Thrift Schooling

  We have finally found our groove for the school year and I am loving it. Seeing the needs of each of my children and finding the resources to meet them have been a tremendous blessing. One child struggles with dyslexia and thankfully with homeschooling, the one on one time helps significantly. Another child needs remedial help in math. A cheap Goodwill find took me on the path to finding an excellent math curriculum to help this year. The $200 workbook was picked up for less than a dollar and the teacher's key and test book was found on  discount sites online giving me a quality curriculum worth hundreds for a fraction of the cost.  We also have Bible covered at an affordable price. Bible Study Guide for All Ages  gives me what I need to not only go over the basics of the Bible but the details found in the Old Testament which can be intimidating to tackle with young children. This curriculum makes it easy to tackle challenging, lesser known Bible stories—and fun. W...

  I found a picture of my sister and me standing on the front porch of our childhood home with a bouquet of flowers each. Dressed in our Sunday best, it was the first day of school. I was embarking on the fifth grade. The last year in our elementary school. One final year before the dreaded middle school years. My sister was beginning first grade. Her first year of attending school all day long.  Looking back, I wonder if the flowers were a bit much. Of course, they weren't my idea, but I did give them to my teacher. As did my sister. I do remember liking that year of school. Honestly, my fifth-grade teacher was my all-time favorite teacher. Maybe it did have something to do with getting started on the right foot, flowers and all. It's funny how we can look back and see how certain actions led to certain results, yet they were unbiblical. The Bible talks about the wickedness of bribery over and over. Proverbs 15:27 says, " Whoever is greedy for the unjust gain troubles his...

    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...

  Bedtime seemed hours away. It did not help that they had recently dropped their afternoon naps. "Go jump on the trampoline twenty-seven times. Then, run around the house three times," I commanded, half-joking. They were up for the challenge and were back in no time, proud of their accomplishments. Although my previous teaching experience had not prepared me for the continuous demands of motherhood, it did help me to think outside of the box when needed.  This afternoon, it was needed. Still filled with energy, I sat them down on the living room floor and we played our own version of charades. Instead of having me guess what they were acting out, I would give them something to act out, and they would have to figure out the best way to impersonate it. It lasted for almost an hour, and they were active the entire time. From fire trucks to helicopters to made-up words that I would throw in there for fun, my little ones were active, using their brains, and having a great time wi...

I am pleased to announce  Bible Study Guide for All Ages  as a NEW Thrift Schooling Gold Sponsor ! Though a new sponsor, this incredible Bible resource for families is not new to our homeschool.  This is one of the top materials that has stood the test of time over the past TWELVE YEARS of homeschooling! I was introduced to this Bible homeschool curriculum in 2013 and continue to use it to this day. Not only did I use it with my teens when they were younger, but I continue to use their materials with their younger siblings.  That's a quality homeschool curriculum right there.  This curriculum even landed NUMBER THREE in my Top ten curriculum choices for the last school year. ( Spoiler alert: It might make it to the top ten again this year.) When I organized the curriculum for our church's Sunday preschool program, I immediately brought these materials into the rotation. Primarily because this is not a Bible curriculum full of fluff. It has solid, biblical...