All About Pokemon Hands-On Unit Study Course on Teachable for Grades 3-8

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Junior Great Books Table of Contents and Overlap in Stories

We discovered Junior Great Books when my daughter Callie took a homeschool co-op course around 5th grade. Now I'm in love with them and try to buy up all of them. Some of them we consume and are not in love with, so we pass them on. Some we save and I hope to teach my own Junior Great Books class at the co-op someday :-) Here you can find the Table of Contents for the books we have read:

Series 2, First Semester (1992) (selling in upcoming homeschool used book sale)

The Happy Lion by Louise Fatio

The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter

How the Camel Got His Hump by Rudyard Kipling

Kanga and Baby Roo Come to the Forest, and Piglet Has a Bath by A.A. Milne

Arap Sang and the Cranes (African folktale as told by Humphrey Harman)

Blue Moose by Daniel Manus Pinkwater

Current Read-Alouds and Independent Reading Winter 2021

Welcome to the Winter 2021 edition of Current Read-Alouds. If you're not familiar with Read-Aloud Revival or Pam Barnhill (morning basket) or Brave Writer, simply click on the links 😉 I also read to the kids from our Afternoon Basket (because we can't all get going early enough to call it a Morning Basket 😂), which currently includes Story of the World Volume 1, The Gift of the Magi (oh, the vocab words!), and Reading 7 for Young Catholics, among a few other things, like this one:

Scroll down to find out who is hearing which book!

Homeschooling during Coronavirus? Help for the Non-Homeschooler!

Worried about working from home or just being home for weeks on end (akin to summer break) WHILE educating them? I've been doing it for almost 19 years and, yeah, it's a lot to handle!

Thankfully, Rage Against the Minivan has help for you in the form of this awesome blog post and checklist called COVID-19 School Closure Homeschool Checklist!

When it was shared on Facebook, there were some rude comments, like "good luck with that" and "don't be disappointed when it doesn't work out," but I chose the high road of encouragement:

"I homeschool 5 kids ages 10-18 and have from the beginning. This is a great schedule! I think the 2-page paper is a lot for some kids, but the rest seems reasonable to me! You go, girl! Plus for a lot of kids who are in school 7 hours a day plus homework, this is going to be a walk in the park but they will still be learning!"

You can also check out my article titled Bust Indoor Boredom over here at Calgary's Child if you need more ideas for how to keep kids occupied while home!

And if things get too stressful during this already-crazy time, just toss it all out the window and PLAY, watch movies and documentaries, read to your kids (check out Read-Aloud Revival), bake together, snuggle up and eat popcorn. Have fun!

Or your life right now might more closely resemble this every now and then (shrug):

#Time4Learning First Grade Demo Language Arts #Homeschooling

If you like what you see, please use my referral code to sign up and come back here to tell me how much your kids love this program! (originally posted April 24, 2016)

Update: 11/22/19 just signed up my high schoolers again because I am in love with the English program!

First Day of School Signs

I love the first day of school pictures on Facebook! Why not also for homeschooling?

Here is one of ours from 2018-2019. You can't really see what the signs say so I plan to do more of a close-up this year, but I love how they are all together and by the pool, no less, on the first day of official homeshooling! They were first day of 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, and 11th.

Here's how to get the free printables.

7 Things I'm Doing This Year to Make My Homeschooling Work Better with 5 Kids 2018-2019

I'm that slacker homeschool mom. The one who takes a half day off no problem, convinced that it will just be one half day and no more. Then it turns into another and another and soon we're like, "Uh, why don't we know cursive handwriting and multiplication tables?"

So after 11 full years of homeschooling, I'm learning. We are all settled in our new home in the country and we have a lovely little routine that won't likely be broken up by fixing up a house, moving, vacationing, a new baby, etc. It appears to be a smooth-sailing year up ahead. (yes, I know ... the best-laid plans!!!!)

1. Six weeks on, then a break
Teaching for 6 weeks at a time then taking a 1-week break. We'll still get a Christmas break, of course, and one of our 1-week breaks will count as Spring Break. We'll need to go until the end of June, but then we get 8 full weeks off after that (July and August).

2. Teach more than one at a time
Combining them. Brave Writer Help for High School will be done this year with both Michael and Joel (freshman and junior). They'll learn the material together as I read it to them so I make sure I know what's going on as well. They'll write papers and assignments at the same pace.

3. Make them accountable and independent
Emailing links for the week to the high schoolers with videos I want them to watch (e.g., Crash Course Biology, Crash Course History, cool documentaries on Amazon Prime, Netflix or Hulu, etc.) Copying their workbook pages for Easy Grammar and giving them the entire week's worth at once so they can do it all Monday or do it all Friday or throughout the week, working at their own pace and being able to deal with other things they have going on at the same time. I think learning how to manage their course load is important. For the younger kids, letting them know which pages need to be done by Friday in Explode the Code (such a fun workbook series for Language Arts).

4. Make things special
Making things special more often, like we planned to do last year. Today we have Back-to-School Little Debbie snack cakes with a battery-powered candle and some picture books. Yes, I make my older kids sit through picture book time. And I also make my younger kids sit through some things which may or may not be currently over their heads. It all works out in the end. Take time for fun field trips like we've always done, with our friends and on our own.

5. Lunch-n-Learn versus Morning Basket
Instead of a Morning Basket, which is a fabulous concept, I am doing a Lunch-n-Learn since the kids all wake up at different times, which is fine by me. We eat lunch, I read to them a selection of things covering all subject areas, and they are free to create art during this time as well. I don't need their eyes on me at all. They can paint or draw while they listen.

6. Be prepared
Before the kids even wake up, I pull off the main homeschool bookshelf anything I'm hoping to use that day. That way, I can SEE my "workload" for the day and so can the kids. Over the summer, I cleared the entire shelf off so now it's organized like this, and I don't have anything on there that will distract me from the current set of 6 weeks of homeschooling.

7. Check myself before I wreck our entire year

I must have rules for myself, which is something I always rebelled against. This year they include things I can handle: I can do my paid work in the morning after prepping for the homeschool day. I can only check my phone to handle immediate things like if my husband texts, a friend wants to come and play, etc. Otherwise, STAY OFF FACEBOOK and other social media is the number one rule for myself from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Don't go on a 2-hour field trip and call that an entire homeschool day. Oh, and make sure I'm logging their homeschool stuff every single day. I like to look back on it and it's helpful to have records just in case.

Check out our first official day of homeschool, day after Labor Day.

Here's to a fabulous school year! And click here to see how we're starting out with the 2019-2020 school year, starting with my senior!

Time4Learning $12 for up to FIVE KIDS in Same Family Through April 30, 2016

YES YES YES! Okay, so we already made the decision to switch over to Time4Learning instead of virtual school for 2016/2017 and supplement with some Teaching Textbooks for Math.

Anyway, it would be $90 for all 5 of my kids per month. But they give a discount for big families and it was going to be $70 per month, which I was cool with.

Then I logged in today to find some things out just for fun and saw that if you sign up by April 30, your FIRST MONTH IS ONLY $12 for up to five kids!

BAM! SOLD! Why not sign up now and get it going? I can pause the membership over the summer if we want to (I've heard some kids still dig doing it in the summer) and start back up end of August or early September.

I'll be back to let you know how it goes for our family. We only really have two computers and one is mine for work purposes most of the time, so I'm going to have to relinquish it for hours at a time ... which is no big deal because I wasn't using it when homeschooling usually anyway. So my plan is to get two kids going at a time on Time4Learning while the others play or read. Then the next two can go, then the final kiddo. Maybe that "final kiddo" will be Callie, who loves to homeschool at night anyway. Probably do half hour increments or so many lessons or whatever but we'll see how it works best for our family!

Here are some screenshots from the site:

Here's my referral code!

Unboxing Our #Calvert Curriculum Goodies! Callie, Third Grade #Homeschool

I wanted to share our unboxing posts and pictures and am FINALLY doing Callie's!!!!!

Callie, Third Grade

Our homeschool bookshelf now. Just waiting on Michael's shelf to fill up!

What is a Homeschool Sandwich?

What is a homeschool sandwich? Well, we used to do a little school in the morning and then leave the house for the afternoon, then come home for dinner and mess around at night. Now we homeschool in the mornings, take a break for recess and lunch, then maybe go do something to get out of the house for a bit, and then back at homeschooling. Or else I am homeschooling my daughter some at night because she specifically says she does better at night and I have seen it to be true … except I’m tired then, but if that is when she learns best and her brain is on fire, then I am all in. So the sandwich is homeschool bread, break meat then more homeschool bread. Enjoy.

Unboxing Our #Calvert Curriculum Goodies! Eva, Kindergarten and Samuel, PreK #Homeschooling

I wanted to share our unboxing posts and pictures!

The other day we got another large box from Calvert. Each kid’s curriculum is coming at a different time and I am glad about that so I can focus on each kid and take pictures and we can put the goodies away. I have to say it again: this cost us $45 for a box worth about $700-1,000 if we bought it alone. And we get a facilitator. The downside is we are on a school district’s timeline but I’ll take that trade-off to save hours upon hours of time in lesson planning.

There are So Many Books and resources and then even more online fun stuff like streaming Discovery Channel and BrainPop and other things.

We are all set for everything my kindergartner Eva needs for this year. Lots of fun books and activities and we are looking forward to getting started. We’re easing into it! Eva is super excited because we have never done “formal” school and she is wanting to read.

Eva, Kindergarten

Samuel, Pre-K
Samuel was not going to be left out so I went to WalMart and got him a Pre-K workbook and some supplies to try to match what Eva got!

Unboxing Our #Calvert Curriculum Goodies! Joel, Seventh Grade #Homeschool

I wanted to share our unboxing posts and pictures! Check labels for Fifth Grade, Third Grade and Kindergarten (also, preschool) for the rest of the kids!

We got back from our vacation with +Mr.Kerrie’s family on Labor Day evening. When we got home there was a large box in the kitchen that my stepdad had brought in for us over the weekend. It was my oldest kid’s curriculum for the year. I have to say it again: this cost us $45 for a box worth about $700-1,000 if we bought it alone. And we get a facilitator. The downside is we are on a school district’s timeline but I’ll take that trade-off to save hours upon hours of time in lesson planning.

There are So Many Books and resources and then even more online fun stuff like streaming Discovery Channel and BrainPop and other things.

We are all set for Math, Composition, Grammar, Spelling, Writing, History, Science, Art History, Reading, Geography and Computer Skills. Lots of fun books and activities and we are looking forward to getting started. We’re easing into it! My son is not thrilled because I let things go a bit over the years but he is super bright and I’m not worried that he is going to be a rock star at this (all the kids will rock this!).

Joel, Seventh Grade

Review: Education.com

I found Education.com when I was Googling math worksheet helps. I get sick of buying workbooks that are full of fluff and that sit on my shelves. And I also get sick of getting workbooks for my older kids that are full of pages and pages of the same darn thing. I mean, once they get it, the get it, you know?! (interabang!)

So since I'm now trying to make sure my kids are learning much of what they are "supposed" to know (as well as tossing in puh-lenty of play and free and reading time!), I don't have to worry about having every stinking resource imaginable on my shelves. I'm not that homeschooling mom with 10,000+ books on her shelves. We have plenty for the kids to read and learn from, then we supplement with the library!

Okay, so I found Education.com and signed up because I get 10 free worksheets per month. Soon I found that wasn't going to be enough. I could either sign up for $3.99/month and pay for a year all at once or I could sign up for 1 month at a time at $4.99 (and they gave me a free month via email, probably because I was waffling). So as of the other day I'm sitting on a free month then only pay $4.99 per month to print all the worksheets I want.

The more expensive monthly plan only allows me a limited number of entire mini-workbooks, but that's okay because there are so many worksheets and slideshows and activity ideas that I think I'm all set.

What I'm saying, people, is that when I need to teach a kid about symmetry, I print some fun-looking worksheets, we cover it til the kid gets it, then we are done. Maybe we come back to it in a year to make sure it stuck. Oh, and the stuff on their site goes all the way through high school, from preschool!

So it is possible to homeschool for CHEAP! (of course I'll be spending a fortune on printer ink!)