October 10, 2018

All About Reading: How it Works for Our Family {a detailed review}

October 10, 2018/ Hayley Croft

When I first began homeschooling, the responsibility that intimidated me more than any other was teaching my own children to read. I have always been an avid reader, and I desperately wanted to instill a love of reading in my kids. I realized very quickly, however, that my love of reading did not automatically qualify me to teach someone else HOW to read. Because I had no background in teaching reading, I knew I needed to find a program that could walk ME through the process as well as my child. We tried several different programs in the beginning, but they either bored my child to tears or proceeding so quickly that she felt overwhelmed, and I felt lost without a map.

September 03, 2018

My Favorite Things: "Keeping Toddlers Busy" Edition

September 03, 2018/ Erin Cox

My sweet little boys keep life very interesting, especially as I try to homeschool a high school freshman and 6th grader with dyslexia. It's basically my mission in life to keep my boys engaged in fruitful activity throughout the day in order that I might have small chunks of silence to engage with my girls in as much of their schoolwork as possible.

I want to share a few ideas and several "go-to" items that I keep handy at all times, as well as my process for both planning and engaging my boys each day. It's not perfect, but it works well enough that we march through our homeschool day with some learning accomplished and with (arguably) half my sanity left!

Here are my current FAVORITE things for keeping my boys (currently 3 and 20 months) busy while I work in our home and teach their older sisters:

August 19, 2018

How to Use a Preschool Morning Binder (PLUS all you need to get started!)

August 19, 2018/ Erin Cox

I have a tenacious 3 year old who wants to do a LOT of school. He loves to learn and do things just like the big kids. I love to encourage his desire to learn, so I created a "morning binder" for him after being inspired by Yoga Pants and Pearls when I ran across her on Pinterest. You can check out her take on morning binder here.

I initially downloaded her cute little printable but my OCD jumped in and reminded me that it didn't match the rest of the materials that I had created to complement The Gentle + Classical Preschool (<--- Click that for a FREE Preschool Curriculum)... So I had to make my own, while also using a few resources I'd already created to assemble a full Morning Binder for my little one. So here's what's in our Preschool Morning Binder (also, it's not a binder but I'll chat about that too).

5 Steps to an excellent, beautiful Preschool Morning Binder:

June 26, 2018

When Your Homeschooled Child Can't Read Yet

June 26, 2018/ Erin Cox

If you're reading this, you are probably in the midst of teaching one of your little ones to read OR you have that endeavor looming ahead of you in the near future... amiright? The singular biggest fear of every single homeschool mom I've ever spoken to is failing to teach her child to read well... and especially failing to teach them "on time".

In most of our minds, we envision that our homeschooled child would be reading well in advance of their public school counterparts (or at least at the same time). Simultaneously, in our little hearts, one reason we homeschool is to give our children the time and space to grow and develop on their own timeline. Sometimes these desires and expectations clash and can create monster homeschool mom anxiety. I know many mamas who have quit homeschooling (or never even began) because they were overwhelmed at the idea of failing in this important task.

I want to share some actual evidence with you today that helped put me at ease when my own homeschool student just wasn't progressing like I felt she "should."

March 25, 2018

107 Books to Read Before Age 7 (FREE Printable List!)

March 25, 2018/ Erin Cox

Wow! Have you looked lately for books for your little ones and been completely overwhelmed? There are SO many- and how can we know they are good books that are of high literary quality and don't counter with our beliefs and family culture until we've bought them? My sweet friend Hayley and I wanted to combine forces and share a powerful list of 107 books that we feel like every child should have read to them (or read) before age 7.

Many lists like this include a majority of chapter books or books for children with longer attention span. We have many of those, but rest assured that this collection also includes shorter picture books with gorgeous, engaging illustrations and fewer words per page.

March 22, 2018

28 Ways to Keep Your Toddler Busy {FREE Printable List!}

March 22, 2018/ Erin Cox

Our littles ones can stay soooooo busy... right underfoot... all day long. Or even worse, when they disappear for a moment and get super quiet! Oh no! Rarely does that end up a good thing (sharpie vs the wall, anyone?)

Through parenting four kiddos, I've found that the best way to keep a toddler busy without pulling your hair out is to integrate them INTO your day. Sometimes, we tend to default to building our day, our schedule, our home environment around the child. This bring everything down to their level. Sometimes, it has the unintended consequence of bringing US (and our behavior) down to their level too. EEEK!

February 08, 2018

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Math-U-See {Even through High School!}

February 08, 2018/ Hayley Croft

I’m so excited to share this review with you! This is the ONE curriculum that I have never once been tempted to stop using! I tend to get my head turned by shiny, new homeschool curriculum. It’s so much fun to try new things, and there are always new products coming out that I can’t wait to check out. But not when it comes to math.

When I first started homeschooling, one of my mentors gave me some great advice. I was sharing with her how I worried that I wouldn’t be able to give my kids a strong math education because I had struggled so much with math in school. Her advice was to find a program that had a good reputation, that suited my teaching style, and that my kids didn’t hate, and then stick with it all the way through. Her reasoning was that the best way to avoid gaps in math knowledge is to use one program from beginning to end...

February 02, 2018

How to Homeschool Preschool {with no regrets!}

February 02, 2018/ Erin Cox

There's nothing as delightful (and challenging!) as educating our little ones at home. Some of us homeschool preschool and intend to be "long haul" homeschoolers. Others may plan to send their child to school later, but want to make the most of their days with their sweet babes. As a Mama of 4 with 2 toddlers underfoot, I've had some experience in preschool and "toddler school". I've made many mistakes, but I've also learned some valuable lessons that help me approach educating my two little ones with a "no regrets" mentality.

Here are 5 tips to approach those early years that you won't regret!