2024 was a wonderful year for our family — filled with trips, shows, and lots of fun activities! Let’s go month-by-month and talk about all the things.

A Look Back at 2024

January: Trip to Dauphin Island

In late 2023, Daniel and I were chatting about which places from our travels we’d most like to return to. We both mentioned how much we loved visiting Dauphin Island, Alabama, and on a whim we went and booked the same Airbnb for a weekend in January, when we’d be able to attend one of the Mardi Gras parades!

Knowing our Airbnb had some bikes for us to use, we strapped some more bikes onto the top of our van, so we’d all have one to ride around the island, and we headed for Alabama!

We had an amazing time revisiting Dauphin Island, getting meals at Dinner’s Ready, biking around the island, watching the parade, and just enjoying some relaxing time in the Airbnb. Daniel taught the kids to play blackjack and poker, and we all enjoyed some fresh seafood.

February: Awards and an Accident

Vanessa won her middle school spelling bee at the end of 2023, which was especially impressive because she was in 7th grade, and her school is 7th and 8th. Since she won the school bee, she went to the regional round in February — the winner of which would go on to compete in the national spelling bee in Washington D.C.!

We went to the regional bee with no expectations. There were about 70 kids competing, and the competition quickly whittled down in the first few rounds. Before we knew it, Vanessa was in the top 7, then the top 5, then the top 3, then the top 2!

She actually had a chance to win, because the other top 2 competitor spelled a word wrong first. Unfortunately, Vanessa misspelled the “winning word,” so they went back and forth for a few more rounds, and eventually she ended up coming in second.

I couldn’t believe it, and I was so proud of her! She spelled words I’ve never even heard, like quinary, justiciable, and glaciation. Smart girl.

If you remember from my last post, in 2023 I performed as Annie Wilkes in the play Misery. In February, the theatre hosted their annual “Torry” Awards for the 2023 season, and I won the award for Best Leading Actress in a Play!

I was so thrilled to have an award after almost 30 years in the theatre, and in my speech I referenced how my college acting professor told me that I wasn’t getting cast because my young, innocent look didn’t match my more mature, confident personality, but that someday my appearance and my personality would match up better.

“Fast forward a few years, and I’m 38 years old, and I’m auditioning for the role of a frumpy serial killer. And it all came full circle!”

At the very end of the month, Carter was riding his bike home from school and decided to trade with his friend who has an electric scooter…and race. This did not end well.

Carter skidded into the dirt on the scooter and then face-planted into the sidewalk, losing all of one tooth and most of another, scraping his face and hands all up, and splitting the skin under his chin. He had to get stitches at urgent care that night and emergency dental care the following day.

He looked pretty rough, but luckily he healed up nicely. After several oral surgeon and dentist visits, he still currently has a fake tooth where he’ll get a permanent implant when he’s 17 or 18. The funny thing is that all the ladies at the dentist office know him now, and they fawn all over him every time he goes in. It’s kind of adorable.

March: Tech Fair

The big event every March is the school district’s tech fair! Carter has gone every year with the high school’s robotics team, of which he is the president, to showcase their robots’ skills and let the younger students try controlling them.

Harrison has also presented at the tech fair each year, and this year he created a video game called Crok’s Adventure, immortalizing his favorite stuffed crocodile, with whom he traveled all around Europe. In the game, Crok collects coins (Euros!) across London, Paris, and Rome. Harry and his partner won 1st place medals for their game!

April: Paint, Family Visits, Willy Wonka, Prom, and Baseball

In April, we got our entire house interior painted. I love all the colors we (mostly I, painstakingly) chose. We ended up picking 9 different colors, and it’s so much more fun than just plain white walls all throughout.

While our house was being painted, we took a trip down to Charleston, where we took a horse-drawn carriage ride around the city and ate biscuits at the City Market!

We had my parents and some of our other favorite relatives visit us in April, and one of the fun things we did together was an airboat ride along the Intracoastal Waterway. We got to see a baby alligator and learn interesting facts about the history and nature of the area.

While they were here, we all got to go see Vanessa in her middle school’s spring musical, Willy Wonka, where she played Mrs. Bucket and did a beautiful job!

Speaking of shows, Vanessa also wrote and performed a comedic monologue for a talent show with the local youth theatre. It was very funny, and all her idea!

Also in April, Carter went to the prom, and we all went to several Pelicans baseball games! We love our Myrtle Beach Pelicans!

May: Fiddler, Mean Girls, Virginia, and AP Tests

Then, it was Harry’s turn to perform! He auditioned for his intermediate school’s production of Fiddler on the Roof, Jr. and got the part of Motel the tailor. He was so good, even with this being his first ever musical!

Vanessa and I had to miss his second performance, because we were off with her middle school choir on their trip to Virginia, to perform in a choir competition and spend the day at King’s Dominion theme park. The choir did great and placed at the top of their category.

Also in May, Carter took two AP tests. He took his first last year and got a 5, the maximum score. For these next two, he didn’t get his scores back until July but, spoiler, he got two more 5s!

And, I knew it would happen eventually… I turned 40! I told everyone, “You know the saying, ‘Thirty, flirty, and thriving?’ Well, I want to be ‘Forty, rich, and hot!'” Working on it!

Lastly, Vanessa performed in yet another show, Mean Girls, Jr. with Pied Piper! She was in the ensemble this time and had fun learning lots of songs and dances.

June: Miami and Myrtle Beach Bucket List

In June, Carter took the SAT for the first time and got a 1440! He scored high enough that he was invited to be an SAT student coach, which he did, teaching online two evenings a week for several weeks, leading up to the next SAT test date.

Carter also taught an engineering camp that was offered by the school district, and he really enjoyed the experience. He’s planning on teaching the camp again next summer.

Daniel and I went on a work trip to Miami, which went well until it started pouring and didn’t stop for two days. There was pretty serious flooding, and most people had their flights canceled. Ours was fine, because we had planned to stay an extra night anyway.

On that extra night, the hotel we were staying at had a big rebranding party, and we found ourselves caught up in an immersive performance that wound its way through several hotel rooms, the event rooms where our company had held meetings, and finally the rooftop club where we danced with some of our work buddies and plenty of strangers! It was an interesting night!

Finally, I started a new website! To go along with my family travel site, I started a local site called Myrtle Beach Bucket List. There’s not a ton of content just yet, but I think the design is adorable, and there’s more to come!

July: Traveling and Swiftie Camp

July was our big travel month! We planned a 10-day family vacation that started in Ocean City and Assateague Island, Maryland. We first drove around Assateague Island and spotted the wild ponies on the beach.

Then, we spent the night right by the beach in Ocean City, enjoying a late afternoon stroll and pizza on the boardwalk to celebrate Harry’s birthday.

Next up, we drove to New York City, with a quick detour into Philadelphia so Carter could cross an item off his bucket list — eating a Philly cheesesteak in Philly!

In New York, we saw a bunch of shows! Daniel and I went to Drunk Shakespeare and The Who’s Tommy. Daniel and Carter went to Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern. Daniel and Vanessa went to Six. And the whole family went to what was the kids’ first Broadway show, Water for Elephants.

We also played in Bryant Park and Central Park, and Carter gave us a tour of the statues in Rockefeller Center. Also in Rockefeller Center, Daniel and I recreated a photo we’ve taken there every 10 years!

From NYC, we drove up to Maine and spent a wonderful week visiting all our special places there: Old Orchard Beach, Palace Playland, Pier Fries, Alex’s Pizza, Ocean Park, and Funtown/Splashtown USA.

Ahead of our trip, I got the genius idea to find a photographer to take nice photos of us in our favorite place. It was one of the best things we’ve done!

After Maine, we headed home via Vermont, where only I had visited previously. This was Daniel’s 49th state and the kids’ 48th.

We visited a sugar house where they collect maple syrup and got to taste all the different phases they collect throughout the season. We watched a video about the collection process, and wrapped up our visit by trying maple syrup ice cream (which was delicious)!

From there, we drove into Burlington to walk around a bit and have lunch. Then, we stopped at the Ben and Jerry’s Factory for (more) ice cream, before we drove home!

Shortly after arriving home, Daniel and Vanessa flew out to Arizona. Daniel had a hiking trip planned with his brothers, and Vanessa’s best friend had invited her to stay with them and go to an AJR concert. They both had a fantastic time.

After they returned home, it was time for me and Carter to fly out to Las Vegas! My dad’s party rental software company was celebrating 30 years of business, and both Carter and I have worked for the company.

We thoroughly enjoyed three full days of fun and celebration, including a slots tournament, visiting Omega Mart, attending a BattleBots show, and a big yummy cake!

Oh yeah, Carter and I also checked off one of my bucket list items: riding the roller coaster that takes you over the side of the top of the Stratosphere Tower! Terrifying? Definitely. Worth it? Maybe.

We had one more trip to take in our very busy month of travel. Daniel has a published musical that has been performed all over the world, and even in all of our traveling, we haven’t been able to catch a show yet. Until July! A theatre company in Virginia was putting on the show, and so we made the 4-hour drive to see one of their performances.

After the show, Daniel introduced himself as the writer and composer whose name was on the program and all their posters, and the directors and kids were thrilled! He signed lots of programs and let the kids know what a great job they did with his show.

As a final activity in July, and spilling over into August, Melody attended a “Swiftie Camp” put on by Pied Piper. She attended all day for one week and did a performance at the end of the week that we all attended. She was over the moon to be up onstage performing!

August: The Who’s Tommy and Green Day

For me, August was largely consumed by rehearsing for and performing in The Who’s Tommy, with Theatre of the Republic, the same theatre where I did Misery. It was almost a spiritual experience for me, as I was involved with a production of the show way way back in 1999, 25 years prior!

Back then, I worked backstage as a dresser, and it has since been one of my favorite shows. This time I got to be on the stage, singing “Listening to you, I get the music,” and I couldn’t have been happier!

Meanwhile, Daniel treated Carter to a special birthday present — taking him to a Green Day concert in Charlotte! Carter has really gotten into music in the past year or so, first learning bass and then the guitar, and (thanks to our influence) he especially loves music from the 90s. They both had a fantastic time at the concert.

September: Dallas, a Conveyor Belt Restaurant, and Chili Fest

In September, Daniel and I took another work trip, this time to Dallas. On both work trips, in Miami and Dallas, I taught sessions to our clients, and Daniel got to meet in-person some of the clients he works closely with.

Also in September, I treated Daniel to dinner at a nearby Korean restaurant I found, Mura, which has a conveyor belt of dishes going around the restaurant! It was a fun (and delicious) find, and we need to go back soon!

I also took the kids to the Chili Fest, which we’ve attended the past few years, and which is always a fun time, sampling all the yummy chili and voting for our favorites!

October: PSAT, More Family Visits, The Lightning Thief, and Nashville

October brought some cooler weather and also some family members! Daniel’s brother and his daughter (Carter’s “twin” cousin) came all the way from Arizona to visit us, and we had a ton of fun taking them to some of our favorite places in Myrtle Beach.

While they were visiting, we were graced with the very unusual sight of the northern lights in Myrtle Beach!

Carter and Vanessa both took the PSAT (11th and 8th grade students take the SAME test) and they both destroyed it. Vanessa got just shy of a perfect reading/writing score and a great math score too. Carter got close to perfect on math and did great on reading/writing. He’s in the running to be a National Merit Scholar and Vanessa is officially a Junior Scholar.

And, since they weight reading/writing higher than math, Vanessa’s National Scholar Selection Index Score is actually one point higher than Carter’s, so she’d also be in the running for National Merit Scholar if she was an 11th grader (with her 8th grade score)! Can’t wait to see how she does as an 11th grader.

Another very exciting thing that happened in October was that Carter was in his first musical! He’s our oldest, but he took the longest to show an interest in the performing arts. We love that he’s all about science and math, but it was really fun to see him take an interest in musicals lately.

His closest friends are theatre kids, and when he went to see them perform in Hadestown in the summer, he saw that the theatre company was going to be doing The Lightning Thief in the fall, which is a musical based on one of his favorite book series. That sealed the deal for him. He signed up, auditioned, and got several great roles in the show.

But there’s more! They did the junior version of the show, which cuts out one of the songs that all the kids really liked, which happens to be a song that takes place around a campfire. Carter learned to play the song on the guitar, and the directors put it back into the show, since he did such a good job playing it, and it made sense for his character to be playing the guitar around the campfire!

At the end of October, I traveled to Nashville for a work offsite, where I got to work and bond with my team members, many of whom I had never met. We had lots of fun, and it made a big positive difference in our working relationships once we all returned home and were back to interacting online again.

November: Six, 100 Pounds, and Alaska

Two more months to go — wow this was truly a packed year!

For our last show in 2024, Vanessa performed in Six with Pied Piper. This was an audition-only show, and she was cast as Bessie, the bass player in the “band.” She got to rock out on the bass, sing in all the songs, and even dance in a few of them. What a cool cat.

In other news, Carter got his license and took his first solo drive!

And I hit a milestone — 100 pounds lost!

Then, we had one more big trip before the year was over. Back in May, for my 40th birthday, Daniel gave me a card that said, “Now that you’re 40, let’s make it 50!” When I saw the plane tickets to Alaska, I realized he was saying, let’s make it all 50 states, since Alaska was our final state to visit!

So we did just that! In late November, we drove the whole family down to Florida, dropped the kids at my parents’ house, and Daniel and I flew to Fairbanks, Alaska. We spent three days playing in the snow, dipping in the hot springs, riding a dog sled, and walking with reindeer.

The one thing we didn’t get to do was see the northern lights in all their glory, because it was cloudy during our visit. Good thing we got to see them back in October, even if they weren’t as impressive here!

You can read a full recap of our Alaska trip here on my travel site.

We flew back to Florida in time to spend Thanksgiving with the whole family, and then we drove back home.

December: Concerts, Panthers, and Carter’s Car

December was filled with Christmas concerts and activities. We also drove up to Charlotte to attend a Carolina Panthers game — one of the few they won this season!

Christmas was happily spent at home (Melody’s first time ever spending Christmas in the same place twice!), with gifts that brought many smiles.

And we capped off the year with a new driveway ornament… Carter now has his very own car!

6 shows, 14 trips to 12 states, 2 trophies, 1 medal, 1 prom, 2 AP tests, 6 family members hosted, 3 reindeer walked, 1 new car, and countless memories.

2024 came and went, but now it’s immortalized forever. On to 2025!

The post A Look Back: 2024 appeared first on Shaping Up To Be A Mom.

It’s been two and a half years since my last post, and at that time I wasn’t sure about the future of this site. In January 2020, I started a travel blog into which I’ve put all my extra time and energy (cause there’s sooo much of that…). I love writing over there, it’s gaining some traction, and it’s a better fit to move forward with.

When I turned 35 in 2019, all I could think was, “I’m almost 40!” So I made a list of goals to achieve between 35 and 40. One of them was “make the blog work or let it go.” I turn 40 this year.

I’ve entertained selling this site a couple of times, but the price it would fetch wouldn’t be near enough to justify saying goodbye to the absolute time capsule it has become over the years, and so I keep paying the domain and hosting fees. It makes a small amount of ad revenue each month, more than enough to cover its cost.

And so I think this site should live on. It’s been many things over the years, starting as not much more than a food diary, then a place to post pictures of my young ones, then my personal hub in the growing community of mommy lifestyle bloggers, then largely a collection of sponsored posts.

Back in 2012, some of my blogging buddies and I started a series called A Look Back, where we posted memories and photographs from each year in our lives. We started with 1984 and made it to 1991 before interest fizzled out. At the end of 2015, I briefly resurrected the idea by recapping the past year.

Now, I’m bringing it back! Maybe someday I’ll fully rejuvenate this site, but for now I’m happy for it to continue as a record of our family’s life, even if that’s just one post per year. Thanks for being here.

Want to read more about our years of traveling? Check out this post about our family gap year itinerary, which I keep updating as I write more about the various destinations we visited!

A Look Back at 2023

2023 was our first full year back in the United States after backpacking through Europe for 10 months. We came back to the States in mid-2022 and got semi-settled in South Carolina so we could get the kids enrolled in school.

At the beginning of 2023, Carter was halfway through his freshman year in high school, Vanessa was in 6th grade, Harrison in 4th, and Melody in 1st.

Melody skips ahead!

Because of South Carolina laws, Melody had to start Kindergarten in Fall 2022. Her birthday is September 9th, so she just barely missed the September 1st cutoff. We were disappointed because we were planning on her going into 1st grade. She was one of the oldest kids in Kindergarten and way ahead of the material.

Halfway through the year, I asked if the school would consider letting her skip 1st grade and start 2nd grade the next year, and to my surprise they suggested moving her up to 1st grade immediately. She was happy to move up, and so she got the best of both worlds — half a year of Kindergarten, half a year of 1st grade, and now she’s in 2nd and excelling!

The rest of the kids are doing awesome in school as well. All four tested as gifted and talented, and they are loving the opportunity to make long-term friends, now that we are settled.

Carter took his first AP course during his freshman year and scored a 5 on the test!

He’s on track to graduate a year early…which is next year! He’s on the school robotics team, likes to play bass, and plans to study software engineering at UCF. Or mechanical engineering. Not sure which it is this week! He also has his driver’s permit and a girlfriend!

One of the first things Vanessa did after we settled down was to snag a lead role in the intermediate school’s musical. She played the Baker’s Wife in Into The Woods, Jr.

Now she’s in 7th grade at the middle school and heavily involved with the chorus and musical theatre programs. She’s on track to earn three high school credits while in middle school, and she recently won the middle school spelling bee!

Harrison completed his first ever year of public school in 2023, and now he’s thriving in 5th grade at the intermediate school. He loves all things video games, especially coding his own, and he’ll be participating in the school district’s tech fair this year for the second time.

He surprised us by wanting to audition for the musical and got a great part — Motel the tailor in Fiddler on the Roof, Jr.

We already talked about Melody, but yeah she’s 7-going-on-17 (or is it 37?), and she’s the hit of the neighborhood. A total social butterfly, she rides her bike up and down our street and knows just about everyone!

We bought a house!

We lived in three different Airbnbs in the Myrtle Beach area while house hunting and then waiting for our house to be built. We bought a new construction home in a brand-new neighborhood and moved in at the end of February.

After four plus years of traveling and not having a place to call our own, we are absolutely loving this wonderful home. Daniel and I both work from home, so we chose the model that gave us each our own office. It’s a dream come true!

He didn’t get out of the cockadoodie car!

In May, after exactly five years of not doing any theatre whatsoever, I returned to the stage and got to play Annie Wilkes in Misery! The auditions were in March, and I went kind of on a whim, with zero expectations. I just love the book and movie, and I thought I’d just audition for fun and to check out the local theatre. Welllll, I got a callback, and then I got the part!

It was an amazing opportunity, and I had a blast! The theatre is historic, and they put on really impressive productions, so I’m especially happy just to know some of the people there and to have such a great venue nearby.

Traveling from a home base

Even though we decided to settle down after four years of full-time travel, we still love to roam! Now we’re just doing it from our home base. During our first year settled (from mid-2022 to mid-2023), we reupped our Universal season passes and visited my parents in Florida on pretty much every school break!

On one of these visits, we stopped to explore Savannah, Georgia on the way.

We also got to be in the Universal Studios Mardi Gras parade, throwing beads from one of the floats! Melody wasn’t tall enough to join us, so she watched the parade with Gramma and Grampa, and we threw her some beads.

In the summer, we loaded up the van and traveled across the country to Arizona. Daniel hadn’t seen his family in a year, and we have a free place to stay there, so we stayed a full month, having lots of fun with family and close friends in the area!

We were there for the 4th of July festivities, and Carter participated in a pie eating contest! We got to enjoy all our favorite west coast foods, like Eegees and In-N-Out Burger!

On the way to Arizona, we stopped at Rock City — a place we’ve been trying to visit ever since directing the musical See Rock City back in 2011!

Career update

In fall 2022, I started a new job as Director of Marketing at a small ad tech start-up, and I had a great experience working for them. I got to travel to New York several times a year, which was fun.

However, in June 2023, while we were in Arizona, Daniel pointed out a job opening at his company (also the company I worked for from 2019-2022), and it sounded like a great opportunity for me to return in an exciting new role. I applied, interviewed, and they invited me back!

I’m now a Product Manager, which is a very busy job that keeps me on my toes, but I love it. It’s been a great fit and allowed me to learn new skills and move up in my career.

Riding in style

Coming back from Arizona in July, we spent an unexpected couple of days in Georgia when our beloved black van broke down. We were able to get it fixed and drive home, but when it needed more work the next month, we decided it was time to put it to rest!

That van took us all over the country for several years. Luckily, we’ve immortalized it in photographs!

As sad as we were to see that van go, it was pretty exciting to get our new van, which is twelve years newer!

Megan got smaller!

In my last post, I shared how I got gastric sleeve surgery in late 2019. I’m still so grateful for how that allowed me to lose 75 pounds and feel good in my body again! I was able to keep most of that weight off for several years, including the time we spent in Europe, give or take 10 pounds.

However, in 2022-2023, my appetite started to come back stronger, and I wasn’t doing a very good job making healthy food choices. By the time I did Misery, I was up more than 25 pounds of the 75 I lost. Honestly, it kind of worked out well because Annie is traditionally a little plump! But after the show wrapped, I knew I needed to do something to turn things around, because I was NOT going to end up back where I started.

I admire anyone who can lose weight on their own without intervention. I’m not one of those people. I’m also not ashamed to say that I’ve had surgery and now use medicine to keep the weight off! I started weekly injections of tirzepatide (Mounjaro) in June 2023, and since then I’ve lost 32 pounds. I’m the lightest I’ve been in over 15 years, closing in on my goal weight, and feeling incredible.

Holidays at home

This was the first year in many years that we had a home of our own for the holidays! So we invited my whole family to come for Thanksgiving. My parents drove up from Florida, my brother flew in from Las Vegas, and my sister and brother-in-law flew in from Toronto.

This was also the 8th Christmas in a row that we celebrated in a completely different location. But it was the first of many in our forever home!

Wrapping up the year

All in all, 2023 was a banger year, and I’m looking forward to everything that 2024 brings. I hope you also had a great year, and I hope you’ll tell me all about it! Consider this a “call-to-action” to publish a new blog post if you’ve been slacking like me. Or if your blog has gone the way of the 2010s, leave me a comment and give an update! Wishing you all the best!

The post A Look Back: 2023 appeared first on Shaping Up To Be A Mom.

Our alphabet practice paper has been such a hit that I was inspired to create some new handwriting printable packs for the upcoming holidays.

Thanksgiving Handwriting Printables

Handwriting practice might not be the most exciting part of the school day, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. Younger kids who are just learning to write need a lot of practice to get used to holding their pencil and shaping their letters correctly.

And you’re never too old for handwriting practice. Older kids (or even adults) who need their print to be more legible should practice too!

This handwriting printable pack includes 26 Thanksgiving handwriting worksheets — one page for each letter of the alphabet. Each worksheet includes uppercase and lowercase practice, as well as a fun Thanksgiving-themed word and graphic.

Here’s a look at a few of my favorites:

These worksheets are Fundations-style, which means I’ve included icons on the left-hand side to denote the sky line, plane line, grass line, and worm line. This helps kids know where to start and where to go while forming their letters.

Grab your pack below! It’s just $4 for an instant download and unlimited personal and educational use, and that little bit goes a long way in helping me continue to provide resources for you, so thanks so much!

Get your Thanksgiving Handwriting Printable Pack

$4 – Buy Now!

Tips for Thanksgiving handwriting practice

Thanksgiving handwriting practice is the perfect activity to include throughout November. All of our kids, from our 4-year-old to our 12-year-old, will be using these sheets to improve their handwriting.

• Keep them entertained while you prepare Thanksgiving dinner, or while they watch the parade.
• Once they complete these worksheets, put them to task writing place cards.
• Or they could write up the menu for the big dinner.
• If they need more practice, have them copy over one of the recipes you’re making.
• They could also handwrite a story using all of the words from the Thanksgiving handwriting worksheets. The ideas are endless!

We have more holiday-themed handwriting printable packs, which I’ll be writing about soon, but if you want to get a head start, you can head to our shop page and get them all now!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The post Thanksgiving Handwriting Worksheets appeared first on Shaping Up To Be A Mom.

My husband and I are trying to be better about our eating habits lately, paying much closer attention to our calorie intake and macros. It’s always a thrill when we come up with a new meal idea that fits our needs AND is super tasty!

This week we cooked up some chicken in our crockpot, seasoned it with enspice’s chipotle bbq, and served it shredded on lettuce wraps with a little shredded cheese and some grilled veggies. The result? A simple, tasty, and healthy meal!

As a gastric sleeve patient, it’s important for me to eat plenty of protein, so low cal / high protein is a winning combo. Chicken that is breaded or drenched in sauce can certainly be tasty, but with the right seasoning, you can avoid those things and still make your tastebuds happy.

Enspice seasonings for a tasty, healthy dish

Using enspice in this dish gave our chicken just the right amount of flavor, without having to rely on rich, sugary sauces.

Enspice sent us a whole set of seasoning and spices to try out, so now we’re all prepped to create healthy, flavorful meals. I’m excited to try out the Cape Cod on some fish, and we already used the taco seasoning for a taco night!

Not only does enspice make meals taste better — they are enhanced with plant-based vitamins and minerals. These nutrients are heat-resistant, making them perfect to cook with. The seasonings and spices are non-GMO, kosher, and gluten-free.

And, in addition to all that goodness, enspice donates a meal for a child in need with each purchase. So you can eat good, feel good, and do good!

Enspice seasoning and spices are available to purchase at enspice.com. Get 10% off enspice seasonings & spices with code MOMSMEET, through 12/30/2020.

Slow Cooker Chipotle BBQ Chicken recipe

Whenever we make a chicken slow cooker meal, we usually cook up 4-5 pounds of chicken and use the leftovers the next day to make quesadillas. It’s a great way to make two meals at once!

So while the recipe below only calls for 2 pounds of chicken, feel free to make more and just increase all the other ingredients proportionately.

You can pick and choose your own veggies to include or make things super simple and buy a package of pre-cut fajita veggies. This busy mom goes the easy route.

Enjoy!

Print

Slow Cooker Chipotle BBQ Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Enjoy an easy, healthy meal with slow cooked chicken seasoned with chipotle bbq and served on lettuce wraps.

Course Main Course

Keyword chicken, crockpot, family, quick, slow cooker

Servings 6 people

Author Megan

Equipment

• Slow cooker
• Medium frying pan

Ingredients

• 2 lbs chicken breasts
• 3/4 cup water or chicken broth
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese
• 4 tbsp enspice chipotle bbq seasoning
• 1 cup chopped fajita veggies
• 1 head lettuce

Instructions

• Add chicken to bottom of slow cooker
• Pour water or broth over chicken and add 3 tbsp of seasoning on top
• Cook on low for 6–8 hours or high for 3–4 hours
• Shred chicken with two forks and return to slow cooker to mix in the broth
• Saute or warm fajita veggies in frying pan with the rest of the seasoning
• Serve chicken on lettuce with veggies and shredded cheese on top

The post Chipotle BBQ Chicken Lettuce Wraps with enspice appeared first on Shaping Up To Be A Mom.

Our alphabet practice paper has been such a hit that I was inspired to create some new handwriting printable packs for the upcoming holidays. First up, Halloween!

Halloween Handwriting Printables

Handwriting practice might not be the most exciting part of the school day, but it’s essential for young ones just learning to write and older kids who need their print to be more legible. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun!

This handwriting printable pack includes 26 Halloween handwriting worksheets — one page for each letter of the alphabet. Each worksheet includes uppercase and lowercase practice, as well as a fun Halloween-themed word and graphic.

Here’s a look at a few of my favorites:

These worksheets are Fundations-style, which means I’ve included icons on the left-hand side to denote the sky line, plane line, grass line, and worm line. This helps kids know where to start and where to go while forming their letters.

You can grab your pack below! It’s just $4 for an instant download and unlimited personal and educational use, and that little bit goes a long way in helping me continue to provide resources for you, so thanks so much!

Get your Halloween Handwriting Printable Pack

$4 – Buy Now!

Tips for Halloween handwriting practice

Halloween handwriting practice is the perfect activity to include throughout September and October, for all ages! Never hurts to have a review. My 4-year-old who is just learning to write her letters will be using these practice sheets, and my 12-year-old whose handwriting leaves a lot to be desired will be using them too!

Personally, I’m not above bribery, so if you want to award a job well done with a piece of candy (very on-theme), feel free!

Or if it helps them get into the mood, why not do handwriting practice while dressed in their Halloween costume? Might as well get more than one night’s use out of them!

We have more holiday-themed handwriting printable packs, which I’ll be writing about soon, but if you want to get a head start, you can head to our shop page and get them all now!

Happy Halloween handwriting!

The post Halloween Handwriting Worksheets appeared first on Shaping Up To Be A Mom.

We keep our homeschool supplies to a minimum because we are full-time travelers and do most of our schooling online, but handwriting is one area where supplies are necessary. So in this post I’m going to share with you our go-to tools to improve handwriting.

Affiliate links are used within this post. If you make any purchases, I may receive a commission (thanks!).

Best Supplies for Handwriting Practice

When you homeschool your kids, you’re in charge of their assignments. And when you have a bright, 9-year-old daughter and a blog in need of content…well, you ask her to write a blog post for you! #learning

So I’m going to pass this over to Vanessa, and she’s going to talk about our favorite handwriting tools!

This is Vanessa, and I am writing this for my mom’s blog. While our family travels, my siblings and I do homeschool instead of going to public school. One subject on our School Tracker is handwriting practice.

Having good handwriting is a very important skill for kids to learn. Below are some helpful handwriting tools that can help your children improve their handwriting.

1: Handwriting: Printing (Brighter Child, Grades K-2)

This is the handwriting book that my little brother, Harrison, uses. He used to have not-so-great handwriting but, thanks to the book, he’s starting to improve a lot.

This book is designed for kids in Kindergarten to second grade and is a great choice for beginners because it starts with single letters, then moves on to full words and full sentences.

It’s also only $3.99, so it’s very inexpensive — we’ve actually bought this book twice already!

Here’s another beginner handwriting workbook that we like. We’ve used it for both beginners and older kids, to improve our handwriting.

2: Print Handwriting Workbook for Teens

Next, I would like to mention the handwriting workbook my older brother, Carter, uses. Although he’s not a teen yet (he’s almost 12), it still helps him improve his handwriting skills.

The special part? When you’re using the book, you’re not just tracing words like ‘cat’ or ‘alligator’ — you’re tracing science facts. It helps teens improve their handwriting and at the same time helps them be smarter and enjoy handwriting practice by having them write cool facts.

3: Pencil Grippers for Kids

Another must-have handwriting tool are these pencil grippers for kids. They come in fun shapes and cool colors, and they can help kids learn to hold a pencil correctly.

All you have to do is slip them onto a pencil and show the child where to put their fingers. They really help little ones hold their pencils the right way, which can be difficult and frustrating without them!

Check out all of our homeschool supply recommendations in our Amazon store!

The ones that I linked above also included little animal-shaped grippers, which I think are super cute and fun. We’ve even put them on crayons for my little sister, Melody!

Warning: You’re probably going to need to buy a few extras, as they are easy to get lost.

4: Printable handwriting worksheets

When little ones are learning to write their letters, sometimes they learn names for the lines on the page: skyline, plane line, grass line, and worm line. This helps them to know how to form their letters — where to start and where to end.

We have a free download for this handwriting paper right on this site! Just click here to get it now.

And check out our Holiday Handwriting Printable Packs!

5: Well, duh, pencils

Okay, I probably didn’t need to tell you that you need pencils for handwriting, but believe me when I say you need a LOT of them. At least, if you have four kids in your house like we do. Do yourself a favor and buy a giant box.

With the pencils, grippers, and handwriting worksheets or workbooks, you are good to go! My family uses all of these tools and our handwriting is getting better and better.

Even if my mom’s isn’t. *giggle*

The post 5 Helpful Tools for Handwriting Practice appeared first on Shaping Up To Be A Mom.

I received this product for free from Moms Meet (momsmeet.com) to use and post my honest opinions. Compensation for this post was provided and this page may contain affiliate links.

Melody and I were sent a selection of books from the Priddy Books Early Learning Collection to read and enjoy together, and we just adore them! They have such gorgeous imagery and engaging sensory elements that I can’t get my hands off them!

Must-Have Sensory Books

Some of the books we were sent are perfect for babies and toddlers and some were more suited for the preschool crowd. Since we’ve said “sayonara” to the diaper stage, we are going to gift the baby books to a new cousin who is expected to arrive in just a few weeks!

You can find all of these books and more here on Amazon. Read on to learn more about our favorites!

Sensory Books for Toddlers and Babies

Bright Baby: Touch and Feel Baby Animals

Babies will love meeting the animals in this book — each page has a new furry friend to pet. The rhyming text introduces each animal and stimulates baby’s vocabulary skills.

See, Touch, Feel

Little ones will love looking at the babies in this book! Each page has different textures in bold colors that even adults won’t be able to resist touching.

The sensory play activities will help babies develop motor skills and begin to recognize words.

Alphaprints: Colors

This book is great for babies…but I have to be honest and say how much I enjoyed it too. We’ve had other Alphaprints books, and it’s always a joy to see how they incorporate fingerprints and everyday objects to create the characters and settings in their books.

This is a quick, simple read that babies will likely sit through and enjoy looking at the colorful pictures, but it’s also a good gateway book for toddlers who may be able to memorize and then “read” the book on their own — an important step toward actual independent reading!

Sensory Books for Preschoolers

My First Play and Learn Farm

This book is extra special because it comes with reusable play pieces to complete activities on each page. Preschoolers will have lots of fun while learning about animals, colors, and patterns.

First 100 Numbers

Melody is still a year away from Kindergarten, but we’re getting her ready now! One of her goals is to learn to count to 100, so this book came at the perfect time. I’m excited to use it every day to help her get comfortable counting to 100.

The book has bright pictures of fun objects to help little ones learn to count, and on the final two pages there are 100 yellow chicks, so we can use those pages to practice counting all the way from 1 to 100!

I know sometimes at the end of the day you just want your little one to head right to bed so you can get a break, but these sensory books make bedtime stories an enjoyable time for both of you!

The post 5 Sensory Books You’ll Love Reading with your Baby or Preschooler appeared first on Shaping Up To Be A Mom.

Math and reading are super important, and definitely what we focus on the most, but when you move beyond the core subjects, you can help your child develop in every way: mentally, physically, socially, and emotionally. As a homeschooling parent, you have the opportunity to hone in on their needs and preferences, strengths and weaknesses, and choose activities that will challenge them and help them grow.

In other words, get creative! We have nothing against traditional schooling, but when you cut out the extra time at school not spent on learning (assemblies, waiting for other students to finish/catch up, etc), you have lots of time to hit the basics and then explore other subjects. Especially with that 1-on-1 (or, in our case, 1-on-4) attention!

What are my homeschool options?

You can buy a full, off-the-shelf, homeschool curriculum and use it to teach your kids, and if that’s something that interests you, go for it. But we have homeschooled for two full school years now, and we haven’t found this to be necessary at all.

Our Homeschool Made Simple course teaches everything you need to know to get started homeschooling. This stress-free system will have you breathing easy and homeschooling like a boss!

There are so many online resources that allow you to homeschool for free, that we don’t feel many purchases are necessary. We have spent a minimal amount of money on supplies, some workbooks, and a few paid subscriptions that we either already had or wanted, or planned to use temporarily. For example, we found ABCmouse and Reading Eggs to be worth paying for when we had a child who was learning to read, but once they learned, those subscriptions were no longer a must-have…until the next kiddo was ready!

Overall, just don’t stress! If things get difficult (for you or the kids!), take a break. No use in crying over spilled fractions. :)

Best Online Homeschool Resources

The list below includes all of the online resources and websites we use while homeschooling our own kids. The core subjects are there, but you’ll also find games, technical skill learning, creative outlets, and so much more.

Affiliate links are used within this post. If you make any purchases, I may receive a commission (thanks!).

Free Resources

Khan Academy: Excellent for math, language arts, history, high school science, music, and computer programming, among other subjects. Read our post on the best Khan Academy courses!

Khan Academy Kids: For the little ones who aren’t quite ready for Khan Academy, there’s the Khan Academy Kids app!

Google Drive: A great way to keep their work organized. They can create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations right from their own Drive and upload any offline files they’ve created. Our kids keep a daily journal in a Google Doc and use Google Sheets for their school tracker. If they need to show proof of the work they’ve been doing, this is a great way to keep it all in one, easy-to-access place!

Typing Practice: An easy way for all ages to improve typing speed and practice tricky keys.

Geography Quizzes: Perfect for learning about countries around the world!

Times Tables: Times tables come in handy for math all the time! Kids can practice their times tables easily from home with this website. Our 6th, 3rd, and 1st graders all do this on a daily basis!

Music Theory: Reading music is a great skill to have! This site is a good resource for anyone — whether you play an instrument, sing, or just want to learn.

Chess: Chess is fun and teaches kids about strategy and thinking a few steps ahead. If you don’t have a set on hand, you can play online.

Duolingo: Duolingo is an easy way to start learning any language. Our family has been learning French in preparation for our trip to France!

YouTube: YouTube is useful for homeschooling because it has thousands of educational videos in just about any subject you could want!

Textbook PDF files: There are plenty of textbooks and textbook excerpts that can be found online (like this third grade science textbook), which can be useful in helping kids learn certain subjects.

Podcasts for kids: Another fun way to learn is through listening to podcasts! I recently pulled together a list of podcasts for kids for our soon-to-be-released family travel course. You can grab it here!

Fitness: Check out YouTube for a variety of fun videos that will get kids exercising and dancing! Try GoNoodle or Cosmic Kids Yoga.

Free Trials

I mentioned these two at the beginning of the post, but we’ve used both ABCmouse and Reading Eggs at times for our kids when they were learning to read. Our 3-year-old now does Reading Eggs daily! Both of these are paid resources, but they offer a free trial so you can see if you like it!

ABCmouse free trial

Reading Eggs free trial

Free During COVID-19

Varsity Tutors Virtual Summer Camps: Our kids are very excited to attend the summer camps, with topics ranging from chess to improv, and video game design to magic potions!

BrainPop/BrainPop JR: Online learning in lots of subjects. Free to students and teachers experiencing school closures due to COVID-19.

Outschool: Live online classes on a variety of topics including specific skills. Free for those whose schools are closed due to COVID-19.

Free audio books for kids from Audible: Audible is offering free online stories to listen to for as long as school is closed. All stories are free and are available on a computer, phone, or tablet. Our oldest has started listening to Harry Potter!

National Emergency Library: Many books have been made available at the National Emergency Library during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Paid Resources

Kindle Unlimited: Access to a large library of books, for about $10 per month.

Workbooks: Even with all the online homeschool resources, it’s still valuable to put pencil to paper! You can find our favorite workbooks and other supplies in our Amazon homeschooling store.

Body books: Don’t forget the importance of teaching kids about hygiene and their growing bodies. Here are the books we recommend for tween-aged kids:

• For girls
• For boys

Netflix/Hulu: These streaming services include lots of educational content, including animated shows for the younger set and documentaries for the older set!

Steam games: We recommend RPG Maker, which is a game-creation program where kids can use coding and creativity to create, share, and play games! We also love Portal 1 & 2 for fun, puzzle/logic problem-solving! You can buy and play these through the Steam gaming platform.

I hope this list helps you pull together a homeschool curriculum that works for you and your kids!

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The post How to Homeschool for Free appeared first on Shaping Up To Be A Mom.

What is a workout game, you ask? Well if you’ve ever played a drinking game, it’s very similar. Except instead of taking shots and sips, you’ll be doing crunches, lunges, pushups, and more!

When certain things happen, you’ll have exercise tasks to perform, and this will keep your heart pumping through the whole show! Episodes are about 20 minutes long, so it’s a great way to sneak in a quick workout WHILE watching your favorite show.

Your workout will change with every episode! Some of these things happen several times in each episode and some only happen occasionally, so each new episode brings an exciting and fun new workout!

The Office Workout Game

I highly recommend reading this list through a few times and getting familiar with what’s on the list and what exercises you need to perform when they happen. That way you’ll be ready to bust out those crunches when Jim makes that iconic “Jim face” at the camera or launch into your mountain climbers when Jan makes an appearance.

Print out the graphic below for easy reference while watching. Feel free to pin it, too, so you can find your way back here the next time you start a rewatch or binge session!

Just check out these great testimonials:

Dwight: Forget everything you thought you knew about ab workouts.
Jim: Done.

Pam: It’s totally going to change the way I work out.

Dwight: I apologize for creating a ruse which forced you to exercise.

As of March 2020, The Office is still available to stream on Netflix, but if you order the whole series on DVD you get commentary, deleted scenes, and so much more! Below is my affiliate link to order the set (doesn’t cost you anything extra, but I get a small commission!). Click here or the image below to order!

Enjoy!

The post The Office Workout Game appeared first on Shaping Up To Be A Mom.

Today I want to share the best Khan Academy Courses to use while homeschooling, and how to get started!

Khan Academy is one of the most innovative, forward-thinking websites on the internet. I’d go so far as to say that it’s one of the biggest things to happen to education in the last decade or more. The team at Khan Academy has set up dozens of self-paced, online courses for all ages, bringing quality education to you (for free!) over the internet.

Find our favorite homeschool products in our Homeschooling Made Easy Amazon Store!

How to get started using Khan Academy

It’s really quite simple! Head over to the Khan Academy website and follow the instructions to sign up for an account. It’s totally free, and they’ll walk you through the process. You can set up a new account or use your existing Google or Facebook account to sign in.

I recommend signing up as an adult learner first, and then creating accounts for your kids through your account. If you created accounts for your kids first, you can connect their accounts to yours on your settings page. Then you can adjust your notifications so you’ll get a weekly digest of their activity.

When you first log in, you’ll be prompted to choose some courses to start with. Choose any that interest you — you can always make changes later! As you’ll see below, Khan offers courses for all ages!

Khan Academy Course Guide for Homeschool

Khan Academy recently published some sample schedules for students in various age/grade groups, and they are a great resource if you’re trying to figure out how to best structure your day. Check them out here!

Want a stress-free system that will have you homeschooling like a boss in no time? Our Homeschool Made Simple course teaches everything you need to know to get started and succeed!

There are so many different things available to learn, so let’s dive in and look at a few!

Math

More than anything else, Khan Academy shines when it comes to math. Their math courses are divided both by grade level (3^rd Grade Math, 7^th Grade Math) and by subject (Multiplication, Geometry).

Each lesson includes video examples to explain each topic, and students can practice each concept before taking quizzes and unit tests. Best of all, there is no need to grade anything—Khan Academy tells students instantly if they get a question right or wrong, and how to fix it. We do math on Khan Academy every single day.

Science

If you’re homeschooling high schoolers, the science on Khan Academy is exactly what you need! They have courses in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and several other subjects, as well as courses specifically designed to help students pass AP exams.

However, the science section in Khan Academy isn’t particularly useful for elementary students—I had my 11-year-old tackle the Chemistry course, and he enjoyed the early units but by the middle of the course had gotten into material that was above his comprehension level.

Social Studies

Much like the science courses, the social studies offerings on Khan Academy are geared mostly toward high school-aged students. There are courses in US History, World History, Civics, and AP exam prep courses. Again, not geared toward elementary students, but I was able to have my two older kids do portions of the Civics course. 

Language Arts

Khan Academy has just released grade-level Language Arts courses! Just like their math offerings, these are grouped by grade level, with videos explaining concepts and practice quizzes.

I had my 6-year-old start the 2nd grade course today, and he’s loving it. He’s actually in 1st grade, but he’s a great reader, and this course is at the perfect level for him—challenging but doable!

Computer Programming

I LOVE the Khan Academy computer programming courses, and so do my kids! I think that it is an extremely important subject for students in 2020 to learn. Even if your kids don’t end up in a computer-related field, technology is so omnipresent in our society (and will be even more so by the time our kids grow up!) that it’s important for them to understand basic concepts and to “think like a programmer.”

Khan Academy offers courses in Javascript, HTML/CSS, and SQL, as well as courses in computer animation and computer science. My two oldest finished their first Javascript course and are halfway through their HTML course and loving it!

My favorite Khan Academy course is computer programming because it is interactive and I get to make my own stuff.

-Carter, 11

Khan Academy Kids

For those little learners, Khan Academy has a fun app designed to teach students ages 2–7. It’s easy to use and features cute cartoon characters. Our third child used it when we first started homeschooling him, although he has since outgrown it. It’s perfect for those little ones!

Growth Mindset

Khan Academy offers a fantastic course on the “Growth Mindset,” teaching students about self-improvement, setting goals, and the importance of a positive outlook. It’s backed by science and research and is a short and easy course. There are activities to put these skills into practice geared toward both older and younger learners. I highly recommend this course to anyone.

Other courses we like

• Imagineering in a Box – My son wants to be a Disney Imagineer someday, so this course was exactly what he needed.
• Pixar in a Box – Learn Storytelling from the absolute masters.
• Grammar – My voracious reader daughter tore through this course and loved it.
• College Admissions – Don’t need this quite yet, but we’ll be grateful for it in a few years!
• Music – This course takes you through some music basics and instrument knowledge.

I liked the music course because it had a lot of interesting information about instruments and there were professional bands in the videos.

-Vanessa, 9

Khan Academy for Adults

Like I said at the beginning of this post, Khan Academy is for all ages! Brush up your math or history knowledge, learn something new like astronomy, or take a course on personal finance. There’s so much to learn!

I hope this post helps as I know many families are unexpectedly homeschooling right now. Please feel free to email or comment with any questions—we’d love to help!

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The post Best Khan Academy Courses for Homeschoolers appeared first on Shaping Up To Be A Mom.

If you are now being tasked with homeschooling your kids, whether you planned on it or not, take a deep breath. It’s all going to be okay! I know it can feel stressful and overwhelming, BUT IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE.

First of all, if you’re here because you’re stuck at home, quarantined, then you can relax even more. Nobody expected this, and everybody is in the same boat! And who knows, maybe you’ll love homeschooling so much you decide to do it next year too! But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

What I’m trying to say is give yourself all the grace in the world. This doesn’t have to be anywhere near perfect. Luckily, our way of homeschooling allows us to accomplish tons of learning with the simplest system and the most-accessible resources. You’re in good hands.

If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend our post Easy Homeschool: 8 Great Tips to Get Started. It’s full of really useful information and ideas for how to make homeschooling fun and easy!

Homeschool Schedule

Honestly, the best homeschool schedule is the schedule that works for you and your kids, and you’ll get a better idea of what works after you’ve tried a few things out. So don’t be afraid to experiment and change things up. You’ll discover what works best for you!

We do homeschool Monday–Friday and don’t plan for specific school breaks, because we end up taking enough days off for various reasons. We don’t hesitate to take the day off if we are traveling, visiting family, have a fun activity planned, or on major holidays. And sometimes we take the day off just because!

But most weekdays we follow the same routine and schedule. The kids know that if it’s a weekday, it’s a school day – unless we tell them otherwise – and having that expectation in place makes for fewer arguments.

Morning Routine

Our homeschool schedule begins the moment the kids wake up. No, they don’t jump right into school, but we’ve found that a steady morning routine is the key to getting the day started on the right foot, so we try to stick to the same routine every morning.

We don’t set an alarm, but the kids wake up pretty reliably around 7 am. It would probably be useful for you to know that our kids are currently 11, 9, 6, and 3! The littlest is usually the first one up, and she just plays until the big kids get up.

Once up, the kids each take a shower, get dressed, brush their teeth and hair, and get breakfast. They don’t have to do those things in a specific order, but they know they need to do all of them. The older kids help get breakfast for the little ones. This regular routine makes for easier mornings for everyone!

After they have eaten, showered, and dressed, the kids know to get started on school for the day. They usually get started around 8 am.

School Tracker

Our homeschool schedule does not follow a specific hourly timeline. Rather, the kids have their own personalized school tracker, which is basically a list of the things they need to accomplish every day. We use Google Sheets to keep their tracker within their Google account and accessible to kids and parents alike. They go through the list, checking in with us as they complete assignments, and, once they finish all of their tasks, they are done for the day!

Some days this means they are done with school before lunch. Often, they work into the afternoon. Timing can vary because some days they have a longer or shorter math assignment, or we may ask them to put in some extra reading time, etc.

The school tracker has gone through many alterations, and that’s great! It’s good to switch things up. We’ve made changes based on where we were living, what resources were available, where the kids were at in various subjects, etc.

I’d love to share with you some examples of what our school tracker has looked like at different times.

Above is Vanessa’s current school tracker. Every morning she writes in her journal (using Google Docs, but you can use pen and paper too!), then she does times table practice and her next Khan Academy math assignment. She’s using science and social studies textbooks (in PDF form) and completing lessons in those right now. At other times we’ve used workbooks or had them watch YouTube videos on history and summarize what they learned.

Typing practice is done online — a quick search will offer you tons of free options! She then practices her recorder and asks her grandma some questions about her life (we are living with her this month, so the kids are getting lots of fun stories!). She uses Duolingo for French, then she reads (right now she’s enjoying working her way through the Little House on the Prairie series), and finally she uses Khan Academy to work on computer programming.

The school tracker is a great way to build in a little extra practice for any areas where they could use it. Our older son had atrocious handwriting, so he had handwriting practice on his tracker every day for a long time, and now it’s so much better! More recently, we identified a need for all three older kids to get faster with simple multiplication, so they practice their times tables every day now.

This was one of our iterations of the school tracker from last year. Carter’s day started with writing in his journal, completing math and science lessons in Khan Academy and French lessons in Duolingo, then back to Khan Academy for history. He would then read a chapter in his book and write a few sentences about it in his ongoing book report document.

Then, he’d work on a creative writing assignment, practice his trombone, take a geography quiz online, play a game of chess against his sister or the computer, and write an email to someone.

As you can see, we were doing some subjects once per week, so depending on the day, he would then do some computer programming, RPG Maker (8-bit game creation program), music theory, or watch an episode of Mythbusters (#science).

This was our school tracker from last summer. They started by reading and writing in their ongoing book report document. They’d do math, civics, and science lessons in Khan Academy and French lessons in Duolingo. Then, they’d do some music theory, creative writing, computer science, a growth mindset lesson, and play a game of chess.

See also: Our guide to the best Khan Academy courses

We’ve found it’s best to start the day with the most important subjects (math, reading, writing) so that you can be flexible with the rest of the day. If that’s all they get done that day, it was still a success, especially if the rest of the day is used for family time, being active, or exploring the world!

I hope this gives you an idea of the possibilities. The most important thing is progress, not perfection. You can include whatever you’d like on your list, and it’s okay if they don’t check off every task, every day.

Get your own, customizable school tracker when you join our Homeschool Made Simple course! This stress-free system teaches everything you need to know to get started and succeed at homeschooling!

Evening Routine

After school, the kids do normal kid things! Since they spend a good amount of time during their school day on their computers, we like for them to get outside and get active (they don’t usually complain!). This might mean a family walk, bike ride, or a trip to the playground, but more often it just means time spent in the backyard, playing games that allow them to be active and creative. Don’t have to teach kids how to be kids!

In the later afternoon, before and after dinner, they usually get back on their computers and watch videos or play online games like Minecraft and Roblox. The older kids often help prepare dinner. Then we usually do a cleanup, and the big kids get some extra reading time while the littles go to bed (usually around 8), and then the big kids have their bedtime (usually around 9).

Also read: Teaching Life Skills in Homeschool

And that’s what our homeschool day looks like! Questions? I’d love to answer them. Email me at any time!

Happy homeschooling!

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The post Our Homeschool Schedule (or how to homeschool four kids and keep your sanity) appeared first on Shaping Up To Be A Mom.

Our blank version of the Fundations-style lined paper was such a hit, that I decided to make another one with traceable letters. This is a great printable to start with, for beginner writers!

The top line is the sky line, labeled with a sun and cloud graphic. The dotted line in the middle is the plane line because the plane is flying through the air! The bottom line is called the grass line, and then there is an additional line below, called the worm line (because the worm is underground!), for those letters with tails!

Homeschooling (or roadschooling) doesn’t have to be difficult. Check out my Homeschooling Made Easy Amazon list for all the products we use to homeschool!

This printable helps kids understand where to begin and end their letters, and how to shape them within the lines.

Free Alphabet Letter Practice Paper

Click on the image below to bring up the full-sized file and from there you can download it to your computer and print as many as you’d like!

Want a blank copy of the Fundations-style lined paper? We have that too! Check it out here, and your little ones can practice writing whatever they want: Handwriting Practice Paper

Happy letter practice!

Airplane clipart used with permission by Chris-martin.

The post Free Alphabet Printable {Sky Line, Plane Line, Grass Line, Worm Line} appeared first on Shaping Up To Be A Mom.

If you’ve been following along on our adventures, you know that we’ve been traveling full-time with our family for the past year and a half. Usually we travel in our minivan and stay in Airbnbs for about a month in each location, but we wanted to see what it was like to travel with our family in an RV.

I’m preparing an online course teaching families how to travel full-time, and I wanted to be able to share the RV experience there, too!

Renting an RV for Family Travel

RVshare.com is a site with a similar concept to Airbnb — RV owners list their RVs on the site and rent them out to vacationers! This way, the RV owners can earn some income from their RVs when they aren’t using them, and families like ours get to have a fun adventure! #winwin

RVshare set our family up with an RV rental for our trip so that we could give RV life a try and share our experience with you. And what a fun experience we had!

We left in the afternoon and drove about two hours to Prescott, AZ where we picked up the RV. We got a full walkthrough and demonstrations on how to operate all the features of the RV. Then we drove another two hours in the RV to our campsite right near the Grand Canyon.

The kids got a kick out of riding down the highway while eating pizza at the dining table!

RV Amenities

If you plan a trip to the Grand Canyon, I can recommend the Grand Canyon Camper Village as a good place to camp. Unless you really want to be remote, that is.

We had full hookups for electricity and water, a picnic table, and a campfire ring, and the campsite is located right behind a general store that is full of any supplies you might need or want. There are several restaurants within walking distance and a Starbucks just a few feet away. We brought plenty of food with us but didn’t really need to. I’m not a huge camper, but this is my kind of camping!

We had a peaceful first night in the heated RV (it was chilly outside!). The big kids slept in the bunk above the cab, the littles slept on the dinette bed (the table folds down into a flat surface and the cushions become the mattress), and Daniel and I slept in the bed at the back of the RV.

The next morning we woke up to…SNOW. Yes, it snowed in Arizona on March 10th. And not just a little — it snowed a LOT!

Well, the kids were thrilled. We had a full-on snowball fight!

Grand Canyon Staycation

When we connected with RVshare about an RV rental, they let us know that they were actually on the lookout for a family to film a promotional video in Arizona, so that family became us! Our videographer met us at our campsite and we did some filming, and then we all headed over to the Grand Canyon.

We enjoyed a nice lunch at the Yavapai Lodge Dining Hall and then headed to Yavapai Point to enjoy the view.

Yeah…not much of a view. Or ANY view, thanks to the weather!

Back at the campsite, we got a fire going in our campfire ring and made some s’mores. Nothing like ending a dreary day with a delicious treat, right?

The next day we woke up to pouring rain! We entertained ourselves all morning in the RV, using our various devices (yes, thanks to Starbucks, this campsite had great WIFI). At noon the rain let up, and we walked out of the campsite and across the highway to check out the IMAX theatre and watched a movie about the history of the Grand Canyon. We are roadschooling while we travel, and I absolutely love it when we can find educational opportunities that are directly related to whatever location we are currently visiting.

We left the theatre to find a clear, blue sky with the sun brightly shining so we decided we should take the opportunity to return to the Grand Canyon park and get a second chance at a beautiful view, which we got!

Gorgeous Grand Canyon Viewpoints

Much better!

We walked from Yavapai Point to Mather Point and enjoyed incredible views all along the way.

Just look at the difference from the first day to the second:

It started to rain again just as we got to Mather, so we took the shuttle bus back to Yavapai. By the time we got back, the sun was out again, and a beautiful rainbow had formed across the canyon!

I was so happy that we got such a gorgeous afternoon at the Grand Canyon. Back at the campsite, we built another fire and cooked hot dogs (and some more s’mores, of course).

The next morning it was time to pack up and return the RV. We had such a fun time, and renting the RV was a great way to experience RV life without the huge investment of buying our own!

If you own an RV and want to make some extra cash, or if you’re looking to try out an RV for your next family vacation, definitely check out RVshare.com! And if you’re in Arizona, don’t miss the Grand Canyon. It really lives up to the hype!

Read more about our RV rental experience on our sister site, Family Gap Year Guide: Get a Taste of RV Travel with RVshare.com

Pin it if you love it!

The post Grand Canyon RV Staycation appeared first on Shaping Up To Be A Mom.

Part of the benefit of learning at home is that you can easily continue the classroom into other areas and start teaching your kids skills that will benefit them for life! No need to wait until they are in their teens to learn about things like budgeting, cooking, and child care. They are capable of so much, and when you show trust and belief in them, their confidence will soar!

Also read: 8 Steps for Fun and Easy Homeschool

How to Incorporate Life Skills while Homeschooling

Our 11-year-old just got his first job, doing some daily record-keeping for his grampa’s software company. It takes him about five minutes per day, and my dad pays him $10 per week. This kid could NOT be happier! For Christmas, we gave him a wallet and the debit card that goes with his bank account. He couldn’t stop saying, “I’m an 11-year-old and I have a job and my own debit card!”

A lot of people go into adulthood ill-prepared. With that in mind, we’ve been very deliberate about life skills we want our kids to know before we send them off into the world. Here are some of the things we’ve been learning about!

Budgeting and Meal Planning

Now that Carter is making and spending his own money, he has a MUCH better concept of how much things cost, both in dollars and in effort! He doesn’t just think about how a Switch game costs $60; he thinks about how a Switch game takes him six weeks of work to earn. This kind of financial awareness is invaluable and really only comes with the actual experience of earning and spending money.

We’ve been teaching our kids about family budgeting, meal planning, shopping, and food choices. I’ve had some great conversations with my children about how to decide what meals to shop for, asking important questions like:

• Is this meal healthy?
• Is it delicious?
• Do we like it?
• Is it easy to prepare?
• How much does it cost per meal? Per family member?

The answers are not necessarily right or wrong, but they learn to look at the whole picture when we buy food for the week. 

Cooking

As soon as a child can put milk on his cereal, he’s a chef! And kids can keep learning new and better recipes as they grow and become more capable.

I always try to have one or more of my kids watching and helping as I’m cooking the family dinner, and I try to talk through the process as I do.

One important thing here is repetition: my kids aren’t going to be able to remember how to make taco salad after watching me do it once, no matter how simple it is. But if every single time I make taco salad, they’re right there next to me, they’re going to catch on eventually! 

Another thing I try to do is teach really basic concepts that can be repurposed and reimagined in many different ways. For example, this is how you boil and drain spaghetti. From here, we can add spaghetti sauce and call it good. Or we can add chicken. Or meatballs. Or maybe we want to do ziti in place of spaghetti. Or use alfredo sauce. And so on and so forth. By teaching the most basic concept, they can get creative and put their own spin on things!

Laundry and Cleaning

Your kids probably already have some experience doing chores around the house. Just about any kid can wipe down a table or put away their toys. They can also make beds, sweep, and do dishes (although mine strongly prefer when a dishwasher is involved).

Laundry is pretty easy to teach, as well. Sometimes when we travel we have to use a laundromat, and I always bring my big kids along and have them help me sort clothes by color, load and start the washers, and then transfer to the dryers. It became a bit of a tradition- we’d buy treats and watch Shark Tank while we waited for the clothes.

They can do this at home too! Just teach them the controls on your washer and dryer and let them load and start them up! I take care of most of the family’s laundry, but it’s nice to know that my kids could do it if they needed to.

Car and Home Repairs

We aren’t exactly car people, but being able to understand the basics of what a car is and how it works is important. With that in mind, I’ve always included my kids when I do any kind of basic repair, whether it’s changing a tire or putting coolant in the engine.

Even something as simple as having them hop out of the car and watch as you put gas in the car, talking through the process as you do it, can be educational and useful. You can demystify dealing with a car, and that’s something that will serve them for a very long time.

It’s just as helpful to have kids help with small repair jobs around the house. Who hasn’t had to plunge a toilet at some point in their life? Or put together a bookshelf? Kids will likely be interested to watch you patch a wall or hang a picture frame.

Communication and Interacting with People

Arguably the most important skill a person can have is the ability to communicate well with others. Kids need to learn to speak clearly and audibly and know what to say in different situations. This takes practice!

A note on safety: We remind our kids not to engage with strangers, unless Mom or Dad is around and we are okay with it. We always tell them if they were to get lost, they should ask for help from an employee of the location or a mom with kids.

Some of our kids LOVE to talk, and we often encounter other adults on our travels who are willing to listen! It’s great to encourage these interactions while helping kids learn to gauge how much or little they should talk, based on verbal and physical cues coming from their listener.

Over the years we’ve gently pushed our eldest to move outside of his comfort zone, such as having him go up to a fast-food counter on his own to ask for a dipping sauce. He’s now super comfortable running mini errands like that and does a great job interacting with others.

The best way you can teach good communication is by modeling it yourself. Let them hear you saying please and thank you, making clear requests, engaging in conversation, and even occasionally making an assertive complaint if the situation calls for it.

Navigation and Riding Public Transportation

Traveling full-time means we’ve been in a brand-new location almost every month, and as awesome as that is, sometimes we wake up and struggle to remember where we are! But it’s given us a good reason to teach our kids to be aware of their surroundings and learn how to get around.

Every time we leave a new house, I’ll point out landmarks and directions. I’ll even sometimes quiz my children on where we are and where we’re staying. “Where is our house from here? What’s the name of our new street? What is our house close to?”

Depending on the neighborhood, the older kids have been allowed to walk to nearby playgrounds and once we even sent them to the store to buy a cake!

We got to spend a month in New York City, staying in Brooklyn and riding the subway into Manhattan several times a week. I made sure my kids understood the process, including how to buy a Metro card, which train to get on, how to transfer to another train, and everything in between.

One game I’d play with my oldest while we were in New York was to ask, “If you had to get home by yourself from this exact spot, what would you do?” At first, he was entirely clueless! But over time, he started to see the simple pattern: find a subway stop, look at a map, get to the right line, make sure you’re going the right direction, get off at the right station, and walk the two blocks to our house.

While we don’t plan to abandon any of our kids in downtown NYC, the life skills of being aware of surroundings and how to navigate back home are ones that he’ll keep forever!

Doing Research Online

A running joke in the programming/IT community is “I get paid to Google things for people.” Whereas this isn’t exactly true, there is something to be said for being able to find things out online. We live in an era where access to information is unlimited, but the ability to ask the right questions and get the answers we seek is essential. By teaching kids how to search for information online, we’re giving them a leg up in any field they might pursue in the future.

I find the best way to encourage this is when my kids ask me a question that I don’t have the answer to. I say, “I don’t know, but let’s find out together!” I will sometimes even turn their question into the next day’s school assignment. I find that when they’re researching something that interests them, they’re much more motivated!

Chess and Playing Games

I added chess to our daily homeschool routine about a year ago, and I am so glad that I did! Not only does it teach spatial reasoning and critical thinking, but it also emphasizes sportsmanship and maturity. If they play every day, they are guaranteed to win some and lose some, and I want that lesson internalized as deeply as possible!

Chess also connects them with a wonderful part of Western culture and gives them a skill that can come into use later in life, acting as a way to connect with others over a game. 

Being together all day long has its challenges, but it’s also a huge blessing. We are able to incorporate learning into every area of our lives and fully prepare our kids for when they leave and take on the world!

The post Teaching Life Skills in Homeschool appeared first on Shaping Up To Be A Mom.

What follows are not generic, vague suggestions. These are super practical steps you can take to get through your first few visits and start to see the gym as a second home. I’m rooting for you and can’t wait to hear all about your success! Let’s hit it!

Which gym should I join?

Depending on what’s nearby, you might be limited in your options! But if you have a variety to choose from, you’ll want to consider a few things, including cost, amenities, operating hours, and type (e.g. a traditional gym versus a Crossfit box).

A more expensive gym might offer luxuries like child care, a pool, or a full lineup of classes to take. But maybe you don’t need those things. Take your budget and needs into account and see what your local gyms are offering.

Quick Tip: You’ll probably go more often if your gym is close to your house, work, or another place you frequent (like your child’s school, if you drop them off)!

What amenities do you really want to have? If you plan to hit the gym on your way to work each day, you might need a place that has shower facilities. If you have to bring the kiddos, child care is a must. Want the option to do Zumba, yoga, or spin class? Make sure they offer it! Some gyms have massage chairs, tanning booths, steam rooms, and saunas, if those things float your boat. They may also have a smoothie or snack bar.

Traditional gyms are usually pretty similar from chain to chain—they’ll likely have cardio machines, weight machines, and free weights. They might have an area designated for stretching or doing ab work. Many have a classroom or several where they lead classes in aerobics, yoga, barre, cycling, etc. Just about every gym will have separate men’s and women’s locker rooms with changing areas, restrooms, and showers.

Other gyms are designed so that you show up at a certain time for a guided workout. Crossfit gyms operate this way, as does Orangetheory and F45. Some of them will give you the option to bypass the guided class and show up at a different time to do the workout of the day on your own. If that’s something that interests you, give those gyms a look!

How do I join a gym?

Once you’ve made your choice, head on in and let someone know that you are interested in joining. You’ll likely be treated very well since they want your business! They’ll probably give you a tour of the facilities, but feel free to ask for it if they don’t offer.

Many places will offer a deal to get started, but be sure you know what you’re signing. Ask all the questions you have before you sign up. Do they require an auto-draft from your checking account? Will they allow you to break your contract if you move?

Most gyms require at least a year’s contract. If they try to upsell you on personal training or any other benefits that you’re not interested in, don’t be afraid to say no! Tell them you just want to give it a try and maybe you’ll consider add-ons later.

Quick Tip: Start your research online. Not all gyms will post their pricing on their websites, but if you do a little research (read reviews!) you might be able to get a good idea. You might even find a deal or coupon online!

If they have a class schedule, get a copy of it or find out how to access it via their website or an app. Find out if you need to preregister or just show up.

Ask what you need to do when you come for your first workout. Most places will give you a keycard that you scan at the front desk when you arrive, and then you’re free to work out however you like!

What to bring to the gym

If you’re heading to and from your own house, you hardly need to bring anything. Just dress in comfortable workout clothes and bring a lock so you can lock up your personal items in a locker. Might as well plan on showering in comfort at home, if you can!

If you’re headed to work from the gym, then you’ll probably just need to bring along a change of clothes. Gyms that have showers usually offer a towel service and often have shower gel/shampoo dispensers in the showers. Some even have a station with hair dryers. But if not, you might want to pack your own towel and/or toiletries.

How to feel comfortable at the gym

Now you’re all signed up and ready to go to the gym for the first time. Whoo-hoo! This is where you’ll need to exercise (get it?) some courage and just go. Dress comfortably and walk through the doors like you’ve done it a million times.

Related: The Shy Girl’s Guide to the Gym

If you want, feel free to approach the front counter and let them know it’s your first time. If you didn’t get a tour when you signed up, you can definitely ask for one now!

Quick Tip: If you’re extra anxious on your first visit, think of these three steps. First, just get from your car to the front desk. Then, get from the front desk to the locker room. Finally, get from the locker room to a treadmill.

Even if all you do on your first visit to the gym is walk (or maybe even run!) on the treadmill—that’s a successful visit. Call it a win because you’re already way ahead of most people!

In my opinion, the order of least scary to scariest sections of the gym are:

1. Cardio machines
2. Strength machines
3. Free weights

And depending on the individual, classes might rank as the least scary, most scary, or somewhere in-between! If you think you’d be most comfortable joining a class, start with that! If not, get comfortable with other areas first.

Cardio Machines

Total gym hack, right here! On your first visit, hop onto a treadmill, hit the “quick start” button, and start walking. You might want to up the speed to 2 or 2.5 (quick start gets you going pretty slowly). A lot of people warm up on the treadmill or even just use them exclusively. You’ll be in good company, and this is the perfect way to scout out the gym while looking busy!

If your next stop is the weight machines, you can take a minute to formulate a plan of which ones to hit first, second, and third, and you can see if they are available.

Strength Machines

A great way to improve your strength and overall physique is to hit the strength machines. Most gyms have a lot of them, and they can be a little intimidating to approach, but you’ve made it this far and you’ve got the courage to push yourself a little further!

The good news is that you only have to learn each machine once. After you’ve done it, that knowledge is yours to keep and you’ll feel confident returning to that machine every time! The other good news is that just about every machine will have instructions (written or picture or both) printed right on it!

When you use a machine, you want to do three things:

1. Make any adjustments to the seat or moving parts (I’m short, so I often have the move the seat up or down!). Depending on the style, you might need to unscrew something or pull something.
   
   
   
   
2. Choose your weight—on some machines this is a pin system where you insert the pin at the amount of weight you want to use, but some machines require you to actually add weight plates. Psst—you can always use one of those machines, like a leg press, without adding extra weights!
   
   
   
   
3. Do the exercise!
   
   
4. And, as a fourth step, remember to wipe down the machine when you’re done, if you sweat!

Start with the machines that look simple. Learn how to use a few upper body and a few lower body machines. You can branch out more later!

Quick Tip: Find a machine marked “Shoulder Press” or “Chest Press.” These usually have an upright seat with hand grips that you’ll either push upward or forward. After you sit, give your arms a quick stretch while you sneak a glance at the instructions on the machine and then go for it!

There’s no shame in taking a moment to look at the instructions for a machine, but I totally get it. You don’t want to look like you don’t know what you’re doing. Maybe you could snap a quick photo of the machine you want to learn so you can Google it at home later and give it a try next time!

Once you get comfortable on the strength machines, you’ll probably want to make that the focus of your gym visits. A quick cardio warmup is great, but you can walk anywhere, so don’t pay your gym money every month just to go walk on the treadmill!

Free Weights

This is just my opinion, but you can get plenty of value out of your gym even if you never pick up a free weight or enter that section of the gym. Yes, this is often where the most fit, most confident gym-goers spend their time, and if that’s too much pressure for you, don’t stress about it.

But if you’ve conquered the strength machines and you’re ready for the next level, then go for it!

I usually hit the free weights when I’m working my way through an upper or lower body workout and one of my usual strength machines is taken. So if I was going to work my triceps, but someone is using that machine, I might go grab a dumbbell and do a tricep extension or kickbacks with it. If the calf machine is busy, I might hold a barbell and do standing calf raises. It’s all dependent on knowing what kinds of moves you can perform with the different free weights and what muscle groups they’ll work.

Personal Training

If you have the budget for it, I recommend working with a personal trainer, even for a short time. This is a great way to get accustomed to lots of different equipment and exercises. You can let them know that your goal is to get more comfortable in the gym and know how to use all the available equipment. They might be willing to write out the workouts they design for you, so you can replicate them later, or just take it upon yourself to jot down what you did at the end of each workout.

Is quantity or quality more important at the gym?

Ah, trick question, you might be saying. Both are important! But actually, at the beginning, I think quantity is more important. The more often you go to the gym, the more comfortable you’ll be showing up. And if you focus on a different muscle group each time, you won’t need many rest days in between workouts.

Even if you don’t feel like it at all, just go there and commit to walking on the treadmill for ten minutes. When that ten minutes is up, you are totally free to grab your things and head straight home. But since you’re already there, maybe you’ll decide to put in a little more time.

That being said, of course quality is important! As you experiment with different workouts, you’ll learn how much to push yourself and how much rest time you need between visits.

The most important thing is consistency. One 30-minute workout won’t make a difference on its own. Many 30-minute workouts done on a regular basis can net huge results!

You can do this! I believe in you!

If you found this article helpful, I’d love it if you’d pin the image below so others can find it too!

The post How to Get Started Going to the Gym appeared first on Shaping Up To Be A Mom.

“I’m going to make them actually work!” She proudly exclaims.

When we set out on our family gap year, one of the biggest things we had to consider was how it would affect our kids. We knew they’d love the travel and adventure, but we had to make sure their education wasn’t neglected. We took a deep breath and dove headfirst into a brand-new journey: Homeschooling!

Guess what we found out. Homeschool can be EASY! It can be SIMPLE! It can be – wait for it – FUN!

Don’t get me wrong, the kids work hard. We have good days and bad days. But homeschool doesn’t have to be complicated, and today we are going to share all of our best tips to help you start your homeschool journey off on the right foot!

Affiliate links are used within this post. If you make any purchases, I may receive a commission (thanks!).

First, a little backstory…

When we started our travels in September 2018, our kids were 10, 7, 5, and 2. The three oldest were entering 5th grade, 2nd grade, and Kindergarten. Now it’s December 2019, and the kids are 11, 8, 6, and 3. The three oldest are halfway through 6th, 3rd, and 1st grade. We’ve been homeschooling for a year and a half, with plans to go for about another full year.

The year before we started traveling, our two oldest children were in accelerated classes at a great charter school, and our younger son was due to join them. It wasn’t an easy decision to pull them out of a school we adored, but the big wide world was calling us, and we knew they could get an education on the road unlike they could ever get in a classroom.

Plus, since our kids were in accelerated classes, they were basically doing the work of the grade above them, so we didn’t have to stress about them falling behind for any reason. What we didn’t realize was that with the 1-on-1 (or at least 1-on-4) attention they could get at home, they would be able to skyrocket past all expectations of their grade level. As a 5th grader, our son was doing high school chemistry; our 2nd-grade daughter was reading The Hobbit.

Meanwhile, we were exploring caverns in the southwest, digging for clams in the PNW, witnessing a sea turtle release on the Gulf shore, hiking the Appalachian Trail, touring the White House, navigating the NYC subway system, and so many more fun adventures!

We taught the kids how to budget for, meal plan, and cook basic meals. They learned how to clean, do laundry, and care for younger kids. They played chess, coded their own video games, and designed a live escape room. They learned to read and write music and play an instrument.

Related: Teaching Life Skills in Homeschool

Since I work full-time during the day, my husband has been taking point on homeschooling; and he’s doing awesome! So awesome that I begged him to write up some tips. Whether you’re thinking about homeschooling because of travel plans, issues with your local school, health considerations, or any reason at all- these tips can work for you!

Okay, I’m going to pass you off to my husband, Daniel, to share all of his homeschooling secrets! This is the post to read if you’re ready to get started homeschooling. We have a whole series of posts planned to go into more detail on all these tips, tools, and more!

Easy homeschool: How to get started

We take a simple approach to homeschooling- no complex curriculum system, no lesson planning, no major purchases to make- just a bit of organization and guidance! And our kids are flourishing academically. They are smarties, no doubt, but they are also excited about learning, motivated, and very independent.

State homeschool requirements

When you decide to homeschool, the first thing you need to do is look up your state’s legal requirements. In Arizona, we just had to fill out an affidavit for each school-age child, stating our intent to homeschool, get it notarized, and turn it in to the County School Superintendent office. They require the teaching of core subjects: reading, grammar, math, social studies, and science and recommend that records are kept. Lastly, we would need to submit a letter of termination if we decided to stop homeschooling. Other states may have more in-depth tasks, and you may need to complete them if you move to a new state.

National & state education standards

Next, spend a little time looking at the national and state standards for each grade and read up on what is generally learned at different stages. You don’t have to follow these standards and guidelines to the letter, but it’s good to have a frame of reference for what kinds of things your kids should be learning in each grade.

Our top tips for easy homeschooling

While we started this year with plenty of ideas (both Megan and I have spent time as classroom teachers) we’ve really refined our process along the way. Here are eight tips, tricks, and hacks for homeschooling parents!

1. Do what works for you

One of the main advantages of homeschooling is the fact that it can be personalized. Every learner has individual strengths, weaknesses, and ways that they’ll be more successful.

And guess what? Teachers are the same! You can experiment with different approaches and routines and figure out what works for you and your kids. Keep experimenting as you fine-tune your homeschooling methods and leave the one-size-fits-all approach for the traditional classroom.

2. Switch it up

Even as a classroom teacher, I knew that using the same routines, day in and day out, month in and month out, would result in bored students. In addition, it’s important to always be trying to improve, which requires you to change your approach from time to time.

We have days where we do a dozen subjects for a short time each, days where we intensely focus on one thing for hours, and lazy days where we do almost nothing! Variety is the spice of life!

3. Expect some ups and downs

My wife has always told me that this is a failing of mine, but it is very easy for me to take things personally and get down when things don’t go so well. It’s hard to see the good when you feel like things are going poorly, but it’s important to remember that there are ups and downs to everything we do in life.

Enjoy the good days when they come, and don’t take the bad days to heart. Tomorrow is another day!

4. Enlist the kids to help teach one another

One of the disadvantages of homeschooling is that you’ll often have multiple students at wildly different educational levels, all learning together. You can turn this liability into an asset by having them help one another!

I can ask my oldest son to help his younger sister with her math, I can ask her to help her younger brother with his writing, and everyone can take turns reading to the youngest! Nothing helps you solidify a concept in your mind as teaching it to someone else. Your children are teaching, learning, and taking some of the load off you, all at the same time. It’s a win-win-win!

5. Embrace the screen

I am often struck by the amazing technologies that make our travels possible. Airbnb, Google Maps, working from home—these kinds of tools make possible a lifestyle that didn’t exist ten or even five years ago. Homeschooling is no exception!

I know that screen time is a hot-button issue for many parents, but if you’re not utilizing digital tools, you’re really depriving yourself! There are so many online tools for homeschooling parents, it’s mindboggling. Khan Academy, Duolingo, Google Docs—the list goes on.

Khan Academy alone has self-paced courses in math, science, history, civics, grammar, and more. We’ve even used video games like RPG Maker as a tool for learning programming and design. If you haven’t already, it might be time to give the screen a second look!

Don’t miss: Best Khan Academy Courses for Homeschoolers

6. Use non-screen tools, too

We love the Brain Quest books as a simple, all-inclusive workbook. There are sections on math, science, reading, and many more subjects, all in one easy-to-use book. And there are books for every grade level, so it’s as simple as picking one up.

There are a lot of other great workbooks out there as well, taking away the pressure of coming up with curriculum. In addition to general workbooks, we also bought music books and handwriting books. And lots of reading books!

You can find some of the products we recommend and use for homeschooling at my Homeschooling Made Easy Amazon Store!

Don’t forget the library! If you’re town-hopping like us, you might not be able to check books out, but you can always go there to read, and be sure to check out the local library’s calendar of events. They usually have great programs for kids!

7. Use a school tracker

One of my favorite discoveries as a homeschooling parent has been to use what we call a “school tracker.”

One of the things I struggled with early on was always coming up with what to do next for each child. They’d finish an assignment and ask me what they needed to do next (not-so-secretly hoping that I’d declare the day over). Being put on the spot over and over every day was exhausting.

To deal with this, I created a shared Google Sheet to track each child’s progress. The sheet can be viewed and edited by all of us and lists the assignments they are expected to work through each day. At any point, I can look through the sheet and see what they are working on, or track what they completed on any previous day. It’s been a real game-changer!

Check it out: Our Homeschool Schedule (and school tracker)

8. Use your environment

When we first started, my wife planned out some homeschool units based on where we’d be in our travels. For the Pacific Northwest, she planned units on Orca whales, the Cold War, the Oregon Trail, and the 1990s. We didn’t keep up with planning overall units, but we did continue to use our environment to educate beyond the classroom.

We planned a field trip day to Friday Harbor where we visited the Whale Museum and then spotted porpoises playing in the water. We went clamming at the beach and learned how to cook them. We visited an air raid tower in Seattle that still stands- a relic from the Cold War. In Portland, we visited the Oregon Trail Museum. When we visited Washington DC, we taught the kids about government. When we visited Harper’s Ferry, a town in West Virginia, we learned about how it changed sides eight times during the Civil War! We learned about the battle of the Alamo…AT THE ALAMO.

It worked better for us to work on school subjects without a specific theme when it was a day of doing schoolwork at home and then to go on field trips and explore the history and culture around us firsthand.

You can also use the time of year to direct learning, including fun holidays. On Root Beer Float Day, the kids put together a Google Slides presentation on the history of the root beer float, and then we made some and drank them!

In other words, you don’t have to plan everything out, and you also don’t have to be completely unstructured. Embrace a combination of the two!

Sound fun? Check out our Ultimate Guide to Roadschooling!

Yes, you can homeschool!

In this day and age, we put too much pressure on ourselves to always be perfect, to always be up-to-date, to always be the absolute best. When our reality doesn’t live up to our imagined perfect life, we’re often too hard on ourselves.

I have always believed that if a parent truly loves their child then that love will shine through, despite any shortcomings the parent might have or mistakes they might make. The same principle applies to homeschooling. If you are genuinely trying to educate your child and do what’s best for them, they’ll take that love of learning with them, even if you’re not a perfect teacher.

So what do you think? Are you ready to go for it?

I hope these tips have been helpful. Please feel free to leave a comment or send an email if you have any questions for us! If you have tips of your own, feel free to share!

And the very best of luck on your homeschool journey. It’s gonna be great!

The post Easy Homeschool: 8 Great Tips to Get Started appeared first on Shaping Up To Be A Mom.

If you’re new to hygge, let me explain…

To put it briefly, hygge is the Danish art of coziness. Sounds pretty great already, right? But it’s more than just being comfortable. In addition to incorporating fluffy blankets and candlelight, hygge includes other important elements such as nature, spending time with close friends and family, baking, reading and crafting instead of screen time.

Rather than throwing a lavish party or going out to a fancy restaurant, hygge would have you staying in, wearing pjs, and watching a movie from the couch with your loved ones, preferably with the fireplace roaring.

Let’s talk about how to pronounce this word, before we go further. The simplest way to explain it is to say “HOO-guh.” BUT, to avoid sounding American as all get out, try adding the tiniest “ee” sound before the “oo” and barely pronounce the “guh.”

Got it? Good!

Free Printable Hygge Christmas Advent Calendar

Our Hygge Christmas Advent Calendar includes 24 ideas for incorporating the hygge lifestyle on the days leading up to Christmas. The activities include simple tasks as well as more involved activities. If you miss a day or want to skip an activity, no worries! It wouldn’t be very “hygge” to stress about something like that!

Just click the image below to get to the full-size free printable, download or print, and enjoy!

Don’t miss my Good Deeds Advent Calendar!

If you just want the list, here you go:

1. Tidy up your living room
2. Take a relaxing bath
3. Minimize your Christmas gifting list
4. Have a candlelit dinner at home
5. Put soft blankets on your couch
6. Read a favorite book
7. Invite some friends over
8. Go for a walk in nature
9. Make a slow cooker meal
10. Family game night
11. Play some soft jazz music
12. Drink some hot cider
13. Craft with real greenery or pinecones
14. Order dinner delivery
15. Popcorn and a movie
16. Put together a potpourri mix
17. Drive around to look at Christmas lights
18. Cuddle with your loved ones
19. Make a warm soup for dinner
20. Have a long conversation
21. Drink some hot chocolate
22. Sit by the fireplace or make a firepit
23. Make a mug cake
24. Sit and enjoy the tree lights

The Christmas season can be a time of stress, busyness, and spending too much money. Aim for a quieter, simpler, and, you guessed it, cozier Christmas this year!

Help spread the hygge by pinning the image below!

The post Hygge Christmas Advent Calendar Free Printable appeared first on Shaping Up To Be A Mom.

I’ve been thinking ahead to December and wanting to make sure my kids remember that Christmas is about more than presents. Sure, they’ll open up some shiny, sought-after goodies on Christmas morning, but I want them to cultivate a spirit of giving, not just getting!

Our Good Deeds Advent Calendar includes 24 ideas for spreading goodwill and cheer on the days leading up to Christmas. The activities include simple, thoughtful tasks as well as more involved projects. Nothing requires a lot of money. Be creative- a little can go a long way!

Free Printable Good Deeds Advent Calendar

Just click the image below to get to the full-size free printable, download or print, and enjoy!

Don’t miss my Hygge Christmas Advent Calendar!

There is someone out there who can benefit and be blessed by what you have to offer, however much it may be. And I hope that some good deeds come your way, as well! But doing good makes you feel good, so you’re set either way!

Help spread the good deeds by pinning the image below!

The post Good Deeds Advent Calendar Free Printable appeared first on Shaping Up To Be A Mom.

If you stay consistent with a daily exercise routine at home, you can see big results. And wait for it… All the prep work has been done for you! These quick mom workouts are just what you need to fit in a workout and feel great all day!

Best At Home Workouts

These are great at home workouts for busy moms who need to get the most out of a quick workout. All of these workouts can be done in 30 minutes or less, and they’ll give you energy throughout the day

I made these images so that your workouts can be seen at a glance. Click on the picture to see the image full size, and if you need more information about the workout, just click the caption and you’ll be taken to the full post for that workout.

If you’re ready to go, just click a workout and get to it!

Bookmark or pin this page, and stop worrying about what you’re going to do for your workout. It’s all here! Simply set your alarm 30 minutes earlier, get up, get some water, and get moving! Then get on with your day and enjoy the energy and metabolic boost you’ve given yourself!

For more great at-home workouts, check out my 30 Free YouTube Workouts!

Baby Steps to a Better You: Day 29

You’re almost at the end! Tomorrow is the final day of our “Baby Steps to a Better You.” Hopefully you’ve been working on your goal all month long and the various challenges have helped move you forward toward your goal, either by helping with your goal directly, or by helping you do something else faster or easier so you can have more time to focus on your goal.

On Day 1 we took the first step toward our goals. Then on Day 12 we took another step. Today, on Day 29, take yet another step. Maybe you’re on step 3, or maybe you’ve made lots of progress toward your goal. Wherever you are at, take a look at what you’ve done, what you have left to accomplish, and identify the very next step- something you can do today, right now if possible.

Then do it! I know you can.

The post Best At Home Workouts For Moms appeared first on Shaping Up To Be A Mom.

My daughter, Mallory, came for a visit last week, and when it was time for her to head back to Denver, she decided to extend her trip by a few days.

​So, what do you do when you find yourself with a few extra days in Orlando? Well, you go to Walt Disney World, of course! And, if it’s October, you get tickets for the best Halloween party in town, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom!​​

Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at Walt Disney World

Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) is a special event that takes place on select evenings in August through October in the Magic Kingdom. It’s a very popular event and most of the parties sell out well in advance. So I was surprised when we were able to get tickets the day before our party date! When we arrived, we saw a sign stating that the party for the evening was sold out! We must have bought some of the last available tickets!​​

Even though MNSSHP officially runs from 7 pm to midnight, party guests are allowed into the park at 4 pm. At that time, guests can pick up their wristbands and trick-or-treat bags and spend an extra three hours in the park. By 7 pm, all Disney guests without tickets to the party are ushered out of the park and the party begins!

We attended the Halloween party last year at Disneyland, but it rained on us the whole time and lots of special performances and character appearances were canceled. Luckily, this year we had beautiful weather and caught all of the unique experiences that only happen at Halloween!

Related: What to do at Disney when it’s raining

Is Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party worth attending?

Many people wonder if the price of a ticket to MNSSHP is worth it. After all, a ticket to MNSSHP, which lasts just five hours, costs about the same as a one-day admission ticket to any of the WDW theme parks. My answer to that is, yes! It is definitely worth it! Not only are the crowds smaller (Disney sells a limited number of tickets for each party) but there are special experiences that you will only find at MNSSHP.

Entertainment

The Hocus Pocus Villain Spectacular Show is performed four times during the party, and Mallory and I enjoyed it so much that we made sure to catch it more than once before the night was over! It is a delightfully fun show featuring the Sanderson Sisters from Disney’s Hocus Pocus. The sisters, along with numerous Disney villains who make appearances throughout the production, thoroughly enchanted us with their singing and dancing.

Mickey’s Boo-To-You Halloween parade takes place twice during the party, and Mallory and I watched the second one which tends to be a little less crowded than the first one.

It was really cute seeing Disney characters in costumes, but our parade favorites were the gravediggers! They performed a mesmerizing dance number with shovels that made sparks fly up from the pavement!

​​The hit of the night, however, had to be Disney’s Not So Spooky Spectacular fireworks and light show. Beautiful light projections and lasers dance on the front of Cinderella’s castle while dazzling fireworks light up the sky above the Magic Kingdom. The light projections tell a not-so-spooky story that features Mickey and his pals.​​

Star Wars fan? Here’s what you’ll find at Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios!

As if all that isn’t enough for a wickedly fun evening, there are also special character meet and greets, event-exclusive Photopass Magic Shots, and delicious sweet treats only found at MNSSHP.​​

Rides

Most of the rides continue to run throughout the party, and a few of them have a surprising twist that can only be found during MNSSHP. Mallory and I especially liked the real live pirates stationed throughout Pirates of the Caribbean!

Another bonus at MNSSHP is that the attractions have little to no lines! Smaller crowds mean shorter wait times!

Trick-or-Treating

Finally, how about a little trick-or-treating in the most magical place on Earth? Every party guest is given a Halloween bag to fill with candy from the many trick-or-treat stations located in each land in the park. Mallory, being vegan, really appreciated the special allergy-friendly treat locations!​​

Tips for attending Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party​​

Mallory and I had such a good time at the party! I’m happy that she decided to stay in Florida for a few extra days and glad that we decided to spend a day at the Magic Kingdom and an evening at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party!

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