The day I decided to home school because I needed to adjust my priorities

In the beginning: we sent our oldest child now of 5 off to Kindergarten which was a typical thing you just did with no questions asked. This was the normal around me. I will be honest with you we were inexperienced both working full time jobs unrelated to children. We were naive of the whole experience of education. I won't lie. We had Grandma basically raising our child and running our household while we worked to provide a home for us. Our teacher was a third grade teacher by nature and let us know what complete failures we were as parents. I came home balling just about everyday after picking up our son for educational things I did not do, on top of a long day of working. Our family quickly snapped into catch up mode and tried to reach her demands of educating. We memorized sight words, began to read, worked on our writing and counted to 100. This stuff I considered 1st grade from back in my experiences as a young child. I was so wrong. I was amazed how time has changed our schools. I was lucky we taught him his shapes, colors, ABC's,123's and his written name, That is all I remembered from kindergarten. Kindergarten was much more than I ever expected. 

I had the chance to retire: I retired early with 20 years instead of 30. I took this time to research options of what else was out there in the world for education. We went down to a one income household with my retirement added in. I started on my adventure to home school. Child 2,3,4,5 came along. We went with a eclectic type of Fun-School interest led. I pulled from all resources on the Web to Library to curriculum I researched. My kids were so close in age I began to teach all together. I taught the oldest separate. I stuck with All About Spelling and All About Reading and Harcourt Math. I joined my oldest in for Science, Social Studies and Art, Gym and field trips. I found it was easier to teach 1 group instead of bouncing between all of the children.

If the children are interested they will learn: My daughter was diagnosed with Dyslexia and ADHD At 6 years old. A new door opened for home school for us. I have started to use a work book program called Dyslexic Games and Fun-School Journals From The Thinking Tree. We are working with the kids on what they are good at and what really interest them. I found they retain so much more over a longer period of time this way. My number one mistake was I thought I needed to be like everyone else's home school plan. The fact is that you have to do what is right for your family and find your own natural rhythm.  My quotes that I love the most would be "Learn to love and Love to learn"  and "Forgive yourself often". My best Advice for you would be never to stop learning for your family. Take care of yourself and do things you enjoy also. Read that book. Watch that Movie. Listen to your favorite music.

Book Review

Montgomery Rabbit By Sandy Little Illustrated by David Wenzel 65 pages

Montgomery a cute little lop-eared rabbit who adventures out for the first time from his shady fenced 

in yard. Montgomery has adventures of meeting a new rabbit named Bentley who keeps him aware 

of the exhilarating dangers that Montgomery faces out in the open spaces from his white fenced in 

yard.

Montgomery needed to learn fast about all the new animals that were out in about searching for their

next meal. Montgomery and Bentley were on an adventure to find a raspberry patch that

Montgomery's girl used to feed him. While on their adventures they passed a farm full of animals

that helped them to find the red raspberry patch across the pond. In all the excitement of

Montgomery's adventure he found his girl who would feed him red raspberries together at last.

Sandy Little gave this book to Smith Home School for our honest opinion and signed the copy of 

Montgomery Rabbit. We so love the story and what we take from it is people/animals can learn from

each other.

Having some fun with a new chalk marker medium Chalkola

Chalkola Chalk Markers

DIY' Selfers, Who hasn't wanted to draw on their large living room window in a festive holiday spirit? We are starting to celebrate Valentines Day with the children and begin talking about the love that God has for us. I found Chalk Markers from Chalkola. Here is an absolutely neat product that I used last night for the first time.

We had so much fun! These markers are:

* child safe 

* water based 

* non-toxic 

* washes off from cloths 

* low odor 

*acid free 

* ethylene free 

* quick dry 

* long lasting 

The Kids and I made their spaces their own with chalk markers on chalk board non stick labels. Connor dared me to draw a Valentine tree on our big living room window. I did! Chalkola chalk marker worked perfect. My mistakes, which were many cleaned up wonderfully. 

 These markers were given to us by Chalkola for our honest opinion. I would in fact purchase many more Chalkola colors. I am going to try these chalk markers in my coloring journal with a paint brush next. Do I have to share with the kids? Chalkola is artist quality. This product gave us a new medium to explore with colors.

https://www.facebook.com/chalkola/

http://www.amazon.com/Premium-Chalk-Markers-…/…/ref=sr_1_52…

 6mm Pens 

USA -  http://www.amazon.com/Chalkola-Chalk-Markers-Chalkboard-Whiteboard/dp/B00PM473TK

UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chalk-Pens-markers-Whiteboard-Chalkboard/dp/B00VVOWCSC

20% Off on Amazon US & UK - Coupon -> “CHALK20A”

And here is the main link - Our Website

http://www.chalkola.com/

Blue Manor Academy Christian Preschool/Kindergarten Curriculum

Come and learn about your colors with us!

Meet Aidan our 4 years old. I was thinking/contemplating sending Aidan to preschool at our local church or peruse to use Blue Manor Christian Preschool curriculum. Aidan and 

the rest of our family also benefited from reading the Color

book. I even found myself enjoying these brightly colored 

wonderful E books. I found that we all had enjoyed and

been reading and participating in each book. I setup for each book we used this week and put a little 

activity to run along with each book, Which was

wonderful to see my children wanting to use the 

curriculum. Aidan has truly enjoyed himself this week.

We are currently adding more to our Ebooks to our library! 

We have just added the Christian Kindergarten Curriculum for Logan age 5.Which wasn't very expensive at all.

You can purchase either set for $29.99. The parent guide does just that guides you into being successful with your child. A wonderful useful tool. When your like me.

http://bluemanoreducation.com/how-to-teach-your-child-to-read/?ap_id=Smithhomeschool

Logan's favorite out of all the books are Drawing 1 and Drawing 2. Logan has a love with how machines work and loves to capture them working. There are 2 drawing books between the two sets pages upon pages of quality reliable eBook books to inspire education and creativity blossoming as we speak. 

Connor and the kids laid in bed and just talked and talked about the different dogs and their uses and which one was their favorite dog. hat dog would be good for our families life style. The Dog book sparked and promoted so much more conversation between the kids than any other book we sat down to read.  Blue Manor Academy Christian Preschool Curriculum  along with 

Christian Kindergarten Curriculum has my family sold. I 

love the curriculum books so much I offered and wanted to

become an affiliate to help bring these books into your 

home. These smiling faces say it all. It is Fun-School at 

our house. When the children are interested they will learn.

http://bluemanoreducation.com/how-to-teach-your-child-to-read/?ap_id=Smithhomeschool

Dogs E book

Fitness E book

How do you keep God Time In teens busy schedules? Bible Time Journal from The Thinking Tree

Last Tuesday I was sitting in one of our church routine meetings and the topic of how do you get older teens to stay involved with their devotions in a busy world. Our teens come to church participate in youth activities. This Sunday, couple Sunday's from now later. We hand them a free bible and say welcome we are glad you are here then let them go in hopes they will return more regularly. In the mean time their busy schedules of school and their first job comes into play into their busy schedules. I immediately thought it was a no brainier these are God fearing christian teens lets take a home school approach to their busy lives where if they can not attend services in person they can watch online and do an awesome Home Bible Time Journal that explores and helps them Through the the New Testament in 90 days.This Brightly colored Devotional Coloring Bible Time Journal should accompany every teen out into the world.

A Bible Study of the New Testament in 90 days. 

I found beautifully illustrated art work to inspire reflection while coloring the pages through great passages along with favorite verses. I myself learned as a child of God. This book would be a great addition to your home bible study or teen on the go. I have also found that they make wonderful gifts for my mother in law, husband, family, friends and co workers. A wonderful book Bible Time Journal is brought to you by The Thinking Tree and can be purchased through Amazon for $14.99 In three different covers.

 A wonderful book Bible Time Journal is brought to you by The Thinking Tree and can be purchased through Amazon for $14.99 In three different covers.

Welcome to our Journey homeschooling while farmsteading

Welcome to our large family! We are your traditional home school/ Fun School/Eclectic/Farmsteading/book loving/animal loving family of bloggers. Our family is on a journey to home school our 5 children while farming and raising our own food. It is our goal to review curriculum, products, learning resources and crafts to give you a household family of 9 honest solid review on the chosen product and how it worked for us. Our family consist of 5 children 22,8,6,5,4 and 4 adults grandma, sister, husband along with myself all live under one roof and we make it work! We will show how amazing life with home school children can be. The learning my children have been receiving is of great compassion and life skills. We learn to love and love to learn.