Homeschooling Plans for 2017-2018
Hello, friends! So, it’s an exciting time of year for many homeschoolers as the Spring planning season is upon us. Catalogs and Vendor Halls and Conferences, OH MY! This year, I spent most of January and February praying, researching, and planning. This was mostly done while feeding a precious baby in the middle of the night. *wink* We had a beautiful baby boy join our family in December through adoption and it has been a wonderful whirlwind! I haven’t done babies for 8 years… but we are back in the swing. And loving it! I realized quite quickly, however, that I couldn’t possibly put together all my own plans…
Our Favorite Read-Aloud Books from this School Year.
As a Charlotte Mason-inspired, book-based homeschool, we try our hardest to read lots of high quality, living books in our home. I thought I’d share what we’ve read and enjoyed this year… Novels we all loved… Alright, I can’t possibly comment on every single book photographed (well, I could but it would take way too long…). I always try to pick a good selection of classics, award winners, historical fiction, comical, mystery, etc.Many of these we listened to on audio. Audio books are a life saver for me! Books we found on audio included: Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea, Frindle, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Elijah of…
Hello from the Homefront! {Updates, Homeschool planning}
Hi! So, I thought I’d just write a very down-to-earth post sharing what’s been going on in our family for the past few months and what is whirling around in my mind as I ponder our year. I know, it’s been too long! This year, in so many ways has been quite different. To be honest, as I always warn, we have completed some but definitely not all of our ‘plan’. We started our walk through Modern History (using Simply Charlotte Mason’s family guide) and are still only at Lesson 36 of a 176 lesson program. *sigh* But, that doesn’t mean we haven’t been learning. I don’t know if any…
Keeping Homeschool Simple when Life is Busy and Time is precious…
Oh, hi there! It’s been well over a month since I’ve been able to post anything on this little blog but I promise, I have VERY good reasons! Our family is actually walking through the journey of fostering to adopt a beautiful baby boy. There is so much more I would love to share about how amazing God is and how He weaves all things together but that will have to wait until the adoption is final… *smile* Then, watch out… because I won’t be able to stop talking about how Jesus works and posting about a million photos of this little one’s precious face! What I can say…
The Truth about Teaching our Children to Read {and 5 Simple Steps for Nurturing a Love of Books…}
A couple of days ago, I shared a special moment on The Unplugged Family Facebook page. My nine-year-old daughter had just finished reading through The Boxcar Children for the first time and was starting into the second book in the series. It was mid-morning and our home was peacefully quiet with children all engaged in their own activities. Audrey unfolded her legs and rose from the couch with a satisfied sigh. “Oh, Mama… I just couldn’t LIVE without reading,” her voice was whimsical and sing-song. I smiled and she continued, “Reading is just delicious.” Oh, my heart. Those four words will stay emblazoned in my soul forever. Reading Is…
The difference between a Schedule and a Rhythm (and how Rhythm brought Rest to our Homeschool)
Schedule A. a plan for carrying out a process or procedure, giving lists of intended events and times. B. to arrange or plan events to take place at a particular time. Rhythm A. a strong, regular pattern of movement or sound. B. a repeated pattern of events marked by natural flow and regular reoccurrence of certain activities. When I first started my Homeschooling journey, I tried desperately to create (and re-create) very specific Homeschool Schedules I wanted us to follow. These comprised of many boxes and many little increments of time, all filled in with exactly what we would do every second…
Morning Time and Family Learning Plans
I’m super excited to share our plans for Morning Time and our Family Learning (which we are calling our Family Loop this year). It has been about 2 months now that I’ve been really in the reflecting, thinking, and planning process for the upcoming year. It is a lot of fun, but, as many of you know – a lot of hard work! I think I’m on information and decision making overload… but I’ll recover. *wink* I’m thankful to God for His guidance and the undeserved grace He continues to pour on me as I plan. I feel I have a good vision for the upcoming year and I’m…
Homeschool Planning – What’s in my Planning and Records Binder? (And a whole bunch of FREE downloads for planning!)
Only awesomely geeky homeschool Moms will ever read this post with interest, so let’s just all geek-out together and I’ll get all excited to share my organizational binder with you and you can at least pretend to be all excited along with me. *chuckle* No, honestly though, there are actually quite a few of you lovely Mamas who ask me about organizing our year and how I do it. Well, some of my organization changes over time but one thing remains – I ALWAYS have a Planning and Records Binder. In fact, I’ve saved mine from every year of our homeschool journey and they are such cool reminders of all…
5 Creative Ways to Read Aloud this Summer
We used to homeschool all year. It was SO MUCH EASIER when the kids were little. They didn’t seem to notice that other kids we actually ‘out’ of school. Now that they are 11, 9, and almost 8 – well, not so much. They crave (and deserve) a little Summer break. We all do. And in fact, I truly believe that taking some much needed time for prayer, reflection, and rest is very important for homeschoolers. However, that doesn’t mean we stop doing everything altogether when July hits. We are always learning and always growing and most importantly – always READING! Summer time is the perfect time to get…
When it becomes all about the checklist
A few weeks ago my son said something that stopped me in my tracks. I was in the middle of introducing a new task he would be working on as part of his Nature Studies and encouraging him to think about what he could write as a narration. He stopped me and asked: “What is this for?” “What do you mean?” I responded, a bit confused. “What is this for?” he repeated. “Like, what do I get to check off my list when I’m done this?” I chuckled and stammered. Truth is, this task wasn’t actually on his list for individual work and it suddenly dawned on me. My heart sank…
