H Is For Homeschool

 School has been going well. It's so much fun to see these kiddos learning and making new connections! I'm deep in planning for the next school year even though this one isn't quite over yet! As I figure out plans I'll share what we will be doing for next fall.  Currently we are still doing Sonlight B as our base for History, Literature, Language Arts and Science (although we are trying out a science unit on birds from The Good And The Beautiful right  now and I really like it!)  We are (still) using The Good And The Beautiful for Math (they moved into level 2 in January), Handwriting Without Tears/Getty-Dubay handwriting (some kids do one, some kids do the other), and Explode The Code.  We also toss in the Waseca reading program, Magic School Bus science kits, and other things we find that are intriguing. And we polish it all off with Reading Eggs and Cosmic Kids Yoga (on poor weather days) - the two tech items that we use in our homeschool. Both of these have ...

If you Google 'I'm thinking about homeschooling' you might as well Google 'help I'm overwhelmed' next! At least in my experience! Here are my tips for how to simplify this process.  1) Look at your states legal requirements first. HSLDA is the best place to do this (and join them while you're at it!) - www.hslda.org 2) Start by learning about teaching/homeschooling styles and see what resonates with you - but keep in mind each child is different and what your preference is might not be the best fit for them so stay open minded and think about your child as you check into the styles.  - see below 3) Read a book or two or a few blogs about each style that interests you (more on this below) - see below 4) Consider attending a homeschool conference. They're FUN, inspiring, a bit overwhelming, incredibly helpful and did I mention FUN?  - look for a local conference - Wild + Free Conference (TN) is a blast and a conference for non-conference people. They don...

Well summer is rapidly drawing to a close and school time is upon us again! I have mixed feelings about this school year - last year I felt nothing but excitement but this year with E joining the family as well as trying to keep C busy I'm going to be very much on my toes. J will be in 1st grade, M will be doing most of that work with him but also some scaled-back Kindergarten work, C is 2.5 so he will be working on counting, letter recognition, colors and play and E is 9 months so he'll be working hard on his job as resident cutie. Covid also has me a bit bummed because all of our "fun" activities and extracurricular activities are on hold. I'm especially going to miss our co-op (which decided not to meet this year due to Covid concerns) very much. It was not only fun for the kids but fun for me as well to get to be with other parents! But it's okay - hopefully we can resume meeting next year. We are doing Sonlight as our core again with a few different add-o...