Free Mid-Year Homeschool Assessment Packet About this time of year, I get itchy. I know that the holidays are coming up and we will take a well-deserved break! Right around the holidays, I also take the time to think about how things are going. Today, I wanted to share this Free Homeschool Assessment Packet with you (I updated and expanded it a bit this year.). This packet has several pages...
Homeschooling during the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas can be particularly trying/demanding. There are more events on as the semester comes to an end. On the homeschool front, we are often finishing up big projects and wrapping up units before taking an extended break. But there are a lot of other things going on too! There are holiday-themed parties and get-togethers. There are concerts. There also more demands on our...
This is a checklist of things you can do now, to get ready for the new school year! Is part of your end-of-summer vision to feel prepared for back-to-school? This checklist will help you slowly and steadily get ready for the new school year! It is mid-summer, but lingering in the back of our minds is that school will be here before we know it. We want to take advantage...
Have you ever been rendered immobile by the thought of everything that needs to be done? Overwhelmed with a list of things that you need to do for the day, let alone thinking about the week or month ahead? I think we all are from time to time… the trick is to keep chipping away at things little by little, one step at a time! Have you ever stayed with...
We had a really long, really lovely spring break. One of the really fun things was visiting a zoo where we could all feed the kangaroo, camel and other animals. That brought us fond memories of living in the Outback. Down below I will share some old photos of the kids from our days in Australia (we lived their for 12 years and the kids were all born there)… but...
I have a new (free!) Mid-Year Homeschool Assessment Packet to share with you today! You might be doing this kind of evaluation and planning over the winter break, but I wanted to share this packet with you sooner than later. This Thanksgiving break, I took the opportunity to really reflect on our homeschool year so far and assess how things are going. This was a natural time for me to...
Hi everyone! As the school year begins again for many of us, we’re all trying to keep ourselves organized. I use google (online) calendar for many of our activities, but I still keep a traditional paper calendar as well in my homeschool planner. I wanted to share the updated printable calendar with you all. This is FREE to download and print out, just click to link or picture below! This...
I am excited to share our new Homeschool Planner and Discovery Journal! This unique homeschool planning packet is currently FREE to download! It is nearly 100 pages! Not only does this packet include daily and weekly planning pages, checklists and record keeping pages, but it also includes various homeschool journaling pages… think gratitude journal meets homeschool goal setting! What is unique about this planner? We all want to be the...
Homeschool Vision Planner (This 30+ page pdf is currently FREE to download!) For many of us the school year is coming to a close and we’re thinking about next year. We’re tossing around ideas and trying to determine just what subjects and units we’ll be covering next fall. I thought I would share the process I go through… and also will share the planning pages that I’ve been using the...
Back to Homeschool Challenge: Day 9 Family Homeschool Meeting There are so many positive things about holding a family meeting. They give everyone – including the kids- a sense of belonging and ownership of the rules. We want the kids to know that they have a real and important voice in the family. Family meetings give everyone a platform for making your family a better team. And one reason to...
Right now you’re healthy, you’re excited, you’re energized… Motivation is at an all-time HIGH. But let’s be realistic… there are times when we don’t feel up for homeschooling. It might be because of a seasonal cold. It might be because we have a series of errands/appointments that fill up the morning. It might be because we’re downright *tired*!! So what do you do when you feel it coming on? When...
One of the huge challenges for me is not necessarily the homeschooling itself… It’s keeping on top of everything. Today, your challenge is to think about how your family will handle chores this year. In this post, I wanted to share a variety of chore systems that other families have tried. Maybe one will work especially well for yours this year. Each year our kids are just a little older....
We all hear a lot about getting organized and keeping the clutter down. But today I want to talk about becoming organized in a strategic way… a way that helps our homeschool day run smoothly. It’s not really about making the pencils and markers look pretty and organized, though that definitely has its appeal. It’s about making sure our days flow smoothly. That the kids have some sense of what...
In last week’s post, I mentioned an online-planner that many homeschool families use. I still need to be able to see everything at a glance and to be able to check things over the course of the day, so I like having everything gathered in a 3-ring notebook. Last year I got a notebook that has a built in file dividers where I can place invitations and keep important papers...
