5 Days of Homeschooling Essentials - Simple and Quick Lunches

This week I will be sharing with you our 5 days of Homeschooling Essentials. 

In case you missed it, here are Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4.

Our fifth Homeschooling Essential is Simple and Quick Lunches.

Most of the time, we eat lunch around 11:30 because my husband usually leaves for work at 12:00.  Simple and Quick lunches work well for us!  

Here are some simple and quick lunch ideas.  I'd love to hear any ideas you may have as well!

Lunch staples that I always try to have on hand include mayo, mustard, cheese, eggs, popcorn, chips or pretzels, bananas, apples, carrots, celery, fruit cups, applesauce, and cucumbers.

• Leftovers - usually not enough for all of us
• Sandwiches of any sort  - lunch meat, egg, grilled cheese, chicken salad, egg salad, tuna salad, etc.
• quesadillas
• English muffin pizzas
• varieties of soups
• varieties of Chef boyardee 
• lentils over tortilla chips
• tacos
• salads
• hot dogs
• rice cakes with peanut butter and raisins (believe it or not it is really tasty!)
• eggs - hard boiled, sandwiches, salad, fried, omelets 

Another idea is to have the same thing for lunch every week or rotate 2 weeks of lunch items.  For instance:

Monday:  Omelets with ham and veggies 

Tuesday: Hot Dogs, chips, fruit

Wednesday:  tacos with fixings

Thursday: Deli Sandwiches, soup

Friday:  English Muffin Pizzas, cut veggies, fruit

or maybe...

Monday:  Egg day

Tuesday:  Sandwich Day

Wednesday:  Soup Day

Thursday: Chef Boyardee Day :)

Friday:  Pizza Day

The main thing that I try to do is keep our lunch staples on hand and then we can pick and choose what we would like for the day.  I definitely go with the KISS (keep it simple silly :) method when it comes to lunches!

A quick pinterest search will bring up many more ideas for you as well!

I know it sounds minimal but having lunch ideas ready and on hand can be a big time saver especially when you need to get back to school work after lunch!

I hope you have enjoyed our 5 Days of Homeschooling Essentials Series.  I have tried to think of things that have kept me sane during our homeschooling journey!

Don't forget to check out what my fellow crew members' Homeschooling Essentials are too!  Here are just a few to get you started.  Click on the banner below to see them all!

Marcy @ Ben and Me
Lisa @ Golden Grasses
Tess @ Circling Through This Life
Victoria @ Homemaking with Heart
Kayla @ The Arrowood Zoo
Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory
Deanna @ His Treasure Seekers
Beth @ Ozark Ramblings
Rebecca @ Raventhreads

5 Days of Homeschooling Essential - Supplies

This week I will be sharing with you our 5 days of Homeschooling Essentials. 

In case you missed it, here are Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3.

Our fourth Homeschooling Essential is Supplies.  There are endless number of supplies that can be called my essentials because I admittedly state that I am a homeschool supply addict!  I have always loved school supplies since I was a little girl!

I'm just going to limit my supply list to my top 10.

1. Bible - I like for each child to have their own Bible so they can follow along while I really the daily scripture passage to them.  
2. Laptop/Computer - I prefer a laptop just for school use.  If we could have 2 or one for each child that would be even better but at least 1 laptop is an essential for us. Our Math and Foreign Language curriculum are done by DVD and my children type out their writing stories as well.  It is also how the majority of our research is done.
3. Printer - A great printer is definitely an essential for us.  It also needs to include a copier and scanner.  I would suggest researching before hand the cost of the ink to supply your printer because ink for us can be a real budget buster!
4. Lots of pens and pencils - My children prefer lead pencils and I do too because then I don't have to worry about the sharpener drowning me out while I'm trying to teach.  :) My favorite all time pens are the Pilot Frixion pens which I first saw used by Sam over at Sam's Noggin.  I love that they are erasable.  I use the red one for checking papers and checking things off my checklist.  I use the black or blue one to fill in our weekly planning sheets.
5. Laminator - I laminate everything.  I find that I don't use it quite as much now as I did when my children were smaller but I still love having it here when I need it.
6. Label Maker - I love to use my label maker for labeling binders tabs, supply drawers, book shelves, books that I loan out, binders, and anything else that I think needs a label.
7. Composition Notebooks - I usually try to stock up on these when they go on sale before school starts.  Wal-mart has often had them for 8 cents each.  My children use these daily and I cannot believe it but I let my stock pile run out and we currently have no extras!!!!!
8. Dividers and Tabs - I am a binder gal so I go through a lot of these.  Each of my children also have their own binders with dividers and tabs as well.  I use tabs to separate the weeks in my teacher's manuals as well.
9. Books - I love having series of books on our shelves for my children to just pick out and start reading if they wish. I also like to stock our shelves with great books for read alouds.  Our curriculum gives read aloud book suggestions and they are always great!  I always have to have tissues close by too so that's needs to be an essential included in this group!  
• Some of our family favorites are:
• The Bronze Bow, any book by Patricia St. John, The Witch At Blackbird Pond, The Magic Tree House Series, Ms. Piggle Wiggle, and Charlotte's Web.
• You can find a list of great read aloud books here as well.
• Lastly, a great place to find these books is the library but I also like to have my fair share (or more :) on hand at home.
10. Bookshelves - With all the curriculum and books on hand, you need a place to store them. We store ours on 2 bookshelves and in the attic for those not needed at the time.

Of course "my brain" is also a supply essential that I need as well as all the other necessities such as paper (notebook, printer, construction, card stock, etc), tape, rulers, scissors, stapler, etc.  All the essentials you would normally need in a school environment.

As I said before, this list could go on and on but I tried to include items here that we use daily or close to it!

Don't forget to check out what my fellow crew members' Homeschooling Essentials are too!  Here are just a few to get you started.  Click on the banner below to see them all!

Marcy @ Ben and Me
Lisa @ Golden Grasses
Tess @ Circling Through This Life
Victoria @ Homemaking with Heart
Kayla @ The Arrowood Zoo
Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory
Deanna @ His Treasure Seekers
Beth @ Ozark Ramblings
Rebecca @ Raventhreads

5 Days of Homeschooling Essentials - A Plan

This week I will be sharing with you our 5 days of Homeschooling Essentials. 

In case you missed it, here are Day 1, and Day 2.

Our third Homeschooling Essential is - A Plan.  This will look very different in each homeschool - some planning will seem extremely minimal and some will seem over the top to you.  Pick what works for you!  

This works for me.  "My Brain" is what I call my homeschool binder/planner.  It holds all my homeschool planning essentials.  I have shared before about my brain here and even videoed how I use it here.  My brain is like our homeschool - constantly changing, constantly evolving.  As my children get older, "my brain" reflects those changes.

Here is the inside of "my brain" and it's contents at this time. This has changed since we began school this year even!  As I see a need for something to be added or discarded, I change it.  Just like any good organization system, it stays organized by maintaining it.  You can't just do it once and let it go!

Here is "my brain".  To the left is where I keep my pens, scissors, ruler, and extra tabs.  The first pages that you see on the right are our Lesson Plans for the week.

The next section is my 2014 Blog Planner.  I just added this in December when I joined back up with the Schoolhouse Review Crew.  Here I keep up with my blog post schedule as well as my review schedule. 

Next is our calendar at a glance for the school year. 

I love using these pocket dividers to stick things in like this supply list for the year. 

Attendance for each child taken from the Well Planned Day Planner. 

Grade sheets for my high schooler are next.  These are included with our curriculum and somebody is behind on filling them in!  I usually do that as I file the papers and ahem - no filing has been done for several months now!!  So, even an organizer can have her down times! 

My next section for the next 90 days includes lesson plans and syllabus for Dave Ramsey's Foundations Curriculum that my high schooler has just begun.

Last I include questions that I have printed from ABC Teach for the books my children are currently reading.

Hope you have enjoyed this current peak into "my brain".  :)


Don't forget to check out what my fellow crew members' Homeschooling Essentials are too!  Here are just a few to get you started.  Click on the banner below to see them all!

Marcy @ Ben and Me
Lisa @ Golden Grasses
Tess @ Circling Through This Life
Victoria @ Homemaking with Heart
Kayla @ The Arrowood Zoo
Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory
Deanna @ His Treasure Seekers
Beth @ Ozark Ramblings
Rebecca @ Raventhreads

5 Days of Homeschooling Essentials - Curriculum

This week I will be sharing with you our 5 days of Homeschooling Essentials. 

In case you missed it, here is Day 1.

Our second Homeschooling Essential is Curriculum.  Of course, you have to have something to teach and oh my there is an unbelievable amount of homeschool curriculum to choose from these days.  

You can put together your own curriculum by piecing together your favorite choices from each subject.  You can buy boxed curriculum that has everything for every subject already put together for you.  Finally, you can do a little of both which is what we do in our homeschool.

I am the type that NEEDS a plan! (hint planning will be tomorrow's essential)  I like to be told what to do and have it all planned out for me BUT I also like the flexibility to easily change the plan if I want to.

So, that is why we are huge fans of My Father's World.  The plan is there and laid out but you can add to or subtract from easily.  For instance, an art plan is included but I don't really care for it so I've taken that out and implemented our own art plan.  They have suggestions for language arts, science, math, etc but you have the choice of choosing something else you love in those subjects if you wish.  

Choosing the right curriculum for your family can be difficult. We have gone through many trying to find the one that fits and are still finding our way in some areas.  

Here are some areas for consideration when choosing your homeschool curriculum:

• What is your family's purpose - do you have a biblical worldview or a secular worldview? 
• Do you like schedules and function by checklist or are you more of a go with the flow personality?  
• What is your budget? There are some free homeschool curriculum choices out there.  Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool is one that comes to mind.
• Do you want to mimic the school system or have more flexibility in your homeschool?
• How many children do you have and what kind of time do you have to teach them all?  Can you combine subjects to save time?
• What is your homeschool law?  Are there specific instructions on hours per day? days per year? subjects that have to be taught?

Last, I would like to leave you with a few of the most popular Homeschool Methods.  Deciding your method can help you to choose the right curriculum for your family.

• Charlotte Mason
• Classical Education
• The Principle Approach
• Traditional
• Unit Studies

Focus on the family has a great article on each of these methods and other ideas to help you choose your homeschool curriculum here.  They also have a great breakdown of homeschool curriculum choices per method here.

If you like to see reviews of homeschool curriculum used by real homeschooling families, you can always check out the Schoolhouse Review Crew curriculum reviews.

Don't forget to check out what my fellow crew members' Homeschooling Essentials are too!  Here are just a few to get you started.  Click on the banner below to see them all!

Marcy @ Ben and Me
Lisa @ Golden Grasses
Tess @ Circling Through This Life
Victoria @ Homemaking with Heart
Kayla @ The Arrowood Zoo
Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory
Deanna @ His Treasure Seekers
Beth @ Ozark Ramblings
Rebecca @ Raventhreads

5 Days of Homeschooling Essentials - Other Homeschoolers

This week I will be sharing with you our 5 days of Homeschooling Essentials.  

I've tried to think back to when I first started and the overwhelmed feeling that I felt and what direction I went at the time.  So the first thing I did was......

Find other homeschoolers in my area!  That was my first essential.  Thank the Lord, in my area there are lots of homeschooling families I could turn too.  Some had even began in the early 80's and had pretty much paved the road for our first homeschooling adventures.  They showed me the curriculum they were using, introduced me to other families so I could see how they homeschooled, shared with me the NC homeschooling law, and showed me how to sign up for our local homeschool group where I met even more families.  

I know that option is not available for some of you.  Some of you are feeling very alone in this journey but if your reading this - you have access to the Internet which means you have access to Homeschool Blogs.  I have said before that I am a visual learner.  Seeing how others do what they do helps to inspire and encourage me to keep on keeping on.  So, to those of you who are wondering if your homeschool posts ever matter - I'm here to tell you they do!  

One of the best places to start on the Internet is the Schoolhouse Review Crew blogs.  From there you can find many others from their blogs.  A google search of homeschool blogs will lead you to many more!  

A word of warning though - do not fall into the comparison trap.  If that easily happens to you, then just pick a few and look for ideas to spin your own way for your children and your homeschool.  God has made each of us unique and our homeschools will and should reflect that uniqueness!

So, to get you started on your journey here is a list of just a few of the Review Crew blogs and their Essentials for Homeschooling.  You can also find many more by clicking the banner below.  

Marcy @ Ben and Me
Lisa @ Golden Grasses
Tess @ Circling Through This Life
Victoria @ Homemaking with Heart
Kayla @ The Arrowood Zoo
Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory
Deanna @ His Treasure Seekers
Beth @ Ozark Ramblings
Rebecca @ Raventhreads

Review - Mere Christianity Critical Analysis Journal

*Links in this article are affiliate links.

Today is the day - the day that I share my review of the Mere Christianity Critical Analysis Journal that I've been hinting about for a little while now!  

I am a huge fan of C.S. Lewis and I am sharing that love of his writings with my children who are also becoming huge fans.  Can you believe that I had never read any of his writings until I was in my late 30's?   That's just WRONG and I knew I wanted to change that with my children!  We have studied a little about apologetics in our Sunday School class and our teacher recommended that we read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Well, as with life I never did get around to it.  So, when this review opportunity came up I knew this was my chance!  I also knew that I wanted to add it in to my high school apologetic curriculum at some point.

Here is a little information from Home School Adventure Company on what you can expect from Mere Christianity and the Mere Christianity Critical Analysis Journal.

Book Description

The classic work commonly known as Mere Christianity is actually a four-book series which explores the common ground upon which all Christians stand. It brings together Lewis’ legendary radio talks broadcast during World War II previously published as: Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe, What Christians Believe, Christian Behavior, and Beyond Personality (or First Steps in the Doctrine of the Trinity), and provides an unequaled opportunity for believers and nonbelievers alike to hear this powerful apologetic for the Christian faith.

The Mere Christianity Critical Analysis Journal is a powerful tool to strengthen critical thinking while cultivating a biblical worldview. Although it was originally created to be a companion resource to Philosophy Adventure, it may also be used as group or independent study for teenagers or adults.

It provides 10-16 questions for each chapter which can be discussed in: 

• homeschools
• co-ops
• classrooms
• Sunday school
• small groups
• families

I am not completely through reading the book and journal but I can easily see how this will help me reinforce what my high schooler is learning. As stated in the description, each chapter includes questions to help aid you when you are discussing what your student has learned. So, even if you don't have time to read it for yourself this can be a valuable resource to help keep the discussion alive. 

I love the fact that the Mere Christianity Critical Analysis Journal assists the student in critical thinking skills but I love even more that it does it from a biblical worldview. 

I am certain that if my children cannot defend what they believe then their belief could and possibly will easily waver. 

I'll admit that more often than not I have a difficult time coming up with the right questions to ask to stir up those critical questions. Not only does the Mere Christianity Critical Analysis Journal consist of thought provoking questions for the student but suggested answers for the parent/teacher! 

I must also add that I think this is a great book and journal for adults as well especially those like me!

Since this is launch week for the Mere Christianity Critical Analysis Journal, you can purchase it for 10% off the normal price until January 31, 2014. Normal price after that date will be $28.95.

I'd also like to invite you to a Facebook party to kick off the launch of the Mere Christianity Critical Analysis Journal happening on Thursday, January 16 at 8PM ET. There will be lots of prizes up for grabs there.

It has been a great pleasure to work with the author of the Mere Christianity Critical Analysis Journal and founder of Home School Adventure Company, Ms. Stacy Farrell.  Her dedication to the Lord is clear in the curriculum that she has designed.  Here is a little more about Stacy and the other resources she has made available to us.  I thank God for her dedication!

Stacy Farrell’s worldview changed when she embarked on her homeschooling adventure in 2002.

Her background as a consultant and writer well-prepared her to teach communication skills; however, only hands-on experience (and much time spent on her knees) equipped her to mentor her sons through the character-transformation required to help them work toward their full potential.

Stacy has spoken at a variety of homeschool conferences and has published articles in leading Christian magazines. She wrote scripts for Willow Creek’s youth ministry, copy for Pastor Bill Hybel’s “Defining Moments” Audio Newsletter, and a broad range of material for corporate and non-profit clients. She also managed a law firm that specialized in civil rights litigation and constitutional law. Today, she loves to help empower students to recover territory lost by “fuzzy thinking” and low expectations. To that end, she created:

• Philosophy Adventure™—Pre-Socratics – designed to help students 6th-12th grade cultivate and defend a biblical worldview by teaching them how to write skillfully, think critically, and speak articulately as they explore the history of ideas
• Philippians in 28 Weeks™ — a simple and painless way to memorize an entire book of Scripture
• The Wise Woman with Literary Analysis Journal Questions – an enchanting fable that unmasks the ugliness of pride and selfishness
• Mere Christianity Critical Analysis Journal -- a powerful tool to strengthen critical thinking while cultivating a biblical worldview.

Although Stacy loves to write, speak, and teach, she considers her role as wife to Roger and mother to two precious sons to be her greatest work and privilege. You can learn more about her resources at Home School Adventure Company.

Weekly Wrap Up - Week 16

In my life this week…

Back to school and the new school year!  I'm an organizer and love, love a fresh new year with a fresh start.  It revives me.  :)  We started back on our full schedule but overall it was a smooth week.

In our homeschool this week…

Week 16 complete!  We are plugging right along and jumped right back in.  We are currently up to the beginning of The Dark Ages in history and studying the heart in science anatomy.  Our read aloud is Patricia St. John's Twice Freed.  I can not get enough of her books!

Changes we're making...
For Stephen and Sarah, we have ditched God and the History of Art.  I still look over the lessons for the week but most of the time I choose not to do them.

Jonathan began Dave Ramsey's Foundations curriculum this week and I'm watching it and going over it with him. We are only on week 1 but I can already say - I LOVE IT!!  In my opinion, every teenager should have to take this course.  I sure wish I had!

I’m cooking…

Here is a video of our dinners for the week.

I’m grateful for…

A brand new year with a fresh new start.  Check out my 2014 goals!

A photo that needs no words…

Linking up with The Homeschool Mother's Journal and Weekly Wrap-Up!.