School Choice and Homeschooling: It’s Complicated

School choice is something we’ve been hearing about for quite a while, but it’s only recently that homeschooling has been brought into the mix.

Here are my thoughts on the matter.

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Historical Fiction Books with a Dash of Science!

As a relaxed homeschool mom of many, finding ways to pack as much learning into shorter lessons has become my “specialty.” When you have as many kids as I do, spending 6 hours a day doing homeschooling lessons just isn’t possible, or even desirable if I’m going to be honest!

This Is How You Know Your Brainwashing Is Complete

Is it really August already? In just a few weeks time, children and parents all over the country will be gearing up for back-to-school time.

Unfortunately, the new school year will be starting on the heels of some very troubling events – two mass shootings, to be precise. Considering that schools have been targets of these heinous crimes in the past, it’s only natural that parents are concerned with how to protect their children, hence the topic of this post.

I’m actually going to be re-visiting a topic I covered last year – bulletproof backpacks.

(For commentary and a bit of ranting on an article covering this subject, watch the video. Ranting is my specialty. 😉)

5 Homeschool Planning Hacks to Save Your Sanity!

Ah, homeschool planning. You either love it, or you hate, am I right?

Me? I’ve always loved it – perhaps a little too much. I enjoyed doing it so much that I would often go overboard. I’d plan too far ahead. I’d get too specific, and I would get too ambitious about what days we’d be doing what activity…even six months down the road!

Lord, I don’t miss those days. Since then I’ve learned that when it comes to homeschool planning, it needs to follow in the footsteps of my homeschool philosophy: keeping things simple.

Here are the five most important things I’ve learned about planning a homeschool schedule. I hope it helps some of you!

8 Things Every Homeschooler Hears at Least Once

Ah, homeschool myths. Are there any home educating families who are immune to their consequences? I’m going to say no.

As we start our 11th year of homeschooling tomorrow (yikes!), I thought I would commemorate this occasion by dedicating a post to some questions I think every single homeschooled child has heard at some point in their lives.

While the topics of these questions run the gamut from academics to extracurricular activities, they all have one thing in common: they’ve been perpetuated by some insanely false notions about what education and real life actually look like.

Here is my attempt to  briefly explain why these inquiries are completely off the mark, and why people need to stop asking them.

Our Beginning-of-the-Year Homeschool Plan for Elementary and Middle School

I can’t believe it. Our new homeschool year begins next week already. Wow, this past six weeks went quickly!

As I was gathering books at the library for our first unit study the other day, I realized that some of you might like to see how I’m planning for our homeschool days to unfold, especially in regard to our unit study. I’m fairly certain that, even though I address unit studies quite often, they can be a bit of a mystery to those who are unfamiliar with them.

As you might be aware, for years I’ve been breaking my children into groups for their learning, simply because I have so many of them. 😉 (This year I’m homeschooling 8 again.)

However, now that my second youngest is ready to move up to the middles group, I’ve got a bit of a dilemma – that leaves my youngest alone in the littles group. She’s not too happy about that.

Gardening Books for Kids!

Can you believe that it’s July already? Yowzers, that went fast! Here in Pennsylvania, it’s been hot, hot, hot, and today was no exception.

If you’re a homeschooling family who takes a summer break, don’t miss out on the opportunity for a fantastic summertime nature study idea – gardening! Today I decided to share with you some books that will both inspire you and give you tons of ideas to get started.

10 Things I Don’t Miss About Public School

If you live in the northern hemisphere, chances are that summer break is here! As always, I’m seeing so many different reactions from parents about this time of year. Some are relieved and happy to have their kids home for a couple months. Some are feeling overwhelmed and are scrambling to figure out how to keep their kids occupied for the next 12 weeks. And still others are, unfortunately, trying to overcome the obstacles that have been thrown before them (NY and CA, I’m looking at you) and are trying to figure out what will become of their children’s education once summer is over.

Another Attack on Homeschooling

I’ll tell you what, guys. The past several months have been quite disturbing, to say the least. People have been coming out of the woodwork to attack homeschooling…and they’ve been coming from every angle:

Bring Ancient History to Life with Beautiful Feet Books

When I was growing up, I hated history. I hated everything about it: the boring textbooks, the required memorization of dates and other (what I thought was) useless trivia, the multiple choice tests that were easy to ace but served no purpose when it came to retention, and the boring documentaries accompanied by worksheets designed to make sure we were paying attention.

Yup. It was awful.