How to print a Pinterest boards!

I used my Pinterest boards a bunch to help me find books for each unit, crafts that didn't look too crazy hard for us to do and even songs and short videos on topics. It truly is a treasure trove of info! I knew of two other moms who have similar philosophies and were using the same curriculum, and I invited them to pin on the boards too. I knew that if I had 300 pins on my board that would be overwhelming! Most of my boards have around 50 pins each. Some are much less and one has 91! It was also a favorite unit of mine to learn about! Having the hard copy in with my files was helpful at the library for finding books, by titles mainly, craft supplies I might need to get, and just as a reminder of something I saw that I thought my kiddos would love. You can print any board! Not just yours! Print mine if you like!





Here are the directions for printing:

 -Open the board you are wanting to print.
 -Wait until all your pins load before choosing to print
  (If you press print and they aren't all loaded, they won't all print- Found that out the hard way!)
 -Right click and select print
 -The print option will pop up and I changed my printer to landscape and then pressed cancel
  (I found that it fit more on a page and didn't cut off some of my pins in landscape mode)
 -Then press print again and scroll down to see that the last pin is on there
- All you have to do is then PRINT! Voila! Pretty easy to do!

First and Last Day of School Pictures

We did it! We completed our first year of homeschooling! It was no easy task at times, but I loved spending time with these 3!

Will we continue to homeschool? YES! I have been researching curriculum and have finally decided on one! I really had something in each curriculum that I didn't care for, but didn't want to piece together a set either. So I went with our best match - Look for another blog post for that! 

P.S. - I got these cute printable signs using Google search and now I have no idea where I found them! I'm glad I printed both first and last day signs at the same time! Note to self!

Creation Unit

Learning about creation from the Bible was fun for my girls. We used a Children's Bible as well as a few other books for this week's theme. I am not a stick to the teacher's manual kinda teacher, so I elaborate and find myself really diving deep when I am passionate about a topic.

This girl loves to cut! We have had an incident in the past were she cut her hair, so scissors are hard to find in our house! I let her cut with supervision now and she will take leftover pieces of paper and make ginormous messes with all her little scraps! After she's done, we do a quick vacuum sweep to clean it up and it's a-ok!

My friend teaches Kindergarten and she went through her things over the summer and gave us some games and fun things she no longer uses in her classroom. We went over the letters and put them in sections like the song. We love puzzles as a family and my girls are usually pretty good at doing them.

This was just a couple of the days were they created a page for what God did on that day.

If it is a nice sunny day outside, why sit inside to work? Even with my public school classes, I loved taking them outside to work or do science outside in nature. We work on a mat, cause boy do I itch sitting in the grass after long! 

 This book was really fun to read. It was so interesting how schools are in other places and the USA school was showing a homeschooling family! I had no idea when I checked the book out! We didn't read the book word for word, but rather I skimmed it and told them highlights of each place and ways the school was different from most others. 

Working without clothes makes it so much more relaxed ya know! 

Here is my Creation Unit Pinterest Board where I pinned activities, books, crafts and more! 

Sickness and homeschooling

Being sick isn't fun, but knowing that your child isn't missing instruction if they were attending a traditional school is one comfort I have found by homeschooling. All three of my girls came down with something - fever, constant sleeping and not eating much for a few days. We just stopped school til they were better and picked up where we left off. It changed my schedule for when Christmas break started, but I didn't stress about it. I started in July to give myself some wiggle room and extra days of doing nothing if we wanted. We still finished school by my deadline of May 20th.

 In the public school system that I worked at if you had fever you weren't allowed to return to school until you were fever free for 24 hours. Sometimes I would have students gone for days and then trying to catch them up was hard. If they were a higher leveled student it wouldn't take much to teach them a concept review and they were good to go. My lower students had a harder time "catching up" on assignments. If they were slower paced workers and now they are not only 3 days behind and missing vital instruction, they aren't allowed to bring the work home with them necessarily to do if it's for a grade. 

We do a women's Bible study once a week and we have park playdates here and there, but really my children are less sick than before I stayed home. Being at a in home daycare and with multiple other kids they tended to be sick more often. Runny noses that were constant and coughs that seemed to never go away are a thing of the past. Thankfully when we stayed home more, we got less germs! Go figure! Without fail it seems that my girls pick up germs visiting the Dr office for check ups!

Question for you - Besides being sick, how has homeschooling helped or forced you to be more flexible?

Kids Workspace

My girls love to work at their desks, and the littlest sister likes to sit on the desk and be in the middle of everything! I found one desk at a garage sale here in town that they hold twice a year and the other at a consignment shop nearby. I paid $15 for one and $50 for the other. They are Step2 desks and are very sturdy. I love the organization they have and that the chair is the right height for them and has a back. For handwriting I prefer them sit in the desk, but we don't do all our work in it. I like to sit outside and do work, or laying on the floor. Even as a public school teacher I said as long as they are learned and doing their best, I don't care where they do their work! If "Johnny" needs to stand and do work with he hops on one foot, and he gets it down and it neat and correct, I am fine with that. Some kids need to move around and not just sit all day and be quiet! I think that with doing school with distractions like little sister and such, they learn focus and that even though there might be distractions around, you can still get work done. Many a student that was in my class had a hard time with that. It's hard as a teacher to keep everyone from talking or to not bother others when working. So sometimes you had to group them to decrease that distracting factor and to separate the easily distracted from the kids who could talk, work and get it done correctly! 

Sometimes we work at the kitchen table and sometimes even at the bar. We like doing the Cuisinart rods on the bar so baby sister can't reach them and mess up our work before we finish! Most of the time they sit side by side, by having the desks face each other can keep littler sister from looking at big sisters answers on some projects. I am blessed that get along so good together and put up with baby sisters antics. She loves to steal supplies and work too! 

Rewards for School

Fairy Pebbles - I made this up. I remember doing marbles in a jar for my public school classroom and wanted something similar, but girly. So I called it fairy pebbles instead. They earn pebbles for the group for different reasons - completing assignments without complaint, helping others, being considerate, asking for help (vs. doing it wrong just to finish). After the jar is empty and they have all been earned, then we will do something special- like go play at a park, or get an ice cream.
    I want them to be rewarded for good behavior, but know too that, you aren't rewarded every single time you do something. You also aren't rewarded if you only do it to be rewarded, that's doing something to get personal gain or recognition. If that makes sense. You don't do something and then be expected to get something for it. I explain it as, you can do something nice for someone else with not having to "get" something for doing it. Even if the person doesn't say thank you, you do it because it makes you feel good inside and that you helped others and God sees everything you do. The Bible says - store up treasures in Heaven. Matthew 6:19-22 Sometimes I'll reward you for something and sometimes I won't. I'll change it up to keep them on their toes and so they won't expect to be given something each time they are nice.

Stickers for Calendar Time - I have a stash of cute stickers that aren't too big. After they complete calendar time pages to the best of their abilities they earn a sticker. This is a big motivator for my Pre-K daughter to engage with us during this time and participate. She loves the stickers I have. What's funny is she chooses the teenie tiniest ones of all of them.

Earn ABC Mouse Time - My girls love to play the computer, but I want them to be learning too. So I set the timer for 20-30 minutes and they each have a place to play and earn tickets. After their time is up, I let them play for 10 more minutes on Disney Junior or Nick Jr if they have earned tickets while they were on ABC Mouse. It is possible to just shop and feed hamsters on this site, which a certain red head loves to do! I had to turn off the shopping feature and require her to have a password, so she would save up tickets instead of spending them everytime she earned them.

These aren't the only rewards that they earn, but these are the main ones. My girls love doing school and these are more perks than they are bribes to get them to work. I taught public school for 9 years and I know that there were many a student in my classes who honestly wouldn't work unless you gave them something for doing it. I don't want my kids to be that way. So I think a balance of both is good and helps them understand that you have to be self motivated at times too. 

I'd love to hear about some of your rewards that you do for your children or students! 

Setting up a learning space at home

My husband is fine with us homeschooling, but he didn't want our house to look like a school. We have a playroom, but with two little sisters who aren't technically in school yet, I wanted to keep that space a play area.

     So the other option was our formal dining room which what we call the piano room. We added a nice bookshelf, I found 2 desks at resale shop and rummage sale and we work with that. My girls love having their own desks and space. I love that it doesn't take up too much room.

      I wanted a calendar area, but didn't want to put something on the wall that couldn't be covered or would be out all the time with little sister, who enjoys taking stuff apart... So I created a trifold-project board into a calendar area. I had a calendar bulletin board kit from my teaching days that I had planned to use in my classroom and saved it and put it to good use!

 Click here on how to make it!
I found at Lakeshore Learning Store these colorful totes and tubs and then borrowed a Cricut machine from my friend to add the names and decals. Being that it's our first year, we have a pretty simple setup. I use each magazine box as a holding place for one unit. So I have 8 units planned at a time. I include the work pages, books that I own on that topic, any other crafts or things I included for that week. I love that it looks nice, but super functional and easy to keep up with! My husband has never complained about our school area, and I think that having it's separate space from the playroom let's my kids have time away from the "Schoolroom" to play during the day and they aren't tempted to take out school stuff when it isn't school time.