Best Homeschool Maps

I've found the BEST maps ever to use in our homeschool. I've honestly had these maps on my radar for about 2yrs I am happy to be adding these into our homeschool routine. Having maps on the wall isn't an option for us with the limited space we have. Paper maps are also not an option because I don't have time to fold the maps properly. 

Scrunch Maps

I found these
maps on the Timberdoodle website. I love that these are affordable and don't take up much space. These maps are also water and tear-resistant and this is a must for someone with children. I will link the USA and World maps here. The USA map is also part of the 5th-grade curriculum kit and the World map is part of the 1st-grade kit. I made a video for you so you can get a nice look at these maps. I will leave the video below.

Disclaimer

I recieved these products for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Homeschool Changes

Good morning, friends! I'm up early before the kids so I thought this would be a good time to get some work done. I haven't used my blogger account in such a long time but I am happy to be back. I was using a paid WordPress account but I didn't like it as much as I like this. Anyhow, back to the purpose of this post.

Homeschool Changes for 2019/2020

I have been wanting to make some changes in our homeschool for a while and I am so excited to finally be doing that this coming year. I have high hopes that these changes will be a positive one for my kids as well as my myself. I have a video explaining all these changes.

5 Homeschooling Mistakes I Have Made

What better way to embarrass myself than to share some mistakes I have made in homeschooling. (hahaha)
I wanted to share these mistakes with you so you can learn from some of the things I did. Also, I wanted to show that you are not alone in making mistakes. Here we go, my 5 homeschooling mistakes I have made.


1. Rushing my son to read.
In my first year of homeschooling, I was so concerned with keeping my son on track with what kids his age are doing. All this did was bring stress into his time for learning. He was scared to make a mistake and when he did make a mistake I got annoyed. I was worried that if he wasn't doing exactly what kids in public school could do that it meant I was failing as a homeschooler. Oh, how I was mistaken.

I am now much more relaxed and my son has since made some huge improvements in reading.


2. Stick to the curriculum
For whatever reason, I thought I had to stick to the curriculum and not wonder. My children would want to learn about something else but I was so focused on what the curriculum laid out that I didn't let them explore topics they wanted.


3. Not taking breaks.
Everyone has a bad day, including kids. Instead of allowing them to have a break on their bad days, I pushed them through their lessons. This didn't do anyone a favor and often times ending up with someone crying.
Breaks are a good thing!



4. Buying into others opinions about curriculums.
I have wasted money in buying curriculum just because a blogger recommended it. I didn't do any research of my own but blindly trusted the opinion of someone else. I have since come to learn to not do this.


5. Comparing.
This is my number 1 mistake! I have compared my homeschool to others homeschool and my children to their children. Don't go down this road. It leads to stress, discouragement, and even bitterness. If you have a hodgepodge unscheduled type of homeschool and it works for your family, then you just go ahead and do that. 


There you have it, 5 homeschooling mistakes I have made. I hope you can learn from these as I did. I would love to hear from you in the comments, what are some mistakes you have made?

The Good and The Beautiful Controversy | My Personal Thoughts

If you are using The Good and The Beautiful homeschool curriculum or have been thinking about it then I'm sure you know somewhat about what is going on. If not, here is a basic rundown.
The Good and The Beautiful is a non-denominational curriculum produced by Jenny Phillips. One of the issues some homeschoolers are having with this is that the creator is a member of the Latter Day Saints.

My family and I personally use the curriculum, and we love it. I have yet to come across anything about the Mormon religion. TGTB does a wonderful job keeping the curriculum non-denominational. I know of many other homeschoolers who love this curriculum as well.

So, here are my thoughts on all of this. I think it is great to read reviews and hear the thoughts of others when it comes to a curriculum, but they are all just opinions. We should take opinions with a grain of salt and form our own decisions. Believe me, I am guilty of following along with what someone else is doing, and it always ends up not working out for me. You should do what works best for your children.

As far as the religious beliefs of Jenny herself, it doesn't bother me. I am careful about all curriculum, books, and tv shows that I allow my Children to view/use. As parents, we should all be careful about what we use and not be blind even if the creator of the material has the same convictions that we have. Curriculums are simply a tool we use in our homeschool and it should never rule our lives. The reviews and opinions of others should only help guide us, not make a decision for us. (that includes my opinions)

Those are my thoughts on this topic. We do plan to use TGTB in the school year to come. I also plan to have a more detailed review of TGTB on my blog in the very near future. Make sure you subscribe to my blog and follow me on my social media accounts so you don't miss anything!

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5 Tips to Start Your Homeschool

I get messages and comments almost daily asking about homeschooling and how to get started. When I decided to homeschool I had so many questions and really didn't know where to turn. So, in this post, I will lay out some great resources in getting started and different things you can do to start your homeschool journey. Here are my 5 tips in getting started with homeschooling your kids.

1. Research your State laws.
You need to know what your state requires of homeschool families. States are all different and have different laws. Some require testing, keeping track of hours, or schooling for 180 days. It's important to know what your State will need from you. HSLDA is a wonderful place to find all that information.

2. Get Connected.
One of the first things I did when I decided to homeschool was to find local Facebook groups. I just typed in the name of my town and added the word "

homeschool" after it. I found a few groups and made some valuable connections. I learned about the different programs our community had to offer for homeschooling families. I also made some great friends.

3. Educational approach.
There are so many different types of homeschool methods. I recommend trying to figure out how you want to homeschool so you can easily narrow down your search for curriculum. Here are some methods to help get you started.
Unschooling
Eclectic
Charlotte Mason
Classical
Waldorf
Montessori
Online Schooling

(It's okay if you identify with more than one of these approaches)

4. Curriculum
This is where homeschooling can get overwhelming. There are tons of curriculum choices out there and they all range in different prices. Don't let this part stress you out. Before I bought any curriculum I watched YouTube videos and read online reviews. I checked out prices and made a list of all the things I would need. It helps to know how your child learns best so you can tailor their curriculum to best fit their needs. I will leave some links below of places you can find curriculum at.
Timberdoodle
Rainbow Resources
Christain Book

There are many other sites you can use, including Amazon. The three I shared are the ones that I personally use the most.

5. Relax
Homeschooling can be whatever you want it to be for your family. If you are pulling your kids from public school, take some time to unwind from it. Your homeschool does not need to be like public school or someone else's homeschool. Do what works for you and your children. Chances are you will change up your schedule and even curriculum choices throughout the years of homeschooling. It's all okay! It helps to have some good homeschool mom friends to help encourage you through these times.

I hope you found this helpful. If you did, go ahead and give it a share! Thanks for reading.

Why We Chose Baby Led Weaning

 

Co-sleeping, attachment parenting, and crunchy mom are just a few labels for different ways of parenting. I prefer not to use any of these but instead just do what works for our family and kids. This brings me to the topic of baby led weaning.

When I first heard about it I had no idea what it was. I assumed it just meant you let the baby decide when they are ready to eat food and wean from breastfeeding. I was kind of wrong. Baby led weaning is offering baby foods that they feed to themselves. You don't puree anything and you don't feed them baby food. You instead cut food into strips and let the baby feed themselves. Sound scary? Yeah, I thought so too.

I didn't plan to do baby led weaning. In fact, I bought everything I needed to make and store all my own homemade baby food. But when it came time for my baby to eat food, she refused it. She would smack the spoon away from her face and refuse to open her mouth. I figured she just wasn't ready for solid foods and decided that we would wait a little longer. A few weeks would pass and I would try it again, she still refused.

This battle went on for weeks. I finally decided to just give over and try baby led weaning. I read up on it as much as I could and even joined a great facebook group to learn more. After making myself more familiar with BLW, we gave it a try.

We started out with avocados and it was a huge success! She took a few bites of it and played a lot with it. She had fun! There was a learning curve for my baby on how to chew food and swallow it. She did gag a lot, but she never chocked. She was slow moving with BLW. Sometimes she just wanted to play with her food, but we kept offering it to her.

Eventually, Raegan started to eat without gagging and she learned how to chew her food. She is 10 months old and feeds herself very well. She likes all types of foods but loves anything that has carbs! (Girl after my own heart.)

All of that to say, we chose BLW because it is what worked best for our baby. There are so many benefits to BLW and if we have another baby we would probably do BLW again.

If you are interested in doing BLW with your baby, I highly recommend doing some research first. There are some things you do need to know before you start and some safety factors to consider. Here is the facebook group I joined that is full of very useful information, tips, recipes, and even encouragement. The group is named Baby Led Weaning for Beginners & Beyond (BLWBB)

Weight Loss

I want to be honest and transparent in my writing. Even though this is embarrassing to admit, I weigh over 200lbs. I'm not confident to reveal my actual weight, but a few weeks ago, I was the heaviest I have ever been. (not including pregnancy weight) 

Of course, this weight gain didn't happen overnight. It's taken me 13yrs, 6 pregnancies, a miscarriage, a stillborn, losing my mom and sister, and lots of depression to get here. Naturally, I can't expect the weight to come off overnight. I know it's going to take a lot of hard work and I am finally prepared for it.

I started to lose weight in April. That is when I finally got serious about this. It's May now and I am still sticking with it. I am very proud of myself! I have been sharing my weight loss journey on Instagram and have gotten messages asking what I am doing. So, let's dive into that question.

I am not following a program, taking supplements, or following a specific workout routine. I am doing things slowly and changing my lifestyle so things will stick and become a habit. I am still breastfeeding, so I am carefully making sure that what I do does not affect my milk supply. I'm ready for a change, and so far it is working.

I try to eat a low carb diet. I limit sugary foods and eat smaller portions of food. I don't want to remove foods that I love from my diet like brownies or ice cream. I do limit how often I can have those and eat small portions of them. This has been working out very well for me so far. I enjoy eating healthy foods like salads, but I do not like fruit. I've been finding lots of new ways to enjoy old recipes by taking out carbs and replacing them with things like spaghetti squash.
(I share a lot of the foods I am eating on my Instagram stories, follow me here)

As far as working out goes, I've stayed very consistent. In April, I focused a lot on changing my eating habits. I knew I needed to start there before I added anything else. Since the beginning of May, I have been walking 1 to 2 miles a day. I also started to add in climbing stairs once a week. There's a place in town that has 500 stairs to climb. It's a killer workout but it feels good to be able to complete something so hard. I will continue doing this through May. In June, I would like to add in lifting weights.

My goal here is to feel better and be healthy. As a family, we try and eat organic foods and don't eat a lot of processed stuff. We have also been limiting meals with meat and adding in replacements like Quinoa. I want to feel better emotionally and physically. I also want my kids to learn from me that our physical health is important and we should make efforts to be healthy.  

If you'd like to follow along on this journey with me, follow me on Instagram. I look forward to updating my weight loss in the months to come.
What are some things that you do to stay healthy or lose weight? I'd love to hear from you, leave me a comment below.