Reflections From An Eclectic Homeschooling Mama of 8

We are more than half way through this school year and getting ready to start shopping for next year's curriculum.  It has definitely been a long year. We've had some successes, failures and discoveries but have come out victorious thus far. My 13 year old will be taking 8th and 9th grade classes so this will definitely be interesting. I will be keeping official records for her in order to build her transcript. I am so glad I picked up  Setting the Records Straight How to Craft Homeschool Transcripts and Course Descriptions for College Admission and Scholarships   by Lee Binz. She really gets into the meat and potatoes of the whole process.   My 9 and 10 year old will both be in 5th grade next year with the exception of a few subjects. My 7 year old is already working at a 2nd grade level so by the time I begin purchasing curriculum , I will have to assess her to see what level she is working in. My 5 year old is still working at a kindergarten level. and will probably still be

Visual discrimination is an important skill for reading and math skills. Children use visual discrimination to distinguish letters and numbers apart from each other. I created this activity for my younger children to help sharpen their ability to pay attention to detail. I created a set in color and in black and white for more of a challenge. You can download the sets below. Mandala Matching Activity Color Mandala Matching Activity Black n White

Color Matching Activity

This set can be use to teach the following: color recognition color words number recognition number words quantity number order visual discrimination matching I created these to introduce numbers 1-10 and basic primary & secondary colors. I may create a set for numbers 11-20 in the future. You can print out this set by clicking on the link below. I recommend laminating or printing on cardstock for durability.  Feel free to print for your personal or class room use. All content is copyright protected. Do not sell or redistribute.  Apple Matching Activity  

My soon to be 5 year old was struggling with number recognition and counting but as of lately he has improved a great deal. I find that he responds well to tactile activity and I'm always looking for fun ways to connect him to the lessons. During my last trip to the Dollar Tree, I found these paper pockets. You usually find these in the backs of library books or in scrapbooking projects. So I whipped up a quick counting activity by writing numbers on the fronts of the pockets and drawing dots on large craft sticks. He can match the sticks with the pockets and he can also line up the sticks from 1-10.  He'll be able to visually see the quantity of dots  increase on the sticks as he lines them up. 

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I purchased this set  Learning Resources Fruit and Veggies sorting set on Amazon for Baby G. The children have play food but I wanted a set that was designated during our school time. The set comes with 5 little buckets, 5 fruits/ veggies per color and color labels to stick to the buckets. Baby G loves playing with them. We go over the colors and names on a regular basis.  To extend the use of the fruits and veggies, I created matching cards for each fruit and vegetable. I plan on using these in a variety of ways. The easiest task will be to match 5 fruit of different colors. I will place the mix in a basket and she will place each corresponding fruit/veggie on their card. Once she has mastered this activity, I will make it a bit harder by displaying cards of the same color. She will have to use her critical thinking skills to differentiate the fruit and veggies by shape and characteristics. She will learn one to one correspondence, visual discrimination and use

My 20 month old is a very inquisitive young lady. She's absorbing everything around her and learning very quickly. I attribute this to all of the siblings she has surrounding her teaching her all of the time. I often hear them singing the alphabet song or counting to her during casual play and she absorbing it all like a sponge. We've started teaching her colors and so far she has red , yellow and purple down. To make color recognition a fun hands on experience, I made her a color sorting box made out of 1 piece of foam board, packing tape, hot glue and paint samples. The first thing I did was take a glue stick and glue the paint samples onto the foam board. After that I laid 2 strips of packing tape across the paint samples to preserve them. Once that was done, I started cutting pieces for the back and the diving walls. I didn't take any exact measurements. I made my cuts from sight. To make cutting the foam board easier, I laid it on top of a cutting board and made

I created a color sorting activity about a year ago similar to this except the children used clothespins with the color glued on the back. It  is a great activity which improves color recognition and discrimination and fine motor skills (pincer grasp movement.) My 4 old enjoyed this method, however, my 20 month old wanted to pick the glued colors off of the clothespins so I wanted to created the same type of activity but would stand the test of time and toddlers lol. Instead of using clothepins, I resorted to self adhesive velcro dots which are my go to for  PreK diy projects. You can them at any craft store like Joanns, Michaels or A.C. Moore. I found a seller on ebay that sells them in bulk so you know i was excited about that.  I created  a simple table using Open Office . It is software similar to Word and has most if not all of the same functions and it's free. I used the table function and created to columns. I split one side into 4 vertical cells and increased the

I really like to incorporate anchor charts in our home instruction, however, i never got around to purchasing a stand to hang the charts. I usually make them and store them away. As my children have grown, especially my oldest three, I have been able to introduce many concepts to them together especially with our unit studies. I decided to downsize my anchor charts from a standard poster size to about 1/3 of that. I'm able to display any vocabulary words or copywork at the table and they are all able to see and copy together. No more copying multiple sheets or running back and forth to the white board. It was very easy to make and very inexpensive. I went to Home Depot and purchased 1 - 1/2" diameter pvc pipe and 6 - 1/2" attachments. it cost me under $4.00 tax included! The pipe was $3.00 and the attachments were around $0.35 each. I cut the top and side frame pieces at 18 inches. I cut 4 8" pieces for the bottom. I initially cut 2 16" pieces thinking that  th

We have been incorporating interactive notebooking in our homeschool for a few years now and we absolutely love it. The children have retained so much information through this method and it's a lot of fun. With 5 children cutting out foldables often, I needed to find a way to keep their cut outs contained without getting mixed up , lost or destroyed so I purchased some folders and protective sleeves. I wish I would have thought of this a lot sooner but better now than never. Each child has a folder with at least 4 sleeves. Each sleeve will hold the foldables that are being used for that subject/ unit. They can pull them out and add them to their notebooks as we move through the lessons. Now I don't have to worry about paper falling out of notebooks and reprinting lost sheets. 

                I had to take a break from facebook and all social media for a while. As a black homeschooling mother, I understand the struggle of finding one's place and building a strong foundation while homeschooling. We are taking a step, that in our own communities, is an extreme one. Homeschooling is an endeavor that most associate with middle to upper class white parents so when I meet others like me who are new to or entertaining the thought of homeschooling, I want to do all that I can to help. I've been assisting parents on and offline for years but the most taxing and challenging has been through social media via Facebook, YouTube etc.                       There hasn't been a day that has gone by where I haven't received an inbox from a parent regarding homeschooling or parenting. It is humbling and indeed an honor that there are others who seek your wisdom but it has been taxing. There are moments where I may not respond to questions or comments right awa

Over the years we have accumulated a lot of materials and they can take up a lot of space. I've gone through several changes in an effort to minimize the space our resources take up and this by far is one of the best ways to do that. I saw an idea on Pinterest (which is one of my favorite go to laces for ideas) where a mom added duct tape to lapbooks for easy storage. I took that idea a step further and added duct tape to gallon ziploc bags. I found a 2 pk of decorative duct tape at Big Lots for $3 and a box of 15 bags f or $1.50 . I used a 3 ring zip binder for the storage. I was able to fit all of the preschool  manipulatives that I use for my preschooler and it fits neatly in a crate next to my desk. I was able to eliminate 4 plastic containers thus freeing up more space. I plan on making themed based binders and place all materials in bags that will fit.