Homeschooling for His Glory

Today on day 3 of the Homeschool 101 hosted by The Schoolhouse Review Crew, we are tackling Home Management. Again, this is a topic that has a lot to do with your personality. Some of us are type A moms and some of us not so much. That said, a house has to be maintained. Noone likes to live in a place that is messy and dirty. When it comes to managing the homeschool home I have six pieces of advice: Be realistic (unless you can't help it): As homeschoolers, your home is where your kids learn. If you want your kids to be free to learn and explore you cannot be an overchiever when it comes to tidiness. There will be messes, there will be days when the house will be in the shape that you cannot stand. JUST EXPECT IT! A Place for everything. If you want to keep a house tidy, this is my #1 advice: Make sure everything has a home place and stick to it! It is easier to put things away if they have a home. It is easier to teach your kids to clean after themselves if they know ...

On day 2 of the 5 Days of Homeschool 101  hosted by the Schoolhouse Review Crew, we are talking about planning. There is a lot written on the topic of planning but I will try to give you a quick overview of the essentials of planning, not that I am a expert or anything, but I have nearly 9  years of battling the planning battleground in my own homeschool under my belt. When it comes to planning, a lot of it has to do with your personality and the curriculum that you decide to use. Some personalities cannot function without a well laid out plan in front of them. These types of homeschoolers usually (not always) favor curriculum that come with a planning schedule already set out. In those cases your task is simply to make sure that that plan is followed through, and the task of planning is reduced to daily, weekly and yearly scheduling of your different subjects. If you are more like me, and are not the kind who like to be told what to do and are more free spirited, you...

Today is the first day of the second bi-annual 5 Days of .... on the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog . Over 36 of us will be sharing on the basic components of homeschooling over the next five days. Today we start naturally with the curriculum. Nowadays, the choices for curriculum are limitless. Someone just starting homeschooling can get quite overwhelmed looking at the amount of choices placed in front of him. Even as veteran homeschoolers, sometimes we still find ourselves quite overwhelmed as there are so many different options that can accomplish the same goal. So how is one supposed to navigate this field? I have a few tips I would like to share with you today, which I hope will help you narrow down your choices and ease the task for you. Know what you want to accomplish:  One way that has helped me to make choices in my curriculum is knowing where I am heading with the boys. When you have a goal in mind it is easier to plot a path, than wondering aimlessly along that sa...

Math is one of those school subjects, that we want to make sure our children master. Some of us homeschooler, are either comfortable teaching it, some others not so much. There are lots of Math curricula out there, but CTCMath has been, for the last 3 years or so, a favorite at our house. CTCMath offers you a complete online Math curriculum geared towards kids K-12. We received a full year subscription to their  CTCMath Homeschool Membership . As an online program, you need a computer, an internet connection and a log in to use CTCMath. The program works on tablets as well. It is very easy to set up and very easy to navigate and use. The program consists of video lessons, followed by sets of exercices or practice questions. The video are a good reasonable length. They are lectures, by an Australian teacher, whom you do not see but only hear. The practices consists of a set of practice problems. You have instant feedback as to whether or not you got the answer right, along...

How is reading at your house? Are you looking for a way to get your kids more excited about reading?  I have an exciting review product to share with you:  Orphs of the Woodlands at Tangletree   from  Star Toaster . Star Toaster is an online Reading Adventure program that is sure to get your kids reading and enjoying it. Last year, we were blessed to review their Orphs of the Woodland book, and now we got to try the prequel to it on an app. Star Toaster's goal is to get your children to enjoy reading while at the same time teaching them on all sort of other valuable subjects and topics. The way they do that is through a storybook packed with interactive activities and games. It is all online, so you will need a computer or a tablet. The set up is easy, each child gets a code name, sets their profile, and then  he is set on his journey. What is Orphs of the Woodlands at Tangletree? Orphs of the Woodlands at Tangletree is a prequel to Star Toast...

Middle School is in full swing here at our house. My oldest is in fact getting prepared to start High School next year (2017). I can't believe it! This summer, my heart was somewhat heavy realizing that this year was his last VBS as a participant. Sigh.... My youngest will be starting grade 6. So what are our choices for the upcoming year? Both boys Tapestry of Grace Year 3  - The Nineteenth Century  : History, Geography, Literature, Worldview. They will both be doing dialectic level. Classic Science: Advanced Chemistry Writing & Rhetoric - Book 5: Refutation and Confirmation: Writing CTC Math - Math Kumon Books - Pre-Algebra book 2 and Algebra book 1 Phonetic Zoo ( Finish) : Spelling Max Scholar : Spelling and vocabulary Bible Road Trip : Bible FrenchSmart - Grade 5 : French The History of Western Music and Great Artists Fine Art Pages : Music & Art Grade 8: The Art of Argument (finish) and The Discovery of...

Today, I have a great product to share with you. Some of you might have heard about it before and even used it, but let me reiterate what you may have heard already because this is a product worth checking out if you have not already. NotebookingPages.com  is a company that offer a wide variety of notebooking pages (as the name suggest) for all of your homeschool needs. We were blessed to receive a Notebooking Pages Lifetime Membership .  Homeschooling and teaching your kids at home can take many, many forms, one of which being notebooking. Notebooking is a way of learning that allows your student to recall what they are learning and appropriating it by writing or drawing about it. That is why notebooking is mainly formed of what they called notebooking pages. NotebookingPages.com is a great ressources for all your notebooking needs. It covers: Bible and Character Study History (Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, Reformation, Modern) Science Geograph...