An Unschooler's Not Back To School Guide + A Giveaway

*This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Page for details.

The World is our classroom!

Wow this Summer has flown by. Not that it really matters for us since we unschool and learning happens all the time...even during the Summer. But believe it or not even unschoolers need to prepare for a new "school" year.

So what does an unschoolers "not back to school" preparing look like? Well it is definitely not stressful and is basically a time for us to regroup. Here are some of the the things that occur when we are getting ready for a new "school" calendar year!

• Make a list of everything the kids want to learn about and explore during the year. This list definitely grows throughout the year, but it's helpful to have a good launching point. This list includes everything the kids are interested in learning about whether it is dinosaurs or shrunken heads!
  
• Buy some books, because you can never have enough books! We utilize the library every month and check out around 100 books a month (on average) but we also like to add a few books to our personal library. Our two favorite publishers are National Geographic and Usborne.
  
• Load up the Netflix queue with educational programming that compliments what the kids want to learn about. Yes the television is a resource in our home.  Netflix and Amazon Prime are loaded with fabulous, educational documentaries and movies.
• Stock up on supplies! I love taking advantage of the "back to school" sales. Who doesn't love to save money? Just like you can never have enough books you can never have enough pencils, crayons, scissors or glue! I swear my kids eat the crayons and glue, just like the dryer eats the socks :)
  
• Clean out the "homeschool room" or as I like to call it our resource room. I know Spring is over, but it is better late than never to go through that dreaded room (you all know what room I am talking about) to organize and purge. I did ours a few weeks ago and it felt wonderful. I got rid of several boxes of resources we no longer utilize and gave them to a homeschooling family that is starting their first year!
• Fill up the calendar with experiential learning experiences, fieldtrips and camping trips. If you follow me you know I run the largest homeschool group in the Southeast USA. So not only am I busy finding and creating amazing experiences for my children, but I am also busy helping out other families too!
• Celebrate! Get together with homeschool friends and celebrate with a "not back to school" party! After all Summer is NOT officially over yet and we still have a couple months to enjoy it with "hot" weather activities like swimming at the lake!
  

Giveaway:
Several bloggers have gotten together to host a great giveaway for you just in time for back to school! One lucky winner will receive a $100 US Amazon Gift Card . Giveaway ends 8/1/16 and winner will be announced 8/2/16. Please enter via the rafflecopter below.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Read some more great Back to School tips from my fellow blogging friends:

An InLinkz Link-up

A Day In The Life Of Our Homeschool 2012-2013

Make sure you check out my blog each Monday in August I will be participating again in the Not Back to School Blog Hop.

This week is sadly the last week at the Not Back to School Blog Hop and this week is Day-in-the-Life Week.

Uh oh...I am supposed to share what a day looks like in our homeschool!!! That may be difficult because our days NEVER look the same.

Because of my husbands current work schedule I go to bed WAY to late...okay even if he was getting off at a decent time I would probably still go to bed too late because I have sleeping issues. Wanna know where the Kathy's Cluttered Mind blog name came from? Well it's because I cannot shut my brain down. It is full of stuff - to do lists, project ideas, homeschool stuff, stress, bills, etc. I have tried everything - going to bed earlier, sleeping pills both prescription and natural, a glass of alcohol, not falling asleep with the TV on, not getting on electronic devices a few hours before bedtime, purging thoughts on paper, reading and nothing seems to work. So the late bedtime of sometime around 2 am, sometimes later, means I wake up late in the mornings. So our day starts sometime between 9-10 am. The kids are up before that time normally around 7 am and they go to bed at about 8 pm. They play, read books and listen to music in their bedroom until I get up to start our day.

So here is how our homeschool day looks:

Breakfast starts when I am up, sometime between 9-10 am. Eating takes forever in this house because I have two great eaters (who eat second and thirds at almost every meal) and who also like to fool around at the table which prolongs meal times. Once breakfast is done its time to start the learning.

First we read several books together that go along with our unit study and then...

I ask, "kids what would you like to work on today (insert several options)?"

And the kids give their replies. Sometimes they choose to work on the same thing and sometimes they choose to go their different ways. Most of the time our unit study stuff is done together as a family.

Last year we tried the more structured schedule and routine. We tried workboxes and it didn't fit our family. We then tried a routine without the workboxes and it still didn't fit us. So we went the more relaxed route and earlier this year we switched to full blown unit study learning with math and reading covered separately. Math and reading are covered many times in our unit studies but because they are incremental subjects we cover them separately as well. Read more about our curriculum here to see what subjects we cover and how we cover them.

Each week we try to take a nature walk and some sort of field trip. Mondays my son has speech therapy so that normally turns into an errand day for us. But the kids are still learning so it is still counted as a school day.

We generally do homeschool stuff from about 11 am - 4 pm. After that the kids can do what they wish which is normally watching educational shows on Netflix or playing educational games on my phone, the Wii or the tablet. This is my time to get some blog posts written, clean or catch up with friends on social media. Dinner is generally around 6 pm and bedtime is around 8 pm. Before bedtime we read a couple more books.

I also take some time to record what we did for the day. I have a spreadsheet that I recently created which I print out and keep in my planning binder. There are blank sections down the left for the dates to be written and the subjects I want to cover are across the top. There are blank sections going across from each date and under each subject where I have just enough room to jot down what the kids covered for each subject that day. Its super easy and allows me to keep a record of what they learned. And NO we don't always cover everything everyday and that is okay.

After the kids go to bed I continue to get some blogging, chatting, planning and cleaning done until hubby gets home. Then we watch a couple of TV show episodes on the Roku. And well you know the rest of my routine I stay awake until 2 am and then we do it all over again the next day!

Thanks for stopping by to take a look inside my cluttered day! 

*Disclaimer - Many of the links found on my side bars and in my blog posts are affiliate links. As a result, I might get paid money and I will most likely spend the money on homeschool supplies or field trips.

Wyning Academy 2012-2013

Make sure you check out my blog each Monday in August I will be participating again in the Not Back to School Blog Hop.

This week is Student Photo Week at the Not Back to School Blog Hop.

WELCOME to Wyning Academy (pronounced winning). Last year I explained where our homeschool name comes from and details about our logo (below) click here to read that post.

This is our 2nd year homeschooling. We now have a very proud 1st grader and Kindergartner. We are looking forward to a FUN year full of learning, creating and exploring.

The Students:

The Teacher and the Students:

Gwyndolyn:

Is my sweet, compassionate daughter who amazes me every day. She loves to help others, take care of her brother and give LOTS of hugs. She can be very sensitive and clingy. She enjoys animals, drawing, dancing and singing.

Rowyn:

Is my ruff, tuff son who makes me laugh every day. He is always dishing out sweet compliments and gives the best kisses. He keeps me on my toes and can be very stubborn at times. He loves taking things apart to see how they work, building with blocks, playing with marbles and playing games on mommy's phone.

Our School Room 2012-2013

Make sure you check out my blog each Monday in August I will be participating again in the Not Back to School Blog Hop.

This week is School Room Week at the Not Back to School Blog Hop.

Just like my mind our school room is a bit cluttered but it works. We live in an apartment currently. Its a large one 1400 sq ft but it still feels cramped sometimes or perhaps we just have too much stuff.

The School Room:
Okay so here is a walk through of our school room.

I will come clean now..."My name is Kathy and I have an addiction to posters and books". There I said it. I love having educational stuff covering the walls and books filling up the bookcases. Gwyn learned how to read one of her first word which was zoo from a poster. Posters help sneak in educational learning without them even knowing it. And well when I see a good deal on a book I just cannot pass it up. Having bookcases filled with books that the kids can pick up at anytime to learn something new from makes me smile.

The Entrance:
The school room door has posters on it along with our nature board where the kids glue their nature treasure. The area behind (no space unused) has posters and an over the door hanger for aprons, bags, etc. When you first enter there is a small wall on the right with of course another poster and a knick knack shelf with various things that Ben and I picked up on our past travels. And then an overall view of the room when you first walk in. The kids refuse to let me take down the Truffalla Tree decorations we made.

The Bookcases:
Here are our jammed pack bookcases even the tops and sides have something on them. These poor things are so abused notice the bowing shelves? I am surprised they haven't collapsed yet. The bookcases store our games, pen/pencil bin, puzzles, workbooks, books, and some manipulatives. On top of one of the bookcases is a bin that holds our completed unit studies. On the top of the other is a storage box  with overstock of miscellaneous supplies and a sorter with craft project ideas and other miscellaneous resources. On the sides of the bookcases are of course posters. One of the bookcases has our nifty pocket chart which is connected to a curtain rod. It can be rolled up when not in use.

The Walls:
Each and every wall and door is covered with something. Besides the many educational posters you will see a bug specimen board, Geo Matters maps, bird skeleton board, calendar, character training lighthouse, American flag, growth chart and more.

The Desks:
The kids each have their own desk areas of course most of the time we are sprawled out on the floor. Gwyns desk which has the hutch stores some of our learning resources along with her "treasures" and personal belongings like her magnetic dolls, rock collection, v-tech books, special art supplies and beads. Rowyns desk is 6 ft folding table which has a work area for him with his "treasures". At the end of the table is our unit study exploration box, microscopes, abacus and a few other things. Under the table are a few bins with their toys.

Learning Center Bins:
I found this CD tower by the dumpster (yes I dumpster dive) and got the idea to turn it into storage for learning bins. There 10 bins which have cooking supplies, tools, sewing supplies, flash cards, science tools, magnets, lacing cards, tanagrams and lacing beads.

Closet:
And lastly there is the closet. This is where the filing cabinet, craft supplies, larger toys and adult board games are stored.

You may have noticed everything is labeled with a picture and word. I did this for two reasons so that the kids could remember where to put things back and so that they could begin to associate the written word with the object which helps them with learning to read.

The only thing I really dislike about our school room is the lack of light. There is no over head light and very little sunlight comes through. I have one little lamp but it is no enough. Got any ideas?

Other Learning Areas:
We don't confine our learning to just the school room. We also utilize the kitchen, living room and balcony. We mostly do our reading and computer learning on the sofa. Normally my laptop is on the small table in front of the sofa. The messy craft projects and cooking lessons take place in the kitchen. And on the balcony the kids have fun bird watching, gardening, playing in their sand bin, blowing bubbles, jumping rope and nature journaling (since the area behind us is wooded). I also have a picture of our library bin. We have about 75 books out at any given time. I know you are probably wondering how I keep track of that many? Well the books are only allowed in the living room (unless I take one to the schoolroom) and when they are done reading or looking at a book it is either immediately returned to the bin or it is placed in the library suitcase (yup suitcase) to be returned to the library on our next trip. I would also consider the library part of our school room area as well since we visit there about twice a week.

All Over Georgia (we love field trips) and truly believe "The World Is Our Classroom":

Thanks for stopping by to take a look inside my cluttered mind or should I say cluttered house! 

*Disclaimer - Many of the links found on my side bars and in my blog posts are affiliate links. As a result, I might get paid money and I will most likely spend the money on homeschool supplies or field trips.

Get Ready For Back To School With This Book Cover Craft

It's that time of year again...Back To School. And yes even though we are a homeschool family we still partake in Back To School FUN. On our 1st day Back To Homeschool the kids eat a special breakfast, receive goodies (this year we did a scavenger hunt), sometimes get new clothes, get photos taken with their grade signs and do crafts.

Image(s): FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Book Cover Craft

Materials:
-Book or Journal
-Brown Kraft Paper or Paper Bag
-Fun Stuff - Markers, Crayons, Glitter, Stickers, Etc

Instructions:

1. Make the cover your book or journal using Kraft paper or a paper bag. Hopefully you remember how from your childhood days but if not please visit About.com for detailed directions and photos. Gwyn decided to cover her Nature Journal.
2. Decorate until your hearts content. Gwyn choose to use her favorite RoseArt supplies which are Glitter Magic Pens and Glitter Glue. She wrote "Nature Journal" on the cover and drew bugs and flowers.

To buy these RoseArt products visit your local Walmart, Joann's, Target, etc or visit my RoseArt Amazon store.

*Disclaimer - RoseArt (Mega Brand) supplies us with lots of wonderful products in return for honest reviews and craft project how to's. I was not compensated for my review and all opinions are our own! Many of the links found on my side bars and in my blog posts are affiliate links. As a result, I might get paid money and I will most likely spend the money on homeschool supplies.

Our Curriculum 2012-2013

Make sure you check out my blog each Monday in August I will be participating again in the Not Back to School Blog Hop.

This week is Curriculum Week at the Not Back to School Blog Hop.

What I am supposed to use curriculum?????????  If you follow my blog you know that we are very, very eclectic and borderline unschoolers. We don't really use a set curriculum and the majority of what we use is FREE!!!!

We do A LOT of unit studies so the majority of our "curriculum" comes from two resources the library and internet. The kids decide what they want to learn about each month as their main unit study, they picked out their books at the library and I gather the other learning resources. Our unit studies will cover science, geography, social studies, history and sometimes more. For example we learned about Lions and Africa earlier this year. During our unit study we learned about lions, Africa, deserts, pyramids, African music, African tribes and we even learned to speak Swahili.

Unit Study Resources:
Links to many of the FREE resources we utilize can be found on my FreeBEE Fridays posts each week.

Here are links to a few of the internet resources we utilize for our unit studies:

-Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett

-Currclick - lots of great resources many are FREE others are reasonably priced

-Notebooking Pages

-The Happy Scientist - great science experiments

-Arvind Gupta Toys - more awesome science experiments

-YouTube Videos

-Schoolhouse Teachers - lots of amazing resources - read review here

-Knowledge Box Central

-A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks

-Timeline of Classics - comprehensive timeline E-book with valuable resources broken down by time period - read review here

-Wonder Maps - map program with every kind of map imaginable - read review here

-Mamas Learning Corner

-Education.com

-Ed Helper

Books:
We have quite a book collection of our own most to these books were either won or picked up at library book sales.

Some of my favorite books are from Apologia, Master Books, Usborne and Kingfisher.

So that pretty much leaves Math and Reading which I do feel need to be covered further outside of our unit studies. And a couple other things like Foreign Language, Physical Education and Character Training.

Math: (we are still trying a few products to find the right one)
-A+ Tutor Soft - I have a feeling this is the one we will be using but I am waiting for the 1st grade program to be completed which will hopefully be by the end of the month. (Use coupon code KUBSAVE at check out to save a min. of 10%)
-Learn Math Fast - check out our past review
-Addition Teaching and Learning Made Easy (currently reviewing this workbook)
-Practical Math - playing store, cooking etc.
-Critical Thinking Skills - Logic Workbooks
-Dice games we purchased from Summer Book Company

Reading:
-Reading Kingdom (currently reviewing and loving it)
-Reading Eggs - read review here
-Various early readers - like Bob Books
-Have Fun Teaching - we also use this website for our unit studies as well
-Spelling/Vocabulary City

Rowyn is also still working on learning his A,B,C's so we will also be utilizing various resources from 1+1+1=1, Homeschool Creations, Confessions of a Homeschooler, Two Teaching Mommies, School Sparks.

Additional History:
-Founders Academy - live online history classes

Foreign Language:
-Speekee (currently reviewing and loving it)

Character Training:
-We Choose Virtues - read review here
-Howard Wigglebottom

Physical Education:
-Family Time Fitness - read review here

Keyboarding:
-Keyboarding for the Christian School - read review here

Art:
-Artistic Pursuits - read review here

Miscellaneous:
-Coindexter Club - financial learning
-Pen Pal Kids Club - writing and geography

Other Learning:
We take lots of field trips check out our Homeschool Journeys Google Map. We do lots of fun crafts. We explore nature and geocache. We do community service projects – like Alex’s Lemonade Stand. And we play games.

If you want to read more about our homeschool method visit So You Call Yourself A Homeschooler to read my post on Eclectic Homeschooling.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look inside my cluttered mind! 

**And again make sure you check out the past FreeBEE Fridays posts because it is virtually impossible for me to share all of our curriculum resources in one post.**


*Disclaimer - Many of the links found on my side bars and in my blog posts are affiliate links. As a result, I might get paid money and I will most likely spend the money on homeschool supplies or field trips.

FreeBEE Friday - Not Back To School FUN

Jen, from Gricefully Homeschooling, and I team up, every Friday, to bring you a list of freebees...on both of our blogs.

PLUS...with the added bonus of this being a weekly link up...where you can showcase your freebies, things you've found online, and also, things you've received in the mail, totally FREE in the last week...or so. 

FreeBEEs:

If you have homeschool FreeBEEs to share
please link up at the bottom of this post!
You can copy the button from my right side bar.

Internet FreeBEEs:
This is going to be a short list because well I forgot today was Friday. It appears that August is when homeschool will be back in session for most families, including us. August is only 2 1/2 weeks away so while you're busy organizing your planner, gathering curriculum, etc. make sure you also add some fun things into your August schedule to make your first day/month Not Back To School is a memorable one.

Image(s): FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Also will you please take a moment to take the poll on my Facebook Page to let me know what you would like to see more of on FreeBEE Fridays.

-I love this idea from Joyful Always - have a Back to School Scavenger Hunt
-Not Back To School party printables from Spell Outloud
-Mormon and Momma shares some great Back to Homeschool ideas
-Customizable coloring page - I love that the school looks like a house or old one room schoolhouse
-Worksheet alphabetizing things found in classroom
-Some of these worksheets could be adapted for homeschool
-Laugh at this YouTube video
-Have a day filled with fun arts and crafts check out some of these great ideas on education.com

Ideas:
-Get together which homeschool friends and have a big picnic with lots of fun on the side (like water balloon fights, kickball, Frisbee, etc). This is one of the things we will be doing.
-Have a special breakfast.
-Take a field trip.
-Play games.
-Buy the kids mini backpacks filled with goodies. I did this last year and the backpacks are great to take on our field trips.
-Make the kids signs with their grade on them and take a photo of them with their sign. My kids kept their signs on their desks all year.
-Pick a fun unit study.
-Go on a nature hike.

Make sure you check out my blog each Monday in August I will be participating yet again in the Not Back to School Blog Hop. Check out our August 2011 Not Back to School Blog Hop posts. 

Did you find ALL 12 Olympic FreeBEEs yet? They are great! I found all 12 + snagged a few other Olympic goodies at 10% off.  If you need help finding any of them leave me a comment below and I will give you some hints.

Great SALE I have to tell you about where you get a FREE Ebook with your purchse. First off remember all most all the lapbooks at Knowledge Box Central are ONLY $5. Now here is the current promotion which ends very soon.

Buy ANY 2 Ebooks and get a 3rd $5.00 Ebook FREE!

Here is what you do:  Purchase 2 ebooks ~ they can be the $5 ones or the $10 ones ~ and then email Pam with this information:

1.  The name and email you used to

make your purchase

2.  What 2 ebooks you purchased

3.  Which $5 ebook you would like

to receive free

Within 48 hours of receiving your email, she will send you a link to your free ebook!   

FreeBEE events:

Michaels Passport To Imagination is still going on. These projects will go along great with the Olympics as well.

Sign up FreeBEEs, items I will be reviewing soon and items I won:

Image(s): FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Nothing to share this week.

If you don't enter blogger giveaways or do Twitter and/or Facebook parties you need to because you can win cool stuff. Also it pays to follow companies on Facebook you score lots of FREE stuff.

I hope you find these resources useful. If you ever have any questions feel free to leave me a comment or email me. Also be sure to follow my FB page where I post FreeBEEs daily.

Link up: FreeBEE Fridays with Kathy's Cluttered Mind and Gricefully Homeschooling

Remember when it comes to FREE resources the internet and a good search engine are your best friend.

*Disclaimer - Many of the links found on my side bars and in my blog posts are affiliate links. Please note that prices indicated in the post are subject to change. As a result, I might get paid money and I will most likely spend the money on homeschool supplies.


Linking up with 3 Boys and a Dog