I love that homeschool allows us the opportunity to read and discuss the Bible together. We've made it a habit that I hope will carry through to my children's adult lives. When they were little we read through several different children's Bibles, an Action Hero's Bible and an abridged version of the entire Bible. One year, we spent the entire year reading and re-reading the book of Proverbs, corresponding the chapter with the day of the month. They would pick one verse that s

Field trips are awesome! Did anyone else love field trip days in school? It felt like a get out of jail free card to me! My kids love them just as much as I did and as a home school parent, I don't miss any of their field trips since I'm the chaperone and the chauffeur! It's a fun adventure for the whole family and we can all learn together. Since we're not locked in to when we go on field trips I typically schedule to go places when the public school kids aren't there so tha

I LOVE our schedule!!! The kids get up between 7:30-8 each morning. They eat breakfast, brush teeth, make beds, get dressed and then we start school at 9:00(ish). Sometimes the "ish" is based on what the little guys may need at the moment. Usually by 2:00, we've done all school work, eaten lunch and completed our daily chores. By the time the big yellow bus arrives in our subdivision around 4:00, my kids have already had TWO hours of playtime, or time with friends, or we've r

In college I took a marketing class my junior year with an intelligent, but difficult and boring professor. I did terrible! I made my only academic C ever in his class. I was embarrassed, frustrated and felt defeated. Well, that wasn't ok with me so I retook the class with a different professor and not only did I enjoy the class, but I also aced it! Different professor....different approach...made all the difference. Two years ago, I tried doing our language arts program thro

There are about as many options in curriculum as there are flavors of ice cream and depending on your perspective can either be a blessing or down right terrifying! I am asked often how I found the curriculum that I use so I've narrowed it down to my top two recommendations for how to choose curriculum if you are beginning your journey into home educating your children. 1. When I was preparing to start home schooling someone recommended that I purchase 101 Top Picks for Homes

When I first began home schooling I had an image in my mind about what a school day would look like. It resembled what my experience in public school was...children sitting in hard wooden desks in a freezing classroom, a teacher at the white board with a lesson prepared, and every one listening to the lecture. This image completely overwhelmed me. How am I suppose to prepare a lesson every night for every subject the next day?!? For 13 years!!!????!!! How am I going to prepar

Since I am the teacher, principal, school administration, and mom, I get to decide when we take a day off! Therefore, I made birthdays official school holidays! Yay! From the beginning, I've always taken a day off for the kids birthdays but we took a break from school today because it's my sweet husband's birthday! We spent this gorgeous Tennessee day celebrating him! Any reason to skip a day of school makes my kids super excited, but it makes it even more fun when it's for

Middle Tennessee is a huge hub for home schooling which means there is an abundance of extra curricular activities to participate in. Everything from co-op's, tutorials, clubs, events, field trips and play dates! For example... On Monday, our friends the "D" family offered to take my big kids with their big kids on a science hike through the woods. They identified trees, plants, birds, edible vs. non edible plants and it was perfect timing since we're studying botany in scien

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Confession: I do not remember what I learned in 4th grade history. I do not remember what I learned in ninth grade science. I do not remember any of the essays I wrote in the middle of the night in college because of my procrastination. But I can assure you that whatever I learned or wrote did not help me prepare healthy meals for my family this week...every! single! day! Nor di

Obedience: doing what I am asked to do and when I am told the first time. More character training! Did you know that a colony of bees will decide each day what kind of flower they will get nectar from? Did you also know that each flower has to be pollinated by another flower of the same kind!?! What!!?? So that means that the bees wake up, decide to find tulips (or insert your own favorite flower here), and then pollinate tulips all day long! The survival of flowering plants

Stewardship: the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care. We are so blessed in America. Sometimes I think we forget just how good it is. Most of us slept with a roof over our head, four walls around us, and AC units keeping us at the perfect temperature. We'll wake up to food in our cupboards and fresh running water. Cars will take us to jobs to earn money, grocery stores to buy food, or a friend's house for coffee. We also wake to God still be

One of the things I always dreaded in public school was Standardized Testing at the end of each year. They stressed me out, caused extreme anxiety, and upset my stomach. I was told how important they were because they counted toward my grades and could determine whether I would pass or fail a grade. Without fail, every time I sat in front of one of those tests it may as well have been in Chinese. I knew nothing. I felt unequipped and stupid. I did terrible guessing on those t

Patience: waiting without complaining (more character training!!) I've had many people tell me they could never home school because they don't have the patience. Well....neither do I! One of our conference speakers, Heidi St. John asked, "Who has the patience to home school?" Everyone laughed and NO ONE raised their hand! She then said the Lord has been doing a sanctifying work in her through home school. Everyone laughed because...well...that's true too! I'm over here trying

Yep! That's right! We are all sitting on the couch in our jammies reading History and Science! How cool is that?!?! We don't stay in our jammies everyday, but I'm also not telling how many days we do! :) Doesn't it make learning easier and more fun when your comfortable?!? We think so! #Whyhomeschool #homeschool

Free will. It's one of the most beautiful gifts the Lord gave to us. The freedom to choose Him and all His love. It's truly an amazing gift. Self Control. It's one of the most powerful weapons the Lord gave to us. It is the key to so many problems we face. Murder?....self control. Stealing?...self control. Adultery?...self control. Over eating?...self control. Poor thought life?...self control. Purity?....self control. Lying?...self control. Punching someone in the face?....s

The author of our history curriculum, Mrs. Linda Hobar who wrote The Mystery of History has been at the Teach Them Diligently conference for the past two years. My kids think she is awesome! She really is a kind lady and her history curriculum is great. It's chronological, written as though she is speaking to us, and points us back to God continually. Every session she taught at the conference my kids chose to sit in the front row and listen attentively to every word she said

Anyone else remember the days of sitting in hard wooden desks when the weather was FINALLY nice again and you stared out the window hoping and/or begging your teacher to please take class outside and you really couldn't pay attention to what she was saying anyway because you couldn't hear her over the beauty of outside?!?! Or was that just me?! Yeah, we can do school work outside anytime we want!!! Thank you Lord for the beautiful sunshine today! #Whyhomeschool #homeschool