Planning

Choosing Curriculum A common question that homeschool teachers are asked, is how they manage to teach all their kids at the same time. I think this question stems from a lack of understanding of how different homeschooling is from the typical public school classroom. Two keys to teaching multiple levels at home are independent study…

I don’t have a schoolroom. Most of the time I don’t really want one. I like for our school to be just another part of our home. Right now my children do their seatwork in the dining room and the adjoining kitchen. The only reason that I am somewhat envious of those who have schoolrooms…

If you aim at nothing, you will hit it. I remember first seeing that quote in high school. It really struck me and helped me to understand the importance of setting goals. But what good are goals without some sort of plan to accomplish those goals? Dare I say the dreaded word? schedules It’s amazing…

So what is a typical morning like at my house? (Or is there a typical morning?) This morning: 5:15 – Got up and dressed, noticed the dishwasher didn’t look clean so wrote a note to husband 5:30 – Left for the Y 5:45-6:30 – Worked out, then drove home 6:45 – Quick e-mail check, said…

Have you every looked at pictures of other people’s perfectly organized school rooms and had to wipe the drool off your keyboard?  There are some people who have amazing school rooms with custom designed desks for each student, wall-to-wall book shelves, special computer areas, and you name it, someone has probably built it.  I’ve even…

Molly at Counter-Culture mom wrote a good article on the value of catechising children. It was a good reminder for me.  We have been memorizing the Westminster Shorter Catechism for a couple of years now. Our memorization has slowed down over the summer though and I am planning on working some on it every morning in our…

We have been using Rod and Staff’s English Grammar textbooks for 3 years now and I really like them.  They are thorough, well-organized, with good explanations.  There are more exercises than I feel are really necessary for my children, but I have solved this by not assigning every question in each set.  Doing this took about…

I finally figured out at least one way to post my schedules here.  I converted my spreadsheets to images and then post just like pictures.  This is our MWF schedule. Our Tuesday/Thursday schedule. This is our chore list. It tells us what to do when our schedule says morning chores, etc. I ran across a…

I have finally come up with a schedule that we can give a shot for school in the fall.  There are still a few blank spaces but I think we’ll just have to try it to see where the problem areas are.  I’m trying to figure out how to post it using google docs. If…

I guess you could call me a "Binder Queen" wanna be.  Cindy Rushton has a book entitled Notebooking! Yes! You Can Be a Binder Queen Too!.  I think to qualify as a Binder Queen the binders have to be full! I have been working on sorting, filing, and discarding our papers from this year. I have…