A photo of Sara Dennis

Sara Dennis

Sara Dennis is a homeschooling mother of 6 children ages 5 through 19. After much research into homeschooling in 2000, she and her husband fell in love with classical education and used it as the foundation for their homeschool.  Sara blogs at Classically Homeschooling.

Organize Your Homeschool with a Portfolio

I don’t know about your family, but my family produces large amounts of homeschool papers every day. There are math lessons, worksheets, tests, notebooking sheets, maps, and more. What do you do with all of these papers that pile up all over the house?

You organize them with a portfolio.

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How to Turn a Gloomy Day into a Cozy Reading Party

a steaming red mug sits on a saucer in front of two red hardback books and a window paned streaked with raindrops

It’s fun to spend bright summer days outside exploring nature or running around the park. What do you do on gloomy, rainy days though? Those gray days when you’re trapped inside? You create a cozy reading atmosphere and turn gloomy afternoons into beautiful memories of a cozy reading atmosphere.

Gloomy rainy days tend to be cold due to the damp chill in the air. So light a fire in the fireplace to help create a cozy reading atmosphere. If you don’t have a fireplace, you can turn up the heat.

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3 Tricks to Turn Your Kids into Bookworms

a boy lies on his back reading, his feet on a bookshelf

3 Tricks to Turn Your Kids into BookwormsReading is an important part of any child’s education. It opens doors into the past, the future, and even the other side of the world. Children who love reading have a huge advantage. They’ve absorbed advanced vocabulary and grammar without even realizing it. As a homeschool parent, you have great leverage to turn your children into bookworms. Here are three simple tricks to impart the book loving gene.

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4 Smart Ways to Reconnect After a Bad Homeschool Day

a mom and daughter smile and talk

4 Smart Ways to Reconnect After a Bad Homeschool Day

Gloomy skies and bickering kids make homeschool moms everywhere long for warm, sunny beaches. Are you in this spot, trying to recover from a bad homeschool day when the kids bickered, argued, and complained about school from breakfast to lunch?

The biggest problem with bad homeschool days is they cause a disconnection between mother and child.

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7 Practical Ways a Homeschool Mom Can Get Personal Down Time

a mom with closed eyes and outstretched arms takes a relaxed breath

7 Practical Ways a Homeschool Mom Can Get Personal Down TimeFinding time for yourself is difficult when homeschooling. The children are always home and underfoot. This is marvelous except for those times you could use a moment or two for yourself.

There are ways a busy homeschool mom can enjoy some solo, me-time if she is very conscious about carving out the opportunities.

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5 Secrets to Following Through This Homeschool Year

a hand snaps a retractable pen

Some homeschoolers, though, maintain their enthusiasm throughout the entire school year. They wake up with energy, eager to homeschool their kids another day. They start a new curriculum or subject and actually see it through to completion, year after year.

If you want the same results, incorporate these secrets of homeschool follow through into your routine.

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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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Is Homeschool Lesson Planning Eating Up Your Time?

a woman holds a large clock, obscuring her face

Are you trying to find more hours in the day, unable to find just a few minutes to spend chatting about life with your teenage daughter, play games with your middle school son, or bake cookies with your preschool kids because you’re spending every free moment lesson planning?

Lesson planning can eat up hours a day. There’s the time to research what should be included, find appropriate books, read the books to ensure everything is included. Then you still need to write the lesson plans.

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7 Awesome Tips for Homeschooling a Large Family

Homeschooling a Large Family

7 Awesome Tips for Homeschooling a Large Family

Keeping a large family focused and moving forward while homeschooling is a difficult task. One child wants to play with LEGOs, another child needs to potty train, and yet a third wants you to explain algebra. There are so many needs and so many opinions. How do you juggle it all?

Work from a detailed schedule which begins when you wake up and ends when you go to bed. Time is allotted for chores, meals, playtime, and homeschooling. You’ll never be able to follow the schedule exactly, but the schedule will form the framework of your daily routine. Everything that needs to be done will get done.

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5 Ways to Be a Family of Readers

a stack of hardback picture books

Not all children are born loving to read. Some kids adore it while others merely tolerate it. Some truly hate it. However, reading is a vital skills every child needs to master.

After all, vocabulary is tightly linked to the number of books a child reads through his school career. Kids flounder in high school and college without strong reading skills.

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