Blogs about homeschooling

7 Ways to Afford a Boxed Homeschool Curriculum

cash bills and a calculator sit on spiral bound notebooks

Do you want to use a boxed curriculum but worry that you can’t afford it? If you feel that a boxed curriculum like BookShark is best for your children, don’t give up on purchasing it because you’re intimidated by the price tag. BookShark offers Payment Plans. You may find that with strategic planning, you can afford a boxed curriculum.

Before looking for additional money in your budget, first put the price into perspective. For example, consider the price per child if multiple children will be using it.

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Four Reasons Why Homeschool Feels Like It's Not Working

Believe me, you’re not the only mom who hid tears from her child because she was certain she had bitten off more than she could chew with this whole homeschooling thing. Homeschooling is not for every parent out there. We’re traveling down a road less traveled, and it’s normal to feel like a failure at times.

While some us may be blowing our doubts out of proportion, there are valid concerns that give us reason to worry. I have a few ideas why your homeschool might feel like it’s not working and why you might be ready to throw in the towel. (Ask me how I know.)

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Evaluating Your Homeschool Year with a Positive Lens

a bright red saucer with a mug of coffee sits atop a spiral bound notebook

We’re getting close to the finish line! The air is starting to smell like summer, and the cluttered bookshelves are looking more neglected as we’re spending more time outdoors with our composition notebooks in the sunshine. Even if you homeschool year round, the spring gives an aura of finality to a school year. Outdoor activity speeds up while academics slow down. The excitement for summer mounts day by day!

Sometimes we homeschool mamas can get a little anxious at this time of year. We might be looking at our physical or mental lists with dismay at all the unchecked boxes.

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How to Add Volunteering to Your Homeschool

an adult and child pick up trash

From the time my kids were young, I have wanted to volunteer in our community both to teach selflessness and to provide ways for my kids to give back to the community. Being a homeschool family means that we have more flexibility to volunteer, so we use that benefit to serve others.

By being deliberate about looking for volunteering opportunities, I have found three great options that really make a difference. 

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7 Insanely Clever Ways to Add Homeschool Storage to Small Spaces

It can be challenging to keep the overflowing amount of homeschool materials organized especially if space is at a premium in your home. Focusing on the endless possibilities of creating storage options and having a tidy homeschool space at the same time, these storage hacks will have you rethinking small homeschool spaces.

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How to Avoid Homeschool Curriculum Paralysis

Now that homeschooling has exploded into nearly two million children being educated at home across the United States for multiple reasons and with varied religious or non-religious backgrounds, homeschool curriculum publishers are almost as numerous! While having a plethora of choices at your fingertips is a great way to give your child a customized education, it’s also a great way to send a homeschool parent into analysis paralysis.

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A Curriculum Primer for Beginning Homeschoolers

Curriculum Primer for Beginning Homeschoolers

Why do many homeschool families feel overwhelmed at the beginning of a new school year? The main reason, in my experience, is choosing curriculum. Curriculum choices abound and choosing what to teach your children each year can be overwhelming. Couple that with countless homeschool curriculum publishers each with catalogs and websites, homeschool friends

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4 Invaluable Gifts Boxed Curriculum Offers a Work at Home Mom

WAHM who homeschools

I remember my very first year homeschooling; I ordered one of those big boxes of curriculum from one publisher. Everything came in one box, and my shopping was done in one swoop. I was thrilled!

Fast forward a few years later. I'm still homeschooling, and we still order a boxed curriculum each year despite my new-found expertise in educating at home.

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Managing A Homeschool Schedule in Two Simple Steps

Managing A Homeschool Schedule in Two Simple Steps

Throughout my years of homeschooling, I’ve come to realize the importance of managing my time. The following tips have helped me to streamline my schedule and put systems into place that keep my family running more smoothly than we would otherwise.

Homeschooling is a hodgepodge of ideas, theories, practices, tools, and resources. How you go about using resources and putting those theories into place is dependent upon your family priorities. That’s why it’s so important to know in the beginning what your homeschooling priorities are.

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An Easy, Step by Step Way to Teach a Reluctant Writer to Write

Children who don’t like to write are easily intimidated by writing assignments. You may think you’re assigning a manageable and short assignment of only a paragraph. Your kid believes you’ve just assigned the next American novel. 

Tears will emerge. Your child will wail, “I can’t do it!” You may want to tear out your hair in frustration. Don’t do that.

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