2015-2016 Student Planner

It's no secret to my friends and family that I love planners! It's also no secret that I'm not very good at sticking with them. I was never really taught how to use them, so I've winged it for the last 20 years or so. Since the beginning of our homeschool journey, Big Girl and I have learned together (often failing) to use a planner. I've also learned that she is just like me ... tons of calendars all around and very little use in each of them.

In an effort to get us both on the right track, I have bought and even made planners for each of us. So far it has been a failed experiment, in part due to my tendency to over complicate things. Enter ...

A SIMPLE PLAN!

This year, we went shopping together and without telling her which planner I bought, she chose the student version of mine, Mardel's A Simple Plan Student Planner. I love the student edition for many of the same reasons I'm so excited about my own!

First off, it's cute! There are two student designs - wood grain and chalkboard. Wood grain has a rustic feel to the design, whereas chalkboard is very bright and whimsical. Big Girl went right for the chalkboard! (That's my girl!) Although this planner is eye catching, it's not distracting from it's purpose.

Secondly, it is packed with all the necessities! It starts off with the student's contact information, a 2-page yearly calendar, a schedule for each semester, and a full page for notes. The monthly planning pages have plenty of room for writing down activities, goals, reading lists, and prayers along with a 2-page spread for the calendar. Each month ends with a full page for notes. Weekly planning pages run a full 7 days with a space for memory work and check boxes when assignments are completed. The final section is more of a journal with a couple of pages dedicated to suggested scriptures for memorization.

This planner is seriously sturdy! Both the cover and the section tabs are heavy duty with pockets on the inside front and back covers. The pages themselves are nice and thick, so there are no worries here of pages accidentally ripping out.

Want one for your student? Need a teacher planner that is easy to take along with you? Check out Mardel's complete A Simple Plan line!

Needing something for yourself? Check out my review of Mardel's A Simple Plan Homeschool Planner.

2015-2016 Homeschool Planner

Planners are my weakness! I have bought, used, and even created many of them to keep me organized. Want to know what happened to each one? Yeah, it fell by the wayside. Maybe I'm just too picky or thought I wanted something that turned out to be too complicated, so this year I'm trying something new ...

A SIMPLE PLAN!

This year, I decided to save a bit of brain power, time, and a lot of toner! I bought the A Simple Plan planner from Mardel, and so far I couldn't be more please!

First of all and kind of important if I'm being completely honest, it's cute! No really. They change the design up each year, and looking through Pinterest and a quick Google Images search, they have all been perfectly fashionable without being distracting! Truth be told, this year's isn't my favorite color scheme, but I LOVE the polka dots!

Secondly, as the title implies, it is simple! The first thing I notices were tabs for each section and month down the right-hand side for easy access to anything you need. The color scheme is carried throughout the book on each tab; however the pages are kept in a simple gray scale, so you don't have to worry about your pencil or pen not showing up. The contents are really geared toward the year-round homeschooler without the added fluff. This planner does not try to be a home management binder in addition to a homeschool planner like others I have used. No chore lists, budget worksheets, family trees, medical lists, etc. Just plain and simple homeschooling pages! Nothing overwhelming here.

Don't get me wrong, this planner is packed! I still have room to jot down all of my contact information, both our household and support group contacts. There is a whole section for full year planning of curriculum by student/subject. (Before I would set up a spreadsheet in Excel, which wasn't the most conducive to my poor eyesight.) The monthly calendar pages are a nice, big 2-page format, and each month has an "at a glance" section for goals, reading lists, supplies, and activities. Weekly planning pages have enough room to plan for six children. There are no weekend planning boxes on the weekly pages, but there is a large notes section where you could do weekend planning. Toward the back of planner, you'll find attendance charts, a curriculum tracker, a grading chart (no more figuring these in my head or wasting time finding a calculator), and a large notes section!

There really is a lot to this planner, and yet somehow they've packaged it in a compact, non-overwhelming format!

Finally, and probably most importantly, this planner is sturdy! The heavy duty cover features a pocket at both the front and back of the planner. The tabs I mentioned above are made of the same material as the cover. The pages themselves are nice and thick, and the whole thing is spiral bound!

I am so excited to start filling this out and really dive in on using it!

Want your own? Check out Mardel's complete A Simple Plan line!

Need something for your students or want a heavy duty planner you can take with you? Check out my review of Mardel's A Simple Plan Student Planner.

2015-2016 Curriculum Choices

I have a middle schooler this year! Ack! How did that happen? Around here, the first year of middle school won't be much different from elementary since Big Girl will still have many classes with Big Boy. Speaking of classes, here's what I am planning to teach and what curriculum we'll be using.

Big Girl - 6th Grade

Math: Saxon Math 6/5 & 7/6 - She really struggled with math last year, so we are going to hone in and focus this year to get her back on track and on grade level.

Science: Apologia Anatomy & Physiology

Humanities: Tapestry of Grace - history, geography, art, literature, vocabulary and writing

Worldview: Apologia Who is God? (And Can I Really Know Him?)

Character: Cat & Dog Theology

Spanish: Rosetta Stone - We won't be starting this on day one, as we are still working to get a classroom computer, but the plan is to add this as soon as we do.

P.E.: Karate & Softball Off-Season Training

Big Boy - 3rd Grade

Math: Saxon Math 3

Science: Apologia Anatomy & Physiology

Humanities: Tapestry of Grace - history, geography, art, literature, vocabulary and writing

Worldview: Apologia Who is God? (And Can I Really Know Him?)

Character: Cat & Dog Theology

Spanish: Rosetta Stone

P.E.: Karate

Baby Boy - Kindergarten

Math: Saxon Math K

Phonics: Saxon Phonics K

Worldview: Apologia Who is God? (And Can I Really Know Him?) - Colors while the lesson is read.

Character: Cat & Dog Theology - Colors while the lesson is read.

Baby Girl - Birth to 3

Baby Girl really doesn't have a set curriculum; however, she has weekly therapy appointments along with monthly specialists. This takes an extensive amount of our schooling time, so I've got to take it into consideration in all planning.

That's our year and what we're using! Off to figure out how to fit it all into our day. *wink*

New Homeschooler Packet

Are you thinking about homeschooling? Do you have a friend who wants to homeschool and is turning to you for advice? Need a quick reference for yourself or moving to a new state with different laws?

I often have people ask how to get started with homeschooling. What do they need to do? How to they select the right curriculum? Is it even legal? Where do they turn for support? Most recently these questions came from my kids' karate instructor. I was a week away from attending our homeschool conference and told her I'd pick up some information for her. Now I've done this before for friends and acquaintances, except I did it all wrong. Upon returning, I handed them a big stack of catalogs and papers with a general "ask if you need any help" offer. You know how many called me back? Not one. So this year I took a different approach. I put together a new homeschoooler packet for her.

In order to do this, I still went through that vendor hall to pick up some (but not all) the usual information I get, and instead of handing it to her, I organized into an easy to navigate manner.

My first stop was the HSLDA booth.I picked up an application for a FREE preschool membership along with their brochure "You Can Homeschool Your Preschooler" available FREE on their website! (Can you tell I love free?) I also scanned the table for any handouts they had on getting setup in our state. They didn't have them this year, so I went back through old conference notes to find the Cliff's Notes version of our state laws and printed them off along with step by step instructions for getting all set up with the State Department of Education.

Next, I had attended a wonderful session by Sonya Shafer of Simply Charlotte Mason entitled "The Five Flavors of Homeschooling". What a great "back to basics" session this was for me personally. I found out that she was giving away a DVD of the session for FREE, so I picked one up to include in my packet. You can view the session for yourself at the link.

Finally, I included a list of curriculum companies organized by subject. I also included a list of helpful homeschooling blogs and a few of my own personal tips for getting started. Then I slip in a flyer for our local homeschool support group.

Have you ever put together a information packet such as this? Let's see pictures! What other information do you think would be helpful?

Homeschool Conventions ... Now What?

A while ago I shared my tips for surviving your first homeschool convention. Now that you've attended, survived, and hopefully learned a bit, what do you do with all that stuff you've most likely obtained?

My husband, two older children, and I just returned home from our annual homeschool convention! As always, the kids had a great time, and I came home with a huge bag of stuff before counting any purchases!

Vendor halls are great! They give you the opportunity to really look at a product before you buy. The hall is also filled with a lot of junk - an abundance of catalogs, flyers upon flyers for activities that don't fit your family, and a ton of random freebies (pens, candy, etc.). For me, all this stuff makes it hard for me to concentrate on what I learned, so the first thing I do after unpacking is to GET RID OF IT! As I empty my convention bag, I sort everything into 3 piles; "keep", "revisit", and "trash". Once I sort into these 3 piles, the trash is thrown away. Next, I take pictures of all the cards, flyers, catalogs, and information in the "revisit" pile and then throw it away. This way I have a digital copy of the item without finding a place to store it. Finally, I should be left with a small pile of the things I really want to keep. For me, these may be smaller purchases or forms I need to fill out and send in. Also in this piles are receipts from the weekend. These are put into a folder and saved until tax time. (Yes, I will soon be able to write off school expenses in my state!)

Once the paper clutter is mostly taken care of, I pull out any speaker handouts and notes I took. I simply type or scan these into a Word document and throw away the paper copies. If you read my convention tips post, you know that I buy CDs of all the sessions. At this time I import the tracks into iTunes for listening to at a later date. I also slip these into my desk with the previous years' convention disks. Ideally, all of the discs would be placed in an CD sleeve (similar to this) and then stored in my teacher binder.

Lastly I can go through my purchases and put them away for next year. At this point I feel pretty free an settled in back at home from a long but wonderful weekend away.

Well, until I go and do this ...

5 Ways to Beat the Spring Slump

I confess. This is the time of year when I both want to throw in the towel and get going. I'm ready to move on from this year and look to the next. I want to start buying and planning for the upcoming school year. I want to feel that excitement and "newness" another year brings and leave behind the monotony of trudging through already set lessons plans with kids who are just as tired and looking for change as I.

So, what's a homeschool mom to do?

1. Throw out the curriculum. Seriously, just put it on the shelf and change things up. By this point you should know the topics that are coming up. You can stick to those, but do something different with it. If you've been hitting the books hard, watch a Netflix documentary on the subject. Not a big TV person, read the books to your kids if they are already independent readers.

2. Incorporate board games. Monopoly is one of our family favorites for the two Big Kids. It teaches so much in a short time - history, geography, math, economics, and well, since I'm being honest here, character. The math and the economics aspects are right there in plain view, but did you know that every single property is based on a real place? Have the kids look it up! Urban legends and historical facts about the game's development and use? Go for it! Your kids are still learning even if it doesn't look like your normal school day.

3. Get outside! This is so important not only for our physical well-beings but also our mental. We experience temperature extremes ranging from below zero in the winter to flooding in the spring to triple digits in the summer, so most outside time is really limited to fall. I'm not talking nature walks, which are awesome and a regular part of our science class. Grab the sidewalk chalk and do a spelling test on the driveway or front walk. Need a record of it? Snap a pic! We live near railroad tracks, so we often walk the quarter mile or so to them talking about a trip we might take or where they could lead. When we arrived, we can look at the construction of the tracks and discuss the materials used and transported by them. Then there is always the sitting on the porch and watching the trains pass by while the little ones watch with big eyes!

4. Dance Party! One of my dear friends is a public school elementary teacher. One of her favorite tactics for perking up students at the end of the year is to once a week, call out "dance party"! The kids no to jump up and boogie to the radio for a good 5-10 minutes. It gets the whole room laughing and giggling and serves as a wake up for the brain. She says after that, she always gets alert and eager to learn students for the rest of the day. To keep them on their toes, do this one at random. No scheduling, or it loses it's effectiveness!

5. Take a field trip. I've tried scheduling field trips year round, and for our family, they seem to interrupt the nice flow we have going. Now I save up a bulk of our field trips for spring. I find that when we can't get ourselves focused for a solid day of work, a field trip provides the learning we need without feeling like we are doing school.

So there you have it - 5 Ways to Beat the Spring Slump! Do you have any to add to this list?

A Review of the Last Quarter and Looking Ahead

It's been a while.

Our family has been simply living day by day, relying on God to keep us going. I'm not sure if I haven't had the time to post or simply too tired when I get the time.

The big update is that Baby Girl is doing great! She is up to 15 lbs 7 oz. Her feeding tube is out more than in, and she is making great strides in her physical development and milestones.

In caring for Baby Girl, I've also seen a great deal of growth in Big Girl! She has learned so much and stepped up so much in helping to care for her sister. Know that I do not put this on her at all. There have been times where I've put Baby Girl down for a nap, gone to work with one of the boys on school, and Big Girl has heard her cry, checked on her, changed her diaper, and brought her to me for a bottle. None of this has been asked of her. She just does it herself.

Big Boy and Baby Boy adore their sister and help out in their own ways. I do admit that it has strained their relationship some. Baby Boy hasn't really had the same opportunity to be Mommy's big helper to his younger sibling like the older one's have because of Baby Girl's additional needs. He acts out by starting fights with Big Boy. I hate that they feeling so out of place right now.

To help combat the tension between the boys and help Big Girl remember that she is a kid and not Mommy's partner during the day, we have backed off school to just the basics for the last quarter. That means nothing but math and reading. With the time that used to go to other subjects in school, we've pulled out board games, read, cuddled on the couch watching movies, and overall just focusing on enjoying each other. I figure the science, social studies, art, and music can be learned later. I feel like what's important right now is to just be a family and build relationships in the face of medical difficulties.

Coming up on the final quarter of our official school year, the kids are getting through their basic schoolwork at a quicker pace. We've been able to do more reconnecting while getting Baby Girl's needs met without many hiccups. To help get back on a more academic track, we've added a couple of episodes of "How the States Got Their Shapes" on Netflix 3-4 times per week. The kids have really enjoyed the show, and it has sparked some great discussions at the dinner table! Big Girl even decided to take on a state report over our home state and now takes notes during episodes.

All in all, these past few months have been more lessons in life than academic lessons, but I think every homeschool goes through this at some point. I think it's what makes many homeschool kids truly well-round individuals and ready to take on just about anything when academics have formally stopped.

Fall Break!

Well, we did it! We got through our first quarter of school, and despite some very unexpected obstacles, we managed to come out of it having learned a bit and still liking each other.

I know we are all welcoming the break from structured learning. I also know that unstructured kids mean cranky kids, so we are filling our week with lots of holiday planning, crafts, games, movies, etc. I also have some crochet projects I'm *thisclose* to completing.

I'll be back hopefully with lots of pictures next week!

Managing a Special Needs Child

Please read my previous post When Life Comes to a Stop for the full story.

I sit here in my kitchen not hungry and exhausted from the past couple of weeks. I know I need to eat, but I also need to write. This is harder than I ever thought, and yet I know that I have it so much easier than many other families.

We are home from the hospital, and my older three kids are back home from an unplanned extended stay with Grandma. I'm glad to be home, but part of me is still stuck in that hospital room. I'm up every 4 hours dealing with medical equipment to feed Baby Girl. I hate the sound of all those beeps, and Big Girl does too. Since the girls share a room, her sleep is often interrupted with feedings. I'm just thankful that the boys are sleeping through the night still. I treasure the silence much more because it means everyone is actually resting.

I'll be honest, we haven't gotten back to school since Baby Girl was admitted to the hospital. I'm trying to figure out how to fit it all in. I say "it all" but I know it will be just a shadow of what we'd been doing. I'm thankful I have such voracious readers because that gives me hope that their schooling won't be compromised. I also am continually reminding myself that walking through this time with Baby Girl is the best education they could receive. I know as they grow and ultimately enter adulthood that it will not be all sunshine and roses. How we all do during this time will prepare them more for life than any lesson they can learn from a textbook. Isn't that some of what homeschooling is all about?

I know we can't move forward without a plan. You read a few weeks ago all about our scheduling. Thankfully we had a bit of a loosey-goosey schedule going on anyway. Now I have to figure in Baby Girl's feeding schedule. She is "eating" every 4 hours, and each feeding takes approximately 45 minutes to complete.

So onto our new schedule (at least on paper)!

9:00am - The 3 big kids have free time until I get up around 9am (yes, I'm sleeping in longer due to the interrupted sleep) and call them up to get ready for the day.
10:00am - Baby Girl eats and I pump. Sometime around 10:45 we head downstairs for brunch if Dad didn't already grab them breakfast.
11:30am - Morning Routine
12:00pm - Lunch. After lunch, we do any lessons that need my direct teaching.
2:00pm - Baby Girl eats and I pump. Boys go down for a rest while Big Girl works on independent work. About 2:45, I get some quiet time. Once independent work is complete, Big Girl will quietly entertain herself.
4:00ish - When Big Boy gets up, we will work on his math & phonics, which need my direct teaching.
5:00ish - Once Baby Boy gets up, it's time to cook dinner.
6:00pm - Dinner. While the family starts eating, I am setting up another feeding with Baby Girl. Instead of pumping this time, I'll eat with the family.

Evenings are used for Baby Girl's physical therapy, any "homework" the big kids may have to finish, and any additional rest I need to grab. There are 2 more feedings overnight.

I'm new to all of this, and the new, more structured schedule is quite exhausting for me. The boys also don't do well with the new amount of non-structured time for them. I'm sure within a few days, we'll all get into a good groove, but for now I feel like a zombie.

When Life Comes to a Stop

We are now the parents of a special needs child. Fortunately our situation is most likely temporary and is something that we can manage primarily from home. That being said, every aspect of our lives are affected, and my older children have not had school in over a week. So what do you do ...

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Baby Girl's regular 9 month checkup. She's always been very small like her older siblings, but I knew something wasn't right when I only checked off 1 or 2 milestones that she'd met. The doctor took a look at things and plotted her growth. The combination of milestones not being met and a plateaued growth curve meant we were off to see a specialist.

I figured as I packed the older three for a sleepover with Grandma that we'd spend most of the day meeting with doctors to get a plan into place and return home. We got to our appointment and discovered that not only would we be meeting with a pediatrician, physical therapist, and nutritionist, but a case work with DCFS was required to meet with us as well.

After speaking with these 4 individuals and a full evaluation from the pediatrician, it was determined that Baby Girl would need to be admitted to the hospital for failure to thrive. The diagnosis didn't come as a surprise but the hospital visit did. Inside I was starting to get really worried, but I stayed calm on the outside. I have a friend who went through a similar situation with her son, so I started praying that everything would turn out just fine for us like it did in their case.

Upon arrival to the hospital, the attending physician decided that Baby Girl would need a feeding tube since she refused to take both a bottle and a sippy cup. They brought in a breast pump because nursing wouldn't count toward her feedings since they could not measure output. I met with a lactation consultant.

Over the next couple of days we met with even more doctors and child development professionals. A physical therapist came in to work on low muscle tone and physical milestones. She recommended a Bumbo, and my husband quickly found one on Craigslist just a few blocks away for $15. An occupational therapist worked on spoon feeding. She noted that Baby Girl had a high palate, so she brought down cups used with cleft palate cases. We started to have some luck on drinking! Traditional sippy cups were now to be used for teething and play. The hospital's nutritionist came in a get a game plan for feedings both through the tube and with adding in solids. We had to meet a total of 500 calories per day, and breastfeeding, drinking from a cup, and solids would not count towards that total.

They were all amazed at how calm my husband and I were through the whole thing. I didn't feel calm much of the time, but I knew that God was in control. I knew He had already brought us through many things with Baby Girl. He would see us through this as well.

As the days continued on, we carefully watched her weight. We were told that Baby Girl needed 3 consecutive days of weight gain before the doctors would consider releasing her. After 4 days in the hospital, we finally had 2 days of weight gain. All we needed was for Monday to show another increase.

Monday came, and everything seemed to fall apart. First was that overnight, we had to pull her IV because it had started to leak. Then she had to skip a feeding for a MRI that had been scheduled. The MRI team determined that they could not sedate her for fear that her airway would close due to the low muscle tone. They say to go ahead and feed her. Then keep her awake until the MRI (about an hour away). If they could get her to sleep through it, we wouldn't have to put her fully under. We went ahead and fed her, and when we noticed drowsiness, we started with slightly more vigorous play. It was too much, and she threw up at least half of what she had eaten. She did sleep through the MRI, which was great, but her weigh in shortly after showed a weight loss. Our hearts sank.

The doctor acknowledge that all of the variable from the day - missing IV, skipped feeding, and vomiting the next - most likely was the cause of the weight loss. If we could have a gain the following day, they would not start the count all over again. We continued with the feeding plan, lab work, physical therapy, etc. as scheduled and prayed for good results the next day.

During this time, we also learned that Baby Girl would be going home with the feeding tube. I had to learned how to run the pump to feed her along with changing the feeding tube itself. I hated making her scream and cry, but I knew it was crucial to her survival.

Tuesday weigh in had arrived. I held my breath praying that her weight would be up. The nurse set up the scale while I stripped Baby Girl down. I couldn't look. When the nurse wrote the weight on the board, I nearly cried. Not only was she up from her weight loss day, but she was well over her previous gain! Praise the Lord!

The doctor came in and let us know that she was getting to work on discharge papers. I just had one more training to do that evening and sign rental agreements for medical supplies to use at home. I ordered lunch and set up Baby Girl for a feeding. Then we both crashed from exhaustion.

Back-to-Homeschool Day 5: Classroom Tour

Oh boy! Did time get away from me or what? I'm so sorry at the lateness of this post, but sometimes life happens and must be lived. Am I right?

Onto our tour!

Our class room is setup pretty much the same as last year, so be sure to check out my 2013-2014 classroom tour post. This year I'm going to show you the  changes I made to the setup.

The first & most obvious change was the addition of Baby Boy's desk. He picked this out and paid for it himself using a gift card he received as a Christmas gift. He was so excited to get it in and help me put it all together!

The other change I made removing the color discipline chart. It just wasn't working out, and I couldn't figure out why until I read this post by Teaching in Progress. It made total sense, especially in dealing with Big Boy's behavior issues. He was so defeated by the end of the day that he wasn't on "blue" that he just wanted to give up. This year I'm trying to take a different approach that I've had a bit of luck with using the concept of "stealing school time". I'll do a post on that later to explain my full approach, but I will say it has seemed to work so much better than the old color system. In it's place, I'm working on getting another large world map to use with our zoology studies.

Those were really the two only changes I made. I'll occasionally bring in Baby Girl's bouncer if she's awake. Most of the time she naps on her activity mat in the other room (but still in clear sight). I'm also trying to do a better job of utilizing the room just off the classroom as a preschool playroom for Baby Boy when he is finished with his work. This both keeps him busy AND in sight!

Well, off to get myself some lunch before the two little ones wake up from their naps!

Back-to-Homeschool Day 4: Teacher & Student Planners

Last year was my first year putting together my own teacher planner (see it here) after years of buying planners that didn't quite fit my needs. This year Big Girl and Big Boy wanted there own planners, so while I put together mine, I did one for each of them.

Teacher Planner
- Contact Info & Family Memories
- Student Information - Name, Age, Grade, Goals for the Year, Curriculum Information

- 2014-2015 Year at a Glance
- Semester Goals & Notes
- Monthly Calendars
- Daily Schedule - I put one of these behind each month since my husband's schedule changes so frequently.

- Weekly Planning Pages

- Student Grade Report
- Semester Student Notes
- 2015-2016 Year at a Glance
- Notes for Next Year

Student Planner
- Contact Info & Yearly Goals

- 2014-2015 Year at a Glance
- Books I've Read

- Monthly Calendars
- Daily Schedule - behind each calendar
- Weekly Assignment Sheet

- Semester Review
- 2015-2016 Year at a Glance
- Notes for Next Year

The biggest change between last year and this year's planners is the planning pages. There were times when I felt I needed more room, and we are moving to a block schedule (see my post on scheduling for more details). I hope the new design helps with these two items.

What do you use for planning - store bought, homemade, or electronic planner? Do your kids have a their own setup, or do they rely on you for daily instructions?

Back-to-Homeschool Day 3: Scheduling - Yearly, Weekly, & Daily

As a homeschooler, I feel like I have to be on top of time management. Coincidentally, time management is probably my biggest weakness. Here's how I do my best to overcome it.

Yearly Scheduling
As with everything else, I always check my state's homeschool requirements for attendance. My state requires 180 days of instruction. The first thing I do is pull out my Year-at-a-Glance calendar along with 4 highlighters.

First, I highlight all holidays in one color.
Second, I highlight all family birthdays in another color. I know the weeks leading up to these days are often hectic and need to be met with a lighter course load.
Next, I determine a start date and highlight our days in school in a third color. This year, I did this by counting back from Christmas 19 weeks and starting our week on Monday.
Finally, as I work through setting our days in school, I work in breaks with the final highlighter color. This year I aimed to take a one week break between 9-week units and two weeks at Christmas.

Here's what I came up with:

Now, it's not perfect and doesn't take into account Saturday field trips or the like, but all things considered, we'll meet our goal! *grin*

Weekly Scheduling
This year we are trying something new. I've tried the schedule every subject, every day approach, and it was too overwhelming for both myself and the kids to maintain. So, we are giving block scheduling a try.

To set up the blocks, I split our week into 3 blocks - two 2-day and 1 1-day. Math and phonics are done everyday. From there I listed out the rest of our subjects based upon how often they needed to be done - art (1), Bible (2), geography (1), history (2), literature (1), piano (1), science (2), spelling (1), and writing (2). Then it was simply matching subjects up with either day 1, 2, or 3.

Once I divided subjects up into blocks, I also had to take a look at outside activities. In a typical week, the kids have church, library day, and karate. This year Big Girl will also be playing for a year-round softball traveling team she was selected to be apart of after summer leagues were complete. The parents are all great and are mostly in our circle of friends, so we all trust each other and are all willing to swap driving to and from practices.

Once I get that all written down and many sheets of scratch paper later, I have something resembling a typical weekly schedule. Outside activities all have set days, but the school blocks are depending on my husband's work schedule since he will be teaching our Bible/worldview course. You'll see more how this all works out in my next post, so be sure to come back!

Daily Scheduling
This is where I hit my biggest challenge! I've tried many things in the past for getting our days to run smoothly, but they've all lead to all kinds of crazy stress - not good for the home or learning environment. Last year, I decided to go a little more loosey-goosey with it, and things just sort of fell into place. I'm sticking with it!

First off, I am not a morning person, so getting up at 5:30am for time in the Word, breakfast on the table by 7am, chores wrapped up and starting school at 8am just doesn't work for me. Instead, I fill all workboxes with individually completed assignments the night before. This way my early risers can get started with those as early as they'd like. My goal is to get started on group lessons by 10am. This year I am adding in Baby Boy's preschool lessons before group, so I want to work on disciplining myself to get around a bit earlier and start those about 9:30.

From there, I just have a list of what needs to be accomplished, and we work from top to bottom until it's done. We do have set times for lunch and Baby Boy and Baby Girl's naps that don't change. We simply take a break at those times before continuing on with our work.

So, that's the down low on how it all comes together and fits in our hectic lifestyle. It's by far not the only way to do things, but it's what works (after lots of trial and error) or our family!

Back-to-Homeschool Day 2: Curriculum Choices 2014-2015

In my previous post, I addressed many of the questions regarding curriculum decisions and purchasing.

Let's move on now to what we've settled on for this coming year.

Big Girl - 5th Grade

Math - Saxon 5/4 and 6/5
History - Tapestry of Grace
Geography - Tapestry of Grace
Bible/Worldview - What We Believe: Who Is God?
Science - Apologia Zoology 3: Land Animals
Spelling - Tapestry of Grace
Writing - Tapestry of Grace
Art - Tapestry of Grace
Literature - Tapestry of Grace
Piano - Simply Music Learn at Home program
P.E. - weekly karate lessons & softball traveling team

Big Boy - 2nd Grade

Math - Saxon Math 2
Phonics - Saxon Phonics 2
History - Tapestry of Grace
Geography - Tapestry of Grace
Bible/Worldview - What We Believe: Who Is God?
Science - Apologia Zoology 3: Land Animals
Spelling - Saxon Phonics 2
Writing - Tapestry of Grace
Art - Tapestry of Grace
Literature - Tapestry of Grace
Piano* - Simply Music Learn at Home program
P.E. - weekly karate lessons

*We are still debating on whether or not this is actually going to fit into Big Boy's schedule without overwhelming him. We will use the Simply Music system if we decide to move forward with piano lessons.

Baby Boy - Preschool

I use the Golden Books Step Ahead series. We will start with the following titles:
Before I Write
Counting 1 to 10
Shapes and Colors
I'm Ready for School

Once we complete this set of 4 books, we will move on to the Mickey Mouse titles. He will also be sitting in on the big kids' Bible/Worldview class with his own coloring book. In between books, at holidays, or just if I feel like we need a change of pace, I like to hunt for free learning packs, folder games, and simple lapbooks on Pinterest. Anything to keep his little hands busy is a good thing!

Baby Girl will of course be present during all of this, so I know scheduling is going to be a challenge.

Speaking of scheduling, come back next week to see how I make it all work!

Back-to-Homeschool Day 1: Curriculum - How I Select It

One of the most common discussion points I encounter in the real world is curriculum. How do I know what subjects to get? Does curriculum come all in one, or do I have to find each subject separately? How do I decide which company to go with? Is it expensive? Where do I find it? I hope to answer those questions here before I share our curriculum choices for 2014-2015.

Way back when I first decided to homeschool, I consulted the HSLDA website to see what subjects were required in my state. In my state, there are no specific subjects required; however, to ensure that I cover all my bases, I take a look at what the public and private schools in my area teach.

Curriculum comes in all shapes and sizes. I've used complete kits (all subjects, one purchase, super easy), and I've selected subject by subject. Currently, I use a complete kit for my history and humanities studies with individually selected curriculum for math and science. Then we supplement with outside lessons.

Deciding which specific curriculum to go with for me was a matter of experience. I was a classroom teacher for a couple of years, so I was able to get some hands on experience with a few choices there. Then it was a lot of reading and research and trying out things with my own kids. I've had great luck with some and still use my first choice, and others have been an utter failure that I've had to toss mid-year.

Cost can range from free to very expensive. I tend to lean toward pricier options that last are designed for long term use, so in the long run it works out to be very economical. The biggest thing to realize is that you do NOT have to break the bank to educate your child.

This year I bought a bulk of our curriculum from Mardel. Other places I've purchased from include Christian Book Distributors, eBay, Craigslist, our local homeschool group, and a local Facebook buying/selling page. I also greatly rely on our local public library for a large number of our trade books.

So, stay tuned for our 2014-2015 curriculum choices!

Back to Homeschool 2014

Yeah, yeah. I know it's only July, but I'm anxious to get started on another year. I thought I'd start out this year's school blogging with a series of posts on how I get everything ready and what plans I have in mind for the upcoming year. I'm calling it ...

This year I'll be full-time homeschooling a 5th and 2nd grader and part-time homeschooling a preschooler along with caring for an infant, so having a plan in place is CRUCIAL to a successful homeschool year. :)

B2HS Day 1: Curriculum - How I Select It
B2HS Day 2: Curriculum - 2014-2015 Choices
B2HS Day 3: Scheduling - Yearly, Weekly, & Daily
B2HS Day 4: Planners - Teacher & Student
B2HS Day 5: Classroom Set Up Organization

Check back here, as I will be adding links to each post!

Wrapping Up the School Year

Whether you follow a traditional school year, set your own unique calendar, or homeschool year round, there's always a transition point from one level to the next. Here, I share my thoughts on wrapping up the school year.

This year has been a bit different for me in that we are doing our first school year that will truly last a full year. This was not planned but is the result of welcoming a new baby and getting hit with a month long sickness. We are honestly not quite finished up with our work, but I'm seeing light at the end of the tunnel! Hooray! (Yes, even homeschoolers look forward to our "summer breaks"!)

No matter when wrap-up happens I always follow the same general steps. These are very general, and there are different ways they actually play out depending on your family. That's okay!

Step 1: Catch up on YOUR daily work. By this I mean make sure you have looked over & graded any work that needs to be done. This includes entering grades into your grade tracker (I use a simple Excel spreadsheet), and filling out progress reports. If you are on top of things and not a procrastinator like myself, this step will pretty much be done. :)

Step 2: Keep student work needed by the state, and throw out the rest! How do you know what's needed? Check HSLDA's website and click on "My State" to find out. For my state, I don't have to keep anything specific, just enough to show that learning is happening. Set aside what you need, and then put the rest in the garbage can. Seriously do this! You probably didn't even realize how much was there, and it is so freeing to have it gone!

If grandparents really want that A+ test or you just adore that art piece they made designate a single file folder to hold the FEW pages. Give yourself no more than a week to get these to their permanent homes. If it is a 3D piece, grab your camera and store it digitally! I've seen the most adorable coffee table books that were filled with the artwork of the home's children!

Step 3: Transfer work to student portfolios. Student portfolios come in all shapes and sizes - binders, scrapbooks, file boxes, digital storage, etc. I have chosen to use 3-ring binders for portfolios. I let my children pick a theme and print off a cover and section dividers for each school year. Section dividers are slipped into page protectors. Then I hole punch and store schoolwork & other documents behind the year's divider. I drop progress reports in the page protectors behind the pretty divider. As I previously mentioned, I don't really have to keep a lot, so one binder each has sufficiently met our needs so far. Whatever system you choose, make sure it is easily accessible if you should ever need it quickly. I'd also recommend permanent storage of these in your emergency evacuation kit.

Step 4: Clean up your teacher files. I do this following the same steps as outlines above for the student work - figure out what needs to be kept, set it aside, and toss the rest! I also check my notes section in the back of my teacher planner and transfer those to my new planner (if it's been purchased and arrived).

Step 5: Pack away or sell this year's curriculum. Pretty self explanatory! :) Since I have littles that have not yet entered school, I keep my stuff from year to year. I have a science tub, Tapestry of Grace tub, and then grade level tubs for things like math and phonics. At this time, I also remove the shortcut for my digital Tapestry of Grace products from my desktop. I still have not come up with a good permanent storage solution for these tubs as our home doesn't have a lot of closets or hidden storage.

Step 6: Go through your general school supplies. I have a large tub that I keep all of our misc community school supplies in. During the year, it all ends up getting just thrown in with no regard for organization. I use this time to throw away empty bottles, take inventory of what I have left, and set up a shopping list on my Cozi app for any needed supplies.

Step 7: Sit back and enjoy your summer! You should now have a less stressful start to next year and can enjoy whatever the summer has to bring you!

How to Survive Your First Homeschool Convention

Homeschool convention season is upon us. I just returned from my 5th annual trip. This year went so smoothly after many years of bumps and obstacles and generally trying to figure out how to navigate the weekend. Here I offer my best tips and tricks for making your first (or second or third) conference a smooth one.

1. See if they have a children's program. Our conference has a children's program, and it is so nice to not have to track down a babysitter for the weekend. Plus, they get to meet new friends and have two days of crafts, songs, bouncy houses, etc.

2. See if they record and offer sessions for purchase. My first year, I nearly killed myself trying to get to every little session I was interested in. I was so agonized over what to choose if two topics fell in the same session. By the end of the conference my brain was fried, and I was beyond exhausted. At the very end of the conference I learned that I could buy all 60+ sessions plus the keynote address for about $75. What a stress relief! Now, I could easily choose what speakers to see, take an extended lunch break, visit the vendor hall, etc.

3. Don't take money on the first day! The vendor hall is way too tempting. Thousands of books, curriculum, art supplies, parenting books, religious books, activities, etc. You'll want to have and do it all! If you leave the money at home, you won't be tempted by an impulse purchase

4. Plan on making at least 4 trips through the vendor hall. I'm serious about this one. It is very overwhelming, but if you break it down into a few trips with specific purposes, you won't feel lost.

• First trip is just a quick breeze through. Make a note of what booths you are interested in either learning more about or purchasing from.
• Second trip is strictly for freebie signups. Not every booth will have a giveaway, but don't discount booths you find uninteresting. One booth at our conference this year did not apply to our family at all, but they were giving away a $100 Visa card. That would pay for about 20% of my curriculum!
• Third trip is for learning. This will be your longest trip through. Take time to ask questions of the vendors, note prices of things you may want to buy, pick up information, etc. Spend enough time at booths you are interested in to get the information you need and skip any booths you have no interest in.
• Fourth trip is where you are going to make purchases. You've done your research and know who has the best prices on what, so now go shop! :-)

5. Finally, have fun! I know it's a time for you to learn and grow as a parent and teacher and to network with other homeschool parents. I also try to take the weekend to do something fun with my family!

I hope these tips help you to have a much more relaxing and productive conference experience!

My Teacher Planner

My creative outlet tends to flow best when I'm making lists and plans. I'm not always best about following through with those plans. After years of buying teaching planners and having them not quite work out for my personality, (I'm a little OCD at times.) so this year I put my own together. I've actually used all the sections in it, so I'd say it was a success!

This year I went a little crazy with the whole Mickey Mouse theme, as evidenced my the above photo and our classroom! I found the graphics over on Granny Enchanted under free kits, and the Disney font was found on a quick Google search. 

Now, onto the planner itself!

I started off with a basic information page, which records contact information, a family photo, and my children's ages. I also added a section for our family memories. Here I record our favorite read aloud, restaurant, movie, family activities, and board game. I also have lines for travels, new studies, and anything God did in our family.

Each student has an information page as well. These pages include a space for a photo, name, age, grade, goals for the year, curriculum information, and general notes.

Behind each info page is a schedule. My teacher schedule is pretty much a combo of my schedule and each of the kids' schedules.

The next section includes a semester overview, calendars and planning pages. The semester overview has spaces for goals along with field trip and project ideas.

I have a full page calendar for each month where I record any appointments, birthdays, community events, homeschool group events, and general stuff that happens outside of our usual schedule.

My planning pages each have 4 lines for each subject Monday - Friday. Along the right hand side is a place for notes and weekend plans.

Our attendance chart can be seen here hanging in our classroom. Each day we have school, the kids get to put a sticker on the date. At the end of each month, I count up all the stickers. Then it goes in my planner at the end of each semester.

Finally, I have a semester wrap up. Here is where I record any notes about the students performance, attendance, etc. all on one page. :)

Overall I have really liked the layout, but I have found a few tweaks I plan to make for next year. For one thing, after I put this together, I found the planning pages in my Tapestry of Grace software. (Yeah, I'm a bit slow.) I'll probably use those instead of trying to change all the dates on the pages above. I also have a few ideas for condensing down some of the above pages in order to save a bit of paper. Lastly, I'd like to spiral bound the whole thing instead of using the binder I did this year. It was just way to accidentally tear pages out.

Winter Olympics 2014

As mentioned in my previous post, we changed things up a bit for the Winter Olympics. We had a lot of sickness coursing through our household. Plus this is the time of year it seems to be when I hit my slump, so we all took a step back and did an easy lapbook while we watched the games!

Cover of Lapbook

Inside!

As I said we kept things insanely simple. This is NOT the normal level of lapbooking/notebooking I'd have Big Girl do, but even the kids occasionally need a break from their hefty workloads.

From top to bottom, left to right...
Olympic Motto: We wrote the Olympic motto in both Latin and English.

Olympic Mascots: We simply watched for the mascots to make an appearance, and once the kids found them and could tell me what they were, they glued a pic of the 3 of them inside the booklet.

Athlete Profile: The kids each chose an Olympic athlete, either from the USA or another country. Then they answered a few questions about them and tracked the medals they won. Big Girl chose Meryl Davis while Big Boy chose Kyle Tress.

Sochi/Russia Facts: Again, we answered a few questions about both the host city and country.

Russian Flag: Printed off and colored the host country's flag.

World Map: We looked up the location of Sochi and placed the 2014 Olympic logo on our world map.

Medals: We tracked all the medals the USA won throughout the Olympics.

 

Baby Boy got into the Olympics as well. Each morning he asked me, "watch games, please?" and was so disappointed if they weren't on yet. I made his work very simple since he is only 2yo. I printed off coloring pages I found here, hole punched them, and placed brads to make a coloring book. He could color anytime he wanted while we watched. Then, he and I worked together to trace the name of each sport.

Did you do anything special for the Olympic games? I'd love to hear your ideas!