Look! We're Learning!

Early Learning. Happy Teaching.

Cyber Monday Homeschool Deals!

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


Hey everyone! Hope you’re having a great long weekend! I’ll be taking the next few days off because next week is FINALS WEEK! Eeeeeek! But I did want to let you all know about some great Cyber Monday deals for homeschoolers that are coming up. Some are available this weekend and some are available on Monday only, so be sure to check the effective dates below.

November 28-30: Family Time Fitness

Get the Core 1 package for just $37 or the Platinum Fitness package for just $87, plus get a free gift card with your purchase!

November 29-December 2: Mama’s Learning Corner

Get 3 free months of access to Mama’s Learning Corner printables when you buy an annual membership for just $15!

December 2-9: Currclick

Currclick Cyber Monday Sale

A tablet giveaway, half-price classes, and up to 85% off all products!

November 29 – December 2: Educents

Use the coupon code EDUCENTS20 to get an extra 20 percent off your order!

Have a great time shopping for deals and I’ll be back next Thursday with a look at our Living History figure for December!

Must Have Supplies for Homeschooling Several Kids

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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.

Must Have Homeschooling Items for Teaching Several Children: Look! We're Learning!

Homeschool Must Haves: Anchor Charts

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:

Must Have Homeschooling Items for Teaching Several Children: Look! We're Learning!

Must Have Homeschooling Items for Teaching Several Children: Look! We're Learning!

Must Have Homeschooling Items for Teaching Several Children: Look! We're Learning!

Must Have Homeschooling Items for Teaching Several Children: Look! We're Learning!

Must Have Homeschooling Items for Teaching Several Children: Look! We're Learning!

Must Have Homeschooling Items for Teaching Several Children: Look! We're Learning!

Must Have Homeschooling Items for Teaching Several Children: Look! We're Learning!

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!

You can grab the same chart tablet and markers we use from Amazon.com:

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!

Homeschooling Must Haves: iHN

Solving the Socialization Dilemma

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Solving the Socialization Dilemma: Look! We're Learning!

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

Solving the Socialization Dilemma: Look! We're Learning!

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

Solving the Socialization Dilemma: Look! We're Learning!

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

Solving the Socialization Dilemma: Look! We're Learning!

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!

Homeschooling and Socialization: iHN

Our 2013-14 Homeschool Schedule

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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):

Our Homeschool Schedule - Look! We're Learning!

Monday

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

Our Homeschool Schedule - Look! We're Learning!

Tuesday

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

Our Homeschool Schedule - Look! We're Learning!

*By the way, my husband drew this on the board. I can’t draw like this to save my life.*

Thursday

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

Our Homeschool Schedule: Look! We're Learning!

Friday

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!

NBTS Blog Hop Calendar: Look! We're Learning!

Our 2013-14 Student Photos

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First Day of School Picture Day: Look! We're Learning!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!

First Day of School Picture Day: Look! We're Learning!We printed these adorable First Day of School Printable Cards from Three Dinosaurs.

First Day of School Picture Day: Look! We're Learning!

Roo’s first year of school! He’s so excited about learning to read!

First Day of School Picture Day: Look! We're Learning!

Pooh’s first year of actual schoolwork. He’s more excited about looking like he’s “doing school” than anything else.

First Day of School Picture Day: Look! We're Learning!

Tigger’s an old pro by now. She’s excited about learning American history and science this year.

First Day of School Picture Day: Look! We're Learning!

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.

First Day of School Picture Day: Look! We're Learning!

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!

NBTS Blog Hop Calendar: Look! We're Learning!

Our 2013-14 Homeschool Room

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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.

Our Homeschool Room: Look! We're Learning!

 Our Homeschool Room

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? 🙂

Our Homeschool Room: Look! We're Learning!

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.

Our Homeschool Room: Look! We're Learning!

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.

Our Homeschool Room: Look! We're Learning!

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.

Our Homeschool Room: Look! We're Learning!

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.

Our Homeschool Room: Look! We're Learning!

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.

Our Homeschool Room: Look! We're Learning!

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.)

Our Homeschool Room: Look! We're Learning!

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.

Our Homeschool Room: Look! We're Learning!

Fractions are coming up soon.

Our Homeschool Room: Look! We're Learning!

As is a discussion on the properties of light.

Our Homeschool Room: Look! We're Learning!

We still keep most of our supplies in our bookcase. Our basic homeschool tools (binding machine, laminator, and pencil sharpener) are right on top.

Our Homeschool Room: Look! We're Learning!

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.)

Our Homeschool Room: Look! We're Learning!

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!

NBTS Blog Hop Calendar: Look! We're Learning!

Big Book of Homeschool Ideas

Our 2013-14 Homeschool Curriculum

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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.

Our 2013-14 Curriculum: Look! We're Learning!So, without further ado, our curriculum for 2013-14 is as follows: *drumroll*

Third Grade Homeschool Curriculum

Our 2013-14 Curriculum: Look! We're Learning!

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.

Our 2013-14 Curriculum: Look! We're Learning!

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”.

Our 2013-14 Curriculum: Look! We're Learning!

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.

Our 2013-14 Curriculum: Look! We're Learning!

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.

Our 2013-14 Curriculum: Look! We're Learning!

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!

Family Time Fitness

Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum

Our 2013-14 Curriculum: Look! We're Learning!

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.

Preschool Homeschool Curriculum

Our 2013-14 Curriculum: Look! We're Learning!

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!

NBTS Blog Hop Calendar: Look! We're Learning!

Art for All Ages Bundle - 3 ebooks!

Why I’m Holding My Child Back This Year

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Why I'm Holding My Child Back This Year

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!

Guest Post: Making Peace with a Bad Homeschooling Experience

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Over the weekend, I got a chance to guest post at Enchanted Homeschooling Mom. No matter how well we plan or how hard we try, all of us have negative experiences with homeschooling from time to time. The trick is not allowing these “bad days” to get the better of us or make us doubt our commitment to homeschooling.

Head over to Enchanted Homeschooling Mom to read our piece “Making Peace with a Bad Homeschooling Experience”!

http://enchantedhomeschoolingmom.org/2013/07/making-peace-with-a-bad-homeschooling-experience/

Homeschooling with ADHD - Look! We're Learning!

Homeschooling with ADHD

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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!

Keep Reading…

How to Afford Homeschooling: Avoiding Consumerism

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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

How to Afford Homeschooling: Cooking Cheaply

How to Afford Homeschooling: Generating Income

How to Afford Homeschooling: Generating Income

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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

How to Afford Homeschooling: Saving Money Around the House

How to Afford Homeschooling: Cooking Cheaply

How to Afford Homeschooling: Cooking Cheaply

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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

How to Afford Homeschooling: Saving Money Around the House

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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

  • Use homemade cleaners and detergent: Fun fact – I have not purchased laundry detergent in three years. Instead, I use a homemade detergent mix made from Ivory soap, washing soda (or baking soda), and Borax. Tipnut has a great list of homemade laundry detergent recipes. Personally, I prefer the powdered version because it’s much faster to put together and I make a smaller batch as well. I just grate an entire bar of Ivory soap and mix it with 2 cups of Borax and 2 cups of either washing soda or baking soda. Then I use 2 tablespoons per load. The really great thing about this recipe is that it’s very mild, so I can use it on Piglet’s diapers and Christopher Robin’s work clothes. I also make use of homemade household cleaners whenever I can.
  • Get rid of cable: Most homeschooling families I know personally have gotten rid of cable a long time ago, so this is probably a no-brainer. We have a Netflix streaming-only subscription and I use that plus a regular TV antenna to get our local channels and plenty of TV shows and movies for us to watch. I was surprised at how much our weekly TV consumption went down when we got rid of cable. There are actually days when we don’t turn it on at all and we don’t miss it either.

Bringing Up Baby

  • Breastfeed (if you can): Breastfeeding is undeniably the best way to feed a baby and all pregnant women are strongly encouraged to do it, unless there’s a reason why they absolutely cannot. One advantage people don’t discuss often, though, is that breastfeeding is so much more affordable than buying formula! I formula-fed Tigger after an unsuccessful attempt at nursing her and I’m here to tell you that buying cans of formula on a regular basis will easily put you in the poorhouse. 
  • Use cloth diapers wisely: Cloth diapering has come back into vogue in recent years, which is great! Disposable diapers are terrible for the environment and may even contain toxic chemicals. However, some people I know who tout the money-saving benefits of cloth diapers will spend $35 or $40 on one diaper without blinking an eye. Maybe they can afford that. I, however, cannot. A good supply of Chinese or Indian unbleached prefolds and a few covers will take you most of the way when it comes to diapering your baby. For Piglet’s overnight diapers, I bought used or second-quality diapers from other mamas at DiaperSwappers.

Keeping Up Appearances

  • Do your own hair – Both Tigger and I have dreadlocks, which I love because it means no more combs! Combing out hair was truly a traumatic experience in our house. However, natural (that is, un-permed) hair can be rather expensive, especially if you don’t know how to care for it yourself. And that’s where I learned that YouTube was my friend. I have learned how to style, retwist, and wash my hair from watching YouTube tutorials. Which is good, because our budget was not going to survive me spending $75 a month at the salon.
  • Shop for clothes smartly – I actually have skirts from when I was a teenager. (I can’t fit into them right now, but that’s another story.) I don’t buy clothes often and, when I do, I try to pick items that I know I’ll still like in a few years. Naturally, that means I’m not usually up-to-date on the latest trends, but when is a floor-length circle skirt going to go out of style? The answer is never.  

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

How to Afford Homeschooling: Making Friends with Your Local Library

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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:

  • Free Inter-library Lending – We don’t live in a large county, so our local library system is pretty small. But our branch is a member of a statewide library network, which connects us with most of the other public libraries in our state. What this means is that if I’m unable to find a book that I want at our local branch, I can put in a request for it somewhere else in the state and have it delivered right to our neighborhood location. I cannot tell you how much money we’ve saved over the years, just by using this system to get a copy of a book for our regular lessons. If you have the option to do this at your library, you can plan your lessons in advance and place a hold for the specific titles you need. That way, they’ll be available in time for you to use them in your lessons.
  • Reading Programs – Another way we use the library to save is by taking advantage of the many programs and events that it offers. For instance, every summer, the library hosts a Summer Reading Program that gives all the kids a chance to earn free prizes simply for reading! At our branch, kids of all ages can participate as long as parents read with them, so our preschoolers don’t have to feel left out since they’re not reading on their own yet. In previous years, the prizes have included items such as free meals at Chick-fil-A, free bowling, and stickers for the kids. There’s also has a huge party at the end of the program that features outdoor games, snacks, and entertainment for the entire family. Why not ask if your library will be holding a similar event this summer? It’s a great way to help your family develop a love for reading and earn some free perks along the way!
  • Socialization – A lot of homeschooling naysayers whisper their concerns about socialization for homeschooled kids. I personally don’t feel that structured socialization is that important. I prefer that our kids naturally come into contact with people of all ages during their days. But, if you want to give your kids a chance to meet other kids their age, the local library is a great, family-friendly place to do it. During the week, our library holds regular story times and readings for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and older kids. Depending on the month, there may even be visits from local firefighters, clowns, or puppeteers. Giving kids a chance to meet other children and adults in this setting can be a less stressful way to help them become comfortable around all kinds of people.

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

How to Afford Homeschooling: Finding Free Homeschool Resources

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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:

  • Donna Young – I have used nearly all of the printable homeschool planning forms on Donna Young’s website at one point or another. There are plenty of great bound homeschool planners you can buy, but this site has most, if not all, of the same planning sheets for absolutely free. She also features a few planning pages that allow for more than one child at a time, which is a big help to families that are teaching several kids at once (like us!).
  • Scholastic – Scholastic has a great library of resources for teachers that includes printables, activities, craft ideas, lesson plans, and videos. Nearly all of the material is free to use and you can sort it all by age or grade.
  • Khan Academy – Khan Academy is a completely free video portal with tutorials about Math, Science, and Economics, among others. This site is geared toward middle and high school students, which means I’ll be hitting up these tutorials to remind myself how to solve for X in a couple of years.
  • CK-12 – Most of the resources at CK-12 are for grades six and up, but some are for PreK through elementary ages. I really like this site because you have the option to either view entire textbooks online or download them in PDF format. Free teacher guides are also available for download. Textbooks cover subjects such as Algebra, Chemistry, and Statistics.
  • Houghton Mifflin EduPlace – EduPlace is provided by the textbook company Houghton Mifflin. It’s actually designed to complement the material in the company’s textbooks, but the online content is so thorough that you could use it without having the textbooks at all. EduPlace has resources and lesson plans for grades PreK through 8 in subjects such as Math, Language Arts, and Social Studies.
  • Ambleside Online – AO is a complete, free Charlotte Mason curriculum designed for grades K through 12. We’re eclectic homeschoolers, but we implement many Charlotte Mason methods. What I really like about Ambleside Online is that you can pick and choose the aspects of it that you want and just skip the parts you don’t. Everything is laid out in a week-by-week lesson plan, which makes it a breeze to plan each grade. Almost all of the books on the reading list are also available for free and AO provides links to most of them directly on the site.
  • Core Knowledge – Better known as the company behind the “What Your __ Grader Needs to Know” series, Core Knowledge also offers a downloadable sequence for grades K through 8. This is a huge help when you’re planning your school year, since you can just take a look at the sequence to see which topics you’ll need to cover each year. (Make sure that you check your state’s list of educational objectives as well.)
  • Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool – We featured this site as one of the Websites We Love last week, but it deserves another shoutout here. Hundreds of online resources arranged in daily lessons for grades K through 8 in one place!

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!

Related Posts:

How to Afford Homeschooling: Having “The Talk”

How to Afford Homeschooling: Having “The Talk”

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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!

Starting the Homeschool Year Right

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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!

Starting the Homeschool Year Right

Starting the Homeschool Year with a Kids’ Interview

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!