Littles Learning Link Up: Back to School 2019-2010 Homeschool Year

Each month you will find:

• A seasonal round-up (usually toward the beginning of the month)
• Posts where I share what I have been up to with my elementary-age children and the preschoolers I work with at our homeschool co-op (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme.  Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up. 

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child(ren).

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

Here's a peek at what we have been up to in our homeschool. 

It is our first week of school for the 2019-2020 homeschool year. We started back to school yesterday with our First Day of School traditions. Unfortunately, I don't have as many pictures as I would like to share as I can't get my computer to import my pictures from my camera, so I ended up getting some pictures on my phone (not as good quality) and my daughter-in-law Ashley took some pictures as well that she sent me.

We start our day, as always, with Top of the Stair pictures

Then they left with daddy to go to McDonald's for breakfast.

I didn't have near the time I wanted to to get my house organized last week, seeing as I started a new venture, Pampered Chef consultant. So, I spent most of the time they were gone organizing as best as I could. So, the Homeschool Elf didn't have time to hide their supplies and come up with a fun scavenger hunt. I sort of blamed the cat. The Homeschool Elf had a note for the children that said the cat had chased him around and nearly bitten his arm off, so he couldn't hide the supplies. The children saw through that right away, and knew mommy didn't have time to do it. Though, I thought the wound and bandage would convince them of the story. LOL 

The children arrived home (with the principal of course) and they pretended they didn't know how to line up.

But yes, they really do know how to line up. See.

They were not amused that I tried to make Swiftpaw into the bad guy. I was laughing hysterically while they read the note and gave me the evil eye.

Then, we had a bit of a distraction when my son, daughter-in-law, Annika, and Philip showed up for a visit.

Here are our class pictures

Even one with the principal this year. The benefit of having surprise company.

And their individual pictures:

The also did their "All About Me" pages. 

Other than that, we had a fun day visiting. After dinner, I did have the children do some math on the computer and we worked through some of our art history study from HiGASFY. 

Let's take a look at that review schedule real quick:

Last week I shared my review of the study guide for Britfield & the Lost Crown (I posted my review of the book several weeks ago). I also shared some new insights we've been learning from our re-read of the book as a family read-aloud.

This month I will be sharing my review of the 200 Essential Math Skills for Second Grade workbook from Reading Eggs (which Harold has been using), Easy Grammar Plus from Easy Grammar Systems (which Tabitha and Amelia have been using), Online Times Alive from City Creek Press, Inc (which Amelia and Hannah have been using), plus the HiGASFY Art History Video Series.

And then in October I will be bringing you reviews for Elephant Learning Math Academy, the Drawing Program from Creating a Masterpiece, plus Fun Family Chess and Wooden Building Planks from Brain Blox

Here are some things I would like to share with you:

Don't miss this year's NOT Back to School Blog Hop posts. 

This year I shared A Peek into Our Homeschool.

Also, I invite you to check out these round ups from the past:

Back to Homeschool Blog Hop Day 2- Back to School Round Up

Apple Fun Round Up- 70+ Apple Themed Ideas

Next week I hope to share an ocean themed round up. Sorry this keeps getting postponed. If you have any posts you would like included, please leave a comment or contact me via the contact information on my About Me page.

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 6 wonderful posts linked up. I will be sharing two randomly selected posts, as there were no clicks last week.

Please, don't forget to stop by other posts that are linked up. See what catches your eye, stop by, pin the post to a relevant board, and perhaps leave a comment to let the author of the blog know you have been by for a visit. I know I appreciate others commenting and letting me know they have read my posts, so I am sure others do too.

This week's first randomly selected post is:

Kelli from 3 Boys and a Dog shared Over 27 Fish Activities and Crafts for Kids.

This week's second randomly selected post is:

Nicole from Mama of Many Blessings shared Homeschooling High Schoolers, It's Easier Than You Think.

Join the Party!

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on one of my relevant boards, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Monday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

No button currently, and there won't be one until I can figure it out seeing as Photobucket has changed things. Feel free to still share the picture in place of the button. Just link it to my Littles Learning Link Up permalink please.

I am sharing over at

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

The 2017 Back to Homeschool Blog Hop: Dear Homeschool Mom - Encouragement From the Homeschool Dad

Dear Homeschool Mom

Welcome to the final day of the Homeschool Review Crew 2017 Back to Homeschool Blog Hop. Today's topic is: Dear Homeschool Mom

For today's post, the hubby has once again taken over my blog. He wrote a letter to me, the homeschooling mom, a very sweet letter. Here, I'll let you read it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear homeschool mom,

I've been watching you.  For the last 11 years I've been watching you.  I've seen you at your worst, and I've seen you at your best.  I've even seen you in ways nobody else has.

I've watched you utilize our library for the abundance of free resources it supplies. You use more library books then anybody I know.  They even made an exception for you with regards to the maximum number of books one can have out at one time.  You get to take out 100.  You've earned their trust.  I've watched you somehow, miraculously, keep track of all of these books and/or movies. Always knowing where they are.  You are amazing.

I've watched you work with our children on a daily basis.  Marveling at their accomplishments. Worrying they aren't grasping a concept.  Always trying to help them learn and delighting in the fact that they have.

I've watched you balance home making and home schooling.  I've watched you make sure I had a hot meal before leaving for work even if you were making supper for the rest of the family an hour or so later.  I've never been hungry when I've left the house for my 12 hour shift.  Thank You.

I've watched you teach our children about God.  I've seen them learn of his greatness through you. You even find time to volunteer at church.

I've watched you be there for me when I needed it most.  Over the past 11 years, there have definitely been circumstances in my life that were devastating.  They would have been 10 times  worse if I hadn't had you to lean on.  Quite frankly, I'm not sure I would have made it through without you. Thank God you were there.

I've watched you when we are together.  This is something I really like. You are relaxed then.  Not thinking about lesson plans, curriculum, or anything else except the moment.  You need more of this.

I've watched you when you are sleeping and I can't.  You are relaxed.  Recharging your batteries for another day.  You are at peace and it is beautiful.  Sometimes, I lay there for hours just enjoying the peaceful look on your face.  Other times, I go downstairs so I don't disturb you.  I help where I can in my feeble attempt to make your day better.  Morning will come much too soon and as I'm starting to doze off, your day begins again.

I've watched you come out of your shell.  When we met, you were broken and defeated.  Now, 11 years later, you are confident and whole. You believe in yourself and your abilities.. I'm so proud of you and how far you've come.

Dear homeschool mom,

You've got this.  You are doing a wonderful job. I love you.

Harold

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm so blessed to have such a loving husband. One that stands by me as we raise our children for the Lord. Reading the above letter brought me to tears, knowing how much he loves me and supports me. I know how hard it is to have a "husband" that does not support me. So, it means even more to me.

So, Dear Homeschool Mom or Dad who may be reading this post, remember to be there for each other, support each other, remember, you have to count on each other, and the children are counting on you too. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The 2017 Back to Homeschool Blog Hop: Homeschooling Outside the Home

Homeschooling Outside the Home

Welcome to the fourth day of the Homeschool Review Crew 2017 Back to Homeschool Blog Hop. Today my fellow Crew Mates and I are going to focus on homeschooling "Outside the Home."

Honestly, most of our homeschooling takes place in our home. I know it is said that we are learning all the time, so even when we go out, we are learning. I do agree with that. However, I am not comfortable counting every little thing we do and place we go as a "school day." Activities that I, personally, would count as school time outside of the home include homeschool co-op, field trips, phys. ed. and other classes at the YMCA. Do we do some of our lessons outside the house? Occasionally. For example, sometimes we go out to the yard to do some exploring, but, I don't consider that "homeschooling outside the home." To me our yard is part of our home. And we have been known to take work to doctor appointments, so I will count that as a school day. 

Homeschool Co-op

We have been a part of our local homeschool co-op since Tabitha was in kindergarten. I wanted to make sure she had a chance to, yes, socialize and make friends. She knew some of the children who went already, through church and playgroup. And now she, and my other children, have made additional friends. 

I appreciate the way our co-op is organized. All of the parents have to help either teach a class or be a helper. Personally, I enjoy being down in the preschool, coming up with crafts and reading stories. I don't think anyone who reads my blog would be surprised by this. I have also taught classes to the older groups. I prefer the K-3 group, though I have taught one class for the 4-8 group. I prefer to NOT teach high school however. 

The school year is broken into different sessions. There is a fall session that lasts from the beginning of October to mid November. Our last day before the break is always a harvest type party with crafts and a special dish-to-pass lunch. Then we take off until the beginning of January. Each month (Jan through April) is a "session." 

Each Wednesday we meet from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm. There are three classes each session, one of which is always gym. And in the last few months of the school year, one class for the older two groups is always for getting ready for the end of year play. Other classes may be cooking, geography. art, science, economics, whatever different topics we come up with in our parent meeting that someone wants to or is at least willing to teach. We try to make it more hands-on and fun, things that may not be getting taught at home. 

I love that they have taken the kids on different field trips that I wouldn't have been able to do with the children. They've been to such places as the bank, the post office, different farms in the area, the library, and the one ice cream shop. 

Some co-op fun:

I asked each of the children what they liked the best about co-op and this is what they had to say. 

Tabitha liked doing the play this past year. (She actually had a decent amount of lines too.) She like outdoor survival and the gym classes where they learned and played soccer and basketball. She also enjoys art. 

Amelia likes gym the most. One of her favorite games is octopus tag. 

Hannah enjoys art, gym, snack time, and field trips. She said her favorite trip was to the bank. 

Harold just enjoys co-op. He enjoys doing the crafts, having snack and lunch, and playtime. Which is most of what they do down in preschool.

There are years I have debated not going to co-op, because there is a bit of a financial strain plus added stress, but the children enjoy it very much and get upset when I mention taking a break from it.

Moving on to:

Field Trips

We don't take field trips that often, but we do enjoy them when we can do so. Once again, there is the added cost, even if the destination itself is free or low cost, living in a rural area means there is going to be gas money and food money that needs to be spent. We do try to bring our own food, but it never fails that we end up having to buy something while we are out.

A couple of years ago we were reviewing the Field Trip Journal from Apologia. It was during this time that I really started looking into what might be available in the area (you know, that whole living in a rural area dilema). There are also places I had heard of, but had never gotten around to visiting in my 20-some years of living in the area.

Some fun, localish places to visit here in northern Pennsylvania (and western NY) are Animaland, the PA Grand Canyon, the Black Forest Trading Station, the Lumber Museum, Sinnemahoning State Park, and Rock City Park. These are all within a 1 hour drive from our home. For a bit of a longer drive we can also visit the Corning Museum of Glass, Erie Zoo, and the Pocono Raceway. Those are some of the places we have visited within the last couple of years.

Some field trip fun:

When I asked the children what their favorite field trip(s) were, all of them had the Erie Zoo in their answer.

Tabitha said, "I love animals and they have cute animals and the huge rhinos, and zebras, and all the animals there." It was a first time experience for her. She also liked Animaland but didn't care that is smelled. She did like getting to feed the animals.

Amelia loved the sand cat at the Erie Zoo, and Hannah just loved that there were animals. Harold said he liked Erie Zoo because he "got to see all the animals I never got to see before. He also mentioned liking Animaland, Rock City Park, and the Pocono Raceway.

The YMCA

We joined the local YMCA in January of 2016. At first the children didn't have much to do besides sitting in the Child Watch. However, this past fall they were able to take the ballet class, which they really enjoyed.

After the dance session was done, the Y offered a homeschool phys ed class which we took advantage of. Even though they have gym once a week at co-op, I thought it would be fun for them to interact with different children and learn some different activities. Sadly, there was only one other child who participated. So, it wasn't quite what we were hoping it would be. I guess it is all for the best, because I decided we wouldn't be doing it this year if they offered it again. This will save our finances a bit, plus keep me less stressed as I won't have to break our Monday's up anymore with trying to get to phys ed. Tabitha (and occasionally Amelia) joins me in Zumba once or twice a week.

So, that is the extent of our homeschooling outside the home. And as you can see, there will be even less this coming school year.

So, what kinds of activities are you involved in outside the home?

Tomorrow I will be sharing the post from my hubby: Dear Homeschool Mom. It's sort of become a tradition for him to contribute to these blog hop posts. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The 2017 Back to Homeschool Blog Hop: Planning and Recording Our Homeschool Year

Planning for Our Year

Welcome to the third day of the Homeschool Review Crew 2017 Back to Homeschool Blog Hop. Today my fellow Crew Mates and I are going to focus on Planning/Record Keeping. Last year I mentioned how very unorganized I can be when it comes to planning and keeping records. I'm happy to say, I have improved a bit, but I definitely have a way to go.

I have been using the Hey Mama! Schoolhouse Planner that we received last year for review. In last year's blog hop post on planning, I mentioned that I would be using this planner. I surprised myself by actually using it almost all year. There was a month or so in there that I got away from using it, and I was definitely not as organized. 

This is what the weekly planning pages I use look like:

I loved this planner, as I was able to customize it to my liking, putting the days of the week across the top and our subjects down the side. Being spiral-bound, I was able to fold it back and keep it open to the current week's schedule. Sadly, there was no print planner offered this year. So. . . I had to do a bit of combining to get a planner I like. 

I do have the digital version of this year's Schoolhouse Planner from The Old Schoolhouse. So, I am using the monthly calendars from there. 

However, this specific planner did not have the same type of weekly planning pages. Thankfully, I was able to go into an old digital version of the Hey Mama! planner to print off copies of the daily planning pages that work for me.

I have yet to decide how I am going to bind the pages together. I may just hole-punch them and put them in a small binder or a prong pocket folder. Not the same as spiral binding, but I will have to make do.

I am going to start our lesson planning next week. However, I never go more than one or two weeks in advance. I've learned that "things" come up, and plans get changed. If my planning goes too far in advance, I have way too much editing to do. I found my best weeks last year happened when I planned one week at a time, filling in the planner during the weekend prior to the upcoming week.

See, the My Father's World Teacher Manuals have everything scheduled out.

The problem is, I am trying to combine two grade levels, so I take the above information and write it into my planner tweaking where I need to. I also like to be able to add the books we are reading. Additionally, I have to schedule in review products. 

Writing the information into the planner really helps me to stay more organized and on task. Even on weeks where I write the lessons and books in after the fact, I am still keeping a record of what we ended up getting done. This helps when I am at the end of the year and need to see what we got done during the year. So, it is a planner plus a way to keep my records

Speaking of keeping records.  I wanted to share my simple way of keeping track of our attendance. 

In addition to using the planner, I have a small wall calendar. This is a simple calendar that is offered free at our bank. 

The boxes are just the right size for writing information in. We use this calendar for our calendar/weather time. I will place a star in the box, then the child who is the leader will draw a picture to represent the weather. Plus, they decided to start writing in the temperature as well. If there wasn't school, I can note what we did instead, if applicable. I can also use it to write down special events that are coming up. At the beginning of the month, the hubby circles the days he is working so I can plan things around his schedule if needed. The best thing about this system, all I have to do at the end of the month is count up the stars to know how many days we did school. I then write the number at the bottom of the calendar.

For me, this is the perfect way to keep track of our attendance. As long as I don't misplace the calendar of course. 

Another part of planning is getting our daily routine into order. Each year I tend to change up our routine a little bit, tweaking what didn't quite work the year before. Of course, new school years bring new curriculum, so that is another reason the routine may need to change.  This year I am changing up our daily routine as we are adding in a different chore system, one that was desperately needed. 

I've mentioned in my Littles Learning Link Up posts that I have a review coming up soon for The Everyday Family Chore System from Everyday Homemaking. Changing up our chore schedule is also causing me to switch other parts of our routine around. While our daily school routine is still in planning, our new chore system is working very well. I can't wait to share my review next week. Here's a quick glimpse at our new chore chart. 

I hope to be able to share our new school routine at the beginning of our school year (which starts the first week in September). Hopefully I will be sharing a "Day in Our Life" type post so you can see how our days flow.

So, what does planning and record keeping look like in your home?

Tomorrow I will be sharing about our homeschooling outside the home. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------