The Homeschool Mother's Journal(week 1): Ideas for Organizing your Homeschool Part 1

       

Hopefully helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share… 

As our family grew and more children entered homeschool it was both exciting and scary. As we have gone along we instituted more family friendly homeschooling methods. It is my hope that these are a blessing to you:

1. Purchase curriculum that allow children to work independently. For instance we use Christian Light Math  which is a self teaching program. The children complete their work and check it themselves and continue advancing forward. I review their work and grade their tests thus keeping abreast of  progress. When there is a problem we return to the page with the original explanation. If they still don't get then Mama/Tutor sits with them to explain. We have experienced wonderful success with this method in our independent studies. 
2. For those of us that tend toward the Charlotte Mason, Classical or literature based eclectic you may want to purchase curriculum that allow you to teach appropriate subjects to multiple children simultaneously. Programs such as the following: Mystery of History, My Father's World, Tapestry of Grace, Apologia Science, AIG Science etc... This could help keep you sane.
3. Buy any CD's that allow you print as many copies for your family. At first I thought this was a waste of money but now I gladly use my printer ink to avoid trips to the copy store or trying to bend a book to fit onto our printers copier. 
4. . I always feel like I am in a time crunch so I look for things that help me teach well but cut corners. Buy any CD's where the curriculum is read aloud. We use Mystery of History and I have purchased the CD's so we listen to them as we cruise around town. We are able to stay on schedule because we rarely  miss hearing or reading a chapter, because of the CD's. Additionally, I am more prepared to teach our history lessons because I am already familiar with the information, having already listened to it. 
5. Print out all of the papers on your handy dandy copier or buy your pre-printed worksheets if you can you will need for the entire year. Buy worksheets  and/or make copies of anything you need prior to the start of the year.Yes you read that correctly print it all out or copy it and then file it according to weeks or group it together in one file. For example you could make folders for each week 1,2,3... or by groups of weeks such as 1-3, 4-6 etc.or you could have all maps in a file, all science etc... I like to have my files by groups of weeks so I can keep them at the desk with me.When I did not do this I would invariably run out of ink at the most inconvenient times and wouldn't be able to print the needed documents. If you do not have enough funds to print everything at once then print your first semester/quarter/trimester etc... and print the next one at the half way mark.

What suggestion do you have that have helped your family's homeschool....

 In our homeschool this week…

Week 1 Re-cap

We started school on Thursday with a simple introduction to our curriculum for the kiddos. I had individual meetings with all the children to discuss the upcoming year. So they had fun looking at their books, supplies and cubbies. Then on Friday we headed to our Back to School Co-op Party, we ate lunch, played with friends and each child completed an 'All About Me' book.

My kiddos favorite thing this week was… 
Our favoirte thing this week is a toss up between the Co-op's Back to school party and watching our friends kids for a half day. A friend of mine and I swap out 1/2 day of babysitting each month. Our families are close and our kiddos have a great time together.

What I'm cooking...
I'm cooking Lime Chicken Tacos  from Gwen's Nest and eating Trim Healthy Mama Style! 

Things I'm working on...
We are getting our home ready to go on the market so I am weeding and mulching garden beds this week. I am also fixing any glitches on assignment sheets and making missing ones for homeschool. 

What I'm Reading ...
Isaac Newton by Allan Corduner...I became interested in Issac newton after reviewing one of my children's basic biography book. I found this book at the library and yes, it is an audio book. There may be better books on the subject regardless I've really enjoyed learning more about Newton. Plus since it's an audio book I don't have to stop washing the dishes to learn more about one of the worlds most incredible scientists. 

This week we are also linked to: 

 & So You Call Yourself a Homeschooler