Archives for September 2011

Weekend Giveaway: Peace Hill Press

by on September 10, 2011
in giveaways ·

This giveaway has ended and the winner has been contacted via email. Thanks for entering!

Welcome back to another weekend giveaway, hosted this week by Peace Hill Press.

About Peace Hill Press:

“We are a small, family-run company, working together to produce the best materials for classical education the world has ever seen. Our materials provide parents with a rare combination of academic rigor and ease of use.

Many parents rely on The Well-Trained Mind as their homeschooling authority. The book’s authors, Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise, direct Peace Hill Press. They travel the country, speaking to homeschooling parents about the methodology, philosophy, and the daily nuts and bolts of homeschooling in the 21st century.”

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Getting Organized for the Upcoming Year

by on September 7, 2011
in organization · 28 Comments

Written by contributor Renee Tougas of FIMBY.

Many of us are starting a new school year this September even though we aren’t catching the bus to do so.

Our family homeschools year round. For an excellent article on different ways to structure your school year I recommend Toni’s post Creating a Homeschool Schedule.

For record keeping purposes I start our school year the beginning of September and wrap it up at the end of the following August. So for these past couple weeks I have been putting together our family learning portfolio for the 2010-2011 year and getting ready for the 2011-2012 school year.

Today I want to share with you how I organized the planning and record keeping for this upcoming school year. Instead of trying to write it all out and take photos to illustrate I decided to do a video, my first here at Simple Homeschool.
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It’s not about the curriculum you buy.

by on September 5, 2011
in a mom's education · 39 Comments

Written by Jamie Martin, editor of Simple Homeschool and founder of Steady Mom

Last week I began a series called Secrets of a Successful Homeschool Mom. Seasoned homeschooling mamas (& papas!), don’t you ever wish you could go back in time and whisper a few well-chosen pieces of advice in your own inexperienced ear?

That’s what this series is about–reminding us of truths we likely already know or setting those newbies among us up for a strong and joyful beginning.

Last week we talked about the fact that school is not like home, and doesn’t have to be. What a relief when we finally realize we design our learning environment to work for us and our unique needs.

Today we tackle another common misconception in the homeschooling arena: curriculum.

Now you might be thinking, “Isn’t curriculum just a given?” We need to find one, don’t we, or maybe even several for a variety of different subjects.

Well, I have a secret to tell you:
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Overcoming Homeschool Mom Burn-Out

by on September 2, 2011
in inspiration · 38 Comments

Written by contributor Kris of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Homeschool mom burn-out. It’s a horrible feeling. I’ve had bouts with it off and on over the course of our nine-going-on-ten years homeschooling, but never as bad as this last year.

I was done. Wiped out. The last few weeks of our 2010-2011 school year can only be described as “muddling through.”

My kids will all tell you that this summer was the most boring ever. And, they’re probably right. We didn’t do anything remotely educational. We didn’t do much that was even especially fun. There was entirely too much video-game-playing, TV-watching, and Internet-surfing.

And, I can only muster up the tiniest bit of guilt over that because I needed it. I needed a couple of months to decompress.

I didn’t think I would be excited to start school this year. In fact, I was dreading it. However, when the first day started getting close, I was surprised to find that I was excited.

There were three things that I think helped me bounce back:
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