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Never planned to homeschool, now wouldn't trade it for the world

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From my Inbox…

My inbox has filled up again since my last From My Inbox post, and I figured it was time to do another one!!! Some of you have hit me while I am sitting at my computer and in that case you have usually received an instant answer (especially if it was a simple answer). These are what’s left, which required more thought on my part! I have copied and pasted direct questions from emails I have received and I will give my best answers! Questions are in bold (key topic of the ? is red), my answers are underneath.

My question is do you have pages that are age specific for ideas? Also we have a tight budget and I mean REALLY tight budget. What kind of things would you get to start with and are there alternatives that I can find?

  • NO I do not have pages of ideas recommended for specific ages of tots. I am not a big fan of specific age recommendations because tots are all different, even if they are the exact same age. You can look at other blogs with children similar in age to your tot to get ideas, and then just adjust to meet the needs of your tot. You will fail sometimes, by providing activities that are either too advanced or too easy for your tot, that’s OK. Just learn from your mistakes and adjust accordingly.
  • As for budget Tot School, I thought this was a fabulous question! I am currently working on a project and will address this very question in depth. For now, I recommend going to our Tools For Tots page to see some of the free tools out there that you can make.


I noticed the Best Behavior Card in the background. Do you do accountable kids?

  • Yes we do! I have been meaning to write a post about this and it has slipped down the list!!! It is coming though In a nutshell, we love the program! For those of you wondering what it is, you can find info here!


Since I will be doing this with a group would it be better to break the kids up into groups of 2-4 and give them a choice of a tray or two, or should they all work on one tray together?

  • I do not have experience working with trays with a group. I would probably do individuals or small teams of children. 1 tray all together would probably get crazy!!! Try a few ways and make adjustments!


I have a 7 year-old daughter who is doing Awana this year. She needs to take a Bible with her. She has a King James version (the precious moments Bible), but has a hard time reading it. I would like to find her one that is much easier to read. I was wondering if you could recommend one.

  • Here’s my page on Bible recommendations. Most listed there are more story Bibles. Right now Pac Man is using the Adventure Bible for Early Readers, NIrV. The print is small, but he can manage it fine.


Do you use a laser printer for all your printing? we have been using an inkjet and it is really costing a lot..I do try to do a lot in just black and let them color but I am trying to find out weather or not it is more cost efficient to go with the laser printer? Also for your laminator you use, I have been wanting one for some time, what is the brand? and have you compared it with others?

  • I have an inkjet printer and yes it does get costly. I print as much as I can on “fast draft” and just do the best I can. Ink is an expense of homeschooling for us so we have it budgeted.
  • This is the laminator we own: Scotch TL901 Thermal Laminator and yes I really like it and recommend it. We have used it for over a year. I have not compared it with other home models, I haven’t needed to-it works great! I use both their brand and other brands of pouches with it and all have worked fine.

I wanted to know how you teach your children (oldest so far) to read. My son is 3.5 and is very much wanting to learn to read. I think he is ready too. I do own the book, ‘Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons.’ It was given to me and we just don’t have the money to spend on any curriculum right now. If I did I think I would buy Sing Spell Read and Write but you are the master at ‘create it yourself.’ So I thought I’d ask you. How did you do it? What would you recommend?

  • I was taught to teach children to read using a whole language method primarily with phonics as a supplement. I taught Kindergarten this way for 4 1/2 years and have taught Pac Man and am now teaching Krash the same way. Basically this means that I expose them to print as much as possible, We read a LOT, we talk about words everywhere, we have fun with letters and sounds. I weave learning to read into everyday life.
  • As for the phonics part, every child is different. Some will pick it up from the whole language approach, some will need more direct instruction. Pac Man was a mix. I used Phonics easy readers, I used word families (rhyming words), and my very favorite DVD series: LeapFrog – Letter Factory!!!
  • We did use Calvert as our main curriculum, but Pac Man did not learn to read from this program, he learned from everything we did. I am a Kindergarten teacher at heart and trained to teach young kids to read, so maybe it just comes naturally for me. I know for some it doesn’t, so a program to follow would be nice in that case.
  • Here’s a post I wrote a long time ago when Pac was in K and learning to read. Here’s one showing the word family lapbooks we made too.
  • Here’s a little slideshow I put together with some of my favorite early reader books and dvds. We did not personally use the Bob books, but I have seen them and like them, they are very similar to the phonics/word family readers that we got with our Calvert K program.


I really enjoy your blogs…what sort of missions are you involved in?

  • We are inner city missionaries. We moved to the north east from the south almost 5 years ago. My husband works with addicts and leads the recovery ministry at our church. I work with children. Our church is non-denominational, if I had to label it would be evangelical, Bible-based. We spread the message of hope through Jesus Christ throughout our extremely diverse inner city neighborhood where we live and work. We are faith based missionaries, we raise support from individuals, not from a missions organization.


Could you clarify for me what exactly is a tot book and lap book and maybe what the steps are to making one? Don’t mean to ask such a basic question, but this is all new to me and I would love to make some with the kids, just a little unclear of how to go about it.

  • I recommend going to my Lapbooking Behind the Scenes post here. But basically I invented the name Tot-Book (as far as I know) to describe the mini lapbooks I was making for Krash. Here’s the post where I tell about the very first one I made!!


Do you already have the curriculum that you use before you begin? Or do you get it as you go along? I have downloaded several free unit studies from CurrClick in the past couple of years. I had planned on using them during summer breaks. Could we use these as part of our curriculum? How do you teach Pac-Man the reading, writing, math and all the other subjects that he does? Do you do it throughout your “school year” or do you work on one subject once a week, twice a week, once a month, etc? {Man, I hope that I am making sense.} I guess what I am really asking is that
if we decide to homeschool, could you give us any advice how to prepare everything that we need before we begin?

  • We use Calvert, you can read all about it here and here. We follow the basic outline Calvert gives us and then I add the other things we do right in with it. We use Workboxes, so it makes it very easy.
  • As for how to get ready to homeschool, I recommend going to a homeschool conference, finding another homeschooler in your local area (my best friend was my #1 resource when I first began, thanks Shannon!!!), and searching around on the internet.


I am wondering how I can navigate around your site to find age appropriate activities for my 16 month old? I see where you have other moms post their ideas for the age children, but i can’t find it. I tried to go back in your archive some where you did things with Krash when he was younger, but didn’t have much luck there either. Can you point me the right direction? I’d really appreciate it.

  • If you look in the MckLinky for the weekly Tot School post, that’s where you will see the other moms who have their child’s ages listed in ( ). That is my best recommendation to gather ideas. Go to their blogs and see what they are doing with their tots!!!


I want to get into Tot-School more and I want it to be a fun thing, but HOW do I stop my 2yo throwing everything everywhere the minute he loses interest, or the second one of my other children wants a glimmer of attention.

  • Hmmm, I am not sure without knowing your child and your home life!!! Krash was a thrower for awhile, and eventually it stopped. I honestly don’t know what to tell you, I am really sorry!!!


So today we went out and bought a bunch of art/craft supplies and it didn’t seem to go so good. Perhaps newly tuned 2 is a bit young? Or I am not all that creative.
My biggest question is do you have specific toys/crafts that you only play with during tot school time? I am confused as I play with her all day long with whatever toy she wants so to hide a toy and bring it out and hope that she likes it then seems odd to me? Or do you have a list of activities that you want to work on… and then find toys to fit that theme? We don’t really have a structured day. Unless it is during the school year and she goes to ECFE once a week and then Music class once a week, but other than that we just play with whatever? Thanks for any tips on getting me started.

  • Newly turned 2 is often a bit young for crafts. Krash didn’t start liking crafts until recently and he is 3 1/2.
  • Yes we have specific Tot School toys, you can see how we organize things in various Tot School posts. That’s just what works for us, it may not work for you. I know several Tot-Schooling moms who don’t have it separated out like that. Just do what works for you!!!


Whew ~ I think that’s it for now! If I missed your ? and you really want it answered, please email me again, I have a hard time remembering sometimes. I hope this post helps some of you!

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What a day! We moved @kyler_hinson into college to What a day! We moved @kyler_hinson into college today at @greenvilleuniv! Such a fun new chapter beginning for him! He moved out here a couple of weeks ago to train with his gymnastics team so I got my crying out then. I’m purely excited for him today!!! 

So thankful for this awesome school, everything about today was just perfect! We are all so happy with his choice and future here. 🧡🧡🧡
Kyler leaves tomorrow to head to @greenvilleuniv t Kyler leaves tomorrow to head to @greenvilleuniv to begin his NCAA gymnastics journey with @gupanthersmgym and I am beyond excited for him, although it is bittersweet, of course. 

His amazing coach for the past 10 years has been such a constant in Kyler’s life and it’s hard to imagine him not having by a daily place in Kyler’s life. 

His gym had a little surprise goodbye party for him and one of the awesome gym moms made the sweetest video filled with memories of Kyler’s gymnastics journey. The love for him  from our gym family just blows me away. We have been so blessed to be surrounded by many families and teammates through the years who have been amazing. He truly has had a home away from home for the past 10 years.

Thanks @lisabethcooper for EVERYTHING you did. ❤️
My daddy left this earth to be with Jesus on July My daddy left this earth to be with Jesus on July 9. It has been a rough couple of weeks to say the least. It was a shocking end although he had been sick and was in the hospital. We fully expected to bring him home but septic shock stole that from us. 

The first photo is my final photo with him, taken on our cruise back in late May. The rest are a few favorites of mine from my childhood and another from a cruise.

Although things have calmed, nothing feels right. My momma lives close to us now (she is 6 miles from us) and soon will live in the house she and my dad were building in our backyard. Praise God we got them moved into their rental back in April, His timing is everything. We got to have our final cruise as a family right before daddy got really sick. On the night we lost him, we were all able to stand around him and pray together and share our hearts with him before his body was done. 

Oh how I wish he would be living in the house being built in my backyard and that we would have had the years we expected and hoped to have. I trust God’s timing while also being devastated. I miss him terribly.
Happy graduation to Kyler! So thankful my graduate Happy graduation to Kyler! So thankful my graduate chose a family cruise for his graduation celebration! He traded a party and family grad gifts to be able to take his lifelong best friend with our family! (That’s the “extra” kid you’ll see in our photos)

My parents generously took our family on @royalcaribbean Wonder of the Seas and it was incredible! We went to Coco Cay, Honduras, Costa Maya, and Cozumel.

Best part about family cruise is the laughter and time away together. It truly is unlike anything else and I’m so so grateful! I took hundreds of photos, narrowing it down to 10 was hard!
His final state championship meet! Still so hard t His final state championship meet! Still so hard to believe our boy is a senior and moving on to college gymnastics next year at Greenville University in Illinois. We couldn’t be more excited for him and the journey ahead while soaking in these final moments with him as he closes out his final season as a junior gymnast.

He is the NC state champion one final time and hit an all time high score at this meet. We have regionals next and then nationals, and then his junior gymnastics career is done!

#krashthegymnast
Merry Christmas! We enjoyed the past few days so v Merry Christmas! We enjoyed the past few days so very much. So much laughter and joy. Christmas with littles is fun but Christmas with bigs is a whole different joy I love these kids of mine! ❤️❤️❤️
It’s the beginning of an emotional year as a gym It’s the beginning of an emotional year as a gym mom. His final season as a junior athlete has begun with his first meet this weekend. He’s been doing the sport he loves since he was 6 and here we are starting the final year before he competes in college! He had a great first meet hitting 4/6 events and winning the all around and several events. I just love watching him, I’ll miss being able to go to all of his meets next year so I am soaking up the moments this year!

#krashthegymnast
Back together again! I’m so happy for these two! Back together again! I’m so happy for these two! My oldest son Paxton has not been able to have his dog Melody in the rental house he has been in due to issues with his roommate’s dogs. But he has a new rental home and Mel will be the only dog! He just picked her up and they are both so so happy! A day they have been waiting for for way too long. We adore Melody and don’t mind her being with us at all but the bond between these two is indescribable so we are happy they get to be together again! ❤️
Their annual trip to the mountains! I just love th Their annual trip to the mountains! I just love their tradition and love that it was enhanced by going with Pop Pop (my husband’s dad) in his RV this year! They sent me these great photos! 🍁🧡🍁
His final region 8 gymnastics camp. So many “las His final region 8 gymnastics camp. So many “lasts” occurring this year. Swipe to see his first region camp back in 2017! 

His final competition season begins in November!
We are a little over 2 weeks in with @studydotcom We are a little over 2 weeks in with @studydotcom and I wanted to share a small update. 

Click the link in my profile to read my blog post: Why We Chose Study.com for Homeschool. In that post I promised to be transparent and give updates along our journey. Consider this the first update! We switched courses for 9th grade science already! I originally had her in Physical Science and honestly it was too much, too fast - even I was a bit overwhelmed when I went in and did some of the lessons and quizzes. We have switched her to earth science for now. All other courses are going really well and both of my kids like the format. I LOVE the parent dashboard and how easy it is to keep up with them. 

I’m thankful so far because my life is busier now and my kids are older, having something they are independent with is so helpful for them and for me. We communicate often and I’m checking in and very involved but I don’t do the actual teaching. 

So, overall it’s going well so far. Stay tuned, I’ll continue to share!

#homeschoolhighschool 
#homeschool #homeschoolers #homeschoolingrocks #homeschoolingmama #homeschoolmom #homeschoollife  #homeschoolfamily #homeschooliscool  #homeschooldays #homeschoolblogger 
#homeschoolteacher #homeschoollookslikethis #homeeducation #homeeducator #howwehomeschool #homeed 
#homeschoolcommunity #homeschoolcurriculum #homeschoolersofinstagram #homeschooled #homeschoolcollective #homeschooladventures #affiliate #sponsored #studydotcom
I can’t believe my youngest child is entering th I can’t believe my youngest child is entering the high school years. We have made some changes and choices that are totally new to us! Click the link in my profile to read more!

#homeschool #homeschoolers #homeschoolingrocks #homeschoolingmama #homeschoolmom #homeschoollife  #homeschoolfamily #homeschoolfun #homeschoolkids #homeschooliscool  #homeschooldays #homeschoolblogger 
#homeschoolteacher #homeschoollookslikethis #homeeducation #homeeducator #howwehomeschool #homeed #homeschoollifestyle #thisishomeschool
#homeschoolcommunity #homeschoolcurriculum #homeschoolersofinstagram #homeschooled #homeschoolcollective #homeschoolideas #homeschoolinspiration #homeschooladventures #homeschoolhighschool
Missing two kids (working) but had a fun night out Missing two kids (working) but had a fun night out to eat with my parents to celebrate my husband’s birthday a  couple days early! Love my time with them! ❤️
Around this time last year I shared the first phot Around this time last year I shared the first photo. I was prepping @compassclassroom History. We ended up using American and Modernity and today I published my full review on my blog! Link in profile!

#homeschool #homeschoolers #homeschoolingrocks #homeschoolingmama #homeschoolmom #homeschoollife  #homeschoolfamily #homeschoolfun #homeschoolkids #homeschooliscool  #homeschooldays #homeschoolblogger 
#homeschoolteacher #homeschoollookslikethis #homeeducation #homeeducator #howwehomeschool #homeed #homeschoollifestyle #thisishomeschool
#homeschoolcommunity #homeschoolcurriculum #homeschoolersofinstagram #homeschooled #homeschoolcollective #homeschoolideas #homeschoolinspiration #homeschooladventures #homeschoolhistory #compassclassroom
I tried explain these friends to my daughter last I tried explain these friends to my daughter last night. It was hard to find words. 

They have been a huge part of our life since before having children, and we have walked through life together, even when they all lived here in NC and we lived in Philly for 11 years. We began as the “young married couples Sunday school class.” We have been back in NC for 8 years and although we live an hour from all of them, it’s still the same. We get together every month or so, and although we were missing a few last night, we are always thankful for everyone who can make it. 

Lili, being our youngest, doesn’t know them as well even though she has been around them on and off her whole life. She’s finally old enough to really get it and appreciate how much they mean to us. Last night as we drove the hour home we explained the long story of our deep friendship and how thankful we are. ❤️ 

Love y’all beyond words and missed those of you who weren’t there last night. ❤️
Our 8th grade year-end post is up on my blog (link Our 8th grade year-end post is up on my blog (link in profile). I definitely didn’t like all of our choices, but I loved most of them. 

Lili was pretty independent this year for homeschool, but we did a few subjects together: logic, government, writing. I loved the addition @compassclassroom for history and vocabulary. We always love @teachingtextbooks for math. @iew wins for writing and grammar with us. You’ll see in the post I didn’t like what I chose for science. She took another course from @theanimcourse and continues to love them. We loved the books we read for logic and government, see post for those!

#8thgradewithladybug #8thgradehomeschool #middleschoolhomeschool 
#homeschool #homeschoolers #homeschoolingrocks #homeschoolingmama #homeschoolmom #homeschoollife  #homeschoolfamily #homeschooliscool  #homeschooldays #homeschoolblogger 
#homeschoolteacher #homeschoollookslikethis #homeeducation #homeeducator #howwehomeschool #homeed #homeschoollifestyle #thisishomeschool
#homeschoolcommunity #homeschoolcurriculum #homeschoolersofinstagram #homeschooled #homeschoolcollective #homeschoolideas #homeschoolinspiration #homeschooladventures
Athlete of the Year! Kyler’s end of year gymnast Athlete of the Year! Kyler’s end of year gymnastics awards ceremony was today and once again he received this award from his coach! It still means the world to me, knowing the bond these two share and how blessed we are to have him as Kyler’s coach. He’s been his coach since he was 8, and we enter their final year together in the fall. Time flies. 

#krashthegymnast
My parents took us on a cruise. It was amazing and My parents took us on a cruise. It was amazing and we are so thankful! Ten pictures barely sums it up, but Instagram won’t let me share a thousand. So here’s a tiny peek into our fun week.

Sailed on @royalcaribbean Harmony of the Seas and everything was outstanding except for the teen program - it sucked (compared to Carnival). But the rest was wonderful! We love cruises and the last one they took us on was in 2019, it was so fun to be back on a ship!
Silver medal at nationals on parallel bars in the Silver medal at nationals on parallel bars in the Junior Elite 17 year old division! So so proud of his fight! 

He had a fall on his first day(Thursday) of competition and sprained his thumb/hand and we weren’t even sure he could compete day two. He competed today and hit all 6 events! He pushed through and really focused on parallel bars since he was sitting in 6th after day one. Well, he did even better and pulled his placement to 2nd!! 

#krashthegymnast #region8mensgymnastics
Birthday dinner with the grands. Celebrating my Ap Birthday dinner with the grands. Celebrating my April/May babies! Pax is 21, Lili is 14, and Kyler will be 17 next week!
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