It seems that we have had so many things going on and I feel like we haven’t hardly even touched our curriculum! I feel like we are not going to get through all of what I wanted to do this year. I suppose it doesn’t help that this is our first full year of homeschooling, I am still learning the ropes. Also, I suppose it doesn’t help that I changed curriculum in November and we have been trying to catch up ever since! I have come to the conclusion that we are going to school through the summer and I am sure our kids will not like that.
On top of being our first year of homeschooling and changing curriculum, we have taken off school when my husband is off of work. We have family days. I really enjoy that! I am seeing the benefit to homeschooling (besides having control over what they are learning) but being able to take off any time. We have had friends come down from the north and escape the cold, we didn’t school on those days. We have had 4 field trips already since January (I think we did about 5 field trips in the fall semester)! Yes, those count as school days but those are days where we don’t touch our curriculum.
Then you have days like today where one kids is sick and all she wants to do is watch TV. So, I decided that if the TV is going to be on, we are going to make it educational, so bring on Magic School Bus! I decided to Google Magic School Bus and see if there were any study guides that went a long the show. You know what I found? There is a bunch both free and for sale! I was excited!
Girls schooling in living room
Copyright by Holly Hedman
I found the website StarMaterials.com and printed of a study guide for the girls to fill out while watching the show. It was perfect! Seemed like every show we watched Star Materials had a study guide to go with it!
Here are a couple more DVD’s I bought called The American Heritage 10 disk collection and The American Heritage 7 disk collection. I am really excited about these DVDs! Our oldest daughter and I recently went to a Constitution seminar and I was floored by what I don’t remember. When I saw these videos, I figured they will be good for learning and for when we don’t want to do a full day of school! Learning a different way! 🙂
My new theory about when kids get sick, we can watch educational TV! I am not too sure how my kids like this new theory, but it is one I am going to stick with it! Poor kids, even when they are sick I make them “do” school! I love how they think!
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Thanks for taking time to reading. Please feel free to share my blog with your friends and family! Also, I would love to learn from you and how you homeschool. Please leave a comment below.
healthy homeschool family 
Here is another DVD series that our kids love to watch, Liberty Kids. You can find the whole season on Amazon… http://amzn.to/1jwlUSh
I’ve developed a real curiosity about other Mother’s homeschool curriculum. I’m 99% sure I will homeschool. For now my oldest is 4 so the curriculum I’m implementing is the building blocks and I have some time before I make the final call. Are you creating your own curriculum or are you following the local schools curriculum? I have read several blogs of women who claim to get through all of the local schools curriculum as well as extras with lots of off days. It makes me wonder is this is possible or are they “creating a portfolio” for the local evaluator? Although I can see how having one on one time and a lot less going between classes etc would speed things up a bit. Also, what hours do you school? Sorry to ask so many question, but since it’s your first year I feel like this is the right moment to ask. Mother’s who have been at this for years, may not remember all the things they learned in those first few month. Thank you!
Well, I started off with an all in one curriculum but it just didn’t fit our kids (or me as a matter of fact). Not all curriculum is right for everyone! But half way through fall semester I sold that curriculum and started finding curricula that I liked and my kids were challenged. Which was the whole reason why we started homeschooling in the first place. You can read in one of my earlier articles about how we got started. There are a lot of used curriculum Facebook pages and maybe in your area used book sales. I have pretty much bought used except a few things. Finding will fit your kids’ learning style is key. It was suggested to me to read this book when we started, The Well Trained Mind (you can find it on Amazon http://amzn.to/Ny8lsI). This might be a good place for you to start. Oh, each state had different standards as far as evaluations… you need to look in to your state’s laws for that! I hope I helped!