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Homeschool Planner Cover

January 11, 2014 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I have it bad! I have been pining over organizational projects that I can’t do right now. Tackling them this time of the year, I normally get my injection of organizing how-tos. But, we are shooting for a February 1 date to put our house on the market.

Focusing now on what I can do like update the curriculum planner gives me a small fix on my need to keep it all organized. Too, I don’t know what my spring months will look like with the move and because I don’t want to hold you up when it’s time to print your curriculum planner again, I have started to already update the curriculum planner.

You know you always get all my printables first. Let’s start with some new fresh updated covers.

Today, I have one I named Melting Bubble Gum. I hope you don’t think I have lost it when I name these printables, but I am always inspired by something when I create. I can’t just make printables, I have to be inspired because I love them and use them too.

This new cover reminds me of fond memories I had as a little girl when I put apple bubble gum and plain bubble gum in my mouth at the same time.

Do they still make apple bubble gum?

Download Melting Bubble Gum cover here.

I have a few more covers coming!

Hugs and love ya,

Linking up @ these fabulous places

Hearts for Home Blog Hop | From House to Home | Frugal Homeschool Friday | Finishing Strong Middle & High School |

Here is the MAIN 7 Step Homeschool Planner Page

Check out the other pages I have created so far this year:

40 Reasons I Homeschool (And Growing Each Year)

January 8, 2014 | 7 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I have a secret to tell you and that is I thrive at this time of the year. Call me one of those weird homeschoolers, I don’t mind, but I love cold weather. My brain goes full throttle ahead.

It might sound like a contradiction, but I also take time to muse about my homeschooling journey.

I am ever so grateful to have the privilege of homeschooling my children. Don’t get me wrong, I am human and go through certain days where I feel it is more like a burden.When I feel that way, I normally write down something to remind me of the privilege. It is easier as you homeschool longer because each year gives you more positive things to simmer on.

40 Reasons I Homeschool

By sharing publicly a few of the reasons I homeschool not only sears this in my mind, but I hope it lifts you up too. Homeschooling should be contagious and I want you to keep having a bad case of it.

Listed in no particular order.

1. I want my sons to have a spiritual relationship and that is my privilege to do.

2. My sons can focus on their own education, which is their responsibility and to not be responsible for other kids in public school which are their parents’ responsibility.

3. I realized soon after homeschooling that my son is not the only gifted and talented kid. Plenty of gifted children exist in the homeschool world and their interests can be fed in a way that is good for them without giving up their childhood.

4. My sons can exercise first in the morning like they enjoy doing. Now only if I can do that.

5. My sons don’t have to read poorly copied papers from one book as a reader, but I can have as many living books as I can stuff into my home.

6. I never have to kiss them good bye in the morning.

7. If a curriculum or schedule is not working, I don’t need the principal’s approval to change it. Just do it and move on.

8. We can buy better made school supplies and not have to break them in half to share with other kids. This actually happened to us when Mr. Senior 2013 went to part of Kindergarten public school. Of course the teacher explained to me that this was to help with fine motor control by having to grasp a smaller crayon. If that was the case, why didn’t I break them at home and they keep them separate at school?

9. We never collected enough soup labels to help out with the playground at school or library either one.

10. We love peanuts and because we have no allergies here, we can roll around in them at my house if we want to.

11. I can count my all day house cleaning day as a Home Economics 101 course.

12. Because the world IS our classroom, my sons have a no holes barred attitude toward education.

13. Because the Bible is our best copywork source, history and science resource, I won’t give this up in favor of education for the masses.

14. Because my kids are square pegs, I won’t force them to fit in round holes.

15. Because I would never give up our all day reading days, or all day history days, or all day science days, or all day geography days.

16. Our lunches are more healthier, not to mention taste great. Even peanut butter and jelly tastes better at home.

17. I don’t have to schedule conferences with the teacher.

18. Because the on-site campus policemen don’t have to escort my sons to the bathroom for fear they may be beat up or bullied. Yes, this happened to a friends of ours and it has taken their son quite a few years to recover, but the emotional damage is deep. We all hug them each time we see them.

19. Because any day can be declared a school holiday.

20. I want my children to learn to be community minded, and avoid learning mindless acts like standing in line. Too, do you ever raise your hand when having conversations with other adults?

21. How does that quote go? “I homeschool because I have seen the village”.

22. Because I wanted my kitchen filled with growing crystals, and can grow mold on purpose, and want my refrigerator filled with all kinds of future science projects.

23. We don’t have to wait on the rest of the class to catch up with us and because we don’t care what the other kids are doing if we don’t want to move on.

24. Because I want my kids socialized in the truest sense of the word and not adopt what the world tries to burden us with.

25. Because I want my children to love reading and I can change our schedule on a whim to feed that habit.

26. Because my husband wants time to influence my sons to grow up to be capable, responsible, loving, hardworking, and spiritual men. Its hard to do that when they are apart for 8 or more hours each day.

27. Because teaching about not using drugs and reserving (yes I am going there) *sex* for when you are married is our responsibility as parents. I won’t leave that up to a person whose life may or may not model Bible based thinking.

28. Because regardless of a person’s belief system, I want my sons to respect and love other people. It is our job as parents to live that every day and not just say it.

29. Because once I teach a skill to my older sons, they can model and teach to my younger son. This equals more time spent together as a family.

30. To teach subjects that I am not well versed in, I can hire as many excellent and caring private tutors as I want to. I consult only my budget and not have to wait weeks or years to change my educational budget and get approval for supplemental activities.

31. Because I cannot even begin to imagine what our day would look like if we could not spend as much time on hands-on as we like to.

32. Because learning is not about sitting at the computer all day with a virtual school, but it is about getting outdoors and learning about the creation around us.

33. Because our homeschool has gone way beyond academics and we have made life-long friends who cannot ever be replaced. We are overflowing with the blessings of their loyal friendship.

34. Because it is easier to teach children to read than the public school would have you think. Ten to fifteen minutes each day wrapped up in a blanket on the couch with living books and you will have a life-long reader that you have to command to put down his book to finish his math. Oh and a few cheetos and some chocolate milk doesn’t hurt either.

35. Because my goal in high school was to not simply have my sons graduate but to have an introduction to college level courses. And, you want to ask about testing to see what they know?

36. Because as a teacher, my obligation is not to learn how 30 other kids learn best, but just how my children learn best. This equals a hidden, but gratifying joy because I can learn right alongside my children. It is hard to infuse this feeling in a new homeschool teacher until she is actually teaching her children. It is just surface talk until she is infected with the art of teaching.

37. It my sons’ privilege, responsibility, and delight to learn. I am not raising passive sit back and let the teacher tell me what to do kids. They are learning independence and not dependence from an early age.

38. Because when it comes to studying our favorite subjects like history and geography, we can arrive at at history destinations via a family vacation. We can eat, drink and dress the culture and come away with an appreciation of the true value of any culture and not accept what a few pages in a textbook tells us.

39. Too, if you want to know what my sons know about a subject, I can show you our stack of 20 or 30 books on one subject for our unit study and compare with your few pages in a textbook. So testing fear is conquered because I realize standardized testing is a tool that if not wielded right by the holder can be abused. It’s true when those signs read “To avoid personal injury, select the right tool for the job.”

40. And, lastly because it works!

40 Reasons I Homeschool (And Growing Each Year). I am ever so grateful to have the privilege of homeschooling my children. Don’t get me wrong, I am human and go through certain days where I feel it is more like a burden.When I feel that way, I normally write down something to remind me of the privilege. It is easier as you homeschool longer because each year gives you more positive things to simmer on. Click here to be rejuvenated!!

I shared a few things that rolled off the top of my head and I will be printing this to go in my planner.Also, you’ll love grabbing some go juice from these articles!

What about you? What reasons keep you getting up in the morning with a can do spirit?

Hugs and love ya

Beethoven & The French Revolution Minibook (Music Unit Study)

January 5, 2014 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

So you know we have been trying to get one more unit study in before we have to think about moving. {I think we can, I think we can.}

But, one thing I have not told you about yet that we love, is that I have been reviewing The Music Appreciation Collection by Zeezok Publishing.

Before I say anything else, let me just pause and say “Wow”! I had no idea that we would love it so much and that it would be so extensive with background information on the life of each music composer and not just music CDs.

Though I do say it from time to time, I want you to know too that I do not accept every offer made to me for free curriculum to review. But, when I do accept I am thinking it would make a great fit for our family and this curriculum is no exception.

It tops the favorites list too and we are not finished with it yet. One thing that appealed to me right away are the lapbooks on each composer as well as the beautiful readers.

(activity book with a variety of extensive activities)

I won’t be posting the review until next month, but just wanted you to get a sneak peek.

Because we have been learning so much from it, I wanted to share a connection to our French Revolution unit study and that is about Beethoven.

We were delighted to know that our composer study lined up with our unit study. I had no way of knowing that of course when I accepted the offer. So this was a nice surprise.

Though I recalled the time period that Beethoven lived in, I knew he was not from France. But, after using Zeezok’s Music Appreciation activity book we realized that the French Revolution did affect Beethoven.

Sure he knew about the French Revolution because it was a significant event of that time period, but I didn’t really know any details. The activity for the lesson pointed out that he could not travel to Vienna because the city was not safe because of the uprising.

Too, he very much was affected by the bombing of Napoleon Bonaparte. Though technically, Austria was bombed when Napoleon Bonaparte was emperor, it had its roots in the French Revolution.

Because we are doing a full lapbook from Zeezok on Beethoven coming up next month, I created this free minibook to go with our current unit study about the French Revolution.

We are using it to note a few facts about Beethoven so that Tiny remembers he lived during this time period.

Download the free minibook on Beethoven here.

I love it when we discover an unplanned music tie in to our unit study. Do you seize those moments too?

Grab these other fun things

Hugs and love ya,

Dynamic Reader Question–How To Get All those Homeschool Science Experiments Done?

January 4, 2014 | 2 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Whatever I am doing on my blog, your questions are always at the top of my list.

I only had answered part of Laura’s question and now want to answer the second part of her question.

Hi there Tina!!
Laura here (a most grateful “follower” who thinks your site is awesome). I have two questions.
1. There are so many neat things to do and neat curriculum with science, how is one to get them all done. I’ve even thought about doing 2 along side each other.

Sharing with you first on how to pick a science curriculum helps you to see if it will fit in with what you want to get done for the day.

The most important thing I have learned about how to do science is to not ever do a bait and switch and give up hands-on projects. And, I did this to myself and have nobody to blame. I started off good when teaching science, but then lost my way.

My oldest son was a bit precocious when it came to learning and I fed his science love through hands-on experiments.

Simply doing something hands-on two or three times a week was the best start to science. We used several books. Two of them are below.

When they were young, it is more important for them to delight in learning. Understanding all the science and why’s behind an experiment comes later.

Then, I made the big science goof and gave up hands-on activities when they got a bit older in elementary grades. I fell victim to the thinking they had to only now write papers, do vocabulary and keep science journals. Instead of adding that AND keeping the hands-on, I got unbalanced and let the hands-on activities fall by the side. All along all I needed to do was to revamp my schedule to allow more time for science. I finally did that, but not before I lost a few precious years with my oldest son.

Hands-On Science or Picky Choosers?

So one hallmark of a well rounded out science program is plenty of hands-on projects. And, it should stay that way all the way to high school.

Science is about doing, not just reading or watching somebody else do it.

After that there are other things you want to determine about a program before you buy. For example, if you are short on time already, then you may want to purchase premade kits.

List at this list of questions:

Is it secular or Christian? Which do you want?	Can it be used for multiple ages?
Do you want to learn by subject matter (unit studies) or by mixing and matching topics similar to a textbook?	As the kids get older, supplies like microscopes cost a bit more. How many supplies do you need?
Are science kits available? Or, do you have to gather your own supplies?	Do the children learn at the computer part of the time? Is it all computer reading or part book and part computer or all book?
If you don’t have a science background, then you may want a more helpful teacher guide. How helpful is the teacher guide? Does it have thorough explanations or is it an answer sheet only?

Superb Science Schedules

After you decide what is important to you in a science curriculum, then you have to make time to do all of those wonderful hands-on science activities.

Don’t do the same thing I did and try to make a middle school budding scientist work on a toddler approved schedule.

Increase the time for science as they get older so that they know how to both research and note their findings AND have time to test those ideas, i.e. hands-on activities.

Too, along the 6th grade or so, you can start off your day with science which is a content subject instead of the skill subjects. Hopefully, this is past the time your children struggle with the skill subjects.

You know I am a firm believe in writing it all out and that means a schedule too. Write it all so that you not only see it, but that you as the teacher stick to it. This will help your children have well-rounded out days. Too, seeing it keeps these ideas from being “pie in the sky” dreams, but makes them reality.

Look at these options.

Schedule.		Science Here.
Mon. – Fri. until noon ALL the skill subjects are to be done.		Mon. – Fri. Science every afternoon for an hour.
Mon. – Fri. until noon ALL the skill subjects are to be done.		Mon. Wed. Fri. Alternating days to switch with another content subject like history or geography.
Mon. – Fri. until noon ALL the skill subjects are to be done.		Mon. Tue. Two back to back afternoons of science or visa versa make it W,T,F.
Mon. – Fri. start off with science and then start your skill subjects.

The two main keys to being sure you cover science is to 1) not push the skill subjects past the time they are suppose to be done. I have heard of drill sergeants moms who feel that all lesson plans have to be done before you move on to the other fun subjects. Skill subjects need to stay to the time scheduled by you.

Remember, it is the *time* for learning that needs to be scheduled, not necessarily the lesson plan. As long as they are doing it, they are learning. And, the next 2) thing to do is schedule it. Just do it.

Though I have used parts of two science curricula, I have never used all of any one curriculum. I simply used what I needed from each one.

What about you? How does your schedule look for science? Do you have any more tips for Laura?

Too, if you don’t remember the difference between the skill and content subjects, look at my post below:

5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together – Day 4: Embrace Homeschooling Multiple Grades

Hugs and love ya,

Linking to

Free Printable. New Year = New Goals.

December 27, 2013 | 4 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I can’t believe the year is almost ending. It has been a crazy hectic one for us, but I always like to take time to reflect not just on the past, but to look forward to the new year with goals.

I felt like I needed a fresh new printable for doing that this coming year. I needed something a little more generic that lets me decide what goals I want to make instead of focusing on only the 4 areas of education or homeschool, health, spiritual and personal goals that I normally focus on and that are on the printable I already have. So I created this new one for us.

What do you think? Now, I can jot down 3 things that I want to improve or do more of and 3 things I need to do less of.

Download the new year – new goals printable here.

Don’t forget, I have 2 other printables too. One is Goals for the Year and the other one is an End of the Year Flashback for the kids. It has several color choices too.

To download the Goals for the Year go to my page Step 3. Choose Goal/Objectives.

For the End of the Year Flash Back go to my page on my sister site, New Bee Homeschooler on the Free Student Planner page.

What about you? Have you thought of something you want to change this year?

Hugs and love ya,

Linking Up

Homeschool Planner Cover – Blue Serenity	Homeschool Planner 1 – Melting Bubble Gum	Free Homeschool Planner Cover Point Well Taken
Free 2014 Year Around Homeschool Planning Schedule	Goal Setting	2 Pages Per Month At A Glance Academic Calendar
Curriculum Pages for Planner â�� Homeschool Plannerâ��Free Inside Title Page	Year Round Homeschool Planning Schedule – Option 1	Year Round Homeschool Planning Schedule. Color Option 2.
Day 5. Creating Unit Study Objectives. 10 Days of Diving Into Unit Studies by Creating a Unit Study	Free Curriculum Cklist Thru 12th Gr	Free Academic School Calendar 2014-2015 1 of 3 {Maybe}

Welcome

Homeschool Planner Cover

40 Reasons I Homeschool (And Growing Each Year)

40 Reasons I Homeschool

Beethoven & The French Revolution Minibook (Music Unit Study)

Dynamic Reader Question–How To Get All those Homeschool Science Experiments Done?

Hands-On Science or Picky Choosers?

Superb Science Schedules

Free Printable. New Year = New Goals.

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40 Reasons I Homeschool

Hands-On Science or Picky Choosers?

Superb Science Schedules

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