It is that time of year when everyone is planning and preparing to give their children the best year yet. There's talk online and off about the resources and curriculum that will be used in specific households.  Well, I am adding my two cents to the conversation.

Preparing for the upcoming school year is underway in our home.  I am finding myself perusing the weekly sale fliers along with other methods to keep our home schooling budget as low as possible.  Over the years, I have found a few simple techniques to help me make sure we have things we need and a few of our wants to make our learning environment enjoyable.

MySchoolYear (homeschool record planning) has already proved itself useful since we have been using it for our summer semester.  We don’t use as many resources in the summer, but the girls continue to complete lessons primarily online, and we have also been doing art and history.  I appreciate that I am able to type in a segment of lessons, and the program evenly distributes it over a course of days.  This capability alone makes the transition to digital worth because I no longer have to write each individual lesson down, and if I make a mistake it is just a swipe of the mouse and a click of a button to fix the mistake. 

When we began our home school journey, I was in my late 20s.  I hadn't considered home educating my daughters much until I started home educating them.  Luckily, I have a very supportive husband who doesn't mind my go with the flow ways. 

We tend to go on several field trips throughout the year, and what I have learned that the girls do not always remember things from each outing.  I know this is normal because I don't know anyone who remembers everything they learned in a visit to a place.  For this visit, I decided I would help them retain a bit of information by having them bring a Field Trip Reflection page which I created. Upon arriving at the Parthenon, I had them write down a few questions about what they wanted to learn on this field trip.  The main question was "What is the Parthenon?"

Kwik Stix is unique because they allow the artist to enjoy painting with the hassle of the mess.  I know messes can be fun for the artist, but sometimes this mama is not in the mood to clean up paint from the tables and wash the many paintbrushes.  Kwik Stix tempera paint comes in a tube similar to a glue stick.  How cool is that?  I wish that I had known about this product when the girls were a little younger although they both have enjoyed using the Kwik Stix to create a variety of art projects.