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Purdy Purdy Pink – Homeschool Graduation

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I fibbed. I know I said the inspire me review & giveaway was next, but over the weekend, I went to a homeschool graduation from one of the  families in my group and  it was so jaw dropping beautiful I had to share with you some visual eye candy. I don’t know if it was because we got our first day of cool weather or if because the graduation reminded me of the traditions I grew up with on my dad’s side of the family but it was a super Sunday for us. If I would have had a girl {sigh} this party reminded me of some of the girly girl things I would want.

Besides, who else but homeschoolers can have graduation parties anytime of the year and the rest of us not think anything about it?

This was the table you saw when you entered. I had to use white over her name but I don’t think that takes away from her beautiful entry table. I heart how she decorated a keepsake graduation hat.

On another graduation hat on the entry table they had all the guests to sign it. You see those guys in the back ground with white shirts and black pants. They were servers. We had a sit down meal with our own servers. Can you guess by now her favorite color?

Purdy purdy pink centerpiece table decorations.

The candy buffet was so beautiful and intricately done. It took me a few pictures to look at every detail.

Look at these numbers. She had taken pictures of her field trips, family and friends and added them to the numbers 2012 as another keepsake.

Mr. Senior 2013 may not be so interested in things like that but I know it is a great keepsake idea for graduation.

All the eye to details made the candy buffet eye candy.

You can see the reaction of Mr. Awesome when I ask him if he sees any ideas I could use at his graduation party. Okay, okay, I know you appreciate this "fine art". So the candy buffet table was not to be out done by the 3rd table.

The cake table.

There were three different flavors of cupcakes to choose from.

The cakes were as delicious as they looked.

Did I tell you one of the things I really heart about this graduation was that everything was lovingly made by all the family and extended family? The aunt made the cupcakes and cake and help decorated. She homeschools too and her boys are young. I can’t wait to see her boys’ graduation parties. The meal was prepared by the dad who loves to cook. It was so DE-LISH. It was smoked chicken strips and beef tenderloin in a southern cajun seafood sauce on a bad of jasmine rice.

Mr. Senior 2013 snapped this picture of the Mr. and me before the party started. I told you it was cool weather here because my hair gets more wild and big. Hubby is feeling better each day. It has been a long road to recovery. Some days good, other days not so good but one day at a time we take it.

There is the guest of honor. Her parents had got her the most frilly foo foo purdy pink dress. I snapped this picture of Mr. Senior 2013 right when the dance started before anybody else got up. My travel point and shoot camera is not so good on moving action photos but overall it was such a fun night for all of us. The family went to such great lengths to show their appreciation to not only me and my family for helping them on their homeschool journey but for all the support they got from friends. Going sappy on you here. To see little girls turn into such beautiful Christian woman, it stirs my heart.

I hope maybe it gives you an idea or two when it comes time to prepare for graduation in your family. It comes quicker than you realize.

I promise this time, a giveaway is next.

Meso-America Free lapbook is in the works. I have a printable for the student planner that was a special request. Pictures to share of the few changes I made to our school area and a little bit on organization of the kitchen is still coming.

Hugs today, you know I love ya,

School Room Tips!

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Not every year have I had a school room. I know I mentioned it before, but if I was told once I was told numerous times that I would never use a room. That was far from true.

What I have learned is that opinions and advice come from “perspective”. Don’t they all? :o)  Look at some school room tips!

Homeschooling from the beginning, I can say that a designated school area went a long way to training my toddler and preschoolers to sit down quietly for a few minutes.

school room tips

It kept crafts, toys and books to one area thus helping me in keeping my house more organized while the children were young and I had minimal help. I did not ruin them by thinking that learning only happened in “one” room. But it might have ruined me…lol if I had let messes be ALL over the house.

Now. that my newborn is 10 years old, we do school at the dining room table, however, I STILL have a designated area of the house where all of our curriculum is kept.

Here are some of my school room tips:

1.If you have space, consider having a school area and train the children to put things back.

2. The best stores that had great storage items through the years were Target and Ikea.

3. In the spring time, look at the hardware section for children. I use bright plastic colored buckets available at spring time for supplies. Kid size lawn chairs for them to sit and read in was a big hit.

4. Not all ideas of public school are bad. The best thing that worked for me is a kidney shaped table that was adjustable. Myself and all the kids could sit around it and do crafts and write.

5.If your children are all very young, consider “stations” in your room. One table was crafts, one table was “writing” and another was file folder games. This allowed me to work 1:1 with one child while the others were in the same room with us.

6. Clear plastic containers from the dollar store with a screw lid was the best storage items when the kids were young. We could clearly see what was inside, it was safe for my toddler but yet they couldn’t open it so I could keep it down on lower shelves.

7. I bought a small forward facing book shelf (the kind use too in public school) that was child height that I could switch out classical books each week on. I would choose some from the library and some I had and I would give my young children “choices”. The point here is that I could still guide them to good literature but it allow them to “think” they had freedom. In their free time, they would choose a book.

8. My husband put up a clothes line and attached it almost to the ceiling for me. He zig zagged it back/forth so I would have more than “one” line. I attached all the art work with clothes pin and hung it from there.

9. When my children got older, I also used a “bar height” activity table that had drop down leaves on both sides. My space was limited in that room so the activity table was perfect.

Chairs were important then because I needed chairs that had bars for their feet to rest on since we were sitting up real high. So be careful not to pick just any barstool.

The activity table was purchased at a huge furniture store and was intended for an island in the kitchen but was PERFECT for our limited space. It had TONS of storage under it. It had two shelves and we put away our curriculum under it. When the leaves folded up and extended, we pulled the chairs up to it.

10. If you have room for bookshelves think: some closed storage and some open storage. Closing off and not seeing messes goes a long way for sanity.

Also, for cheaper versions or even more sturdy shelves look at Automotive Shop stores that have brightly colored shelves that are aluminum. Some roll and some do not. I used those too. They are cheaper but still nice if you can get them in black or red as they do not intend for them to be used in the home. They are sturdy, have plenty of storage, cost less and even lock. I used steel hooks to hang items off the side of them. They are great too for storing small items like lapbook items along with sewing containers.

Hope you are inspired to try out a designated area.

Hugs

©Tina Robertson

Unfolding of a Unit Study + Meso-America {printable}

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

I think the longer you homeschool the more you rebel start making your own pathways. It’s no secret we absolutely love unit studies. I am not an “all or nothing” girl when I homeschool and I try to encourage ones I lead to not be either. Taking an all or nothing approach like only using textbooks, or only lapbooks or only unit studies, I feel, can burn you out or not make you spread out and enjoy the flexibility of other approaches. I enjoy my unit studies because I do use workbooks and lapbooks and some laid out lesson plans. I don’t have all of my children use only one math program or one language arts program no more than we choose only one approach. I do think most of us tend to favor one approach over the other one.

After I homeschooled for a while and moved away from comfort zones, I find a delightful zone. Are you there yet?

I think some shy away from unit studies because they may feel it is so time consuming. True, at times there may not be “day to day” lesson plans but that is the very thing that makes me breathe and be able to wiggle. It’s really weird I know, because my personality by nature is structured, routine and I have to be organized. But there is a wild side about unit studies that draws not just me, but my boys back each year. I believe what some may feel is mayhem or chaos in subjects is actually unchartered territory and I am so up for a challenge every day.

I want to give you a glimpse into the way our unit studies develop so that you can see the freedom and flexibility of them. Maybe it will help you take a plunge on the wild side.

What comes to my mind in how the information and approach is processed. The way we learn a unit study is like a funnel. There tends to be a lot to start off with and I strive to funnel it to bring it down to my family.  I divided the process of a unit study into just 4 steps to make it easy for you to see the progression.

unfolding of a unit study

Immersion. This really is the step that takes the longest. So take long. Do not set up strict requirements like “only x number of days or weeks to cover this”.

I journal or write lesson plans sometimes AFTER we finish or as we go along.  Immersion means to jump in wholly into this topic. It also means that you investigate the interest of subtopics that would fall under this very broad and general topic. I had use the Rain forest as an example in explaining about my unit study printable {by the way I have fallen in love with that printable.} But let me share our newest unit , Mesoamerica, that we just started so you can see how this develops. We may want to cover the Aztecs and Mayans in the Mesoamerica unit and we may or may not want to cover the Incas. We have not studied any of these cultures in depth so it’s all up for grabs so to speak. Too, we may decide to just focus on one culture like the Aztecs.

At this step, look at your reference books you have on the subject. Investigate with your children websites, library book and hands on activity to immerse you and your kids in this subject. As mentioned in a previous post about unit studies, I do tend to investigate on my own before introducing the topic. I think teachers should teach, even teens. I believe in independent learning but I still believe that even in highschool they need direction and supervision. I tend to be a hands-on parent and teacher.

This is the step we are on right now with Mesoamerica. I don’t have to rush my boys because this is the step where they can learn about any topic they choose. It may also be the only time they cover some topics they may be less interested in but may want to be familiar with to some extent.

My sons gathered up these books in the picture above without any preparation on my part. This is all we have in our home, besides of course our wonderful reference history books. It really is enough to build a very in-depth unit study.

I don’t feel compelled to go the library every time.

Separation. Aww, now sanity and my much need organization at this stage. There is where after immersion, your subtopics have emerged. After days or weeks, hopefully not months as I feel that is too long to spend on Step 1 because you lose your main topic or Unit Study, subtopics or themes have emerged. You separate what is most important to learn. Points of interest YOUR family or your child finds interesting want to now be investigated. Because we are just two days in the immersion process it is hard to say right now. I do know my youngest, of course, is interested in the games using the rubber made ball.  Leave it to teens to be interested in the gory details of human sacrifice. But I do see a teachable moment of comparing the valueless, vain and God dishonoring sacrifices of human blood made to pagan Aztec gods to the most valuable sacrifice of human blood ever made by Jesus Christ. I also see the topic of a floating garden for some science. Pretty creative if you ask me to have a floating garden. This time period would also be good for some art study. The physical geography of these countries influences the dress and the food. I see quite a few subtopics to pursue.

We can narrow down our choices after we tasted what we wanted to in the immersion step. The separation step can take just a few days to a week to narrow down your focus.

Investigation. Satisfaction here. Here is the delight of learning for intrinsic value. You are now investigating ONLY subtopics you have narrowed down. This is where you keep from getting overwhelmed and not discussing, investigating and writing about EVERY topic you discussed in immersion. This is also the step where each child can be on a different point. If you have older kids it is easier to have separate topics. If they are younger, stay on one subtopic at a time. This is where a child learns because of intrinsic value. It means something to them because THEY chose it.

This is the step where you use day to day lesson plans if you want to write them out.  You now have fine points you have narrowed down.

Not that learning has not taken place up to this point, but this is the step I make sure some learning does take place. Assign vocabulary words, recall back facts they have read about. Write reports and do our lapbooks or notebooking pages.

Hands on activities are here also.This is where you can “show the world” what you learned, i.e. lapbooks and notebooking pages.

Personalization. This is more of a step for me as the teacher. Up to this point I can see what each of my sons were interested in and tie it to something they have learned in the past. This is not really something I can “show the world” as far as what my sons took away from this unit because it may have been something personal my sons shared. It may be a point we learned that I can use to reach their heart. It may not be so private if it was just more information. Whatever it is, I want to be sure as the teacher they “own  it”. If they picked the subtopics they already WANTED to own it. So it comes easier to point out something to make it apply to my family or Christian values. In other words, make it matter by tying this unit study to something that is personal for my family.

That is it generally. It is not as daunting when you can put it into 4 basic steps.

Because we are just a few days into our unit, I created a printable for our Meso-America Unit. Not all printables will become part of a lapbook or notebooking, but they might. Since this unit is just starting we have the option of deciding. Another facet of unit studies I find attractive.

You know I have to share with you. This is a card game I created about the Aztecs. Part of the cards are true and false and the other part, your child supplies the word. The answer key is attached too.

Meso America Unit Game Cards

Download Aztec Printable Game Cards with Pocket here.

Unfolding of a unit study is a process that once understood moved me from comfort zone to delightful zone. I don’t give up the comforts of laid out lesson plans, I just take them with me. Abandon snoring boring curriculum in favor of an unchartered unit study, you might like it.

 

Our new bee homeschoolers need some love since August is around the corner. So I have an article in my how to series coming.

Also, some new Student Planner Covers for the girls are coming.

I was inspired by this today,

“When things just don’t work out as good as you really thought they would… It’s not rotten, it’s not over, it’s not finished, or the end. All it means is something better is waiting for you around the bend.”

~Doe Zantamata~

Hugs and you know I love ya,

Homeschool Organization + {Storage, Spaces and Learning Places Part 2}

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

When you homeschool ANY length of time you find out that you have to take ideas from every different type of room like an office, craft, sewing and playroom to combine and get what we need to make a cozy learning place at home. I have some more favorites to share. If you missed Part 1, go here to drool over some more places.

 

Homeschool Organization part 2

 

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Though this is set up for use as a craft area, I find parts that could be used at home. First that desk just looks like something that could be bought inexpensively and redone to be smokin’ hot. Those stands on the floor I believe are umbrella stands and could be used to rolled up masterpieces of art.

There is not much room taken up horizontal, it is all vertical. Great idea for a teen who likes to be in his room for school  or if there is a small area to work in. LOVE the color choice to brighten up the room.

Contemporary Kids design

I have my school room upstairs that has roof slant like this room and though I have all clear storage there now, I have been mulling over the idea of having something like this. Even the center part that has only two drawers, could have more drawers for more closed storage if you wanted.

The room on top can store, globes, lapbooks and even a microscope. The tv screen is a great addition to a room for group science videos. As much as I love how open it is, I think that one part of this unit though should utilize more wall storage by going up higher.

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Don’t you love to actually see homeschool rooms like this one? These next couple of pictures come from Suitcases and Sippy Cups. What I like about this is that she just incorporated their school into their everyday life. When I first started homeschooling and had a newborn and a toddler, a comfortable couch in the same room we were learning in was a must. I could nurse there, change a quick diaper and just rest as my oldest son worked at the table.

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Here is another actual home school area. I think some of the best use of spaces is a built in or diy project . And that is what Cha Cha at the Heartfelt Home did for her school desk. She explains on her blog how it was built. This is a clever use of a half wall or center wall. Though there are three chairs, I see this working better for two students if they were older because of the need of space on top to spread out books.

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Here is another true homeschool room that I love. I love the fact that even though the room is small, she utilized it to the full. She has closed storage using the boxes and kept the seating in the center and kept the light by using a smaller shelf area.

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I find this photo inspiring because it used a u shape space with built in seating. So much again in a small space.

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Then I wanted to share a few creative nifty finds. I heart Murphy beds when you have limited room. Why not a Murphy desk? Great for traveling and schooling, or just to have a another work area for a laptop. I lived in a small log cabin when we first started and this would have worked ideally.

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I spend so much time telling New Bee homeschoolers and even those not so new to move away from public school and don’t copy it, but hey some things we just should. These lockers make great storage and add that element of school to our room.

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This next idea is so creative and I could imagine some really bright colored fabrics to make these crate seats. These crate seats only have 3 steps to make AND you have a seat and instant storage. Check out how this public school teacher made these and they so could be used at home.

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This next group of pictures I heart because it is a Montessori inspired learning environment that is organized so that a young child can easily explore and learn.

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I love how colorful caddies are used to make the area bright and cheery. And I love that low lying art line.And one more thing I heart……

This adorable owl art line from Etsy. would look so cute hanging on a wall.

 

Just a few things I heart today, anything inspire you in a school room?

Hugs and love ya,

Ancient Civilization Unit – Free Ancient Egypt Minibook

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The longer I homeschool, the more fond I become of returning to topics that we have studied before especially if it is about history. Don’t you think it takes a while to get a good skeleton or outline of some of the basic empires or civilizations of history? After that, it is all about adding in the details you enjoy the most. Oh yes, I still have to cover some of the basic accomplishments of each civilization as each kid gets older, but there is always a unique angle to presenting the information the second, third and fourth time around. I think a lot of us start off doing worksheets or only doing writing, then we evolve into hands-on projects, plays and skits and cooking recipes from that time period. It is hard to do all the fun things, I think anyway, the first time around in a history cycle because so much time is taken up by learning the basics. Don’t exhaust yourself trying to do it all if it is your first time around in a history cycle. Build a solid foundation and there will be plenty of time for enrichment activities like lapbooks or notebooking.

Too, even though history and geography were my favorite courses in school, I still feel like my education lacked in early civilizations. So I am aware of that as I teach my sons the second and third time around in our history cycle and try to hit some of the main points in my minibooks. Again, relax and don’t rush learning about important civilizations because their impact even on American History is significant.

Here is the next minibook for the Ancient Civilizations Unit and it about Ancient Egypt. Most of the time, I try to include some information I find with each minibook in case you are short on time. I know I am not impressed when I am short on time with a bunch of blank mini books to present to my kids.

However, my minibooks are flexible as I explain in the download. If you are doing a more comprehensive unit and this unit is part of their writing, then they can use the minibook to write in their own information. On this minibook though I do include information if you are using your lapbook like we do for enrichment and not interested in testing their writing skills or coloring skills. Just saying.

Download the Ancient Egypt Minibook here.

(One thing I did want to mention to you and that is I try to use fonts that are intended to help your child grow in recognizing cursive.  As a side point, I feel it is important for a child to learn to read cursive because many primary history sources are in cursive. I vary in using part print and part cursive also so that the minibooks are not babyish and can be used for a wider variety of ages.)

On my next post about Ancient Civilizations I will have to share with you how the planning is coming along for the Ancient Civilizations/Great Empires co-op. I have much to tell you about that too, but hope you enjoyed the post I did yesterday on successful co-ops.

I like this quote today because it reminds me of the lack of candor and humility reflected by some of the ancient civilizations of the past that wanted to highlight only their accomplishments and tout great physical or personal features even if they didn’t exist.

“Half of writing history is hiding the truth”

  ~Joss Whedon~

Hugs and you know I love ya,