Why I Love Highway Noise

I wake up at 6am and tiptoe out of my bedroom as to not wake my sleeping toddler. I open up my bedroom door slowly as it squeaks pretty loudly. I'm holding my breath now just praying my toddler doesn't wake up. Once I cross the threshold into the hallway I sigh a breath of victory because she is still sleeping. I make my way to the kitchen to start making coffee. I don't know why I just don't set this up the night prior, I always ask myself this as I fumble around for the things I need.

Finally, the coffee is done brewing and I reach for my current favorite mug and coffee creamer. I pour everything into my mug and take in all the morning aroma. The fresh morning air coming in from the kitchen window and the coffee scent that reminds me of my childhood. I make my way to my living room and sit down while blowing on my coffee to cool it down.

As I begin to sip on my coffee I allow myself to enjoy the sweet stillness in my house. Everything is quiet, I can hear my son breathing and the birds outside chirping. 6:30am begins to roll around and the chirping birds are starting to get less noticeable as a new noise starts to emerge. The highway. The noise from the morning commuters as they all make their way to work or school. Now that school is back in session I also hear the buses on the highway. My husband hates the noise from the traffic, he finds it annoying. Myself, on the other hand, I love it.

The highway noise can sometimes resemble waves crashing on the beach but that's not why I love the sound. I love the sound because it reminds me of how blessed I am to have the opportunity to be home and enjoy the slow mornings. I'm not rushed to get myself ready for work or to get the kids packed up for school. I get to slowly sip down my coffee and check my emails. The traffic noise reminds me of this blessing every morning and I am thankful for that reminder every day

.

Laser Maze for Logic

I like to have some kind of hands-on logic activity for my kids to do. Sometimes finding logic activities for older kids can be hard. My older kids think so many of them are babyish, their words not mine. Today I am excited to show you this fun Laser Maze that got the stamp of approval by both my teen girls.

Beam Bending Logic Game

This game can be used by 3rd graders and up. My son hasn't used this yet but my girls who are in 8th and 10th grade have and they love it. There is little set up time to this game. All you do is select a challenge card and place the tokens as shown on the card. Next, you need to figure out where to place the other tokens in order for the laser to hit the target. When you think you've figured it all out you can then turn on the laser to see if it hits the target.  Everything you need is included and there are 60 different challenge cards from beginner to expert.

My Thoughts

I love this game and plan to use it a lot this coming school year. This is great to have on hand for when kids are waiting to use the computer or have finished their lessons early for the day. This doesn't just have to be something homeschoolers use, any kid would love this game. Both the girls agree that this is fun, interactive, and can be challenging. This game has become one of the favorite games in the house to play.
You can find this game on the Timberdoodle website. This game is included in the 7th-grade curriculum kit.

Thank You

Thank you Timberdoodle for sending us this fun game in exchange for a review. We absolutely love it and know so many of you will love it too. 

What Are Family Subjects

If you've been following me for any amount of time you know that I have 5 kids. This year I have an 10th, 8th, 4th, and Kindergarten. I also have a 2yr old. I'm a busy lady and need to find ways to save time. This is why I started to teach subjects as a family. It saves so much time and I know what all the kids are learning. It also gives us a great opportunity to learn with each other.

What Are Family Subject

Family subjects are any subjects that you can teach to all the kids as a group. In our home, these subjects include history, science, bible, and enrichment. My 10th and 8th grader do their own science curriculums but my 4th grader and Kindergartener will do their science together. All the other subjects I mentioned include all of the kids. Thankfully companies like The Good and The Beautiful have made it easier to teach multiple grade levels using 1 curriculum. Because of that, we use their materials for science and history. I did a video explaining more about the history curriculum and you can find that here.

Enrichment Studies

This year I am taking more of a Charlotte Mason approach and adding in enrichment studies. This will include studying different artists, poets, composers, and nature. These topics are perfect for the family to do together and it can be done in sorts of different ways. I plan to share more on how we do our studies in the coming weeks.

Things To Come

I'm excited to share our family subject curriculum choices with you in the next few weeks. I plan to have a back to school week. During that week I will be sharing our curriculum choices for each grade and our family subjects. These videos will be shared on my blog, YouTube, and Instagram accounts. You can follow any of these accounts for updates so you don't miss when these go live. If there's anything you'd like to specifically see, feel free to comment below. 

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!

Instagram
Facebook