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Beach- Schooling
We are so blessed to have access to a condo on St. Simons Island, Georgia. My parents had a great opportunity to get in on the building of one of the resort like places from the beginning. My kids have grown up visiting this island year after year. We don’t know how many more trips we will be able to take as they may have to sell sooner than later… but until that day comes, we will take advantage. We usually like to go down in mid- September, just before the public school fall breaks. The weather is beautiful… warm, but not stifling. The beach is not crowded. This year,…
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My IEW Wishlist
This is our first year using the Institute for Excellence in Writing. I have to admit that I have always been skeptical of IEW. Many of the parents I have talked to in my circles who use the program seemed stressed out and overwhelmed. To listen to them tell about their homeschool day, describing the subjects they were teaching and curriculum they were using was stressful to my delight directed ears. I made an assumption that IEW was busy work, time consuming, and stressful. Thankfully, that assumption was dispelled when I was able to hear the founder, Andrew Pudewa, speak at our state conference, NCHE Thrive, last Spring. I really…
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Our High School Plans 2019-2020
Oh my word… time flies when you are homeschooling four kids with two in soccer while working two part time jobs. I cannot believe that I have not blogged in TWO MONTHS!!! I have so much to catch you all up on! First things first. Apparently, I have a ninth grader. NINTH GRADE! I’m pretty sure that is impossible because yesterday someone told me to treasure his preschool years because I would blink and they would be over. Only… it wasn’t yesterday. It was ten years ago. I’m finding a lot of similarities between starting preschool and starting highschool as far as homeschooling goes. I remember when he was four…
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Our Middle School Plans 2019-2020
My brain hurts!!!! Let me just say that I do love the way we have set up homeschooling in our home. I think letting the kids have a huge part in the planning of what they learn is important. But y’all… my brain hurts! Customizing, orchestrating, choreographing four individual school years is tough. There has been some negotiating. There has been some bargain shopping, some swapping of skills, some creative piecing together going into this school year. I am one tired mama. I shared already about our Elementary School Plans… well… I already changed that up a little. So… I cannot promise that what I share in this post is…
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Our Elementary School Plans 2019-2020
I have learned over the course of our homeschooling adventure to be prepared… to plan… but to hold to those plans loosely. I do not know what this coming year holds. I hope that it is not full of surprises. I hope that my kids stay healthy and my husband’s business continues to thrive. I hope that we have another year of healing and steadfastness. In that hope, I’ve planned a few things for my younger girls for this coming school year. I’ll share in future posts about our middle and high school plans. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I have a highschooler. Each…
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Beach- Schooling
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As the Sun Sets on Summer
Do you remember in the days before social media and the internet how you would come back to the school in the fall, ready to share with your friends about all the things you did over the summer? There was no Instagram or Facebook or Snapchat to document all the things you did and ate. You had a break from the rhythm of school to reset and recharge. I remember returning to college each year and being so excited to find my friends and talk about all the things. Email was becoming more common… but cell phones still weren’t the norm… people didn’t text all the time. Ah… those days…
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Different Styles of Homeschooling Explained
Homeschooling is growing in our country. It is a completely valid and effective way to educate our children. It is legal in all the states. If you do not know the law as it pertains to homeschooling in your state, I would highly recommend familiarizing yourself. Homeschooling is beautiful and can bring so much joy in your life. It can also be incredibly overwhelming, especially when you are starting out. There is a pressure we feel as homeschool parents, mostly put on ourselves by ourselves, to not screw this up. We feel that there is no one else to blame and if we do not produce amazing, talented, geniuses, we…
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How To Combat Summer Boredom… Don’t
I have spent the last ten months of my life teaching these children, planning events, toting them around all over town to soccer practice, play rehearsal, the goat farm, youth group, play dates, enrichment classes, field trips, field day, celebrations, park days, and so. much. more. I am on summer break just as much as they are. I have a list of things I cannot wait to accomplish. I have a stack of books to read. I have a book study I want to participate in with other moms. I have paintings I want to paint and t shirts I want to make and blog posts I want to write.…
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Film School 4 Teens- Intro To Filmmaking
Last year when I attended the NCHE Thrive Conference, I shared in one of my talks about my son’s new found love of filmmaking. A good friend had been taking time to teach him the basics of film editing. This friend had also given my son a camera and a tripod to get him started. I shared in the talk about how my son had become so involved in film making that he was “doing school” and didn’t even realize it. He was learning the basics of good story telling, computer skills, editing skills, how to handle a camera, how to handle a cast and crew, and so much more.…
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What I’m Reading- Where the Crawdads Sing
I follow several bloggers on Facebook and Instagram that are homeschool friendly and conservative in their views on life at large. When I see them post about a book, I typically take note. I will head over to the Overdrive app on my iPad and see if the book is available to check out. When I looked up Where the Crawdads Sing, it was unavailable and I put it on hold. I was something like number 700 and there were only 2 copies available. I promptly forgot about the book and moved on. A few months later, I got an email that a book I had put on hold had…
