Adventures of a Catholic homeschooling family in Alaska.
Finding ways to store all the ‘stuff’ in our life can be a challenge. I have the collection of plastic totes, but the rounded edges sometimes makes it a challenge to stack neatly. And cardboard boxes are susceptible to getting wet and leading to a box of items that becomes worthless if something happened with [Read On]
I can not believe that January is almost finished and this fun Virtual Curriculum Fair being coordinated by Susan at Homeschooling Hearts & Minds is coming to a close. We’ve shared: Reading and Beyond: Language Arts in Our Homeschool Learning Math Block by Block Learning About The World Around Us Fitting in the Arts [Read On]
Even when the economy seemed to be booming, I was into shopping smart. Once Mr. O and I decided to become a one income family, I really started to tighten our spending. Groceries and other household staples was one of the few areas where I had reasonable control. And, coupons helped me to stretch our [Read On]
Getting organized is something I really seek to accomplish this year. The boys do thwart my best laid plans most of the time. But, a gal can always dream. Let me share some creative ways I’ve found on the web to help organize office/ art supplies. Once I get a chance to tackle ours, [Read On]
The beginning of a new year has me thinking of a few things. One of them is a new calendar for the refrigerator and a serious desire to get control over my time. I’m also thinking my older boys need their own calendars to manage their school work and outside activities. So, I went [Read On]
As much as I would like to ignore the fact, organization is a critical component to a successful homeschooling experience. Actually, I’d say it is critical for all aspects of life if you want to see accomplishments down the road. That old adage “Failure to Plan, is Planning to Fail.” is right on target. [Read On]
Getting and staying organized can be a challenge at times. A long, long time ago when I was a young, single student, I was MUCH more organized. But with our family of six, things can get crazy. Papers are all over the house at times and it is easy for something to get lost. [Read On]
For us, June is the time for summer camp. Packing up the boys for their week away also means having to label those belongings we want to ensure will make the trip back home. Oliver’s Labels provides you with the ability to quickly mark the kids items (clothing and otherwise) with a name and Found [Read On]
I am quite convinced that having a nicely decorated, neat house is something I will not have so long as we are homeschooling the boys. Assuming we homeschool the lot through high school, I’m looking at another 18 years of semi-maintained chaos. It isn’t that I don’t want a neat and orderly home. It just [Read On]
This week’s TOS Blog Cruise poses the question: How to homeschool in a small area (small space, small house, etc.)? While we currently have a HUGE room where we can do our learning, it hasn’t always been that way. Both when we first moved from Ohio to Maryland and then for the first few months [Read On]
There is something about springtime that brings out the need to get organized in me. Maybe it is the cold winter months where I am more concerned about staying warm than what the house looks like that keeps me from feeling that urge earlier. Although, the flip side is that when I spend more time [Read On]
While I would love to say that I have it all together at home with a hot meal waiting on the table when Mr. O gets home, I can’t. Homeschooling the boys and getting them to different activities eats up a fair amount of my day. (Then blogging takes up part of my nights!) Probably [Read On]
This week’s TOS Blog Cruise is focused on the question “How do you handle high school requirements/transcripts, etc.?” While P is not quite in high school yet, I have been thinking about this for the past few years. To start off, I should say that being part of a charter school up here in Alaska [Read On]
I’ve written before about the TOS Schoolhouse Planner (2008-2009 version, 2009-2010 version, and the 2010-2011 version). It’s a monster sized ebook with forms for schooling, forms for the home, articles by well known members of the homeschool community, recipes and more. Recently, TOS launched planners for specific grade levels AIMED at the students themselves. Our [Read On]
Okay, I’ll confess it for all to see…. This previously well organized lady seems to be living in a state of disorder. I can blame it in part of the moving earlier this year. And, that would cover some of the problem. But, part of the blame falls squarely on my having enough stuff that [Read On]
Last spring I began to hear rumblings in certain homeschool communities about this new ‘trend’ of using workboxes to spread out a child’s work. I started reading some blog posts and was really drawn to learning more about this method. Hearing that Sue Patrick’s Workbox System was going to be a vendor with the TOS [Read On]
Last year as part of the ‘audition’ for the TOS Crew, prospective crewmates were asked to review the Schoolhouse Planner that had just been published. You can read my review of it here. This year in an effort to kick off things and get our feet ‘wet’, the 2009-2010 TOS Crew been given the opportunity [Read On]
I just got an email yesterday that Cindy’s running a half price sale on this item. There is a ton of stuff included and for those of us needing more help with organization it could be just the ticket. You can purchase the set here and help my family through a commission. After our recent [Read On]
