Homeschool Resources – Page 2 – Living the Adventure

10 Favorite Picture Books That Will Delight Any Age

September 11, 2015September 11, 2015 esther7dancingLeave a comment

The start of school and beginning of fall always reminds me of warm cups of tea, yummy scones and good books. We had our monthly library trip where we filled up on a bunch of books for September. My kids asked me if we could just have a reading day for homeschooling that day and I thought that it was an excellent idea. Soon my children had taken all the cushions from my couch, a bunch of blankets, some favorite stuffed animals and they informed me that they had created a “book house” where they were all sprawled out reading their books. It was a delightful site to see. Even my 3yr. old had his books out because he wanted to be part of the “reading” day. I love the flexibility of homeschooling that allows me to say “Yes” to a reading day.

One of my favorite genres is children’s picture books. I must confess I had a library of children’s literature before I ever had kids. When I graduated from college, the gifts that everyone brought me were different children picture books. I especially like the picture books that have sense of humor added to the story. There are numerous picture books out there that are quite enjoyable and entertaining for any age. I like adding them randomly to our homeschool when I find one I especially like. Here are a few of my favorites….

1.Aunt Chip and the Triple Creek Dam Affair by Patricia Polacco

This is a delightful book that celebrates books. I discovered Patricia Polacco in my college days when I was studying elementary education. I think she is a delightful author and many of her books are enjoyable. I loved this one because it celebrated reading and books. Its actually a good one for the start of the school year.

2. Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin

This is one of favorites because of the sense of humor that the author brings to the story. Its all about animals that are negotiating with the farmer for different things that they want using a type writer. The expressions and things that they type are hilarious. This is a book that gets taken out of the shelf quite often by my children. Doreen Cronin has written other wonderful books that are also worth checking out.

3. Peanut by Linus Alsenas

Peanut is a book that is about an elderly lady who wants a pet puppy and she ends up with a pet elephant. The sense of humor comes in when she thinks, through out the story, that the elephant is a puppy. My kids think this book is hilarious.

4. The Wolf’s Chicken Stew by Kieko Kasza

Kieko Kasza is another of my favorite authors. She tells a delightful story and brings humor into her stories that make us read them over and over again. Wolf’s chicken stew is about a wolf that wants to eat this chicken and all the ways that he tries to fatten the chicken up for his dinner but in the end it has a surprise ending where the wolf actually becomes part of the chicken’s family.

5. The Mitten by Jan Brett

The mitten is a story about an small animal that finds a mitten to keep warm and hides in it. Then as the story continues, all these different animals also want to hide and get warm in the mitten at the same time. Jan Brett is an amazing author that has written several of my favorites. The illustrations are great too.

6. If you give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff

If you give a Pig a Pancake is probably many kids favorites. Its a story that explores the question what would happen if you gave a pig a pancake and the results of that choice. She has written many others in the series. Some of my other favorites are “If you give a Mouse a Cookie” and “If you give a Moose a Muffin”

7. The Napping House by Audrey Wood

I love the rhythm of the language in the “The Napping House”. The kids start learning really fast what the story is going to say and they start reading it along with you. The illustrations are hilarious and it definitely has a place reserved on our library shelf as one of our favorites.

8. Once upon a time, the End (asleep in 60 seconds) by Geoffrey Kloske and Barry Blitt

This book makes me laugh. Its a humorous book that shortens all these bedtime stories to the length of 60 seconds. The way they shorten the bedtime stories is where you find the sense of humor in the book. So my kids were not satisfied with the short length of the stories, but it was still fun to read and laugh at how they shortened the stories.

9. Barnyard Dance and Pajama Time by Sandra Boyton

Honestly I probably own every Sandra Boyton book that she has written. They’re my favorite board books for kids. You can tell that they are well loved at our house because we occasionally have to get a new copy because of the wear and tear on the original one we bought. Sandra Boyton does an excellent job of bringing a sense of humor to kid board books. My kids memorize the Sandra Boyton books quickly. Great gift idea for new or young mommies. Although I do see my older kids pulling them out of the shelves too.

10. The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak

This is a new picture book that I just bought for my collection and I am so glad I did. It is now added to my favorites list. The author decided to write a book with no pictures that kids will love. In the book there are all sorts of silly sayings and the author points out that he can make the reader say anything he wants. Its written in a delightful and humorous way. Even my older kids were laughing. The author is quite creative in how they chose to write this book. I hope there are more books like this from the author.

Homeschool Unit Study Idea:

One of the ways that I have used children’s books in my homeschooling is to have an author of the month. I pick one of my favorite authors like Jan Brett or Dr. Suess and I create a unit study. I gather books from the author we are studying and I also try and find a biography on the author. You can do the unit study as simple as you want or dig deeper. For a simple unit study you could just read the different books and read the biography of the author. If you wanted to dig deeper, you could have activities that go along with each book or you could have your older kids write papers on the life of the author. You could also have your kids write book reports or reviews on what they thought about each book the author wrote. They are a ton of different things you could do for the author of the month idea.

Hope you enjoy some of my favorite picture books. There are many more that I could have blogged about and I am sure you might have different favorites that would go on your list. What are your favorite picture books for kids?

A Clean House and Homeschooling? Does that idea exist?

September 8, 2015 esther7dancingLeave a comment

For my type A personality my home probably will never be as clean and organized as I want it to be until the kids are grown. But the Lord is showing me all the time in different ways to enjoy the season I am in while my kids are young. I am enjoying the journey of homeschooling but I also want to have a balance with the cleaning of my home. I do think you can have a clean home and homeschool. I don’t think your home will always be perfect if you are homeschooling because your kids are always there. I loved this sign I saw recently in a store that said “Sorry for the mess, we live here.”. This sign made me laugh because it’s so true when it comes to homeschooling. When I do decide to make an extra effort to have my house be immaculate, you would probably hear one of my kids saying “Mom, is someone coming over tonight?”. In our home the kids are usually doing various science projects, putting together puzzles or creating new worlds with the cushions off my couch. I have to resist wanting to pick up that lovely puzzle that my 7 year old has been working on for a week in the middle of my living room. I have learned in my various years of homeschooling that its okay if there are puzzles on the floor or science experiments in my kitchen, its all part of homeschooling. All that to say I still think its important to work as a family to maintain somewhat of a clean house even with the challenge of homeschooling. It also teaches the kids life skills, so that they can learn what it takes to maintain a home when they have their own family.

One of the ways we implement having a clean house in our homeschooling is assigning the kids chores. This year I wanted to keep it as simple as possible with chores for my kids. I took some colorful 3×5 cards and wrote down all the main chores that it would take to keep the house looking decent. I also wrote down “Lunch Duty” and “Dinner Duty” on one card each to give out to one of my children each day. We have 5 children and 4 of them are old enough to do chores. Each day I give 3 cards with one chore on each card to each child. They are supposed to complete the cards then hand them into their school box by the end of the day. This has worked really well and I have been able to maintain the system because its simple. We told the kids that chores were 5 days a week and then on the weekends we just help each other out as a family if something needed to be done. Each day they get their chores done, they earn part of their allowance. If they choose not to do their chores that day, they don’t get that money for the day. We like to do allowance because we want our kids to learn about managing money.

Another way that has helped keep our home clean is teaching the kids to have a “Morning Routine”. My kids “Morning Routine” has to be done before 9am because we try to start school around that time. The “Morning Routine” is to get up, get dressed, clean their room, eat breakfast and we encourage them to spend time with Jesus during this time. We start when they are little, so eventually I can say to them, “Did you do your Morning Routine?” and they know what I am asking. This has helped them get ready for their day and maintain cleaning their rooms. It doesn’t always work perfectly especially with my teenagers, so sometimes we have surprise inspections of rooms. I have had kids try and stuff everything under their beds or in their closets and call their rooms clean. Sometimes it hard to keep a straight face in the creative way they have tried to hide dirty clothes or other junk in their room. I figure its all part of the process of training my kids.

These are just a couple of ways that have helped us stay more organized as a homeschool family. A couple of resources that I that I have found to be helpful in organizing my home are….

Help for the Harried Homeschooler by Christine M. Field

The author has some great hints and tips on chores and just keeping an overall organized home. The book isn’t just about keeping a clean and organized home but also covers about every area in homeschooling. Its helpful for new or veteran homeschoolers.

Large Family Logistics by Kim Brenneman

I think this is one of my favorite books on home management. It has a ton of helpful ideas on organization and keeping the house clean in the midst of craziness of life. Even if you don’t have a big family, the ideas are still helpful and I would encourage you to read this book.

Enjoy the moments and season that you are in, especially if you still have little ones. I am still in the process of learning its okay if my kids want to leave out different projects and build different kingdoms in my home. This is a short season that I intend to enjoy every moment that I have with them.

Helpful Household Tips:

Do you want to get rid of those pesky fruit flies? I have found a solution that works quite well. Fill a glass with apple cider vinegar and put in about 1 tbs of dawn soap. Put it wherever you are having fruit fly problems and its a trap for those fruit flies. They are attracted to the apple cider vinegar and will fall into the glass and not get out. I have captured a ton of fruit flies by doing this. It needs to be change every couple of days.

Drink Bands

My kids would constantly get a new glass every time they wanted a drink of water. One of the reasons that they would do this is because with 5 kids, they would forget which one was their glass. I have a friend with 7 kids and she has this genius idea that has been around for awhile, but I didn’t know about it. She uses drink bands. They were these colorful bands that go around a drinking glass so that each kid would have their color and know what glass was theirs. You can buy a set of 10 or them on Amazon for around $10. This has helped in the amount of dished we wash and we don’t have kids fighting over whose glass they thought they might have. I assigned a different color band to each kid.

Which Teacher Planner Should I Use?

September 5, 2015 esther7dancingLeave a comment

As we are about to start our new homeschool year, I start to think about what kind of teacher planner I want for the year. We homeschool year around but our new school year still starts in September. Some homeschoolers use teacher planners to organize their days and keep track of where they’re at with each of their children. Some homeschoolers do not see the need for a planner especially if their kids are younger. I am definitely in the first category. I love planners and seeing where I am at or how much I have gotten done. A planner helps me see the gaps on things that I might be not getting to and might need more attention. Here are 3 teacher planners that I think are excellent choices for homeschoolers.

1. My Well Planned Day

I have used this planner for many of my years of homeschooling. I love how it is made for homeschoolers. There are sections for keeping book lists and field trips that you plan for each month. I think my favorite feature is how the planner caters to teaching multiple children. One of the most important features I look for is whether I will be able to use it with multiple children because of the 5 children in our house. There is also a section for planning out your meals and inspirational articles to encourage you in your journey of homeschooling. The price point is also quite good at $26.95 for the planner. You can find it at headua.com or christianbook.com. They also have an online version planner that is an option on the website called mywellplannedday.com. The online version is offering a 30 day free trial if you want to check it out. I prefer the paper and pencil method but if you like the tech version for things, it may be worth checking out.

2. Teacher Planner by Erin Condren

What attracted me to the Erin Condren Planner were the lesson pages. I love the amount of room in the lesson pages that allows me to fit multiple children. Erin Condren teacher planners are unique because you can customize them in many different ways. For example, if your homeschool has a name, you can put that on the front cover. She also has many other different unique options that you can add to your planner. One of favorites was the snap in sticky notes. She created a plastic insert that has multiple sticky notes that can snap into you planner on the pages your doing your lesson plan. I take numerous notes about ideas that I have for each of my lessons so this was a nice feature for my planning pages. She also has these amazing inspirational quotes throughout the planner. Erin Condren Planners are not made for homeschoolers so there are pages that do not apply to homeschoolers. There are blogs and youtube videos that homeschoolers have made on showing how they adapted and repurposed those pages to work for homeschoolers. The price point for this planner is quite a bit more money. You would have to decide if the customizable planner was worth the money. Erin Condren planners are about $59. I have done the free planners that you print off online and by the time the year is up, I have spent almost that same amount in ink on the free planner from online. Its a well thought out planner worth checking out. You can find it at erincondren.com.

3. Notebook Paper, Pen and A Binder

Okay, you are probably going to laugh, but the last “planner” that I recommend is notebook paper, a pencil, and a couple of binders. I have a child in highschool this year and I have found, in all the planners that I have researched or tried, that there is not enough room for me to write out each of the details for his assignments. He is more of an independent learner at this point and I need to communicate in writing to him what each task is about. I have two binders for my highschooler. One of the binders is a small thin binder with notebook paper that I write out his daily assignments with check boxes. The other binder is a 3 inch binder that I have dividers in for each subject and important information I keep that are required by state law for his high school records. Every time he hands in an assignment, I put it in the binder under that subject. I love the idea of the binder keeping his assignments because I can look at the binder and see where there are gaps. For example, if my science section is full of assignments but my fine arts sections is empty, I can see right away that I need to put some focus on fine arts to add to his high school records. Lee Binz calls this method of keeping records being a “Binder Queen”. One of the best things about doing planning this way is the price. It does not cost much to buy a couple of binders, notebook paper and some pens. I use the teacher planner for my 3 younger kids and the notebook paper for my highschooler. Even in teacher planners I am eclectic.

A Couple of Helpful Hints for Using Teaching Planners-

When using a planner for multiple children, a creative way to help with that is using different colored pens for each child’s assignments so you can clearly see who is doing what.
You can use a highlighter after the child completes an assignment to show that what they have accomplished and what they still need to get done.

Hope you have an amazing start to your new school year!

5 Favorite Homeschool Books for Newbies or Book Addicts Like Me

September 2, 2015 esther7dancing1 Comment

I confess that I am a little bit dangerous when it comes to bookstores. I am probably not to be trusted around curriculum fairs either. I love books and I especially like books about teaching or homeschooling. Even though I have been homeschooling for almost 10 years, I will still read “how-to” homeschool books because I feel you can always learn something new that you may not have thought of for homeschooling. Here are a few of my favorites that I have already read or have been reading…

Educating the Whole Hearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson

This is an excellent book that teaches training your children in discipleship and academics. It has recommendations of curriculum to use but its not the main purpose of the book. The authors want to encourage you as the parent in training and discipling your child using the curriculum that best fits your family. Its an excellent foundational book to read for people who are new to homeschooling or for veteran homeschoolers who want a different perspective. I read it only a couple of years ago and I was encouraged and wanted to adapt many of their ideas. I wish I had found it sooner. A bonus part of the book are the different forms that you can copy at the back of the book that help with the organization of your homeschool.

2. Help for the Harried Homeschooler by Christine Field

The practical advice in this book makes a great resource for new homeschoolers and veterans that want new ideas. The author goes over everything from discipleship to life skills to academics. I appreciate her sense of humor and her style of writing. Some of my favorite sections have been when she addressed life skills with kids and structure vs. freedom style of homeschooling. She also had a section for homeschoolers that feel “burned out”.

3. The Three R’s and You Can Teach Your Child Successfully by Ruth Beechick

For new homeschoolers, this a must have book. It teaches how to incorporate reading, writing and math into your everyday life. It is very helpful in helping homeschoolers that are teaching the K-3rd grades. The creative ideas that she suggests are easily done in every day life. She also wrote a book for the 4th-8th grades as well. Ruth Beechick is probably one of my favorite author’s on homeschooling. Sonlight curriculum tends to follow some of her style.

4. The Well Trained Mind by Susan Bauer

For anyone who is interested in the classical educational model, this is the book for you. My love of research and books compelled me to read this book and I found it an enjoyable resource. Our homeschool does not follow the classical method of education but we do incorporate parts of it. This book is well done and easily understood. The author also has curriculum that we have used that goes along with her classical educational method. There are other excellent books on classical education but I felt like this one was the most understandable and detailed for me. Some of her recommendations for curriculum will be outdated unless there is a new updated version but the information is still valid and good.

5. Beyond Survival: A Guide to the Abundant Life of Homeschooling by Diana Waring

I appreciate this book and how the author points out the importance of what education really is and what it can look like in a home with multiple ages. I have gotten the privilege of hearing Diana Waring in her own home with my homeschool group at that time and the wisdom she can give homeschoolers who are still on the journey is invaluable. She has authored other books and has her own biblical history curriculum. We enjoy listening to her amazing history audio cd’s that I will put in a review soon on this blog.

Hope enjoy these books as much as I have! They have a permanent spot on my bookshelf!

Lifeskills

August 24, 2015 esther7dancingLeave a comment

One of my goals in homeschooling is to not only educate my children in academics but also in Lifeskills. “Lifeskills for Kids” by Christine M. Field is a great tool to use. This is a excellent resource for parents that goes over the basic skills of life that we need to know as adults. I find these kind of books helpful in making me think about the everyday stuff I do that my kids may not know how to do, like balance a checkbook or the process of learning how to do laundry. Some of the topics that were interesting to me were the chapters on teaching kids about decision making and teaching them about organization of their space. Its a worth checking out.

Another resource that I think is worthy of checking out is the book called, “What every Child Should know Along the Way” by Gail Martin. This is another book that teaches about Lifeskills for children. What I love about this book is the different lists that the author provides of the different life skills that a child should know at each age of their life starting at the age of 2. This book is written from a biblical perspective, so there are also many references to God’s word and what it says about life skills. I also enjoyed the helpful and creative ideas on how to train the little ones.

Teaching life skills to kids can be a lot of fun. For example, I want my kids to know the basics of cooking before they leave our home. The easiest way for me to do this with five kids is to have a cooking assistant for meal times. So each week a different child is assigned to help me with meals and I let them learn how to prepare meals with me. Depending on what we are doing, they can learn anything from how to make tuna fish sandwiches to baking bread from scratch. You can also involve kids in meals by having them plan and shop for a meal and then having them help cook it. Its fun to see what they come up with.

3 Homeschool Blogs You Should Be Following

August 22, 2015 esther7dancingLeave a comment

Some of the most amazing ideas that I have received as a homeschooler is from other homeschoolers who are walking through the journey or have already graduated and are imparting wisdom to those of us still in the middle of the adventure. I love reading homeschool books and listening to different teachings on homeschooling. If I’m not sure how to do it, I research it and find out. I also learn and get a ton of ideas from different homeschool blogs that people are writing. Here are a few of my favorites…

Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers-

I love the author’s sense of humor in her posts. There is all kinds of ideas on homeschooling and its separated by the different age group of kids you are teaching. The author has an emphasis on Hands-on Learning. Its an excellent resource to find hands-on projects to fit your different lessons. She has even written a book called “Hands on Learning”. Worth checking out, especially if you have a child that loves or needs the hands on learning.

The Unlikely Homeschooler-

This blog is excellent resource for new and seasoned homeschoolers. The author has an eclectic selection of creative homeschool ideas for preschool, elementary and middle school. My favorite section that she has is “Homeschooling 101” where she has a section called “100 resources for Newbies”. She also explains how she organizes her schooling and plans out her year.

1+1+1+1-

Last but certainly not least is the “1+1+1+1” blog. If you have little ones and are starting to homeschool at the beginning with your preschooler or early elementary then this blog is for you. The author does an amazing job of giving ideas for early elementary that are very creative. I am definitely using some of her ideas on my 3 year old this school year. She also gives links to connect you to the sites where she gets her different projects.

I enjoy learning from other people’s journeys through homeschooling. I am sure there are even more wonderful homeschool blogs that I have not discovered as my favorites yet, but these are my top three for now. Who would be in your top three blogs for homeschooling?

Knights Kingdom- Audio Books

July 26, 2015 esther7dancingLeave a comment

Audio books are a great tool that I have used for teaching, enjoyment or building character in my kids as we drive to places. “Knights Kingdom” by Chuck Black is an excellent audio series that helps develop character training in kids in a creative way. Chuck Black is a homeschool dad who told amazing bedtime stories to his kids, which he turned into fiction books for kids. His first series is an allegory of the Bible using knights and swords. They are very well done and my kids loved the audio versions of the books. They use multiple voices for the audio version which makes the story even more enjoyable.

His second series features different knights that are part of the kingdom. I loved his second series even better because it focused on character training. For example, one of the books addressed greed and another talked about overcoming fear. Each main character was a knight that would have a journey and lesson that they needed to learn. My favorite one was “Lady Carliss” who set people free from the lies of the enemy that were keeping them in prison and helped them see the truth and their need for the Prince, who represents Jesus. My kids enjoyed them at a young age but I want them to listen to all of them again as teens because of the powerful lessons that are portrayed by the author. The only caution I have with these books is that the sword fights can be detailed, so I would say that age 10 and older is probably the best age to listen to the audio books. My younger children listened and had no problems but you know your child best and what age would be appropriate. You can find “Knights Kingdom” by Chuck Black on Amazon or Christianbook.com. He also has is own site kingdomseries.com where you can purchase his products and learn more about the series.

Fun Fact Cards

July 21, 2015July 21, 2015 esther7dancingLeave a comment

I love little tools to help make a subject I am teaching my kids a little more fun. “Fun Fact Cards” by Sally Borrink is a great tool to use with your elementary kids for any subject. Fun Fact cards are a set of cards that have a fun fact on each one. We are working on the Space set. My 7 yr old son loves space and looks forward to picking out the next card that he wants to read. For example, one of the facts was telling us that there is no wind on the moon, so the astronauts footprints can still be seen today on the moon. When we visited the Museum of Flight recently, my 7 yr. old son remembered this fact. Sally Borrink has fact cards for many different subjects, holidays and seasons. You buy them as a download and print them. Even my older kids want to be part of learning the fun fact cards. The older kids enjoyed the U.S. Presidents set. Each card also has an illustration to go along with the fact for the day. You can find “Fun Fact Cards” at Sallieborrink.com . Its a great way to enhance some of your history and science subjects or in helping to remember the significance of a holiday like President’s Day.

IEW-Institute for Excellence in Writing

July 18, 2015 esther7dancingLeave a comment

Writing is not my favorite subject to teach but I wanted my kids to do well in communicating verbally and with the written word. I found IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) to be a great resource and curriculum for writing. It gives a formula to teach kids how to write and then uses that knowledge to expand the kids writing ability. I love how they first give the kids a foundation on how to structure a well written paragraph or paper and then the kids use their own creativity with the solid foundation of writing that they have built.

This really helped my reluctant writers who couldn’t come up with any ideas if you gave them a writing prompt or their writing didn’t grow beyond what they were writing in the elementary grades. IEW gave them tools to use in their writing that were clear and easy to add into their writing across all the subjects. Once my kids learned the process of IEW and how to structure a well written paragraph, we used it in other subjects such as Bible, History or Science.

IEW has programs from Kindergarten all the way through high school. They also have curriculum for Spelling, Poetry and different types of Unit Studies for writing. We are doing the “Fun and Fascinating Facts” writing curriculum which the kids enjoy because they are learning about bugs, inventors, and other interesting facts as they write. I also love how IEW has curriculum of high school that teach kids how to write short essays or research papers. This is helpful especially to the parent that is unsure of how to make sure their child is becoming an effective writer.

IEW Student Intensive A or B, depending on your child’s age and readiness is what I would recommend. Its a DVD set that walks you through the entire lessons step by step. This helped me understand how to be more effective in my adventure of teaching writing. Institute for Excellence in Writing is a great resource that I am still enjoying in teaching my kids how to write.

Akebu to Zapotec

July 11, 2015 esther7dancingLeave a comment

My oldest son is on his first mission trip without us to Guatemala. He went with an organization called RIM which stands for Real Impact Missions. They take 20-25 teenagers from around the United States and go to different countries around the world. The first 2 weeks of the mission trip is outreach and serving the people. There is an option of staying for another 2 weeks for a medical mission trip in the same place. RIM is a great organization and opportunity for young people to go on mission trips. They have a website that you should check out if your kids are wanting to go on mission trips.

I have always wanted my children to have a heart for missions and the world. If God asked our family to move to Africa, I would be there in a heartbeat. My challenge as a teacher and parent has always been on how to cultivate this in my children while still living in the United States. One of the resources that our children have enjoyed doing is going through the children’s book called “Akebu to Zapotec”. This book goes through 26 countries that do not have the Bible in their own language using the first letter of the alphabet for each of the different countries. This is the 2nd book that the author has written because kids prayed for the countries in the first book and all those countries received the Bible written in their own language. We take a different country every week and pray that they will receive Christ and get a Bible in their own language. This has been a great introduction to kids on how they can reach the nations and change the world with their prayers.

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