Good morning everyone! This week, the ladies of iHN will be holding a live G+ iHN Weekly Homeschool Hangout on the topic Organizing Your Homeschool. As I’m sure you all know, homeschool organization is always a hot topic.Keep Reading…

Early Learning. Happy Teaching.
Good morning everyone! This week, the ladies of iHN will be holding a live G+ iHN Weekly Homeschool Hangout on the topic Organizing Your Homeschool. As I’m sure you all know, homeschool organization is always a hot topic.Keep Reading…
Hi everyone! Thanks for stopping by to see us again! Today we’re sharing some of our must-have homeschooling items for teaching several children.
As you well know, we have four kids – three of whom are homeschooling now. To make lesson planning and teaching easier, we make charts for key concepts in a specific grade level and then we use those as the basis for our lessons.
Since Tigger is dealing with ADHD, we’ve found that using anchor charts helps her to pay attention, grasp key concepts, and remember them.
One of the best advantages of using anchor charts is that they are very economical for teaching several children. We can make a series of anchor charts for Tigger’s grade level and then save them for our younger kids as they get older. That way, we can just reuse the same charts again and save lots of time on lesson planning!
(We’ve shared our experiences in using anchor charts for multiplication and rounding previously.)
Here are a few of the anchor charts we’ve used or plan to use with our kids:
Before you heap praise on me for these, I have to tell you that I got all of these ideas from anchor charts I saw on Pinterest. If you’d like to see some of the charts we’ve especially liked, follow our Anchor Chart Ideas board!
To learn more about why we like anchor charts and how we use them in our homeschool, check out our YouTube video below!
Pacon 74733 Colored Chart Tablets, Ruled, Spiralbound, 24″ x 32″, Assorted Colors
Sanford Mr. Sketch Assorted Scent Markers 12 Pack
This post is part of the Must Have Homeschooling Items linkup from iHomeschoolNetwork! Click on over to read about the must have homeschooling items of our fellow bloggers!
If you’ve ever mentioned the word homeschooling in public, you’ve probably heard at least one person express concern about “socialization”. True, these well-meaning individuals may not use the actual word, but they probably say things like this:
“Don’t they need to be around some other children their own age?”
“They need to get away from Mommy and Daddy and see what it’s really like out there.”
“If you don’t let them to get used to other kids, they’re not going to know how to talk to people.”
“You’re sheltering them from the real world by keeping them at home with you.”
It can be tempting to respond to these concerns with a snarky answer. Maybe something like “You spent time around other children and you clearly don’t know how to talk to people yet.” (Okay, that might be just MY personal fantasy response.) But there’s a hint of truth behind those statements.
All children need socialization, including homeschoolers. Interestingly, the definition of the word “socialize” is “to make social; especially, to fit or train for a social environment”. The difference for homeschooling families is in how we choose to provide training that for them.
Yes, Homeschoolers Need Socialization
I’ve heard some homeschooling parents argue that children don’t need socialization with other children at all. They might say that kids get plenty of socialization by talking to their neighbors and acquaintances through the course of the day. Speaking as a homeschooling graduate, I have to respectfully disagree with that sentiment.
I was taught at home from the age of 11 until graduation and I spent quite a bit of time talking with adults on a regular basis. In fact, I eventually became more comfortable with adults than I was with my peers. That’s fine in itself. The problem came, though, when I attended the first day of college. I took one step into the Student Lounge and nearly had a panic attack. I hadn’t been around a large group of people my own age in years and it was a terrifying experience. So I do believe that homeschooled children need socialization with all kinds of people: adults, older kids, younger kids, and their peers. Talking to the cashier at the grocery store just isn’t going to cut it.
Creating Socialization Opportunities Outside the Home
How do we find ways to get our children out and around during the course of homeschooling? Simple. Make it part of the school day. Check out the activity calendar for any local attractions in your area and make it a point to visit on days that are set aside for children or homeschoolers. We’ve gotten to attend museum days and public storytelling events around our area and our kids have enjoyed being out and around others. We also belong to an active homeschooling group that arranges park days, support meet-ups, and field trips.
During these activities, the kids have learned some valuable things they can’t at home – how to stand in line, how to sit quietly in a group (even when others are talking), how to speak up to ask for assistance when needed, and how to listen despite distractions. These are important skills that they’ll need throughout life.
Encouraging Socialization Inside the Family
Of course, all this time training our children to interact with other people won’t be worth a thing if they can’t interact well with each other. Good socialization habits begin in the home and, as parents, it’s our job to help our kids learn how to treat one another with respect, settle disputes, and show concern. Our two oldest children, Tigger and Pooh, have gotten into several spats over the years. He looks up to her, but doesn’t really want her to know it. She wants his approval, but tries to keep that a secret. It’s a never-ending saga.
Jay caught on to the pattern between the two of them early on and he’s worked with them constantly, trying to help them speak to each other honestly and with kindness. As a result, the daily squabbles have dwindled down to a couple times a week. We’re confident that, with time and training based on Bible principles, their relationship will become stronger. (We fully expect a similar dynamic between Roo and Piglet in the future, though.)
Solving the socialization dilemma doesn’t mean separating our kids from society and it doesn’t mean dropping them off into a group of their peers without preparation. We can do it by making opportunities to train them for social activities. And all that takes is being an involved homeschooling parent.
This post is part of the “Homeschooling and the S-Word (Socialization)” linkup at iHomeschool Network! Click over to read great posts about homeschooling and socialization from our fellow bloggers!
Earlier this month, I shared some pictures of my favorite homeschool planner. In that post, I mentioned that I have to write my schedule in pencil, because I change it so frequently. Well, it’s two weeks later and I’ve already overhauled it once. 🙂 I go through this every year, because it’s one thing to put a schedule down on paper and another to actually try it.
So…without further ado, here’s our homeschool schedule for 2013-14 (for now):
8:00 am – P.E.
8:30 am – Breakfast
9:00 am – Math
9:30 am – Reading
10:00 am – Language
10:30 am – History
11:30 am – Geography
12:00 pm – Break for lunch and play
2:00 pm – Homework and unfinished projects
8:00 am – P.E.
8:30 am – Breakfast
9:00 am – Math
9:30 am – Reading
10:00 am – Spelling/Handwriting
10:30 am – Science
11:30 am – Art
12:00 pm – Break for lunch and play
2:00 pm – Homework and unfinished projects
*By the way, my husband drew this on the board. I can’t draw like this to save my life.*
8:00 am – P.E.
8:30 am – Breakfast
9:00 am – Math
9:30 am – Reading
10:00 am – Language
10:30 am – History
11:30 am – Spanish
12:00 pm – Break for lunch and play
2:00 pm – Homework and unfinished projects
8:00 am – P.E.
8:30 am – Breakfast
9:00 am – Math
9:30 am – Reading
10:00 am – Spelling/Handwriting
10:30 am – Science
11:30 am – American Sign Language
12:00 pm – Break for lunch and play
2:00 pm – Homework and unfinished projects
As you can see, we have the same basic routine on Monday/Thursday and Tuesday/Friday. The only change is the 11:30 am topic. We only have “school” four days a week, because we use a loose year-round schedule. By the time noon comes around, our kids are pretty wired and it’s best to get as much as we can done before lunchtime.
After the 11:30 am class, the boys are finished for the day. Tigger gets a break to give her some time to move around and relax. If we have any work from the morning that’s still in progress or if she has homework to complete, we’ll begin working on those at 2:00.
How do you schedule your homeschooling days? Do you have to make adjustments to your schedule during the year? Do you even bother with a schedule at all? Let us know in the comments!
This post is part of the iHomeschool Network “Not Back to School” Blog Hop! Visit our fellow bloggers and link up your own posts by clicking the image below!
Back to school means first day of school pictures! I still find it hard to believe that these kids are big enough for 3rd grade, kindergarten, and pre-K, but they are!
We printed these adorable First Day of School Printable Cards from Three Dinosaurs.
Roo’s first year of school! He’s so excited about learning to read!
Pooh’s first year of actual schoolwork. He’s more excited about looking like he’s “doing school” than anything else.
Tigger’s an old pro by now. She’s excited about learning American history and science this year.
Every year, we try to get the kids something new. We were superbly broke this year, so they just got new notebooks. The great thing about kids, though, is that they love just about anything as long as it’s new. The boys were thrilled to have real notebooks, instead of tot writing paper. Tigger got her very first binder with a few Lisa Frank folders.
And one final shot with their backpacks. As you can see, Pooh is really into this “I’m cool” phase. I’d like to say it’ll pass soon, but I think we may have another 10 years or so of that stage.
This post is part of the iHomeschool Network “Not Back to School” Blog Hop! Visit our fellow bloggers and link up your own posts by clicking the image below!
Good morning! It’s another new week here at Look! We’re Learning! and we’re ready to get started!
I’m fully engulfed in the “back to school” spirit and I’ve been sharing our homeschool plans for this year recently. Last week, we featured our homeschool curriculum choices for 3rd, K, and PK. Today we’re sharing pictures of our homeschool room for this year.
We don’t really have a dedicated homeschool room (as much as I wish we did). So we have to make do with what we have, right? 🙂
As you can see, our homeschool room doubles as our dining room. If you’ve seen our previous post about homeschooling in a small space, then you already know our basic setup. We did make a few changes this year, though.
We’re keeping our reward coupon system this year, but we’re going to make a few changes to it. We’re not exactly sure what our basis for handing our Play Bucks will be yet. I’m leaning toward adapting it to their schoolwork, but we’re undecided for now.
One thing we did decide on was the need for a better daily schedule. We’ll be sharing our detailed schedule in a couple of weeks, but we’ve already instituted a simple picture schedule to give the kids a heads-up on what we’re doing each day.
To make it, I just downloaded the free workbox tags from Homeschool Creations and then laminated them and added velcro. That way, we can just add and remove subjects based on what we’re doing that day.
The long wall in the room houses our picture world map, our chalkboard, our fruitage of the spirit “tree”, and a beautiful piece of artwork we picked up recently.
Isn’t that beautiful? We bought it at the Liberated Minds Homeschool Expo. The title is “Plant Da Seeds And They Will Grow” and it’s by an artist named Jah Peeps. I love how the “tree of knowledge” is supplemented with books about topics such as love, wisdom, and truth.
Those are several of the core values we try to instill in our children. It was very moving to me that, when the children receive that kind of foundation, they feel comfortable in life – just like the picture shows.
Here’s a close-up view of our picture world map. We love this map because it’s full of pictures that automatically capture the kids’ interest. They ask questions on their own: “What’s that animal?” “What’s that building?” It gives us a simple way to stir up enthusiasm for geography.
I still keep all of our books for the year in a crate next to the bookshelf. These are the same books we featured in our homeschool curriculum post for last week, along with our first read-aloud. Can you guess what it is by looking at the author? (We’ll be sharing our reading list soon.)
One change we made was to designate one wall as our themed chart space. We’ll be rotating out charts through the year that relate to the topics we cover.
Fractions are coming up soon.
As is a discussion on the properties of light.
We still keep most of our supplies in our bookcase. Our basic homeschool tools (binding machine, laminator, and pencil sharpener) are right on top.
The top shelf holds dry erase markers, chalkboard erasers, pencils, pens, and some art supplies. We also have most of the books in the Core Knowledge Series and my trusty homeschool binder. The second row is where we keep individual workboxes that we’ll be using off and on during the year and a basket with several of the Children’s Busy Books. (Look for us to share some of our activities from those in the future.)
The last shelf is where we keep more art supplies: paints, crayons, brushes, etc. On the right side, I keep our homeschool records in a portable filing box. We’ve never been visited by any truancy officers or school district representatives, but I like to have our documents ready in case that happens.
And that’s our homeschool space! It’s small but we make it work! We’d love to see pictures of your homeschooling rooms! Feel free to tell us about them in the comments!
This post is part of the iHomeschool Network “Not Back to School” Blog Hop! Visit our fellow bloggers and link up your own posts by clicking the image below!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year – back to school season! When I was young, back to school time was the best part of the year for me. (I am an unabashed nerd, by the way.) We’re trying to create a similar atmosphere in our home so that our kids grow to love school and learning in general.
I found this year to be one of the easiest planning years so far, since we’re using more pre-planned curriculum. Typically, we’ve been the grab-and-go type of homeschoolers, meaning that I would grab several resources and just use what I like to put together our lessons.
In 2013-14, we’ll have a 3rd grader, a kindergartner, and a preschooler, though, so time is at a premium this time around. And packaged curriculum has been a wonderful planning timesaver.
So, without further ado, our curriculum for 2013-14 is as follows: *drumroll*
We’re using West Brooke Curriculum as the core foundation of our school year with Tigger. It’s a very affordable program (around $100 for the lesson plans and books) that is based on the Core Knowledge series “What Your ____ Grader Needs to Know” and the publications from JW.org. As Christians, it’s our goal to keep the Bible before our children everyday and West Brooke Curriculum does that by including a daily lesson from the Bible.
For example, Week 1 features a lesson that includes use of the Bible Character card for Joseph and Potiphar, the Picture Activity “Joseph is Sold Into Slavery”, and Teach Your Children: “Are You Ever Jealous? Joseph’s Brothers Were”.
Here are the West Brooke Curriculum books for third grade, including the Usborne Encyclopedia of Science, Modern Day Phonics, Sequential Spelling
, and Draw Write Now Book 6
.
With West Brooke, you can choose your own math program. I decided to go with A+ TutorSoft Math and use the 3rd grade computer program along with the downloadable curriculum and workbook I got from Currclick.
The workbooks make it easy to just print what you need as you go, but I’m the kind of person that will put that off until the last minute if I don’t do it all at once. So I printed the entire workbook and put it in a binder.
P.E. is a bit of concern for us this year as well. I’ve been resistant to structured physical education for a long time, because I felt that daily playing would be enough. But our kids, especially Tigger, need a lot of work on their balance, coordination, and stamina. We got a chance to try the program Family Time Fitness a while back and we absolutely loved it!
So that’s going to be our daily P.E. Our plan is to do it four days a week before breakfast and then go on with schoolwork. We’ll be posting about our progress and hopefully we’ll all get into better shape together!
I’m not the kind of person to worry too much about structured work in kindergarten beyond basic math, reading, and writing. We’ll be reading lots of history as a family and performing basic science experiments, but as far as daily work with Pooh goes, it’ll be the three Rs. We picked up a couple of kindergarten workbooks, including Practice, Assess, Diagnose: 180 Days of Reading for Kindergarten, and we’ll be supplementing with lots of art and storybooks.
We’re even less structured with preschool, but we will try to focus on reading skills. Roo has gone over phonics and he has a basic understanding of them, but he’s not confident enough to read just yet. As a result, we’ll be trying out the program Reading the Alphabet with him to boost his confidence in his decoding skills. (Look for our review of the program in two weeks!)
*A quick note: This curriculum post does NOT include our reading list for all three grades. I’ll be sharing that in a couple of weeks.*
Have you finished planning your school year? Have you made any adjustments in our approach this year? Let us know in the comments! Keep on learning!
This post is part of the iHomeschool Network “Not Back to School” Blog Hop! Visit our fellow bloggers and link up your own posts by clicking the image below!
Yep, I said it. I’m holding my child back a grade this year. And I don’t feel bad in the least for doing it. The interesting thing is – I’m not required to do this. She didn’t fail a test that resulted in her having to repeat a grade. She’s not exceptionally behind on anything. In fact, she’s probably ahead on several subjects, especially reading and language. So, why am I choosing to repeat a grade with her?
It’s mostly because of me. Last year was a very trying one in our homeschool. My husband’s employer suddenly became extremely demanding, requiring him to work 12-hour swing shifts five or six days a week. For about three or four months straight, he actually worked more than 70 hours weekly. To make things more difficult, I was also working full-time from home. To complicate matters further, we found out we were pregnant with Piglet, who was a wonderful gift but also a completely unexpected one.
As a result, I wasn’t as prepared for the school year as I would liked to have been. Third grade is a pretty important year for kids. It’s a marked transition from the seatwork of early grades to the critical thinking requirements of upper elementary grades. I don’t feel that Tigger is as prepared as she could be to move on beyond that and I have no desire to thrust her into that situation simply to follow a certain timeline. On this matter, I’m speaking from personal experience.
When I was 11, my mom decided that it would probably be best for me to be homeschooled. I liked elementary school, but I was excited about the opportunity to learn at home on my own schedule so I was looking forward to it. I took the placement test for Calvert School and the teachers suggested that I skip sixth grade and possibly even seventh, because it appeared that I was advanced enough to do so. My mom agreed but decided that I should go ahead and take seventh grade.
That’s when I found out that a lot of important math and English skills are taught in sixth grade. I know this because when the curriculum asked me to complete a basic pre-algebra equation or to diagram a sentence, I had no idea what those concepts meant. I struggled through seventh grade and eventually finished it, but it took me two years, completely erasing any “gains” I had made by skipping sixth grade.
The good thing for Tigger is that we started her in school a year early. Based on her birthday, she would just now be going into third grade in public school as well, so she’s technically not going to be “behind.” The truth is, though, I wouldn’t mind if she was. My concern is making sure my child is prepared for what is expected of her, not turning her into a case study for gifted homeschoolers.
Have you ever thought about having your child repeat a grade? Do you even bother teaching by grades at all? I’ve love to hear what you think in the comments. Keep on learning!
Good morning everyone! Thanks for stopping by to see us today! This week we’ll be starting off a new series called “Homeschooling with ADHD.”
Tigger was diagnosed with ADHD a few months back and we’ve made the decision (so far) to continue on without medication. Interestingly, her doctor actually said that the fact that we’re homeschoolers works in her favor. Since we don’t require her to sit still for several hours per day and we work with her on an individual basis, we may not need to use medication at all. Yet another win for homeschooling!
Hi everyone! Welcome to the final installment in our series “How to Afford Homeschooling”! We hope you’ve enjoyed our posts so far! Our last topic is “Avoiding Consumerism”.
We live in a country whose economy is based on consumerism. Everywhere we turn, there are commercials and advertisements that encourage us to buy, buy, buy. But for the homeschooling family on a budget, that kind of mentality can be damaging. If we want to afford homeschooling, it’s critical that we avoid consumerism.
How can we resist the temptation to buy more and more things? Here are a few suggestions:
Prioritize
If homeschooling is the way we intend to teach our children, then it has to become an important part of our life plans. That means that homeschooling has to take precedence over other things we might also like to do. For example, I got a chance to go to England as a teenager and it was an incredible experience. I’d love to go back with my family so our kids can see it as well, but the cost of six airplane tickets is prohibitively expensive. Now that doesn’t mean we won’t EVER go, but it does mean that right now, it’s just not feasible. And that’s okay. If I have to choose between homeschooling or going to England now, I’ll choose homeschooling every time. England will always be there later. This opportunity to homeschool might not.
Recommit
We opened up this series about the need for couples to have “The Talk” when it comes to finances. But this can’t be a one-time discussion. We need to have ongoing conversations about budgeting, financial goals, and money management. When both spouses continue to commit themselves to living simply, it’s easier to avoid tempting purchases that could derail our homeschooling journey.
Focus
One of the main reasons we homeschool is so that we can spend more time with our children. Personally, I’ve found that when I’ve been drawn to buying something that we can’t afford, I’ve also been preoccupied with things other than my family. Of course, that’s going to happen at times, especially to a parent who works for a living. But, when I center my life around my family, I am far less interested in buying things. I also find that the more time I spend with my husband and our children, the more contented I feel with my life in general, which stops me from wanting more things.
Have you all dealt with the buy, buy, buy attitude? How do you keep it from invading your home and family? Let us know about it in the comments!
Keep on learning!
Related Posts:
How to Afford Homeschooling: Having “The Talk”
How to Afford Homeschooling: Finding Free Homeschool Resources
How to Afford Homeschooling: Making Friends with Your Local Library
How to Afford Homeschooling: Saving Money Around the House
Hello again and welcome to this week’s installment in our series “How to Afford Homeschooling”! We’re coming down to the end of the series and I hope you all have found something that you can use in your homes! This week we’re discussing ways to generate income in the home.
Finding a way to bring in additional income to the household is always helpful, but the problem many homeschooling moms run into is finding legitimate work at home opportunities. There are work-at-home scams plastered all across the Internet. (I know this because I fell for a couple of them a few years ago.) So, I thought I’d share a few of the legitimate websites that I’m familiar with.
*Disclosure: I am currently employed by some of these companies. I do not, however, receive a commission for referrals, so you don’t have to worry about me making the job sound better than it is. 🙂
Freelance writing work at home jobs:
LME Guides – This is the company that I work for the most. The owner is a mother of three who started the business after leaving the corporate workforce and I’ve found her to be very understanding of the time demands of homeschooling moms. The company operates five websites about topics such as pharmaceutical drugs, career information, and valid coupons for travel attractions and restauarants, among others. Writers earn monthly revenue on their work, which means that you can write articles now and earn money on them from now on. You can apply here.
Content Current – This website often has articles available for writing, but it’s usually a feast or famine situation. So there are weeks where there’s more work than you can handle and there are weeks where there’s practically nothing at all. The good thing about this company, though, is that when there is work available, it’s very simple to do. Apply here.
Textbroker – I’ve been writing for Textbroker for the last three years off and on and they consistently have assignments available. The only caveat here is that you will be asked to take a writing test when you apply and the jobs that are available to you are based on how well you do. If you’re new to web content writing, I’d advise practicing extensively before signing up. Apply here.
Pure Content – Pure Content is a UK-based content company, which means that you’ll be asked to write in UK English on some assignments. If you write well, though, they’ll send you regular assignments. They also have openings for editors. Apply here.
Non-writing work at home jobs:
Leapforce – I worked for Leapforce a few years ago and I liked it a lot. Basically, you’re evaluating the quality of websites that appear in Google search rankings. The job itself was pretty easy, but it does require following a very detailed list of evaluation standards. When I worked for them, they were paying $13.50 per hour, but I don’t know if that’s still the pay rate today. Apply here.
Lionbridge – I’ve never worked for Lionbridge, but the work is essentially the same as Leapforce. (Generally, if you’ve worked for either of these, then you can’t work for the other one.) I don’t know about their pay rate, but the last time I checked, they were still accepting applications. Apply here.
I hope you all can use these websites to find work at home opportunities! If you have any other suggestions for valid work at home jobs, feel free to post them in the comments. Come back next week for our final series installment “Avoiding Consumerism”. Keep on learning!
Related Posts:
How to Afford Homeschooling: Having “The Talk”
How to Afford Homeschooling: Finding Free Homeschool Resources
How to Afford Homeschooling: Making Friends with Your Local Library
Hi everyone! Welcome to this week’s installment in our series “How to Afford Homeschooling”! Today we’re talking about how we cook cheaply.
It’s no secret that feeding a family is really expensive, especially since prices continue to go up so often. And just when you think you’ve settled into a predictable grocery budget, the kids have a growth spurt and your food costs double. (I shudder to think how much we’ll be spending when Pooh and Roo are teenagers.) For now, though, we manage to keep our food budget at about $300 a month for two adults, one elementary-aged child, and two preschoolers. Here are some of the ways we make that happen:
Stick to a shopping list.
The night before we go shopping, I sit down with the store sale paper and base all of our meals around what meats are on sale. I write those items down and then I fill in the rest of our week’s menu with meals that I know I can make for about $5. Stir fry, spaghetti, and split pea soup are some of our regulars for dinner. Once I make the list, I total up the expected cost. At the store, I stick to exactly what’s on the list. Period.
Choose generic brands.
I grew up eating name brand foods and I was actually afraid to try generic brands for years. Surprise! They don’t kill you! Unlike what I heard from others, I can taste a difference. But, it’s certainly not a big enough difference to pay two or three times more for the same product. Naturally, buying generic means I can’t use coupons, but I end up saving more this way than I did in my couponing days.
Eat at home.
Okay, this one’s a suggestion you hear all the time, but it deserves repeating here. We used to frequent the drive thru window at a couple of fast food spots near home, because I was just too tired to cook. But, now that we plan our meals ahead of time, I know what we’re supposed to eat each day as soon as I get up. Christopher Robin is a HUGE help in this regard as well, because he’ll jump in the kitchen and cook dinner often. Which brings me to my last tip…
Involve the whole family.
We do almost all of the things on this list together. I ask for family input on the shopping list and if the kids want something we can’t afford, we tell them that it’s too expensive but we’ll find a way to make it ourselves. Now they’ve pretty much stopped asking for sweets altogether, because they know we’ll always have something they like on the menu. (They’re partial to Daddy’s chocolate chip pancakes.) We also shop for groceries as a family. A lot of times family food budgets go out the window, because spouses shop independently. But when we all go to the store together, it helps us stick with what’s on the list and get some ideas for the next trip.
These are just a few ways we save on our cooking each week. In a future post, I’ll share one of our weekly menus so you all can get a detailed look at how we feed our family on $75 per week. If you have any suggestions of your own, please share them in the comments.
Come back next week for our next post in the series: “Generating Income”! Keep on learning!
Related Posts:
How to Afford Homeschooling: Having “The Talk”
How to Afford Homeschooling: Finding Free Homeschool Resources
How to Afford Homeschooling: Making Friends with Your Local Library
How to Afford Homeschooling: Saving Money Around the House
Good morning everyone! Welcome to this week’s post in our ongoing series “How to Afford Homeschooling”. The topic for today is Saving Money Around the House.
If you’re struggling to manage a home while teaching your kids all day, I don’t have to tell you that staying on a budget is difficult. Kids always want and need new things and somehow you have to find room in the finances to get those things, pay the bills, eat, and eventually get around to buying something that you need. Here are a few tips that we’ve found to be useful when it comes to cutting costs at home.
Household Care
Bringing Up Baby
Keeping Up Appearances
I could go on, but I don’t want you guys to have to endure an entire wall of text, so I’ll save some for another post. What are your tips for saving money around the home? Let us know in the comments!
And come back next week for our next installment “Cooking Cheaply”! Keep on learning!
Related Posts:
How to Afford Homeschooling: Having “The Talk”
How to Afford Homeschooling: Finding Free Homeschool Resources
How to Afford Homeschooling: Making Friends with Your Local Library
Hi everyone! Welcome to another installment of our ongoing series “How to Afford Homeschooling”! If you’ve caught any of our previous topics, then you know our focus is to find ways to make homeschooling easier and more affordable. Your local library is literally one of the best places to start finding free activities for your homeschoolers. Here are just a few services that your library may offer:
Do you love your local library? How have you been able to use your local library resources to enrich your homeschool experience? Let us know in the comments! And come back next week for our next installment in the series: Saving Money Around the House. Keep on learning!
Related Posts:
How to Afford Homeschooling: Having “The Talk”
How to Afford Homeschooling: Finding Free Homeschool Resources
Hi everyone! Welcome to the second post in our series “How to Afford Homeschooling”! Last week, we talked about why families need to have an open discussion about finances. This week, I wanted to share some of the free homeschool resources that help us teach our kids on a budget.
I was homeschooled myself from sixth grade onward. My mom used two very traditional curriculum providers: Calvert School (Grades 6-8) and American School (Grades 9-12). I got a good quality education during those years, but the cost of those programs was pretty high and they’ve only gotten more expensive since then.
Now that we have the Internet, though, there are more free resources for homeschoolers than ever before! If you’re new to homeschooling, you might be surprised to find out that you can literally put together an entire K-12 curriculum for free. Here are some of the great resources we’ve either used or plan to use to compile our children’s curriculum:
Do you have any free homeschool resources that you use to build your curriculum? Let us know in the comments! And come back next week for the next part in our series “Making Friends with Your Local Library”.
Keep on learning!
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How to Afford Homeschooling: Having “The Talk”
Welcome to the first post in our ongoing series “How to Afford Homeschooling”! For the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing some tips that I’ve found to be useful in affording homeschooling so far. This week’s topic is “Having the Talk”.
What is “the Talk”? The it’s-time-to-get-serious-about-our-finances talk. Christopher Robin (the husband) and I have had that talk several times over the years. Interestingly, lots of couples don’t talk about money. And it’s no wonder. Disagreements about money are some of the most commonly cited factors in marital troubles. But, we didn’t want to risk losing our family’s future over something we could fix together.
During our heart-to-hearts, we’ve literally made a list of things we could start doing and continue doing to save money so that he could be home more often and get more involved in the kids’ schooling. And these are the things that I’ll be sharing with you during the series.
Here’s a breakdown of the topics we’ll be covering:
If you’re facing a financially uncertain future, homeschooling can easily take a back seat to worries about paying the bills. Having “the Talk” may be just what you need to help you develop a practical method for continuing to homeschool, even if you have to make serious budget adjustments.
Have you faced a financial crisis? How did you and your family meet the challenge of continuing to afford homeschooling? Let us know in the comments!
Keep on learning!
Well, it’s a new year! And it’s a great time to look ahead to our homeschooling goals for 2013. I’ll be writing more about them in an upcoming post, but suffice it to say, we’re making some big changes in our school routine.
I think one of the things I like best about homeschooling is the freedom to change curriculum and teaching methods whenever I notice that something’s not working for our family. It’s often a lot of trial and error, but hopefully we’re getting to some kind of routine that works for ALL of our children.
In 2013, we’re starting the homeschool year right by…drumroll…asking for our kids’ opinions!
Usually when I plan a new homeschool year, I sit down and think about what I want the kids to learn in the next grade. I never thought about asking them for a review of what we already did the previous year before! Turns out that asking them for their honest opinions about the previous school year can be really helpful.
To get the kids’ input on last year and the new year, we did a post-2012 interview with all of them. I used a free “Year End Time Capsule” printable from Today’s Mama as the basis for our interviews. It’s really an opportunity for the children to express their favorite things about the year and what they hope to do in the coming year.
Some of the gems from our interviews:
Roo (age 3) – Favorite thing to do: “Stay up.” Why? “Because I don’t like being in the bed so much. It makes me feel bored.”
Pooh (age 4) – Favorite thing: “Coloring pictures.” Why? “Because I like looking at stuff. Toys are boring.”
Tigger (age 8) – Favorite book: “Ramona and Her Mother.” Why? “I like Chapter 2 and it has lots of girls in it. The whole book was mostly Ramona and her mother and Ramona did a lot of things with her mother.” (Hint, hint.)
After hearing their responses, my resolve is: Less boredom in 2013!
When I asked Roo what his favorite part of 2012 was, he said “The Rocking Clown Game”. It’s called Coocoo the Rocking Clown and it’s a great game for very young children and older kids.
The goal of the game is to place the colored cylinders on the clown without tipping it over. Yes, I have ours sitting on an Usborne book for balance. (Don’t judge me.)
As you can see, the more cylinders, the more likely it is that Coocoo will start rocking…
and fall over!
Our kids literally played this game for hours. They absolutely loved it. You can’t tell by Roo’s expression, but he’s saying “Cheese”. Trust me.
What are your educational goals for this year? Feel free to share them in the comments!