10 Reasons Why I'm Not Going to the Homeschool Conventions

This year I have chosen to abstain from attending any homeschool conventions.  I have several reasons, but let's see if I can come up with 10. ;)

1.  Last year I didn't see anything that I didn't already know about.

2.  I'd rather sit in the living room of another homeschool mom to flip through curriculum that I'd like to see before I buy.

3.  I don't want to be sold on any particular curriculum by someone who is working for that company.

4.  I have never gotten the best price on curriculum that I'm actually LOOKING for at a convention.  I have always gotten a better price buying from Amazon or buying used from another homeschool mom.

5.  I am usually led astray by good deals on items I never intended on buying in the first place.

6.  I don't find it wise to live in constant temptation.  The glossy exciting catalogs that you bring HOME are a reference, but also a great temptation and distraction.

7.  Buying everything I think I need for the entire school year before it starts usually leaves me with several items that I thought I needed unused. 

8. These unused items cause guilt because I bought them new and paid the price, so they end up on the (I might use it someday) SHELF. 

9. Buying items as I NEED them throughout the school year, or when (the items I NEED) they are deeply discounted reduces my expenses and guilt.

10. Last but not least, it is hot and crowded in those convention halls and I leave with a headache.  

Bonus: I have to pay to get into these conventions that leave me with a headache! ;)

How do you feel about conventions? What are some of your favorite items you've picked up from a convention? Are you going to any conventions this year, why or why not?

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Our Busy Bags

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life of Fred; Apples, Chapter 4

 

 

 

"When Fred started jogging, there was only a couple of inches of snow on the ground."

 



We made snow pictures so that we could measure how deep our snow was.

 





 

We painted our pictures in pointillism fashion with Q-tips and white paint.

 

First we outlined,

 

Then we filled it in.

 

After we were finished with our pictures we measured the low point and high point of our snow.

 

We wrote our low and high point in white colored pencil.

 

Mama Bear is working hard.

 

Big Man's finished snow picture.

 

We practiced counting by 5's in Fred fashion.  Click this link to download and print our work pages that we used for this lesson.

 

Little Guy drawing 5 seeds on each apple.

 

"And the temperature was falling..."

I found these FREE printable thermometers on TPT and printed them out on card stock.

 

I wrote temperatures on the white board and my kiddos set their practice thermometers to those temperatures.  You can make it a game by having your kiddos race.

 

I also found this matching game on TPT for FREE of course.  I gave each child two thermometers and two cards that didn't match their thermometers and had them play go fish style.

 



I made this worksheet on Math-Aids.com

 



 

To gain a better understanding of negative numbers we drew a tree with roots.  Ground level being zero, above ground being positive numbers, and below ground being negative numbers.

 

Mama Bear's negative number tree.

 

Big Man's negative number tree.

We used rulers to make our number lines and separated each number by an inch.

 

This is the counting by 10's work page that we used to reinforce the skill.

 

Good job Little Mama!

 

"Ten are on the top, and ten on the bottom. 10+10=20."

 

I drew and cut out the mouths for them.  They colored them in.

 

And glued on the teeth.

 

"Baby teeth are called deciduous teeth."

 

Little Guy still has all of his deciduous teeth.

 

Very nice job Mama Bear!

 

 

How much is a mile?  Fred usually runs 10 miles but today only ran 2 miles.  I created a cute work page about miles and feet.

 

 

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Top 10 Lessons I've Learned While Homeschooling

At this point we are 4 years down our homeschooling path and although we are still not a veteran homeschooling family, I as a homeschooling momma have recently experienced the ahhhhhhh haaaaaa moment that many veteran homeschooling mamma's will identify with.  It's a pivotal moment, a turning point, in your homeschooling journey.  It reminds me of when I first felt like an adult.  I was about 25 and I was washing the dishes at my kitchen sink, looking out the window and listening to my kiddies play happily in the background,  and I finally felt like this was my life and I wasn't just playing house.  I was an adult!  In this same way, I came into my homeschooling maturity.  This is not an experiment or a test run, I am officially a lifer ready to earn my stripes and badges.  Before this awakening, it had never crossed my mind to quit homeschooling, but I held it loosely and without confidence. 

If you are like me, you have heard this wise advice from an owl among homeschooling mothers before and time and time again. 

Even after hearing it, and it making sense to your ears, you return to your busy work of educating your family and organizing, and planning, and worrying, and stressing.  Then you go to your computer for encouragement and inspiration.  You browse blogs, curriculum sites, and pinterest and think one of two things.

1. What is wrong with me?  What is wrong with my children?  Why are we not accomplishing all this, and how come are art projects look more like finger painting from a toddler instead of the master pieces I just saw?  Or, my personal favorite; we have work to do before we can be in public with other homeschoolers because I don't mill my own flour or own any chickens, and my kiddos can't recite all the president's in order.  Maybe, just maybe we aren't cut out for this homeschooling thing and the children would get a better "education" at public school.

 

2. Or, if you are more like my alter ego, you are thinking, wow that looks like fun!  We will do all that before lunch tomorrow and then get to our core curriculum and it will be sooooooo much fun!  Then at five o'clock you will be rushing around to make an amazing dinner with multiple courses that you found on pinterest yesterday.  After your kids are in bed, you will be the most exhausted super hero that ever lived and see the need to start one of those fancy blogs that showcases everything you and your children have exhausted yourselves accomplishing.  You will expect your children to appreciate the education you are providing, and they will want a nap for the first time in their lives.

If you have experienced this and you are reading my homeschooling blog right now, it's safe to assume we have both learned something about ourselves and have taught our children as well.  We are not quitters!

This past year I spent $2,000 roughly on homeschool curriculum for 4 children.  Now, about half of that money was spent on curriculum that would last us more than one year and was non consumable, or a software program.  I researched, and planned, and I only bought a little at a time over a year.  I ended up with a beautiful, well thought out, dream curriculum.
 We began the school year excited and ready to get started, but in the middle of a move.  Our dream curriculum had to be put on the back burner for a more manageable schedule of lapbooking, reading, and unit studies.  When we finally were settled in our new home we dove into our core curriculum.  Wow, it was a blend of AWESOME and INTENSE!  There isn't a subject that we don't love and wouldn't wish to continue with the curriculum we have.  So, what was the problem you ask?  The problem was it was too AWESOME for a simple family with a real life that included doctors appointments, church, co-op, sickness, chores, and last but not least the need to eat and sleep.  This extraordinary curriculum was taking over our ordinary family and running our life.  We became slaves to the curriculum.  Of course, it was partly because of the investment, but mostly because it was a perfect fit for all my children and we really enjoyed it. 

We had completely forgotten all the reason's we had chosen this less traveled road to begin with. 

 I don't know about you, but I didn't decide to homeschool my children to skip field trips so we wouldn't get behind in our curriculum, or drudge through a science project with toilet paper sticking out of our noses.  It is a sad sorry day when you are doing school work on your husbands day off! Even if that day is a Monday. 

Here are our reasons for homeschooling:

1. To truly live a Christ centered life

2. To savor every moment of our family all being in the same home

3. To let our children learn from successes and failures in a safe and loving environment

4. To create a lifestyle of discovery and wonder

5. To take the God given right and responsibility of teaching my children

6. To develop a tighter bond with each of my children and them with each other

7. And, of course to "shelter" them from worldly values

None of those reasons support the rigid schedule of a well planned, thoughtfully executed, year long core curriculum.  Follow me back to when I spoke of the owl among homeschooling mothers.  I had been told before to let the curriculum work for you, and not to become a servant to your curriculum.  I totally agreed and understood, when I heard this multiple times, but why couldn't I live it?  That brings me to my first lessons in homeschooling maturity.

1. Some lessons you can only learn through life experiences.

1. There are levels of acceptance and the first is hearing and agreeing, next there is living  and learning, then you relate in your heart, last your moved to change.  It took me going through it and experiencing all the levels of acceptance before I was moved to change.

2. This was a two part lesson for me because after dissecting my own transformation I realized that my children might also need to learn some lessons through life experiences.  There are many lessons I want my children to learn that can't happen on paper.

2. Don't spend $2,000 on curriculum EVER!

1. If you do, that will be the year that none of your well thought out plans will work and you will have to scrap most of it and start from scratch.  At that point you will find that there are so many less expensive ways to provide an excellent and superior education.

3. Don't be a slave to your curriculum.  Don't allow directions and a timeline in a curriculum dictate to you what your families schedule or educational goals should be.  Always remember to own your place and responsibility as the teacher.

4. You have to be structurally flexible.

1. I know that sounds like a contradiction and to some degree it is.  Think of it like this; Make an outline not a final draft and write in pencil.

5. Homeschooling can and should be easy, and if it's not, you are doing it wrong.

1. If you are struggling it get through your homeschool day and your children are in tears, it's time to evaluate and make some changes.

2. If your homeschool lifestyle isn't fluid with you family lifestyle that is another indication that burnout in knocking on your door or already living in your house.

6. The Internet can be your best homeschooling friend and your worst enemy. 

1. There are so many amazing FREE resources on the Internet that you can't overlook it's usefulness.  Not only that, but if you are alone in your journey there is such a huge homeschooling presence on the web that can really help you stay strong in the beginning when people (maybe even you) are questioning your decision.

2. It can be completely overwhelming!  There are so many choices and different theories on what and how to teach.  Not to mention all those amazing homeschool super heroes with their chickens and fifteen children that take college level classes in 6th grade.

7. Don't compare your behind the scenes worst to others success stories on the news stand.

1. Not very many of us are brave (or crazy), I mean humble enough to announce our failures and disappointments on center stage to fellow homeschoolers.

2. It's a dirty secret, but the homeschooling arena can be pretty competitive. It's easy to get sucked into that, but just focus on your own families needs and pay no mind to those distractions.

8. You will NEVER, EVER and I mean EVER use a "school" room to teach your children in the things they should know and ways they should go.

1. Real lessons are learned at the dinning room table, on the couch, or maybe even the trampoline, but NEVER the "school" room.

9. Your home was never meant to morph into a public school system.  Lessons should seamlessly blend into your natural family rhythm.  You will quickly plunge into burn out, if your "school" course work or schedule resembles that of a public school system.

10. Last but not least, PAY IT FORWARD!

1. Always remember the feeling of a warm cup of coffee with the veteran homeschool mom who showed you the ropes.  Offer your knowledge, experience, and time to homeschool mommas in need.

2. If you've ever used a resource that was free to you think about that blessing and be a blessing to someone else.

In my four year homeschooling journey this is what I have learned.  I genuinely hope that this blog can and will be a service to fellow homeschooling mommas and special mention to those that are just beginning.

What lessons have you learned and would like to pass along to me and other homeschooling mommas?

How Do You Keep A Preschooler Busy?

I have found it increasingly hard to keep my preschooler entertained.  Interruption after interruption for a snack or a drink leaves me frazzled and distracted.  It proves to add at least an hour to our school day.  We are working our way through trial and error to come up with a solution that will keep Little Guy smiling and me teaching. 
In my search I have found very few attempts promising, but I will share what has "worked" for my Little Guy so far.

Little Guy does the dishes:

In this experiment I filled the sink half full with water and a few extra bubbles to make it fun.  Then I picked out some of our kid's plastic dishes which included a mixture of plates, bowls, and cups for Little Guy to wash.  What made it fun for him was the realness of it.  He was really washing the dishes!  Now, I am sure if I allowed him to wash the dishes every day it would loose it's appeal, but this experiment definitely was added to my bag of tricks!

Little Guy does a Lego Quest: (Vessel)

Giving him a Lego Quest assignment also proved to be entertaining and kept Little Guy busy for about 45 minutes!  It doesn't sound like much time, but when you are being interrupted every 5-10 minutes, 45 minutes of focused time is something to get excited about!  If you are unsure what a Lego Quest is all about click the link above and you can follow our Lego Quest journey.

So far these two activities have had the best results, but I am still at work experimenting what will hold Little Guys attention the longest.  I would love to hear your ideas and comments below.

Thanks for visiting Noah's Ark Homeschool Academy!

I had some suggestions for busy bags, so I thought I'd give it a try.  I haven't been to the store to get all the supplies that I need to create the busy bags I have in my head, but those are coming in the future.  Here are some picks of what we put together to get started with busy bags.

 

For this busy bag I used a piece of card stock and I drew a parking lot on one side.

 

I put 3 hot wheels cars in the bag.

 

Little Guy really likes this bag :)

 

The cars are having a wreck of  course!

 

 

On the other side of the card stock I drew a race track.

 

In this bag I kept it simple with a variety of sticker sheets, crayons, and pieces of copy paper cut in fourths.

 

I had these on hand an put them in a bag, but if you wanted to recreate them you could do it with star stickers instead of dots and any other type of sticker to replace the ladybugs.  You could write the numbers or you could use number stickers.

 

I also had this cute Monster Match game of hand from one of the kids magazines, but if you are crafty you could make some just like it.

 

At the risk of sounding cheap and repetitive.....I had these on hand too!  Somehow putting all these items we already had in a "busy bag" made them new and exciting.

 

The idea for this bag is making coin rubbing designs.  Coins, crayons, and paper is all you need.

 

I had some sea creatures, but nothing to go with them.  I used card stock to make a play mat, boat, fishing pole, and some clouds.

 

And here it is all put away in the bag.

If you're like me and can't run out to the store every time you get an idea, I hope this will inspire you to dig up what you already have around the house and make it new.