~ Cyndi Lauper, Time After Time

Time After Time: Blessings of Homeschooling @EvaVarga.net — Exploring Chinatown in San Francisco

Homeschooling is not easy. There are days I get caught up in circles of confusion – not knowing which direction I should proceed. She wants to learn Chinese? How am I going to do that?!

There are days when I am totally stressed out, irritated beyond words, and I just want to throw in the towel. You haven’t finished your math lesson, why are you still on Minecraft?!

Days when I fear we are falling behind their peers and I feel like a failure as a teacher and as a mom. There are plenty of moments when I question myself and second guess my decisions.

Time after time, I am asked whether we will continue to homeschool through the middle school and high school years. Despite the obstacles and frustrations, I truly believe that homeschooling is worth all the rough patches.

The suitcases of memories we have made as a homeschooling family will be cherished forever. This life is truly a rich life and we have been blessed in so many ways!

The Blessings of Homeschooling

Time with Family

One of the blessings for which I am most grateful is the opportunity to spend more time with family. We have recently moved back to Oregon and now reside again on the southern coast where both my husband and I grew up. Here, we are surrounded by family and childhood friends.

With family in such close proximity, we are able to include them in our outings. Most recently, we met up with my dad for breakfast and then drove to Dean’s Creek Elk Viewing area, located northeast of Reedsport. Here we spent time watching the elk graze in the meadow and listen to Papa as he shared with us his wisdom.

We are also able to meet their dad at work regularly for lunch dates. When he has business meetings or conferences away from home, we are able to accompany him.

Time to Travel

Not being tied to a school schedule, we are able to travel during the off season. We have thereby made it a tradition of traveling abroad in the fall when rates are lower and crowds are smaller. Last year, we spent three weeks in Ecuador and Perú. The year prior, we were in China. This year, we will be touring the ruins and museums of Italy and Greece.

Time to Explore

We are also able to try new hobbies and experience classes that may not otherwise be available. One of our most enjoyable experiences was a week-long sailing class. This coming year, we look forward to trying our hand at wood carving.

Time to Pursue Passions

When we discover a handcraft or activity we thoroughly enjoy, we are able to pursue our passions with gusto. In a series of guest posts, my daughter shares her first passion project, Fly Tying.

Time to Bless Others

My children and I have been volunteering in a variety of venues since they were toddlers. Homeschooling affords us the time to bless others as we share our skills and talents. Volunteer Opportunities for Kids abound. You just need to know where to look and don’t be afraid to ask.

Time to Connect

Related to time with family, homeschooling also allows us the time to connect with others with shared interests. When my daughter wanted to learn more about fly tying – we sought out local fly fishing enthusiasts. These encounters and relationships open doors.

Time to Reflect

Homeschooling allows each of us to reflect on what we feel is important. I feel confidant that my son is passionate about playing piano because we have celebrated it in our home. He has never felt he had to stop doing what he loved in order to fit in with others.

Relatedly, my children have been able to take as much time as they need to grasp a difficult math concept. Working at our own pace and not feeling pressure to keep up with the Jones’ is another blessing of homeschooling.

~ ~ ~

Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time is one of my most beloved songs. It has been selected by many in the industry as one of the best love songs of all time. Though it was written about romantic love – the opening stanza reminds me of the joys and tribulations that we face as homeschooling parents.

Homeschool Gifts: What I am Thankful For is a link-up sponsored by the iHomeschool Network.

The annual Homeschool Omnibus is back!! I couldn’t be more excited to share with you this incredible collection of digital homeschool resources – eBooks, curriculum, MP3s … there is just so much!

The affiliate links included are for resources we absolutely love and truly depend on. Because one of my Science Logic curriculum units is included in the Homeschool Omnibus, if you purchase through my affiliate link, I will receive a percentage of the sale for no extra cost to you. 谢谢 – Takk – Gracias -Thank you for your support! Please see my disclosure policy.

This is the best bundle available – with over a hundred products from well known homeschool authors. There are so many resources, I printed off a list of all the books in the bundle or check out this gorgeous online catalog that lists them all! Just click on the image below to see the full 2015 Omnibus Catalog.

Science, writing, American Sign Language, history, literature, geography, art, planners and printables, and high school resources ~ plus a lot of homemaking inspiration for parents. All these topics are covered in this year’s bundle.

One of the featured resources in this year’s Omnibus is my Ecology Explorations curricula. This is a 10-week middles school science unit which includes 20+ activities and lesson plans fully outlined for you. Background knowledge, notebooking pages, and suggestions for extension activities are included. It is valued at $19.90 alone!

Purchasing the Omnibus also provides you with over thirty additional discounts and freebies, including 50% off a product of your choice from my Science Logic store.

There are so many wonderful homeschool resources in the Omnibus, many of which we use regularly ourselves all year. Whether you consider yourself to be unschoolers, homeschool from a Charlotte Mason perspective, or use a classical approach, you’ll find something that suits your homeschool style.

One of my favorites include Stephanie Harrington’s Wildflower Notebooking Pages. Stephanie has generously offered a free sample of these beautifully designed nature study pages. You can find more of Stephanie’s titles at Harrington Harmonies.

Another favorite is Mary Prather’s Squilt Curriculum. Squilt is a simple and fun way to integrate music study into your homeschool curriculum. Mary blogs at Homegrown Learners, where you’ll find inspiration and support for music and Classical Conversations. Mary has also generously provided a free sample of Squilt Volume 3: The Romantic Era.

These samples will be removed at the conclusion of the Omnibus sale so be sure to download and save them to your hard drive before August 9th.

Breaking it Down

124 total resources: 47 MP3s and 77 books
from 100 speakers/authors
for homeschoolers by homeschoolers
total value is $754
your cost is $25 (with $9 DVD add-on)
cost is just 3% of the value
PDFs also come in Kindle/mobi format (where appropriate)
33 bonus resources, discounts, and/or freebies
sale runs from August 3-9, 2015, specifically 12:01 AM Eastern Time, August 3 to 11:59 PM Pacific Time August 9.

An Additional Bonus

When you choose to purchase the Homeschool Omnibus through the links on this page, I get a percentage of the profits. This is a huge blessing to our family, and I’d like to say an extra “thank you” by offering one of my additional ebooks FREE with your purchase!

My ebook Ecology Explorations is already included in this year’s Omnibus, but if you order the bundle you can also choose from the following mini-units:

To claim your bonus, just order your Omnibus through the links on this page and forward a copy of your receipt to me and mention which eBook you would like.

The Omnibus is only available for a limited time. Buy it this week to take advantage of this incredible offer.

BuyNow

I asked my kiddos to write a short essay reflecting upon a typical homeschool day and they asked if they could collaborate on the article together. This is the result of the assignment. Written by Geneva. Photographs by Jeffrey.

A Day in the Life of an Unschooler

The typical life for a homeschooler – and an unschooler at that – is, well extremely hard to explain. One day we might complete as much as we had planned while the very next day we do very little. It is this and the fact that we are not attached to a schedule that we have the ability to learn whatever we most desire. In an attempt to give you an idea about a day in the life of a homeschooler, I will try to summarize a typical day.

Usually I wake up, put together a small breakfast, and play on my phone for a small while – I read my email (my mum and Mandarin teacher send me my assignments), text my friends, and watch a little anime. After about an hour of this I proceed to work on language. I nearly always do it first, because it is one thing I enjoy doing so it doesn’t feel like a chore. It also helps me get motivated to finish the rest of my schoolwork. When I am done with that I either do music or math depending on my mood.

For math, I will sometimes use Khan Academy (which is a website that has videos to help you learn), but mostly I do the next lesson in Life of Fred. If I get frustrated, I might switch and come back to it a little later or ask my mum for help.

I will practice the violin for about 30 minutes, take a break by doing a few chores around the house, and then practice for an additional 15 minutes. Sometimes, though rarely, my brother and I try to play together with some music that we have both been learning.

By now, it is around lunch time. I find something to eat though sometimes mum will fix up a meal. Thereafter, anything that is left I then do to finish up.

I nearly always save writing for last because it is definitely my favorite. It gives me something to look forward to while doing my other schoolwork. On occasion mum will read from a writing book that has an assignment that she wishes us to do, other times I will write a letter. Most often I can write about whatever I please.

Some days we complete history or science together. When mum reads aloud, we often do something quiet to keep us entertained and from falling asleep. I generally draw and my brother sometimes builds Lego.

We have a lot of time to pursue projects that interest us. I love that I have the time to learn what I want to learn.

Hop over to the 7th Annual Not Back to School Blog Hop at iHomeschool Network to see what a typical Day in the Life looks like for other homeschool families. Or, write a post of your own and link up!

We all love freebies! This is one you won’t want to pass up! 7 awesome homeschool products that kids and moms love .. free all summer long!

We homeschool year-round but we love to shake things up in the summer – incorporating innovative activities and programs that are fun and educational. The free homeschool products available through this limited time offer are perfect.

My son is passionate about Minecraft and has spent many hours researching and teaching himself how to code mods to build his own server. He is very excited about the opportunity to use Mod Design 1 by Youth Digital, one of the products included in the bundle.

My daughter loves art – especially Japanese Manga – and is always looking for lessons on animation. Mark Kistler’s Virtual Classroom will be perfect!

I have been wanting to find an online planner to help me to stay on top of their lessons while on the go. I am really excited to give Homeschool Planet a try.

Check out MORE GroupBuys at the Co-op!
It’s FREE to join and membership is private!

We officially began our homeschooling journey in the fall of 2007 as a trial. My daughter’s birthday fell after the cut-off for enrollment in our state and yet her friends were all starting kindergarten. “I want to go, too!” she exclaimed.

I thereby spent that first year doing a lot of research as I began to pull together unit studies and hands-on projects. I followed my heart and did my best to meet her needs and interests as we continued along the road less traveled.

At the time, I didn’t know ANYONE who was homeschooling. My friends all thought I was nuts. At book club one evening, the women cornered me and in a snarky voice inquired, “So you’re still homeschooloing, Eva? How’s that working out for you?”

Over the years I have learned a lot. We have tried on different homeschooling styles and have adapted different approaches to learning to best suit our life goals. Today, I share with you the good, the bad, and the ugly truth about homeschooling.

The Good

Masters of Color, Music, & Words

Charlotte Mason describes living books as the stories that touch our mind and heart. Timeless stories of people, places, and events that come alive as we read. As homeschooling parents we have the incredible opportunity to immerse ourselves in these worlds and spend our days alongside our children.

Relatedly, we can surround ourselves with wonderful art and music. We can dive deep into a study of Beethoven or Georgia O’Keefe. We can read and watch in wonder as their messages slowly influence each of us and mold our hearts and minds.

Freedom & Flexibility

Homeschooling also provides us the freedom to make our own choices in ALL aspects of our children’s education. We are in control. If the kids don’t like the curriculum, I can change it. If they are lonely, I can organize activities. If they are missing something vitally important in their education, I can remedy the situation and help them find a way to learn WHATEVER they need to know. We get to make this adventure into anything and everything we want it to be.

We have the flexibility to pursue our interests in depth. In our home, fluency in a foreign language is very important. We thereby spend hours each week studying Mandarin – time that wouldn’t be possible if they attended a brick and mortar school.

Life Long Learning

Our homeschool isn’t based on the traditional style of schooling. It’s based on life learning that happens all day, every day. We seek out learning opportunity in everything we do – as we go about errands and particularly as we travel.

Yet homeschooling isn’t just about my kids and their education. I want to model a love of learning to my kids. I model this through my own studying and reading. I continue to set goals for myself, to work towards learning new skills, and to accomplishing big projects.

The Bad

In comparison to public schools, where education is free, purchasing curriculum and teaching tools can be very expensive. To counter this, some families choose to partner with a homeschool charter program or umbrella school. Such programs often provide curriculum and materials for you – however, you’ll have to jump through their hoops (meeting regularly with an assigned facilitator, turning in assignments, & standardized testing).

Financially savvy parents seek out used curriculum (book stores, online vendors, other homeschool families). There is also a tremendous amount of curriculum and lesson materials available online. You just need to seek it out – which can be time consuming. To help, I’ve compiled an extensive list of Free Science Curriculum for Middle School.

There are also other costs to keep in mind, like project materials, stationery, books, computer software, and field trips. However, we spend significantly less money on clothing (as we don’t feel the pressure to have the latest fashion trends) and meals (we cook more often together and enjoy our meals as a family). We also travel during the off season when tickets are less expensive.

Networking also plays a huge role in homeschooling and does wonders to reduce the cost. We reach out to adults to mentor the kids in their areas of interest. We collaborate with other homeschool families to share our talents and skills through our homeschool co-ops. We partner with resource specialists to enrich areas of our curriculum – the relationships we’ve developed even allow us to borrow equipment that would be otherwise too costly (just last week we borrowed a soil auger from a local engineering and hydrogeology firm).

The Ugly Truth

Homeschooling isn’t easy, don’t let all the good cloud your impression. The ugly moments, however, will vary with each family – but that is just what they are – moments. Fleeting thoughts of inadequacy.

In my family, we are all very driven. This doesn’t always translate well when it comes to getting lessons completed, however. The ugly truth in our homeschool is that my son and I often butt heads.

He is a hard worker. He’ll occasionally drag his feet when it is time for Mandarin class – particularly if he was engaged in one of his passion projects before class begins. However, once he is underway, he puts forth a 100% effort. He strives to always do his best.

Getting him to do his other lessons (math, writing assignments, etc.) though is like pulling teeth. I try to encourage him to “slay his dragons” early in the morning but he always drags his feet. As the day slowly marches on, I continually remind him of his assignments. “You’ve been watching this man play Beethoven’s 5th on YouTube for quite a while now, Buddy. How about you take a break and do a math lesson with me?”

It is difficult to argue when his retort is, “I AM doing schoolwork, Mom! This helps me learn how to play it myself.” We have tried different strategies over the years and yet we continue to struggle with this.

Even so, I can’t imagine educating my children any other way. Even though I admittedly threaten that I will enroll them in public school on occasion (my ugly days), I know in my heart of hearts that homeschooling has been the best decision we have made.

iHomeschool Network bloggers share more of their loves & dislikes about homeschooling.

postagestamps

Welcome to the The Big Book of Homeschool Ideas Blog Tour where we’re going to be stopping in on the authors of The Big Book of Homeschool Ideas. I hope you have been enjoying the tour. 55 homeschool moms have contributed 103 chapters of homeschool goodness. My contributions were a chapter on How to Use Postage Stamps for Learning and Inquiry Science with Middle School Students. Read on to find out why I wrote these chapters and a glimpse at their content.

The Big Book of Homeschool Ideas Blog Tour

Everyday in the month of October, we’ll meet a new author of The Big Book of Homeschool Ideas. You’ll find out why they contributed their chapter or chapters to the book and why they feel passionate about that particular topic.

How it works:

Visit each author on the blog tour and participate in the giveaway they may be hosting.
Enter the giveaway for The Big Book of Homeschool Ideas & iHomeschool Studio Bundle below.
Purchase the bundle! Don’t worry. If you win the giveaway, you’ll get your money back. Buy now while you can!
Click the calendar to see the other authors on the tour and to see their giveaways.
Yesterday, Amy Stults from Milk and Cookies, author of the chapters Learning with Maps and Genealogy for Kids, gave away a copy of WonderMaps from Bright Ideas Press.
Tomorrow’s giveaway is from Colleen Kessler at Raising Lifelong Learners . Author of the chapter Hands-on Science. Colleen will be giving away Science for Smart Kids: Electricity.

The Bundle Blog Hop

There are so many wonderful contributors to this bundle – come along and get to know each of us a little better. Each day of October we will be highlighting one of the talented women who have helped make the iHomeschool Studio and Big Book of Homeschool Ideas such a success.

Inquiry Science for Middle School

I am so excited to be a contributing author to the Big Book of Homeschool Ideas. I love teaching science; my goal is to provide inspiration so you may engage your students in hands-on science and service learning experiences.

Sharing my passion for science reinvigorates me and I am delighted to have had the opportunity to contribute to The Big Book of Homeschool Ideas.

In the article, Inquiry Science with Middle School Students, I define inquiry science for you and break the process of scientific discovery down into smaller components – partial inquiry versus full inquiry.

Teaching science through inquiry is the cornerstone of good teaching. But what, exactly, is inquiry science?

inquiryscience Scientific inquiry refers to the activities through which students develop knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas, as well as an understanding of how scientists study the natural world. In many classrooms and homeschool families, students enjoy fun science demonstrations. These hands-on activities help bring the exciting world of science to life.

getting started cover I have written a series of posts, What is Scientific Inquiry, whereby I address the scientific method, science process skills, and science as inquiry. In the series, I address several key misconceptions about science and share with you examples of how to easily modify existing cook-book activities for a more inquiry based instructional approach.

As a special thank you, I have put together a Getting Started with Inquiry Science guidebook that will be available as a free download through the month of October. This bonus eBook is 18 pages providing detailed descriptions of the scientific inquiry process. The different levels are described to give you an idea of where to begin and how to do inquiry science with your students. It also includes many planning pages for student led or open inquiry as well as two guided inquiry labs.

Postage Stamps for Learning

Shortly after we began our homeschool journey, we discovered the joy of collecting postage stamps. In the beginning, we collected with no clear objective in mind. As our collections grew, I began to seek out activities that would provide opportunities to learn about the people featured on the stamps and the places from which they were issued. It wasn’t long thereafter that we were exhibiting at philatelic shows around the country.

I am excited to share with you how we use postage stamps in our homeschool. In the chapter, How to Use Postage Stamps for Learning, I explain some details and advice regarding using postage stamps for learning such as:

What to collect?
Where do I find stamps?
How do I soak and protect my stamps?
How do I display my stamps?
What are the educational opportunities available to me?

Postage stamps will be featured more regularly on my blog in the coming months as my kids and I work on developing our new exhibits. Follow along and find out how to use them with confidence in your homeschool.

The Big Book & Studio Bundle

For a limited time (Oct 1 – Nov 10), get the iHomeschool Studio and Big Book of Homeschool Ideas bundle for just $15! The bundle includes 23 MP3s from our spring 2014 webinar and a massive 560+ page eBook for only $15 (regular price $36). This offer won’t last long!

Whether you are new to homeschooling or a seasoned home educator, The Big Book of Homeschool Ideas and the recorded webinar sessions provide a library of resources you could turn to when you have a question in your homeschool. With this ginormous bundle, you can go beyond the basics of academics and delve into delightful methods like active learning, learning with postage stamps, using LEGOs for learning, teaching on the road, delving into inquiry science, loving living math, discovering your child’s personality type, and more. Studio and Big Book Bundle

A Giveaway, Too!

What is even more exciting is that we are giving away 10 copies of the bundle!! Don’t wait to see if you are a winner and risk losing out on this incredible sale! If you purchase the bundle and end up winning, we will immediately refund your money.

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