By Julie Simmons

Homeschool Classroom for Four

Avoid Homeschool Burnout...

I've heard it said that if you are new to homeschooling, and you haven't felt like crying several times in the first few weeks, then you are not really homeschooling. We feel the full impact of our own character flaws as well as the faults in our children.  Part of homeschooling is developing patience. Now is the time to adjust, to find better ways of doing things that aren't working out, and develop good habits while establishing a routine with a flexible schedule.

A plan and a schedule...

is of utmost important for getting homeschool done. Sometimes we plan more than we can possibly do. We must be realistic in our planning, but with creativity, often we can increase productivity in the time that we have.   There are a number of very good homeschool planners available for purchase that can really increase your productivity and help you keep up with the records, your homeschool schedule, and details of your homeschooling experience (No easy task). You can find many helpful ideas, forms, and information that puts your family on the right track.

Children's Chores

In order for a parent to be free to homeschool, many household chores must be delegated to the children. Summer is the best time to establish chore responsibilities and teach children how to do their chores well, but if it is not going well, the only way to fix it is to devote some time each day to teaching your children how to do their chores.  This will pay off in the end, but for right now, it seems to be a heavy burden. Don't feel stressed about the time it takes to get school days going somewhat smoothly. This is just a fact of life.  The whole process is a learning experience.

Help Your Children Develop Life Skills:

Learn to value the living experiences that your children are learning through as well as the academics that you are seeking to teach.  It is all part of a balanced life and preparation for maturity.  Many practical skills are essential for your children to learn and home is such a well equipped training ground for young learners. A favorite resource of mine that is a tremendous help to scheduling in a large family is Managers in Their Homes (MOTH for short).  After more than 20 years of homeschooling, I have never seen another product as helpful for managing homeschool and life for a large family.

Advice to New Homeschool Parents:

My advice to new homeschool parents is to give yourself some slack during the first month or so of school at home. Try to find enjoyment in the process.  Do not allow yourself to be stressed.  Maintain a sense of humor and try to keep the an encouraging atmosphere that has built in rewards for accomplishments. You must establish some sort of accountability program that all the children understand which will encourage hard work and completion of assigned tasks.

Incorporate an Accountability System in Your Homeschool Organization:

That's where an accountability system that includes checklists or charts are needed.  Such a system will have definite, predefined requirements along with planned rewards or planned withholding of privileges to correspond with the child's effort and/or accomplishments.

More than one of my children has expressed dislike for checklists claiming that they can get their work done without it. But Mom knows better. There is some laziness as the heart of every human being and that includes my children. They don't want a checksheet because it makes them have to work hard every day. If a system is used properly, parents are daily aware of what is accomplished by each child and make sure that the priviledges or lack of priviledges that in contengent on their work, is delivered. This also teaches the valuable lesson of good  consequences for good behavior or or bad consequences for bad behavior.

One of my favorite verses that I remember when I am feeling stressed and burdened is "Come to Me all of you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest." I receive peace of mind when I leave the outcome to Christ. I must give it my best effort, but He brings the fruit, He accomplishes all good things.

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(Thanks to the Reed family for sharing their homeschool classroom picture above....Thanks, Heather!)

Read about the Simmons family's Year Round Homeschool Schedule.  It has built it time to de-stress and pursue your hobbies and interests.

Read how one family avoids homeschool burnout....a different approach.

And remember to avoid financial burnout by checking Best Homeschool Buys.com for great prices on Used Homeschool Curriculum.

I wrote last year about our success with  our Year Round Homeschool Schedule.  If you haven't settled on a good schedule for your family, you might want to read here about what Cindy Rushton is offering that you can help you (Free for you). It concerns developing a good schedule for your family. This is the story:

Cindy was telling me all about her Ultimate Homeschool Expo.  She has just finished adding all of the resources into the Ultimate Homeschool Expo virtual library where everything is ONLINE for your convenience. Cindy builds a  exclusive Membership Site that includes everything from the UHSE in one place--it has audios (from all of the sessions and from the bonus gifts that her speakers give to us), ebooks, complete unit study guides, articles, printable notebooking pages, cookbooks, on and on. I can't believe all of the things that we receive for only $39.95. But she is offering a sampler FREE...

I am so excited that Cindy has given me permission to give my readers a sampler of one of her free gifts that is part of the Membership Site. This gift is an ebook and audio set that Cindy normally sells on her website.

I just listened to this and it is so practical and helpful, just what what I need to help me set priorities and set up the routines that will help us accomplish our goals.

Listen to.....

Scheduling ABC’s Audio Workshop with Cindy Rushton

Let Cindy show you her secrets to developing a homeschool schedule that works for your family!
Download by Mp3
http://tinyurl.com/2cpsb9  (you may have to copy this url and paste into your browser

As a  picture captures a thousand words, a gift like this lets you see the value of the Homeschool Expo Library.  And, just think...this is only ONE of the homeschooling helpful gifts included on the Homeschool Expo Membership Site. There are hundreds more!
New homeschooling ideas and classic homeschooling ideas are ready and waiting to encourage homeschool families.  Join today and get set your next homeschool year.

Nathan Making a Yellow Dog with Play Dough

Play dough is an art medium for homeschool with multiple uses.  I always kept a supply of play dough for my preschooler's "school" acitivity time.  Making things with play dough was an activity that was often on their school time list. It would keep my 4 year old occupied for a while while I worked one on one with my older children who needed help with reading or math.

I often made playdough with items I already had available in the kitchen. I stored it in a freezer bag and placed that bag in a plastic container with a lid. The container also stored cookie cutters, a child's rolling pin, plastic knives, and other home tools for playing with play dough.

Keep some plastic placemats to lay down for a playdough work surface on the table. There are wonderful learning placemats available at Walmart and other stores that feature world map, US map, the presidents, fractions, and many other facts that children will pick up over time, just by having the information on the placemat and talking about it with them from time to time.

You can color your homemade playdough with food coloring, but many children will prefer the uncolored since it looks more like real cookie dough.

Our playdough kit was put up and we only brought it out once every couple of weeks. By making play items available only at certain times, makes the children more excited about them.

When the playdough started to get old and dry, we would just whip up a batch of new dough!

Here is one recipe for it:

Playdough Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups flour
• ½ cups salt
• 1 tablespoon alum
• 3 tablespoon cooking oil
• 1 ½ cups hot water
• food coloring

Combine oil, water, and food coloring. Combine dry ingredients and mix thoroughly and knead.

Lane Concentrating on His Creation

I want to share with you what is available at this years online homeschool convention...Just Look at a few of the homeschool workshops for you this year:

photo credit: ?eagan

1. Teaching the Multi-Grade Homeschool Home
2. What You Need to Have a Good Art Education Program in the Home
3. Saving Money with Coupons
4. Habit Formation
5. Reach for the Stars: Getting Your Children (and You) Excited about Story-writing
6. Unfamiliar Territory: Covering Subjects You’re Not Familiar With
7. Lap Booking
8. Bringing Science to Life
9. Reading and spelling - How to Get it Right and What to Do When the
10. Why Teach to the Strengths When You can Strengthen the Weaknesses. An Intro to Cognitive Skills Testing and Training
11. 7 Essential Ingredients to Homeschooling Success
12. Management and Home Ministry: Getting it all Done While Putting First Things First
13. Simplified Biblical Instruction&Character Training for Your Young Children
14. Homeschooling on a Shoestring
15. Lies Homeschool Moms Believe
16. Hands-On History - How To Make History FUN!
17. Choosing Curriculum Based On Learning Style
18. Cooking Up Some Fun- How To Teach In The Kitchen!
19. Teaching Science Out of the Box
20. Evolution-Proofing Your Kids before They Go to College
21. Doing the Impossible One Day at a Time
22. Taking the Mystery Out of Science Fair Projects
23. Geology Dig into Rocks and Fossils (KIDS CLASS!!)
24. Homeschooling: Preference or Conviction?
25. What About Socialization?
26. Making Time for What Really Matters
27. Get a Jump Start on College: Save Thousands of Dollars and Give Your Teen a Safe Head Start on College!
28. Decoding the Classics: How to Read, Enjoy, and Teach Great Literature
29. The Language of Leadership
30. Funschooling
31. 46 Million Dead: Why Worldviews Matter
32. Staying Sane, Keeping On
33. Homeschooling Your Child with Learning or Attention Difficulties
34. Raising Kids to Godliness
35. Cornerstones of Communication: Beyond the Words (Specifically Teens)
36. Listening Beyond the Words: Communicating with your Teen
37. Tying it All Together: How to Use Unit Studies as the Centerpiece of a Relaxed Method of Homeschooling
38. Certified to Teach by the Grace of God --- Encouragement for Moms Who Feel Inadequate to Teach Their Children
39. Seven Highly Effective Habits of Happy Homeschool Moms
40. History & Geography through Literature
41. The Truth Behind the Mom-First Myth
42. The Three R’s for Mom:  Reason, Relationships and Resources
43. Discovering Creation with Living Books and Hands-on Science
44. Making Time for What Really Matters
45. The Mistakes Manual
46. Can the Bible REALLY Tell Me How to Succeed at Homeschooling?
47. Building your Home Library
48. Teens in the Throes of Today's Culture
49. Asking the Right Questions and Questioning the Answers
50. Hints for Successfully Homeschooling High School Students
51. How to Create Self-Reliant, Financially Successful Teens
52. Creating an Unbreakable Bond with Your Child
53. The Secret to Parenting
54. Helping Your Teen Get Published
55. Marking Your Teen's Writing
56. The Great Art Escape: Incorporating the Arts in Your Homeschool
57. Life in the Fishbowl: The Homeschooling Pastor’s Family
58. Fitting in Fitness

PLUS! Kids Classes this Year!
(For Members Only!)

1. Geology Dig into Rocks and Fossils with Felice Gerwitz
2. Civil War to Civil Rights with Angela Broyles
3. Research and Report Writing with Tyler Hogan
4. Make Your Writing Great with Cindy Rushton
5. Expressionism with Sharon Jeffus
6. Notebooking! SURE to Addict You Too! with Cindy Rushton

This is not all! There is much more to check out at the Ultimate Homeschool Workshop. Get your ticket today!

photo credit: Andrew Stawarz

When Tim and I made the decision over 20 years ago to homeschool our children, my first task was to read everything I could find about homeschooling.  With my children's future in my hands, I wanted to learn, learn, learn so I could offer them the best education and family life that I could by God's grace.  (Another day, I will share with you the books that I read that gave me direction.)  When Lane was 12 and Nathan was 10, Robert was 6, Sara was 4, and Jonathan was 2, we were living in SC and I had the chance to go to a homeschool workshop convention at Bob Jones University.  It was not often that I took a day away from the children to go somewhere by myself, but with the help of my husband, I was able to go. At this workshop, I got so many great ideas and was so encouraged by the 100's of other homeschooling families there.  There were individual classes on homeschooling like "Teaching with Live Animals", "Learning History through Reading Classics Aloud", "Multi-level Teaching". These were practical classes that helped me immensely.

Those days of needing to travel to a homeschool convention are over.

I just got an email from my friend, Cindy Rushton.  Cindy is excited to offer her newest edition of the Ultimate Homeschool Expo.  You see, the amazing thing about the Ultimate Homeschool Expo is that everything is ONLINE so it is more than a convention--it is a homeschool resource library.  If you are a new homeschooler or if you have years of homeschooing under your belt, you will find loads of ideas and encouragement from the top notch guests that Cindy has on the Ultimate Hmeschool Expo lineup

With every online event that Cindy plans, she builds a private Membership Site that includes everything in one place. There are audios from all of the sessions (and more from the bonus gifts that her speakers give to us), ebooks, complete unit study guides, articles,  notebooking pages you can print, cookbooks, and more....!  I can't believe all of the things that we receive for only $39.95.  You are likely to be able to save on your next year's curriculum and supplements through the ideas you get and the included homeschooling materials.

Anyway, back to the reason that I am sharing with you...

Cindy just sent me permission to give you a sampler of one of her free gifts that is included on the Membership Site. I am so excited to give it to you! It is a audio and ebook set that she actually sells on her website, but she is giving away on the Membership Site. Here is the link:

Read the rest of this entry »

The financial crisis is affecting all of us. Here are some things that I have done to save money on homeschooling. Maybe they will help you.

Buy Used Homeschool Books

1. Shop Thrift Stores, Goodwill, and Garage Sales - Over the years I have bought at least half of our books for homeschooling at Goodwill and garage sales.  I got some terrific bargains.  Some of the books, I still have after 20 years and some have been sold or donated. I have occasionally found textbooks, but mostly topic books for unit studies, reference books, and fiction for children.

2. Shop used curriculum online sites like Homeschool Classifieds and Best Homeschool Buys.  When you buy from other homeschoolers, you are helping them collect some money to enable them to pay for next years curriculum.   One some of these sites, If you think they are asking too much, try making an offer that is reasonable.  You may be surprised, it will often be accepted.  See more sites for used homeschool curriculum at the bottom of this post.

3. Check out books from THE LIBRARY - You can either use the item for a few weeks and return it or decide that you do like this book and want to purchase it. Many libraries have the book catalog online and even allow you to reserve books and renew books online. What could be easier.  Also, when the library doesn't have the book you need, try the interlibrary loan request.  All you do is fill out a simple form to request a book and the date that you need it and you will be contacted when it is available.  Then you check it out like any other book.  This is a service that can save you from buying so many books.  The important thing is to decide exactly when you need it.  You can usually renew the interlibrary loaned books so that you can keep them twice as long.

5.  You can find so much free teaching help on the internet...free print outs,  ebooks, worksheets. SEARCH for  free homeschool , free homeschooling, free samples, free printables, and more !! What ever you are going to study, you can search on the internet and find all kinds of helpful info that you can use.  Actually, there is usually so much available that the problem is just deciding which ones to use!

6. Learn in the REAL world.  Take field trips, visit free parks, go on nature walks, get outside.  There is so much learning that takes place with no books involved.  Look everywhere for learning opportunities.  This way of learning will be remembered by your children.

7.  If you have access to cable or satellite TV, record the educational programs that complement what you are teaching.  You can look online for the TV schedules- what plays when...such as The History Channel or The Discovery Channel

You CAN homeschool on a shoestring. You will learn to be creative which in the end is rewarding and fun.

Children that grow up in a family that has to budget benefit because they have a greater appreciation for their blessings.

This site, Best Homeschool Buys offers used and new homeschool books and curriculum at discount prices.  Take a look at what's available.  Since these are organized ebay homeschool listings, new items are added daily, so please check back often.

Cheap Homeschooling: Buy Used Books

Other sites that may help you save are:

Homeschool Christian Message Boards

This Little Piggy Stays Home

The Homeschool Library

The Back Pack

Homeschooling on the Cheap