Planning Your Week

We made it through our first few weeks of school! I am so glad that I started early. This next week is when our fall extra curricular activities start, and I really wanted to get into a routine with our academics before we added more stuff.

 
As I have mentioned in earlier posts, I try to map out a weekly schedule so that I know exactly what is a regular occurring activity throughout the week. It is important to me to build in a few days at home so we can work on our farm, as well as plenty of mornings at home to focus on schoolwork. This might mean that we have to forgo some really cool activities, but it gives us a buffer so that our home environment and relationships don't suffer.


















  


A few of the activities that we are involved in this fall;

Monday- Choir. I am hoping to get my youngest boy involved as well, this will give him an opportunity to develop some skills learning from other adults. I also have an older son enrolled in an Algebra 2 class at the local community college on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Thankfully both of these activities are in the evenings so I can have the first day of the week to focus on school.

















  


Tuesday- Home Team. This is a P.E. activity that is hosted by my homeschool private school. It requires me to drive nearly an hour one way, but it is with people that we really love, and it is run by a wonderful local man who is teaching my older children the basics of many sports. While the older kids are doing Home Team, my youngest two and I are running a parent participation Nature Study Club. I am super excited about sharing our love of nature with some other local families.

My oldest children also have a small youth group that they go to on Tuesday nights and will be working with a local family to improve their worship leading skills. This is an answer to prayer that I am very excited about!

Wednesday- My oldest daughter is teaching an English class to local teens, including my two oldest students on Wednesday afternoons. I am so happy to be able to outsource this subject to my daughter, and I am also excited for my boys to have the joy and challenge of learning with such a sweet community.

Thursday- We have set aside a couple hours for music lessons, but otherwise, we are keeping Thursday through the weekend open for family time, farm work and hospitality.

Sadly, I don't have a history co-op or book club set up for this year, but my kids and I are planning a middle ages party this fall, so hopefully, we will get some of our projects done then.

There are always new events popping up that we need to fit in somewhere, so keeping our schedule reasonable is a huge stress reducer.



When I prayed about school for this year, I really felt that experiences with my children were going to be something to focus on. This is another reason why I am resisting the temptation to add more activities to our schedule. So far we have enrolled in Tinker Crate and built some cool little machines, pressed our own grapes for a biology/chemistry experiment that will hopefully result in wine, found a local source for beeswax so we can dip our own candles, and learned new skills with bread baking, metalworking, and jewelry making. We have also already gotten through a few of our middle ages literature selections.

All of this creativity is made possible in part because I am limiting computer time through our Circle device. If I wasn't taking authority over time spent on computers, there would be no time to pursue these creative endeavors. Because I am able to set individual time limits on each computer in my house, I can make sure that even older children who need the computer to work (even adults such as myself) aren't just wasting the day away on video games or social media.

I want my family to have the opportunity to develop as many skills as possible, and love learning, while they are in my home. I've got only one chance to pour into these children, and I am so excited about learning with them!

If you are looking to create more experiences with your preschoolers, check out my new collaboration, The Peaceful Preschool. This literature and project based curriculum is perfect for early learners, and is offered at a special introductory price until September 15.

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Homeschool Planning

I have been busy over the last few days feverishly sipping iced coffee and working on plans for our upcoming school year. Although a few of my students were still finishing up stuff from last year as I worked, that small fact won't deter me from getting started on our plans for a new year. I will have five students in the coming year, and although I will be sending a few of my students to community college for some of their classes, it is still a tremendous amount of planning.

The very first step for me when planning our homeschool year, is to evaluate what went well in the year we just (nearly) finished. If a curriculum was causing a lot of frustration, then it it will probably not be used again. Same thing with classes and activities; because there are so many of us, I have to carefully evaluate what we spend our time and money on.

The homeschool planner by Alicia Hutchinson has been a great resource for me this year, as I work on this process. I usually pull together calendars and lesson plans from various sources on the internet, but when I saw that Alicia had put together a planner that was sold as a download so I could easily fit the pages into my existing binder system, I was really excited to try it.

One of the first pages that I used was the, "More Of This, and Less of This" page. Tools like this, really help me to nail down my thoughts so that my planning makes sense.

Once I had jotted down some thoughts there, I printed one of the lesson plan pages which I used to jot down ideas of which curriculum I would use for each child. This provided a helpful grid for remembering which subjects I needed to cover as I hashed out what resources I would need. As I filled in the squares with book and curriculum ideas, I then made notes at the bottom of the page about which subjects I would need to purchase. As a long time homeschooler, I am blessed to be able to pull from a stash of books that I have collected through the years. This is one of many ways that I am able to homeschool on a budget. 

I also started a comprehensive list of what books we would be reading in the coming school year. I don't want our schooling to be just about getting through a textbook, but I want my children to interact with real ideas from living books, the kind of books that bring history to life. The planner from Alicia also included a helpful resource for book lists. 

If only the work ended there, but unfortunately, the next task usually takes the longest. Before I can get my students baskets filled with their new books, I have to weed through the pictures and pencil stumps and (mostly) finished workbooks to decide what to keep and what to get rid of. I used to keep nearly every bit of work, until a helpful friend recommended just keeping a few samples. You could check with your state, but this article from HSLDA suggests keeping samples of work, attendance records and records of what curriculum you used, among other things, but doesn't say that I have to keep every single workbook page. Sweet relief.

I did find that since we moved away from using so many workbooks, and more towards integrating written and oral narration, our keepers are much more fun. I ended up stapling some of the best ones into a booklet that we could flip through later to remember our happy homeschool year. This amazing post by Jodi Mockabee gives some more clever ideas for saving your children's best work.

Once I had gone through and cleaned out the baskets, they were ready to fill with our new curriculum, which I am slowly compiling. As I filed last years school work, I also averaged out test scores to give grades to my high school and junior high students, and filled in simple report cards for all of them. We don't make a big deal about grades in our house, everyone is expected to give their best effort, but I do start coaching them on the importance of grades as they enter the junior high and high school years. That is when grades start adding up to money for college, if that is the path they choose.

Once all the grades have been logged and last years school work filed, I am left with empty baskets and a happy list of what we will be studying in the coming year. There is plenty more to do, before I officially start school, but I am super happy to have the most difficult jobs behind me so I can get back to reading aloud to my kids.

I was blessed with a review copy of the planner, which is well worth its bargain price tag. It had tons of options for planner pages, and is a great tool for getting your homeschool organized.

Chores For Young Children

I was looking through the binder that I use for school planning and checking out the chore lists for my children to make sure that everyone was getting their stuff done. I then did a double take when I noticed that the chore list had nothing written for my two youngest children who are 7 and 5 years old.

I am pretty sure that my oldest child by seven years old was running the house, or at least able to cook lunch, change a diaper and clean the bathroom, but these youngest two have had so many older kids to pick up the slack that they have been able to act like a couple of slackers. Not really. Just super- creative, making messes all over the place, and seldom remembering to clean up all that they played with, sweethearts.

                                   

I did a lot of Montessori From The Start stuff with them when they were younger; washing dishes, folding laundry, preparing snacks and polishing furniture, but now with more pressure to do real school with them, my one on one time has been spent instructing them on school subjects, or reading aloud, which has left the chore teaching, sadly lacking.

The New Chore List

To her credit, my seven year old does help out whenever asked. She collects eggs, vacuums, clears the table and unloads the dishwasher, but without a chart, it is more haphazard and there is often some resistance to the more tedious of those chores.

Just when I was looking at my sad chore organizing system this morning, I happened upon a link to Riddle Love's latest post on chore planning. She shares some good resources and information about how they are doing chores which I am excited to research. She also talks about one of the most important aspects of any successful chore system. Training your workers. This is why for really important chores like cleaning the kitchen, I make a detailed list of what that entails, and post it somewhere prominent.

I am hoping that with the new chore charts that I just created for the younger two, I can get them helping out with a bit more consistency and excitement.

                                  

I am going to be starting a new series on Bountiful Homeschooling on a Budget, just in time to save you money over the holidays. To get this series in your inbox, simply subscribe.

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2014/2015 Curriculum Plan

I am so excited about this school year. I graduated my second student last year and so this year I only have five students to homeschool. I also have no babies or toddlers this year and although I would love a baby and I miss that stage, it will be really fun to delve a little deeper into learning this year with my school age children.
My oldest student is taking most of his classes at the local junior college so I will only be overseeing a few classes for my advanced students. I love having other teachers involved with my older students and so far, they have had good experiences in their classes.
Because I just published Bountiful Homeschooling On A Budget, I am also including what I paid for each class or subject.
So here it is, the 2014/2015 curriculum plan.



12th Grade Son

Bible-One Year Bible (I own)
English 1A (Jr. College, $14 fee, dual enrollment is free in California but there is a registration fee.)
Algebra 2 (Jr. College, $0)
World History, BJU (given to me several years ago)
Biology  (Jr. College)
Peer Tutoring (Jr. College)
Guitar (self taught with occasional lessons)
Physical Education, Martial Arts ($195 per month for the whole family)
Spanish 3 (BJU, I own the book, donation find at a non-profit book sale)


9th Grade Son

Bible-Studying God's Word-Book G (Christian Liberty Press, free)
English 151, Intro to College Composition (Jr. College, $14 fee)
Algebra 1-(Teaching Textbooks, purchased last year)
U.S. History (Clarence Carson, given by a friend several years ago.)
Physical Science-(Purchased for $25 from a friend a few years ago.)
Spanish 1 (BJU, I own)
Guitar
Physical Ed-Martial Arts (see 12th grade boy for cost)
Speech Club ($125 for the family plus tournament fees, we will probably do 1 or 2 tournaments)

camping fun

7th Grade Son

Lincoln's Daily Devotional-(Given to me)
TT Math 7 (owned for several years)
Rod and Staff Grammar 5 with worksheets (I own)
America-Land I Love-(ABeka, I own)
Reading (I took all my American History books, put them in a basket and the children will read them)
Spelling-Spell To Write and Read ( I own)
Science- (CLP Nature Readers, Computer Science, pre-owned or computer tutorials)
Piano- (Local friend $12-15 a lesson twice a month)
Speech Club (see 9th gr.)
Martial Arts (see 12th gr.)

3rd Grade Daughter

Bible-(CLP Book B, I own)
Math- (Saxon 3, $20 at used book sale)
Explode The Code 6 (trade in at used book store)
A Reason For Handwriting  ($14, purchased at Homeschool Conference)
English For The Thoughtful Child (owned for years)
Spell To Write and Read (I own)
Picture Story (my older daughter made this form to use with our narrations)
Reading (BJU Reader/CLP Nature Reader)
Life Science (Steck Vaughn Workbook, given to me)
Piano (Local Friend, $10 a lesson)
Ballet ($50 a month)

my youngest students

K/1 Son

Bible- I read children's Bible
Math N More (Review copy, owned for several years)
Explode The Code 1 (trade in from homeschool used book store)
All About Spelling (borrowed from a friend)
Handwriting Without Tears (13.81, Amazon)
Spelling Power Book A (I own)
Reading-I am reading Early American History books this year, more on that to come)
Science- Nature Study

We are also doing an early American History project day with a few friends which will be a fun opportunity to present reports, do map work and make crafts. This will be a highlight of the year for us.

I only spent around $65 dollars for curriculum this year, which makes it one of my most economical years ever. This is so helpful because I also have more monthly activities than usual. When totaled, these monthly activities add up to around $300 dollars a month. Although my homeschool students cost very little this year, my two students who we are helping put through college, have classes and books that are not quite as economical, another reason I am thankful that I was able to keep curriculum costs low this year. The upside is that my homeschool students are taking some of the same classes as the college students and can share their books, resulting in more savings.

What books are you using this year? How have you stayed within budget? I would love to hear about it!

Parenting From The Bathroom

Yesterday was an interesting school day. I was so excited for a full day at home and started off with a special breakfast with the four youngest children. The older kids were all away at school or work for the morning but when I went to check on my daughter's dog, I could see that she was in labor with her first set of pups. I quickly called my sister who is an expert in these matters and she got me set up with a list of what to do. Although she recommended I move the dog out in the living room, where I could watch her and be a part of the family, the dog had other ideas. What she really wanted was to be on my daughter's bed, but since none of us wanted that kind of mess on our beds, I ended up closeting myself in the bathroom with the laboring dog. 

This meant leaving my four youngest children to manage themselves without my supervision for a few hours until their sister arrived home. Although the oldest of these children is 13, they are the youngest of my children and as such, not as used to being in charge. My oldest daughter at that age could have run the house just as well as me, but my younger ones generally need pretty direct supervision.

However, when I finally was able to leave the birth room, er bathroom at 4:00 pm, I was happily surprised that the house had not caved in around our ears. The kitchen was relatively clean and some of the schoolwork had been done. They had also only watched one movie. This was not as bad as it could have been, in my estimation. We also had a one hour visit from a tutor, during which no fights had broken out and the children had all stayed indoors.

A few things that helped these young children manage themselves without too much destruction were the good habits, chore lists and assignment sheets that they have been taught to use. 

Even though I wasn't out there checking every thing they did, I could at least say, "Do your schoolwork," and then, "Have you done everything on your assignment sheet?" when they came in to tell me that they were done. They also got the awe inspiring treat of seeing tiny puppies just moments after birth when they came to check in with me.

Although this was by no means an ideal day, it did result in the safe birth of two puppies which will hopefully help put my girls through college. It was also an opportunity to develop more self management skills, which although these skills can be hard to give our children the space to learn, they are valuable skills to learn.

Some good resources that we have used for developing good habits and order are:

Managers of Their Homes- Steve and Terri Maxwell
Managers of their homes: A practical guide to daily scheduling for Christian homeschool families br /> Home Education-Charlotte Mason
br />



What are your favorite resources for developing an orderly home?


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A Fresh New Year With Fresh New Goals

Photo courtesy, Emelie Pepito

I love Christmas, but as soon as the day is past, I am ready to get organized for the new year. One of my favorite New Year's traditions is getting the decorations put away and the rooms dusted and vacuumed. It is so nice to have everything fresh and clean again. Another of my favorite traditions for the first day of the year is making a whole new set of goals to help define the coming year. 

Although I have read many books on goal setting, one of my favorite systems was well explained by missionary wife Colleen Adams at a women's meeting I went to. Thankfully my creative friend Rebecca, beautifully explains the whole system here, visit her page and you will find a very clear explanation of each area of goal setting. The short story is that, instead of trying to make A, B and C goals, or just a big list of general goals for the year, Colleen's method has you break down your goal setting into eight different areas. Also, instead of making goals for the whole year, these goals are meant to be for a shorter time period, such as three months.

Although, some of last year's goals, have found their way back onto this year's list, making goals and working towards them is a useful way of starting to develop the good habits that make up an orderly life and a civilized world.

Photo courtesy, Emelie Pepito

As a starting point for your 2014 goal setting, I have included my goals for the first three months of the year, in each of eight areas.

1. Self Care

Pilates 5 times per week (planning for 5, might help me get at least 2 in!)

Drink 5 glasses of water per day (coffee doesn't count)

2. Spiritual Life

Finish Experiencing God (Henry Blackaby)

Spend first 30 minutes of the day in prayer/Bible study

3. Intellect/Emotions 

(for me right now, these are some homeschool goals)

Finish Algebra with second daughter

Consistent school with youngest children

4. Relationships

Spend friendly time with hubby when he arrives home 

(complaining about the day, or asking him to do a project does not count)

Read aloud to children daily

5. Time Management

No phone/computer until priorities 1, 2 and 3 are done

Up and productive by 7am

6. Nest Management

Keep my room clean

Keep the laundry room clean

(2 hot spots that make me feel better when tidy)

7. Uniquely You

(This might mean weekly pedicures, or more time spent on self care, 

but those aren't my top priorities right now)

Consistent blog upkeep

Keep closet organized

8. Financial Stewardship

Make a list of accounts

Organize household filing system

I hope these give you some ideas for your own goal setting. Be sure and pray through your goals and let God give you inspiration about what you should be doing. Then, once your goals are written down, find a friend to be your accountability partner and enjoy seeing all that you accomplish this year.

The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord: and he delighteth in his way

Psalm 37:23

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Science Fun With Apologia Swimming Creatures

Tomorrow is our co-op day for science and this year we are studying Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day, written by Jeannie Fulbright and published by Apologia. Our group gets together once a month, and we also have several children who do experiments from General Science together, as well as a couple high school students who are working their way through Chemistry. Because we only meet once a month, we generally cram the elementary science reading and note booking into the two weeks before our meeting date. This leaves the other two weeks a month to spend time on the art history that we are currently studying.

I usually read the science chapter aloud while my 6 and 10 year olds work in their notebooks, and my 4 year old colors a picture from his sister's notebook. We have purchased the companion notebooks the last few years, and although they have lots of great activities, there are almost too many.  I often end up frustrated with all the blank pages, or pushing my young students to do more writing than is necessary. I haven't resolved this issue yet but one idea would be just to pull out the pages I want and put them in sheet protectors in a three ring binder. Certainly less overwhelming than forcing my students to complete every activity.

We have been using the Junior Notebook for my 6 year old and both she and her younger brother enjoy the lovely coloring pages. Today, we read about fishes, labeled the different types of fins on the pre- drawn fish in their notebook, and then planned out our experiments for tomorrow. We will also be making tiny clay sea creatures for our ocean boxes tomorrow which has been one of my children's favorite activities so far. This has been a fun and creative way of remembering all the different types of sea creatures.

In the last three years of doing Apologia's elementary science we have had lots of fun learning about science and expanding our science vocabulary. Jeannie has done a wonderful job of writing an engaging curriculum that is easy to use and yet does a thorough job of introducing children to the amazing world that God has created.

Linking up with Welcome Home Wednesdays

Busyness is the Enemy of Loveliness

I recently had an article published in Above Rubies  magazine which described three areas to work on to develop a lovely home environment. I described walking into our home and being greeted by lovely scents, shining windows and a refreshing beverage, and on a bad day merely having to shut the laundry room door to hide the stacks of dirty laundry.

The lovely shelf with toys for little ones.

This was a hard week for my ideals however. We had an out of town wedding over the weekend, several out of town guests over the last few weeks, and the usual round of school, ballet, karate, Awana and music lessons.  By Wednesday night when my posh aunt who inspired my renewed commitment to clean windows was set to arrive, the loveliness meter was a little low. 

You see, if I have a choice between a lovely house, or reading aloud to my children and doing projects with them, I will always choose the children. Usually it all balances out because we can quickly jump in together and polish the windows, put away the clean laundry and wipe the bathrooms. 

By Wednesday night, the main living areas were still living up to the ideal, but the laundry stack in my bathroom had gotten to twice the height of the basket and my closet looked like a bomb had gone off. 

When we are constantly running out the door to a new activity, it is very hard to keep up with basic good habits. Tidy rooms, clean bathrooms, and organized drawers soon become a thing of the past.

This is one reason why I believe so strongly in a family vision. It is an important safeguard against being over committed. 

My bathroom vanity after running out the door too many times.

Sometimes, we cannot avoid busyness and so we must flex in some area. For me, this might mean quickly mopping the floors after the kids are in bed so that school and family time aren't interrupted. It also might mean letting my closet be less than ideal, and keeping the door tightly closed. Our surroundings need constant care, and teaching our children to care for their surroundings is an important way that we care for them. However, in a busy season, my priorities of time with God, family time and then housework remain fixed. There is nothing noble about a messy house, but if the messy house is a result of caring for sick children or helping with a family emergency, it may just be a necessary evil. 

A little tidier.

Now, off to tackle my closet and work on getting the laundry under control. How wonderful to have a full day at home!

Click here for:

A good post on homemaking in busy seasons with some helpful links

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Welcome Home Wednesdays

The 2013/2014 Curriculum Plan

I love seeing what other moms are using for curriculum. I can get into a rut of using what we have on hand or have always used. If it is working, it is not worth changing, but it is nice to know what is out there so I can evaluate whether I have the best fit for each child.

I don't have individual Bible for each child this year. My husband has assigned Bible readings for each day and we copy the verse that stands out to us. We also spend the first hour of our school day in worship and Bible reading. We are finishing Long Story Short which we have loved, reading the daily passages and looking for the next Bible curriculum. My second daughter is also in a Kay Arthur study group on the book of Revelation.

I also haven't listed reading selections. The older three are voracious readers, and with the next 3 I am assigning special books that they have not yet read. I usually assign books that go along with the history curriculum for the year but since this year is a special focus on art history, we are changing that routine a bit by just filling in some of the books that are important to us.

This year's plan for our family,

4 yr old (boy)

Explode The Code- Get Set for The Code

Handwriting Without Tears, Letters and Numbers For Me

Little Giant Steps-a wonderful multi sensory math program for preschool

Lots of good picture books, and listening in on our Bible, science and art studies.

SWR phonogram flash cards

Playing with puzzles, coloring, play dough and other fine motor skill activities

Swimming, going to the park, and other large motor skill activities

Calendar time, crafts and Bible verse memorization

6 yr old  (girl)

Math U See Beta

Explode The Code 41/2

Spelling Power Book A-freebie busywork for days I don't get to spelling

Handwriting Without Tears, Cursive Success

Reading-Rod and Staff Readers only, BJU Heritage Studies 1

Apologia Elementary Science- Swimming Creatures with Jr Notebook

How Great Thou Art-Barry Stebbing

Drawing With Children-Mona Brookes

Mommy It's a Renoir

English For The Thoughtful Child

Spell To Write and Read

10 yr old (boy)

Teaching Textbooks Grade 6 Math

Daily Grams, Grade 6 (We started with Rod and Staff Grammar Grade 5 but it was not working with him)

IEW Writing, Finishing All Things Fun and Fascinating and then picking another book by them.

Handwriting Without Tears, Can Do Cursive

SWR Spelling

Apologia Elementary Science, Swimming Creatures

How Great Thou Art

Abeka World History

Various Literature Selections, He just finished Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis and will start Treasure Island by R.L. Stevenson next.


13 yr old (boy)

Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1

Rod and Staff Grammar (gr. 6)

IEW writing

Apologia General Science

Understanding the Times (Worldview's)

Latin's Not So Tough

15 yr old (boy)

This year he is taking three classes at a local Jr. College. He goes twice a week with an older sister who is graduated.

Algebra 1 (Jr. College)

Elementary Music Theory (Jr. College)

Political Science, Constitution (Jr. College)

Apologia Chemistry (home)

Bob Jones Spanish 2 (home)

18 yr old (girl)

For our second daughter who has learning difficulties we chose to use a charter school this year. She just turned 18 (today) and we wanted to get the testing done and possible diagnosis before she graduates. We have done lots of private testing and therapy but wanted her to have the opportunity to go on to college or get work with the adaptations she may need. There is a lot of pressure in the charter to pass the high school exit exam, because of this, the charter has added lots of work. We are in line for private tutoring and testing for special needs so when that comes through it may prove to have been worth the hassle.

Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1

Holt Grammar 6 (charter, 12th grade grammar)

Holt Literature

ELA workbook (for exit exam)

Math workbook (for exit exam)

Abeka Health


The oldest children go to martial arts twice a week which helps with covering physical education. The 6 year old does ballet, I wanted her to learn to be graceful before she learned how to gouge someones eye out.

We also have the oldest 6 children in piano, voice or guitar lessons. However, I am terrible about enforcing music practice so our progress, until they start practicing on their own is slow.  Thankfully, several of them want to learn, and take the time to practice.

I am sure I have forgotten something, I was up till midnight making a birthday banner, baking a paleo pumpkin breakfast cake, consulting with my daughter on her anthropology homework and washing my husband's jeans. Life with little ones and college students is very busy, but very fun and fulfilling.

Happy Homeschooling!

An Extra Busy School Day

This is the beginning of a completely different school year for us. I have 6 students this year and to my great joy, after nearly a year of being mostly gone with work and Bible School, my oldest daughter is home to go to college as well. Today was a really big day for all my students. My 19 and 15 year old offspring left at 6:15 am for their first day of college. Meanwhile my second daughter was at her volunteer job this morning while I did school with the youngest four. In between reading aloud, checking school work and cajoling the four year old to pick up the Duplos he had scattered throughout the school area, I made a batch of paleo pumpkin bread and tidied the house for our upcoming visit from my daughter's educational specialist.

For our second daughter I am using a charter school this year, which is a big leap in a different direction for me. I have consistently resisted government oversight in my schoolroom. I don't want to burden my kids with tests when they could be designing amazing projects or immersing themselves in quality literature, but with my second daughter nearly 18 and nearly out of school, I decided it was finally time to seek a label for her learning difficulties, mainly so she could get some extra help if she chooses to go to college.

Busy Students

We spent an hour with the E.S., going over forms and talking about the tests, yes, tests that my lovely girl would have to pass to get a diploma, while the younger four quietly played with Lego's. We then rushed out the door to speech therapy where we sat for an hour reading books and playing games until big sister was done. After a quick stop at Trader Joe's we hurried to relieve a friend of her children for a special night out and then home to get the lowdown on the older students' first day at school. I perused the stacks of assignments my children would be required to hand in this month, put away the groceries and then headed to the park with a combined total of 6 children under 12.

The Baby

It was a day that highlighted lots of changes. The biggest change is the realization that my older children are not going to be quite as available to work on family projects and help with little ones while they are busy working to finish their education. These older ones have been a big help, and for a few years now I have had built in babysitters for doctor's appointments, quick shopping trips and even the occasional pedicure. Having to adjust back to an earlier time when I only had young children and had to take them on every appointment and errand I was doing is a good way of also realizing that I need to develop some better sitting skills in the young ones.  Raising children who can both manage a home and handle a challenging class is a manageable feat, but it may have to happen in separate seasons.

Getting the Schoolroom Ready

Time to organize!

This summer while I was busy canning peach jam and taking a mission trip to Mexico, or even just swimming with the kids, the schoolroom slowly got more and more disorganized. We had the son of a friend staying with us, so our schoolroom became his bedroom, and we quickly got through our Bible in the morning and then in the evening when I might have reshelved the books and sorted the papers, he was in there on his air bed trying to get some rest after a long day at work.

School was waiting to be started though, and so finally the weekend came when I got down to business at putting away last years accomplishments, making out the report cards and getting the school area ready for the new year. I love having a variety of resources available for my children, but it can be difficult to keep it all contained. It is so important to have a good learning environment for kids, one that is both lovely and comprehensive in scope. Clearly, our schoolroom was not very lovely with all the books lying there waiting to be put in their places!

Our shelves are organized by subject, one for arts and crafts, another one for history resources, and another for science. I also have a shelf of teacher books and resources, not pretty I am sad to say, but necessary for homeschooling. I also like to have easy access for my children to markers, colored pencils and stick glue. In this way they can put together creative notebook pages, or quickly make a card without having to ask me for supplies which they have learned to use.

Teaching kids to put stuff where it goes never ends as you can see from the first photo. If you want an area to stay neat, and it really should stay neat if you want to be able to focus in it, you have to constantly reinforce where things go, and make sure the place where stuff goes is easy to access.

a bit tidier

 School at home can be so much fun, but one important aspect is taking the time to prepare your home to be a place where children can focus on their work, find supplies, and do the research they need to do to be well prepared young people. Organization isn't just about having a nice looking room, it is also teaching our children good mental sequencing skills and making our homes more functional places to learn.

hard at work

 Click here for a favorite blog and A view of a well organized school room.

A List Of Favorite Resources

We have read a few important books on homeschooling which have helped to develop our philosophy of education. We also have some favorite books and publishers that help us to reinforce our educational goals. Although we don't agree with every word in these books, and we hope you use your brain and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit as you apply what you learn, they have been helpful to us.

Parent Education

A Charlotte Mason Companion

Homeschooling Methods

Loving The Little Years

You Can Teach Your Child Successfully-Ruth Beechick

Montessori From The Start and Montessori in the Classroom-Lillard, Jessen

Endangered Minds-Jane Healy

Teaching The Trivium

Shepherding a Child's Heart-Tripp

Managers of Their Homes-Maxwell

Families Where Grace is in Place

Underground History of American Education-John Taylor Gatto

Audio teaching by Norm Wakefield, S.M. Davis

No Greater Joy, Vol. 1-3, Michael and Debbie Pearl

Giving an oral presentation.

Curriculum

Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready-Oberlander

Handwriting Without Tears

Spell To Write and Read

Apologia Science

Mommy It's a Renoir

Mystery of History

Five in a Row

Math U See

Teaching Textbooks Math

Our schooling has encouraged a love for other countries and cultures.