planning

Planning to Homeschool, Now What?

You have made the big decision in planning to homeschool you are probably wondering what you need to do next. You might be thinking you are in over your head and start to panic. DON’T! You can definitely do this. Start one step at a time and remember that you have chosen to homeschool for a reason and you know what is right for your child.

Planning to Homeschool, Now What?

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Why are you Planning to Homeschool

What is your reason behind homeschooling? You are going to revisit your reason for homeschooling over and over. It will be what gets you through the hard days, and drives you to keep going. Write you reason down and put it somewhere you will see it, in the front of your planner, on your fridge, etc.

Make Sure You Know the Laws

Make sure you know what the laws are in your province (or state/country). Educate yourself on your rights, and what is required from the beginning so you can plan for success through out your year instead of panicking at the end of the year and reporting time.

You want to know that it is legal to homeschool, and that you are doing every right.

Don’t Plan Long Term

Plan for one year at a time, this is going to help you feel less overwhelmed. Year one of homeschooling for us was horrible! I cried, she cried, I wanted to throw in the towel so many times but I kept going back to my why. It is what got use through and the thought of “we just need to get through this year”, towards the middle of every year I have that thought.

Don’t plan high school when you are still working on kindergarten. As you go along your confidence will grow and the future won’t look as scary. After four years, I can say that I feel like I can homeschool my kids through junior high at this point.

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Determine Your Budget before Buying Curriculum

How much do you have to spend on curriculum and supplies? There are so many great resources available for homeschooling, free to expensive.

I know that living in Saskatchewan (in our school division) that I have X amount I can spend and receive reimbursement for. That amount is going to be different from the amount that I will have to work with once we move to a different province without reimbursements.

Be Prepared to Defend Your Choice on Planning to Homeschool

I wish I didn’t feel I had to include this, but the reality of it is you are going to come across people who think they know better than you, who don’t think you can do it, and/or think your children won’t get what they need in life without going to public school.

Be confident in your choice. Create a 30 second elevator pitch to share your why, maybe to let them know your choice is the right one and they shouldn’t criticize. Then you can walk away and go about your day happily.

“I homeschool my children because it is best for us, in this time.” – My reason, and the only answer I give, because it is no one’s business but our family’s.

“I have seen the village and I don’t want it raising my children.” – This was my reasoning when people in Saskatchewan would get pushy.

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Find A Support System

There are so many ways to find a great support system now. You don’t have to necessarily find one right in your community with technology you can find a lot of great groups for homeschoolers on Facebook. We have a few homeschool friends, but otherwise just have great friends that support us in our decision.

Balancing it all as a Homeschool Mom

by Ashley Mullen

We start homeschooling with the best of intentions, educate our children. But how does a homeschool mom make it work? How do you keep the house clean, get meals on the table and homeschool your child? Balancing it all is not easy but you can do it.

Balancing it all as a Homeschool Mom

*This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.*

A Homeschool Mom Needs to Plan

I love my Happy Planner, it isn’t full of pretty stickers, but full of things that I hope to accomplish each day from blogging, to household chores for myself, to appointments or fun that I want to do with my family. I have a Happy Planner big enough that I use it to keep track of all that stuff PLUS our homeschool plans, like what book and what chapter in the book we’ll be reading, etc. I even write down our weekly, repetitive things like “story time” at our local library. It’s all in one spot for me to look at with a quick glance.

Chores

I have to have my family helping out around the house or nothing would ever get done. I am one person, I cannot do everything alone. Hubby works all day so he can’t be here to help as much, though he is great at throwing together a supper when I just don’t feel like cooking.

Each of my kids have chores that they do everyday to help out:

unloading and reloading the dishwasher
taking the dogs out
setting and clearing the table
keeping their rooms tidy
keeping toys out of the living room

Homeschool Mom Needs to Wake Up Early

I get up before everyone else in our house, well, maybe not before our pup, he wakes up with my alarm too. I take this time to make and drink coffee, exercise, and just wake up in general. Hubby often comments on the weekends how cranky I am when I first get up… you know when the kids are getting up, and everyone is talking to me and demanding things. Just let Momma wake up!

Homeschooling

Picking a homeschool curriculum that is open and go, and easy to use. I think this is the best thing that I have done as a homeschool mom. Bookshark is open and go, no long hours of planning and trying to figure out what we’ll be doing each day.

No matter what curriculum you choose to use, make use to plan ahead a little so that you aren’t getting frustrated and searching and trying to figure out what you are going to be doing each morning.

Try to keep your homeschool things together in one space so you aren’t searching all over you home for books, pencils, etc. We have pencils with our craft stuff but also keep pencils with our homeschooling things. Pencils and erasers disappear quickly so having backups helps.

Self Care

It doesn’t matter if your self care is exercising, going out for coffee alone or with friends, or hopping into a bubble bath. You need to remember to take care of yourself. That’s why I am up at least an hour and a half before everyone else here. I use that time for me, to exercise and to drink my coffee in peace.

Getting Organized with A Happy Planner

by Ashley Mullen

I can be the most disorganized person, whether we are in the mist of homeschooling or in the middle of summer vacation. Then in July 2016 I bought my Happy Planner. I love it! It is big enough to keep track of everything I need to. And because I’m more of a paper, write everything out person this is what works best for me right now. If you are more of a digital planner, you should check out the Homeschool Planet scheduler.

I bought my mine at Michael’s with a 50% coupon… thank you! Saving money on something this practical makes me feel better about buying it.

Getting Organized with A Happy Planner

*This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.*

The three blocks, are perfect – BLOG, HOMESCHOOL, OTHER are my categories. A couple months ago I bought a checklist stamp which is perfect for both my blog and homeschool section, it came with some stacking (colorful) stamps too, to make checking things off fun.

Truthfully, I had thought about trying a different planner that I had heard others saying was so great, but when I went to buy one for the coming year, I decided to stick with what I know and love, and that’s my Happy Planner. Or Create 365 as it is also known.

It comes in three different sizes I believe, I could be wrong. Currently I have the medium sized one, but decided to go with the bigger one for next year so I’m not so cramped when planning, mainly for school.

Make It Your Own

If you find that there is something missing from your planner, maybe you want to add a page to the beginning or end of each month to track something, you can. You can pick up the punch to add them easily.

You can get already made, ready to insert extensions to add. Pick and chose what you want.

This is the one I just bought for the coming year, thought I would try the write in your own dates:

How do you keep everything organized? Are you a paper planner kind of person like I am, or a digital planner kinda person?

Homeschooling Budget: Shopping at the Dollar Store

by Ashley Mullen

I am a budget gal. I live by our weekly budget for bills and grocery so homeschooling would be no different. A lot of my homeschooling budget items comes from the dollar store, or from the dollar section at larger stores. Just remember to watch those dollar store prices, sometimes they can be more expensive than else where.

Homeschooling Budget: Shopping at the Dollar Store

*This post may contain affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.*

One thing I have noticed lately as the prices go up at the dollar stores is that it can be just as cheap, an certainly more convent to just buy it all on Amazon at once instead of shopping around at different stores.

Flash Cards

Our Dollarama and Dollar Tree stores often have a good selection of flash cards and playing cards. The best part, about them, besides the price point, is that they often are fun characters that your kids will enjoy. For example, I got Monster High multiplication cards for my Monster High fan.

Workbooks

The dollar store often has graded workbooks available. I have seen large all-in-one styles that have all the subjects in one, and I have seen a lot of them that focus on one subject, such as math or writing.

School Supplies

I buy dry erase markers at the dollar store for my kids to use, mainly because they can sometimes push too hard and ruin them and I don’t want to be spending a good chunk of money on replacing them repeatedly.

Note books. You can buy notebooks to make your own workbook. My girls love to write stories, make fashion books, and more with notebooks from the dollar store.

Index cards and boxes to keep them in. These are great for making your own flashcards.

Loose Parts

Dice.

Popsicle sticks – these make great counters.

Magnifying glasses.

The dollar store is always my first step in looking for school supplies such as the ones I have mentioned. Don’t get me wrong, I love to shop the back to school supplies from large stores for crayons, pencils, and such. But, for a lot of things, and maybe something I need randomly in the middle of the year that I didn’t think about needing: the dollar store it is.

Picking Curriculum for Your Family

by Ashley Mullen

I know some of you planners may have everything figured out already, but there are still some of us who are looking at all the different curriculum options, trying to figure out what is going to work for you and your family. I struggle with picking curriculum myself… especially with two girls who are so completely different.

Picking Curriculum for Your Family

*This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.*

The first place to go when deciding on curriculum is your children. Grab a notebook and pen and follow your kids around. Watch how they go through their day interacting with others, their activities and interests. The best time to get started would be during the summer, before you start ordering curriculum or other materials.

Ask them what they want to learn about. What are the learning outcomes set out by your school board/state?

How do you start with a brand new curriculum? Well, some offer sample pages for you to look at, to try with your child. As well as placement tests for that particular curriculum.

Prep Work

Decide how much prep work you want to do then look at both the curriculum information and review. Reviews both on their website and from homeschooling bloggers. I know that there is a local curriculum that I could use, but the amount of work for the parents is unreal!

I like having everything put together and ready for me. Broken down into actionable amounts, and weeks like BookShark curriculum is (reviews coming soon).

Get a great planner to keep track of what you need to do, when you need to do it. You don’t want to fall behind in your prep work and then your homeschool.

Previous Curriculum

Did you use curriculum last year? How did it go? If you loved it, you’re set. It you hated it, look at the specifics of what you hated and look for curricula that offer solutions to that problem or are laid out differently.

Do this all this again mid-year to make sure that you are on the right path. Change what isn’t working for you and your kids and fix it. There is no reason to continue on a path that isn’t working.

I admit, I was terrified of trying new curricula, of investing that much money into something. Last year, Austin loved math, so I know she is going to love a math curriculum instead of just the math workbooks we have used for the past two years. RightStart Math is going to be a great fit for us. (Boxing opening pictured below.)

Mail call! Who doesn't love getting good mail? #ad Math curriculum from@rightstartmath They are asking to get started right away! #homeschooling #math #happylearning
A post shared by Ashley (@forgetfulmomma) on May 19, 2017 at 12:13pm PDT

During the Build Your Homeschool Bundle I bought some spelling workbooks, which I was excited for, because I am a bad speller and hate teaching it, but my girls have no problem trying to spell new words all the time when writing stories and drawing pictures, and I wanted to encourage them. We’ll still be using our sight word flashcards too.

planning

Planning to Homeschool, Now What?

Planning to Homeschool, Now What?

Why are you Planning to Homeschool