Category Archives: Home Education

Have some fun… make a summer bucket list!

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summer homeschooling

 

I recently read an article in the Carnival of Homeschooling about making and using a summer bucket list to keep track of all the super fun amazing things that you want to do with your kids this summer! I love that idea and am so inspired to try it…I hope to pass a little inspiration on to you!

 

For those of you who love visual reminders, check out this printable summer bucket list. I know summertime isn’t all about having fun, we will definitely be including some online summer skill building. Yet, the bucket list will be handy to  keep us thinking of great things to do. I also love how Little Wonders’ Day made her bucket list come to life with a real bucket! (see picture below) For those of you who love graphic organizers check out this printable bucket list! This is even better – let the kid’s color their own bucket list with this printable color page!

 

summer bucket list

I love this idea from a blogger doing a fall bucket list. She makes a great mantel piece decoration with small buckets for her bucket list! This blogger gives several great ideas for bucket lists from old lunch pails to recycled plastic containers… how fun!

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Wondering what exactly should go in your bucket list? Have no fear, these bloggers think of it all. This one asks questions to help you think of your own bucket list ideas while this blogger gives you 107 great ideas for your summer bucket list. Ok, ok, this is the last one I promise… but this printable is adorable for a fridge worthy bucket list! Ok… if that isn’t enough inspiration here’s the beginning (rough draft) of our bucket list.

Trips

Visit grandparents in Texas

Go to Camp with kids

Go to the beach

Go to a Major League Baseball Game

Go on a long nature hike

Go snorkeling

Fun day events

Build a blanket fort outside

Watch the stars on a beautiful evening

Catch fireflies

Have a water balloon fight

Go on a family bike ride

Watch a movie outside

Make sno-cones

Homemade ice cream

Arts/Crafts

Do bubble painting

Sidewalk chalk

Make beaded necklaces

Let girls pick a favorite pinterest craft and do it!

 

Two FREE resources for Planning Your Homeschool High School

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homeschool high schoolI think I’ve mentioned that my favorite time of the year is summer… maybe… at least 100 times. I love the time to rebuild myself, but I also love planning my next year’s homeschool. Ever since I can remember, I have loved playing school. As a child when other kids wanted toys, I wanted notebooks and pencils so I could go home and play school.  I must admit – teaching, organizing, and putting together a new school schedule makes me “happier than a teacher in a book store!”

So, as I’m looking through the amazing homeschool curriculum that is out there I realized that I had to share some of this with you. I love using Saxon books for the serious math and language arts that I’m doing with my elementary and middle school children. However, for my highschoolers I have discovered two awesome sites that have made all the difference in the world and I want to share them with you. The first is the site Let’s Homeschool High School and the second is Homeschool College USA. These two sites enabled me to get my first daughter graduated last year. I know without all their valuable insight that I would have been lost. They both present an amazingly vast array of FREE homeschool curriculum and online learning possibilities. The Homeschool College USA site also gives you free high school course links that all lead up to taking CLEP tests for college credit. Which in and of itself is an amazing idea. You see, your highschooler can take these courses for high school credit, but then when it’s time for the final – go take the CLEP tests and earn REAL college credit.

We often will use the Apologia science courses, glencoe math, and abeka history as our foundation and then enrich with the free offerings from these sites. I hope that you get a chance to visit and start planning your fall homeschool with this in mind!

Teaching History with Adventure!

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summer historyYep… I make no bones about it… I love summer. Mostly because the daily boot camp that is my life on a typical school day is gone during those blissfully peaceful summer months. Yet, the teacher (and probably “Monk” tendencies) in me is concerned that my kids keep their brains active during the summer! So, I am constantly looking for ways to do this without making it seem like we are having a regular school day. This is where I love the idea of Adventure History!

During the summer we often try to brush up a bit on the history of our local areas. A great way to do this is to have a history adventure. Here are a few ways that I try to teach local history.

1) My all time fav… take a day to have a scavenger hunt! Find all of the historical landmark signs that scatter the streets of your neighborhood!

2) Visit your local Historical Society Chapter. Ours has a great website with lots of cool old pictures of our county seat. In fact, we are fortunate, our tiny little town (we are talking a post office and 3 buildings) even has their own book published!

3)Read a book together that is about history in your state. After you finish the book take a day trip to visit the setting of the story! There are some pretty neat things that you can do along those lines in our state. We live in Georgia so it’s a veritable hot bed of Civil War history! Here is a great FREEBEE site to find awesome homeschool literature!

4) Google – have an online day where you use all types of online resources… like this FREEBEE online state games! Then try to visit some of the sites that you learned about online!

I am participating in the Homeschool Friday Freebee Link up… So, buzz on over there and see what other awesome homeschool freebees are waiting for you!

Homeschool Curriculum… just the basics

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Choosing and using a homeschool curriculum can be more daunting than the actual decision to homeschool your child. Finding the right curriculum for you family’s needs and your individual children is absolutely necessary. Talking about it is easy… but actually getting there is the hard part.

There are a few questions that you can ask yourself to help you discover the perfect curriculum:

Read the rest…

Let me introduce myself… and my family!

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summer homeschool

Over the past two years, we’ve been sharing a wealth of information about homeschooling here at MomSCHOOL. I appreciate the comments that you have made and hope that I have

been able to answer your questions! I like to think of all of you as my online friends. So, just between friends… I’d like to introduce you to my family.

My husband of twenty years and I have six children. We started homeschooling in 2004, and just recently graduated our oldest daughter. Homeschooling is probably the most rewarding task I have taken on… but it is also the most challenging! I am a veteran school teacher of 14 years, I also have 3 college degrees… all that to say that homeschooling is still challenging even for the educated parent. Again, though challenging it is vastly rewarding! I encourage you, even if you haven’t gone to college or even finished high school you can homeschool. If you are intimidated, there are great resources out there that do all the hard work for you. Many of them are video based or online homeschool programs, but each of them make it a simple task to homeschool your child.

We have six children ages 17, 15, 12, 12, 8, and 6. Needless to say our house is always busy, always crazy, and we are always headed to the grocery store! I retired from teaching when w

e made the decision to homeschool all of our children. It was a good decision, and though I still tutor and teach college courses… we never looked back! My husband works for a local charter school and is a great supporter and encourager of our homeschool endeavors!

When we started out, we used an “out of the box” curriculum called ABEKA. We simply ordered the entire thing for the grades we needed. We did this simply because this was the curriculum I was used to as a teacher and what I had used when I was in school. This is an awesome curriculum, and one that is very challenging. However, not every child does well with this curriculum, and it isn’t the easiest to use for a large family. Those first two years were pretty insane. I was trying to homeschool at 5 different levels as well as care for a toddler. It wasn’t working to say the least! I finally stumbled across a few options that were great for large families. One of the best was Vocabulary and Spelling City. This online program allowed me to put each of my  different students in their own account with their own individual assignments that would be automatically tracked by the program. This one resource saved me hours each week!

The second homeschooling resource that I fell in love with was Apologia. I began using this curriculum (one book) for all of my elementary level students, and an individual book for my highschool student. It worked great. I could augment the curriculum with additional assignments for the older students while requiring a lap book for the younger ones. All of this with only one well written science text geared specifically for homeschoolers! It was getting better and better!

I have used a variety of curriculum over the years, some written for homeschool and some not. We typically have a blended schedule each year, finding the best curriculum to meet the varying needs of each of my children. In fact, I might use Saxon for one of my children in 5th grade and then use Singapore Math for another child when they reach 5th grade. I try to monitor their likes and dislikes, passions and interests, and then fire them up with homeschool curriculum that targets those strengths.

I have to say that with each new year, I learn more about my children and homeschooling. I hope that if you are “on the fence” about homeschooling… our blog may help you see what a great blessing it is!

Bridging the Gaps!

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summer learningEveryone has struggles now and again… even the best of homeschoolers. So, don’t let it get you down if your kids have a few learning gaps.  I know when I find out my children have a few weak areas it really gets me down.  There isn’t any one else to point your finger at and say – Why? There is only yourself and your thoughts of “What could I have done different?”  I have been there many times, but I realized that it happens. The question is, now that we know there are some issues… what are we going to do about it?

Summer is the perfect time to bridge those gaps in your child’s learning. If you found that they have weak areas as a result of a standardized test, then most of your work is already done for you. You simply need to take the test and find the sub sets where your child scored low. You can focus on those particular areas during the summer to try to strengthen the areas that were troublesome.

I like to do this with my own children each summer. Yet, I personally also like to have the summer as a time for me to recoup and refresh myself. If I can’t recover and refill my mother’s heart I will be of no use. I seriously use the summer to do that. That doesn’t mean that my kids get off scott free with no schooling. Ohhh… no way! I have tried to find ways that they can still get the remedial work they need without it stressing me out or requiring much thought on my part. I love to use online summer programs that fit the areas that were troublesome especially homeschool science.  I set it up on each of their computers that the favorites bar on their browser has all the link to the summer review programs that I want them to use. This allows them to individually access these websites without asking me for help. Granted, they don’t do school everyday, but they do it whenever they are bored or it is raining! I look at it as automated summer homeschooling!

What do you do to help your kiddos bridge their gaps during the summer?

Making the most of your Summer Time!

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summer homeschoolSummer is my favorite time of the year. I enjoy not having the regular school responsibilities, and the great time we have traveling and seeing our family. Yet, as an education professional I know that statistics clearly show that children lose a portion of what they learned the previous school year, if they do nothing educational during the summer.

So, as I plan our summer I am trying to include a few fun ways to keep the education or at least some of their thought processes functioning! We have a big load of fun stuff happening this summer and I know the kids will be very busy. Yet, with all of the summer adventures I want the children to continue to use their minds so they don’t lose what they have learned.

My plan is to incorporate a little fun learning first thing in the morning. To accomplish this we will simply be using the Time4Learning curriculum for about an hour each morning. I have several old computers, so each of the kids can get this task accomplished rather quickly before rushing off to whatever big adventure the day holds.

We enjoy Time4Learning as a summer curriculum because it is highly motivating and is about the only thing that can keep my children’s attention during the summer… especially when thoughts of playing are assaulting them! Time4Learning is great to get accomodate those who are struggling as well as those who are gifted. You see, when you purchase a subscription, the grade above and below your child’s current grade is made available to you. The lessons that your children do are also tracked which makes it great for you to follow their progress. All in all – to make the summer enjoyable for me… Time4Learning is the winner.

What plans do you have for your homeschool this summer? Are you going to try to challenge your children… even just a little?

Carnival of Homeschooling – Spring Refreshment Edition

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homeschool encouragement

I don’t know if you are anything like me, but as a homeschooling mom of six… there are times that I just need a bit of refreshment. Schoolwork becomes overwhelming, housework becomes tedious, and patience runs thin… it is then that I know I need to get my “cup filled” back up. How can I continue to give to my children and my family when my cup is empty. Frankly, it’s nearly impossible. That’s where these carnival of homeschooling editions come in. There have been so many times that I have felt exhausted and my homeschool motivation level way past E… that I’ve opened up one of these Homeschool Carnival blog posts and have found refreshment and encouragement in so many areas of my life. It is my hope and goal to return the favor for each of you this week. I hope that somewhere in the posts of this blog carnival you will find the refreshment, motivation, inspiration, or just plain old laughter that will help you get through the next few months of school! It really is so great when the homeschool community helps each other…


So, sit back, relax… and get your cup filled today…

Sometimes refreshing can come in different forms. There are times when I can read a fellow homeschool mom’s blog post and immediately I can see that I am not alone in this daily struggle to make sure my children go forward and not backward. At other times, just hearing about a new curriculum can give me hope that it might possibly be the one that will help us turn the corner! In any case, I hope that these posts inspire you with a breath of fresh air…

homeschool tipsLaura Grace Weldon gives us a new perspective on Respecting a Child’s Urge to Discover in her blog post about encouraging our children to discover on their own.

Dewey’s Tree House reminds us of some great time tested homeschooling “tools” in Tools of an Old Homeschool Mom: “Key to” Math and more.

Remember, You Are Not Alone! is a great post by the Read Aloud Dad… he encourages us to keep up the “good work” of reading to our children daily!

Here’s something that was fresh for me… Dorothy Sayers and the Lost Tools of Learning by Petticoat Government present a different perspective on how to compare the study of math and science at home to this book.

Sometimes we can see the “big picture” when we look at the pros and cons of something… The Drawbacks of Homeschooling is presented this week by Letters from Nebby.

How we teach affects how our children learn… The Thinking Mother encourages us to …Stop Telling Students, “Said is Dead.”

New Curriculum ideas are another great way to add some freshness to your homeschool. Just because it’s spring doesn’t mean you can’t start something new! In fact, that may be “just what the doctor ordered.”

Online Education for Kids submits a post delineating all the homeschool greats… in their post The Super Heroes of Elementary Homeschool Curriculum.

A great way to get a fresh perspective is to get outside! Gardening – Project Based Learning You Can Eat!  is a great blog post by the Time4Learning Community Blog to encourage you to do just that!

I love to look at making plans for next year and Homeschool vs. Public School encourages us to do so with their post Homeschool Plans for Next Year by giving us a glimpse of unschooling.

DenSchool provides much needed inspiration in her post about a March Homeschooler of the Month. You can read about this achievement and learn how to submit an entry for another Homeschooler of the Month award!

Fill Your Bookshelf has a great idea for a new unit study, read her post John James Audubon unit study and see if your family might like to try this!

homeschooling

Sometimes refreshment just has to come through taking a look at things that are bigger than ourselves and even our homeschool. Sometimes it just takes a word from a friend… I often realize that my struggles are very small in light of what so many others have to face. Getting a look at the “bigger pictures” often cures our frustration with the little things!

Proclaiming God’s Faithfulness really makes it plain on how we can “finish the race” well in their post, Don’t Be Blue; Strategies for Fighting the Winter Blues.

Katherine over at No Fighting No Biting helps us take a look at why we have an epidemic of underachieving boys and men who don’t want to grow up through her post Underachieving Boys.

Nerd Family Things presents a great post called 10 Math Card Games. It gives us 10 math card games to try with our kids.

I love a recipe for new things… In fact, craft recipes are such fun I know that whenever I pull one of those out –  my kids are usually thrilled!

Homemade Goodness sends us a post about Two Easy Homemade Glue Recipes that would work great for your next craft session with the kids… or if the wiggles get really bad… you could even use it to glue them to their chairs.

Sometimes we have to respond to negativity… Alasandra does this over at her blog Alasandra’s Homeschool Blog.

I’m so glad  that you stopped by, and I hope that this week’s Carnival of Homeschooling “filled your cup” and refreshed you today!

carnival of homeschooling

Next week the carnival of homeschooling will be hosted by Home Grown Mommy.

If you want to find out more about the Carnival of Homeschooling you can visit the link, submit a post, or even host – if you are brave enough!

Tips for Keeping Burn out at bay…

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homeschool stressI know homeschooling isn’t the easiest job I’ve ever done. Though it is very rewarding, it requires so much of me… personally, physically, emotionally, etc. Sometimes, I need to just step back and review what I’m doing and how my life is going. If I don’t… well, let’s just say I feel like I’m holding my breath!

Here are a few things that I do on a regular basis to keep myself sane, and to keep the stress at bay… (You can find more along these lines at Time4Learning)

1) Make time for the important things in your life… your family, God, your spouse. Don’t just mark off a time slot in your busy schedule, slow down, take a walk, play a game, do something completely relaxing and enjoyable and TALK with those your love! Seriously… take time to smell the roses! Don’t just rush through your day, live in every moment.

2) Don’t allow the small pesky things that will tend to keep us crazy busy… to build up. Say “no” to things that aren’t all that important… (just don’t forget to return the 40 library items that you checked out last month… or you might have a $30 bill!)

3) Adjust your educational goals if they are just not doable for the time being… (You won’t believe how freeing this can be. If you have set goals and are not able to make them, an automatic level of stress accompanies this. Formally change your goals. Write it down if you need to. You won’t believe how big of a difference it makes!) Make a no stress plan for your life.

4) Take a moment to just enjoy life… take a warm bath… sip a cup of cappuccino… light some candles…paint your toenails a wild shade of purple…take a bike ride and enjoy that sunset… do something completely relaxing! Enjoy the blessing of life!