My Cool HomeschoolHomeschooling Resources

This school year, like many of our previous school years, has gotten off to a bit of a rough start. But I’m working on changing some things that hopefully will get things flowing a little more smoothly.

Recently, I read an article online that said homeschoolers sometimes have a difficulty with delayed gratification. They are often used to having a question answered right away, and they have the freedom to make comments during a lesson. Although I know this isn’t true of all homeschooled children, I can say it’s true of mine. They interrupt me if I’m reading a science or history lesson aloud, often saying something that has nothing to do with the subject. If I’m helping one with math or reading, the others are quite comfortable breaking in with a question about their own work.

I know it’s not the children’s fault — this is how I’ve been schooling the last few years. I used to feel like I was multi-tasking, answering a question for one while teaching a concept to another while handing out an assignment to a third. But I wasn’t really multi-tasking — we were just losing time, as nothing was being accomplished efficiently. So this year, I’m bringing more order in — for their sakes, and for mine!

For the first hour, I’m working with my Kindergartener while the other three work on their math. If they have a question about a problem, they just have to skip it and go on to the next one. Their math work will continue into the second hour, at which time I’m free for questions.

After math we’ll go into our group lesson of history or science. Then it’s back to individual work in Language Arts, giving me time again to help with grammar, spelling, and writing if necessary. Reading and music practice are subjects they can do on their own.

The next few days will be hard — reminding the children again and again that they will have to wait. But once they get used to the new plan, they’ll have an easier time with school — and I will too!

Well, I finally followed through with my E-Mealz subscription, and it’s been a great week!

E-Mealz is an online company which helps you plan your suppers each night. For a small subscription fee ($15 for three months), you can choose a meal plan based on your diet preferences, the size of your family, and your favorite grocery store. E-Mealz supplies you with a plan for seven meals, the recipes, and the shopping list. The meal plan for the week is based on the sales at your particular store that week, an extra bonus.

I had purchased a subscription some time ago, but cooking just isn’t my favorite thing to do, though we don’t eat out very often either. Instead, the meals I fixed often consisted of frozen chicken nuggets or patties, salads, and maybe a meatloaf every now and then. If my husband wasn’t coming home for dinner, the kids were satisfied with pancakes or cereal, so I was satisfied with that too.

This week, though, I was determined to give E-Mealz a fair try. I took my E-Mealz shopping list to my grocery store and got started. The amount I spent was very close to the estimated amount E-Mealz provided. That was a good sign!

Then came the real test: fixing the meals. I’ve followed the plan all week — mixing up the schedule a little, depending on what we were doing — and it has been great!  In the past, I usually make my way to the kitchen around 5:00, then scour the cabinets for about 20 minutes until I figure out what I’m going to cook. This week, though, I didn’t have to do that. I pulled out my copy of the plan, picked out a meal, and was ready to go. We’ve eaten something different every night this week and tried three new dishes that everyone liked. Wow!

So, next week I’ll try again. Now I’m looking forward to establishing better habits in the kitchen, and my family’s looking forward to better meals!

This year I thought we’d get an early start on school. It seems our year is often interrupted, so if we had an early start, we’d hopefully finish up in May.

Well, that’s what I thought. My plan was to begin on August 10 and jump right in with school five days a week. Too ambitious? Apparently so!

The first three days of that week, my husband was off, and he needed my oldest son’s help on a project. I worked that first day with the other three on their lessons, but then we decided to take the next two days off, since their brother had it off anyway. The end of the week was my birthday, and we’ve made it a general rule not to do school on birthdays. This does not include the birthdays of extended family, though, or we’d never get anything done. So, that left just one day, and, well, there didn’t really seem much point in that.

Next week, I told myself, we’ll get started, and it’ll be great!  However, John is part of a homeschool FCA club (Fellowship of Christian Athletes), and they had their last big outing of the summer scheduled for that next Monday. They went hiking, leaving in the morning and returning in the late afternoon. I could have worked with the girls and Luke on their lessons, but I decided to delay, just one more day, so we could all start at the same time.

We finally got started on Tuesday, and we had a really good day. Wednesday the children worked hard again. But Thursday we had the opportunity to visit with cousins we don’t often see – we took off and it was a good day, but we didn’t work on schoolwork, and we got home late. That made Friday less productive than it should have been.

So, although we had ten potentially good school days, only three could be counted. But I’m glad it happened at the beginning. We had started early, so no time was really lost. And I realize once again how easily distracted I can be, and how important it is for me to set a plan and stick with it. Perhaps next year, though, we’ll start in July.

Last week, I attended a class called “Homeschooling Your High Schooler” presented by homeschool veteran and speaker Tandy Collier. It was a great  class, focusing on what to do to help your homeschooled child get accepted into college. With my oldest son John entering eighth grade this year, I need to begin thinking ahead now.

This is especially true in our state. Students can begin receiving high school credits for some classes they take in the eighth grade. This year, John will be taking two classes that can count towards his high school credits. I realized that even with those extra credits, however, we need to map out now the courses he’ll take in 9th-12th grade, just to be sure that he stays on track. With so many dual enrollment and online learning opportunities, he can have a strong start when it comes time to enter college.

But there’s more to plan. Ms. Collier mentioned that colleges and universities admission counselors like to see that a student is a dedicated member in an organization and sticks with it for a long time. They also like to see that the student has a variety of experiences withing that group. With so many extracurricular activities available, we have to decide together just which ones he should participate in. Up to now we haven’t done much with organized sports, opting instead to pursue scouting, which John still enjoys. He’s also continuing on with music and playing the piano. But there’s much more to choose from: 4-H clubs, Civil Air Patrol, Teen Pact, theater, chorus, and band, just to name a few.

Was the class intimidating? No — rather, it was encouraging. Last year, my husband and I discussed whether or not to continue homeschooling through high school, and at the time we felt it was the right way for us to go. Now I know we’re headed in the right direction. I also know it will involve a lot of work and a lot of planning, and I need to stay on top of things as we enter the high school years. But I also know that for the most part,  I have one more year to prepare. Whew!

During our visit with family this summer, we had a chance to hear one of my nephew’s music CDs. It came with a book entitled Philadelphia Chickens, written and illustrated by Sandra Boynton. The songs in it are so silly and so funny that when we found the book and CD at our library, we just had to check it out. As we were listening to the CD in the car, one of the songs really made an impression on me. The song was “Snuggle Puppy,” and the chorus goes like this: 

Ooo, Snuggle Puppy of mine!

Everything about you is especially fine.

I love what you are.

I love what you do.

Ooo, I love you.

These are sweet words for a children’s song, but they really made me think. My youngest child, Luke, is five years old, and he is extremely snuggly. It’s easy to fit his name into the song and sing it to him, hugging and squeezing him. Yet when I sing the lines “I love what you are, I love what you do,” my three older children come to mind. 

I wonder — do they really know that I love them just because of who they are? That I love the quirky ways they behave sometimes, the funny things they say, their uniqueness, their talents that are just their own? Or do they mostly hear me say what I hear myself say: “Don’t do that.” “Quit that.” “I don’t understand why you act that way.” “What’s the matter with you?”  

Well, to all four of my Snuggle Puppies, I do love what you are, and I do love what you do, and I plan to work harder at letting you know. We all need to hear words like that, and the song “Snuggle Puppy” is a good reminder for me. Now, about the song “Please Can I Keep It”….

My niece introduced us to a fun party game last week that’s works well if you have a group of people who want to play. It’s a combination of telephone – the game where you whisper something to someone, and then they whisper it to someone else, until it goes all the way down the line – and charades, where you act out a word or phrase.

We divided up into two teams, boys vs. girls, with about 5 or 6 people on a team. Team members line up one behind the other. The first team member is given the word or phrase to act out. The second team member watches the first, trying to guess what the word is. All other team members face away from the first person so they can’t see what’s going on.

When Player #2 thinks he knows what Player #1 is doing, he turns and taps Player #3 on the shoulder. Player #3 turns around, Player #1 sits down, and Player #2 begins to act it out for Player #3. When Player #3 thinks he knows the answer, he taps on the shoulder of Player #4. Player #4 turns around, Player #2 sits down, and Player #3 begins to act it out. The game continues down the line in this manner until the last player is tapped; he watches the previous player, then says out loud what he thinks the word is.

It was so much fun – and so funny!  We watched as the other team turned “plunging a toilet” into “riding a horse.” Our team turned “a melting snowman” into “building an igloo.” The best part is, all ages could play; we had “actors” from age five on up. And since we didn’t keep score, there was no pressure at all.

So if you’re looking for something to do at your next party – give telephone charades a try. My guess is you’ll be laughing long before anyone gets it right.

While visiting in Florida, we took a day to visit Kelly Park in Apopka, FL. If you are ever in the area during the spring or summer, this park is a must-see.

The main feature of the park is Rock Springs, a clear, cold freshwater spring that comes up from a break in a rock outcropping. The spring becomes a stream that visitors can lazily float down on inner tubes, and it eventually empties into a pool where they can swim before continuing on a little further. Lifeguards are stationed along the stream and around the pool. The park has a well-build boardwalk to follow as you enter or exit the stream, and there’s also a sandy beach where small children can play.

Although the floats aren’t provided, you can rent a tube from $3 – $5 per day from nearby businesses, or you can bring your own. We did some of both — took a few floats we had on hand and rented a couple more, but the kids also enjoyed swimming down the stream with no inner tube at all.

Our other favorite activity to do at the park is search for shark teeth. When we reach the end of the first part of the stream, everyone hops out of their floats, reaches down to the bottom, and pulls up handfuls of shells and rocks. We carefully search through them, looking for very small shark teeth or some other treasure. This past trip, we found a different kind of tooth, which we believe to have once belonged to an alligator.

You’ll also find playgrounds, pavilions, and picnic tables at the park, along with a couple of bath houses and a concession booth. Entrance to the park was just $1 per person or $5 for a carload of eight. All in all, it was a great way to spend the day. It was also the impetus of a new homeschooling investigation: Just where do all those shark teeth come from?

I first came upon this website over a year ago when I was teaching art lessons in my home. I was centering the lessons around famous artists, and I was looking for information online about the lives of the various masters. While I was glad to find the biographies of famous artists on this site and used them regularly as a resource, Garden of Praise.com offers so much more. 

One of the first sections you come to on the site is entitled “Online Tests.” After registering, teachers and homeschooling parents can have their students take tests about famous Americans or lessons in the Bible. After a test is completed, it’s instantly scored, and if any incorrect answers were marked, the correct answer is revealed. 

The biography section features leaders such as presidents, scientists, inventors, and educators. Each story is written at the elementary level and includes seven printables, including a study sheet, a coloring page, a word search, a crossword puzzle, a word scramble puzzle, a worksheet, and a test. Links to other helpful sites about the individual are provided as well. 

A Spanish section has songs (with music) for learning the months of the year, colors, and the parts of the head. Quizzes are available for numbers, the days and months, and the names of shapes in Spanish. 

You’ll also find pages that include literature-based reading lessons, plays, musical activities, and children’s Bible lessons. You can even view a slideshow featuring ideas for bulletin boards or wall displays designed by teachers. 

While this site is not an all-inclusive resource for any of these subjects, it does provide information, ideas, links, and printables to supplement the various subjects your children might be studying. And, best of all, Garden of Praise.com has made it all available for free!

We’re still in central Florida, and the temperatures have been high!  Last week they were in the mid-90s, but with the humidity, the weatherman said it felt more like 105 degrees. I’d say he was right. 

But this past Saturday, there was a lot going on in the house, so we moved all the young cousins outdoors — yes, even in the afternoon!  The children played on a tire swing tied to a large shade tree in the yard, but the fun didn’t last long. It was just too hot. That is, until we brought out the hose. 

We started by connecting it to a wide, rotating sprinkler that sprayed water overhead. I had suspected my five-year-old would enjoy it, but I was surprised when my two-year-old nephew joined in. Perhaps it was because his cousins were laughing as they were splattered, but he smiled too, even as he was sprayed squarely in the face. 

After about thirty minutes, one of the children picked up a cup and started filling it with water from the sprinkler. I went in to get some more, and soon everyone was filling up their cups and dumping the water on each other. We then pulled out the little wading pool, and soon they were trying to fill it up with the water in their cups. We unhooked the sprinkler and used the water directly from the hose, making the chore go a little faster.

 About thirty more minutes had past when some of the older ones realized it was going to take a lot of cupfuls to get the job done. We then unhooked the sprinkler and put the hose directly in the pool. A little dishsoap, and the pool was soon full of bubbles. They put the bubbles on their heads, their faces, each other. They put bubbles in bowls and stirred them up. They threw bubbles all around the yard. 

Who knew they’d have so much fun? About three hours since we first brought them out, the children were ready for supper, which was served on card tables outside as well. Then they all resumed playing until it was time to get ready for bed. It was a  well-spent afternoon – few quarrels and a good time together. I’m going to give it a try at home too — right after I buy a new hose.