Back to (Home) School! Part 2-Choosing Your Curriculum

Good Morning Everyone!

Time for our second post in our "Back to (Home) School" planning series!  I am not exactly sure how many posts will be in this series, but until I run out of things to share I suppose. :)  Or get too busy--whichever comes first!

To recap, in the first post I shared about how I plan our home school calendar, and a little bit about why it is important and how to personalize your school calendar to work for YOUR family and YOUR unique needs.  If you missed that post, you can find it here:

Back to (Home) School! Part 1-Choosing Your School Schedule

I did have a reader request if I knew of a free program, printable, etc. that could be used for keeping track of required attendance days.  (Thank you for your question!  I love hearing that a post was helpful, or being given the opportunity to share helpful information!) In my state (Tennessee), I am required to keep track and report my attendance of 180 days, but the specifics of what I use to keep track of those days is up to me.  You could circle "school days" on your calendar, mark down in a notebook, etc.  All I need to do when I turn in my grade reports each semester is report our starting date, finishing date, and how many total school days.  With that being said, I do like to have all that information handy for me on one form that I can keep in my home school planning binder, so I use a form like this free one here:

Printable Attendance Form

Using this attendance form, I simply put a check mark or X in each blank if we did school on that day.  This form is just for my own personal use, but it keeps track of the information I need and is a good visual reminder for me to record our school for that day.  If you have an older student you could even pass this job over to them and let them do the record keeping.

O.K., with all of the above shared, it is time for the topic of today's post--choosing your curriculum!

1). Choose Your School Schedule

2). Choose Your School Curriculum

***As we saw already in choosing your school schedule, the very first thing you are going to want to do as you move into choosing your school curriculum is PRAY.  Remember James 1:5, read it again and claim God's promise to grant you HIS wisdom!  Ask Him to reveal to you the ways that your children learn best, and to open your eyes clearly to materials that will work well for that type of learner.

***After praying about it, spend some time simply pondering.  Think about each one of your school age children, and ask yourself how they each learn best.  Do you have an active little boy who loves to tinker and take things apart to see how they work?  If so, a curriculum program that centers around filling in workbook pages is probably not going to work the best for him.  On the other hand, some children--usually a girl--absolutely LOVE filling in workbooks!  Think about what type of learner(s) you have, and whether you will need programs with auditory components to them so your child can listen to their textbook being read to them, or unit studies where they can do a combination of research, hands on projects, and other "outside of the textbook" learning.
If you are not certain about what type of learner your child is, there are numerous free assessments you can look at to help educate yourself on the different learning styles.  I found this link that looks helpful if you want to read more:

What is the Best Way for your Child to Learn?

***Now that you have in mind your child's learning style, it's time to take inventory!  What are the resources that you already have?  Maybe you have never homeschooled before, but you have a relative who has--can you ask about possibly borrowing or purchasing some books that they are finished with?  If so, first make sure their books are ones that are going to work for your family.  Did you already homeschool an older child and you still have some of their books and materials in the house that could be recycled and used again for the younger sibling?  Maybe some materials may not work for your current homeschooler, but some of them can.  Each child will have their own learning style so you cannot automatically assume that what worked great for one child will automatically work just as great for the next--but on the other hand, don't throw out the baby with the bath water either!  For our son, he is an auditory learner so when it came to high school Algebra I ended up investing in a very expensive program that had daily video lessons.  It worked wonderful for him, and I was blessed to be able to purchase it used from a friend.  When our daughter was ready last year to start Algebra, I automatically assumed we would be using the same program with her.  After all, it was a high quality program, and it was already paid for and living in our house!  Well, she started into the program, but I realized after a while that it just wasn't the best fit for her.  I went ahead and purchased for her the Algebra book in the same curriculum series she had previously been using, and she has been happy as a clam with math ever since.  Oh the other hand, the same Science textbook that her brother used in middle school is working great for her as well.

***What "non-curriculum" resources do you have the can be used?  In our house, I have quite a collection of biographies.  Although they may not have been written specifically as school curriculum, we will be using a handful of them this year as a core component of our Geography class as well as using them for literature in our English class.  And don't forget your local library!  I live in a very small town, but can still go online and reserve scores of library books on topics we are going to study in our homeschool.  The wonderful librarians receive my requests, pull the books off the shelves, and hand them to me in a large stack when I show up later at the front desk!  :)  I can even access free videos that stream from some big library source in the sky straight to my computer!  I don't know how it works--I just know it works GREAT for our homeschool.  When I stream a video I don't even need to remember to return it--it just disappears from my library account when it reaches it's due date.  No late fees--yea!

***Write down the classes that you have materials for already.  We THINK that we can remember it all in our heads, but we can't!  And it's a sad feeling to find yourself half way through the school year--or worse, all the way through the school year, and then you "discover" lost on your book shelf somewhere the fun book you WERE planning on using with your child that year.  Don't ask me how I know this--it isn't a happy story!  You don't need a fancy form--a plain old piece of paper will do just fine.  But if you happen to have an on-line planner of some type, of course you can fill in a specific form if you want to.  The important thing is to simply start listing the materials you have already and identify what specific class they are going to be used for.

***Now that you know what you already have, you can see clearly where you have some holes that you need to fill in.  Decide HOW you want to meet that class in your homeschool.  Remember that not EVERY class needs to be taught by you.  When our daughter was younger, I taught her music class simply by singing with her and teaching her to use simple rhythm instruments.  Now that she is older, we pay a professional music teacher to teacher her private lessons.  When she was young, we paid for group swimming lessons--and now that she is older she no longer needs someone teaching her how to swim.  Today, there are swarms of options for homeschoolers.  There might be a co-op near you that you are going to join and the classes will fill in some gaps that you have in your plan.  Or you may have several classes that you are simply going to purchase a curriculum textbook to meet that need.

***Last of all, after you have prayed, assessed the learning style of your child, taken inventory of what you already have or have access to and have written DOWN what you will be using for specific classes it is finally time to purchase what you need.  I strongly encourage you to check several resources for each item you are planning on purchasing.  It is amazing what price difference you may find!  Or while the prices may be the same with two companies, one may offer free or low shipping costs and the other one might require a higher purchase before offering free shipping.  If there is one thing I dislike, it is spending my curriculum dollars on shipping!!!  I want to spend it on curriculum for my child instead! So compare, compare, compare!  And once you have decided which company you are going to order your materials from, don't hesitate to order it!  Not only is it easy to forget to order, but companies get really swamped with orders the closer to Fall that it gets.  Besides that, you need to get those books into your hot little hands so you can keep your planning going. :D

Well, that wraps up all I can think of in choosing your school curriculum.  I hope you have found some helpful ideas here, and I would love it if you would share in the comments the one curriculum/book/resource you are most excited about trying this year and why.  Just ask my hubby--I LOVE curriculum!

~Susan

Back to (Home) School! Part 1-Choosing your School Schedule

Hi Everyone!

Are you enjoying your summer???  I am!  But it truly is flying by very fast.

Yesterday I found myself in Staples, and they had a whole front page of their "Back to School" sales on school supplies!  Staples happens to be one of my favorite stores to find good school supply deals, but that is a post for another time. :)

Today I want to talk about something that many homeschoolers would prefer to simply ignore--planning your school year during the summer time.  I know, I know.  I can hear you now! "But it's SUMMER BREAK!  Why do we need to spend it planning school?"  Trust me--it won't be nearly as bad as you think it will be, and the small amount of time you put into your planning now will pay off HUGE later on.  After all, how can you know that you are being successful in your home teaching if you really don't have a goal in mind that you are aiming for?  If you don't know where you are going, how will you know when you have arrived there?

As someone who has already homeschooled a child from Kindergarten until college (and lived to tell about it!), I have been around this block once already.  And even with all of that experience, I am STILL needing to take the time this summer to sit down and plan out our next homeschool year.  I "can" wing it--and some seasons that is exactly what I have had to do, but trust me when I say that EVERYTHING goes better if it is planned out ahead of time!

So I thought as I go through my planning this summer, I would try and bring you along with me.  "My way" isn't the only way to do this--it is just what works for me.  Take what is helpful for you, and ignore the rest.  Change things to fit you and your family.  After all, that is the beauty of homeschooling.  You DO have flexibility and can arrange your homeschool to best meet your family's needs.

Today I will simply share with you the first step--that isn't too intimidating, is it?  I hope not!  It is a simple step, but do not skip it as all your other planning will depend on this one.

1) Choose Your School Schedule

This is crucial--more important than ordering all that shiny new curriculum.  More important than those lovely school supply sales at Staples.  More important than setting up your homeschool area in your home.

***Before beginning anything--PRAY!  Claim the promise that if anyone lacks wisdom God will supply our need (James 1:5).  Thank God that you can come to Him for wisdom.  Acknowledge that He is the One who created your children in the first place, and therefore He knows best how each one of them learns.

***To start choosing my school schedule, I first print out an Academic Calendar.  These are available  online on several sites.  You don't need a special or fancy one--just a paper that shows the months of the school year all on one page.  I used this free calendar here:

2017-2018 Academic Calendar

***After printing your calendar out, it's time to consider your personal family schedule.  Does your husband have specific dates off as vacation from his work?  Do you have an older child who attends school and you want to match that school calendar?  What about Grandparents coming for the holidays?  Take your calendar printout and grab a colored pencil, marking out days or weeks when you KNOW you do not want to be doing homeschool.

***Now that you have your firm vacation days planned, think about other things--such as when you want your school to be out for the summer! Is there a certain month you want to be out by?  Since my hubby is a college teacher, I always like to be done with our homeschool by the graduation date of his school.  Let's just say it is a LOT easier to run our homeschool when daddy isn't home and offering to take us places, run errands, or starting in on a home project!  Therefore I know that every year I really want to be finished with our school year by the early part of May, even though other area schools all go until the end of May or even sometimes into June.  Yes, I know we are always learning even on "non school" days.  But in my state, I am required to report attendance days, so I do keep a record of our "official" school days.

***Once you know when you want to be finished by, it is a simple matter of working your schedule backwards.  I like to make sure we have some time for special things, such as Field Trip days and even special activities at home which are educational but are not necessarily doing "Book work."  Find a flow that fits your personality and go with it.  I like to have a term--usually six weeks (though this might vary) of concentrated book work time, and then we have a break week from our books and do other things.  You know--those things that you always want to do with your child but they get squeezed out of day to day living.  Actually stopping the book work and allowing TIME for these special activities is the only way they happen in my house.  For us, these are things such as concentrated time on Home Arts, for example, cooking, baking, sewing, embroidery, crocheting, quilting, etc.  All those fun, hands on activities!  I have four weeks of these planned in my school year, two weeks each semester.  Having these types of "Home Arts weeks" gives me a rest from the book work and makes me so happy that I am able to teach these types of activities to our daughter. :)  And yes--they "count" as school days!  I strategically place these weeks in our schedule when there are not other vacation days coming soon.  For our first semester, we will start our homeschool in early August and then have a "Home Arts week" in September.  By late October, we will have another Home Arts week, and then November has a built in change with Thanksgiving week and December has the same with Christmas.  When we get to second semester, we do take off for a Spring Break in March, so our two break weeks are placed in February (EVERYONE needs a break in February, in my opinion!) and in late April.

***Add up your school days to make sure you have what you are required to have.  I also evaluate what type of day each school day will be--whether it is a "Book Day" or a "Home Arts" day.  Then I also look at official "Field Trip" days, and see what my total for the semester is, adjusting as necessary.  In my state, I need 180 total school days, so I aim for 90 school days in each semester.

My Academic calendar gets filled with notes and "chicken scratching," as I count the weeks in each term, mark out our vacation days, and put slash marks through our Home Arts weeks.  Then at the bottom I add everything up, counting how many weeks we are going to have of "book work."  Knowing the number of weeks we are going to be sitting down and doing actual book work will be crucial in your Home School planning a little later down the line.

But first--now that you have your school schedule set, it is time to choose your curriculum--my favorite part of home school planning!  Watch for Part 2-Choosing your School Curriculum (hopefully!) soon!

I hope this has been helpful!  If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will try and help out.  Don't be intimidated--you can do this, and God has promised to lead you in each task He brings you to!  So have fun--and jump in!

~Susan

Save your Sanity with Loop Scheduling!

Hi Everyone!

If you are a homeschooling family, do you find yourself frequently leaving out subjects and materials that you really do want to cover?  Do you find yourself running out of time in the day and the "fun things" always get left out?  If so, you may find some helpful scheduling ideas in a guest article I wrote on this subject over at this link! Save Your Sanity with Loop Scheduling!

I hope this method helps you in your home school like it did me! :)

~Susan

Physics is Fun--Chemistry is Cool--How to eat your Homework!

Hi Everyone!

It's been a little quiet around here, I know.  Just super busy is all.  One time I read that a person homeschooling is basically running a private school full time in their home, in addition to everything else that goes along with running a household.  This thought made a lot of sense to me!  In addition, for me, there are very few commercially made foods that I can eat, so that means I am making almost all our food from scratch as well.  I don't mind--in fact, I enjoy all of it--but there ARE days that it rather seems like I am trying to get a drink of water out of a fire hydrant!  ;)

Anyway,  I thought I would share a project my daughter and I did together last week.  Believe it or not, this honestly was a suggested project in her Physics/Chemistry book.  If only we had projects like this in MY textbooks when "I" was in school!

We are using the Apologia Physics/Chemistry elementary level book, and enjoying it very very much.   My daughter has a special interest in Physics--she is 10, and at this point in her life she says she wants to be a Physicist when she grows up.  She very well may do just that, I have no doubt.  We'll see where God leads her.  But reguardless of whether she stays with that as a career choice or not, last Spring she came to me all on her own, and told me that I needed to teach her Physics.  Umm, I think she may have gotten the wrong parent here.  I mean, her dad is a Chemist, and he could probably do a great job of teaching her Physics.  But since he has a full time job teaching, and I happen to be the only teacher home with her each day, when I turned around to see whom she was addressing I didn't find anyone else to look at except me! ;)  Fortunately, God enables, and He also has many creative people out there who have written wonderful Christian based Science books!  So after using some great free on-line things for a couple of months, God led me to find the Apologia Physics/Chemistry book over Christmas time as I was brousing in a used book store.  I am familiar with the Apologia company, having used their high school level books with our son--and I had used one of their elementary level books with our daughter before (Astronomy), but I had had no idea that they had even come out with a Physics/Chemistry book!  But God knew!

There are way more experiments and projects in each chapter than one could possibly do, so we have fallen into the routine of my daughter reading the chapter on Monday, and she chooses which experiments or projects from the chapter that she is interested in doing herself.  Some of the experiments there are on-line videos of that they can watch, so even if you are not doing all of them you can see many of them being done.  And you guessed it--when she saw the "make your own periodic table out of sugar cookies" project that just had to be the project that she choose for that chapter!  One hundred and twelve sugar cookies later, seven different colors of frosting made so we could model the different sections of the table, it was finally finished!  It took us all day--I mean, ALL day long, with time out for one quick shopping trip to find frosting we could write with (Walmart has icing specifically for writing!  I didn't know this, as I do not hang out in the cake decorating section of the baking isle!)  Overall, it was a blast!  I admit to groaning a bit when she told me which project she wanted to do, but I am SO glad we did it!

So in the day to day grind, when I have to say "No" or "Not now" to so many requests that she makes, I hope she remembers that sometimes, just sometimes, mommy said "Yes!" and we spent the day squishing cookie dough and creating something unique!

And if you are homeschooling an elementary level child, I do highly recommend the Apologia science books.  She has already picked out the Physics experiment for this new week.  It has something to do with chocolate chip cookie dough. . . I think I am seeing a pattern here! ;)

Have a wonderful week with your Savior--and remember to spend quality time with the child in your life.  Afterall, Jesus thought they were priceless.  You too!

~Susan

Periodic Table of the Elements--Lego style!

Hi Everyone!

Just thought I would share a fun little something with you today. . .

With me being a trained elementary school teacher, and my hubby being a college level teacher, there are some interesting things that come up in our home every now and then!  So when my hubby came home the other day with a twinkle in his eye and telling me that he had something I was going to LOVE, well, I went right over to see what it was he had to show me.  His area of specialty is Chemistry--let's just say it was NOT my favorite area when I was in school--but he knows how I love things that make learning fun for children.  Well, his "show and tell" that he had for me that day was this link--a link to a Lego Periodic Table of the Elements.  Yes, you read that correctly.  So follow the link below, and go have FUN with Chemistry! :)

http://sites.arbor.edu/legoelements/

Have fun exploring!

~Susan

The One-Day Church

Happy Sabbath Everyone!

Today I want to tell you about a program that I think is the neatest thing.  I hope you have already heard about it, but just in case you haven't, let me tell you about the "One-Day Church" program.

Did that name catch your attention?  I hope so!  Most churches are not built in one day, that is for sure!  But these churches are.  The One-Day Church program was created and developed by a businessman by the name of Garwin McNeilus.  He conceived this idea in an effort to help meet the great need that there is around the world where congregations often meet in houses or even simply out under a tree.  In these countries, most of the church members are very poor, and have absolutely no way to fund a permanent church structure.  And when there is no church building, it is difficult to run church programs or to invite your friends to visit your church with you.

The One-Day Church program provides a steel structure and metal roof.  The local congregation is responsible for obtaining the land and permits needed to build the church, and then after the One-Day Church is erected they are responsible for finishing the walls and windows of the church with whatever local building materials they have available to them.  Some churches have walls finished with mud bricks, some with woven thatch, some with regular bricks, etc.

The structures and roofs are erected by volunteers from all around the world.  People--some young, some not so young--some families, etc. all pay their own expenses to travel to the building site at the proper time to help build these churches.  You can read more about this program at www.onedaychurch.org.  I have not been able to personally participate in building one of these churches, but I wish I could!  But there is still a place for people like me--I'll get to that in a minute!

The One-Day Church program has been so successful that it has spawned a related program--the One-Day School!  Using the same basic idea of the One-Day Church, the One-Day School has the steel structure, roof, and also walls, foundation, and school desks and other school supplies.  In many of these countries, being able to obtain an education can mean the difference between being able to get a job and feed your family, or going hungry.  A couple years ago I was privileged to  be able to attend a little bit of our church's world-wide conference held in Atlanta, Georgia in a massive building.  Well, inside that building, they had build one of these One-Day Schools and it was open for people to inspect and tour it!  I loved it!  Very sturdy, very well thought out as to having good ventilation, etc. as most countries where these schools are built are very very hot.  The teacher part of me jumped up and down with excitement at seeing this school building, and learning how these school-kits are helping so many who are so poor.  Want to see what these One-Day Churches and One-Day Schools look like?  I'm glad you asked!  I found this video today, and greatly enjoyed watching it. I thought you might enjoy watching it too!






And I promised above that there was a part for even people like me who are not able at this point in my life to volunteer and go on one of these mission projects.  Today, I found out that it only costs $1,500 to sponsor one of these One-Day Churches.  Obviously, that is still a lot of money.  But for the people who are receiving these churches, it is simply an impossibility for them to come up with this amount.  But what about you?  And what about Me?  If we tried--couldn't we come up with $1,500?  I talked with my family, and we want to try and sponsor a church.  We have set our time goal as this Christmas.  I know our kids will not be able to help reach this goal very much.  Our daughter is only nine--she only has the money that we give her anyway, and our son is a poor college student!  But everyone can do SOMETHING.  And we do want to help inspire our children to be always looking for what they CAN do, not what they can't do.  If--for whatever reason--our family is not able to reach the $1,500 goal by Christmas time, we will still donate what we have saved.  And it can go with what another family has donated, and then we can together accomplish what perhaps alone we could not.

There is a LOT I would like to do--but I can't.  I would LOVE to sponsor a One-Day School, but that is far out of my budget.  I would love to sponsor an entire campus filled with One-Day School buildings!  I would love for no one in this world to be without either churches or schools!  But that is not possible for me.  But as I think about it, when our beautiful Jesus comes again, I don't think He is going to ask me to tell Him about what I couldn't do--but rather about what I could and did.

So here we go.  Our official family "Saving for a One-Day Church" project begins today.  Right now, this very minute!  How about you?  Anyone out there want to help build a One-Day Church?  Check out the web site www.onedaychurch.org, and pray about it.

~Susan

Herb Garden

Hi Everyone!

I thought some of you might enjoy seeing my very simple no-weed herb garden.  Alright, it is ALMOST a no-weed garden--I do admit to finding one weed in it this Spring, but it was easily pulled out.  :)  Basically, the secret is to plant your garden in a container.  I found this nice big wash tub type container at our Tractor Supply store last summer.  A few moments with hubby and his drill, and it had several nice drain holes in the bottom of it.

 Last summer I planted (clockwise from back to front) Rosemary, Chives, Parsley, and Thyme (we ALL need more thyme in our day, right?).  In the very center I had a nice large Basil plant.  Except for the Basil, everything else wintered over just fine.  This spring, all I had to do was pull out that one stray weed that had found it's way into my garden, and replace a new Basil plant in the center.  This garden is kept just a few steps away from my kitchen doorway, and I love being able to step out and cut something to use in my cooking.  I also have a separate container that holds my Oregano.  I USED to have the Oregano in my regular garden bed--in the ground--and it was happy.  So happy, in fact, that it took over half the garden bed!  So I pared it down to enough for my one container, where it now lives as an "only child!"

 I have really enjoyed watching the Chives bloom the last several weeks.  They were blooming at a time that not much else was.

 I think that is why this visitor found them so attractive.  When I stepped out with my camera, he flew away immediately.  But then he circled back around me very close and landed again.  I had trouble with getting my camera to focus, and he was VERY aware of my presence--he kept leaving every time I got close.  But he also kept coming back, almost immediately, fluttering right next to me.  I felt just like when you are in one of those Butterfly Farms, where the butterflies are fluttering all close to you.  I suspect he was pretty hungry and that is most likely why even though scared, he kept coming back.

He even stayed around long enough for the little one to come inspect him.  Home school science lessons at their very best!

Hope this gives you some ideas of how easy an herb garden can be, and that you are enjoying one soon!

The Frugal Home Schooler--Free All About the Presidents study!

Hi Everyone!

I am assuming you all caught this freebie already, as it was listed on the same page/link that I featured Friday, but just in case you didn't--there are TWO free president type unit studies on this page.  The one I talked about Friday was a general study, where your child can choose any president that they want to and use the study to help research and learn about that particular president.  Today, I am pointing out at the same link, a free unit study on the presidents--more specifically, what the office of the president is like.  There are TONS of information here, and I know you will never get through it all--but just thought I would point it out so you could use whatever you wanted to out of it.

Happy gleaning--and remember to share with me any of YOUR favorite freebies!  Free is for me--right size, right color, always fits!  :)

~Susan

http://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/newsletter/president-unit-study.php#sthash.R8KICNKP.TR8UnjSD.dpbs