The last two weeks we have focused on homeschooling goals and touched on planning your schedule. Now it's time to fill in the details to make this a workable transition and transformation for your family. Keep in mind: life happens. While we work with the details, keep your own family's day-in and day-out rhythms at the front or your thoughts. Do you have a husband who works strange hours? Do you have children with delayed developmental issues? Do you struggle yourself because you have many, many little ones all needing different things on different levels? How this plan works out, needs to work first with you and ...Read More
back to homeschool
Homeschooling Back to Homeschool: 5 Tips for Keeping up with House Work
With school back in full swing, you may find it difficult (like I do) to teach and keep up with housework at the same time. This is a common problem in any household, whether homeschooling or not. There just never seems to be enough time in the day. Homeschooling just adds a different set of challenges. First, get up early. I know, no one wants to hear that, but it’s amazing how much you can get done when you’re alone with no children or spouse to distract you. After about a month, you’ll be used to it and actually look forward to that productive time alone. And let’s not forget the benefits of the peace and quiet ...Read More
Back to Homeschool: Organize School Records & Ditch the Paper
It's October, and we're now fully into the groove of school. We've talked about organizing our school supplies already, so now I want to talk about how to organize school records and planning sheets. The paperwork it takes to keep my homeschool organized is absolutely ridiculous. Is anyone else fed up with all of the papers? Lists of books your kids have read. Daily, weekly, and yearly planning pages. The list goes on and on. Let's go paperless! (can I hear an amen?) But, how can I do that, you wonder? Ah, I have found a solution. You don't have to keep numerous excel spreadsheets that you update weekly. No, I'm ...Read More
Back to Homeschool: 7 Tips for Keeping Your Toddlers Entertained
The beauty of homeschooling is that you can have all of your kids together at once. The problem is that if you have a toddler (or two as is my case) running around, they can be a big distraction from school (although a mighty fun and cute distraction). There are a few things you can do to keep those noisy little balls of energy from stopping the learning process of the older children though. First, involve them in everything you can. If you’re reading a story, read to them too. If you’re having “art time,” let them participate. Age appropriate variations of “big kid” learning will not only give your toddler ...Read More
Back to Homeschool: 6 Tips for Organizing Your School Supplies
Can you believe the school year is upon us? Just like teachers in any classroom, you probably have a ton of supplies that need to be organized. However, unlike teachers in many classrooms, you may house supplies like scientific calculators in the same spot as crayons and safety scissors. Oh yes, this mama has one in Algebra 2, one that's just learning 2 crawl, and a few in between. So how do you keep it all together and organized? 6 Strategies for Organized School Supplies Disorganization gives me a little bit of anxiety. When I walk in a room with things scattered about and the crayons mixed up with the ...Read More
Back to Homeschool: 5 Tips for Helping Your Kids Stay Focused
School is back in session at the Gilkerson house. Yes, and with it comes distracted kids who would rather be playing than doing school work. It’s hard for many kids to focus in any sort of educational setting, whether it be public school, homeschool, or even college. Let’s be honest. Some subjects just aren’t that interesting! There are a few tricks and tips that may help, though. 1. Make sure they get a good night’s sleep the night before. Especially when homeschooling, you may have a tougher time with this one. It’s easy for the child (and sometimes the parent) to rationalize staying up late because there is no ...Read More
