Read on to see what we’re giving away, how you can enter to win, and what our fellow bloggers are giving away this year!

This year, we decided to go with an art and drawing theme. Coloring books for adults are all the rage right now, so we’re offering quite a few coloring books with designs intricate enough to keep Mom and Dad entertained!

There are also a couple of drawing books by Ed Emberley and some advanced coloring books for kids!

This gift basket includes the following:

• The Big Purple Drawing Book by Ed Emberley
• GeoDesigns
• Aboriginal Mosaics Coloring Book
• Ed Emberley’s Complete FunPrint Drawing Book
• Linear Modern Patterns Coloring Book
• PrismDesigns
• DesignScapes
• Animals Color Counts Color by Number

Note: All of the books will be shipped in a USPS box (minus the basket) to the winning entrant.

To enter to win all these awesome art and drawing books, use the Giveaway Tools widget below!

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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.

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.

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.

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!

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While that strategy works for me as an individual, it does not work for me as a homeschooling mom. And it doesn’t work very well for my kids, either. I firmly believe that my tendency to structure every aspect of my life led to my burnout last fall, which resulted in The Great Homeschool Public School Experiment.

Now that we’ve returned to homeschooling, I’ve learned something very valuable: Relaxed homeschooling is a beautiful thing, even for uptight moms.

Image: jolopes / Dollar Photo Club

Why Relaxed Homeschooling Was So Hard for Me

First, I have to say that the idea of relaxed homeschooling was not new to me. We’ve always been eclectic homeschoolers, so we follow bits and pieces of several philosophies, including Charlotte Mason, workbooks, and unit studies.

However, even though I pieced my curriculum together from several sources, I still tended to follow an extremely structured schedule with my kids. The idea of “letting go and letting them learn” was something that I just couldn’t bring myself to do.

I worried that my kids wouldn’t learn enough. I worried that I wouldn’t do enough with them. And I worried that they would lose appreciation for what they learned.

Why I Wanted to Try Relaxed Homeschooling

Watching my children adjust to the increased workload of public school, though, made it very clear that a structured, heavily scheduled approach is not always best for children. Instead of feeling driven to excel, my kids were exhausted, irritable, and overwhelmed. While they enjoyed some of their lessons, they only had a few moments to appreciate them before rushing off to the next subject or preparing for an upcoming standardized test.

I decided that, when we got the chance to homeschool again, I would make sure they could learn and breathe at the same time. And now that they’re home, we’re learning in a much more relaxed way.

What I’ve Learned from Relaxed Homeschooling

Rather than scheduling times for lessons, I just set a broad goal for that day and we go from there. We also explore our read-alouds together and expand on whatever is mentioned in the book. In our Pack-n-Go Girls review last week, discussing the story led to an exploration of Mexico and dolphins – all of which stemmed from just reading a book together!

Interestingly, now that we’ve taken a more relaxed approach, I’ve observed that my kids are learning more now than they did before. They’re less stressed and, as a result, they remember what we cover much easier. And I’ve learned that I enjoy our lessons more, which helps me remain consistent far better than having my planned schedule nag me to begin teaching.

I’ll probably still be planning our homeschool year this month, but I’m looking forward to implementing it without the pressure of meeting a set learning goal or covering a certain number of pages. If we can all enjoy our lessons together, that’ll be a learning win for the day.

Do you take a relaxed homeschooling approach? How do you cover your lessons each day? Share your experiences in the comments!

This post is part of the “What Mommy Learned in Homeschool This Year” linkup from iHomeschoolNetwork! Stop by to see what our fellow homeschool bloggers learned this year!

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

Look at that fabric. It’s so, so pretty. I couldn’t bear the thought of cutting it for a long, long time. (It’s a DwellStudio remnant that I got on clearance at Jo-Ann, which meant it was probably discontinued.) But, as it turned out, I didn’t need to cut much of it anyway. This one is for the girls’ room, by the way.

Here’s the fabric for the boys’ curtains. I got this from IKEA. In fact, one of the main reasons I FINALLY got around to sewing it was that I was afraid it would look too babyish for the boys if I waited much longer…lol.

I used the seam allowance of our old curtains as the basis for these. The old curtains had an opening of 3″ at the top to allow for the curtain rod. I measured 3″ from the top and marked it with a washable marker.

I used a 1″ seam allowance at the bottom, so I folded it twice over to make a 1/2″ hem. This was also the same measurement as the old set of curtains, but I wanted these to be longer, so I left about 18 inches more at the bottom before hemming.

Then I folded the top opening 1/2″ under and sewed it closed.

The boys’ fabric was a bit thinner than home decor weight, so I decided to back it with the original curtain.

Since the top of the curtain was already finished, I just tucked it under the fold for the top opening and then sewed both panels closed.

And we’re done!

This was really a very simple project and I kicked myself for waiting so long to get started. For even more home decor ideas, check out our “Taking Care of Home” board on Pinterest!

Follow Selena @ Look! We’re Learning!’s board Taking Care of Home on Pinterest.

This post is part of the “Pinterest Flips and Flops: Summer” linkup from iHomeschool Network! Click on over to read about the summer projects our fellow bloggers are up to this year!

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Hi everyone! We’re linking up with another great iHomeschool Network hop to share the best Pinterest boards for learning foreign languages! Browse through the boards below to find some great pinners to follow for foreign language resources!

Follow Curriculum Choice’s board Foreign Language on Pinterest.

Curriculum Choice: Foreign Language

Follow Angie | RealLifeAtHome.com’s board Homeschool – Foreign Language on Pinterest.

Real Life at Home: Homeschool Foreign Language

Follow Selena @ Look! We’re Learning!’s board American Sign Language Lessons on Pinterest.

Look! We’re Learning!: American Sign Language Lessons

Follow Ticia Adventures in Mommydom’s board languages on Pinterest.

Adventures in Mommydom: Languages

Follow Karyn ~ Teach Beside Me’s board Foreign Language Learning for Kids on Pinterest.

Teach Beside Me: Foreign Language Learning for Kids

Follow Eva Varga’s board Snakker du norske? on Pinterest.

Eva Varga: Snakker du Norske

Follow Eva Varga’s board Nihao。你好。 on Pinterest.

Eva Varga: Nihao

Follow Eva Varga’s board Sí Se Puede on Pinterest.

Eva Varga: Si Se Puede

Follow Amy T @ Are We There Yet?’s board Homeschool – Foreign Language on Pinterest.

Are We There Yet?: Homeschool Foreign Language

Follow Selena @ Look! We’re Learning!’s board Foreign Language for Homeschoolers on Pinterest.

Look! We’re Learning!: Foreign Language for Homeschoolers

If you have any foreign language boards on Pinterest you follow, let us know about them in the comments!

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So…today I’m sharing my ultimate guide to foreign language lessons for kids! We already use ASL as a family and I’m currently learning Spanish, but both Jay and I are interested in several other languages. We plan on using these links to learn right along with our little ones next year!

Foreign Language Lessons for Kids

Chillola – Chillola offers basic words in several foreign languages, including German, Spanish, French, and Italian. To read the phrases in each language, just choose which one you’d like to learn, then scroll down to see them grouped by category.

Mango Languages – If your local library system participates in Mango Languages, then you have access to this resource absolutely free! Mango Languages offers structured online foreign language lessons for kids and adults in over 60 tongues! Sixty!

DuoLingo – DuoLingo, which is available both online and as an app, is an excellent foreign language resource for kids, because the lessons are very short. Since users have to listen and respond regularly, it’s almost impossible to get bored using it – a huge plus for learners with ADHD.

BBC Languages – There are 40 languages featured on the BBC Languages website, and the courses are very, very thorough with quizzes, videos, and pronunciation. It’s geared more toward older teens and adults, but you can still use it to introduce foreign language vocabulary to kids.

LiveMocha – LiveMocha offers free online foreign language lessons, resources, and conversation with native speakers. 35 languages are available.

Open Culture Free Language Lessons – This is an enormous list of free online foreign language resources with links for lots of languages, including Arabic, Lithuanian, Swahili, and Turkish. Links include free courses, printable foreign language lessons, and iTunes lectures. Most of these are geared toward middle grades, teens, and young adults.

Our fellow iHN blogger Angie Kauffman of Many Little Blessings and The Homeschool Classroom has written extensively about how to teach foreign language to kids. Here are a few of her resources about general foreign language lessons:

Fun Activities for Teaching a Foreign Language – There are plenty of great suggestions here for how to make foreign language learning fun for kids. Rather than sitting at a desk, you might want to try some of these suggestions, including read-alouds and dramatic play to teach foreign language.

Methods for Teaching a Foreign Language to Your Child – At Many Little Blessings, Angie shares tips about using movies, songs, and places to introduce kids to foreign language.

American Sign Language Lessons for Kids

Lifeprint – Created by Dr. Bill Vicars, Lifeprint is the premier online ASL resource. It’s completely free and it’s comprehensive. A good place to start is with the 100 Basic ASL signs section, because it covers several of the common ASL words and terms kids need to learn.

KidCourses ASL – This site has several free ASL printable worksheets, including cut and paste activities, coloring pages, and fingerspelling handouts.

Signing Time – Our kids used to enjoy watching Signing Time on television, and this is the show’s official website. Most of their products are available for a fee, but there are ASL songs and printables that you can view for free.

Signing Savvy – Signing Savvy is a massive online ASL dictionary. There are over 7,000 signs listed, and the website offers multiple signs for just about every term. That’s very helpful, because you’ll find that all deaf people do not use the same signs.

Sign Language for Dummies – Despite the name, this is a very smartly-designed website, and there are great resources for ASL kids lessons. There are even pictures of kids demonstrating signs. I use those as coloring sheets sometimes with young kids who are learning ASL.

ASL Video Lesson Series – Of course, we’re doing an ASL video lesson series of our own! You can view past tutorials on the blog or subscribe to our YouTube channel for more ASL vocabulary.

A few more great ASL resources from Angie Kauffman’s The Homeschool Classroom, courtesy of guest blogger Megan Spires:

Teaching American Sign Language to Children – A good place to start using ASL with kids is by teaching them the alphabet. There are excellent suggestions in this post for using the ASL alphabet in activities around the house.

5 Fun Activities for Teaching American Sign Language – ASL is a picture language, so learning it should be lots of fun for kids! This post offers some great tips to keep ASL fun, such as scavenger hunts, games, and field trips!

7 Creative Ways to Teach American Sign Language – While ASL was designed as a method of communication for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, it’s a great language for anyone to learn! In this ost, Megan explains how to include ASL in your everyday life with the kids.

Latin Lessons for Kids

Several of my fellow iHN bloggers have written great tips about teaching Latin for homeschoolers!

Visual Latin – Tricia Hodges, who blogs at Hodgepodge and The Curriculum Choice, shares her review of Visual Latin – a program that includes both free Latin lessons for kids and a deluxe program available for purchase.

Race to the Colosseum Latin Game – Pam Barnhill has created a board game for learning Latin called “Race to the Colosseum” that looks like so much fun! It would be perfect for young students or active learners, who need a little encouragement getting excited about Latin. You can learn more about the game and how to buy it on Pam’s blog Everyday Snapshots.

Song School Latin – Amy Maze features one of her favorite resources for teaching Latin to kids: Song School. Latin is a major component of the classical homeschooling method, so if you’re considering pursuing that style of teaching, you may want to visit Amy’s blog Living and Learning at Home to learn more about classical education and the Trivium.

Studying Latin in Elementary School – Angie Kauffman shares a post from Jen at Forever, For Always, No Matter What about how you can overcome early obstacles to teaching Latin in elementary grades.

Latin for the Average Mom – What if you don’t know Latin yourself? (Like me…lol) This is a great post about how you can implement a Latin education in your homeschool and learn it yourself in the process.

French Lessons for Kids

Little Explorers French Dictionary – Part of the Enchanted Learning website, the Little Explorers dictionary offers English-French words for all 26 letters of the alphabet. You can also print the entire PDF French dictionary if you want to use a paper version.

French Games – Instead of learning French from flashcards, the French Games website allows kids to learn through playing online French games! There are more than 100 different topics from which you can choose, including family, school, and food.

Alpha Buddies French – Alpha Buddies is the French alphabet section of DLTK, which has a ton of printable worksheets for early grades. This is a good resource for young kids who are new to French. You can print French alphabet coloring pages and let the kids color them.

Bonjour – Rocket Language operates this site, so you’ll see ads for its paid programs at the bottom of the page. But, the free introductory course is pretty good. There are sections with audio guides for French greetings, weather, and how to ask for help.

BBC French for Kids – On this site, kids can learn how to introduce themselves in French, spell in French, and use French numbers. Songs and free printable worksheets are also available for use with the program.

Resources for Studying French in Your Homeschool – 10 resources you can use to teach French in homeschool are listed in this post. As Angie Kauffman mentions, there really aren’t a lot of French resources available, so this is a great list!

Spanish Lessons for Kids

Spanish Town – The Spanish Town website features free online Spanish lessons for kids on topics such as food, time, animals, and grammar. You’ll also find free printable Spanish worksheets and videos that correspond to each lesson plan.

Language Guide: Spanish – Language Guide is a basic Spanish vocabulary resource that offers audio pronunciation guides for selected Spanish words such as greetings, articles of clothing, and food.

Word Dynamo Spanish – Part of the Word Dynamo section at Dictionary.com, the Word Dynamo Spanish area is a fun way to test Spanish vocabulary through flashcards, definitions, and crosswords. They’re grouped by topic, which is helpful, but they’re also very short activities, so they’re perfect for young learners! (I use these a lot to study for class.)

Los Opuestos Flashcards – Naturally, I can’t leave out our free Los Opuestos flashcards, which you can print and use to introduce Spanish opposite words to your kids!

Some of the iHN bloggers have written quite a bit about learning Spanish in homeschool. Here are some of the great resources they’ve shared:

Excelerate Spanish – Michelle Cannon of The Holistic Homeschooler shares a review of the Excelerate Spanish program – a multi-sensory Spanish curriculum that includes workbooks, lessons, and DVDs.

Learning Spanish at Home – Writing at The Homeschool Classroom, LaToya Edwards shares some of her favorite resources for teaching Spanish at home.

Homeschool Spanish Resources for Kids – Karyn Tripp of Teach Beside Me provides a super list of Spanish resources that are available online. She’s even included Mi Vida Loca, which is one of my personal favorites. It’s geared toward older teens and adults, and it sends you on a mission that allows you to learn Spanish along the way.

Speekee Spanish – In this post, Karyn reviews Speekee Spanish, an online Spanish video tutorial series for kids. The program carries a fee, but you can receive a free trial that includes access to all the videos and lessons.

Korean Lessons for Kids

Wikibooks: Basic Korean – These five Korean lessons are part of the WikiBooks project, so they’re subject to revisions. However, they are excellent (and free) introductions to the Korean alphabet, along with proper Korean pronunciation.

L-CEPS Korean – Once you’ve mastered the Korean alphabet, you may be ready to learn basic conversation in Korean. This website explains how to say greetings, common phrases, and numbers in Korean. It also contains a link to a free trial web app for learning Korean.

Linguanaut – Linguanaut is another basic Korean online tutorial resource. It features instructions in Korean greetings, Korean phrases, and “survival” phrases that you’ll need if you face a medical emergency in Korea.

Fellow iHN blogger Aadel Bussinger, who is currently living in South Korea, has experience in teaching Korean to kids and she’s shared some of her wisdom on her blog These Temporary Tents.

10 Great Apps for Learning Hangul – Aadel shares several great, inexpensive apps for learning Korean. These would be great for kinesthetic learners like Tigger!

Italki – In this post, Aadel reviews Italki, an online foreign language tutoring resource for kids that allows students to talk virtually with native speakers and work with a tutor.

Chinese Lessons for Kids

Miss Panda Chinese – Miss Panda Chinese is a Chinese program for children that features songs, videos, and a phonetic guide. If you don’t want to buy the program, you can view several of the videos and an explanation of Chinese tones and phonetics right on the website.

BBC Primary Mandarin – There are several videos and games for learning Mandarin on the BBC Primary Languages Mandarin site. Kids can learn how to talk about themselves, school, and food in Mandarin. There’s also a section about Chinese culture.

Chinese iLab – This site offers both paid Chinese lessons for kids, as well as 10 free introductory lessons about how to use Chinese tones and how to talk about basic subjects in Chinese. Each free lesson has both an mp3 file and a video slide presentation.

Semanda – If you want a simple way to introduce Chinese vocabulary to kids, you might like the free printable Chinese flashcards available from Semanda. You can choose from Chinese or Pinyin, and all of the terms include pictures and the English words to make learning easier.

Eva Varga, an iHN blogger, is teaching Mandarin to her children, even though she doesn’t speak it! She’s shared some great tips on her blog EvaVarga.net and on the webite Better Chinese.

How to Teach Mandarin – In this post, Eva explains how she teaches Mandarin in her homeschool, despite the fact that she doesn’t know the language. There are great suggestions here for Mandarin immersion through cultural experiences and conversation.

Chinese Pro – Eva reviews the iPad app Chinese Pro and how she uses to reinforce Chinese vocabulary with her kids.

Using Dubbed Movies to Learn Mandarin – Writing at Better Chinese, Eva discusses how watching dubbed movies is helping her kids to get a better grasp on Mandarin.

Whew! Those are the resources I’ve found so far, but I know there are a lot of other foreign language resources out there for kids. If you have any good ones, we’d love to hear about them in the comments!

This post is part of the Ultimate Guides linkup at iHomeschool Network! Stop by to read great in-depth learning guides from our fellow bloggers!

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