Learning about Life, Learning about Him, Teaching about Life, Teaching about Him
I have tried and failed for years to complete a study of all 50 states. We’d start out ready and raring to go, and then the tyranny of all the other core subjects took over and our study would peter out (by the way, to read about the origin of the phrase “peter out,” go here). Part of the problem was that I was constantly trying to add new elements to our study and was not carrying it out in an organized fashion. Enter the Procedure List to Study the 50 States..
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As an avid baker, I believe that just about every baked good tastes better with chocolate. I hold fast to the conviction that the reason that a cookie exists is to hold chocolate. Why you would put dead fruit in an oatmeal cookie is beyond me. Sugar cookies are just incomplete, poor things.
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It’s a common occurrence that when people find out I have 8 kids, one of their first comments is, “You must have a lot of patience.” That’s funny. I try to tell them it’s not true, but they don’t believe me.
Read moreJust to show that you can teach an old dog new tricks, I am adopting two new homeschool management tools this year: the loop schedule and procedure lists. If you want a more thorough explanation of both, visit Pam Barnhill’s blog posts here and here.
Very simply, a loop schedule is a list of subjects that you will do in a given period of time. (You would not put your daily subjects, such as math, on a loop schedule.) For instance, in the morning either during breakfast or right after, I like to start one subject while the kids are at the table. I might put on my loop list: US State Study, US History, Art Appreciation and English from the Roots Up.
Let’s say we’ve had a holiday weekend and Friday we worked on Art Appreciation in our morning time period. We were off Monday, so on Tuesday I would move to the next subject on the list, which would be English from the Roots Up. On Wednesday we would go to the start of the list and do our US State Study lesson. Thursday we would do US History, and so on.
The great thing about a loop schedule is that it doesn’t matter what day you do which subject. You will have the assurance that each of your subjects will be covered.
A procedure list shows how you will cover a particular subject. It’s more about process. It’s perfect for those subjects in which you will follow the same routine.
These are such simple concepts and yet they have the potential to make a huge difference in your homeschool planning. I hope you can implement these two tools into your homeschool planning to make life easier! I’ll be posting next a detailed procedure list (with a link for a free printable) that we’ll be using to study the 50 states.
Why “Top 4” you ask? Well, because these are the only sites I actually use. I am not compensated in any way for endorsing these sites. Just had to say that to make myself sound important.
I’m sure many of you have already purchased your curriculum for this school year. If you haven’t, or if you still need to buy a few more items, here are my top four favorite sites for curriculum and books (I inserted the hyperlinks for the sites at the end of each of the site’s description, but they disappeared when publishing my post. Just hover your cursor at the end of each paragraph and you’ll see that you can clink the invisible link there!):
Read moreI have found after 24 years of marriage and almost 20 years of parenting that humor is a survival tool. Not just for my survival, but for the survival of those around me.
Can you relate to mama bear? You know you’re a mom when your food, or even more often, your tea/coffee is cold. I would say it is more common than not to find my mug in the microwave with once reheated, now cold tea.
This month’s printable comes in two versions: one with a white background to save on ink, and another with a purple background. Enjoy! Both are in my free printables resource library.
Greetings! I created this blog with the desire to pass on any knowledge I have learned about living this homeschooling lifestyle. I strongly believe that we benefit greatly by sharing tips, resources and ideas with one another. My hope is that something you find here can help you in your journey.
I’m a former preschool teacher and elementary school teacher. I’m also a mom of eight, who never planned on being a mom of many. God, however, has a way of taking what we have designed for our lives and turning that plan completely around.
My husband and I had three biological kids when we entered the world of adoption. Little did we know at that time how much of that world we would experience. We started the process for our first “Made in China” kiddo in 2005. It would take five years to bring her home. In that time, we had another biological “Made in the USA” child.
We would go on to adopt three more times between 2010 and 2014. When we brought our girls home in 2014, my youngest five kids were aged five years and younger (my three oldest were 14, 12 and 10). It was madness, but somehow we managed to “survive and thrive.”
I began my homeschooling journey when my oldest son was four years old. Homeschooling was definitely a new concept for me at the time. Before I had any kids, my plan was to stay at home with the two kids that I would have (remember how my life plans changed?) until they became school aged. I would then go back to work teaching at the same school they attended.
That plan got thrown out when one of my 5th grade students said to me, “Mrs. Froisland, do you know I spend more time with you than with my dad?” I decided that I did not want anyone to spend more time or exert more influence on my kids than my husband or me.
In some ways, being a classroom teacher made it more difficult to transition to homeschooling. I “retired” from teaching before I had my first child, so I did have a number of years to research out this crazy homeschooling gig before I tried it on my own. What I found, is that you can take a teacher out of a classroom, but it’s difficult to take the classroom out of the teacher.
It took a while for me to find the right balance, and I’m still learning! Every year I tweak curriculum or schedules just a bit as life changes. The only must in homeschooling is that you must be flexible!
The name of the blog is a bit of a play on words. For one, I am a learner of “His” life. As a follower of Christ, I will spend the rest of my life learning to be more like Him. I am also “His” in that I belong to the One who created me and sustains me.
I hope you can benefit from something He has taught me as you join me for this journey!