m sharing five of the positive discipline parenting tips I’ve appreciated today, as well as other resources for parents who want to take the negative talk out of their relationship with their kids.

Why I Love Positive Discipline Parenting

As a mom to four high-energy kids (and some with special needs), I found myself saying “NO” quite a lot. In fact, if I had a dime for every time I uttered the word “No”, I’d have a lot of dimes. While it’s good for kids to understand how to respond to “no”, using that word as the basis of your parenting can make it hard to parent with joy. I know this from experience.

The book Positive Discipline A-Z: 1001 Solutions to Everyday Parenting Problems has been extremely helpful to me. Before I read the book, I had never thought about how to reframe discipline in positive terms, so the fact that I could do so in any situation was eye-opening.

When I apply the suggestions in the book (and there are a lot of them), I feel happier and more peaceful. Knowing that I have an action plan in place to deal with behavior issues and disobedience makes it much easier to anticipate problems and deal with them before they become too much to handle.

Positive Discipline Parenting Suggestions

I’m not going to give away the whole book. With over 1,000 suggestions, I couldn’t if I wanted to. 🙂 But here are five of my favorite tips from Positive Discipline A-Z:

ADD/ADHD: “Be willing to help your child according to his or her needs based on what your child actually does as opposed to what may be expected for his or her age group or intelligence level…Do not punish your child for not being ‘normal’.”
Bedtime: “Be available during the bedtime routine…instead of trying to do ten other things. One reason children seek more attention is that they haven’t received a good dose of your full attention.”
Interrupting: “If your child has been waiting all day to play with you, when you come home from work (or are doing work from home) ignore the chores and spend fifteen minutes having fun with her or ask her to work with you.” (This works! I’ll be sharing a future post about this.)
Listening: “If you want your kids to listen more, it is important to use fewer words. Say what you mean as succinctly as possible and then follow through with actions.”
Values and manners: “Model the values you want to teach. If you want children to learn respect, be respect and respect yourself.”

Other Positive Discipline Parenting Resources:

For even more parenting tips, follow my “Parenting with Joy” board on Pinterest!

Follow Selena @ Look! We’re Learning!’s board Parenting with Joy on Pinterest.

Are you practicing positive discipline parenting with your kids? Do you have any suggestions to share? Let us know in the comments!

This post is part of the “Mama’s Best Parenting Books” Blog Hop hosted by B-Inspired Mama! Let’s face it. As moms, we barely have time to function, much less wade through a sea of parenting advice. Here you’ll find the best of the best parenting book recommendations from fellow mamas! To see even more great posts about parenting, check out the list of fabulous bloggers who are participating!

The Explosive Child (B-Inspired Mama)
Wiring Kids for Success in Life (Trilingual Mama)
The Contented Toddler Years + Routines: The Contented Little Me Says ‘Why’ (Words n Needles)
Discipline Without Distress (One Time Through)
Mom’s House, Dad’s House + Parenting Through Divorce (Lemon Lime Adventures)
Positive Discipline A-Z + 5 Tips for Positive Discipline Parenting (Look! We’re Learning!)
Real Boys (The Jenny Evolution)
Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids (Dirt & Boogers)
Smart Parenting for Smart Kids (Planet Smarty Pants)
Raising Unselfish Children in a Self-Absorbed World – A Parenting Book About Teaching Kids to Serve (This Reading Mama)
Bilingual is Better + Foreign Language for Preschoolers (Camilla and Roman)
Awakening Children’s Minds and Raising the Emotionally Intelligent Child – Emotionally Intelligent Parenting (Line Upon Line Learning)
Potty Training in a Weekend (Words n Needles)
The Out-of-Sync Child – The Ultimate Sensory Processing Disorder Resource (Sensory Activities for Kids)
12 MORE Books for Moms (Teach Beside Me)

DIY Bedroom Curtains for Kids’ Rooms

July 28, 2014 by Selena Robinson 12 Comments

Confession time: I am a fabric hoarder. I bought several yards of home decor fabric a couple of years ago with the intention of making DIY bedroom curtains for the kids’ rooms and…the fabric just sat there and sat there. Part of me was afraid that I’d mess up the fabric and I’d never be able to find it again and then part of me was just plain old lazy. 🙂

But I found a really simple DIY bedroom curtains tutorial on Pinterest and that helped me get my sew-jo back!

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Saying Goodbye to Baby Shoes

July 22, 2014 by Selena Robinson 13 Comments

Piglet is 19 months old now and we are certain that our baby days are over. (I mean, everyone’s sharing a room, so yeah.) And I have to say that I am completely surprised by how difficult it’s been to get rid of her last pair of baby shoes.

These little shoes have been sitting by our garage door for the last two months. Two months. I’m supposed to put them in a bag and take them to the clothing collection box, but I just can’t seem to do it.

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Homeschool Planning with Kids Underfoot

July 9, 2014 by Selena Robinson 37 Comments

It’s that time of year! Time for everyone to break out their homeschool planning ideas! School year planning is probably one of the most exciting times for me personally. I get to look at my kids’ progress over the years, feel sad about how much they’ve grown (sniff), and get excited about what we’ll learn in the upcoming months.

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Sister Bonding Ideas: Sisters Spa Day!

May 29, 2014 by Selena Robinson 6 Comments

There’s an eight-year age gap between Tigger (our oldest girl) and Piglet (our youngest girl). But we’re determined to help them form a close relationship through sister bonding ideas and experiences. My brother and I are 10 years apart and we’ve always been close, so I know that a large age difference doesn’t stand in the way of a sibling bond.

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5 Atlanta Staycation Ideas for Families

May 19, 2014 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

In the past, we’ve always tried to go on a summer vacation with our kids.

This year, though, we’re making the best of our home city with a few fun Atlanta staycation ideas for families!

More and more families are saving money by taking “staycations” rather than vacations.

If you’re unfamiliar with a “staycation”, it’s just when you use your vacation time to explore your own city instead of a different one.

You save money because you don’t need to drive to a new area, stay in a hotel, or eat out every night. Great idea, right?

Five Fun Atlanta Staycation Ideas for Families

But here’s the thing about staycations: They can become expensive really quickly if you try to visit the most popular attractions in your area.

This particularly true if you have several children (as we do). So this year, we decided to take not just a staycation, but an affordable one.

Read on to get our list of five places to go on a staycation in Atlanta. Plus, get a free printable Staycation Bingo challenge to complete with your family!

Looking for more ways to plan family trips? Take a look at our list of 10 helpful tips for traveling with kids!

Plan a fun family summer with these five Atlanta staycation ideas for families!

5 Fun Atlanta Staycation Ideas for Families

1. Zoo Atlanta

Zoo Atlanta is about half an hour from our house and we love visiting it with the kids.

Our public library system has an arrangement that allows a family of four to visit the zoo once a year for free.

Since we have four kids, we only had to pay for two tickets. Not bad at all!

One of the reasons we love the zoo so much is that it’s a non-stimulating attraction.

When we see the animals, we’re excited but we’re not overly stimulated. It’s a much more relaxing time for our family than visiting an amusement park.

2. Atlanta Area State Parks

As the weather warmed up, we decided to use another of our Atlanta staycation ideas and visit some nearby state parks that we’d never visited before.

Tallulah Gorge was incredible. We drove for a couple of hours and it was totally worth it.

The kids had snow cones, we went on a hike, and we learned about the North Georgia mountains.

Another one of our favorites is High Falls State Park. It’s only about 30 minutes outside of the city of Atlanta.

But you can hike right next to the waterfalls! We couldn’t stop staring at how pretty they were.

Plus, we got to ride the paddleboat along the water.

3. Callaway Gardens

Technically speaking, Callaway Gardens is not in Atlanta. It’s about 90 minutes west.

But if you like the outdoors and flowers, in particular, this is one of the local Atlanta staycation ideas you simply have to try.

A word: If you go to Callaway Gardens, spring is absolutely the best time of year to plan a trip.

Visiting Callaway Gardens on an Atlanta Staycation

Everything is in bloom and the entire park looks like a paradise.

See what I mean? It’s absolutely gorgeous.

4. Go bowling.

I have to admit: I didn’t bowl often as a child. I think I might have gone two or three times.

But we took the kids bowling one summer and they had an absolute blast.

With the Kids Bowl Free program, kids can bowl up to two games free per day over the summer at participating alleys.

And it’s a cool way to beat the summer heat in an air-conditioned space.

During the day, bowling alleys tend to be pretty quiet. So you may not even have to worry about wait times.

Finish off the afternoon with a slushy and that’s basically a perfect summer day.

5. Southeastern Railway Museum

A few summers ago, we got to visit the Southeastern Railway Museum – just outside of Atlanta.

I didn’t think that the kids would find it interesting. But they did!

Visiting the Southeastern Railway Museum

We toured vintage locomotives (which are much bigger than they seem on screen).

Visiting the Southeastern Railway Museum on a Staycation

We checked out vintage tour buses. Then we got to see a video about how train engines came to America back in the 19th century.

Southeastern Railway Museum Field Trip with Kids

And we finished with a ride aboard a vintage steamer!

It was affordable and surprisingly interesting for all of us.

Printable Family Staycation Bingo Challenge

So if you’re in the North Georgia area, those are five fun Atlanta staycation ideas you can try as a family this summer.

But, no matter where you live, you can still plan a simple and fun summer staycation with this printable Staycation Bingo challenge!

There are 32 ideas here – 16 for adults or couples and 16 for families with kids!

Some of the ideas include indoor fun such as making slime, trying a scavenger hunt, and reading books.

But there are plenty of outdoor ideas too! Like going camping, taking an art class, or having a picnic in the park.

Hang the kids’ challenge on your fridge and let the kids check off each idea as you try it!

To get your copy of this Family Staycation Bingo Challenge free, click the image or the link below to have it sent directly to your inbox!

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

>>> Printable Family Staycation Bingo <<<

What are you all doing for your family vacation this year? Are you considering a staycation? Have you done one before?

If you live in Atlanta, do you have any more fun Atlanta staycation ideas to suggest? Share your plans and experiences in the comments!

This post is part of the “Summer Staycation” hop from iHomeschool Network! Click on over to see how our fellow bloggers are spending their summers at home!

How to Reuse Old Candle Jars

April 28, 2014 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Do you have a bunch of old candle jars just sitting around the house? Turns out – you can actually get some use out of them after your candles melt!

We had several candle jars that we’d already used, but the jars were so well made that I hated to throw them out. Pinterest to the rescue again! I found a great tutorial on how to reuse old candle jars from A Homemakers Journey and got to work.

I was pretty skeptical that the method described would work. I mean, look at these things. They look like they’ll never be any good again.

But I followed the instructions carefully, which included heating them to melt the wax.

After I got the wax out, I washed them thoroughly.

Gasp! They look like actual glasses!

And that’s what I got! I ended up with three glasses. In fact, those two larger glasses are basically tumblers.

The largest candle jar became a manicure in a jar gift for Tigger. 🙂

And the teeny jar got repurposed into a paper clip holder. By the way, this whole process took me about 30 minutes. Not bad at all!

So if you like buying candles, now you’ve got another reason to go get some more! 🙂

This post is part of the Spring Pinterest Flips and Flops linkup from iHomeschoolNetwork! Click on over to see some of the Pinterest fails and successes our fellow bloggers are sharing!

Seasonal Skirts: My Favorite Modest Skirts for Spring

April 23, 2014 by Selena Robinson 3 Comments

Hi everyone! This year, we’re sharing in a new quarterly linkup called “Seasonal Skirts: A Guide to Feminine Dress Throughout the Year!” I’m excited to share in this linkup with 10 other bloggers, including Dusty at To the Moon and Back, Erin at For Him and My Family, Laura at Raising Soldiers 4 Christ, Kyndra at Sticks, Stones, and Chicken Bones, Mrs. Warde at Sceleratus Classical Academy, Cynthia at Cynce’s Place, Melissa at Life Off the Paved Road, Dawnita at Fogleman Forerunner, Hilary at Our Homeschool Studio, and Annette at In All You Do!

This month, we’re focusing on our favorite modest skirts for spring. Now, I don’t wear skirts exclusively. In fact, I own quite a few pairs of Old Navy jeans. 🙂 However, we spend so much time in our Bible education work that I end up wearing skirts on most days.

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How I Juggle Going to College and Homeschooling My Kids

April 21, 2014 by Selena Robinson 27 Comments

Good morning! College finals are fast approaching, so I took last week off from blogging to catch up on some of my last assignments for this semester. Now that I’m nearly a full year into my “back to school” experience, I thought I’d share some of the pointers I’ve picked up about how to homeschool while going back to college. Spoiler: It’s hard. 🙂

1. Insist on a regular schedule.

You’ll need at least two schedules: one for your kids’ lessons and another for your own. It’s really difficult, but it’s essential that you keep the kids on their regular homeschooling schedule. Otherwise, you’ll finish the semester and then realize that you have to do double lessons for a month to catch up on math (like I have to do with Tigger in May).

As for organizing my classes – I have an enormous binder that I use for my classes with sections for each subject and a stack of weekly planning pages in the front. At the beginning of the semester, I look through every class schedule and then write the due dates for my assignments in my planner pages. I usually do this during the first week of class before the really heavy assignments start.

I’m usually very organized at the beginning of the semester, but after spring break, it’s all downhill and I’m barely functioning by finals. That’s when the organizing I did early in the semester ends up saving me. Seeing what assignments are due several weeks in advance helps me avoid having to work on them all at once.

2. Enlist the help of your spouse.

I’ve written before about why we need supportive homeschooling spouses, and going back to college has just underscored how much I need the help of my husband. There have been many, many school days that he’s taught for me so I could go study. He has no problem cooking dinner or getting the kids ready for bed when I need to cram for a test or attend a school function.

In order for our spouses to help us out, though, we have to communicate with them. Jay and I have had several long conversations, especially this past semester, about how we can make adjustments to our schooling schedule while I’m in class. After finals, we’ll be sitting down again to see how I can revise my course load in the fall so that we can get back to learning more as a family.

3. Be flexible.

This is probably the most important tip I’ve learned about trying to go to college while homeschooling my kids. I’ve had to be open to trying new approaches almost every week. One of the choices I made was to take classes online, since that was the most flexible way for me to get my school work done.

Btw, if you are considering going back to college, I highly recommend distance learning. It’s convenient, easy to use, and adaptable for moms who are already busy during the day.

Another big part of being flexible is prioritizing. I have several interests that have had to take a backseat, especially during this past semester, including knitting, sewing, traveling, and (occasionally) blogging. But that’s life. We always have to shuffle our priorities to make sure that we’re taking care of the “more important things.” (Phil. 1:10)

I’ve even had to let go of my attempt to maintain a 4.0 GPA. In the past, I’ve done extra credit and additional assignments to make sure that my grades were perfect. As I’ve gotten older, though, I’ve learned that it’s more important to be reasonable than right. I hope that’s something I can teach my kids as well.

So, those are a few of the things I’ve learned while juggling homeschooling and going back to college! Are any of you back in school? Are you thinking about it? We’d love to hear your tips or suggestions in the comments!

This post is part of the “How Homeschool Moms Juggle” linkup at iHomeschoolNetwork! Click on over and read how our fellow bloggers juggle homeschooling and their other responsibilities such as housework, caring for a new baby, and working outside the home!

The Real Sacrifice of Motherhood

April 10, 2014 by Selena Robinson 15 Comments

I haven’t shared a personal post on here in quite a while, so I thought I’d let you all know about something that’s been on my heart lately.

When I hear people speak about motherhood and/or homeschooling, one of the words I hear the most is “sacrifice”. Quite often, I’ve heard people mention some of these sacrifices, which could include giving up a career (for some mothers), accepting the physical changes in your body (for most mothers), and sharing your time everyday (for every single mother on earth).

If you’re homeschooling, you’ll have even more sacrifices, which might involve living on a smaller income, learning to teach subjects in which you did not excel as a student, and adapting to the learning needs of your children.

But there’s another sacrifice that I’m having to make as a mother: I have to give up my feelings. Now I don’t mean my feelings about my kids, of course. But I’m having to let go of how I feel about a lot of other things so that I have room for my feelings toward my kids to grow.

Here’s what I’ve discovered about the real sacrifice of motherhood.

The Real Sacrifice of Motherhood

Before I had kids, I used to have an opinion about nearly everything under the sun.

Did that celebrity have plastic surgery?

Should the U.S. Individual Income Tax code be changed?

Is it impolite when someone holds the door open and no one says “Thank you?” (Yes, it is, by the way.)

I voiced these opinions to almost everyone I could find and I’d muster up some pretty strong emotions about all of these topics and others.

It wasn’t just small things like these, either. I had some pretty strong opinions about things that have happened in my life. I was angry about the injustices I’d experienced. I was frustrated, because so many issues had gone unresolved. And I was sad that I missed out on developing long-lasting friendships during my youth.

As I get closer to my kids, though, I’m finding that there is just no room for these feelings to continue taking up space in my heart. I’m at a point where I can either love my kids or hold onto to all those other feelings. And it’s no contest. My kids win.

Psalm 62:8 says “Trust in him at all times, O people. Pour out your hearts before him. God is a refuge for us.” (New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures) I’ve decided to take that counsel seriously and deposit all of my unresolved feelings with Jehovah God in prayer. I know that He wants me to be the best mother I can be, and I know that He will support me if I’m willing to make this sacrifice for my children.

So, that’s where I am today. But I’d love to know what sacrifices you’ve made to become mothers and/or homeschooling mothers. Feel free share your experiences below.

2014 Blogger Planner, Calendar, and Menu Planner from Mama Miss

Helping Kids to Choose Good Friends

February 14, 2014 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

It all began when we sat down to have lunch as a family a few weeks ago. We decided to let the kids choose their own fruit for an after-lunch snack. Roo chose a banana, Tigger chose an apple, and Pooh chose a clementine.

We had purchased a crate of clementines a couple of weeks earlier, and there was one left. But it had sat in the crate for a few days, so Jay and I were a little skeptical about it still being good. Pooh insisted it was still good to eat, so we said okay.

As he peeled it, he said, “See? It’s still good, Dad!” And sure enough, it looked good.

But when he pulled it open, he found this at the very center.

As you can see, he didn’t think it was so good to eat then.

Jay decided to use the opportunity to talk about why it’s so important that we look at the inside qualities of our friends before we assume that they’re good people, simply because they look good on the outside.

After we discussed the importance of being selective about choosing friends, we watched the video “What’s a Real Friend” to learn which qualities we should look for in our friends. Most importantly, we want to have friends who will “stick closer than a brother”. (Proverbs 18:24) As the video showed, it’s important for kids not to just choose good friends, but to be good friends to others by taking a “personal interest” in them. (Philippians 2:4)

So, a regular midday meal turned in an impromptu lesson on friendship. But that’s the homeschooling life for you! 🙂

How do you help your kids to choose good friends and be good friends to others? Let us know in the comments!

Happily Homemade: Super Simple Fleece Blankets

February 5, 2014 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Good morning! Hope you’re all having a great week so far! Today, I thought I’d share a really simple DIY fleece blanket that’s perfect for sewing newbies!

To make these, you really only need two pieces of fleece and some thread. That’s it. You can make your blankets as large as you want, just be sure to include at least an inch all around for seam allowance.

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How I Teach Fine Arts to My Kids with ADHD

January 17, 2014 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

This post contains affiliate links. See our Disclosure Policy here.

It’s Friday and that means it’s time for the final post of our winter hopscotch on ADHD Learning! We’re ending the week with a look at how we teach fine arts to our kids with ADHD. If you’ve been following along for the past few days, you probably already know what’s coming: unit studies, activity, and field trips. 🙂

Kids Art Activities

I cannot say enough about the value of letting kids experience art at an early age. I didn’t really paint or draw or use clay much as a child and, as a result, I didn’t think much about having our kids do so either. I would buy art supplies, but then they would just sit there because I didn’t want to deal with the mess of cleaning it up afterward. Eventually Jay said “Just put down newspaper and then teach them to clean up.” Problem solved.

Now it’s true that playing with Play-Doh or making flour clay does not qualify as “fine art”, but I feel like fine artists all started somewhere and that kids can always get structured art lessons as they get older. We don’t want to make them feel that “fine art” is something that is out of their reach, so we encourage them to explore art mediums and experiences whenever we can.

One way we encourage the kids to experiment with art is to paint with various items. We’ve used finger paint, paint brushes, and even kitchen sponges to create art. It’s been interesting for them (and us) to see that art can be made into anything with just about anything!

Unit Studies

Yes, unit studies are making yet another appearance here…lol. When we cover a unit, we attempt to include at least one artistic activity – such as painting, drawing, coloring, or music. We got the chance to focus on transportation activities last summer and we created train wall art with pastels as a family. That idea was sparked by something we liked on Pinterest, so don’t discount the Internet when it comes to art inspiration!

Field Trips

Looking at the work of other artists is a superb way to help children (and adults) appreciate the power and flexibility of fine arts. It’s fascinating for them to see that, unlike many other subjects, fine arts can serve as an expression of anything. There are no rules to it at all, which makes it a great diversion from our more structured subjects.

At the same time, we notice and appreciate the skill levels of accomplished artists who dedicate themselves to improving their craft. It’s an interesting balance between freedom and discipline, which makes it a good metaphor for kids who want the independence of adulthood with the security of childhood. (We’re entering that phase with Tigger now.)

When we visited the High Museum of Art last spring, Tigger was surprised to find out that art is subjective – it’s open to just about any interpretation. Several times during the tour, she’d turn to Jay and I and ask us what a painting or sculpture meant. Nearly every time, we’d reply by asking her “What do you think it means?” She’d think about it and then guess. We were happy to see her trying to observe and think about the works herself, which helped to keep her attention on the tour.

Now that the kids are getting older, we’re looking to add more structured art lessons to our curriculum. So we picked up The Usborne Complete Book of Art Ideas from Amazon. Look for us to share our experiences with it soon!

The Usborne Complete Book of Art Ideas (Usborne Art Ideas)

We hope you’ve enjoyed this series on how we approach language arts, math, science, history, and fine arts for our children who have ADHD! If you have any questions or comments, we’d love to hear them below!

This post is part of the 2014 Winter Hopscotch hosted by iHomeschool Network! Be sure to stop by and visit our fellow bloggers to learn how they teach fine arts in their families!

How I Teach History to My Kids with ADHD

January 16, 2014 by Selena Robinson 3 Comments

This post contains affiliate links. See our Disclosure Policy here.

Hey y’all! It’s the fourth day of our ADHD Learning series and we’re on to how we teach history for our kids with ADHD! Have you noticed that we’ve been using the words: movement, unit studies, and books a lot? Well, they’re back again today. 🙂

History Timelines

We’ve been eclectic homeschoolers for several years now, which means we take bits and pieces from several homeschooling philosophies. Strictly speaking, history timelines are generally a classical homeschooling method, because they stem from a sequential approach to learning history – that is, you learn everything in the order it happened.

I actually love the classical history approach and we’ve used it fairly often with our kids. Whenever we cover a topic or an area of the world, we proceed in order and we make a timeline. We did a timeline in our study of Nelson Mandela to help the kids understand the events in his life. We also did an African kingdom history timeline in our African History series last year. Even Roo got involved in completing it!

History Unit Studies

As with our other subjects, we try to incorporate history into our unit studies whenever possible. If the subject is a person, we look at his or her early life and career before we get into their famous accomplishments. If we’re covering an area, we try to examine the history of the region as a basis to understanding the particular events or people in it.

We’ve been covering the Living History series on the blog for the past few months and we’ve gotten to know a few famous musicians better by completing history units about their lives. We try to include a children’s book about the artist and then we create our own biography and activity pack for the kids to complete. If you’d like to see an example of our history unit studies, check out our Dizzy Gillespie printable mini-unit! We read the book “Dizzy” and then listened to his music while we completed the unit. The phrase “Salt Peanuts” became quite popular in our house for a while. 🙂

Dizzy by Jonah Winter

Field Trips

It’s easy for history to become very dull for kids, especially those who prefer to move around while learning. We’ve attempted to avoid this by getting our kids out to look at historical exhibits, rather than just listening to us talk about past events. As we learned about the history of slavery, we took a trip to the APEX Museum in Atlanta. Tigger, in particular, was interested to see that slavery really happened and that even children were affected. It definitely helped her relate to our lesson much easier.

During a recent trip to the Atlanta History Center, the kids got to learn more about the history of northern Georgia. They even got to walk through a 19th-century cabin and see what life was like on an 1800s farm for themselves! They talked about that trip for several days afterward. 🙂

During our fall hopscotch, we held a 10-day series on African History for Kids that highlighted African empires, events, and movements. True to our unit study approach, we included books, crafts, cooking, and history in each lesson. Feel free to take a look and let us know what you think!

That wraps up our look at teaching history to kids with ADHD! We’ll be ending the series tomorrow with an overview of how we cover fine arts in our homeschool. We hope to “see” you here then!

This post is part of the 2014 Winter Hopscotch hosted by iHomeschool Network! Be sure to stop by and visit our fellow bloggers to learn how they teach history in their families!

How I Teach Science to My Kids with ADHD

January 15, 2014 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

This post contains affiliate links. See our Disclosure Policy here.

Happy Wednesday, y’all! We’re back with another look at how we teach our kids with ADHD – this time we’re focusing on the teaching methods we use to cover science.

Unit Studies

If you haven’t noticed yet, I’m basically a fanatic about unit studies. 🙂 We’ve completed several together and we’ve found them to be great ways to help the kids connect science concepts with other subjects. For an example, check out our unit study based on the movie The Aristocats. We managed to include geography, history, art, and biology in that one!

Experiments

Nothing makes active and kinesthetic learners happier than movement and we try to make that a constant in science class. One of the best ways to do this is by simple experiments. And I’ve found out that they don’t have to be outlandish experiments either. Plain old baking soda volcanoes will do just fine…lol.

Nature Study

Whenever it’s possible, we try to take science class outdoors with a Charlotte Mason technique called nature study. As the name implies, you spend time studying science in the nature around your home. The idea of doing nature study was pretty overwhelming to me at first, so I was thrilled to try a simple program called Nature Study Printables for Toddlers and Preschoolers with Pooh and Roo a while back. We simply completed the activities and let the kids record their own observations. It was a big hit!

Interactive Work

This one, I have to say, was all my husband’s idea. When he covers science lessons with the kids that are from a textbook, he literally gets the words off the page by making the diagrams into interactive work. The picture above is one he drew from a diagram of the brain. As he covered the different parts of the brain and their functions, the kids found the matching labels and glued them in place. It was definitely a great way to help them understand the lesson. Just another reason why I’m thankful for a supportive homeschooling spouse!

Field Trips

I would venture to say that our kids’ favorite way to learn science is by going on field trips. We’ve gotten to explore some great places, including aquariums, museums, and nature trails. One of the highlights of last year was a trip we took to Callaway Gardens. The kids got to learn about birds of prey, exotic plants, and butterflies without sitting at a desk!

During a recent trip to Zoo Atlanta, we introduced several other scientific concepts, such as taxonomy, reproduction, and ecosystems. Plus, it made for great family bonding time. 😉

That’s our approach to science! We hope to see you back tomorrow when we talk about history for kids with ADHD!

This post is part of the 2014 Winter Hopscotch hosted by iHomeschool Network! Be sure to stop by and visit our fellow bloggers to learn how they teach science in their families!

How I Teach Math to My Kids with ADHD

January 14, 2014 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

This post contains affiliate links. See our Disclosure Policy here.

Hi everyone! We’re on to Day 2 of our Winter Hopscotch and we’re continuing with our theme of ADHD learning with a look at how we teach math in an ADHD-friendly way. Like with all of our subjects, we find that short lessons, movement, and multi-sensory learning are critical to helping our kids follow along and retain what they hear. Here are a few of the methods we use for teaching math in our homeschool.

Anchor Charts

I’ve previously shared a post about my love for anchor charts, but they deserve another shoutout here. I’m a bit of a type A personality, so making detailed charts and graphs is right up my alley…lol. But we find them to be great for the kids, since they make it easy for them to visualize abstract concepts, especially those involving math. We used the above anchor chart to introduce Tigger to multiplication last year and it was much easier for her to grasp when she could see it represented visually.

Math Curriculum

We don’t use packaged curriculum often, but math is a subject where we definitely find it best to follow a structured program. Tigger struggles with confidence in math and she tends to rush through concepts without taking her time to work through the steps or check her work thoroughly. Working with her on computer math software seems to help her become more involved in the process, so that she’s less likely to rush through it to get to something she’d rather be doing.

This year, we’ve been using A+ TutorSoft Math – both the printed version and the software – and we like the program a lot. It’s a very simple, uncluttered way to present facts without overwhelming her with too much information at once. The individual lessons are short, which keeps her from getting too intimidated to begin.

If you’d like to get a look at A+ TutorSoft Math programs for kids, you can visit the website by clicking the image above. You can even get a month-long trial of the online math program for homeschoolers absolutely free! If you decide to subscribe, be sure to use the coupon code LOOKWERE to save 20 percent! You can also pick up downloadable copies of A+ TutorSoft Math curriculum on Currclick.com!

A while back, we got a chance to try out K5 Learning, a supplemental online math and language program for kids. Tigger thoroughly enjoyed that program as well. It organized the math lessons into themed adventures that did such a good job of keeping her interested she forgot she was even doing schoolwork. 🙂

You can grab a free 14-day trial of K5 Learning by clicking the link above!

Math Storybooks

As I mentioned yesterday, we love to read in our family! We keep that thread going with books and stories that involve mathematics as well. Arithmetic Village offers a very nice set of downloadable math storybooks that is absolutely free! We reviewed them a while back and our kids just loved reading the stories and learning how to multiply and divide! Even Roo, our four-year-old ended up doing a division problem on the board after reading the stories. 🙂

Math Manipulatives

We also make use of math manipulatives with our children. Counting bears, Unifix cubes, and snap cubes are all useful for giving active kids a way to “see” the math problem and involve their sense of touch during the lesson. All of our kids, even Tigger, prefer to use manipulatives as they work on problems.

Unifix Cubes (100 count)

Baby Bear Counters (102 ct.)

We also put together a short video a while back about how we specifically focus on third grade math for Tigger, which you’re more than welcome to view below!

And that’s how we teach math in our homeschool! We’ll be covering science tomorrow, so feel free to come back and see how we approach science with our active learners!

This post is part of the 2014 Winter Hopscotch hosted by iHomeschool Network! Be sure to stop by and visit our fellow bloggers to learn how they teach math in their families!

How I Teach Language Arts to My Kids with ADHD

January 13, 2014 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

This post contains affiliate links. See our Disclosure Policy here.

Good morning! Today we’re beginning a five-day series on teaching school to kids with ADHD. As you might know, we’re homeschooling at least one child with ADHD (and possibly more), so we try to accommodate their learning styles throughout our lessons.

In fact, one of the biggest reasons why we stick with homeschooling is that we don’t want to use ADHD medication (yet), so we really work to adapt our curriculum to make it more ADHD-friendly. That means short lessons, variety, and lots and lots of movement. Throughout this series, we’ll be mentioning those three factors again and again.

Regular Reading

A big part of our language arts curriculum is reading. We read to and with our kids every day. We’ve shared our homeschool reading list for this year previously. Our 9-year-old, who has been diagnosed with ADHD, began reading at age 3. Our boys, ages 5 and 4, are also reading, though they started a little later than her.

Honestly, we haven’t used many structured reading programs with our children, at least not to get them started reading. We do, however, use some reading programs to help them improve their skills.

Phonics Practice

One program we’ve used this year is Reading the Alphabet, which we reviewed a while back. It’s a great, affordable program that lets kids practice phonics while completing lots of sight word activities, which makes it perfect for ADHD learners! You can pick up the entire program for just $10 below!

Reading the Alphabet Early Reading Program

Visiting the Library

Another way that we try to make reading fun for the kids is by regular visits to the library. All of the kids love going inside, picking out their own books, and bringing them home. In fact, on occasion, we’ve gotten to attend live storytelling sessions, such as an African storytelling performance we got to experience a while back.

Hearing books read aloud with feeling and movement seems to help the kids get involved in the stories and “see” the events as real life, not just words on a page. When we engage more than one sense with our kids, they seem to stay interested for a longer period of time. (A big issue for most people with ADHD)

Physical Movement

As I mentioned earlier, movement is a big part of our homeschooling lessons. With Roo, we did a Sight Word Stomp activity last summer that involved reading, running, and writing with sidewalk chalk. It was a huge hit! But really, any time we can add a physical activity into a lesson, we find that the kids remember it better.

Unit Studies

Unit studies are a huge part of our homeschooling lessons. And a big reason why we love them so much is that they are perfect opportunities to add art, crafts, music, movies, and play into our curriculum. When we cover a chapter book on our reading list, we turn it into a unit study that involves a craft project, a movie (if possible), and some food. We did something like this with our Charlie and the Chocolate Factory unit from earlier this school year.

Games and TV

On a day when a structured language arts lesson just isn’t cutting it, we are not above resorting to games. We’ve used MadLibs to teach parts of speech and the kids were so excited to come up with outlandish verbs, adjectives, and nouns that they forgot we were having class!

Super Silly Mad Libs Junior

Kid Libs (Mad Libs)

We also love to use songs and television programs to reinforce language arts skills. Our three oldest kids have memorized several of the grammar songs from SchoolHouse Rock and we use them to remind them of their essential grammar concepts. One of their favorites is the “Verb Song”. (I have been known to sing along to this one myself.)

Schoolhouse Rock! (Special 30th Anniversary Edition)

And that’s a look at how we teach language arts to our kids with ADHD! With these and other resources, we manage to keep them interested and engaged in our lessons, which is a big help to their comprehension. Be sure to stop by tomorrow to see how we teach math to our ADHD learners!

This post is part of the 2014 Winter Hopscotch hosted by iHomeschool Network! Be sure to stop by and visit our fellow bloggers to learn how they teach language arts in their families!

Vegan Crockpot Rigatoni

January 6, 2014 by Selena Robinson 3 Comments

Good morning everybody! It’s super dee duper cold here (for Georgia, that is), so it’s time to break out the trusty crockpot! We’re linking up with iHomeschool Network to share one of our favorite crockpot recipes for winter: Vegan Crockpot Rigatoni!

Even if you’re not vegan (which we’re not at the moment), this is a quick and delicious recipe that our family loves. I mean, I toss five ingredients into the slow cooker at around 2:00 and then we have a hot dinner at 6:00 p.m. It couldn’t be easier!

Yes, this recipe only has five ingredients. And they’re all kid-friendly! So there’s no “Ewwww!!! I don’t like this!” at the dinner table.

Plus, this is an easy recipe to customize. If you don’t like mushrooms, swap them for something else or leave them out. Prefer to use meat? Replace the vegan tofurky with ground beef. It’s really easy to make this into something your family will love!

If this is a family favorite, add our easy chocolate chip butterscotch cake mix cookies for a simple dessert!

Vegan Crockpot Rigatoni

We got the original recipe from the book Fix-It and Forget-It: Feasting with Your Slow Cooker, which I later gave away (like an idiot). Fortunately, the whole recipe is posted at Food.com. We’ve adapted the recipe to make a meat and dairy-free version below.

Yes, there are only five ingredients in this dish. (This is probably one of the reasons why I love it so.)

You’ll need:

16 oz. box of rigatoni

4 oz. Daiya mozzarella-style shreds

12 oz. Tofurky ground beef style

24 oz. spaghetti sauce (any brand is fine)

2 – 6 oz. cans mushroom stems and pieces

Cook the pasta according to the package directions, then drain it. Spray the inside of your slow cooker with nonstick spray. (You’ll be glad you did this later.) I usually turn my slow cooker on low heat when I put the pasta in the water.

Layer the ingredients in the slow cooker in this order:

1/2 of the spaghetti sauce

1/2 of the cooked pasta

1/2 of the ground Tofurky

1 can of mushroom stems and pieces

Repeat all of the layers a second time. I’m using a five-quart slow cooker here and it nearly fills it up, so you probably don’t want to try making this much with a smaller size slow cooker. If you have a smaller model, be sure to reduce the quantities of your ingredients.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and let everything cook on low for about 2 1/2 or 3 hours.

Since we’re using vegan “cheese”, we didn’t add it until the end. It’s not as firm as dairy cheese, so it takes very little time to melt it. By the time we were ready to add the “cheese” to the top, our dish was looking like this and smelling wonderful.

Sprinkle 1/2 of the Daiya mozzarella-style shreds over the top. Be sure you cover the entire surface with cheese. Replace the lid and cook for another 30 to 45 minutes.

Let’s take a look at how everything cooked underneath…

Oh my. That’s simply marvelous.

We dished it up and we served it and all the kids had seconds! If you want to round it out, you could easily add rolls and a salad for a full meal.

Full instructions and a printable recipe are below!

5 from 1 vote

Vegan Crockpot Rigatoni

Adapted from recipe at http://www.food.com/recipe/crock-pot-rigatoni-60703

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 4 hours

Total Time 4 hours 5 minutes

Servings 8

Ingredients

16 oz . rigatoni
24 oz . spaghetti sauce (any brand is fine)
12 oz . Tofurky ground beef style
2 - 6 oz . cans mushroom stems and pieces
4 oz . Daiya mozzarella-style shreds

Instructions

Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Spray the inside of the slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray. Turn the slow cooker on to low heat.
Layer half of all the ingredients, except the Daiya mozzarella-style shreds, in the slow cooker in the following order: spaghetti sauce, cooked rigatoni, ground Tofurky, and mushroom pieces. Repeat with the other half of each ingredient. Cook on low for 2 to 3 hours.
Sprinkle the Daiya mozzarella-style shreds over the top. Continue cooking on low for 30 to 45 minutes. Serve.

If you’d like even more great slow cooker meals, check out the Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook! (Affiliate link provided below.)

Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook: Feasting with Your Slow Cooker

Don’t miss these other easy recipes!

This post is part of the Crockpot Meals linkup from iHomeschoolNetwork! Be sure to stop by and visit our fellow bloggers for some great winter crockpot recipes!

For more simple family dinners, check out my Family Meals board on Pinterest!

Visiting the Atlanta History Center

November 19, 2013 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

Good morning! We got a chance to visit the Atlanta History Center a few weeks back and we’re sharing pictures from our trip with you all today!

Every year, there are special Atlanta History Center homeschool days where homeschooling families can enter for a discounted rate. To begin the year, though, the museum held a Homeschool Open House day when admission was absolutely free! This was the first year that we were able to attend and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit!

Since the museum is in Georgia, a lot of the historical exhibits relate directly to Georgia history and the development of the city of Atlanta. This display shows the typical dress of a Cherokee Indian during the 1830s. I had no idea that many Cherokees had assimilated colonial styles of dress in those days.

An actual millstone from an 1800s flour mill. That thing was enormous.

There were a lot of carriage and automotive companies in and around Atlanta in the 19th and 20th centuries. Here’s a life-sized reconstruction of a carriage from the John M. Smith Carriage Company.

One of the coolest things in the center, to me, was the Dixon-King Shotgun House. It’s an actual 1800s house that has been relocated and reassembled within the history center. They kept the original furniture and restored the interior.

A look at the house’s bedroom.

Typical Georgian high society fashion from the 1800s. I think I’d wear that floral dress today.

The biggest issue when you visit a museum with kids is keeping their hands off the exhibits. I really appreciated that the Atlanta History Center has specific items that are clearly marked for kids to touch. It gives them a chance to interact with the exhibits and it allows them to touch something, so that they won’t be tempted to grab everything they see.

An actual fire engine from the 1800s.

An entire exhibit at the center focused on the modern development of the city of Atlanta. There were pictures and models of several city landmarks. This is a picture of the High Museum of Art at night.

Replicas of native Indian handiwork from the 1800s. Northern Georgia was home to both the Cherokee and the Creek Indian tribes – both of which were forcibly removed along the Trail of Tears.

Outside the center, there are a couple of historical houses that have been restored. They keep sheep at one of them, just the way that farmers would have done in the 1800s.

We got the chance to examine this loom inside the Smith Family Farm house. (My inner crafter gave a little shout for joy at seeing an actual loom in person.)

After spending several hours at the center, we still didn’t see everything that was on display. We’ll definitely have to make another visit soon!

Free Online Chess Lessons for Kids

October 10, 2013 by Selena Robinson 4 Comments

Did you know that October 9 is National Chess Day? I had no idea until this past Monday. But better late than never, right?

We’ve been talking about teaching the kids how to play chess for some time, but we’ve just never gotten around to it. A big part of the problem is that we don’t know how to play chess either! (That’s pretty important if you’re going to teach it to someone else.)

The Internet is just great, though. Rather than having to hunt down someone we know who can play chess, we can learn just by using several great websites that feature online chess lessons. Here is a roundup of some of the free online chess lessons for kids we’ve found on the Internet!

Free Online Chess Lessons for Kids

ChessKid – This site is perfect for young chess learners. The graphics are kid-friendly and the site has a basic chess lesson page that is full of helpful illustrations and directions. Kids and parents can work together by reading articles, completing chess puzzles, and watching chess video tutorials.
Activity Village – Don’t have a chessboard? We don’t either! But this site has a free printable chess board with printable “pieces” to help kids get used to navigating the board right away! We’ll be printing these out to get started until we get around to buying a set of our own.
The Chess Website – This site is more geared to older kids and adults, but it’s full of resources for chess newbies and those who are already familiar with the game. A few sections require membership, but most, including online chess practice, chess strategy lessons, and chess opening tutorials are available to the public.
Chess Magnet School – If you’d like a visual walkthrough of basic chess rules as you play, this site is perfect. When you enter this site, which is available through the U.S. Chess Federation, you can run a Java-powered tutorial that explains the rules and allows you to make moves yourself.
U.S. Chess Federation – Once you understand the game, you’ll have to play by the rules if you want to become a serious chess player. The U.S. Chess Federation website offers a great explanation of basic chess rules and decorum, which are required at most matches.

Chess Books and Games for Kids:

Want even more ideas for teaching chess to kids? Try these kid-friendly chess games and books!

1. No Stress Chess Game – Winning Moves

2. Chess for Children: How to Play the World’s Most Popular Board Game – Murray Chandler

3. Chess Teacher Game – Cardinal Industries

4. The Kids’ Book of Chess and Chess Set – Harvey Kidder

5. Chess for Kids – Michael Basman

We’ll be trying these resources out with the kids in the coming weeks! If you decide to try these or any other chess lesson websites, let us know how it goes in the comments!

How I Teach Third Grade Math to My Child with ADHD

October 9, 2013 by Selena Robinson 5 Comments

This post contains affiliate links. See our Disclosure Policy here.

Hi everyone! This morning we’re sharing our method for teaching math to our third grader with ADHD.

It’s no secret that getting active kids to settle down for school is a challenge. The wonderful thing about homeschooling is that we have the flexibility to adapt our lessons to our kids, rather than having to change our kids to fit the lessons.Keep Reading…