But what about socialization?

There are a lot of ways to answer the question and truthfully, in the vast majority of cases, it’s a non-issue. Homeschoolers have plenty of opportunities to learn how to interact with other people in a much more natural way than going to school.

Sure, homeschoolers have trouble forming a line and walking in a line. They’re not too great at making a large circle either. But other than school, when do people ever need to do that?

There are many aspects of school that are totally irrelevant to the homeschooled student and there are plenty of jokes to prove it. But there is one thing about school that is definitely missing in a homeschool. And all jokes aside, I think this one thing is what people are actually asking when they ask the socialization question.

That thing is

Friends

It’s true. Without being intentional, it is more difficult for homeschoolers to make friends. Hopefully, homeschoolers can make friends at church, in the neighborhood, or in outside activities like sports teams. etc. But often, it’s not easy. In those groups the other kids may have built relationships in school, and the homeschooled child is the outsider. Since school takes such a huge portion of a child’s day, it’s only natural that there will be more time for friendships to develop during that time.

That’s why I think having friends is another positive thing about joining a homeschool co-op. In a co-op, there is weekly connection to the same people which helps children to become friends. Continuing in the same co-op for years helps even more. On the negative side, it can make it more difficult for new students to fit in, but in my experience, new students are quickly accepted into the group.

Not only does a co-op help homeschooled children make friends, it also provides opportunities for

Friends for Mom

Homeschool moms need friends too. As a homeschool mom, you probably already have some friends. You haven’t been homeschooling forever after all. But I’ve found that most friendships are formed and strengthened when you have things in common. Some friendships continue after the activity you shared is gone, but it takes work. For example, if you made a lot of friends who had children the same age as yours and you got together for play dates, you often lose touch when they send their kids to school. Your schedules won’t overlap much anymore.

At a homeschool co-op, you automatically have some things in common with the other moms there.

1. You homeschool
2. You use the same curriculum
3. You have at least some children of similar ages

Add those similarities to the fact that you will be spending a lot of time together with at least some time to chat, and that can mean that co-op is mom’s social highlight of every week. At the co-op we attend, we try to intentionally build relationships between the moms by having moms’ activities at least a couple of times per year.

What do you think? Is a homeschool co-op a good place to make friends? How are you intentional about making friends for yourself and helping your children find friends?

If you missed homeschool benefit #1, be sure to check it out.

1. Go through your house and gather all the homeschool materials you used this year.
2. Divide materials into
   1. Reusable texts
   2. Consumables (eg workbooks)
   3. Papers/projects
   4. School supplies
3. Store as outlined below

Organizing Reusable Textbooks and other books

This first step in organizing textbooks and other books that you have used but are still able to be used by another student is determining if you would reuse it in your home. Ask yourself these questions.

Did we enjoy this book?

Do I have younger children who would enjoy or need this book in the future?

If you answered yes to those questions, then you should probably keep the book. I have found that the best way to store books, not surprisingly, is on bookshelves. Generally, I try to arrange our homeschool bookshelves by subject. I don’t have all our homeschool bookshelves in the same room though that would be ideal if space permits. Don’t overthink bookshelf arrangement too much at this point. You just need to collect all the texts and other books that you are keeping for later years for shelving.

What about those books that you don’t want to keep? Those books should be either sold or donated as soon as possible. Don’t put them in a to sell stack and leave them there for months on end. (Hypothetically, of course.) If selling, you can try Ebay, your local homeschool group, Facebook marketplace, HomeschoolUsedBook.com, or a used bookstore. Your local library or thrift shop will probably take book donations.

Organizing Consumable Workbooks

Next up is the consumable workbook stack.

Is this fully used?

If not, are we planning to finish this?

A fully used workbook can probably throw into the trash or recycle. If you live in a state that requires portfolios or someone to look over your student’s work, then that may not be the case. You should determine what completed work needs to be kept. Even if you don’t live in a state where you are required to show work, you may choose to rip out a page or two to keep as a sample. Or instead of ripping out physical pages, you could scan them.

If the workbook is not completed and you plan to complete it next year, then it needs to be placed with your curriculum for the next year. If it’s not completed and you don’t intend on finishing it, then you are allowed to throw away or recycle as above. Don’t hold onto partially completed workbooks that weren’t a good fit for your kids. They only induce guilt.

Organizing Homeschool Papers and Projects

Papers and projects are a bit trickier to determine what to keep. Some of this is going to depend on your personal clutter preference levels. Unless you need them for a portfolio, you can probably dispose of these. However, I do think it’s nice to hold on to some work samples and favorite assignments from each year. I guess you could call me a sentimental minimalist.

One suggestion I have seen to help contain and limit the clutter is to create a single memory box per child with hanging folders for each year. You can only save what can fit in the box. I have a banker’s box for each child. Projects should be photographed and then discarded. Exceptions can be made for special projects. We held on to our Tabernacle Model for many years. I have to confess that I have some very old history and science binders that have been stored out of the way for way too long. They aren’t taking up prime shelf real estate so I haven’t made purging them a priority.

Organizing School Supplies

I am an admitted school supply hoarder. The back-to-school sales always get me. So gather up all your used school supplies and see what you can still use next year. Then check your stash of school supplies and see what you already have so that you can avoid overbuying. I am making a school supply list that includes what we do NOT need. (Spiral notebooks, pocket folders, and crayons). If you have more new crayons than you can possibly use, consider donating some of your extra boxes. I’ve put boxes of new crayons into Operation Christmas child boxes. And for a fun craft with those broken crayons you can recycle them by making new crayons.

Hopefully this gives you a little push to tackle this homeschool organization task and maybe some new ideas about what to do with everything you’ve collected. I know I’m feeling inspired to tackle my own mess!

I am looking back at various posts that I’ve published over the years and was amused to find this one titled To Co-op or not to Co-op. I laid out a pretty good case for why I had chosen not to join a homeschool co-op. Here’s the number one reason I chose not to co-op for most of my homeschool years.

One big reason is that most of the co-ops that we have in this area include a lot of core subjects. And they dictate the curriculum for those studies. For history they use X, for science, they use Y, and for writing they use product Z. As an admitted curriculum junkie, I like to choose my own curriculum. I don’t like being tied to the group for my curriculum choices. I’m fiercely independent that way.

To Co-op or not to Co-op

A little over five years ago I received an email from a local co-op director that mentioned they had space available for the upcoming year for 1st and 6th grades. It just so happened that my two youngest were going to be in the 1st and 6th grades in the following year, so I decided to schedule a visit.

When we visited, I found that the overall philosophy and core values were the same as ours. Some of the individual curriculum choices were not the exact things that I would have chosen. But overall it felt like a good fit, so we took the plunge and joined for the following school year.

Curriculum User

Before joining the co-op I was failing miserably at doing any science or history with my 2 youngest. Joining the co-op provided me with exactly what I needed to study history and science.

Accountability

I have found that choosing the curriculum is not as important to me as it once was. It doesn’t matter how perfect the curriculum is, if we never get around to using it it is useless.

Imperfect curriculum that is used is better than perfect curriculum that sits on the shelf.

Accountability was the single biggest factor that enabled an experienced, but border-line burned out, homeschool mom to go from collecting curriculum to using curriculum. I saw my children also enjoying these topics and doing projects that I just didn’t make the time to do previously.

Homeschooling is a wonderful educational choice for families, but it will look different for every family. There is freedom to choose what works best for your own family and freedom to change. Joining a co-op doesn’t have to be a forever choice, but it can provide the extra accountability to do the things that you wanted to do anyway and to try some things that you might not have tried otherwise.

What is your experience with homeschool co-ops?

This post with instructions for building a model tabernacle is updated from the original post made in 2008! It’s astounding to me that it has been that long since we made this model. This project is probably the most memorable of all 19 years of homeschooling.

Here are the basic materials and methods we used to construct our tabernacle model. I wasn’t able to find any free instructions online. I have a friend who told me that they had made one last year and had used the lid of a copy paper box and old-fashioned clothespins.  We started with that as our idea and went from there.

Materials

• Lid to a copy paper box
• 60 old fashioned clothespins
• Fabric scraps in off-white, blue, purple, and red
• Paper lunch bag
• Craft sticks
• Gold paint
• Bronze paint
• Tacky glue
• Gold pipe cleaner
• Assorted wood pieces for the tabernacle furnishings
• Small box with lid for Ark of the Covenant

We purchased all the wood pieces from A. C. Moore. I’m sure we could have come up with some less expensive materials. Many of the things came in packages with several pieces, so we do have leftover pieces for later creative projects.

Assembly

Tabernacle: We constructed a frame from craft sticks. We glued a mini sick at the top between 2 regular sticks which were at an angle. We made 4 of those, then attached them together by gluing mini craft sticks along the top. I should have taken pictures of the process.

Altar: 1-3/4 inch wood cube painted with bronze paint

Laver: I honestly don’t know what it is. We found it at A.C. Moore. We epainted it bronze, and then blue on top to represent water.

Table of Showbread: 1 cm cube with a mini wooden sign glued on arnd painted gold.

Altar of Incense: 1 cm cube with a wooden wheel glued on top and painted gold.

Lampstand: Cut a gold pipe cleaner into 4 pieces. Wrapped 3 of the pieces around one straight piece in the center. Stuck gold beads on 7 ends of pipe cleaner. Stuck in wooden wheel (painted gold) for a stand.

Ark of the Covenant: Painted a small lidded box gold. Inside are 2 wooden tablets painted gray (could make out of clay), a Tinker toy end piece for the jar of manna, and a small twig from the yard for Aaron’s rod.

We spent about a week on the project but not a lot of time on it each day. We spent most of the time painting pieces (especially those clothespins!) It was kind of a pain to clean it up and drag it back out, but it was definitely worth it. I had really hoped that Tapestry of Grace would help me to spark an interest in history in my children. So far it hasn’t disappointed!

One of the activities that our family enjoys doing together is hiking. Or at least that’s something I’ve always said. But in reality, hiking is not always fun.

Hiking is hard.

On a recent hike, we visited Grayson Highlands State Park in Virginia. We’ve been there multiple times and there are beautiful views, plus the added bonus of wild ponies. On this particular visit, my husband had a goal of the 4 of us reaching Mt. Rogers. He has done it several times, but never with me or our two youngest children who were with us. This was a bit of a stretch goal to me (It’s over 8 miles round trip.) and honestly, I wasn’t exactly feeling it.

This hike starts with a moderately steep incline after which you’re rewarded with lovely views and a nice flatter section of walking along the ridge. I made it up the first steep part and was able to rest somewhat while I walked along the ridge. But that is followed by another steep section with lots of rocks. I really struggled with this section and was walking alone since everyone else could go much faster than I can. When I caught up with my family where they were waiting for me, I told them that there was no way they were going to reach Mt. Rogers with me slowing them down. I asked for the keys and said I was going back. I had a book in the car and there’s a nice meadow where I could wait and read.

As I made my way back alone, I started to have a little pity party for myself. If I was no longer able to keep up with my family hiking, then I might as well give it up. Or at least only go on hikes that I would go on if I were alone. That got me thinking about how I would LIKE to hike and what it was that I didn’t like about hiking.

Hiking with my family is a race to the destination.

I’m not able to compete in a race to the top of a mountain. What I do enjoy is the journey.

I like the quiet.

I like seeing nature.

I like to stop and enjoy the view.

So that’s what I did on the way down.

I sat on a bench and watched the ponies. I listened to some small creature rustling in the leaves. I stopped and took pictures of fiddlehead ferns. I made it back to the meadow and read a book while I waited for my family.

I enjoyed the journey back.

How does this relate to homeschooing? I’ve been thinking about the mental shift that I made on the way back and realized that it is bigger than just my attitude about hiking. In our homeschool, do we seek to reach the destination (check the box) or do we enjoy the journey?

If I’m honest with myself, I tend to be a destination homeschooler. In general, I like to get things done. I want to be productive. This certainly has its place. For example, there are certain subjects that should be covered in order to grant students a high school diploma. But I don’t want all my days to be about getting through school work rather than letting my students find joy in learning new things. I’m not yet sure what changes I’m going to make. I do know that I don’t always want to be pushings towards a destination.

I want to enjoy the journey.

What about you? Are you a destination homeschooler? What do you do to enjoy your homeschooling (or life) journey?

It’s late July. What’s on your mind?

A. It’s hot.

B. I can’t believe that summer is almost over.

C. I really need to figure out school plans for this year.

D. We ought to do a Christmas Around the World unit study this year.

I’m betting the answer is probably not D. However, I know that Christmas always sneaks up on me. We have done a few fun Christmas activities over the years including Borax Snowflakes. But every year I think we should try to do a study focusing on Christmas during the holiday season. But I tend to think of that when it’s too late, and I’m already scrambling to buy gifts, bake cookies, and decorate.

But what if I did start thinking of that now? What if there was a resource that planned a Christmas Unit study for me?

Thankfully there is, and I was sent a copy to review. It’s Christmas Around the World Unit Study by Katie Horner.

Christmas Around the World is a a 6-week Geography Based Unit Study for grades K-6. It covers Christmas traditions in 29 different countries plus 1 lesson on Christmas Carols in a total of 196 reproducible pages.

There are 2 informational pages for each country. The first page provides text with information about the celebration of Christmas in the country. The second page includes a list of recommended resources for additional study. There are lists of books and websites that provide ideas to focus on history, home economics, geography, art, music, or math.

Following the informational pages, there are 4 additional pages for each country. For each country there is a coloring page and country information sheet. The other 2 pages include a variety of different activities such as word searches, writing prompts, matching games, and comparison of traditions in different countries.

The book is designed as a 6-week unit study with one country studied each day. Choosing that option, you could start in mid-November and study all the countries before Christmas. But there are many other ways you could use this resource.

• Add it to your geography studies throughout the year
• Divide the countries and have each student present what they learned at a co-op or other group
• Study more than one country per day
• Divide the countries by continents and study traditions from different regions spanning multiple years

I think I can cross one thing off my Christmas to-do list! You can too. You can purchase a copy of Christmas Around the World Unit Study for $26.97.

Now back to thinking about how hot it is.

Geography Study

I consider myself to be fairly knowledgable in the subject of geography. As a family, we’re committed to Raising Map Nuts. We make up geography games and quiz each other on the what state our tortilla chip looks like. We’ve visited all 100 county seats in our home state of North Carolina, and we have a goal of visiting every state capital.

When I received the Mexico Coloring Book & Geography Study by Tap and Katie Hornor, I was a bit ashamed to discover how little I know about the country of Mexico. I know all the provinces of Canada, but I not only didn’t know the names of the Mexican states, I didn’t even know how many there are! (There are 31 plus 1 federal district, in case you’re wondering.)

About the Book

The Mexico Coloring Book & Geography Study includes a black line map of each state. The capital city is marked for the student to label as well as the major rivers. Each map page also includes a small map of Mexico with the individual state marked for reference. On the bottom of the page is a catalog of facts about the state. These facts include the state motto, shield, area, capital, and other interesting facts. Each of the state pages is included in both English and Spanish.

Also included (in both English and Spanish) are notebook pages for compiling the data on the Mexican states. There are pages for Biography, Demographics, Coat of Arms and Motto, Geography, State History, and Historical Monuments. The entire booklet is reproducible for use within your family.

Suggested Uses

This resource would be a great spine for a full study on the country of Mexico. I think it would also be a great resource for Spanish teachers as a springboard for studying Mexican geography, culture, and related topics. You can purchase the book from Paradise Praises through Amazon for $14.97.

Over the years, we have chosen a variety of different approaches to teaching Bible in our homeschool. Some years we’ve used a formal Bible program. Other times our Bible learning has been tied to our history program. During yet other times, we’ve not had a formal Bible curriculum, instead have used various devotionals and listened to Scripture. All are excellent ways of studying the Bible with our children. The most important thing is that we teach the Bible to our children in some way.

I was interested in reviewing Bible Activities Genesis to Revelation because we’re at one of those in between times without a formal Bible curriculum, and I thought it might be a good “extra” for Andrew to work in when I’m busy with other children.

What Bible Activities Genesis to Revelation IS

• A collection of a variety of activities to enhance any Bible curriculum or study
• 64 pages of activities
• Appealing to elementary aged children

What Bible Activities Genesis to Revelation is NOT

• NOT a curriculum
• NOT a Bible study

In Bible Activities Genesis to Revelation, you will find word searches, crossword puzzles, coloring pages, mazes, code puzzles, sequencing activities, and more. With activities spanning the whole Bible it could be a useful addition to any Bible curriculum.

My suggested uses for Bible Activities Genesis to Revelation

• Bible time at home
• Sunday afternoon quiet time for children
• Sunday school
• Children’s church
• Activity to use in child care during Women’s Bible Study

My thoughts on Bible Activities Genesis to Revelation

This is an average activity book. I don’t find it particularly unique except that it does contain activities for more than just the most common Bible stories. For example there is a word scramble for the book of Judges and a page on Naaman’s cleansing from leprosy. It also has a good variety of types of activities, but I can’t personally see myself using this as a supplement to a Bible curriculum. I can see its possible value in working with children in Sunday School or at a time when you have a group children with no set activities. (To use in a group other than your family would require either a group license or multiple copies of the book. Please contact the author at Paradise Praises if you would like to use in a group setting.) I will most likely give this to my youngest and allow him to work through it as he chooses. I think during my Sunday afternoon nap time it will be great!

Recently I was given the opportunity to review Canvas Press. I jumped at the chance because I love canvas prints, but rarely purchase them because they tend to be expensive.

Ordering Process

This was the first time I’ve used Canvas Press, and I was very pleased with the simple ordering process. The hardest part for me was deciding on a picture!

The first step in the design process is deciding on the thickness of the wrapped canvas. The options are 0.75″, 1.5″ and 2.0″. I selected the 1.5″ because one of the other canvases that we have is that width, and I prefer the way it looks compared to the thinner one that we have.

Next, upload the image. You can use an image from your computer or Flickr. When the image appears, it is easy to center the image and crop it. I like that the wrapped edges are shown in the preview.

Then select the size of canvas to purchase. You can use one of the preset standard sizes or create a custom size. On the next screen, there are options to select different finishes, color options, and enhancements. You can even request minor or major enhancements like changes in background or removal of large objects for an additional cost.

I chose the standard options because I had my son do some minor color enhancement on the image that I selected before I uploaded it.

Print Quality Indicator

I think that the most helpful feature on the site is the print quality indicator. The first image I uploaded was one that I downloaded from my on-line photo storage account because I couldn’t find the original.

I looked at the print quality indicator and it was midway in the green area, so I was pleased. However, my son, who is very particular about images, asked me where I had found the image. He said he could see some data compression in it. After that I managed to find the original image and used it instead of the downloaded one. Notice the difference in the print quality indicator below.

Although I personally couldn’t tell the difference looking at the images, and I doubt that I would have been able to see much difference had I used the first image file, I am impressed  that the site’s indicator is that sensitive. It’s hard to tell what an image will look like when it’s enlarged, so having an indicator is a necessity for customers to receive quality prints that they’re happy with.

Final Results

I received my order in just over 1 week! I am so pleased with the results. If you’re looking for simple canvas prints, I recommend Canvas Press.

Now if I could just decide where to hang it!