Two Homeschool Internet Organization Tips

As much as an educator's job has to do with expanding the students’ mind and facilitating students’ gaining insight and knowledge through experiences, an educator’s job is also to be able to organize those experiences and that information in a meaningful way.

As most of you know, I have taught in some capacity for all of my adult life. I’ve taught preschoolers up through adult education. One thing that remains consistent in teaching all age ranges is the necessity to organize your materials.

Tip 1. One thing that has really helped with homeschooling Charlie has been to take advantage of some great sites that offer quality practice worksheets. Don’t reinvent the wheel on basic concepts; use these quality worksheets sites!

Click on the screen shot to go to the site.

Tip 2. Because I don’t have a wireless printer, I became very annoyed at having to stop what I was doing on the computer and go plug in the printer to print one sheet for Charlie’s use. Poor me, huh?! So I thought of an idea that would limit my having to get up and carry the laptop to the armoire where the printer is (again, poor, poor me!) and plug it in just to print.

I created a weekly favorites folder (labeled like this, 10 24 11) and added each page I’d need from online to that favorites folder for the week. Now I only have to get up one time and plug the laptop into the printer, open my weekly folder and print away! This has saved me a lot of time and annoyance!

I know these are both small tips, but they both can make your homeschool day run a bit more smoothly!

Sarah:)

P.S. Don’t forget to check out the linky “Project Pinterest” Katie (from Katie Lloyd Photography) and I are hosting.

It will start on November 3rd! See this post for an example.

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Our Third Friday

The one constant I have in my life is that inconsistencies will always be present. This week wasn’t near as great as last week. Last week Charlie seemed much more on task and motivated to learn. Most of this week he’s been completely off task when I’m not reminding him and he’s been less than eager to learn. Because I know to expect inconsistencies in this thoughts, moods and energy levels, this week did not come as surprise to me. I was a little bummed that our “awesome” streak came to a halt, but that’s ok. We’ll get back to awesome, I know we will!

Here are some shots of some fun activities we did this week.

This is your brain…

This is your brain on drugs. (Not really! This is what would happen if you didn’t have cerebrospinal fluid to keep your brain from rattling around in your skull.)

Here is the brain protected by the cerebrospinal fluid.

We “did school” at the park on Thursday for a change of pace. It was a beautifully cool morning. Cool means like 89 degrees!

Charlie’s a little “bugged out” by all of the critters we saw at the park.

On Friday we went to our first homeschool field trip to an “old” mansion in Columbia.

The kids got to play games similar to the children in the late 1800s.

For family who reads this blog, I’ll post more shots of Ryan sometime, I promise! Ryan is loving third grade so far! There have been no complaints and things are going well for him!

Sarah:)

*Sharing at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Proud Moments

I’ve realized I tend to complain about my children more that I should. They are true gifts from God and they are just terrific little kiddos. I’m going to try to change my frame of mind and focus more on the great things they do instead of the little aggravating things they do.
When I think back about my week and what I’m proud of them for, two things come to mind.
My heart melted at church on Saturday night when Ryan was reciting the Affirmation of Faith (Apostles’ Creed) with such conviction. It literally brought a tear to my eye and made me realize that he is now not just going to church and praying and reading the bible/devotions because I “make” him, but because that is now placed on his heart. 


One thing that Charlie did this week that really made me smile is telling his brother all about the book we’re reading called, “The Whipping Boy”. Charlie and Ryan then made up a game based on the characters and setting. Charlie remembered everything we talked about from the book and did an awesome job retelling the story to Ryan.

Have a great week ya’ll!
Sarah:)

First Week of Homeschool–Check!

Our first full week of school is complete! We’ve had eight days and I’m happy to report that I would consider all eight days successful. Did we have a few minor meltdowns and missteps? Yes, we most certainly did but I expected that, so that’s ok.

Many of my reasons for homeschooling Charlie were brought to light this week and so far I’m pleased with the decision.

We did lots of fun and educational things in addition to our more traditional schooling. In this picture Charlie made a mummified apple and is looking at his results. He had to wait one week before taking the apple out of the special mixture. A lesson in patience was most certainly learned!

Any guesses what this is?

By the way, I forgot to use any photography skills in these shots.

Auto was on and auto was what I used. Can you tell by the big flash spots?

Charlie’s checking it out from every angle.

Now he’s eating it! What is it?

Please tell me you’re not looking at that outlet without a cover! I don’t have little kids, so don’t turn my in for having an unsafe environment! I guess I need to put an outlet cover on my Lowe’s list. Somehow I never noticed it before right now.

Sarah:)

Our New Adventure

A thought just occurred to me…I haven’t been active in photography for several months. I used to spend a lot of time taking just the right picture for each challenge and so enjoyed looking through everyone’s inspiring shots, but something else has been taking my time now. I’ll be homeschooling Charlie this year and just now realized that I’ve been spending hours and hours researching curriculum choices and learning about homeschooling and not working on photos.

I kind of feel like homeschooling is right up my alley. Before the boys were born, I taught third grade and one of my favorite tasks associated with teaching was lesson planning and the organizing that went with it. The last ten years I have been at home I have had several part time teaching jobs all ages from preschool to adult education. In all of those I did a little bit of lesson planning, but no more than for a few hours of teaching a few days a week.

I’ll be listing Charlie’s curriculum in the next post, but for now, back to idea gathering and planning for our new adventure!

Sarah:)