Yes, Your Child’s Mind is POWERFUL and Creative ! Do you try to make handwriting sound a whole lot more fun than we both know it is to your kids? Yeah, my kids saw through that plan too. Kind of like the time I tried to hide carrots into a cake, but neglected to make the bits small enough to get by my little veggie detector. I know, you worry that your child’s only prospect for future employment is in the medical field. Surely, you are staring at at a doctor’s handwriting page. Right? With all the other lessons, chores and activities you want your child to experience today, would it really be “so bad” if they just skipped over handwriting practice? Related: What to do if your kids have terrible hand writing No. And Yes. At the core of excellent hand-writing is a bigger, more neglected area in our current world. Fine Motor Development. You know, those fine-tuned muscle movements that help our kids: zip zippers button buttons tie shoes thread needles write beautifully hold pencils without cramping beating someone at tidily-winks putting on make-up painting nails Does Your Child have Fine Motor Delay? Not to worry, there’s a SIMPLE and Fun way to Improve those fine motor skills, develop neater handwriting, and build deeper connections with your child all in 2 minute chunks at a time! Recently, medical schools are noticing a decline in students’ dexterity, possibly from spending time swiping screens rather than developing fine motor skills through woodworking and sewing. SIMPLE and Fun way to Improve Your Child’s Fine Motor Skills (and their Handwriting Doodling is more than scribbling little swirls on paper when a teacher is boring your child out of their mind. Doodling is the ability to create a visual image that empowers your child’s brain to remember, recall and connect what they are learning in a POWERFUL way. And, it simultaneously causes them to exercise those fine motor skills necessary for excellent handwriting. What if there was a way to tap into your child’s POWERFUL and CREATIVE mind in less than 2-minutes a day? What of your child discovered they have INSTANT MASTERY over learning a new skill? What if you and your child could spend time together a few minutes a day learning a new skill together and are able to build closer relationships? Doodle Clubhouse for Kids I accidentally created something MAGICAL when I launched the Doodle Clubhouse for Kids. I knew I loved the doodle drawings and I thought your kids would too, but I was unprepared for the incredible response from kids and parents as they delight in doodling together! “Magical!!!” Each day, I open my email and devoured their excitement. It truly is magical Bekki!!! My son who hates the use of writing instruments showed an interest in drawing and engineering when it suits him and I have been trying to find creative ways to get a pen in his hand and to the paper more often and guess what? DOODLE Clubhouse for Kids does that!!!! He is having fun.Marlene We are on a different schedule than you all, but my son just drew this alien, and another major accomplishment was that he wrote his name, with only minor stabilization help from me! Proud mama moment!!Melissa My daughter informed me that some of her drawings are “a lot better” than mine cause she’s “really good at this” (she’s 5)Keicia I have to share what happened tonight.I kept hearing giggles from the kid’s room late afternoon. When I called the kids to dinner, they showed up with a handful of papers. It turns out they were drawing each other with tremendous details. I have never seen these kids do this before. Even my highly special needs daughter had details like individual hairs on her brother’s head. Until now a 5-7 piece body drawing including eyes and a mouth was a success. This picture had many facial features, lots of individual hairs, eyes and a mouth with expression and even body parts. I can’t thank you enough for letting her be successful too. Brandy It’s your turn to discover how EASY it is to help your child tap into their creativity. Just don’t tell them their handwriting will get better. That’s our little secret! The Doodle Clubhouse Begins with 6 weeks of Theme based Lessons Space + surprise coloring sheetFlowers + surprise coloring sheetSweets + surprise coloring sheetGalactic Unicorns + surprise coloring sheetHouses + surprise coloring sheetCars + surprise coloring sheet This is so much fun! And all for just a few dollars! The Clubhouse opens with a space theme, because many boys smirk and roll their eyes when you begin to show them how to draw flowers the first time you place a pencil in their hand. THIS first lesson begins with mistake creatures, space crafts, and happy little aliens. See for yourself! Not sure if your squirrley, energetic kids will spot that handwriting improving lesson hidden within the the short and sweet video lessons as fast as my son spotted the carrot in the cake? Do an experiment. Kendall Age 5 Place some blank paper on the table, or print a few of the doodle worksheets FREE Doodle worksheetDownload Grab some pens and markers and place them on the table.When your kids ask what you’re doing, say you were gonna learn how to draw space ships and aliens. (don’t worry, they’re happy aliens!Open this page: https://a-better-way-to-homeschool.teachable.com/courses/doodle-clubhouse-for-kids/Open September 10: Space Ships and Aliens and click play If you’re kids are excited as the other kids inside the Doodle Clubhouse, hop in and watch their excitement grow each week as we tap into those Powerful and Creative minds 2 Minutes at a time! No carrots required! As an ambassador with the DOODLE Institute, I am blessed to bring Doodle Camp and DOODLE club House to life for you and your children! The Doodle Clubhouse lessons are released each week here. Kids (and adults like you and me, follow along and practice, and then come and share their creations inside our private Facebook Group. Yes! We’d love for you to join us too!! Before you begin doodling, go ahead and grab a copy of my book, Homeschooling from the Inside Out It’s completely FREE. Just click over and fill in your first name and primary email below and I’ll send you a digital copy immediately!!
How to Homeschool: A Quick Guide Before you start looking around, go ahead and grab a copy of my book, Homeschooling from the Inside Out It’s completely FREE. Just click over and fill in your first name and primary email below and we will send you a digital copy immediately!! “Help! We just decided to homeschool our kids and I’m freaking out!” I’ve received various translations of the same message from so many family members, neighbors, friends, and readers that I’, putting all the answers on one page. THIS ONE. Bookmark this page so it’s easy to find. Homeschooling is like eating and elephant, you’ll have to do it one bite at a time. All The Videos Are >> HERE << IMPORTANT!! You can find the complete (and growing) Quick Guide hereYou will need this code: SUPERHERO2020 to get this Quick Guide for FREE! Begin with the CORE of Homeschool. My husband and I call it the holy trinity of homeschool: heart, attitude, and character. (20 Minute video) My Book: Homeschooling from the Inside Out is available on Amazon starting at $7.99. Set your MASTER Homeschool Goals 17 minutes that will give you confidence that you CAN homeschool. I CAN Teach my child Benchmarks for K-5th pdf printable $25 Make it through Homeschool Planning Season You don’t need a lot of stuff to homeschool, but you do need: heart, goals, a few materials, community, and a gray haired friend. (29 minutes) Homeschool-Planning Season FREE notesDownload Planning Your Homeschool Year is Like Eating an Elephant Homeschool Planning Bite: Golden Thread My Favortite Golden thread for K-5: Evan Moor! I began with History Pockets! Best deal? Teacher’s File Box: Big Bite Planning Let’s Talk Planners! My Picks are: High Quality Spiral Notebook What I’ve ALWAYS used with my own kids: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Calendar-and-To-Do-Lists-for-Kids-2013150 Undated Planner!! Undated Planner from They Call Me Blessed All The PLANNERS from Erin!! What If I MESS Up My Kids? Homeschool Expectations More coming soon… Homeschool Planner This one doesn’t need to be fancy, but you should keep track of what you are teaching your kids. I always kept a reverse planner: a journal of what we actually did throughout our day! Great planners: Yes, there are a bazillion types. These are my favorites Beyond Blessed Life Planner by Ana! Sweet and practical!!$25 If you’re a planner junkie, you’re gonna want to see Erin’s Planners! $35-$60 What Should You Teach? Don’t let anyone try to convince you that there is an actual list of things every child should learn at any given age. Each child is different. $25 for the complete set! Each Grade can be purchased separately How to Use Doodles for FUN, teaching, and Learning This is NOT out of place. Adding fun and doodles into your life and teaching is magic! Not just for you, but for your kids as well! These are NOT hard fast rules. I combed through state standards and blended what the educational system tries to have kids learn during a particular year with gray hair and classroom experience. Each grade has what you can teach your child written in plain English for each grade K-5. Math. Don’t get hung up here Each curriculum provider will tell you their program is better, but at the end of the day they will all cover the same basic concepts. Choosing a math curriculum that works for you and your child is a kind of experiment. My favorites may not be your favorites. Each of my kids have thrived with different ones, “just to keep life interesting.” Teachers File Box by Evan Moor Evan Moor has been my FAVORITE homeschooling/teaching resource for about 20 years! Why Evan Moor? These are my favorite resources for K-5 because they are clear, easy to use and adaptable for different learning styles. If you have a printer and are comfortable printing lessons as you go, DEFINITELY get the Teachers file Box! For Less than $10 a month (if you pay annually; $13-ish of you pay monthly) you can get access to almost ALL of the Evan Moor treasures. If you decide to just order the workbooks, budget about $20 -40 per subject. If you grab your core four subjects: Math, Language, History, and Science you can get EVERYTHING you need to have a ball learning with your kids! EVAN Moor Math of all kinds Evan Moor Language including reading, writing, grammar, spelling, and more! Evan Moor History brought to life with hand-on projects and crafts! Evan Moor Science STEM How to Doodle for FUN, Teaching, and Learning Definitely Doodle! This 7-week quick start will give you a starting place in homeschooling while you get organized.
71 Easy Adorable And Inexpensive Mothers Day Crafts Inside: A treasure for you to tuck away for your kids’ teenage years. She gave you heartburn while you were pregnant. photo by Inna Lesyk He ran you ragged for hours on end when he was three. … Read More »
Renewable Energy Freebie This is a free SAMPLE of my Renewable Energy Unit. Included: Solar powerWhat can be powered by the sun? Looking for more? …Read More »
Homeschool Math: Grab your Roadmap to Success BEFORE you spend a moment worrying about math curriculum, let me share a secret. I didn’t understand where I was supposed to go until I’d been on the road almost 20 years. It’s crazy that it’s taken me almost two decades to truly understand this thing we call MATH. … Read More »
Thanksgiving Scattergories What better way to let that turkey dinner digest than with a game of Thanksgiving Scattergories? Great for kids of all ages (who know their alphabet or on a team with someone who does!) Each game of Scattergories consists of three rounds. Before the start of the game, choose three lists which will be used during the rounds. Pass each player/team a folder, and clip the three lists inside in the order in which they will be played. Make sure that all players have A) the same lists, and that B) the lists are in the same order. Includes: Alphabet tiles8 Thanksgiving Themed Lists Get Yours here More Thanksgiving FUN! Build a Turkey Game and Activities! How about some Christmas FUN?!
Ant Farm Kits: An Easy Science Lesson for Multiple Ages Our boys exchange names every year for Christmas and then are blessed to buy gifts for their selected brother. This year, our youngest picked out an Ant Farm for his brother. Not only is this an excellent gift for the animal lover of our family, but it has turned into an amazing “cross-grade” science lesson. … Read More »
No Prep Thanksgiving Activities for Elementary! If you need awesome fun Thanksgiving themed activities for your kids, you’ve come to the right place. Just print and go! These activities have very little prep time and are sure to delight your elementary age kids! Thanksgiving Math Activities Included in this pack: Addition: “Owl” Show you my facts!Multiplication: “Owl” Show you my facts!Round to the nearest 10Round to the nearest 100Round to the nearest 1,000Addition: Color by SUMWho, who, who is first? (ordinal number practice- 2 3rd Grade Math: A-Mazing TurkeyGame: What’s the Number?EASY-Color by Number- Number RecognitionMedium-Color by Number Multiples of 2, 3, 4, 5 ,6, 10 Thanksgiving Reading and Writing Activities: Thanksgiving BINGO (4 game boards, 7 pages game pieces)Thanksgiving Scattergories!Reading for Facts! It’s all about the turkey!Reading: Color by Sight wordsThanksgiving AcrosticThanksgiving NounsThanksgiving VerbsThanksgiving Adjectives Thanksgiving Science Activities: Thanksgiving/PumpkinsLife Cycle of a Pumpkin (2 pages: booklet and labels)Life Cycle of a Thanksgiving Turkey Additional Thanksgiving and Christmas FUN
Fall Jokes Solved with Single Digit Multiplication If you need awesome multiplication practice for your kids, you’ve come to the right place. Just print and go! With all of my youngest kids in high school math now, I can assure you that one of the foundational skills your kids need to master is their math facts. I like to make learning these fun with hands-on games, jokes, and fun activities. Math mastery for the win! Additional Math FUN
Toddler Worksheet: Christmas Cupcake Fun These adorable activities will delight your Preschoolers! These are perfect to add to your toddler and preschool activities file! Cupcake themed Activities Included: Easy Memory GameChallenging Memory GameBINGO!Roll and Color!Connect the PAIRSPunch and Lace Fine Motor SkillsFollow the path scissors skills Christmas Cupcake Fun! You May Also Like: All About Me: My BodyTurkey Color by NumberLetter D ActivitiesKindergarten Printables: Fall and ThanksgivingScissors Skills worksheets and Fine Motor Practice: WinterSnowman Math: KindergartenWinter Writing Booklet and Writing Prompts39 Fall and Thanksgiving Fine Motor Skills Activities30 Thanksgiving Activities, Crafts, and Activities21 Thanksgiving Math Activities for Kindergarteners Print this free homeschool mom reminder. This post comes with a free printable reminder list to help keep your heart focused on the heart of homeschooling. I always have the hardest staying focused. This printable simplifies it! Here is a sneak preview… Download Your Free Printable Download the checklist. You’ll get the printable, plus join 9,000+ homeschool moms who receive my weekly parenting tips and ideas!Print. Any paper will do the trick, but card stock would be ideal.Place it on your refrigerator as a helpful reminder.
Homeschool and Delayed Reader I spent about 30 minutes searching for my then 10-year old. It was cold and rainy, so I doubted that he had adventured outside. I looked everywhere. We lived in a big home then, so it took me a while to go back and forth while calling his name. Silence. I couldn’t find him anywhere. I walked faster toward the back door so I could begin looking outside. Movement caught my eye as I called again from the kitchen. The little squirt was hiding in plain sight, as still as a statue, curled between a black bean bag and our fluffy black and white dog. “What the heck are you doing?” I asked. He lifted a Magic Tree House Book in the air without making eye contact. I almost spit out my gum. The boy’s reading!!!! Did you catch that he was 10-years old? That’s old enough to thoroughly enjoy the sight of me walking right by without seeing him. It’s also way beyond the “normal” reading age. I get messages from frantic mama’s often about: how to teach their 4-year olds to read What language curriculum to buy for their kindergartener and suggestions for chapter books for 5-year olds Meanwhile, my own kids took their sweet time learning to read. As my son grew into the, “I’m starting to wonder if I am the right teacher for this child” age I began to leave him hanging in a story. My goal became leave him begging for more… And you know what? It worked. We never stressed about his lack of reading skills (out loud). We just kept reading. All five of our sons were delayed readers. Our youngest was the most delayed. His brain had too much going on to be troubled with the task of decoding the dancing syllables on the page. This extra busy, brilliant, and wiggly son couldn’t be bothered until that day he disappeared in plain sight. So how did I get him to read? I didn’t. I just kept reading to him. I read his math instructions, his history and science lessons to him and marinated him in exciting read-alouds. Sure, I pointed to words, tracked with my finger, and read slowly and carefully, but I kept reading without adding pressure on him. That day he curled up in the beanbag with our dog and read his first chapter book launched him from not reading, to devouring books almost overnight. Some may be tempted to roll their eyes. A 10-year old reading Magic Tree House? Big Deal. I think that’s where so many people miss the point. The point is not to rush your kids through the easy readers and into the ocean of “Big Kids Books”, the point is to get your kids to love to read. I mean head over heels in love with reading, reading. I make it a point to never roll my eyes at the book choices of my kids to their face. Instead, we embrace the fact that they love to read. Magic Tree House for Big Kids? You Bet! My son burned through 1-3 books a day when he discovered he could read. I even sat him down and picked his brain. Together, we created learning activities to go along with the books he was reading. Excited, overjoyed, and proud. That’s how those silly little kid books made him feel. Related: Don’t panic if your kids aren’t reading yet. Just keep reading to them. It will click eventually. The goal is NOT when they read, but THAT they LOVE to read. When that cold rainy day comes and you are frantically searching for them, just be sure to check the beanbag in the corner! Do your kids love Magic Tree House Books? Click here to grab some fun activities for books 1 and 2. Print this free homeschool mom reminder. This post comes with a free printable reminder list to help keep your heart focused on the heart of homeschooling. I always have the hardest staying focused. This printable simplifies it! Here is a sneak preview… Download Your Free Printable Download the checklist. You’ll get the printable, plus join 9,000+ homeschool moms who receive my weekly parenting tips and ideas!Print. Any paper will do the trick, but card stock would be ideal.Place it on your refrigerator as a helpful reminder.
How to Make Learning Fun: EASY! She lays awake at night tossing and turning. She tries to rest, but when she closes her eyes she sees the slumped over image of her son burned into her memory. “I failed again.” She is confused. She read all the latest and greatest articles on how to teach her child, but when she tries to follow the advice, her son closes down and she becomes frustrated, discouraged and depressed. “I’m messing up my kid!” …Read More »
24+ Fun Verb Crafts and Activities for Teaching Verbs INSIDE: 24 Fun and Easy Verb Activities for teaching verb tenses Are you a teacher, parent, or homeschooler? This one’s for you! I was browsing Pinterest this morning over a cup of coffee looking for a creative way to explore verbs and their three main tenses. With three different ages and stages of grammar going this year, I thought a hands-on verb craft would be more engaging than a fill in the blank worksheet. Before you start looking around, go ahead and grab a copy of my book, Homeschooling from the Inside Out It’s completely FREE. Just click over and fill in your first name and primary email below and we will send you a digital copy immediately!! …Read More »
All About Bees Freebie This is a Free Sample! Insects cannot be explored without studying the queens of insects: honeybees! …Read More »
ABW 9: Hands-on Learning Made EASY with Amy What if there was a way to simplify learning, magnify time away from worksheets, and increase connections with your kids? Would you sleep better at night? I have GREAT news for you sweet friend… There’s an EASY button! …Read More »
Bible Object Lessons from Nature for Kids God’s creation is so incredible, and He uses it to restore our souls and reach our hearts. Our kids need this. I need this. Honestly, we all need this, right? After an incredible vacation where my family stayed in a river house in Oregon, I’ve been inspired to create the most amazing, delicious, and inspiring creations studies possible. …Read More »
Hebrew for Homeschoolers: Perfect Timing! My kids informed me there are three weeks left of school this year. Silly boys. Don’t they know the sun is shining? We’ll be lucky to get that far! In the summer, we always have everyone do some sort of self-study. Physical fitness, daily reading, yard work and friend time are all on the kids’ wishlist for their free time. But so is independent learning. Hebrew! The kids want to learn Hebrew! … Read More »
Elderberry Recipes and Printables: A Pretty Plant with Amazing Benefits! Elderberries are on the rise thanks to their healthy and anti-inflammatory effects. Even though this is old news to our grandmothers, some of us (cough-cough) have only recently begun looking to this wonder berry. Health Benefits of Elderberries …Read More »
Typing for Kids Made Easy with the BEST Online Program “MOM! This is so cool! The game knows where I am in the lessons and adapts to fit the keys I’m learning!” I wasn’t looking for another thing for my sons to do every day. Already busy with math, writing, sword fighting and Lego I didn’t think they needed another task to complete. But they asked so nicely… …Read More »
Mitosis: Cell Cycle Flip Book I remember the first time I wore my contact lenses to bed. Everything was fine and dandy until I woke up the next day. I was dumbfounded.  I could see every leaf on the tree outside my bedroom window!     I had been wearing glasses since forth grade and never could see clearly without my glasses.  … Read More »