Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

dy•nam•ic constant change, progress, activity

Be an Exceptional Homeschool Teacher

15 Old-Fashioned Useful Skills Homeschoolers Love To Teach

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

Here are 15 old-fashioned useful skills homeschoolers love to teach. Also, look at my page The Dynamics of How to Homeschool Easily and Smarter.

Whether you didn’t learn these skills in school or you’re determined to give your children the best education you’ll love these useful skills to teach.

Besides, teaching only academics and not life skills is a huge flaw in the educational world. We don’t want to repeat that same nonsense thinking.

15 Old-Fashioned Useful Skills Homeschoolers Love To Teach

So we choose to intentionally teach what other educators view as vintage or old-fashioned because we know some obsolete skills prepare today’s kids for adulthood.

Look at these 15 skills, academic or otherwise which homeschoolers still love to teach.

Old-Fashioned Skills for Today’s Kids

1. Cursive writing.

Unless a child has a special need, most homeschooling parents know that learning to write and cursive writing are valuable skills.

Beyond the fact that most early documents were hand-written, cursive writing supports hand-eye coordination and can reduce letter reversals.

Look at some of my tips below about how I teach writing.

2 Finance

3 Accounting

4 Budgeting

5 Money Management

6 Writing a Check

Yes they are all very different skill sets.

Although they are connected learning to budget and run a household is different than money management.

Money management is not only a skill used in personal life but can be applied to a business.

You want your children to have as many as they can get while living with you.

Today’s kids learn early how to use a debit or credit card without knowing what is a budget or knowing ways to rein in their spending.

Subjects Not Taught in Public School

Distinguishing between a need versus a want is an extremely valuable skill to teach kids.

Not teaching a kid about finances while in middle or high school or even earlier may set him up for much debt later in life.

Too, many places of business still use paper checks.

Teaching our kids both how to write out a check and how to make a bank deposit in person are necessary skills for adulting.

Next, look at these books about money and look at Whatever Happened To Penny Candy?: A Fast, Clear, and Fun Explanation of the Economics You Need for Success in Your Career, Business, and Investments.

8 Rad Money Resources to Teach Money For All Ages

Grab some of these money resources to teach your children about how to save and budget money.

Not Your Parents' Money Book: Making, Saving, and Spending Your Own Money

For the first time, financial guru and TODAY Show regular Jean Chatzky brings her expertise to a young audience. Chatzky provides her unique, savvy perspective on money with advice and insight on managing finances, even on a small scale. This book will reach kids before bad spending habits can get out of control. With answers and ideas from real kids, this grounded approach to spending and saving will be a welcome change for kids who are inundated by a consumer driven culture. This book talks about money through the ages, how money is actually made and spent, and the best ways for tweens to earn and save money.

The Toothpaste Millionaire

Sixth-grader Rufus Mayflower is betting that he can make a whole gallon of toothpaste for the same price as one tube from the store.
There’s just one problem, he has to solve real-life mathematical
equations first! With help from his good friend Kate Mackinstrey, can
these two entrepreneurs keep up with the high demand for their popular product? Beloved children’s author Jean Merrill introduces readers to the ins and outs of a budding business, from costs to profits, in this exciting tale about perseverance, ingenuity, and underdogs.

Learning Resources Money Bags Coin Value Game

  • MONEY GAME FOR KIDS: Players collect, count, and exchange money all the way to the finish line
  • MONEY SKILLS: Learn valuable money skills through fun game play
  • PLAY MONEY: Includes game board with spinner, 100 plastic coins, play bills, markers, and dice

Smart Money Smart Kids - Raising the Next Generation to Win with Money

In Smart Money Smart Kids, financial expert and best-selling author Dave Ramsey and his daughter Rachel Cruze equip parents to teach their children how to win with money. Starting with the basics like working, spending, saving, and giving, and moving into more challenging issues like avoiding debt for life, paying cash for college, and battling discontentment, Dave and Rachel present a no-nonsense, common-sense approach for changing your family tree.

I Want More Pizza: Real World Money Skills For High School, College, And Beyond

The perfect gift! Give the gift of financial literacy to your teen - they will thank you for a lifetime. You are not alone; it is often difficult to reach young adults on the topic of money management, but look no further. I Want More Pizza finally has teenagers excited about personal finance and is giving them the confidence that they can succeed. This resource is being used in classrooms around the nation as young adults enjoy the pizza model for learning about money management. Now available for the first time for you to bring into your home, give your young adult the gift of financial literacy and they will thank you for a lifetime. Primary topics discussed include saving, spending, prioritization, goal setting, compound growth, investing, debt, credit cards, student loans, mental blocks, and taking real world action.I am sure you have heard a few of these: "I don't need it", "I'm too young", "I need to spend my money on _____ ", and the list goes on. The pizza model for learning personal finance breaks down those barriers because, well, everyone loves pizza! Just because money management is extremely important doesn't mean that it has to be extremely complex. I Want More Pizza leaves them in complete control to find the plan that works for your young adult - it's their choice. If they don't enjoy math or don't like to plan, no problem, we've got them covered as well. And it's only ~100 pages, which young adults love given their busy social calendars. Money doesn't have to be stressful. Finally reach your young adult and help them become financially literate for a lifetime. After all, there is a lot of pizza in life to enjoy!

Managing Your Money (Usborne Life Skills)

This down-to-earth guide is filled with practical advice on everything from how to budget and be a smart shopper to student loans, mortgages and insurance. An essential book for equipping young people with the skills they need to manage their money now and in the future. Includes links to websites with more tips and advice.

12 Ways for a Homeschooled Teen to Earn Money - A Budding Entrepreneur?

Long before they are of age to start working, kids want their own money. And whether they count bricks at a construction site as a kid like my entrepreneur husband did or just want some spending money, kids are looking for creative ways to earn their own bucks.

Economics for Beginners

Nobody has everything they need, all the time – so how can we make do with what we have? Economics is all about understanding the choices we make to solve this problem. With bright, infographics pictures, this informative book describes why markets are so important, how businesses work out what to sell, and how governments choose how to run a country. Includes Usborne Quicklinks to specially selected websites for more information.

And look at my post 12 Ways for a Homeschooled Teen to Earn Money – A Budding Entrepreneur.

7. How to do taxes.

My kids started working while in high school and although they didn’t make enough to have to prepare a tax return, we still helped them prepare one.

When a child is living on his own he’ll have a basic understanding of tax deadlines and taxes.

He manages adult responsibilities way better than if you had never introduced basic tax how-tos.

8. How to cook from scratch.

The pandemic of 2020 is a perfect example of how life can throw a huge curve.

Because we want our kids self-sufficient, teaching them to cook from scratch like baking basic bread or from what is on hand saves money, teaches independence, and can be healthier.

Look below at a few ways I incorporated this into our learning day:

9. How to fill out a job application and how to do a job interview.

When I helped my first teen fill out a job application, it was hilarious.

School Doesn’t Prepare Us for Life

Although he knew what it was from the exploring career opportunities course in high school, preparing one was quite different.

To this day, he still thanks me and his dad for helping him to look at his set of skills both strengths and weakness realistically.

However, nothing compared to seeing him get ready for his first job interview.

He was pretty comfortable looking to apply for a job that required a dress jacket.

Just a word of advice, be sure your teen knows how employees are expected to dress after you go over your dos and don’ts for a first-time job interview.

10. Learn to read a map.

I love GPS too, but if you’ve ever hiked or walked in a remote area your cell phone is not really a good bet.

Besides learning about scale and distances, a map can teach local geography and can teach us what is around us.

No cell phone service needed.

Things No Longer Taught in School

Maps are engaging and foster a love of learning about places along the way instead of just getting to a point like a gps.

We can use both in our everyday and not let a generation grow up equipped without engaging with a map.

11. Diagramming a sentence.

To understand how words need to be arranged in a sentence to make their thoughts clearer, kids need many ways to learn word arrangement.

When kids have to break down or diagram each part of a sentence it leaves no room for ambiguity. This teaching technique still helps many students.

12. Auto upkeep.

Whether the tires need air or not, when and how to change the oil, and basic upkeep to maintain your safety and the life of a vehicle are important skills to know.

13. Home Economic skills.

I know home economics courses are now called some fancy name like Family And Consumer Sciences.

That is another post for me, but kids need to know how to read recipes, count food portions, food storage, food prep ideas and how to eat healthy.

And while we can teach these skills separately, it’s much easier to teach them while on the job.

Assigning your kids the responsibility to make a grocery list or a meal for the family works.

I started with easy meal ideas for my kids to make for the family and as they grew, so did the cooking skills.

Benefits of Life Skills

In addition, teaching a kid basic sewing can be a lost skill.

Back in the day learning basic sewing skills was a must because all clothes were hand-made. Learning how to sew on a button is still a valuable skill.

14. Latin.

Latin used to be taught at in a lot of public schools.

Today, not all homeschoolers teach Latin, but a lot do.

We see the value of teaching our kids the roots of modern-day language and how to analyze root meanings.

15 Old-Fashioned Useful Skills Homeschoolers Love To Teach

The deductive reasoning used while learning Latin helped my kids to know how to critically think.

15. High School Shop Classes.

Classes like woodworking, metal, and drafting classes seem to be dwindling.

Those types of hand skills are being lost. Electricians, plumbers, and carpenters are valuable skills needed in our community.

Also, these classes were taught in high school so that a teen had time to pursue passions and some of the classes were segues to a higher degree.

These skills are not outdated in our home, but they are skills which propel our kids to the future. A future where our kids are truly prepared for whatever comes their way.

Old Fashioned But Timeless Skills

How can a kid learn about the human body without preparing a meal?

And how can a kid value how fast human history changes unless he can read the thoughts of the founding father in their handwriting  – cursive?

How can a child not be saddled with debt and stress the rest of his life unless we teach him now how to save and when to spend?

Look at some of these other reads:

We don’t have to make a choice between academics or old-fashioned practical skills a child should know. We want them both!

Hugs and love ya,

How to Mesh Your Personality With Homeschooling When They Collide

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

Today, I’m sharing how to mesh your personality with homeschooling.

We bring our view of what is education to the homeschool world based on our experiences. That’s not the shocking part. How to mesh our personality with homeschooling when they collide is the painful part.

If you’re like me, you’re a product of public school or maybe you fit in the category of being a public school teacher much like the ones I’ve mentored through the years.

When your idea of schooling is constant testing (without being state mandated), over technical lesson plans, and giving daily grades, it can collide with the relaxed homeschool approach.

How to implement the relaxed and successful approach of homeschooling while maintaining much needed guidance for your structured personality is not easy, but it’s possible.

Having started my journey being severely structured and then learning how to implement a delight-directed approach was a gradual process.

How to Mesh Your Personality with Homeschooling

I didn’t take years to adjust to a relaxed approach when I saw that the delight directed approach worked.

However, the organized part of my personality knew that some guidance was needed so important skills like math and writing did not get left out.

Using strengths to shore up weaknesses in my teaching style was the key for me.

Look at how I started slowly until I lit a fire in my kids for learning.

Tip 1: Start with a content subject.

It takes time to move away from segmented subjects and understand that all bodies of knowledge are connected.

So when going from structured to relaxed, start with history, geography, or science to get your feet wet. Look at Skill Subjects vs. Content Subjects: What’s the Difference.

The content subjects don’t have to be introduced or mastered in an exact order like skill subjects, which are the three Rs – reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic.

For example, if you choose to cover the American Civil War in 4th grade or 7th grade, there will not be any big gaps in your teaching.

You obviously would expect more research, writing, and maybe map work from a middle schooler than an elementary-aged kid, but that is the only difference.

Tip 2: Field Trips, Living Books, and Projects.

The next thing I had to quickly learn was that tools matter. You can’t expect a talented artist to create masterpieces with lame tools.

Kids are the same; learning tools don’t have to be expensive, but kids need relaxed and unstructured time to use them.

Throwing in a field trip as a second thought instead of being the major learning experience does not stir passion or kindle in the slightest a love of learning.

Surrounding your kids with living books, which are books that explain topics in story form, taking regular meaningful field trips and pursuing projects your kids are passionate about stokes the creative juices.

Look at 5 Steps to Choosing Geography Living Books Your Children Will Love and 13 Living History Books about Ancient Greece.

Also grab some tips from 22 Awesome Homeschool History Field Trips.

Tip 3: EVERYONE is passionate about something.

I hear it all the time.

My kid is not interested in anything. He just wants to play games or ride his bike, or ___ (insert anything here other than “school”). Even games can have educational value.

Turn fun into learning. This is the hard part for personalities who want to stay structured, but I have many examples to show you how. Here is one. Look at my post Screen-Free Educational Activities for Kids Who Love Video Games.

If you fill up every bit of time with scheduled activities, a child has no time to linger. He needs time to investigate, explore, and discover.

Lingering can produce laziness, but it can also produce a lively, energetic kid IF you provide opportunities.

Between you and I, it can be easier for a structured personality to do this because you have a natural bent toward wanting to be organized.

Look at the list below to provide opportunities:

  • introduce a totally different subject or course that your family doesn’t know much about like marine biology, interior design, or forensic science. What kid doesn’t want to learn about crime. Don’t focus on grading or completing, just introduce and whet your child’s appetite.
  • trade reading for doing. This is not so easy for structured folks who feel that reading a book completely equates to learning sticking. Reading recipes does not make an elite chef. Trading reading for doing looks like this: Instead of reading books only about being interested in pets or animals, volunteer at an animal shelter. If a child is too young, start an easy pet sitting business. When a child wants to learn about music, he plays a piano or guitar. When a child wants to learn about math, he bakes cookies, plays board games, learns by dominoes, learns by a card game, learns by hopscotch and can still read a book. When a teen wants to learn about law, call a law office and have him volunteer for a day or two a week.

The Difference Between Lazy and Relaxed Homeschooler

Tip 4: Turn your weakness into a strength.

One fear of relaxed homeschoolers is not covering everything. It’s the same fear for home educators who have a more structured approach.

Turn your weakness into a strength by creating organizational systems which align with a more relaxed approach.

Hear my heart when I say to let go of all organization is not the answer. It never worked for me. Find your balance by using what your gifts are for your kids.

From my struggle, I created the wildly popular 7 Step Homeschool Planner. It’s a powerful tool for relaxed organization.

More Transitioning to a Relaxed Homeschool Lifestyle Tips

A few key points to take away about my planner is that it’s UNDATED. That is huge for folks who feel once they’ve planned they are behind when the first sick day comes.

Not so with my undated planner. You simply stop schooling and pick up on the next lesson number.

In addition, my drive to do worksheets only turned to creating lapbooks for our unit studies for my kids. I have dozens of them for you here on my site.

I took a strength of organization and aligned it with a hands-on tool like lapbooks.

Finding the Non-School Homeschool Teacher Within

Look at these other ways you can use your strengths:

  • create a simple checklist of subjects for the day. Don’t tell the exacts if you want to add more delight-directed learning to your day. Simply put down your subjects like math, spelling, and vocabulary for the day. Challenge your kid to find a way to satisfy one of them with a non-traditional way to learn. Of course, don’t be like that lame artist or chef I mentioned earlier by not providing enough tools. Provide the tools and books and resources.
  • alternate subjects that you want covered like science and history instead of covering both on one day. This gives your child more time to research and delve into a topic.
  • provide visual communication of what you expect for the day. Visual communication like charts and calendars equals a powerful communicator.

One of the most important things to remember about relaxed or child-directed learning is that it looks different for each family.

One weave that is common among all families is that the parent is more of a facilitator. Tihs will help you to learn to blend your personality with homeschooling.

Think:

  • of your role as guiding instead of dictating,
  • how can you give more choices while still meeting your expectations for the day, and
  • how can I add other tools in my home so that passions are fed or discovered.
How to Mesh Your Personality With Homeschooling When They Collide.We bring our view of what is education to the homeschool world based on our experiences. That's not the shocking part. How to mesh our personality with homeschooling when they collide is the painful part. CLICK HERE if you want to go from structured to relax! #homeschool #homeschooling

Do not over complicate the process; use life happenings or natural things to be the teacher for you and your children.

Tip 5: Expand the definition of homeschool curriculum and use life happenings.

For example, use the seasons. Use springtime to make a garden, use winter to learn about winter birds or hibernation, use summer to learn about the ocean and ocean animals and used fall to learn about the cycles of life or the tides or moon.

Here are a few more of my units to help you get going and find the teacher within you and more important to mesh your personality with homeschooling.

The key to relaxed learning is use everything around you and everyday to teach.

The last important point to share is that you need to expand your definition of curriculum so your kids are not always sticking their nose in a book to learn something.

You know we love reading. A lot of homeschoolers are passionate about reading, but learning goes beyond that.

Look at 45 Ways to Define Homeschool Curriculum.

You’ve got this! Go now and conquer!♥

Hugs and love ya,

How to Begin Homeschooling A Teen Lagging Behind

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

How to begin homeschooling a teen lagging behind is at the tip-top of the list for new homeschooler anxieties. Also, look at my pages How to Successfully Homeschool Middle School and How to Homeschool High School.

Whether your teen is behind because of unplanned happenings in life, sickness, motivation, or natural struggles, I have four solid tips to give you an easy starting point.

One/Why your teen is lagging behind is key to where to begin.

When my husband had a massive heart attack, my first son had just started homeschooling high school. He was going to be behind for a while because our family life mattered more.

How to begin homeschooling a teen lagging behind is at the tip-top of the list for new homeschooler anxieties. Whether your teen is behind because of unplanned happenings in life, sickness, motivation, or natural struggles, CLICK here for four solid tips to give you an easy starting point!! #homeschool #newhomeschooler #homeschoolingteens #howtohomeschool

Homeschooled Teens Behind

Identifying why your teen is behind will give both of you the right mindset for a starting point. Although my teen didn’t want to be in that situation (who does), he knew that it was going to take him longer to finish than we planned.

Family situations like extended sicknesses can’t be helped and a positive attitude is needed first before moving on.

Practical Tip One: Don’t bring more stress than you have now by setting unrealistic expectations for catching up.

Put aside the regular public school schedule and be determined to school year round to catch him up. Even in states where you have to keep the 180 lesson planning days it doesn’t mean you can’t have make up days.

In homeschool we learn 24/7/365. Think outside of the box as to when your teen can learn and then create a doable schedule.

Practical Tip Two: Is he lacking in motivation? There is a reason for that. Success is tied to motivation and motivation is key to success.

The approach used in public school for teens is completely different than the independent model used in the homeschool approach.

You’ll not gain traction by bringing your teen home and duplicating the same process at home. It won’t work. You’ll get the same results you’re getting now in public school.

Motivation can stem from boredom, lack of freedom, continually focusing on what your teen is not good at instead of his passions and strengths.

What is needed first is dialog with your teen to help him understand why he is lacking in motivation.

Getting a Homeschooled Teen on Track

Instead of telling him what needs to do to succeed, you need to draw him out with questions.

Asking him questions about his future stirs his emotion and feeds his motivation to see that his success is dependent on him.

Benefits spark motivation. You need to draw him out to list how your new homeschooling lifestyle will benefit him.

I always encourage you to have him take notes and write it down. That way it’s not so easy to forget.

Your list of positives for homeschooling your teen can include these:

  • No forced schedule. A teen needs lots of sleep and learning can take place around the need for rest and good healthy food.
  • No constant pressure to take drugs or have sex.
  • A teen can pursue his passions and take alternate courses for subjects he will actually use in life. For example, some kids will not ever be math minded. Having a solid foundation for basic math with two years of math in high school may be good enough. You decide now as a family what will be your course.
  • A teen can take jobs that work around his school schedule.
  • Bullying and labeling are not part of everyday homeschooling.

Practical Tip Three: Make a list of the benefits of homeschooling. This is very important whether your teen agreed with the choice to homeschool or not. Benefits and payoffs for a homeschooled teen are huge.

No, he won’t have all the answers to your questions, but you’re giving him control over his future. You want him to learn how to have internal dialog.

You’re changing his future by changing the way both of you tackle this struggle.

Teaching Gaps in Homeschooled Teens

And yes, I know you want academic pointers and they’re coming, but this fine point is the difference between a homeschooled teen who tackles a set back successfully and one who stays crippled into adulthood.

Control over his future doesn’t mean he has to do it with no guidance from you. That would not be responsible for a child at any age. A teen especially benefits from your guidance – NOW. He needs you more than ever.

TWO/ Core or skill subjects are the framework of all successful education. Trim the fat by focusing ONLY on them.

Simplicity is the key to catching up and that means an easy workload each day is absolutely necessary.

Public school would have you think that 10 or more subjects is normal; it absolutely is not normal. More does not equal more better.

There is a difference between an easy workload and easy courses. I’ll mention some resources in a minute that will help your teen to sharpen his skills.

Core subjects (no this isn’t common core) are the framework or building elements your teen needs to succeed. We normally call this the Three Rs – reading, writing, and arithmetic.

The homeschool law in your state is your FIRST starting point because they will state which subjects are core.

That is ALL that matters right now. As you have time to catch up after the setback, you can add in other subjects.

More Transition from Public School To Homeschool Resources

In addition, as you can see two of the Three Rs are language arts related. So it’s possible to use one resource to cover two of the basics of any well-rounded education. It’s that easy to catch up.

If you’re looking to begin homeschooling, my online self-paced boot camp may be for you. It will benefit the 1st and 2nd year homeschooler the most.

And of course I always welcome your questions. Click here to read about the self-paced online homeschool boot camp.

Practical Tip Four: The easy starting point for the basic subjects is your state law. Start with the required subjects.

Do not saddle your teen right now with everything to catch him up. He will not quickly progress and it can backfire because it will strip his confidence even more.

Bottom line is that the content information that teens need to learn vary from state to state, but the core or skills subjects are needed for him to succeed across the board.

Three/ Use homeschool resources that are not baby-ish and that equally speed up the body of knowledge needed.

The last thing a homeschooled teen needs is to be reminded daily of his struggle.

And although an all in one homeschool curriculum will get you started homeschooling, it can be better to piece meal the subjects your teens need. You get to the heart of the struggler quicker.

I have found some resources that not only shore up weak areas in the skill subjects, but that are not baby-ish. We have used these when life happens and when we needed to catch up quickly.

This first resource The Language Mechanic: Tuning Up English With Logic, Grades 4-7 is not only a super way to catch up a teen with the basics of English, but it’s fun.

It has short, but challenging lessons.

The best part is that there are examples that illustrate the humor in using English incorrectly.

Your teens will love the witty examples.

As you can see below in one page of the table of contents there are a variety of basic skills reviewed and it’s a multiple grade resource.

Another resource that works well for teens who may have gaps in their learning are the Quick Study Guides.

Organizing your teen so that he can quickly find the skills he needs without tons of time is how to keep the stress level minimal and encourage independence.

How to Fill In Learning Holes

Add these quick study guides to a notebook and your teen can use them as a reference or basic outline for a subject. Look at how to put together a homeschooled high school writer’s notebook.

Writing tips, English Fundamentals, English Grammar and Punctuation, Chemistry, Research Papers, Math Fundamentals and the list just goes on of these wonderful tiny power packs of information.

Also, science and history subjects are available for the Quick Study Guides.

Another quick and no fuss no frills resource to bring up math skills is the Key to series.

Each packet of 10 booklets or so is designated with a specific math topic/skill so that you can zero in on the math skill your teen needs to review or learn.

Four/Use Out of the Box Options – Accelerated high School, dual credit, Online Tutors and Online Videos are otherv options.

Bright teens may be lacking motivation because they may want to get on with their goals.

Dual credit at a community college where a teen earns high school and college credit simultaneously can be a great way to capture any time lost learning.

The student simply moves forward where he is at, but now has greater motivation for learning when he meeting his future goals. Check with your local community college for the criteria for dual credit.

Also, there is an accelerated high school program by Malibu Cove High School that been around for years. A teen can receive their diploma in 6 to 9 months instead of four years from an accredited school if you need that.

Four/Relationship is more important than academics.

Hear my heart when I tell you that when your kids are grown and gone, they’ll never fondly remember the academics. They will remember how you made them feel when you’re going through stressful times.

Whether you’re determining if your teen’s lagging behind is aptitude or attitude or he got behind because of sicknesses or general boredom in public school, your relationship with him matters the most.

Be patient to find the solution and quick to help him gain traction again.

And of course, if you have any questions drop them below or hit REPLY!

How to begin homeschooling a teen lagging behind is at the tip-top of the list for new homeschooler anxieties. Whether your teen is behind because of unplanned happenings in life, sickness, motivation, or natural struggles, CLICK here for four solid tips to give you an easy starting point!! #homeschool #newhomeschooler #homeschoolingteens #howtohomeschool

Look at these other ways or tips to help you fill the academic holes:

Hugs and love ya,

10 Fun Amazon Prime Movies for the Youngest Homeschoolers

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

Occupying or teaching the youngest homeschoolers can be tough. Whether you need a break from the little dears or you need to give the older set of kids your time, you’ll love these 10 fun Amazon Prime movies for the youngest homeschoolers.

10 Fun Amazon Prime Movies

Too, add in a few of these hands-on things I list below each movie and you can have a fun and full homeschool day without much fuss.

Look at these 10 fun Amazon Prime movies you can stream anywhere you have Amazon Prime:

10 Fun Amazon Prime Movies for the Youngest Homeschoolers

Justin Time

Follow Justin and his friends . . . as their imagination takes them to bite size historical adventures – from building a giant stone monolith without cutting corners, to a balloon journey in Paris!

Team Umizoomi

Use your mighty math powers to race around Umi City, explore super shapes and turn Umicar into a firetruck, and save Bot on his crazy skates! . . .

Magic School Bus Gets Lost in Space.


Climb aboard the Magic School Bus with Ms. Frizzle and her class for a wild ride . . . as they learn about science first-hand in this . . . science-adventure

Add in a few science kits and have a movie and science day!

Amazon Prime Movies for Young Learners

Reading Rainbow

Skill Sharpeners for Grades PreK, K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Odd Squad

Designed to help kids ages 5-8 learn math. The show focuses on two young agents, Olive and Otto, who are part of the Odd Squad . . . whose mission is to save the day whenever something unusual happens in their town.

Daniel Tiger

Leapfrog

Tumble Leaf

Tumble Leaf is a series aimed at preschoolers, set in a whimsical land where a small blue fox named Fig plays each day and discovers adventure . . . around every bend in the path.

Nature Cat

An animated series that follows Fred, a house cat who dreams of exploring the great outdoors. Once his family leaves for the day, Fred transforms into Nature Cat, an outdoor explorer extraordinaire . . .

Occupying or teaching the youngest homeschoolers can be tough. Whether you need a break from the little dears or you need to give the older set of kids your time, you'll love these 10 fun Amazon Prime movies for the youngest homeschoolers.

You’ll love these other fun things to do:

7 Simple Fitness Tips for Busy Homeschooling Moms

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

Do you have fitness goals you’re struggling to achieve? Have you started that workout plan over for the 7th time this week? Maybe you’re kicking yourself because you’ve let another month’s gym membership go to waste? You are not alone! You’ll love these 7 simple fitness tips for busy homeschooling moms.

Finding time to meet your fitness goals can be a challenge, but you are worth it!

Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor or professional. Just a busy wife and mom who used to be a lot lazier. I’ve run three half marathons, love yoga, running, and paddle boarding. I’m happier when I’m focused on my personal fitness goals, but that’s all the expertise I have. Please speak to your doctor about your plans and goals. These are some ways I’ve been able to meet my own fitness goals and I hope they help you too!

Here are some practical tips to help get your fitness goals off to a fabulous start.

ONE/ Make workouts a priority.

When you think about your family’s schedule, which seems more realistic:

• Early for morning workouts before the day begins.
• Mid-day slump-busting workouts.
• Evening/night-time sessions after the daily grind of the day.

Find your sweet spot. For me, it was waking up early and getting in my runs before the family even woke up.

I’m naturally a morning person and do better knowing I started the day right. I’m also more motivated to make better food choices throughout the day after having busted my tail working out.

Maybe you’re kicking yourself because you’ve let another month’s gym membership go to waste? You are not alone! You'll love these 7 simple fitness tips for busy homeschooling moms.

TWO/ Start small.

You want your fitness goals to be a challenge, but don’t set yourself up for failure. Set attainable goals that you know you can achieve. Don’t run out and sign your life away to a gym or spend a bunch of money on a subscription to workouts you’ll never use.

Let’s all have a moment of silence for DVDs workouts of years past.

Find a workout plan different than what you’ve tried in the past and just get moving with a simple goal to workout three times a week. For someone who is starting from zero, it’s going to take time getting used to sticking to a workout schedule and prioritizing.

THREE/ Set goals.

Once you have found the workout plan that best fits your needs, set goals. What is the best part of setting a goal and achieving it? The Rewards! Don’t forget to treat yourself when you meet your goal.

What are your fitness goals? Write them down. Take a “before” picture of yourself so you can see your progress off the scale as the weeks progress. You’ll be surprised how much difference you can see in the mirror before the scale even cares about your workouts!

Fitness Tips for Homeschooling Moms

FOUR/ Create a schedule.

You’ve got the plan, commitment, and motivation. Now let’s make it happen!

Sit down with your calendar and pencil in your workouts when you plan to get them in. Each week is different especially if you’re a homeschooling family.

That flexibility of schedule gets too flexible sometimes! Our schedule is often all over the place, so I begin the week by creating a plan with specific times I plan to get to my workout each day.

Saying I plan to workout on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday is all good until Monday comes and I forgot I had to drive to three appointments.

Having a schedule with actual times of the day in the margin helps me so much when carving out time for workouts.


FIVE/ Be accountable to a friend or group.

Find a friend who’s willing to go on this fitness journey with you.

I’m positive I would not have made it through training for my first half marathon if it weren’t for the daily encouragement from a dear friend who shared the same goal. We wanted to run a half marathon; we found a training plan online and trained “together”.

We planned some days for long runs together, but for the most part we encouraged each other by text messages throughout the week, reminding each other to get our miles in.

A little competition never killed anyone. Some days it was a simple screenshot of her run results to motivate me to get off my lazy butt and get my run in too.

You can also find encouragement and accountability through joining a gym, yoga studio, finding a meetup, or event online.

You’d be surprised how many free fitness classes you can find in your area simply by searching through Facebook events. There are also endless options of online fitness programs with active communities.

SIX/ Let go of guilt.

A healthy mom is a happy mom. The time you put in to invest in your health will trickle down to your family in ways you might not expect.

There will be times when focusing on yourself and making your workouts a priority will feel selfish. There will inevitably be a time when you will have to choose your fitness goals over something else.

Don’t let mom guilt get in the way of where you want to go!

SEVEN/ Involve the family.

Do you know a great cure for feeling guilty? Invite the family along!

One of two things will happen. They will turn you down immediately and laugh at your invitation to go running and you will be able to enjoy the time alone guilt free or they will join you and get excited about getting fit too. It happens!

If you’re doing home workouts, the whole family will see you sweating your buns off in the living room. It’s quite the mood booster when my boys are laughing at me trying to work out without dying.

I’ll never forget my Brazil Butt Lift DVD days. Those were comical workouts! Lord, help those boys.

Speaking of home workouts…

Homeschool Fitness Tips

Home workouts vs. Gym memberships or in-person classes.

It’s hard to know what your magic fitness formula will be, but expect some trial and error. In the beginning just focus on the basics: routine, exercise, and healthier habits.

Finding the right workouts will be key! You want to enjoy your workouts and not dread getting out the door or up off the couch to do them.

What works best for you? Working out at home or joining a gym or club? There are pros and cons to both. Play around with each. Most gyms and yoga studios have a visitor and new member specials.

I don’t think I’ve ever been to a yoga studio that didn’t offer some type of first-month rate at an extremely low price.

Home Workouts for Homeschool Families

Pros
• Convenient-You can find just about any workout online. Home workouts can be done at any time of day, any day of the week, so it’s easy to fit them into your schedule.
• Low cost (often free)-there are so many apps and online programs to choose from and many are very inexpensive. Even the most popular of fitness apps don’t compare to in-person memberships.
• You can work out in PJs-you don’t have to get ready or worry about having cute workout clothes.
• Easy for kids to join. (YAY for PE credit!)

Cons
• Easily interrupted-Nothing is more frustrating than carving out the time, getting dressed, or lacing up those shoes only to be interrupted by kids, a phone call, pets, etc. Being home makes it a little more challenging to fully focus on your workouts.
• Low accountability-there are no set times and anyone to motivate you. It’s all on you!
• Less mental break-Some days, pushing the coffee table out of the way and sweating in my living room just isn’t motivating enough.

Gym memberships & in-person classes for Homeschoooling Families

Pros
• Training-This is a big one for me. You get what you pay for. In most cases, membership is going to give you access to the professional training of some kind. Having someone instruct your positions or teach how to properly use equipment makes a huge difference in your work out and your results.

• Accountability
• Firm schedule
• More mental break – change of environment, getting out

Cons
• Must leave kids, often a challenge
• Cost is usually higher
• Time constraint-not only do you have to make class times, but travel time to and from the class adds to the constraint as well.
• Stress hanging over your head when you can’t make it. UGH! I’m guilty of paying for memberships and yoga passes only to let them go to waste. That is a big downer and makes you feel like a failure.

At home or away, you need to find the workouts that are the perfect fit for you! I do best when I mix things up with a little of both worlds.

Homeschool Fitness: Nutrition, Vitamins and Doctors.

I can’t stress enough how it important it is to take care of yourself behind the scenes. Drink the water. Take your vitamins. Get your physicals, mammograms, and annual exams! What’s the point of taking the time to get fit, if we’re not going to get healthy on the inside too?

Deal with anxiety and depression. Those two will really mess up your goals! Don’t be afraid to talk to your doctor about medication if needed.

There is NO shame in that! Your fitness journey will be so much easier with a clear mindset when it comes to your health.

Get to those doctor appointments you’ve been procrastinating and find a healthy meal plan that matches your goals and needs.

Maybe you’re kicking yourself because you’ve let another month’s gym membership go to waste? You are not alone! You'll love these 7 simple fitness tips for busy homeschooling moms.

What fitness tips would you add to the list?

Let’s make this year count!

You’ll love these other reads: