**This post may contain affiliate links which help to support our blog and our family.
I had originally written this series of posts in honor of National Simplify Your Life Week, which falls during the first week of August, I decided to make a short list of 7 easy steps that almost anyone can use to simplify their life starting today. With the New Year fast approaching I thought it might be helpful to post this again for anyone looking to simplify their life and have more FREE time.
Now I’m not talking about anything drastic like selling everything you own and moving into a small secluded cabin with no electric. This actually sounds like a really good idea to me right now but my kids wouldn’t really like that. The tips below will not only help you to simplify your life but they will help you to be more efficient.
Click on each link for more information and helpful tips.
I wish you the best of luck with getting your life simplified! Let me know, in the comments below, of any tips that you have used to simplify your life.
*This post contains affiliate links which help to support our blog and our family.
Frankenstein Day in honor of author Mary Wollenstone Shelley who wrote the book Frankenstein. It is celebrated on August 30th. Click here to learn more about this holiday.
Below are some of the activities I found to celebrate this day:
**Although I try to provide as many FREE resources as possible this post may contain affiliate links alt no extra cost to you. We may earn a small commission, if a purchase is made through these links, which helps to support our blog and our family. Thank you!
Our school week is usually completed in 4 days. We use a Loop Schedule where we work for a designated amount of time on each subject before moving on to the next. After their work is completed for the day the kids are allowed to have independent studies were they can study whatever their little hearts desired.
Our 5th day is an optional day that we use to complete unfinished work or for other activities as we choose.
Please click HERE for a list of resources that we have purchased from Amazon and other suppliers.
Click on the links below for the series you would like to view/use. I will update these links as we get them finished.
Tip: If you want to go to a certain week/chapter or topic simply push the ‘ctrl’ and the ‘F’ button down together and a small bar will pop up. Type in the week number or chapter number you want and it will take you to it.
**Although I try to provide as many FREE resources as possible this post may contain affiliate links alt no extra cost to you. We may earn a small commission, if a purchase is made through these links, which helps to support our blog and our family. Thank you!
Mornings:
We Start every morning off with our prayers and the Pledge of Allegiance. Below is a picture of the prayers that we say and a video of the Pledge of Allegiance.
Not the prettiest example but that’s what we’ve been using for the past few years.
Don’t have a flag? Grab one HEREand print it out to put up somewhere… you could even let the kids make a flag to proudly display. Amazon also has some little ones like this one HERE and HERE.
After this we have our calendar time also where we go over such things as the Days of the Week, the months, and some basic math.
This one came from Lakeshore Learning.
Tip: If you want to go to a certain week/chapter or topic simply push the ‘ctrl’ and the ‘F’ button down together and a small bar will pop up. Type in the week number or chapter number you want and it will take you to it.
**This post does contain some affiliate links which could possibly earn me a small commission if a purchase was made through them. These links help to support our blog and our family.
Hmmm… have you thought about what you’ll be feeding those hungry learners? If your kids were in public school you may not have had to think much about it before. If you plan to homeschool then you will be feeding them at least three meals a day and maybe a few snacks in between.
This can turn into a chaotic juggling act if you aren’t prepared. How do we prevent meal time chaos in our home? By meal planning. I even plan out snacks sometimes so I don’t forget to include them on my grocery list. Check out this link for some Healthy Snacks to Go.
It might seem like a lot of trouble but when you find a system that works for then it is so easy. It will actually save you time and money in the long run. This is also a helpful thing even if you don’t homeschool.
*This post contains affiliate links which help to support our blog and our family.
National Lighthouse Day honors those beacons of light that represent safety and security. Click here to learn more about this holiday. It is celebrated on August 7th. This would be a great day to take a tour of any local lighthouses.
*This post does contain some affiliate links which help to support our blog and our family.
Ohhhh! I am so excited to be sharing this post with you. The kids are pretty excited about it too! My fingers are going faster than my brain as I am typing and somehow or another they are managing to put into words what I want to say. I did show a sneak peak of some of the items we’ve received in this post here but now I am going to show you everything we have right now.
If you haven’t seen my latest posts about homeschooling check out the links here but if you are only interested in what we have planned for this year, please keep scrolling.
I’ve been talking about how excited I am for our next homeschool year and I just can’t wait to get started. I have actually talked about this curriculum before but its been awhile. My kids are finally at the age that I think this will work out really well for everyone. Continue reading Kirby’s Kids: Our 2018-2019 Homeschool Curriculum Reveal→
I recently read a story on Facebook about a mom who took her son shoe shopping. Her son had a club foot and this caused a big difference in shoe size between the left and the right foot. After shopping for a bit he finally found a pair of shoes he loved. However this meant that mom was going to need to buy two pairs of shoes in order for her son to have the most comfortable fit for each foot. One big size and one little size because he wouldn’t be able to wear the little shoe on his club foot as it would just be too tight and the likewise the big shoe wouldn’t fit correctly on his smaller foot. The manager realized the dilemma and he purchased one pair of shoes for the child. How great was this experience for this child? I bet he won’t forget this for a lifetime.
I just finished up one of the books I got from our first trip to the library. This book is by an author that I already have on my bookshelf at home and I was in love when the book started out with the comparison of schools to shoes. It is so very true… schools are like shoes in that there is not a ‘one size fits all’. I mean when we are shoe shopping we try on various different kinds of shoes, if you are like William you may try on every pair in the store, before finding the right shoe. I know I’ve found shoes I really like but they weren’t the right color or they didn’t have them in my size. Most of us will ultimately decide on the most comfortable fitting shoe because we can’t change our feet.
So why do we insist on sending our kids to school when something obviously isn’t fitting right? My kids have been through all of the stages of public school. They usually start out excited and they like to go to school to learn new things. Then somewhere along the line they lose that enthusiasm. They start complaining of tummy aches or other ailments. They go from making A’s and B’s to bringing home mostly D’s and F’s. What happened?
**This post does contain some affiliate links which help to support our blog.
Oh what a day we’ve had. The kids thought it was gonna be just another boring day but it actually turned out to be quite interesting.
The morning started as it normally does with the exception that we had a cereal day instead of muffins… I just wasn’t in a muffin kinda mood this morning. Nobody complained either. Before breakfast the kids had done a little bit of their summer work books that I’ve printed off for them.
After breakfast we had some calendar time… do you like our new calendar we got from Lakeshore Learning? This picture was from the weekend. It is quite a bit bigger than our old one and I had a hard time finding a good place to put it. So for now it is in our ‘hallway’ and I put up some new remote control lights to help us see better. These are really neat and I had enough to put one in the closet as well.
After the chores, which included changing/washing the sheets and washing the whites, I had everyone load up in the van. Well first a couple of them had to change clothes because they had already gotten dirty. We also had to brush hair, wash faces, and go potty. Eventually we made it to the van and I had them asking so many questions about where we were going…. but I wanted to keep it a secret. Continue reading Family Fun Day: Books, Elvis, Ice Cream, and Another Huge UPS Delivery→
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