Thrift Schooling

  My high school Economics class in high school was the period immediately after lunch. I seem to remember always falling asleep as the teacher droned on about the glass ceiling. I do not remember retaining much in that class and could not wait for the bell to ring so I could head off to gym class (unless we were square dancing that day!) What I love about homeschooling is I don't have to organize all of the classes into neat little 45-minute periods, although I used to. Once, I planned an entire year based on that type of system, neatly scheduling each class into the day from 8:30 am until 2:00 pm—complete with two breaks, one to go on the swing set and one for lunch.  Why I thought I needed to recreate the typical classroom model, I do not know. Lack of confidence? Fear? Habit? Whatever the reason, I quickly learned that as I added more kids to the mix, that type of education did not fit our routine. Needing to nurse a baby or going to rescue a runaway goat made me need to ...

    Bible Study Guide for All Ages  is a unique homeschool curriculum that can be used with all of your children around the kitchen table, on your couch, or even in your RV (any road schoolers out there?) Finding a curriculum that has the same exact lesson mapped out for different ages is hard to find, and a true gem once found. Bible Study Guide for All Ages does just that. Regardless of the ages of your homeschoolers, you can order the guides that will meet them exactly where they are. Not only is this great for homeschooling multiple ages but this has helped our family in the past when we had a child that was slightly behind in his reading. We were able to order a grade level below, while his older siblings stayed on grade level. They all still learned the same exact material. Yet when it came to what was required of him as far as writing things down on paper, it was not too frustrating for him. He was able to verbally state what he learned, which was on grade lev...

  “So, what do you do all day?” A longtime friend genuinely asked me after a hectic week of chasing around two active boys under the age of two while pregnant with my third. I did not know what to say. She had two young boys, too, but also worked a full-time job. Her schedule looked different than mine. Busy, but different. I had no words. I thought she would be able to relate, but our lives were not the same. The late nights of dying our hair random colors and going out for a quick coffee were gone—or at least growing fewer in number. We were now married. With kids. I was not surprised that our friendship had changed. We had new responsibilities. New concerns. New worries. What surprised me was the loss of connection. Even though we both had entered into a similar stage of life, we were doing it differently, and I could sense the gap growing stronger with every tense conversation.    It wasn’t even about the difference of opinion about being a stay-at-home or working mom...

  The  Panda Pickagram Bundle  is a brand new part of Timberdoodle's Second Grade Curriculum Kit  leaving kids with an exciting new way to do school this year. Pickagram is a magnetic puzzle that builds spatial reasoning, creativity, and logic. What I appreciate about Timberdoodle's creative line is the variety of puzzles with seemingly unending levels. Children can easily have unending play with the Pickagram, but, with the bundle, your child also receives 52 designs to work on. The challenges help them get started in their creativity, allowing them to go off script (or card) and make their own creations. Right out of the package, my son went immediately towards working on the prompts from the cards. Every child is different. Learning styles vary. Having the prompt cards available work well for the child that can get overwhelmed easily, unsure of where to begin. This would be the child who is still sitting in their room two hours after you asked them to clean their ...