The Schoolhouse Planner

One of my favorite products to use in my homeschool this year is The Schoolhouse Planner. I purchased it this past July and I have been very pleased with that purchase. It has helped me in so many different ways as I have organized my homeschool. It is full of so many forms and planning sheets, that I am trying to think of ways to use them all!

The planner runs $39 and is a great value for everything that is included. There are even sheets to help organize your household! There are articles by several of the great homeschooling authors that are informative and inspiring. There are even recipes included for dinner ideas each month. Yumm!

If you want a sneak peek at this planner, then you can visit The Old Schoolhouse store. BUT if you want a chance to win one of these planners for free, (actually 3 chances) then you will want to visit this post over at Homeschooling From the Trenches. The contest ends on September 12, 2008, so hurry and enter! You will love, love, love this e-book and I want you to have a chance to win a free copy. Just follow the directions in the blog post and you could very well be the proud new owner of a free copy of The Schoolhouse Planner.

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It shouldn’t be a surprise that many homeschooling families are feeling the crunch of the rising gas price. At this point, the future of the American economy is not looking bright.

Brenda, the financial editor here on our network, has put together a very informative post entitled ‘High Gas Prices Affecting Families’. It is definitely must read material. To begin, Brenda tells us…

“As gas prices climb to record highs ($3.51/gallon national average) every family is affected financially. Even those who don’t commute to their jobs find themselves paying higher and higher prices for groceries trucked across the country and for airline tickets.

According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey, gasoline prices top concerns over jobs and health troubles. Families are more concerned about the rising cost of gas than about paying their mortgage or health care bills.”

Sadly, this is true. These ungodly prices seem almost life changing. Most of us are in the same boat right now, just trying to keep our heads above water. If we don’t see a decline in prices… who knows what will happen.

In the meantime, there are things you can do to make your homeschooling day more affordable. Consider virtual field trips and the many online resources available to you, in regard to no-cost worksheets, school supplies, etc.

If you hang out with other families who homeschool, talk to them about swapping supplies that are no longer needed. You might be surprised by what they have to offer.

How are you dealing with soaring prices? What have you had to eliminate from your day and have you found an adequate replacement? Now, more than ever, we need to share ideas. Let’s not let the rising cost of gas rain on our homeschooling parade!

Comments? Questions? Please email me, TODAY!

(This is a guest post. Thanks go out to Brenda Emmett.)

One of the most difficult things to do when you are homeschooling is to keep everything new and exciting. We love the time we spend educating our children and helping them to learn, but sometimes it is just plain hard to make it not seem dull. Things become routine and boring, no matter how great the material that we are learning happens to be. So how do you create excitement and fun in your homeschool? Here are a few ideas that have worked well in our family:

Jammie Day
One of our favorite things is when I have declared it jammie day. This is a day when we get to stay in our pajamas all day long. There is something distinctly sweet about staying in your pj’s all day. Perhaps it is because the children know that their friends who attend public school can’t do the same. Days like this are often filled with giggles as the schoolwork is completed. I often hear pleadings of “let’s have a jammie day!”, but I only do it on occasion. This keeps it special.

Reading Day
On this occasion, we just put aside the rest of the school work and cuddle up with a soft blanket, a pillow and a favorite book or books. Then we just read all day long. We share our favorite parts of the book we are reading with each other and discuss why we like or dislike a particular book or passage. Sometimes we even combine this with jammie day.

Read, Then Watch
Something that has worked well for our family is to read the book or story and then watch the movie. This really gives the children something to look forward to and I know that they have read the story first. It will often foster a conversation on how the movie differed from the book. Then we discuss which way we liked it the best. The book usually wins every time, but the movie is fun to watch. And the children love that it is part of their school.

Draw it!
I realize this sounds like art class, but really this is when I simply write down all of the subjects that we must complete that day on slips of paper. Then we fold the papers and mix them up in a bowl. We take turns drawing out a slip of paper to see what we will be doing next. This creates excitement for everyone. We are more excited to work on research papers or spelling lists when we draw them out of the bowl. It creates an element of surprise and unexpectedness. It is also just a little more fun.

In what ways do you keep your homeschool fun and exciting? C’mon, we really want to know!

Comments? Questions? Please email me, TODAY!

Photo by: Mike Davis

Want a traditional education, just not at your local school?

There are so many people who are seeking alternatives to traditional public school but can’t seem to find and options. Accredited home school programs could be just the option you are looking for. An accredited home school program is a home school program that is equivalent to public school education.

Connections Academy is one of these accredited home school programs and is FREE. It is a public charter school online that teaches kids the same skills they would be getting at a traditional public school, only better. Kids are placed into different courses such as Art, math, history, and much more; and they are assigned an instructor who is a certified teacher. They have daily assignments do and weekly projects. They are required to submit their work online to their teacher in order to earn credit. With great programs and wonderful books, you child will learn and achieve at a better rate than kids their own age in public school.

Parents and teachers correspond through end of the term packets that they are required to mail as well as through weekly Parent teacher Conferences. The teachers offer great feedback and are there to work one on one with students that might need extra help.

This is a great solution if you are wanting to home school but don’t have the time. Your child will be getting an education that you can feel good about.

Comments? Questions? Please email me, TODAY!

Private school is so expensive and homeschool costs a lot of many too right? Wrong. Homeschooling your child can cost you $0 if you take advantage of the resources all around you.

One of the biggest things that turn people away from homeschool is the curriculum, they think it is too expensive, complicated, or to time consuming. Homeschooling can be easy and money saving, plus your child will receive an education you know you can trust and it can all start at your local library. The library is full of textbooks and people don’t even know about it. I am not just talking about the history type books we all have had to bring home for reports, I am talking about actual step by step guides to many subjects your child needs to learn, including: Math, science, writing, and much more. All you have to do is go online to your library’s online catalog and type the subject into the search box. One book that I found that was really helpful was Painless Algebra, this teaches Algebra in a more simple way so that it can be understood with out making your brain hurt.

The greatest advantage to this type of homeschooling is that you can make the lesson plan fit into the way your child learns. For example, I am a writer, I enjoy writing and I learn better when I write things down. So when I was homeschooled my parents had me turn in my work as essays. Since I was writing reports I was learning the information. For my brother he likes art so he does a lot of art classes and art type work submissions. We all process information differently and with homeschooling you can adapt it to the way your child learns. If you think your child will learn less this way you are wrong. Just like public school students, homeschool students are required to take a benchmark test. They score the homeschoolers based on the performance of the average public student. When I took the test in the 8th grade, after 3 years of this style homeschooling, I outscored the public students greatly. Plus both my sister and I were able to graduate at 16 with this program. The truth is in the number, you can homeschool your child for free and it works.

by Jessica Kidd

Comments? Questions? Please email me, TODAY!

When you are home-schooling a young child it can be hard to keep there attention. Unlike older children who can self study, younger children need something that grabs their attention, something like their favorite Disney characters. That’s right the studio that has brought us all of our families movie classics now has worksheets that can teach your child at home.

These printable worksheets have characters such as Disney Princesses, the characters from Cars, TinkerBell, a Bugs Life, and much more. They can learn Math with Ariel or Time telling with Simba. Kids will actually get excited about learning. Plus it is something that Mom and Dad can feel good about.

These are free worksheets that can be downloaded off of the site Disney Printing Magic. It is a big file so it will take a while to upload. It is suggested to use a computer with a faster connection.

Comments? Questions? Please email me, TODAY!