Homeschooling With Toddlers: Finding Your Way Without Losing Your Mind (or Joy!)

Ahhh, toddlers.  Gotta love ’em. I have been homeschooling successfully with toddlers for many years. Or not!

You know me, I like to keep things real.  And in the interest in being perfectly honest, let me just start by saying I’ve tried everything I know how to try and nothing is ever foolproof.  Nothing works all the time. Real-life isn’t like Pinterest.

Here’s the big thing I’ve learned though.  Are you ready? The best thing I can do for myself and my toddlers is to appreciate them. I have lots of fun toddler stories but one of my favorites is from 1998, the first year we were homeschooling. I was still in “let’s see if I can really do this” mode and I was very serious about it all.  One cold winter morning as I was teaching Sierra from our favorite book on reading “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons,” I noticed that I had not heard from the toddler in some time.

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America the Beautiful, You’re In Trouble

 

Trump leaves White House for the last time as US president ...

My heart is breaking for our Republic today. I know many of you are grieving with me.

2020 will go down in history, at least for me, as the year we lost our Republic. The 24/7 attacks against our President by the mainstream media and leftist elites seems to have had its intended result: the faith in our democracy has all but disappeared for over 75 million Americans who watched as the unimaginable happened in slow motion
right before our eyes.

President Trump, though he is flawed like the rest of us and even arrogant at times, was a champion for this country, for Israel, and for the unborn, to name just a few of the reasons I loved and supported his presidency. His patriotism moved a generation out of their slumber and back into caring about what happens in DC.

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3 Frequently Asked Questions About Notebooking

When I started homeschooling in 1998, I did the only thing I knew how to do:  I set up a “real” classroom in our and ordered a million dollars worth of workbooks. (At least it felt that way.) And we did okay … for a while.

We were about six months into it when I began to notice that the “life” I had longed for was just not happening with the workbooks. For the kids, it was just “business as usual,” as we went about our school day; there was no chance for creativity outside of the prescribed worksheet.  They seemed bored and disinterested.  Another thing that frustrated me was that each one of my children was studying something different; the first grader and third and fifth-grader were all doing a different era of history.  Different sciences. Even different Bible lessons.

I was frustrated. I was hoping for more “togetherness” in our studies and less fragmented days.  I didn’t miss the craziness of taking my daughter to school every day.  I was hoping for more of a “one-room schoolhouse” approach in our homeschool, and having so many different workbooks and textbooks was not answering my heart’s cry to simplify our learning together. So, I began to search.

schoolroom-6966

Our schoolroom—tidier than usual. 🙂

It was 2005 when I discovered something called lapbooking. (I love lapbooking so much that I wrote an eBook on the subject.) Shortly after that, I learned about notebooking. These two things literally changed the way we homeschool.

If you’re looking for a way to simplify your homeschool, keep reading. Notebooking might be just the answer you need.

 What is Notebooking?

This is by far the most frequently asked question I get when it comes to notebooking, so I’ll make this as simple as possible.  🙂

Notebooking is simply teaching your child to write about and illustrate what they are learning in school. Notebook pages are stored using a 3-ring binder and sheet protectors. You can use pre-made notebooking pages or, you can use my favorite method—which is to let the child design it.  Original is always better than not, right? 🙂

Over the years, we have done a mixture of these kinds of notebooking.  I also keep a few pages here and there of traditional “workbook” pages in their notebooks. It serves as a reminder and *proof* that we’ve actually accomplished something that year.  Occasionally I will open the notebooks to remind myself.

Allowing the kids to create their own layouts started rough but ended beautifully

Allowing the kids to create their own layouts started rough but ended beautifully

A few other FAQ’s about this:

What do you  use?  I use 2″ or 3″ binders.  They can be found on sale all the time over at Amazon and of course, you can find them at your local Walmart.

When do you notebook?  We do it one day a week.  I keep a running list of the things we are studying on a whiteboard in our kitchen.  We take one day each week to create notebook pages. It’s not something we do every day. (Do you feel relieved yet?)

How do I start Notebooking?

Every family who notebooks does it a little differently.  At our house, we notebook just one day each week.  Usually, we do it at the end of the school week. I’ll try to break it down for you a little by putting it into steps.

  1. Keep a running list of the things you’re studying.  We write them on a whiteboard.  For example, last year during a week in October, we studied:
    1. the parts of a flower
    2. Joseph is sold into slavery (Firmly Planted, Book 2)
    3. Times Tables the Fun Way
    4. The Civil War
  2. I let my children choose things off the list to write about based on their age.  For example, the 3rd grader chooses two things that really made her eyes light up.  She will make two notebook pages about those two things.  The older they are, the more pages they can create.  Four is about the limit for “original” pages, so if you have a high schooler, you might ask them to create a page about each of the four things I listed above.
  3. We make a mess.  Messes are good when they’re signs of a creative, engaged child!  Get out the cardstock, glue, scissors, sheet protectors, colored pencils and crayons.  Let your children be creative.
  4. Create a page! Sometimes, I use notebooking templates that I find on the internet, or I create my own on our home computer.  My favorite way by far to create pages is to simply let the children make their own.  You’ll need to show them examples, and if they are young, you’ll need to help them draw lines, etc., but after that, let them spread their creative wings and fly!
  5. When notebook pages are done, put them in sheet protectors and put them in your binders.  Don’t forget to put a DATE on each page!  I like to keep our binders in chronological order.  It really helps with reference points at the end of the year.
  6. Add other pages you are doing in school; the occasional math page or language lesson.  All of these will serve to help you create a wonderful portfolio of your child’s work. They’ll love looking back over it.
Use what you have around the house to create pages. The one on the right is computer made.

Use what you have around the house to create pages. The one on the right is computer made.

 Favorite Resources For Notebooking

These are a few of my favorite things:

Bottom line: Notebooking can help you be more creative with your children, learn more and enjoy it more. Give it a try!

Page from a study on botany (L) and cover for our second daughter's 9th grade notebook.

Page from a study on botany (L) and cover for our second daughter’s 9th-grade notebook.

You’ve got this,
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Heidi St John Homeschooling Guide to Daylight

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Giving Our Kids the Gift of Boredom!

I can hear them now as my hubby and I wash up after dinner.  They are running around, enjoying the respite from our intense desert sun while they soak up that important time outside.  One boy runs inside to inform me that he’s discovered a new path.  Really it is just a long stretch of space behind a line of bushes.  But in his mind, it is ripe with mystery and opportunity.  He grabs at my hand, begging me to explore this path with him.  I arrive in time for a lizard funeral as boys relay their attempt to rescue this scaly creature from a bird.  In the span of 2 minutes, we’ve discussed funeral practices, heaven, predator/prey relationships, and compassion.  And I didn’t have to plan a thing.

Giving our kids the gift of time - a better way of staying busy...

Ahhh, the lazy days of summer – when kids run wild – exploring, building forts, climbing trees, forming clubs, reading books.  Well, that’s the way it used to be anyways.

These days we are all about programs and bucket lists…

And if we aren’t keeping our kids busy and occupied with these than we give them our ipads, smartphones or some other kind of screen to keep them occupied.

But what if we did something drastic and returned to the good ol’ days, the lazy days of summer?  What if we embraced the value of time – time to be bored – knowing that we are allowing their imagination, their curiosity, their ingenuity to develop?

They say that “necessity is the mother of invention,” but I’d venture to add that a bit of boredom accomplishes this too!  It takes skill to know what to do with oneself.  If we remove distractions and take the time to provide these opportunities, think of what a gift we can give them.    And while we are at it, we can unplug and just be as well.  We can be present – enter into their worlds, bring them into ours.  We can read, talk, bake, and explore free from the confines of “busyness.”  Our culture has idolized the concept of being busy and redefined what that looks like.  It is program focused, instead of people focused.  And all too often it leaves us frantic, disconnected, and unable to just be there for the little things in life.  Life is busy, but let’s take a look at what we are busy doing and then help our children learn how to constructively occupy their own time without always doing it for them.  Because these are the moments when most of life’s lessons are learned.  It’s nearly impossible to plan for; we simply need to be available.

So how do we embrace this kind of “time?”  I’m sharing a few ideas about how to embrace boredom in a way that cultivates creativity over at my blog, Cultivated Lives.

Heather.


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When Your Best Laid Plans Fail

 

When it comes to making plans, I am second to . . . well, just One. Planning is in my DNA. I am a list maker and a lover of all things calendar-related. Just give me an idea and a deadline, and I’ll make it happen—that is, if only the universe would cooperate! I shudder to think of the thousands of my perfectly laid plans that have been completely derailed by everything from forgetting to plug in the slow cooker to getting in a fender bender on the way to the store.

The truth is, we can’t plan for everything. And perhaps more to the point, no one ever plans for a crisis. We don’t pencil-in “crisis” on the third Monday of the month. And yet, without fail, with the bases loaded and two minutes left, the phone rings, and voilà—you have a sick kid, someone has lost their job, a friend has devastating news.

This is where courage needs to step up to the plate.

The Bible says that we can make our plans, but ultimately the Lord determines our steps (see Proverbs 16:9). And some of those steps can be pretty painful to take. In my twenty-six years of mothering, I have lost a baby to miscarriage and wept beside the casket of a dear friend’s stillborn daughter. We don’t always get to choose what happens to the babies we carry so carefully inside us. We can’t always predict what a day will bring. But we are guaranteed of this: God will never leave us or forsake us. Ever.

And oh, how we need Him! God is the one who brings courage from the chaos and peace to the broken places in our hearts. Without the courage that comes from God, the spirit of fear can settle into the unseen places of a mother’s soul. So stay close to Him, precious mom! Get to know His Word. Memorize His promises. Don’t let that fear take root.

Every mom can identify with fear, but every mom can also identify with the antidote to fear we’ve been given. From the moment we know we’re bringing a new life into the world, something miraculous—even sacred—awakens in the heart of a mother: courage.

It takes courage to be a mother. Unplanned C-sections, unexpected diagnoses, illnesses, sibling rivalry, bad attitudes, and strong-willed children test the courage and resolve of every mother. But God uses all of these circumstances to help make us into the mothers He wants us to be.

I know it’s true, because this business of shaping little hearts is also shaping mine. Motherhood has exposed weaknesses in me I never knew I had, it has driven me to the limits of what I thought I could do, and it has filled my heart with hopes and dreams I never imagined for a future I can only entrust to God. There’s no doubt about it: becoming a mother changes everything. And even twenty-six years in, I’m finding I need fresh courage on a daily basis.

Let’s face it: this isn’t our grandparents’ generation. Choosing a Christ-centered life in a culture that rejects Christ is challenging the courage of many believers today. We are parenting in a generation in which fear is a driving force in our decisions. Standing for what the Bible says about marriage and human sexuality is growing increasingly unpopular as our culture moves away from the truth and toward moral relativism. As a result, Christian mothers today have to do something the previous three generations haven’t had to worry about: we’re preparing our kids to face rejection.

It takes courage to stand for the Lord in the face of rejection, but stand we must. The next time your children tell you they have been mocked or labeled for their faith or beliefs, remember that at the moment of our salvation, God Himself gave us an even more powerful label. We wear the label redeemed, and no one can relabel us! We are forever accepted by God.

If you’re struggling to find courage in the face of being rejected, look up—and point your children’s gaze to Jesus as you do. Courage is found where acceptance abounds: in Christ. MomStrong moms know who they are in Christ, and they refuse to allow the devil to lie to them. They rise to the challenge of the culture and, in the process, shape the hearts and minds of their children for the glory of God.

Yes, we are living in challenging times, but like Joshua, we have been called to “be strong and courageous.” This is an exciting time to be a Christian, because when faith finds its feet in this generation of parents and their children, we are going to see amazing things happen in the lives of God’s people.

Adapted from Becoming MomStrong: How to Fight with All That’s in You for Your Family and Your Faith by Heidi St. John.