Why We Homeschool Year Round

I'm in my 6th year of homeschooling my four children. What once began as a "let's see how this goes" adventure has now progressed into a definite way of life that I cannot imagine diverting away from. The ups and downs of the first year were certainly the most stressful, and while there are still ups and downs, I wouldn't trade homeschooling my children for anything.

Today I'm going to be sharing about the driving factors and our "whys" for schooling year round.  Many homeschoolers still school on a traditional schedule, but year round schooling has been the school schedule that we love the most and have held onto the longest. If you've been looking for ways to set up your school schedule, I encourage you to consider this type of set-up.

*Note: When I say "year round" I don't mean that we sit down with our books every day. In fact, my homeschooling style is not one where we spend much time at the table "schooling" anyway. Rather, it means that we don't follow a traditional school schedule in regards to big summer breaks and holidays and such. We plan on schooling all through the year with the idea that if and when we want a day off, to take a family vacation, or to just have a fun day together at the beach, we can do so without getting behind on our school. Our kids still go to fun camps in the summer, and we still have days where we just throw our hands up and watch movies together all day.

When we started homeschooling, we adhered to a traditional school schedule. Summers off. Breaks when the schools had breaks. Spring and winter breaks, holidays, etc. were all observed. I stuck pretty carefully to this schedule. After all, I grew up in public school and even taught kindergarten for a couple years...this is just how you do it, right? I knew of no other way, and so I naturally just followed suit.

Over the years, we found that our lives were much more balanced when we schooled year round, taking breaks as we need them instead of when we were supposed to take them. Several factors played into this, and I honestly feel that I find more reasons in favor of it the longer we do it.

At first, when my kids were younger, it was a behavioral decision. On school days, with routine, the kids had better attitudes. On days where we just "did whatever" and didn't do any "school", they were crazy. Children thrive on routines and on knowing what to expect. When the routines got thrown out the window, it seemed to mess with their understanding and expectations of the day. This was most noticeable when they were younger. As older children now (5, 8, 9, 11), they have enough consistent non-school routine things to keep the balance of our day (i.e. morning responsibilities- self care like teeth, dressing themselves, etc, and family chores-unloading the dishwasher, making their own breakfasts, etc.). Nevertheless, we love the routine of "school" being as simple as an every day part of our lives. I hope to raise life-long learners, and believe that schooling year round helps them understand that learning is something we should pursue always and forever.

Weather began to play a roll in this decision, as well. August is extremely hot here, whereas September is beautiful. With littles who wanted to play at the park often, we found the slides and swings were too hot to even enjoy in August. We preferred to play outside in September over August. Lake Tahoe is generally still really nice in September, and the bonus is that school-kids are back in school and we have the beach and parks to ourselves! Schooling year round allowed us to take breaks in September to go play without feeling "behind" on our schooling. We also will take our Disneyland family vacations on non-school breaks to ensure that it's not too crowded. And no, we never bring our school work along with us.

Retention quickly became a driving force to school year round. I found that, in general, many curriculums provide a couple weeks of review material with each new year of curriculum. The fact that many take a couple months off from school means that generally speaking, a review is necessary before moving on. Maintaining our year round schedule not only meant the kids remembered what they were learning, but that we could also skip those couple weeks of review material each year and just jump in with the new stuff. Imagine skipping 26 total weeks of review work over the course of a K-12 education. That's half a year spent just on reviewing stuff you already learned but forgot because of taking so much time off!

Flexibility is another. At this point, we average only 4 days of school/week. My kids usually do 5 days worth of work for all core subjects, but they complete it (on most weeks) in four days. If we have a crazy Monday, we can still complete all our stuff during the rest of the week. BUT, if we don't get to five days of work each week, it's still okay...year round schooling will keep us on track over the course of the year. The flexibility and relief of not having to stress over a missed school day is totally worth it. It keeps me sane, and helps keep the kids from stressing, too.

We love year round schooling. We are able to complete all of our necessary school work, have fun, enjoy the nice weather, and keep ourselves relatively stress free. If you are struggling to find a great schedule balance in your homeschool, I encourage you to take a look at schooling year round. It might be just what you're family needs!

Do you school year round? What is your favorite aspect of this type of school schedule? 

Homeschool Myths: What About Socialization?!?!

Before I started homeschooling my children, my biggest reluctance with it was the fear of them being socially awkward. After all, most of the homeschoolers I had known or had met up until that time had fit the stereotypical homeschool standard of being a bit "weird" or "off" when it came to social skills.

Seven years into this homeschooling gig, and I am nearly at a spot where I would almost argue the opposite. Homeschooling is a very social way to educate children, and even more, I think it's a more natural way to do so.

The first time we showed up to a homeschool picnic with a bunch of people we didn't know, I was shocked at how children of all ages played together. Big kids grabbed little kids, asked their parents permission to bring them along with the group (I'd never heard kids talk to adults with confidence like I observed at this moment), and went off on adventures together around the park. I just remember feeling so inspired by what I saw. Big kids didn't write off the little ones as annoyances, and little kids happily jumped in with the big kids knowing full well they'd be welcomed. My new-to-the-group children were entirely welcomed. It was an eye-opening moment for me.

Homeschooling allows for the unique opportunity to engage with people of all ages. While there are a lot of age or grade specific co op classes around our city, there are also many all-ages gatherings, classes, and groups. This offers kids the opportunity to work, collaborate, and engage with kids at different stages of development than their own. I believe that this leads to homeschoolers being more accepting of others who are different than themselves.

My kids talk to the mailman, the garbage man, and the neighbors. They go to the store with me. The bank. The DMV. Doctors appointments. And more. They interact regularly throughout the day, primarily, with adults. They're getting to learn social skills from ADULTS, who know much better than children how to interact appropriately (or at least we hope so, right?). Their examples for social behaviors are grown-ups, not 5 and 10 year olds, which (I believe) is a more helpful way of learning to interact in our society appropriately.

Now don't get me wrong, they don't only interact with adults...my kids interact with other kids pretty much every day, whether that is during co-ops, field trips, and/or martial arts classes. They have play dates, neighborhood friends and other participate in seasonal sports.  We play with friends A LOT.

I love the balance that my homeschoolers receive in interacting with kids of all ages and adults, alike. 

I get told a lot by random adults after they've interacted with my children, "they are so social for homeschoolers!" To which, when I'm in a snarky mood, I sometimes reply, "they're so social because they're homeschoolers!"

Once upon a time, homeschoolers WERE socially isolated. Before the internet, before easy access to groups and classes and activities, before homeschool was more main-stream, homeschoolers often did all their schooling at home, which can absolutely lend to social awkwardness. But it's 2018. Homeschoolers are everywhere. They're doing all the things. They're interacting with ALL the people. Lack of socialization in homeschooling is no longer a concern. (I get it, you know that one homeschool family that is awkward....but how many do you know at your local public school? I'd bet statistically it's the same. Some people are just weird.)

If you've been considering homeschooling but have had concerns about the social aspect of it, I encourage you to think of all the social benefits to homeschooling. Is it different than the norm? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely!

My "Not New Years" Goals

I've never been much of a New Years Resolutions kinda person.  I have occasionally set a goal or two, but rarely have I kept up with them.  I think that far too often our goals are too big or too boring or too far outside our normal, current lifestyle, that we just can't keep up with them.

But those of you who know me personally know that I am a planner.  And I do love goals.  And Excel spreadsheets.  And notebooks.  And journals.  And Kanban goal flow boards.  And sticky notes.  And, and, and.....

I actually really enjoy setting goals, but I have found that to be successful with my goals, they need to be bite sized, and typical New Years Resolutions seem to just be big things, without the baby steps.  If I want to set a goal to workout 6 days a week, it usually has to start with setting a goal to regularly exercise two days a week, then to bump it up a day, and so on and so forth.  If I want to read aloud one new book each month to my children, I start with something like reading aloud for a few minutes twice a week.  Bite-sized baby steps to the rescue.

I think my hesitancy to set New Years goals lies in the premise that there is something magical about a certain day or month of the year for starting new things.  It communicates that goals are to be made in January, and not March or September.  It communicates that if we "fail" at our goal, it's probably not the right time to redo our goal and keep pushing...because it's not the new year.  It communicates that we should only specifically look to improve our lifestyle, health, habits, etc. one time a year.

We miss the mark sometimes (okay, a lot of times).  Our lofty goals may have been too big or not right for us and we fail.  And there is NOTHING wrong with failing; it's how we learn.  But if we keep our minds set to only create new goals and try new things once a year, we may let failure end at failure.  We may not do anything with our failure, or adjust our goals, or try again.

So no New Years' Resolutions for me.  Instead, I'll let you know the goals that I'm currently working on, as well as the goals I'm setting for myself in the near future.

Here are a few of my current goals:

*Work out 5 times per week.  I'm crushing this because I found something I love that motivates me to get up and go (see my previous post).  Not only do I go five times a week, but a couple of those days I go to both an afternoon and evening class.  A mini goal within this is to attend 1 Brazillian Jiu Jitsu class each week (this is newer to me, and not my favorite compared to the Mixed Martial Arts, but still fun and I can learn some great skills here). Considering how six months ago I *maybe* worked out twice per week, and I now work out 5-6 days a week, I have had some awesome success with this goal.  I attribute success with this goal to 1) finding something I love and look forward to doing, and 2) great trainers and friends to train with.  It's made this goal one in which I don't even have to "try" to accomplish anymore.

*Meal Plan more effectively.  Those of you who have followed my blog for a long time would be shocked to find out how poorly I've been doing at meal planning lately.  It's especially awful since we are often out late at various martial arts classes or gymnastics classes and then come home to no food.  So....I am currently working at being just a little bit better at meal planning.  One of these mini goals is to keep things like cooked rice, chopped lettuce, and other quick-meal type stuff my family likes in the fridge.  But really, my crock pot misses me.  And I miss it.  So back to meal planning we go!

*Read two books aloud to the kids each month.  Okay, so this one took some major baby stepping.  Also, I had to have grace for the times when my kids just really weren't interested in the book at hand.  Last month we read Peter Pan and The Little House in the Big Woods, and we are currently almost done with The Three Musketeers.  For some odd reason, I have found that I feel especially "accomplished" with our homeschool day if I've spent time reading aloud to the kids.  Not sure why.  You'd think that finishing Math and English would leave me feeling accomplished, but nope-it's reading aloud.  And so, that's why this goal is an important one to me.  It's good for the kids but also gives me as a homeschooling mom a sense of accomplishment that I so desperately need sometimes.

*Read more personal enrichments books.  Notice how I don't have a set number for this...it's because I've been there, done that, and it never works.  So now I just keep on my mind that it's something I value and want to regularly do.  I am currently reading through both Rich Dad, Poor Dad and The Millionaire Next Door, both of which I find incredibly eye-opening and interesting.  Following these books, I'd like to read Wired to Eat by my new friend Robb Wolf, who is a health expert and author of the New York Times Bestselling book, The Paleo Solution. Also, he is super awesome and is super nice when he kicks my butt at jiu jitsu. We don't eat Paleo in our home, but I'm becoming more aware of food and its affect on my body, and am really wanting to learn more.


So, there they are...a few of my current, "not New Years" goals.  They aren't resolutions, and they don't start or end on a certain day. They are things that I believe will enrich and enhance my life.  No New Years Resolutions for me!  And I'm perfectly happy and fine with that.

I'm a Homeschooling Mom, and I'm Choosing to be Selfish

I've been a homeschooling mom for four years now, and I'm pretty convinced that people believe that makes me selfless and amazing and all-consumed with my children all at once.  And I won't lie, I'm the first person to tell another homeschool momma that she totally rocks, because frankly, being around your kids all day every day CAN lead to some rough days and it takes a lot of patience.  AND, it's true that there is a lot of selflessness in homeschooling-giving up any free time you might have had while the kids are at school in favor of schooling them yourself and having your little ducklings tagging along everywhere you go.  It has its hard days.  But the good days far outweigh them.

I have four children.  I've spent 36 months worth of carrying and growing humans inside of my body.  I've spent an additional 62 months nourishing and nursing and keeping small humans alive through the use of my body (check it-that's 8.2 YEARS of humans relying on me to keep them alive and my body not being my own).  Having a baby is an incredibly selfless act.  It's hard.  You have no space.  You get "touched out" from having little people all over you all day. But it's also rewarding and such a blessing.

A few months ago, I decided that with children no longer growing inside of me, being nourished by me, or even needing diapers changed by me, that I was going to be selfish.  I was going to do something for ME.  I was going to invest in them by investing in myself first.  That I was going to give them happier mom by feeding MY soul, and not just focusing on theirs.  I fell in love with a mixed martial arts program, and I also do fitness classes at the same place, and Brazillian Jiu Jitsu classes once or twice a week, too.  I actually do a lot of classes each week now...all with my kids in tow.  They are often there for 2 hours a day with me and another hour for their classes. They generally hang out on the bleachers next to the mats, and depending on the time of day, they'll do their independent school work, a craft that I packed for them to do, eat their lunch, or watch a show/play games on an iPad. The big girls help with Levi (3), and they really do an amazing job all hanging out together.

My friend Erin and I at our belt test! NEVER thought I'd be doing this as an adult! 

But you know what?  I felt guilty at first.  I felt like I was taking away their time (probably because the past few years have seemingly been all about them anyway).  I felt like even an hour a day was far too much time for me to give to myself and let my kids be "bored" or watch a show.  But the more I stuck to it, the more I discovered how much better of a mom I was to them.  I was happier, healthier, and had new goals for myself to achieve.  And the funny thing about this is that my five year old suddenly had a strong boost in his work ethic at martial arts.   Suddenly he wanted to get to karate early.  He had a million questions about how he can do things better.  My dedication to my health had a direct impact on my child.  It wasn't like at the "boring" gym where I'd drop them off at the childcare, do my work out in peace, and then pick them up.  Here, they actually see me work hard.  And it's making a difference in their perception of work ethic and who their mom really is as a person.

Belt Test #1: Me, Coach Darien (this guy's amazing), and my inspired little 5 year old ninja

It's not always easy.  There are days that they are difficult or make poor decisions, and there are always times when I need to jump out of my class to take my 3 year old to the bathroom.  I have to be flexible to help them, correct their behavior, or be there if they need me.  But for the most part, they enjoy hanging out together and having their own "down time" to just chill and watch a show or get ahead on the day's school work.  They enjoy sitting with other friends and talking or playing games.  Not having me to entertain them has been really good for them.

So, yes, I'm being selfish.
No, I won't stop anytime soon.
Yes, my children are well loved and cared for.
No, our family life doesn't need to revolve solely around them.

My kids' health is important...so is mine.  I'm happy to show my kids that I care about my health in the same way that I encourage them to care about their own health.  I'm leading by example.

Belt Test #1: I'm still a baby in this world, but I'm a baby with an orange belt...so there's that.

So for any other moms feeling guilty about taking time for YOU to feed YOUR own soul, (in whatever way that may look)...go for it.  Figure out something that you love and refreshes you, and DO IT.  Your kids will learn valuable lessons, and you will likely be a happier momma when you are caring for yourself as a priority instead of an afterthought.  Homeschooling moms-your whole day doesn't have to be about the children.  Real life is never only about ourselves anyway.  Teach them to value caring for themselves and encouraging others to do the same.  It's so worth it.


Side Note: My husband has always been good at this.  And I secretly was always bothered at him for being so "selfish" since I didn't prioritize myself like he did.  Now, I get it.  I totally get it.  And I'm so glad for his sake that he figured it out long ago.  Dad's need time for themselves, too.  I should've followed his lead sooner!

Why I Let My 9 Year Old Create Her Own Website

If you are a personal friend of mine on Facebook, chances are you have seen a little about this recently.  Over the past few months, my nine year old has really jumped into pestering me about creating her own website.  It doesn't come as a total surprise since A) she sees me working on my sites, and B) for YEARS, she has had business idea after business idea.  Journals and notebooks galore are filled with her ideas and thoughts.  And for years, I have (mostly) shut down her ideas.  Not because they weren't great, but because often her little nine year old brain didn't think through the logistics of her businesses and that left me feeling frustrated having to work through it all with her.  I know, mom fail.

We homeschool here at the Locke house, meaning the task of preparing my children for life and the real world falls on my shoulders much of the time.  In our home, college is not the end goal.  If they want to go to college, great!  But if not, that's totally cool, too.  I really feel that there are so many things my children could successfully do in life without an ounce of college.  Ellie, without a doubt, will be a business owner.  And a darn fine one, too, I'd bet.  So, since we homeschool, wouldn't it only make sense that I feed her the education that she desires?  That if her brain is constantly thinking of business ideas that I should filter her schooling through her interests?

Yes, the answer is yes.  I should do that.  And so I did.

A couple weeks ago I set Ellie up with a free Wix site, showed her a few of the basics, and she went to town.  She was allowed a certain amount of time on the computer each day to work on her site, and she worked meticulously through the entire allotted time.  And when she was "done", I posted a link to her site on my Facebook for her.

And the orders rolled in (via her email account which I have control over).

Ellie's first batch of orders.

Ellie learned to work hard at fulfilling orders, and worked on her cleaning skills at the same time (her primary item of sales is homemade play dough = messy kitchen).

For this particular business venture, I allowed her to use my supplies for a set rate of repayment.  She then learned about and calculated her profits (she made over $50 in profit in her first week!).  We discussed the importance of saving a portion of her earnings for her next business venture, as the "mom-fronting the supplies" stops at this current business experience.  She quickly handed over some of her profits to her savings account, and now has some cash flow for her next ideas.

So while she's enjoying (and having fun) spending her time making a website/business, here's a big list of what she's been learning through the process:

*Website Skills- How to navigate and create a website on her own.
*Math/Financial Literacy- How to calculate profits and expenses.
*Financial Literacy- How to save money to provide cash flow for future business ventures.
*Math Skills- Making play dough requires a specific recipe for it to turn out; doubling a batch = multiplication!
*Cleaning skills- Each batch made = a fresh new mess to clean up in the kitchen.
*Communication Skills- Professionally responding to emails and communicating kindly and clearly.
*Spelling and Grammar- Websites need to be clear of spelling errors and read well.  Emails require the same kind of thought.
*Typing skills- Emails go reallllllly slow if you aren't typing with your fingers in the proper places on the keyboard.  Emails give great typing practice.
*Time Management- When you are nine years old and have school and sports, you have to learn to balance those things with the time you need to fulfill orders.


I'm honestly sure there's more that I could add to that list.  I love this type of learning, and I know my kids love it too.  It's real life.  It's not just books.  It's fun.  It's practical.

I'm not sure what Ellie will be up to next, but I'm really trying to allow her entrepreneurial side shine through, even when it can be frustrating or difficult for me.  But for now, it's a website that she's in love with and her first "real" business.  Go Ellie!

Why I Don't Lesson Plan Ahead of Time for our Homeschool

Even in the summer, we do a good amount of school! 

I used to spend time at the start of each school week lesson planning and plotting out our whole school week.  When teaching classes of students this was a necessity, and since it was habit for me, I just continued doing it.  The problem was that I am much more flexible with my own homeschooling kids than I could ever have been in a classroom setting.  I'd find that one day we would never get to history, and at the same time one child decided to do three lessons worth of language.  Maybe we'd skip the whole day for a field trip for hands on learning or the book I planned was terribly boring and we nixed it altogether.  Nothing in my lesson planning book EVER lined up like I thought it should.

I quickly found that lesson planning really did not work for me.  And yet, at various times in our four years of homeschooling, I've given it another shot (with the same frustrating results).  Lesson planning simply does not work for us like I want it to.  It looks nice and neat, until nearly everything has to be erased, added to, moved, etc.  And then I just end up annoyed. 

There are so many "awesome homeschooling planners" out there-both in book form and in digital form, that it seemed like I just couldn't figure it out.  Or maybe, there are so many out there because it doesn't work for many others, either. 

I am a total type A personality.  I like things in order, and I like a plan.  But specific lesson planning in my homeschool simply does not work for my easy-going, follow my kids' lead, let them dive into the things they are curious about now attitude.  Instead, I've found that I like to lesson plan AFTER we do school.  I know, it sounds ridiculous, but let me explain...

I keep my lesson planner handy while doing school, just like I would if I were going by the plans inside it.  But instead of a full planner, I start with an empty one.  Instead of "subjects" at the top of my planner, I fill in my kids names:  Ellie, Zoe, Aaron,  and "Altogether" (Levi doesn't need a section yet).  

As I go about the day, I fill in what we've done.  Books read, lessons finished, lessons started, topics explored, etc. all goes into my planner.  This allows me to see where we most recently finished off (no more guessing about where we stopped the previous time) and pick up in the correct spot the next time we return to that subject.  It also allows me to track things that I otherwise forget about.  Those weeks where you feel like you didn't accomplish much in your homeschool?  You can look back and see that you DID accomplish something and find encouragement from that.  I often forget about the books my kids have sat and read or about the topics we explored online.  This allows me to remember exactly what we spent time on during the week.  

I love not having to erase, move, and rewrite that dang geography lesson that we couldn't seem to get to during the week.  I love being able to easily track how many math lessons we completed or how often each child spent reading.  I love that my planner accurately represents our school day, and that instead of feeling let down that we didn't finish everything inside it, I can rejoice in knowing that everything inside it IS finished.  

It's important to note that I have not thrown planning to the wind.   I still set goals for progress, write down topics we'd like to cover, and reference our curriculum books for what's next, but I simply do not plan out the details of any of it.  I often find that when I wait for curiosity to start a topic, we can easily spend hours on the topic, completing many of the lessons all at once.  Why not wait for their curiosity and make it easier on myself?!?!  

Because I allow this flexibility in our homeschool, we are often on various lesson days of each subject.  Currently, my 8 year old is on lesson 50 of 3rd grade math, while on lesson 79 of 4th grade language.  All of my kids do history together, and so we're on lesson 1 (when we officially start back to school) of 4th grade history.  I could easily lose track of where each child is at in each subject (which I've done many a time).  Lesson planning as we go gives me a visual reference to where everyone is at.

So if you are frustrated with lesson planning and are feeling defeated because you can never stick to what you have written down, I suggest you give lesson planning as you go through the day a shot.  It really has helped me feel much less stressed as I go throughout our week, and has given me more freedom to follow my kids' lead. It's made me MORE organized, because I can quickly glance at my book and see exactly which lesson I need to do next.  

I realize this may not work for everyone, but hopefully for some of you, it will give you the freedom you've been looking for in your homeschool lesson planning pursuits! 

What We Buy to Homeschool Kindergarten

I am often asked (or overhear others asking) what it is exactly that a parent should buy for their homeschool curriculum if they plan to use A Beka.  It can be SO overwhelming to look at the site and see all these books, not knowing which you really need, or which ones you can get by without, or even what they are specifically FOR.  Additionally, figuring out which other products would be helpful is yet another challenge.  Since I've answered this question for multiple friends and acquaintances, I figured perhaps a post on the subject would be helpful to many more.

I'll first list my A Beka curriculum suggestions, and then I'll list all our other favorite homeschool products for this age.

There are SO many curriculums out there.  If you're unsure of which curriculum to use, my suggestion would be to ask other homeschoolers.  There is no "one size fits all" curriculum, and even within our family, we've found that some of our children do better with one method or curriculum over another.  For this post, I will be specifically detailing what our family buys for the Kindergarten school year, with A Beka as the primary curriculum.  A Beka is a Christian based curriculum, and has been around for a long time with a great academic track record.  It is used by both Christian private schools and homeschoolers.  Although with older grades we've branched out to some other curriculums based on our daughter's needs, we continue to use A Beka for Kindergarten because I feel that it is such a great program.

(This is not a sponsored post, just my honest feedback for what we find useful and/or necessary for Kindergarten when using A Beka curriculum products.  Some of the below Amazon links, however, are my affiliate links). 

Some helpful tips:

*When you visit the A Beka site, you will select the Kindergarten: 5 year old (4 year old Kindergarten is just their preschool program).

*A Beka offers both cursive and manuscript even at the Kindergarten age.  You can start with either (cursive is actually easier for children to write).  In our home, we start with manuscript in Kindergarten, and then introduce cursive in 1st grade.  Our reasoning being that most things they read are in manuscript, so learning to write manuscript first just makes more sense.  We've found that cursive in 1st grade comes very naturally since they already know all their letters and how to write in manuscript.

For the Parent:

*Curriculum book: Necessary. This was recently redone and is now so much easier as all subjects are in the same curriculum book.  If you look for used curriculums, you will likely find a great deal, but be sure to find each of the curriculum books (one for language, one for math, etc.).

*Basic Phonics Flashcards:  Helpful.  These are not totally necessary, but are definitely helpful to aid in teaching your child phonics.  The curriculum books do call for them quite regularly.

*Phonics Charts and Games:  Necessary.  I have always found all the charts for all grade levels to be quite necessary and well used.  I'd definitely recommend buying and laminating these.

*Numbers Charts and Games: Necessary.  Same as above, we always get a ton of use out of our charts.

Optional but Not Necessary (in my opinion):

*Manuscript Curriculum.  Not Necessary.  There is a Manuscript Curriculum book available, but I just don't find this necessary for teaching handwriting.  I will just follow the lead of the student book, and spend time demonstrating letters on the board, tracing in the air, finger tracing on sand, etc. and then let the child do their handwriting page for the day.

*Homeschool Learning Games.  This must be new as we've never used this and I can't recall seeing it previously.  Since we don't often use all of the games included in the Numbers Charts & Games and Phonics Charts & Games, I'm guessing our family would not use these a great deal either.


For the Child:

*K5 Child Kit (manuscript or cursive):  This child kit really has all the essentials in it, and you'll save a little bit of money by ordering it as a kit.  We use all of these in their entirety.  This kit includes your child's handwriting books, math books, and language books, as well as all the basic phonics readers.

*Classroom coins kit.  These are large coins that we laminate to last a long time.  We still use them with our 3rd/4th grader.  They are optional, but we use them a lot and find it's easier to have these than keep real coins readily available for school all the time.

*Science: I don't use A Beka's science curriculum until 3rd grade.  Up until that point, we just use books from the library and explore outdoors and utilize Pinterest for fun experiments.

*Social Studies: Same as above.  We don't utilize A Beka's K5 social studies curriculum.  Plenty of great library books can be found to accomplish any of our social studies needs at this age


As far as our core curriculum goes, the above is it.  Beyond that, we have a variety of other products that we love and use regularly in our homeschool at this age.  The great thing about these is that so many of these products will grow with your child over many years, being used in a variety of ways for different age groups.  So once you buy these, you'll get many years of use out of it.


Extras that we use (optional, but these are the things we use often):

*Various counters for math purposes- Mathlink cubes, Bug counters, and Two Color Counters are some examples.  We'll also find holiday themed items to use as counters from the Dollar Store.

*Bucket Balance- All of my children enjoy experimenting with the balance-from my 2 year old on up to my 4th grader.

*Butterfly garden- We love utilizing these butterfly gardens for science!

 

*Various Dice- We utilize big foam dice a lot in kinder, and also find that we use these polyhedral dice for various games, especially later in the year.

*Dixon Ticonderoga Beginners Pencils- These are AMAZING.  I no longer by any cheap pencils, but only buy Dixon Ticonderoga (I'm tired of wasting half a pencil while trying to get it to sharper properly).  For my Kindergarteners, though, I use these "Beginners" ones, which are a bit thicker and SO much easier for them to grip and write with correctly.  LOVE these!

 

*Snap Circuits- We first discovered these at our local Discovery Museum and fell in love.  We bought a deluxe set last year, and while all of my children enjoy creating different circuits, it's actually my Kindergartener that loves it the most!

 

*Microscope- All of our kiddos love exploring with our microscopes.  We actually have two sets so multiple kids can explore and study together.  As they got older, we also ordered additional sets of pre-made slides for them to use.



Do YOU need all of these?  Not really.  You'll probably see and find lots of great products and resources that you love as you get going.  If you are going to start with A Beka, however, most of the A Beka products I listed above are really quite necessary to get going.  Please remember that eBay and Facebook swap boards are great places to find used curriculum books, but you'll probably want to buy all your workbooks new from the main A Beka site.

Questions still?  Ask away in the comments!  Best of luck to you in your homeschooling journey!



(Some of the links in this post are my referral/affiliate links.  Read my disclosure policy HERE.  Thank you for supporting the continuation of this blog by using my links!)

Silly Children's Books

My kids LOVE being silly!  Acting silly, making others laugh, watching silly shows, and of course, READING silly books.  Here are some of our favorite silly books from over the years.  Be sure to add your silly children's books recommendations at the end so we can learn of some new ones!

 1.  Cows Can't Fly.  "Cows can't fly, but I don't care.  One day I drew some in the air!"  What kid doesn't appreciate pictures of cows flying in the air?  For years, this was MY favorite book to read to my preschoolers.

 2.  Aliens Love Underpants.  Undies are the things of instant laughter and silliness for kids.  Undies + Aliens = Gold!

 

 3. Dinosaurs Love Underpants.  This book uses underpants to explain the extinction of dinosaurs.  Seems plausible.

 

 4.  Underpants Thunderpants.  Sensing a theme yet?  Okay, this is my last underwear book suggestion.  I promise.  Underpants Thunderpants is a riot and full of fun rhymes, too!

5.  Giraffe's Can't Dance.  This book is not only silly but has a great message.  Just because you're different doesn't mean you can make a lovely dance too!  My favorite line as a Kindermusik educator is, "everything makes music if you really want it to."

6.  SkippyJon Jones.  All of them.  Skippyjon Jones incorporates some Spanish into these hilarious book as this feisty siamese cat firmly believes he's a chihuahua and goes on some crazy adventures.  My children are always quite impressed and giggly about my Spanish accent when I read these books.

 

 7.  Pete the Cat.  All of them again.  These creative books incorporate repetitive song bits into them.  Children appreciate being able to sing part of the book with you.  AND, you can find the tunes for the songs by searching each book title on Youtube.

 

 8.  Pirate Pete.  Ready to talk like a pirate and make your kids giggle?  The Pirate Pete books will do just that!  You'll probably want to take some time making a pirate eye-patch after this book so your kids can practice their pirate talk around the house.

 

 9.  Click Clack Moo.  Winner of the Caldecott Medal, this book is definitely a gem.  When the cows demand electric blankets for Farmer Brown, you know it's going to be hilarious!  Coupled with a repetitive phrase throughout, your children will love joining in with you to "read" the book!

 

 10.  Giggle Giggle Quack.  A follow-up book to Click, Clack, Moo, this book will have your kids "reading along" in no time at all!  "Watch out for Duck!  He's trouble!"

 

 11. The Gruffalo.  A new favorite for all of my children.  The Gruffalo has been made into a short film you can find on Amazon Prime and Netflix.  Mouse is sneaky and crafty and makes up crazy stories about a "Gruffalo" to save himself from being eaten, only to find himself at the feet of...a Gruffalo!  This silly adventure ends with mouse being the king of the forest.


I'm sure there are MANY other silly or funny children's books out there.  What are your favorites?




Some of the links in this post are my referral/affiliate links.  Read my disclosure policy HERE.  Thank you for supporting the continuation of this blog by using my links!)

How We "Held Back" our Homeschooled Child

We've been homeschooling now for about 3 years.  The longer I do it, the more I love it.  I especially love how flexible we can be with each child in their pursuit of education.

My second born child, Zoe, is 6 years old.  She has a drastically different personality than her older sister who skipped a grade plus some.  Zoe often approached learning with a, "What?  You want me to learn that?!" type of attitude.  She happens to have a birthday just before the school year cut-off, meaning that in a traditional school setting, she would have been one of the youngest in her grade.  Since she was a toddler, and even before I knew we'd homeschool, I had said I'd hold her back a year.  My sister in law, a teacher, calls it the "gift of an extra year."  After our experience, I'd definitely say that's a true statement!

When fall rolled around last year and she had just turned 5, I was finally able to figure out how this whole "holding back" thing as a homeschooler would work within our family.  In a traditional setting, you are only allowed to start a grade in September, and you always end a grade in May.  Should she decide in January that she was eager to start some more formal Kindergarten schooling, that would not have been an option for her.  She would've been made to wait until September again.  Silly, isn't it?

So we decided we would certainly hold her back, but since we homeschool, we went about it a bit differently.  Here's how we "held back" our Zoe:

(For reference, I am a huge believer and lover all things "learning through play".  When I reference "school" in this post, I am specifically speaking in regards to the more formal teaching aspect of Kindergarten, including learning to read, write, and math, etc.) 

1.  We purchased all of her Kindergarten curriculum even though we had no plans to start right away. Having the books available meant that at any point in time, she could decide on her own terms that she wanted to do "school", and that I'd be ready for her.   Since we already had the curriculum books from our first daughter, and I had no plans to change curriculum, all I needed were the workbooks.  Easy enough.

2.  For that entire "school year" (September 2014 through May 2015), I let her do school on any day she so desired, and skip it on any day she wanted.  After all, this was not her official first year of school, so it's not like we were missing anything.  I viewed anything she did during this school year as a jump start to her actual Kindergarten year.

3.  I let her call herself a Kindergartener, which made her so happy!

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At the end of May 2015, she had completed approximately half of her Kindergarten year.  She was beginning to show more interest in reading, and was asking more regularly to get her school books out.  We did some school through summer.

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4.  At the start of the fall 2015 school year, we jumped right in, daily, with her Kindergarten curriculum.  By now, she was incredibly ready for school, and was thrilled to learn more.  My thoughts on her needing an extra year were spot on.  While there were still days I had to coax her into her lessons, there was very little push-back on her end overall.  That extra year, I believe, was critical to her love for learning.

By November 2015, she had finished up the second half of Kindergarten.  That means, she did half a school year in about 2 months.  She was totally and completely ready, and completing double lessons in each subject every day.  We dove right into 1st grade in November, and have been chipping away at that ever since.


By allowing my daughter to be held back a year in school and decide for herself when she was ready, and by not pushing her to meet some silly state age set standard when she was clearly not yet ready, I truly believe we helped Zoe start school off right with a love of learning.  The LAST thing I would have wanted was for her to hate school from the start.  Pushing a child to start school too young can have negative consequences.  The results of waiting were that she loves learning and actually "caught up" anyway!  It really was "the gift of an extra year."

I love that homeschooling allowed us to have so much flexibly with Zoe's education.  We could hold her back while still letting her jump in whenever she desired.  We were able to follow her lead, and not push her to do something that she was not ready for.  And, at the same time as we were holding back Zoe, our firstborn was moving ahead!  I LOVE homeschooling, and I LOVE that my kids get to learn at their own pace.  Every child has their own pace and rhythm, and homeschooling allows us to mold their education around THEM.  Homeschooling for the win!

Have you ever held a homeschooled child back?  What tips do you have?