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…
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…
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…
Our Choices for Individual Studies / Morning Rotation
So, last week I posted about our Morning Time and Family Loop plans for this year, Term 1. If you haven’t read that post and are genuinely interested in how our year ( or a creatively put-together, Charlotte Mason-inspired year ) looks like, I’d definitely start there. A huge part of our learning is covered in our Morning Time and Family Loop . Once we finish up Morning Time, the kids move into their Morning Rotations (Individual Work). This is where they are covering their Language Arts, Math, Notebooking, and Reading. This year Simon is our 6th grader (oh, my goodness!), Audrey is in 4th grade, and Alex…
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…
Choosing Great Books for your Living Literature List – Help for creating an awesome read-aloud list and a FREE download.
Hello, dear friends!!! So, I have the privilege of talking to countless homeschool Moms. Especially Mamas who are all nervous and stressed out and just beginning their homeschool journey. Yep, just like I was 6 years ago… They talk about when to teach reading, how soon kids should write, how to do math, and if they are covering enough at age 4 (snicker). And I listen, smile, and try my hardest to be an encourager. I’m afraid though that I sound pretty much a broken record. Every single time I encourage a new homeschool Mama (or one who is overwhelmed!), I say, “take a deep breath and just READ…
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…
How we incorporated Notebooking into our Homeschool Year
I’m plugging away (just like so many of you, I’m sure) at planning for this coming year of homeschooling. *smile* And a BIG part of my planning has been contemplating how we will approach Notebooking this year. Notebooking has always been a part of our homeschool but in the past few years we have been much more intentional about it. Especially this past school year when we starting using Notebooking for a lot more of our ‘work’. To see what got us started last year, check out these – Here are some of my past Notebooking Posts: Simplifying and Enriching our Homeschool with Notebooking -Part 1 Simplifying…
{Homeschool Planning} The Importance of Starting with your OWN Bookshelves
Are you familiar with Scotia Bank’s slogan? You know, the whole, ‘You’re Richer Than You Think’ thing? They say it is one of the most successful branding strategies any bank has ever launched. Maybe its because we all want to be richer than we think. I never understood it personally, because I’m almost always poorer than I thought. *chuckle* Anyways, I digress. The point I’m getting at is this – think of your personal bookshelves with this slogan in mind. You may not think you have what you need for next year – or that you have to research and order a whole pile of new curriculum, books, etc… but…
The Importance of Reflection, Prayer, and Rest in Homeschool Planning
Alright, so, I don’t know about you – but I’m an A-type, go-getter kinda girl. So, as a homeschool Mom, it is so tempting to just jump from one ‘school year’ to the next. You know, it’s June – shouldn’t I be gearing up to start again in a few weeks with next year’s plans? (laughs) I have done this so many times – I would go all year, never stop, and be continually implementing new plans as I went along. Rarely did we take more than 2 weeks of a ‘break’ from homeschooling. It is exhausting, even if you implement a more relaxed, gentle approach. As the…
