Why? Well, first, I’m definitely not a homeschool apologist and don’t believe it should be a quick decision. Second, I do believe anyone has the capability to homeschool if they want to. But mainly, third, I believe with children four and under, it’s a little early to be considering or making the decision to pursue homeschooling or formal education.

Children don’t need institutionalized education (yes, even home educating can follow there). Children need to be children. To not have to worry about strict schedules, how to stand in line, to be quiet for 4-8 hours a day, to follow a program that doesn’t fit their developmental needs, and on. They don’t need to be trained in their preschool years (pre-school…the years before they go to school) on how to be a student. There are better, more life-giving ways to prepare a child (and parent) for education, whether at home or in a traditional classroom.

If your child isn’t approaching five or six, don’t worry about school.

I mean it. I know everywhere you look you see early childhood activities, programs, curriculum, preschools, and whatnot. Don’t even worry about those. You and your child won’t fall behind if you don’t adhere to the masses that say formal education needs to start at two or three. Don’t let fear or boredom (yours, not theirs. Children are rarely truly bored. And if they are, that’s good for them. It increases their imagination.) steer the decision to pursue early formal education, in the home or elsewhere.

Children don’t need workbooks when they’re still working on their pencil grip and concentration.

(Yes, my beloved Montessorians, even us. I know Primary starts at three, but make your home a home, make learning a natural part of your days and environment. Don’t set up standards and shelf work. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t. Build a lifestyle.)

What should you do instead?

Here’s my not so little list:

Don’t compartmentalize learning.Life is learning. You want your children to love learning and be excited about the world around them? Don’t tell them that learning happens at a certain time of day with a stack of workbooks (PS – No true education ever came through workbooks or worksheets). Learning can happen anywhere and everywhere.

Unschool yourself. Take down the walls twelve years of compulsory education (plus any years of college) taught you learning happens at a desk in silence with one expert telling you what is worthy of knowing. It’ll take time, but you’ll also find you actually like learning. Any homeschool mom will tell you deconstructing what you think learning needs to or shoould look like is one of the hardest parts of homeschooling.

Read: The Brave Learner (Julie Bogart), The Call of the Wild + Free (Ainsely Arment), Free to Learn (Peter Gray), Dumbing Us Downh (John Taylor Gatto, How Children Learn (John Holt))

Reignite your sense of wonder. If you don’t believe there’s opportunities to learn outside of walls and books, then stop right now and take a walk outside. Lay in the grass and observe: the clouds, trees blowing in the breeze, the bugs crawling in the tall blades. If that doesn’t spark wonder in you, then you’re not ready to teach or homeschool. Go and make yourself like a child, find wonder and be in awe.

“The world is so full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.”

Robert Louis Stevenson

Focus on building the rhythms and routines in your home. Children need structure and that structure will look different family to family, even season to season. But children thrive when they know boundaries and what to expect in their home, especially in the younger years.

Read: Simplicity Parenting (Kim John Payne)

Teach them how to sit in restaurants and coffee shops, how to entertain themselves in respectful ways.

Give them opportunities to be exposed to different cultures, sounds, people, and places. If you struggle with new places, people, experiences, or ideas, then start with yourself. And as you expose yourself and children to different people and places, remember these are real people and cultures rich in history, not object lessons for your own fulfillment.

Let them work alongside you–cooking, cleaning, laundry, list making.

Slow down! Don’t make your child go at your pace every day, all day. Tasks that seem quick and simple to an adult are complicated and stressful to a child. Go at their pace, teach them little by little. Don’t expect them to have the competency of an adult. Slow down.

Talk through tasks and your day. Give a running commentary. It may seem dumb or over the top, but it gives children language and understanding of what’s happening around them. When that becomes a habit, they are better able to join you in the tasks and rhythms of daily living. Which leads to greater freedom and independence.

Teach them independence. Not to be completely independent and free of you. Independence is not to make your life easier, but to give them the skills to live and know their own abilities. Here’s a hallmark Montessori for you: don’t do for the child what the child can do for themselves.

Read: The Montessori Method (Maria Montessori), Montessori: A Modern Approach (Paula Polk Lillard), How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way (Tim Seldin)

Don’t smother your children. They are their own persons, not an extension of you or little pets to be doted on, snuggled/kissed, put on display whenever you feel or are entertained by them. Or as my husband says when he sees this happening, “Dance, monkey! Dance!”

Learn to give clear commands and natural consequences. Give children the words to say when they don’t know them (ie, “Move, Mommy.” “Excuse me, Mommy” or “Me want to!” “You would like to do it?”).

Read: Parenting with Love & Logic (Foster Cline)

Learn to be a guide, not an expert or dictator. Children aren’t little housekeepers, a do over for all you missed in your childhood, replicas of your tastes and interests, or exist to prove to your parents (or anyone else) that you are a good parent, homeschooler, or person. Your job is to fan the flame of learning, to guide your child as they discover themselves, not to tell them who or what they should be.

Read: anything by Maria Montessori

Get outside every single day. Yep, every day you can–sun, rain, snow. Nature is vital to growing children. I’d encourage you to regularly explore more natural landscapes, other than your backyard or park. If you’re local and don’t know where to find nature, I’ve got a growing list.

Read: There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather (Linda McGurk), Last Child Left in the Woods (Richard Louv), How to Raise a Wild Child (Scott Sampson)

Read, read, read, read. Make books a natural part of your life. Keep them in baskets or stacks throughout your home. Visit the library often. Get to know the librarians, pages, and circulation desk attendants. They tend to become a bit more friends. Read aloud every day to your little ones, even if it’s just a book a day. Listen to audiobooks, read poetry (there’s plenty of great ones for young and old). Find your own reading style.

Read: Honey for a Child’s Heart (Gladys Hunt), Read Aloud Revival podcast, What Should I Read Next? podcast

Learn yourself. If there’s anything you take from this list, take this: learn yourself. Instead of worrying what curriculum your 3-year-old needs (they don’t), learn yourself, heal your wounds, get to know your strengths and weaknesses, your interests, where your pride, insecurity, and fear hang out (I don’t know of three areas that’ll affect your mothering more). Or as Cindy Rollins says, peel your dragon skin. Get a head start, because as you continue in mothering–homeschooling or not–they’ll all hit you like a wave sucking the breath out of you. Even with a head start you’ll still get hit, but it won’t come as such a surprise.

Read: Dive into the Enneagram with @yourenneagramcoach & Becoming Us (Beth & Jeff McCord), Emotionally Healthy Spirituality (Peter Scazzero), Boundaries for Your Soul (Allison Cook & Kimberly Miller)

Know yourself before God. Make time for the care and feeding of your own soul. Your children are important, yes. It can feel like they run the show (even with the best routines) and often your own spiritual care goes by the wayside. Don’t let it. It may from time to time, but over the years make it a habit to spend time in the Word, to pray, be mentored, study the Bible in community, Be okay with what that looks like changing, because it will…many times over. Realize you are mortal. You are not God, nor in control. Understand control is an illusion. You have limits to wisdom and knowledge and how far you can stretch yourself. Fear God and keep his commands. Learn humility. Learn to love and trust the Lord as you go, not as you sit in silence with your Bible open with a hot cup of coffee and get into “serious study and prayer.” Take down the idol of what you think knowing and walking with God looks like.

Read: Sacred Chaos (Tricia McCary Rhodes), Humble Roots (Hannah Anderson), The True Vine (Andrew Murray) )

Get a hobby. I’m serious. I know you probably think you don’t have the time and it’s impossible to fit anything else in. It is possible. And you should. How to tell if you need one? If your children are the topic of most of your conversations–no matter who you’re around or if your children are present–and thoughts, then you need to discover your own interests.

These children are not your life. They are not part of you. They are not your identity. You are your own person. They are their own persons. You need to know and find what brings you life, delight, joy, and fulfillment apart from your children. One day they will be grown and gone (for perspective, I only have 7 more years before my oldest is out of the house) and you will still be your own person with decades to live. Know yourself apart from being a mother. I repeat, motherhood is not your identity.

And don’t be afraid to take time for yourself–whether it’s shutting the door for 30 minutes, a weekly coffee date with yourself, or an annual solo weekend.

Read: Own Your Life (Sally Clarkson), Life Creative (Wendy Speake & Kelli Stuart)

Don’t fear community. You can’t do it all. Your family is not a self-sustaining unit. You cannot provide everything your child needs for a well-rounded education or life. Be okay with that. You aren’t meant to live in isolation. You need voices to encourage you. Your children need other adults, and even other children, to learn from and hear their perspective. You both need to know that your way of doing things is not the only way of doing things, nor necessarily the right way. You need people in your life to say “You’re worrying too much about this,” “You’re focusing on the wrong thing here,” “They’re going to be okay,” and when you complain about your kids “Yeah, they may struggle there, but look how they’ve grown in x, y, z.”

In essence, parents educate yourself before you throw yourself into home educating. Learn to learn, revel in the wonder of the world, the complexity of science, the perspectives and humanity of history. Reeducate yourself. And as you go, bring your children along for the journey.

If your children are three or younger and you like the idea of homeschooling and what it might offer. Don’t go to curriculum, don’t set a school time, or buy workbooks. Work on the things in this list and I promise you you’ll be better equipped for when or if you decide to homeschool.

And if you don’t? Then you have still built a life of wonder and a love and habits of learning you and your children will carry with you wherever you go.

Understand, these will not build a perfect child, home environment, or parent. These are all tools to shape and mold, to assist and give a foundation. They are not a formula or a promise. Be willing to learn and adapt. Be malleable. Know life comes in cycles and seasons, it is never a straight line to growth.

Please, from my eleven years as a mother and fourteen years as a Montessori educator as well as the countless voices of women who’ve gone before me, learned the hard way, and implored my hard of hearing ears, I beg you:

Build a life, not a school.

Seasoned homeschool moms, what would you add to a young mom who wants to start homeschooling early?

It’s back to school time! Pencils are being sharpened, golden beads counted, and trays arranged on shelves. We’re ready to move forward in the new school year. Or are we? There’s always a hiccup or two in the plan.

We’re heading into our third week of school for the year. Our first day of school ended up not being our first day of school. I had spent the week before prepping, arranging the shelves, and making sure I had all my lesson plans printed and ready on my clipboard. Then I went away for the weekend.

I woke up Monday morning more tired than I predicted with less patience and just not mentally as ready as I thought I would be. The kids were having a rough morning (or at least I thought they were…it was probably just me). They wanted our traditional pancake breakfast. I just wanted coffee.  For our first day of school, things were not turning out quite like I had imagined. I planned so well for this. It was all printed out in coordinated colors!

I could’ve pushed through it, but it wouldn’t have been pleasant and in my head I know I would’ve have seen it as a failure and felt guilty for starting our a new year off with a bad attitude.

So I called for a redo. Even if things didn’t go perfectly, I knew with a little more sleep and a change of attitude Tuesday would be a better day.  So we went to IHOP and ran errands (oh, yes…we were also in need of groceries).

Tuesday, I was ready. And everything was a hundred times better. I made the pancakes, even for Mr. Bunny.

3 Tips for Back to School

1. It is what it is.

Perfection isn’t the goal, nor is it real. There will always be hiccups. There will always be There will always be tired mornings. There will always be mishaps we didn’t plan for–water on the floor, an unexpected clothing battle, misplaced lesson plans.

It may not be every day, but we know from experience something will happen. So what do we do then?

Accept that there are some things in life we can’t change and no matter how well planned we are, we can’t plan for everything. There will be bumps in our homeschool days and family life. It is what it is.

But that doesn’t mean we need to take a defeatist attitude. We’ve had a set-back, so?  Maria Montessori had to dissect cadavers on her own at night,  because society at the time thought it would be immodest for her to dissect cadavers alongside men.

Take a breather and start again. Separate yourself from the situation, even if it’s just a five-minute bathroom break (lock that door!), and ask yourself,

“Does this absolutely need to happen today? In this way? At this time?

What will my children and I gain if we continue with this/these attitudes?

What will we lose if we keep pushing on with these attitudes?

What can I do to change the atmosphere right now?”

Sometimes we need to know when to push through and when we need to put the breaks on the day. The answer will change based on the day, needs, and circumstance.

2.  It’s okay to reevaluate.

Even in the beginning of the year. Maybe you realize you need to change directions. That one of your children needs something other than you planned. Perhaps you’ve over planned and need more margin. Maybe you realize you haven’t given enough room for play or interest-led projects. Change it. Your plans are not set in stone.

You have freedom to change and find what works for you and your family. And if this new thing doesn’t work as you thought, you can change that too. We’re educators and parents, homemakers and culture makers, we’re guides and cultivators. We’re making choices to find what best fits our family’s educational goals, but more than that we’re making decisions to help our children reach their full potential.

It’s going to take time, trial and error, and patience to figure out what that looks like.

We’re not going to know all of what our children need on our first go or even our second or tenth. Parenting and teaching isn’t as linear as we think. We will constantly be adjusting ideas and methods to help our children and ourselves.

(Two out of four looking at the camera…that’s pretty good, right?) 

3. Remember your why.

When you start to feel overwhelmed with your over planning or lack of planning or somewhere in between. When you see everyone else’s “perfect” spaces or a great unit idea and you feel you have to add in one more thing, remember your why. Why are you homeschooling? Why did you choose this method?

But more importantly, what is your goal in the long run? To finish all the language lessons in a year? To get through a certain amount of history? To know the difference between a planet and a dwarf planet?

What’s your ultimate goal and reason for homeschooling? Compare all the new ideas and insecurities to that. Readjust if you need to, but most often we get sidetracked in our vision and purposes when we forget our end goal. We see everything else (lots of great ideas!) and feel like we’ve missed something.

Maybe we have, but more likely we’ve lost sight of our direction in the haze of everyone else. Look up, instead of around and maintain your course.

You’ve got this!

It’s hard to find a planner that fits the Montessori philosophy and structure.

I remember teachers I worked with adapting traditional lesson plan books to fit their classroom and nothing ever worked great. They got by, but it didn’t really fit their needs.

Even as a homeschooler with as many options and varieties of lesson planners, nothing seemed to work just right. There didn’t seem to be a product that worked well with the Montessori environment. So I began to build my own. Each year I’d tweak this or that, add something new to bring focus or organization to my planning and our homeschool environment.

As any prepared environment is always changing to fit the child’s need, so is this homeschool planner.

It is still in the process of becoming.

But I’m excited to finally present it to you! If you’re a Montessori homeschooler, or even a Montessori teacher, and you’ve been looking for a planner to help you prepare lessons, unit studies, shelf work, and give you a way to record observations then this planner for you!

It’s filled with useful printables for your school year, such as School Attendance Record and a 12-month calendar for 2017-2018. There’s a few pages of goal planning worksheets to help you think through your goals for the year, as well as student goals and goals for your prepared environment.

You’ll find a reading log, book list, undated weekly lesson planning sheets by subject and blank, and a field trip planner.

There’s a 4-week and 6-week unit planner with a place to record weekly and daily lessons, art activities, book/resource list, and a page to record activities for your shelf.

Now this is what has helped me that no other planner I’ve come across has had–pages to record what lessons and activities are rotating on the shelf. There is a page for the activities by subject and then a second page to list the materials for each activity.

This was been so helpful for me when planning what’s going on our shelves. I can see each item I need, which helps me avoid thinking I can use the same material in two separate activities. What’s also great is you can save these for next year, especially for seasonal activities, and then you already have a list of all the lessons and items you need!

The Montessori Homeschool Planner  has over 60 pages of helpful tools for planning and recording your school year!

It includes:
– A Year at a Glance 2017-2018 Calendar
– School Attendance Record
– Homeschool Goal Planning Worksheets
– Student Goal Planning Worksheets
– Goal Planning Worksheets for the Prepared Environment
– Field Trip Planner & Log
– 4 & 6 Week Unit Planner
– Worksheets for Planning & Organizing Monthly Shelf Work
– Weekly Lesson Planning Pages
– Lesson Planning Pages by Subject
– Weekly Observation Sheets with 4 options
– Reading Log & Book List
– 6 different cover pages to choose from

You can find the Montessori Homeschool Planner

over at my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

And if you’re looking for guidance on preparing for school, check out my Back to School Planning Guide!

We all make the decision to homeschool for varying reasons. But have your ever considered creating a vision for your homeschool learning environment? Businesses and organizations create mission statements to declare why they do what they do. Essentially what they are building, their purpose for existing. Even some family’s create their own mission statements.

Vision. Purpose. Mission.

All these get to the heart of knowing why you’re pursuing what you’re pursuing, why you’re doing what you’re doing, why the goals you have matter to you.

How does this translate to Montessori homeschooling?

Homeschooling isn’t just about the school work and checking off skills and subjects. We can have a vision for our children’s education that goes past our scope and sequence. Homeschooling with purpose takes into account what we’re building in our homes and in the hearts and minds of our children. We are tilling the soil and cultivating an environment that will lay the foundation for a lifetime of learning, exploring, and community.

How we teach and what we build in our homes will have lasting effects for years to come.

If we come to our homeschooling without knowing what we’re trying to accomplish we may just do the work or go through the motions. When a tough day or season comes, if we don’t have a solid vision it’d be easy to throw up our hands in frustration and ask, “Why am I doing this? What is even the point?”

Having a vision statement reminds us on those hard days (because they will come) why we chose to homeschool, why we chose this method, and helps look at these hard days knowing they are small in the grand scheme of things. Our vision statement can remind us of our why and help us to refocus.

Sometimes we’ll realize we need to adjust our vision, perhaps shift focus or try something new. But the idea is we school with a purpose.

Take some time to consider, what are you building in your homeschool? What are you creating?

Think about what’s important to your family–what things are important to you? When you look back in twenty years, what do you want to see?

As Lara Casey says, “Cultivate what matters.”

What matters to you?

We don’t have to get in a rut in our homeschooling.

We don’t have to be just like someone else.

We don’t have to meet the ideal of perfection for our method.

What is most important to your family? What do you want to create as you learn and grow together?

Discover that and go do it!

Having a vision for your homeschool can help knowing what you’ll say yes or no to. These are essentially the core values of your family. So when an opportunity comes along or you come across a new great idea, your vision can help you decide if this is something to say yes, no, or not now to.

There’s a lot of great opportunities and ideas, and we can often get caught up in all the good ideas and stretch ourselves too thin. Just because something is good doesn’t mean it’s for us. A vision statement is just a tool to help filter through those things and not overextend ourselves

One thing can be helpful to thinking this through is three words.

What three words would describe your dream homeschool?

Don’t get too caught in appearances. How do you want your days to feel? What do you want your children to remember? How can you homeschool in a way that feeds your mind and spirit?

Use those words as a spring board to forming your own vision.

For me, I want my kids to keep that wide-eyed wonder when they see the world. I want them to enjoy learning, to not only find it useful or necessary because the law says so, but to truly desire to learn…all their life. I want to grow life-long learners. My husband and I love stories, him through history and me through literature. We want our kids to appreciate, love, and tell good stories.

Our Vision

I believe education is for life. I want our homeschool to be an environment that fosters wonder and a joy for learning through stories and nature.

What is yours

The planning guide has been updated for 2019 – 2020 School Year!

As I began reading responses to the survey from last week, I realized I’m not the only one whose been struggling with the back to school homeschool anxiety.

It got me to thinking, wouldn’t it be nice to be in a community with other homeschooling moms (or dads! or teachers!) who are working through and trying to figure out what they’re doing for this next school year?

And wouldn’t it be nice to have a plan to plan? Something to guide our process, to help us remember all those things that sneak up on us in the second week of school or a month in. Maybe that’s too Type A for you, but hear me out.

What if we got together—virtually, of course, and worked through:

• our hopes and vision for our homeschool
• our goals for the next school year
• year at a glance calendar for 2019-2020
• prepping materials (Oh! All the cutting and laminating!)
• supply lists
• figuring out our scope and sequence
• making a self-care, mother culture plan

It’s more like a guide to planning your school year. It’s taking those big ideas and lists of details and putting them in order so we can see clearly the path we’re heading.

What do you think?

I’m calling it the Back to School Planning Guide.

Week 1, July 15 – 19 – Getting Focused & Getting Started

• Practical Goal Setting
• Mark Your Calendar
• Rhythms & Routines
• Scope & Sequence

Week 2, July 22 – 26 – Print! Cut! Laminate! Organize!

• All the Lists!
• Get Cutting
• Organize

Week 3, July 29 – August 2 – Being Prepared Off the Shelves

• The Prepared Environment
• The Prepared Teacher

• Making a Plan for Self-Care

You’ll get a free 40-page planning guide to help you work through practical goal setting for yourself, your children, and learning environment. There will be reflection questions to help you flourish as a homeschooling mama and family, a scope and sequence template, planning pages for study interests, as well as plenty of lists to help you get organized.

If the 40 pages is adding to your anxiety, don’t fret! Read it over and print what will be helpful for you. Maybe that’s the planning charts, lists, and year at a glance calendar. Maybe you really need to dig into brainstorming and figuring out your vision for homeschooling. Do what works for you!

Each week, I’ll do a live story on Instagram with the week’s focus and daily a task to work on. I’ll post our daily tasks and prompts on Instagram  to talk about the planning for the week and try to answer questions.

What I’m really excited about is doing this in community with other homeschooling mama’s and educators. Seeing how others adapt Montessori to their homes and families, as well as what works for them can be a great catalyst in learning what is best for your family.

We’ll work alongside each other offering our own insight, encouragement, and not feel so alone or overwhelmed as we get ready to go back to school.

While this guide is geared toward Montessori homeschooling families, it may also be helpful to Montessori teachers and homeschooling families using other methods. Our goal is to be prepared and ready for the upcoming school year. To know our children, ourselves, and to lay for ourselves a solid foundation for future growth.

Whether you’re feeling

overwhelmed with planning,

ready to go,

or this is your first year and

you need some direction

…this is for you.

Are you in?

Are you ready to start planning?

Click here to download the Back to School Planning Guide! 

I hope so. I’m looking forward to it!

In the winter we studied Rocks & Minerals, (I know…I know…it’s July and I’m just now putting this up here. That’s real life.) it was a fun study to dig into and learn more about geology and rocks and minerals in our area. It’s amazing to think just how old the earth is and how many of our natural materials have been through multiple transformations in process of the rock cycle!

We discovered that South Carolina is known for its blue granite and has a good number of quarries (though many are now closed). The first vertebrate fossils recorded in North America were found in South Carolina. We also discovered that just an hour north of us, America’s first gold rush took place in 1799 at what is now known as the Reed Gold Mine. We took a field trip there with our Wild + Free group and were able to climb 50ft underground and explore the mine! It was pretty neat…and cool. There was about a 20 degree temperature difference!

We sorted rocks by type as we learned the difference between igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks.

We did lots of sorting and classifying with Montessori Print Shop’s Rocks printables.

Igneous Rocks are formed by the cooling and hardening of molten rock.

Sedimentary Rocks are formed from different sediment of other rocks and/or minerals that have eroded over time.

Metamorphic Rocks are formed from existing rocks by heat, pressure, or chemicals.

We also learned the most basic thing, what is a rock? Which led to the question, how is a rock different than a mineral?

A rock is a combination of one or more minerals and may have organic remains, while a mineral is a naturally occurring solid, is not (and has never been) a living organism, has a definite chemical composition, and an ordered atomic arrangement.

This might be a good place to jump into matter, atoms, and molecules if the child is interested. It would help to understand the importance and uniqueness of chemical composition the atomic arrangement in minerals.

(Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you.)

So then, how do you tell the difference between a rock and a mineral?

That’s where the Mohs Hardness Scale comes in, which we then had to test ourselves. It was helpful to have our rocks and minerals kit to understand the test. It had all the samples need, except for the diamond (go figure). The kids asked if we could test my engagement ring, to which I said, “Yeah, why not? Follow the child!”

Just kidding. Ring is still in tact.

But really, this kit was so useful in being able to hold and examine the different types of rocks and minerals. The kids could see for themselves the difference between the three types of rocks, as well as the softness of minerals. You could also see identifying markers, for example, how some rocks are in layers or squared. They thought it was neat that you really could write with the graphite!

It also comes with a list of all the rocks and minerals broken down by type and numbered, which is really helpful when the younger siblings decide to dump everything on the floor.

We also did a crystal growing experiment and excavated for rocks.

This kit was given to us as a Christmas gift and the rocks were so small they were hard to find. If I did it again, I’d probably go with National Geographic’s Mega Gemstone Mine.

The crystal growing lab was pretty cool and it took about a week to grow a decent size crystal. We also tried an at home crystal growing experiment with salt water, coarse string, and a paper clip. Barely any crystals grew. After doing a little searching, it looks like we didn’t need the paper clip to weight down our string. We could’ve just left the string longer, because the salt crystals need something coarse to grab onto (hence the string) and the paper clip was too smooth.

Favorite books from our Rocks & Minerals study:

The Practical Encyclopedia of Rocks & Minerals, John Farndon

Rocks, Gems, & Minerals (A Golden Guide), Paul R. Shaffer

A Rock is Lively, Dianna Hutts Aston

Everybody Needs a Rock, Byrd Baylor

The Big Rock, Bruce Hiscock

If You Find a Rock, Peggy Christian

How to Dig a Hole to the Other Side of the World, Faith McNulty

A Rock Can Be…, Laura Purdie Salas

Nature Anatomy, Julia Rotham

I thought it might be helpful to have a quick, Rocks & Minerals planning guide to print out and store until you’re ready for your own study. It’s a simple list of the lessons and resources listed in this post. You can download the Rocks & Minerals Planning Guide here:

We’ve been enjoying summer here. June was quite full, but in all the best ways. But as the month started to wind down and I began to think of July and how July would mean we’re in the middle of summer. The middle of summer means that August would be here before I know it and August means…back to school.

Suddenly, summer had lost its allure and rest and I dove head first (sunk really) into the worry and the overwhelm of all that is before me. My mental calendar piled high with everything I left unfinished last year and all I have to prepare for the coming school year. I was a wreck. In my mind, summer was over and I was headed straight for a marathon of prep work.

It’s amazing how fast something can steal our joy, isn’t it?

Then one night this weekend, I had a moment of clarity. I only had to do one thing to start.

Just one thing. So I started with first things first.

First, when are we going to start our school year?
I pulled out my 2017-2018 School Year at a Glance (free download below), my personal planner, and our local school district’s calendar and started brainstorming dates. Should we start in early August, mid-August, or late August…September? I also consider our state’s homeschooling requirements (180 instructional days) and average how many days per month that breaks down to.

Then I take out my highlighters and mark a color each for school, holidays, vacation, CO-OP (for us, it’s our Wild + Free group), field trips, and planning days in my planning key.

Second, how do I want to divide up our school year? (aka…when’s break?)
Should we school year round? Plow through from August to November–break for Thanksgiving and then wade back in briefly before the holidays? Maybe 6 weeks on, 1 week off? After Christmas last year, I realized that I needed more of a break than a 3-day weekend here and there or waiting until Christmas break for two weeks. I’d get behind on regular household chores, find projects piling up in the corners, and just long for some alone time that was more than 30 minutes. And it seemed the kids might benefit from some lazy days and a break from routine.

We switched to a 5 week on and 1 week off schedule built around holidays so we end up having 3 weeks off for Christmas, a week for Thanksgiving, in February (around President’s Day), and Spring Break. It does mean we end up finishing school in the beginning of June, but it feels worth it knowing we’re taking our time to not only learn, but rest and rejuvenate.

After the calendar basics were on paper, I began brainstorming what we would study. 
We follow the Montessori Scope and Sequence from my NAMC albums, which takes a lot of guesswork out of planning. Language, math, and penmanship are all taught one-on-one wherever the child is on the sequence. Language, math, and penmanship are all taught one-on-one wherever the child is on the sequence, so those I’ll plan a little later when I have time to look more specifically at each child’s needs. But History, Geography, and Science we do all together. I know what topics we haven’t covered in the lower elementary material, so I spaced those out over our six terms.

(I’ll explain how I plan our terms  in more detail in a later post.)

It’s a simple first step. But it’s so helpful to knock down that first block and see that things aren’t as overwhelming as they seem. Yes, there will be work. I still have half a set of grammar cards to cut, zoology materials to find, and the Great Lessons to review…not to

But know that I know when we’re starting, where our breaks will be, and what our overall plan is…the rest is not as anxiety producing as it once was.

What homeschool prep is causing you anxiety this summer?
How can you knock down your first obstacle?

It’s that time of the year. Parents either love or hate summer. Maybe it’s the extra pressure to perform and create a Pinterest-worthy summer or the constant presence of your kids or the lack of your usual routine. Maybe you love summer and bloom with the free-flow of it all. Or maybe you have your summer bucket list and your pool bag packed and sitting by the door.

Whichever way you lean, summer brings its own joys and struggles, but with a little planning you can craft a summer that meets your family.

1. Take a break.

Before you jump in to your regularly scheduled summer routine and programs, take a week or two after you’re done with school to just decompress. Rather than go from one scheduled season to another, take a break to allow yourself and your kids the freedom to just do what you want, what comes naturally.

Have a few anchors in your day (meals, outside time, quiet time, etc), but give yourself (and your kids) permission to just play or read a book for a couple of hours, cook simple meals, sleep in late, and skip a few chores. Parents and kids alike need that break. Then also, we can see what rhythm our family is naturally leaning toward and what are needs really are, rather than have a set schedule we’re trying to fit in that may or may not work.

2. Build rhythms and routines.

As you’re decompressing, take a few mental notes to jot down what you’d like to do for the summer. What are you goals for your family as the parent? What areas you want to grow in or things you want to experience or create? How do your weeks naturally flow? Is there a big difference between your school year schedule and your summer schedule? Build a rhythm for your household by anchoring an activity to a day of the week. For example, in our family Monday is Catch-up Day where I tackle household things that need tending, Tuesday is Library, Wednesday is Nature Day, etc. 

When planning your daily rhythms and routines, remember rhythms change with the time of year, our season in life, our current responsibilities and needs. Every season may look different. What’s worked before may not work this season and that’s okay. Give yourself permission to adapt and change things as needed. Rhythms and routines are to be for our benefit, not chain us to a schedule.

Things to consider:

• What’s the natural flow of our day right now?
• What’s working? What’s not working?
• What areas could use more structure? Less structure?
• What do I want my day to look like? What’s realistic?
• What might benefit my family and household?
• What are you saying yes to? What are you saying no to?

3. Nourish.

You could call this self-care or mother culture. How are you going to cultivate and nourish yourself this summer? Maybe it’s as simple as creating your own morning routine or finally committing to that yoga practice. It could be taking short adventures with your kids to appease your own adventurous spirit. Perhaps it’s tackling your book list or getting back to your own creative practices (writing, painting, etc). Build in some time this summer to do what makes you feel alive and in doing so, you’ll be more ready and full to be present and bring life to your children.

Free Summer Printables!

Want to decorate your space with a little summer love + inspiration?  

Download, pick a color, and print one (or all!) of our summer printables:

Hello, Summer

In the spring, after we finished our basic land and water forms study we moved on to learning different mapping skills. To help learn about the different types of maps, what a surveyor and cartographer do, how to read a compass, and the difference between longitude and latitude I made our own 3-part cards to go along with our study.

These cards are a little different in that they’re actually 4-part cards. Once a child moves on into lower elementary, the definition is added to each picture and label to help deepen the child’s understanding of the term and its concept. So here we have the the main card with picture and name, the picture, the word card label, and then the definition.

I’ve found as we’ve moved into Montessori elementary there are much fewer resources for students, so I made my own printable and it’s free for you to download and use too! Just click the link below:

Mapping Skills 3-Part Cards

w/ Definitions Printable

1. No More Crayons.

I hate crayons, especially broken crayons. I have a crayon breaking bandit who loves to snap those babies in half and peel the paper off. Crayons are my nemesis and their wrappers that inevitably find themselves all over the floor. We’re switching to colored pencils. Still need to sharpen, but less mess overall and you can still control shading. Which leads me to #2…

2. Quality Art Supplies.

We’re upgrading to nicer art supplies little by little. Sorry Crayola and store brands. First up, colored pencils and watercolor paints. I’m tired of pencil lead that breaks as soon as it’s sharpened. Colored pencils and watercolors…excuse me, watercolor cakes.

3. Shopping Back to School supplies on Amazon.

I have four kids. Shopping with all of them is no longer fun, even when everyone is on their best behavior and no one has to go to the bathroom when we have a cart full on the opposite side of the store. Amazon is where it’s at. At the end of the year, I made a list of all the supplies I thought we would need based on what we used and priced it on Amazon. This week I managed to get to Target with just the baby (priceless!) and did a bird’s eye view of school supplies prices.

For the quantities I was looking for (and I don’t want to have to go buy construction paper or gluesticks every other month…or printer ink), Amazon was much cheaper. The only thing that was a better price were composition notebooks. Fifty cents is hard to beat. I don’t have the time or energy to pick up supplies at five different stores (with all the kids in tow..sounds like a blast!), so I’m ordering them online and having them mailed to me.

That’s going to be one big box. I can already imagine the rocket ships, houses, and forts that are going to be built.

4. Electric Pencil Sharpener.

My cheap side reels a bit at the prices of electric pencil sharpeners and I’m tempted to say we’ll just keep the small manual ones, but I also know my kids hate sharpening pencils. Only Olivia still finds it appealing and I’d rather not get carpal tunnel in my hands from sharpening 50 colored pencils. I’m taking the plunge and hoping the reviews are right. We’ll see.

5. Homeschool Inspiration.

It’s so easy for me to lose the big picture focus in home educating and get bogged down in scope and sequences, how the day or week turned out horribly, all the things I want to do that we aren’t doing, and on and on. My goal is to listen to at least one inspiring and encouraging talk (or podcast) on homeschooling and/or motherhood a week to help me stay focused.

I’m starting with the conference audio from the Wild + Free conferences. I’ve listened to them before and have a few favorite homeschool mom speakers (Toni Weber and Sarah MacKenzie are a few). You can find them in the Wild + Free content bundles (sample one here).

6. Scheduling Teacher Work Days.

Multiple times last year I’d need more time to prep materials or I’d reach my end mentally and emotionally and needed a good attitude adjustment or perspective change, but because we took 3 weeks off of school when Victoria was born and I didn’t want to do be doing school through June we kept plugging away to meet our 180 days.

This year I’m loosely scheduling in teacher work days and not the kind where the TV babysits and I’m in the other room (though that happens too). I’m getting a babysitter and taking at least 5 hours out of the house to refuel, focus, plan, prep, and educate myself. Traditional teachers need that and so do homeschool moms!

7. Read Aloud.

I wanted to get in a regular read aloud habit, and for a month or two we were pretty consistent, but I was slow to start and it fell away because I often thought it was taking too much time from the rest of our school day. But the times we did have morning read aloud, the kids were more engaged, eager to participate, kinder to each other…it kind of did this magical thing and put us all at ease.

8. Self Care.

I know it’s a buzzword these days, but for good reason. A lot of women, and moms especially, don’t take care of themselves in some basic and necessary ways. In the last eight years, I’ve had three babies, three miscarriages, three major moves, one minor move, depression, a few years where my husband worked 2nd shift full time and went to grad school on top of the regular day in/day out challenges and responsibilities I’ve developed a lot of bad habits and coping techniques to just make it through the days.

I’m focusing on my eating habits, getting back into my yoga and kettle bell routine, going to bed before midnight, and making that optometrist appointment I’ve needed since April. And coming to terms that results from the effort of these things (like working out after the kids go to bed instead of just watching Gilmore Girls) will take time. Ugh. I mean, Yay for self-growth!

9. Buying Montessori Albums.

I did it. I bought the North American Montessori Center’s Lower Elementary curriculum. It was a big chunk of change, but I feel good about the decision. I spent a lot of time last year reading up on the lower elementary scope and sequence, finding lessons, trying to piece together the gaps in my self-education, and stressing (so much stress! Just ask my husband.).

I spent three years teaching in a primary classroom and am comfortable with the primary lessons and did the training for infant/toddler with NAMC, but there were spots in the lower elementary scope and sequence I just wasn’t sure about and couldn’t find consistent and cohesive reliable resources. After researching homeschooling costs for non-Montessori families spend, talking with a friend, and also my husband, the cost over the years I’ll use it with each child (nine years in all) is reasonable. Hopefully, I’ll be able to go back and do the training as well.

10. Stress Less.

I’m remembering the big picture—building a love for life long learning and exploration.  We don’t have to learn it all now. It’s okay to leave something and come back to it later. Prize the relationship first. Big picture, whole person. That ideal homeschool I have in my head, the look of free-flowing and easy going comes with routine, patience, and practice.

Hour by hour, day by day, we’ll build it together.

What’s on your list to change this year?

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