Reflections From An Eclectic Homeschooling Mama of 8

When it comes to homeschooling,there are no grants are funding available to finance your individual independent homeschool. You are a separate entity from the state and thus responsible for your own monetary needs. There are nonprofit groups that provide assistance to homeschoolers that have experienced hardship i.e. natural disaster etc.  and there are also non profit ministries that donate used curriculum for those who are experiencing hardship.  When it comes to homeschooling, you are going to spend time and money. If you are looking for a low cost way to homeschool then you are going to spend a good amount of time looking for free resources that tie into your children's course of study. The library is an invaluable free resource. You can also tap into your community and see what they have that's fee or low cost. The internet is a treasure trove full of free resources. You can spend money printing out what you need or you can go tech and utilize things like ipads or ta

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.