Weekly Homeschool Roundup - 2/21/20

It was all too quiet here this week.

My son was at the Georgia TeenPact leadership event all week.

Yes, I got all the laundry done, wrote a TON of SQUILT LIVE! lessons, watched TWO movies with my husband, and spent quality time with the dog (ha!), but there was something missing - the sound of kids in the house.

I still have three years to prepare for being an empty nester, but this week made it feel more real.

Sigh.

It’s also been raining and raining - and the raining some more. The sun is out right now and I can feel my mood lifting. Spring is on the way!

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Teen Pact was a fabulous experience for my son and his friends. Grant was elected a senator and wrote a speech to deliver on the last day, so that’s exciting!

He told me he definitely wants to attend next year.

Here’s what I discovered for you this week while I was missing my guy!

• Just Mercy and the Changing of a Mind

  This week I finished Bryan Stevenson’s book, Just Mercy. It is a book that caused me to truly examine my thoughts about some hard issues. It is a book that I believe makes me a better homeschooling mom because it broadens my view of the world and allows me to share that view with my children.

  While I have yet to see the film (it’s on my list), I loved this review from The Rabbit Room. I think you will, too.

• Your Tech is Changing You

  This article, from the Teen Pact blog, is excellent. It’s worth thinking about and discussing with our teens. Are we taking every thought captive to obey Christ? It’s hard in this digital age!

• Substitute Teachers in Our Homeschool

  Of course, I love this post from The Waldock Way. Jessica shows you how she uses online opportunities with art, music, and nature study to give her a little break in her homeschool teaching duties. It’s a win-win!

• Beyond Candyland: Growing Gamers

  My Little Poppies is where you want to go to learn how to incorporate more games into your homeschool. In this post, Cait shares games that kick it up a notch from Candyland — lots of great stuff here!

• Homeschool Masterclasses

  My friend Cindy West is beginning to teach homeschool masterclasses online! It’s so easy to sign up and attend training from the comfort of your own home. Cindy has graduated two children and is homeschooling another and she’s a smart cookie. I’m excited about this!

I hope you had a good week! Spring is getting closer, isn’t it?

Do you have any good things to share with me?

Leave them in the comments below!

Weekly Homeschool Roundup - 2/14/20

I’ve heard a lot of weariness from homeschool mom friends this week. The weather is gloomy. The children aren’t listening. Mom is saying things she regrets. No one is motivated. People are tired.

February is HARD.

Many years ago I wrote a post about dreary homeschool days - the truths still hold true today, so I hope it can be of help to you.

As I write this, the sun has come out for the first time in a week. This reminds me that despite our hardest days, there is always sunshine on the horizon. Keeping pushing faithfully through those dreary days, because in those days our children learn so much about perseverance.

I’m right there with you. We’ve had a couple of “come to Jesus” meetings with my teenager regarding attitude, organization, and motivation. Because I have been down this road before I know this is part of of the teaching and learning process.

In other words - it’s all good.

Here are five things that stuck out to me this week - I hope you find them useful!

• Paths of Serendipity

  I always enjoy everything Professor Carol shares - but this one struck me because it was about fostering our children’s interests.

  “Let us not hesitate when we have a chance to foster a child’s next step, no matter what the endeavor. Try not to stand in the way of something that might be a stretch for the child or the family.”

• District Fences off PSAT from Homeschool Teen

  This happened to me a few years ago when I was trying to register my daughter for the PSAT. Our districted high school told me they could not let her take it at the school, but she could take it at another school in our district (much farther away). I invoked the name of HSLDA (this works!) and by that afternoon she was allowed to register.

  If you aren’t a member of HSLDA, please join! They do so much good for the homeschool community, and you never know when you might need them.

• A Man’s Gift to His 10 Grandkids

  What lucky children these are - I hope this warms your heart like it did mine!

• Library or Movies?

  In 2019 more people went to the library than they did the movies. Isn’t that encouraging? Something I didn’t know was that the more books you check out (the more books that are in circulation), the more funding your local library receives. The moral of the store? Go to the library!!

• The Importance of Music in Home Education

  I had a lovely conversation at Setting the Spark podcast last week! It is always fun to share my passion for music education. Take a listen to this podcast - I hope you can learn a few things about how to easily incorporate music in your days!

And here’s a little bonus this week.

I gave my Instagram followers an update about my daughter, Anna. She is in her second semester of freshmen year of college and doing well!

I want to encourage you that homeschooling is WORTH IT! It more than prepares our children for whatever comes after high school.

She looks healthy, happy - and is enjoying her classes. My mom heart is happy and I am thankful I had the years of homeschooling with her to form a relationship that she can rely on while he is away from home.

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I hope your week was productive and happy - and if it wasn’t, I hope you can look back on it and say you learned some valuable lessons!

As always, feel free to share one of your favorite things in the comments below!