Planning a school year can be quite challenging. Being a person who loves organization and one who needs things written down, I find that having a paper planner is what I need.  Every year I strive to find one that will work great and leave nothing to be desired.  What I usually end up with is a half used planner!  One year I won one in a giveaway, I was so excited about it!  But I really didn't use it, I found it hard to navigate and it just did not have everything I wanted all in one place.  So the following year I decided to just create my own.  That was the best planner I have used!

Once again this year I decided to try and find one that would work for all of my kids and that would have everything in one place.  I looked at wonderful planners that seemed great in theory, but I know myself and I know that I wouldn't use it to its full potential.  I looked at Donna Young's site and she has an amazing amount of items for free.  But in the end I just didn't find one that I liked and would work for all three of my kids.

My criteria in a planner includes: space for planning for all three kids, space to plan for our together subjects, a yearly plan, monthly calendars, field trip logs, a place to record all of the books we read together, and it needs to look pretty!   Once I realized I wasn't going to find exactly what I wanted, I decided to get a little creative and play around a bit.  I came up with one that I think will work wonderfully for my family this upcoming school year.

This is how I plan to use the planner, first I will print out the following pages:  cover page, all of the calendar pages (doing front and back), course of study (one per child),  the planning pages to go in a two page spread (once again front and back), field trip log, book log, and the year in review.  Once that is done I will 3 hold punch them and place them in a 1/2 inch 3 ring binder.  I like to use the small binder because it's easier to handle.  I put the cover page inside the clear plastic insert on the front and ta-da a pretty planner all set to be filled up with great things this coming school year!

This is my first time sharing a free printable!  I have spent a lot of time creating a planner that I think will work well for my family and I thought I would share what I have come up with you!  Please feel free to share with your friends, but make sure to send them back to my blog to get their own!  Thanks so much!


The 2015 Homeschool planner includes:

• 2 Different Cover Pages
• 2 page spread planning pages for either 3 children with a spot to plan for together subjects or you can use it for 4 children 
• Year In Review
• Book Log
• Field Trip Log
• Calendar with months August 2015 thru July 2016 
• Course of Study 

  

Download the 2015 Homeschool Planner Here

A Soul On Fire

Dating back to my early high school years I have had a love for the band Third Day.  I am not really sure when this love started but I know that I was initially introduced to them by my older brother.  He was all about the Christian Rock bands of the early 90's era.

My first Third Day concert took place in an old theater downtown.  This theater was awesome! One of those that was built in the 1920's, maybe earlier.  Anyway, I went to this concert with some friends and was also intending to see another friend who was there with her Junior High youth group.  So I went down and said hello to her.  Now let's flash forward about 3 years, and in the dating stage with my now husband and we were talking about our love for Third Day and this concert that we went to.  Come to find out he was a chaperone with that Junior High group!

I am saying all of this to say that Third Day plays a special part in my relationship to my spouse, and it is about the only music group that we both like!  So today I am so excited to share with you their newest hit song, Soul On Fire!  This song is amazing!  The acoustic sound is awesome!  AND it's Third Day!!!  I hope you enjoy it and are encouraged to have a soul that is on fire for the Lord of All!

Week In Review

The countdown continues!  One more week down, 5 to go!  The summer itch is hitting us hard, I am so anxious to be done.  Part of that might be the fact that my parents will be here in about 3 weeks and there is much to do to prepare!  You saw my house the other day, that is not parent ready!  I have always been one that works well under pressure though, so it will get done just probably not until the last minute.

This week's preschool theme was Monsters!   We had a great time doing our monster activities.  This little pack I got from 1+1+1=1, and it was just perfect for my little guy.  I had a horrible time finding appropriate books to go along with this theme though.  So we ended up just reading some cute little stories and using some books we had.  The books I chose this week were Go To Bed, Monster! by Natasha Wing, Animal ABC by Marcus Pfister, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff and Dr. Seuss's ABC.  He loved all of those books!

For Noah this week I had to get a little creative.  All About Reading includes fluency sheets after almost every lesson.  We really slacked on them this year because they were so daunting for him, but I realized recently just how important they are!  So I spiced it up a bit for him, using some ideas from All About Reading, we did a Feed The Monster Game!  He loved this!  It made the reading fluency sheets not so intimidating for him.

In geography we have been in Russia this week.  For a fun craft we made Russian Nesting Dolls.  I was a little behind in my planning and wasn't sure how the boys would like the doll craft, but I didn't have any other ideas.  So I found one on Pinterest and went for it.  Only Noah took part and he really enjoyed it!  Elijah didn't want anything to do with it, but he really isn't into crafting much, and only wants to color when its something he's interested in.

Finally here a few more shots from our week:

My Real Life

Sometimes it's easy to get into a funk, and think that everyone else has it all together!  That was me last night as I was struggling with dinner for my family.  I had a pretty hectic day, and forgot to set out some chicken to thaw for our dinner, so at dinner time it was still frozen!  So my next option was popcorn chicken from the freezer along with the last of our french fries and to make it healthy I threw in some apples.  In my mind I'm thinking 'This is the worst dinner ever!' and 'I'm the worst mom ever!!'.  No one was complaining or anything, in fact they actually probably preferred that to what I was going make!

Later in the evening when I got on the computer after the kids were in bed I saw this great Keepin' It Real post from My Joy-Filled Life.  Oh. My. Goodness.  Did that make me feel so much better!!! I am not a great housekeeper, in fact I actually hate to clean!  My house isn't dirty, but it is in a constant state of mess.

Anyway, I immediately felt the need to do my own Keeping' It Real Post!  So here ya go, my REAL life!  This is what my home looks like at this very moment!

The Kitchen/Dining Room:

This is our dining table, it does usually have cups, and
other odds and ends on it.  And if you could look even closer
you would see the cereal pile up under the table.

The ever loaded sink!  At least they are clean dishes!

Living Room/Coat Closet:

The ever messy coat closet!  I can't
wait to get those winter things put
away!

The tub that I used earlier to switch out some clothes
for my middle son.  Yes, that is actually mostly my
mess!  I'm as guilty as the kids in this room.

Master Bedroom:

This is the worst part!  Our dresser, filled
with a bunch of who knows what!  A basket of my
crocheting, our curriculum for next year.  And hidden in
corners of this room you will find boxes that have yet
to be unpacked!  We moved in October!

The bed is "made", not really though,
a basket of clothes that is ready to get
passed along to a friend, and an empty
clothes basket!  What you can't see is the amount
of dust piling up on the side tables.

My Oldest Sons Bedroom:

He's a 10 year old boy, enough said!

The Other Two Boys' Room:

Once again, they are 7 and 3!  As hard as I try it just
always looks like this!

Our Basement Family Room:

  This is why we are doing some major purging!
They have way too many things!

Yes it does always look like this!  I make them clean
it once a week, but it just goes back to looking
like this in a matter of hours!

Our Schoolroom/Storage Room:

My desk!  Always a mess!  I have papers
that need graded, preschool items that are
needing to be cut out, and anything else that
manages to make its way on to it!

This is actually pretty neat right now, they boys
desks were pretty well cleaned off.   Definitely not to my
pre kid standards, but the floor is picked up, so I'm
happy!

Oh, storage room!  How you need a
major overhaul!  When we moved in I just
threw things into it, and didn't organize it very
well.  That is a major summer project just waiting
to happen!

Well that was very cleansing!  That is a pretty clear picture as to how my house looks at most times!  We do a whole house clean up once a week, and that is usually on Fridays.  I hope you feel encouraged to see this real look into what our home is like.  Don't forget to hop on over to My Joy-Filled Life and see other bloggers real homes too!

You can also join in the fun through Instagram!  Just follow along with this challenge in the graphic below!  Don't forget to use the hashtag #KeepinItRealHomeTour so others can find you!

Feel free to add your link to this Blog Hop!  I'd love to see your real homes!

An InLinkz Link-up

Taste and See that the Lord is Good!

To begin this week, I'd like to encourage you to look for ways that the Lord has blessed you!  Instead of turning to complaining, let's taste and see that the Lord is good!!  

Here are my top 5 Blessings that I've found over the past few weeks:

Blessing 1)  Healthy, happy boys, who are full of spunk and excitement!

Blessing 2)  Vehicles that run!  We may not have new, shiny vehicles but they run and get us to where we need to be!

Blessing 3)  For a church family that is always there to encourage us in times of trials!

Blessing 4)  A home!  It might not be in the part of the country we would like, but we are choosing to be thankful and content where we are, and pray that they Lord opens doors to move us soon.

Blessing 5)  A husband that works hard for our family at a job that he doesn't particularly care for.

This area of seeking blessings is something I tend to struggle with and I am working hard at really searching for the blessings rather than turing to complaining and grumbling!

Week In Review

Hello again!!  We are wrapping up another homeschool week!  We are down to about 5 or 6 weeks left in our school year.  I can't believe that we are almost done, and at the same time I can't wait to be done!!

Our preschool theme this week was The Farm.  This pack I got from 2TeachingMommies and I think she collaborated with 1+1+1=1.  We read three books each day, they were Animal Hide and Seek from Usborne, The Farm Book by Jan Pfloog, and Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown.  He loved all three of them!!  Here is a look at what we did this week.

First, on day 1 we worked on a Lauri Farm Puzzle, the he did another barn puzzle, we worked on size sequencing with tractors, he colored the farm animals, we did a Melissa and Doug farm puzzle, we practiced the animal sounds using Melissa and Doug farm animal magnets, and last we counted the farm animals.

On Day 2, we began with heads and tails animal matching, then we did the tractor size sequencing again, we played a farm animal matching game, and we also practiced the animal sounds again and worked both puzzles.  In that last picture in the left hand corner I caught him reading a Curious George book to himself, he said the whole story almost perfectly!!  

Noah this week has worked really hard on his reading, he learned that 5 letters make more than one sound!  I was surprised at how quickly he caught on to it.  I am also moving towards him picking books on his own to read to me.  We went to the library this week and I had him pick out three books that he would read to me.  He came home with four!  I am so excited to see his enthusiasm pick up towards reading.

Another area that we are working on, is him writing his own sentences.  I haven't pushed him too hard in this area because writing has been a struggle but I feel we are to the point that he can be pushed a little bit.  Plus I told him that if he wrote his own sentence he wouldn't have to do a handwriting page.  So he has been writing his own summary sentences for our Bible story time.  He dictates it to me first and then I write it down, then he copies it.  Soon we will move on to him just writing it himself.  I wanted to give him a boost of confidence first before I just threw him into writing.  

Here he is copying some letters of the Greek Alphabet.

Elijah has been moving forward in his Spelling, and I was able to catch a few photos of him this week.  He tends to hide from the camera and doesn't care to have his picture taken! Especially while doing school work!  

We are continuing studying about Japan this week, and we wrote some Haiku poems.  The kids had fun with that, and it was a great day to be outside.  Unfortunately I forgot to get the camera out and photograph them!  Oh well they came up with some cute ones!

We also used our last Book It coupon this week, actually it was the only one we used this year!!  Some how the year got away from me and we never used the coupons that they earned!  

Yes, they are playing checkers with the sugar packets!  At first we were using
the straw wrappers but the waitress suggested the sugar packets!  What a
great idea!!

That was our crazy week!  I hope you enjoyed this little peek into how our schooling went this week.  How was your week?  Has spring fever set in yet?  I know we are going crazy and ready to be done with school and play outside all day!

A Day In the Life

Every year I like to explore my day a bit deeper.  For me, that is doing A Day in the Life post.  It's so fun to go back and take a peek at how my life has changed.  Like last year I had a 9 year old, 6 year old and 2 year old.  My day looks totally different now than it did then!  I tried to get at detailed as possible with out being too boring, I hope you enjoy this little glance into what my day is like.

This was a Tuesday, and this was a pretty typical day for us.

7:15  Kids woke up, and kinda wandered around for a bit before they got dressed and had breakfast

7:20  I actually got out of bed and began my getting ready process
7:45  Zach is crying, so I go to find out why, and it turned out that Noah told him it wasn't time to get up yet and so they were in their room.  I proceeded to tell him he could get up and then he of course wanted me to help him get dressed.  Once that was done, I got him his breakfast and he began to eat.
7:54  On my way back to my bedroom to finish getting ready, I poke my head in and tell Elijah to get up, this is very unusual for him because he is usually up and dressed by this point, but oh well! We are getting to those pre-teen sleeping in days.
8:05 I sit down to begin my morning devotions, get interrupted a few times before I take my self in to our bathroom and turn the fan on to drown out the children being crazy!  Once again not very typical, they usually leave me alone, but since I had been out of the room already that tends to stir the pot!

8:17 Finish devotions and head to the kitchen for my breakfast.
8:30  Finish breakfast and look at my menu to see what is scheduled for dinner, its spaghetti so that's good to know that I don't have to do any prep ahead of time for that.
8:45 we get ready to take Zach to preschool, he begins his day there at 9.

9:10 Back home and we begin our school day.
9:15 Science, we talked about Estuaries.
9:30  Help Elijah with his English.  During this time Noah is playing in the other room

9:45   I begin Math with both of them.

10:15  I do History and Reading with Noah, he is learning to write his own summary sentences, which he did very well on for the first try!  Elijah is off playing in the other room at this point because he finished his math.

10:45  Spelling, Elijah was having a really bad attitude so this lesson was cut short and he ended up just writing his words.
10:50 until 11:15  I take some time to chill out before heading to get Zach, the boys are just playing at this point.  We are in the process of cleaning out some toys, books, and such so I took this time to get those listed in our local Facebook group.
11:17  Head out the door to get Zach from preschool, it ends at 11:30.
11:45  We eat lunch, Elijah usually takes care of his own, he prefers eating leftovers over sandwiches, the other two prefer peanut butter and jelly.  So after getting them all settled I prepare my lunch which today was leftovers from last nights dinner.  Usually I will make a smoothie or not eat anything.  I know very bad!!
12:10  I begin trying to wrangle Zach to finish his lunch so we can get on with his nap time routine.
12:15  Success!!  He is getting settled down for his story time and cuddle time.
12:25  Zach is in his room now until about 3:30 or so.  He can rest or play as long as he stays in his room.
12:30 I begin geography with the older boys, we are learning about Japan so we learned a few new phrases in Japanese.
12:45  Now its time for our Read Aloud, I read two picture books to Noah, and then we continue in Gladys Alward.
1:05  Finally its my quiet afternoon time, the older boys play quietly in the basement while I do my Bible reading, blogging, and whatever else I need to get done.

The rest of our afternoon will proceed like this:
3:00 They get a snack and are allowed to watch an hour of TV
4:00  My hubby usually gets home about this time and we try to have some quiet time to talk together while the kiddos play.
5:00  I begin making dinner and we are usually eating about 5:30
6:00  Is bath time for the boys
7:30  Bed time for all of the boys, Elijah is allowed to stay up until about 8:30 or 9 reading.

That is a pretty typical day!   If you can call any day in the life of a family typical!  I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse!

A Peek into Our Curriculum for Next Year

I have been very busy the last few months planning what we will be using next year.  We are going to be taking a step away from what we have been using, which is My Fathers World.  For no other reason than we will be joining a Co Op that contains a lot of the some things that are in My Fathers World.  So rather than spend a bunch of money on that curriculum to just use one component of it, we decided to try something different!  I am so excited to see how this will work!

Here is a rundown of what we will be using for each subject and each child.

All Together Subjects:
History:
The Mystery of History Vol. 1

Science:
Apologia Astronomy (This is a Co-Op subject)
Elijah will use the Notebooking Journal
Noah will use the Jr. Notebooking Journal

Bible:
Apologia Who Is God?
Elijah will use the Notebooking Journal
Noah will use the Jr. Notebooking Journal
Zach will use the Coloring Book

Elijah:
English- Learning Language Arts Through Literature the Purple Book
               Contains: Reading,  Book Studies, Spelling, Grammar, and Writing, I am trying to simplify         this for him next year by using an all in one language arts curriculum.
Math- Teaching Textbooks 5 We are switching from Math U See to get him more independent in his work. 
Spanish- (Will be done at Co-Op not too sure what book he will be using yet)
Typing- Typing Instructor, unless I find something different.
Computer Programming using online sites
Possibly he will be learning to play an instrument,  we haven't decided quite yet though, this would be done at Co-Op as well.

Noah:
All About Reading Level 2
All About Spelling Level 1
Handwriting-  A Reason For Handwriting Book B
Math- Math U See Beta
Spanish- (Will be done at Co-Op not too sure what book will be used yet)
Typing- Typing Instructor
Computer Programming using online sites
Music Class- (Will be done at Co-Op, using the recorder)

Zach:
Literature Based Units
Alphabet Based Units
Handwriting Without Tears- My First School Book

At Co-Op they will have the opportunity to be in a Lego Club.  I am also looking into some sort of physical education program or something that I could use to get them moving more.  Stay tuned for more information about what our school year will look like next year!  I am working on improving our schedule and streamlining our day a bit.

My Homeschool Convention Overview

This past weekend was our local homeschool convention!  What a great day of encouragement!  I feel refreshed and ready to take on the next year!  I got so many good tips to use with my boys and had some great fellowship with other homeschool moms.

Here are my top 5 take aways from this weekends convention:

5)  You Can't Do it ALL!  Simplify your schedule, your home, and your children's education!  With our schedule I need to learn to say no or at least "not right now".  Get rid of the non essentials in our day.  For our home, we need to clear the clutter!  No need to hang on to things just because we might need them "one day".  The less things in our home, the more clear our minds will be to think on the important things.  In our children's education, I need to remember to ask myself "Is it best for my child, or is it just good for me?"





4)  Boys learn differently!  How can I motivate them?  First of all I need to make sure they get enough sleep, cardiovascular exercise, and lots of water!  I need to challenge them with real life projects that get them thinking and processing using their hands.  Most importantly I need to inspire and believe in them!



3)  Learn my children's learning style.  Are they visual, auditory, or kinesthetic?  For my kids I know that I have one very kinesthetic learner.  For him I got some great ideas to try, for instance, while listening to a lesson he may need to be using his hands doing something.  That something needs to be mindless and repetitive, such as silly putty.  Showing a picture of a person before reading a history lesson will give that visual learner something to focus on while listening to the story.



2)  Sometimes it's just better to be quiet and let them process!  I have a tendency to want quick answers, especially when I know they know something.  I learned that it's good to just give them quiet space to think it through.  Their brains process things a little slower sometimes, and that's ok.  The more you let them come to answers on their own, the better their brain will get at processing        information.




1)  We need to Tame the Techno Beast!  Technology in and of itself is not the enemy!  How much time and how soon we introduce it to our children is important!  Limits need to be set, filters need to be in place and timers need to be used!  We are a huge technology family, we have iPhones, iPads, 2 laptops, and one desktop computer.  My 3 year old is pretty good at navigating our phones and iPads. Our conviction this weekend was to set limits and stick to them!  We will step up and be parents when it comes to this area.


Those are some great starting points for me to begin planning our school year!  I feel so encouraged and ready to go!

Something to Lift Your Spirits Today

I feel like I always need a little bit of encouragement and a push to a better attitude by Monday afternoon.  Monday's are a hard day in our house!  It is usually filled with kids that don't want to work on their school work, at least 5 loads of laundry, a house that is a mess from the weekend, and every other week we have our small group on Monday evenings.  All that put together can make for a pretty hectic day.

I love being ministered to through music!   I can not sing to save my life, but I love music!  So this weeks encouragement is another song that speaks encouragement to me.

It's Multiplied by NeedtoBreathe.  Love this one!!  It talks about the love of Christ being like radiant diamonds!  What a clear picture of how amazing Christ's love is for us!  I hope you enjoy this and that it lifts up your spirits on this Monday afternoon!

Week In Review

Our preschool theme this week was Curious George/ Monkeys.  He loves the Curious George books so I got a lot of those from the library and even found some that were centered around baseball (which he loves!).  This unit I found at One Little Two Little, and we made a tot book to go along with it.

We made a Monkey paper bag puppet, he did a puzzle, shadow matching, and counting.

We traced a line to get George to the Man with the Yellow Hat, he colored shapes in a booklet, we did ABC's with George, we repeated the puzzle, and he did a coloring page.

One little mistake I made was that I put the tot book together before I had him finish everything and it was pretty difficult for him to do some of the activities.  But here are some pictures of the finished Tot Book that we put together.

Noah this week has been learning about plural words, and we have done a lot of reviewing in his reading.  He only has six lessons left and he is really excited about finishing up!

In our geography studies we traveled to Japan this week.  We learned the art form of origami!  I had a lot of fun but my boys didn't care for it too much!

I have been teaching Elijah to take responsibility when he wants something.  In doing so he is responsible for doing his own laundry, and he's also learning to use the stove with supervision.  This week he learned how to make his own mac and cheese.

Don't mind the disaster of a kitchen, it looks like this all the time!

Elijah also did some achievement testing this week, so his schooling was a bit short.  This was the first time he had taken any sort of achievement test, and I was happy to hear that he thinks he knew most of what was on the test.  So we will see!  

I hope you have a great weekend!  I know I will!!  It's homeschool convention time for me tomorrow!