Truthfully there are more than three things that I could list that I’m absolutely loving at this moment, but three seems like a non-overwhelming number to share. :) The below are things we have been using during our homeschool time, two that are new and one that is a favorite and dusted off the shelf for use again this year. 

1. Our new pencil sharpener. It may be an old-fashioned turn-by-hand sharpener, but when our electric one died the first day of school (and caused much wailing from a few children), it was a huge relief when this one showed up from Amazon. I knew our old one was about to go, and it arrived just in time. There are now pencil shavings everywhere and super-sharp pencils on everyone’s desk thanks to children who are more than happy to sharpen everything in sight since this one actually works. 

2. The Cat of Bubastes audio book. If there is one company our family loves listening (and re-listening) to audio books from, it’s Heirloom Audio. The Cat of Bubastes is their latest audio drama focusing on ancient Egypt, set around the time of Moses. We have had this one in the car, and it’s one that everyone enjoys quieting down and focusing on (and laughing, gasping, etc…). There are very few audio books our kids are excited to see and don’t fuss about when they are popped into the CD player, and it is very normal to hear past adventures playing in the kids’ rooms during their rest times.

3. The Draw Write Now series. This set of books has been on our bookshelf for years, but we’ve pulled them off for the boys to use (especially Kaleb) during our history time. For him, it adds in one of his favorite things (drawing) with one of his least favorite (writing), but gives him a chance to practice his handwriting and a small amount of copywork. Right now we’re studying early explorers, so the second book in the series is perfect to go along! We’ve been using our draw and journal printables as we work through the pages and they’ve been perfect. I’m pretty sure we’ve had these books for almost ten years now – well worth the money we paid for them since the kids have used them over and over. 

That’s it for us this week – what are you loving right now?

Before making the decision to homeschool, I taught in the public school system. While the district I worked in was wonderful, I came home first to focus on my family and stayed there when it came time to send our kids to school. The transition from a school setting to homeschool wasn’t always easy. 

Recently I had the FUN of sitting down with Andy (“Fletch”) and Kendra Fletcher from Homeschooling IRL to talk through some of the challenges – and Fletch asked some deeper questions too. If you’ve never visited their site or listened to their podcasts, they are an amazing couple with many more children than our family – and so full of laughter, grace, and wisdom. If they didn’t live in California, well, I’d be hanging out with them a whole lot more. 

In this podcast we talk about a variety of things, including what issues are unique to the classroom, what makes homeschooling different (and sometimes harder), and why not everyone may be equipped to teach every child. 

Head over to LISTEN HERE. 

At some point in the summer it has to be done. For me, the last week and a half have been jam packed full with planning for the upcoming year. Sometime the nitty gritty stuff we have to do has perks and downsides. 

Each year our local homeschool convention is held at the beginning of June. My hubby attended with me this year (typically he comes along every other year), so we looked at curriculum together, sat in on sessions, and it was a great time to purchase up the last bit of curriculum we needed for the upcoming year. It was also a lovely break for the two of us to get away, laugh, and enjoy some quiet without the kiddos. 

Picking up a chemistry book for our oldest was on the frightening side – not because I’m scared of the subject, but all of the emotions that come along with realizing that she is in the final stretch – well, those are a little overwhelming. Hang in there moms with littles – it goes by SO quickly!

Before getting there though, it was a mad dash of pulling together curriculum to sell (can you tell where I was sitting in the pile above??), highlighting any new pieces needing an up-close look, jotting down the best prices, and having our overall scope for the year in place so I wasn’t scrambling at the end. For me, that meant sitting down with a friend to put an overview for our group co-op on paper, mapping out a literature program for one class, and also figuring out history for our boys. Phew!

(And silly me jammed that all into the three days before convention). 

What I (in)conveniently forgot was almost immediately after we returned home from convention, our oldest two set off for a week of service camp in our community – where I also volunteered to help (don’t worry, that van load of snacks isn’t a typical grocery haul for us!). To top it off, swim season is now in full force (did I mention my hubby and I are both VERY active members of the swim team board?). At the moment this all sounds much like complaining – and really, truly, not my heart. Life is full at the moment, and a great kind of very full. 

If you’ve been a long time blog reader, you’ll know that I am typically very intentional about having white space in my calendar, and the place I love to be most is home. Needless to say, the last two weeks have been stretching. A good stretch, but busy and I don’t typically like each other much because that leads to overwhelmed – which is never a fun place to be. 

So tonight, I sit in my happy place of coloring in our schedule for next year, putting in orders for the last two pieces of curriculum, and then curling up with a book to rest for a little bit. 

How are YOU doing?