Handwriting practice on Worksheet Works! Add your own copy work to their text box and then select the create button. It will then take you to a page to download the .pdf format worksheet that you can choose to save for later or print it now or both! Excellent!

Let me tell you how excited I got when I found Wordsmyth Glossary Maker! Type in the words and they come up with the definition. You can choose what level your child needs; beginner, children, or advanced level definition.Then it takes you to a page that lets you pick the exact meaning of the word you are looking for. The next page is the print page. This has saved me valuable time!!! It was very user friendly and self guiding. It didn’t take me very long to create my first list.

Give it a try! I hope it is a helpful tool for you as it is for me.

I am new to homeschooling this year. I’m not quite sure what can “count” as school hours. To me, almost anything can be educational, but can I legally count such things in my 1000 hours? I want to know about such things as: story time at the library (reading, music, crafts), story time at the park (science), listenting to audio books while doing laundry or driving on trips (reading), watching educational DVDs (science, social studies, math, ect), helping to cook dinner (math, science). What is Missouri’s idea of school hours? Thanks so much! ~Angie

Angie ~YES! You can legally count such things in your 1000 hours! Sometimes one of the biggest obstacles to overcome is that a home school does not have to mimic public school. Many of us have large households that have large amounts of duties to attend to throughout the day besides accomplishing school for the day. Even if our households aren’t large it can be a real struggle to balance house and school. The suggestions that you made about audio books, DVDs, helping to cook dinner, library story times are all very valid suggestions and should be included in the hours that are counted for school! Missouri laws do not dictate to us how to perform school 0nly to achieve the recommended amount of hours. 

Our homeschool day includes a subject called “Life Skills” as a course and this covers things such as cooking, cleaning, meal planning, trip planning,  creative playing, laundry, child care and many other chores that have to be taught and attended to upon a daily basis. Learning to take care of a home is a matter of teaching, correction, and learning to be diligent. All of these are excellent tools in the shaping of our children’s character and something well worth recording.

 When I was 13 I only knew how to “go to school.” I couldn’t cook, take care of young children (I only was around children MY age), organize a game, complete chores (I wasn’t required to), or clean anything. When I got married you can imagine what a struggle I faced trying to maintain a clean house and begin raising children! When my daughter (or my sons for that matter)  turned 13 things were different! They can do all those things I couldn’t do at that age because they have  been trained. Every bit of that learning was more than valid and an asset to their future lives!

Your teaching method - regardless what tools you choose to use-  is a valid method and you can be creative with any resources you have available and log it as hours. We often fold laundry while listening to an audiobook or watching an educational DVD. We often have science and math while we cook lunch or supper. (What better way to learn fractions then hands on!?) If an unexpected trip to town comes up what better time to explain nouns or play a game like ”name the nouns you see.” Pop in some classical music for music appreciation or an audiobook while traveling. It is always great to combine learning with real life! In my opinion, many times my children remember the lesson far better than sitting at the desk with workbooks.

Of course, we have book work as well and it is much easier to log hours in a workbook because you have tangible “evidence.” When I first began homeschooling I only logged my book hours and I was frustrated at how slowly the hours were coming along. Then a veteran homechooling friend of mine pointed out all the hours I was leaving out if I didn’t count verbal activities and games we played, or exploring flowers and bugs outside, etc. A whole new light dawned for me as I realized I wasn’t a slave to the workbook. It was a challenge to remember to write these fun times down as school however.  Many of us are still stuck in the mentality that school is not “fun” when we first begin.

Thanks Angie for your question!

Isn’t funny how we can quickly become afraid that we’re doing things wrong. That maybe we won’t measure up to the standards. Standards….whose standards? The public schools? The neighbors? Church family? The entire point to our homeschooling was to recreate a more efficient and free method of learning. One where the student gets involved and is eager to learn instead of groaning at the next lesson or crying out of intimidation of the thousand problems in his math book today. Is the goal to learn or to keep them busy? Is the goal to teach something or have it look good on paper?

This is why I appreciate what a friend of mine had to say in her recent post on homeschooling…

There is no perfect curriculum, and thinking that your homeschool can look exactly like some other family’s homeschool is just absurd. We’ve spent the first few years of our homeschooling journey paving our own homeschool road. It looks like no other family’s we know. But it’s us. It works. Everyone is thriving. ~Kathi (A Heart Like Water)

 I read it before I started this school week which has flailed and sputtered like an airplane running out of gas. And somewhere during one of those days I sat down toread it again…

Will my children ever be able to take a standardized test? Honestly, I don’t know because I’ve never given them one. But I DO KNOW they have what it takes to live, to work, to love. They can read, write, make intelligent observations, work hard, and aren’t afraid to talk to any one of any age level despite their age. My children find it just as natural to talk to adults as to talk to other children. And I realize…these ARE our goals and that others may look at them as strange and different but we aren’t living their life and God didn’t intend for us to be just like them. He gave our family its own unique character and I LOVE it. Next week will be different. I’m refueling the plane and cherishing the fact that we are different, we don’t look like any other family that we know. It works and everyone is thriving! Thanks Kathi! I needed some perspective!

Welcome to the newest Missouri Homeschool Daily Log! In this new .pdf format  everything you need for a multistudent plan book exists.  Three books in one!

• A place to plan lessons  for up to 5 students in one place.
• Grading records (evaluations)  for each student on the SAME page at the bottom.
• A chart on the right hand side to record the hours for the week for each student.
• Appointment schedule for Monday – Sunday
• Dinner menu planner
• Reading list
• There are only two pages in this file. The left side and right side of the log. You must have Adobe Acrobat to open the file.
• Simply print, punch holes and place in a three ring binder.

Leave a comment below to get a chance to recieve your free .pdf file of the  Missouri Homeschool Daily Log! The contest will close on March 10, 2011.

At least, that is how I felt until I found Teaching Writing: Structure and Style by The Institute  for Excellence in Writing. While I admit it is a pretty heavy item on the budget for one subject it is a resource that can be used over and over again through out your homeschooling years or easily shared with other homeschooling families. It is a resource that is worth the money.  The Institute for Excellence in Writing gives a struggling teacher  the keys to the door of teaching writing. It comes with a syllabus and instructional dvds for the teacher. However, I ended up watching the seminars with my children who enjoyed them just as much as I did and commented on the excellent teaching by Andrew Pudewa.

It did not magically give my children a love for writing overnight  but it did give them the knowledge of where to begin when they do instead of staring at a blank sheet of paper trying to come up  with something “original.” It turned the writing hour from “I can’t” to “I shall try.” In the weeks to come I am confidant it will turn “I shall try” into “Yes, I can.”