Friday Favorites

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Today is Friday, which mean I should share some of our all time favorite homeschooling things... hmm.

Two years ago I wrote about school supply lists for homeschoolers, I think maybe you should start there. I'll tell you why we love back to school time - because all the school supplies are on sale. You seriously need to get your children (and yourself) some quality scissors now when they're on sale. We really like Fiskars scissors. They come with sharp blades that stay sharp. You're more likely to have your child outgrow them than for the blades to get dull.

Arlene says her favorite part of homeschooling is getting to take an afternoon nap - even as a high schooler!


We have had a lot of fun homeschooling for the past 15+ years. One of our favorite resources is our library. It is a huge treasure trove of learning, with some pretty awesome librarians, and as much time as we have spent there, we still enjoy going whenever we can fit it in. When the girls were first reading, especially for Emily, we would go every week and get about 25 easy reader style books to keep her busy. Henry & Mudge and Mr Putter & Tabby were two of our favorite series. 


One great online resource we were introduced to a long time ago is AmblesideOnline.org. If you are wanting to know more about Charlotte Mason's style of education, or of you need help planning things out for the year, OR if you're like us and just wanted great ideas for living books, it's a great place to go. Many of the inter-library loan books we have checked out have come from the book lists here. While just reading the books on the list does not constitute a Charlotte Mason style of education, it is a wonderful place to start.


There are two other online resources we recommend. One is SchoolhouseTeachers.com. This site has such a vast variety of options to choose from it still surprises me. For instance, did you know that Sharon Watson has a short three week long class on there about writing advertising copy? I think I'll take that one soon. One of my friends suggested I take a look at it. Sharon Watson is a superb teacher, and a wonderfully nice human being, and we have enjoyed all of her writing courses our girls have used. I've decided to try this one myself. It should help me when I get around to writing our my book proposal for submission, as a book pitch is a specific type of advertising. 

The other online resource that we enjoy the most is Drive Thru History Adventures. Dave Stott is hilarious, and also a pretty darn good history teacher. Arlene has been watching the Acts to Revelation series from the app on her phone. I have not had time to watch these newest episodes this summer, but with the return of schoolwork in September, I'm going to be watching them myself. It's a good thing when the mom still wants to learn! :)

What are some other favorite of ours?

Foods: pizza, tacos, Wild Planet tuna, watermelon, and blueberries!

Music: For King and Country, Classical, Keith Green, and so many others!

Road Trip destinations: Pittsburgh, PA, Bartlesville, OK, Springfield, MO, Chicago, IL, Cincinnati, OH, Conner Prairie, and the Indiana Dunes.

I know, today has been a really random collection of favorites, but hopefully, it has given you some ideas to check out!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Thankful Thursday ~ Back to homeschool blog hop

There are a lot of reasons for us to be thankful today, but here is one of the biggest ones: we are together! After having both girls at the Indiana State Fair for the past month, it is really great having everyone at home again. I know that a lot of our friends are looking forward to being "empty nesters," and I understand why, I just know that we still have a little while to go before that happens.

This is a picture of the 4-H complex, on a not-busy day. This is where our girls spent most of the past month. Now they get the joy of putting their bedrooms back together. Oh yeah, and they need to wash a bunch of laundry.

Arlene has one semester left of high school. Just one. After 15+ years of home education, it is drawing to a close. It will be a full semester for her, but I know she can accomplish what is still needed before graduation in December if she sticks to it. What's left? good question, and one we will look at next week as I finally get some lesson planning done. We never start until the Tuesday after Labor Day, so why change that now? 

We are going to enjoy this last week and a half together - not thinking about schoolwork. Summers are short enough, so today we are thankful for these last few days of freedom. And truthfully, I'm thankful that the Indiana State Fair is over. It was a wonderful 17 days, but I'm still a bit tired from all the fun.

I know this last semester of high school will not be the end of our family adventures, and that makes me thankful too! Here is the kind of look I regularly get treated to:

Why yes, that is Arlene pretending to drink out of the maple syrup bottle. We all like maple syrup for our pancakes, and I'm pretty sure she was trying that day to convince me to buy extra of her favorite grade. Don't worry, we bought plenty!

Life can get crazy at times, so take every moment you can when it is calm-er and be thankful. Then when it gets crazy, remember to be thankful for the people you have in your life.

Emily just began her second year of college yesterday. Nothing like coming home and jumping right in.

As I was getting ready yesterday morning, I took the time to thank God for all the wonderful things He has blessed us with. There have been really tough times, and some easier times. What never changes is God's faithfulness. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Be thankful, and share your joy - someone needs that sparkle in their lives today!

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Work It In Wednesday

What do you struggle to work into your day? Is it getting your kids to take their vitamins? Having more than one field trip a year? Maybe you're struggling to fit in art or music, because in your mind it needs to resemble what you did in school 20 years ago.

Today's Back to Homeschool Blog Hop topic is working things in. Even moms who send their kids to a school building five days a week struggle to find time for everything, so feel free to invite those friends to read along with you today!

We don't plan to fail, we fail to plan.

This maxim is usually used in business, or in relation to our finances, but maybe, we need to use this wisdom for our homeschools too. 

Having a plan, or a routine, does not mean you're not trusting God, or that you've succumbed to a rut. Having an overall plan for your homeschooling year is a great idea, even if you don't make a daily or weekly plan. Being flexible and able to work with your plan means being open to when God changes your plan for the day.

When our girls were little, I'd take time every summer to make a list of a few things I wanted to work on with each girl the following year. Often, I'd make these lists during 4-H judging, while waiting in the parents' corner. The started out rather vague: 
Emily-
division
punctuation
books about animals

Arlene-
handwriting
addition
flowers

As our girls got older, these would turn into lists of books or topics I wanted to either purchase or check out from our library. There were several older books we borrowed through Inter-Library Loan, and sometimes those would take a while to get here. I'd request them early (like a month before I thought we would want them) and if they arrived sooner, we would just skip ahead to that book and then return to whatever we had been working on beforehand. Sometimes the book would come from the University 2 miles away, and sometimes it was from two states away.

When the time approached for Emily to begin high school, I knew we would need more specific plans. Transcripts are not difficult to make, but many parents dread them because they feel inadequate to the task of teaching high school level courses. Personally, I never really felt like I could not teach her any of the high school courses, but sometimes, I did not want to. That's where having taught her how to learn became vital to her education. Some of Emily's courses were done online, some from traditional textbooks, some in group settings, and some were done from a compilation of resources I told her to read and then write me a paper about... and then there were all those credits she earned while working at Conner Prairie as a youth volunteer.

Here's my take: Emily worked a minimum of 120 hours each year in the youth volunteer program. Some parents never gave their homeschooled kids any credits for the work done there, but I knew it was real work and real learning, so I devised a plan to grant her the appropriate credits. 

Our state's Department of Education has this gigantic PDF posted on their website that has course descriptions in it. I downloaded it and got to reading. The original idea (I think) was to have this listing so schools from the various parts of the state could be calling a similar education by a similar name: i.e., Indiana now grants credits for art based upon the type of expression or medium used. So, if you went to school in Vincennes, then a 2D art credit should cover roughly the same materials and topics that a 2D art course taught in South Bend covers. They used to be called Art 1,2,3,&4, but now your credits might be: photography, 2D art, sculpture, fiber arts, and choir. Make sense?

As I read through the various pages (I had it printed and three hole punched at the local sprint shop for about $25) I would put a post-it note by courses that I thought might line up with what Emily was already doing. At Conner Prairie she was in costume (acting) a lot, so I read though all the acting and theater course descriptions until I found the one closest to what she was already doing, and then counted some of her volunteer hours for the year towards that class. There were a few times when I added a few at-home activities to what she had been learning to round it out to what I believed to be an equivalent education to the courses listed. Sometimes she had already done more than the course listing. Some years she volunteered about 200 hours, so she accomplished more credits from hands-on learning those years.

As Arlene approached high school I continued along that same vein of thought. When there was something that she really wanted to do, and would do regardless of if she got credit for it, I went searching to find something similar in that big PDF. Sometimes the state didn't have anything similar, so I called it what I thought best and stuck it under "electives."

In our state, there is a plan for 40 key credits (one per class per semester) that you need to have accomplished to graduate with a diploma. It wasn't hard at all to see how to reference what my kids did for learning when I compared it to the state's description. It is suggested that students go beyond the 40 credits to become well-rounded individuals. No worries there, I think Em had about 53 when she graduated. :)

But what if you're wondering how to work in something else. Vitamins, healthy food, outdoor time? Think about which battles are easiest and which are hardest, then think about which things are the most important overall. I would much rather my child be healthy and have a strong moral character than have the best handwriting or be the fastest at math, wouldn't you? So how do we get there?

First, think about health. We always take our vitamins first thing in the mornings. The first one out of bed takes their vitamins, and then they get the honor of the first hot shower. :) Our kids rarely did their schoolwork in their pj's - sorry, not all homeschool stereotypes are true.  As a 2 job family, Kurt and I felt it was important that they learn to get up and get themselves cleaned and dressed every morning, regardless of who was the parent at home that day. This really did help them transition into getting more done in the mornings.

Do you struggle to fit in PE or time spent outdoors? Pack your lunch into a basket and grab a blanket. Read outdoors, do your kids' math lessons outdoors, or practice math facts while jumping rope. Since our girls needed two semesters' worth of PE for high school, we made them keep track of their hours spent exercising. They had a paper on the wall of their room, and every time they went hiking with friends, we played tennis at the park, rode our bikes or went to the pool, it was their responsibility to write it down. Once they hit the benchmark of hours, I wrote down a credit for PE. 

You know, that high school biology class is going to be way, way easier to understand if your children have spent time outdoors, growing some sort of vegetables or flowers, and hiking through the woods. Make it a point to spend at minimum one afternoon a week outdoors. You will feel better, your kids will get back their natural love of exploring, and everyone can at least get exercise by running around in your yard or at the park. If you're looking for outdoor ideas, you can check out some of my past newspaper articles, my column focus on getting families outdoors year-round.

Beat the summertime blues

Great Outdoors month

Fall/Winter outdoor planning

Books to inspire an outdoor life

Outdoor industry

One more thing for Work it in Wednesday: field trips!

When did you last go on a field trip? For us, that was last week, unless you count today's stop at the gym to play in the pool. Do you think too much when planning a field trip? Does every field trip have to be educational? What if you just planned to have fun and let the learning happen naturally? We often look things up before we go on a field trip or vacation, but I don't think I've ever made the girls write a report about it later. That's just SO boring! 

I know there are state standards that public school teachers try to meet with every field trip, but relax, you're a homeschooler! Your kids will learn just as much about money at the laundromat when your washer breaks as they will by taking a trip to the local bank for a scheduled field trip. It may not be the same information they'll learn, but since they're both about money, why not make both fun? You can study art history for weeks before you visit the art museum, OR, you could just go and see what interests your children. If something really sticks in their mind, you can look up more about it after you get home again.

The fun of field trips is supposed to be because they're different. So be different! If your kid is interested in airplanes, ask your friends if anyone knows a pilot, or a baggage handler, or a stewardess  who lives locally that you could talk to. Maybe your child loves horses, call your local extension office and ask if there are any local 4-hers who would let you come visit their barn and ask questions about their horses. Field trips can be super inexpensive, just focus on fun, and learning will come alongside at your child's pace. Maybe I should have called this blog: the $5 field trip. When that's all you have, you learn to be creative!

Check out all sort of other ideas for working in electives, finding a specific course for your child, or learning how to learn alongside you kids on the other posts in today's blog hop. Just click on any link below and have fun reading!

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Motivation Monday

It's Monday again. 

I wanted to just write a short post for this first day of the Back to Homeschool Blog Hop. I know you have a lot to do, we all do, but today is motivation Monday, so please, allow me to tell you a little story.

For the past 17 days my life has been non-stop. I've been at the Great Indiana State Fair writing features about 4-Hers from our county for the local newspaper. Our state fair is 17 days long. 17 gloriously long days full of so many things to see and do it sometimes makes your head spin.

During the past 17 days I spent 11 days at the fair. I also spent 4 days volunteering at Conner Prairie, our local living history museum, and 5 days working my normal day job. Go ahead and add those up. Yup, you'll notice they equal 20 days' worth of living in 17 days. Oh yeah, there was that one Sunday when  we went to church, and that was it. So it's really 20 days' worth of living in 16 days' time.

Why would I choose to live like this? Because the time is fleeting. Both of our daughters worked at the 4-H exhibit halls before and during the fair. In fact, they won't come home until tomorrow. My 20 year old and my 18 year old have been gone from home for almost 4 weeks. It's been fun to spend some time with them at the fair when they have a break, but I do miss them. (And not just because I had to do the laundry myself!)

The younger one, Arlene, has just one semester left in high school. The older one, Emily, is getting ready for her sophomore year at college. Just a couple days ago they were 3 and 5. Really, it was just a blink ago.

So how do you deal with the craziness that is your everyday life? How do you choose to appreciate the moments in the midst of looking at bigger things, like teaching someone how to read, or toilet training your toddler? The only way I know how is to trust God and thank Him for what He has given you.

Your Monday today might be really long, but soon, there will be no more Monday mornings when you get the kids out of bed. So appreciate as much as you can, and remember, homeschooling is about learning, but more importantly, it is about molding young hearts and minds so God can produce young adults who will be ready to leave home and succeed on their own - who will glorify Him by their words and actions. 

Be the kind of mom that raises children for God, and not the mom who wakes up dreading the next phonics lesson. If their hearts, and yours, are in the right place, then the learning will happen in God's timing. So go hug your kids and tell then you love them!

If you want more encouragement, feel free to click on the orange words down below that say mama encouragement. Then check out some of the other posts from Crew members in today's Monday Motivation theme.

You are loved - remember that!

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Day 5 - Daily Nature Time

There is one thing we used to do that I really want to get back to this school year - Daily Nature Time! We used to take time almost every day to go outside. Sometimes we would sit on a blanket under the tree and read a book. Some days we would take a picnic lunch to the park. Sometimes when the weather was really, really bad, we would just sit and draw pictures of whatever fruit we had on hand.

I think our girls need this daily time  of refreshing back in their lives - I know I do! Our lives have been busy recently. I don't like busy. I like full, satisfied, fulfilling, even overflowing, but not busy.

Making daily nature time a priority forces us to stop going and focus on just being. Stop going 40 places a week and start being Mama again. I'm writing this for myself, but you're welcome to keep reading along!

Has there ever been a time when I regretted spending too much time in nature? Perhaps once or twice when we got sunburnt like lobsters. But, for the most part, I've been saddened by not spending enough time outdoors. It takes effort, especially in the winter.

The thing is, all of life takes effort. Why not spend our efforts on the things we value most? If I want our family to spend daily time enjoying and appreciating the wonderful world that God has created, then I had better get myself in gear and make it happen!

I've already been taking steps to make this foray a success. I've lightened the load of things I commit to doing outside of the home. I've told my boss that there is a strict limit to how many hours I can work each week. I've been unsubscribing myself from a lot of emails recently - those ones I never read anymore...and I've subscribed to just a few new ones. Those few new ones are those that encourage me to spend time outside. The girls have been helping me take care of the yard and gardens so they stay manageable. Small steps in the right direction.

Last night we went to bed early, then got up just before midnight to watch the Perseid meteor shower for about an hour. This morning I was a little tired, but it was worth it! I don't want to just exist, I want to live. I want to appreciate the beauty of nature around me. I want our family to focus on the Creator Who gives us all we need for life and Godliness.

The one thing I want to do better at this year - Daily Nature Time - is an attainable goal.

What do you want to do better this year? Leave a comment and let's inspire one another!

Marcy @ Ben and Me

Debra @ Footprints in the Butter

Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses

Amy @ Homeschool Encouragement

Missica @ The Open Window: An Autism Blog

Misty @ Year Round Homeschooling

Jennifer @ A Glimpse of Our Life

Heather @ Only Passionate Curiosity

Clarissa @ Counting Our Blessings

Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool

Monique @ Living Life and Learning

Rebecca @ Raventhreads

Karen @ Tots and Me...Growing Up Together

Rebekah @ There Will Be A $5 Charge For Whining

April @ ElCloud Homeschool

Brenda @ Counting Pinecones

Tara @ This Sweet Life

Tara @ Embark on the Journey

Jennifer @ Chestnut Grove Academy

Annette @ In All You Do

Lisa @ Farm Fresh Adventures

Tauna @ Proverbial Homemaker

Joanie @ Simple Living Mama

Aurie @ Our Good Life

Jennifer @ A Peace of Mind

Jenn @ Treasuring Life's Blessings

Kemi @ Homemaking Organized

Wendy @ Life at Rossmont

Katie @ DailyLife

Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory

Kim @ Homestead Acres

Melissa @ Mom's Plans

Annette @ A Net In Time

Cristi @ Through the Calm and Through the Storm

Meg @ Adventures with Jude

Dawn @ Double O Farms

DaLynn @ For the Display of His Splendor

Monique @ Mountain of Grace Homeschooling

Steph @ Indy Homeschool

Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break

Tawnee @ Adventures in homeschooling

Lisa @ Tales of a Homeschool Family

Jennifer @ Organized Home Organized School

Callie @ Mama's Coffee Shop

Erin @ For Him and My Family

Lori @ At Home: where life happens

Margaret @ Creative Madness Mama

Nicole @ Some Call It Natural

Crystal @ Crystal Starr

Bonnie @ Write Bonnie Rose

Shawna @ Tenacity Divine

Carol @ Home Sweet Life

Kelli @ Adventure Homeschool 

Jacquelin @ A Stable Beginning 

Leah Courtney @ As We Walk Along the Road

Day 4- Cleaning your home so you can stay focused

Hopefully you’ve been reading along all week and are ready for day 4 of the Back to Homeschool Blog Hop! Today I want to focus on something that distracts Moms - namely - a messy, dirty house.

Moms, It will not do you any good to plan out those lessons if all you can see on the first day your troops gather is a messy home. Take some time and clean your house! 

I know in our home the summer months can be so packed full of activities and going outside that the house suffers. Things get dropped just inside the door and they don’t get put away. NOW, before you start back to homeschooling, is the time to get everything put away.

Dearest Moms, you need to clean your home so YOU can stay focused this school year. Take a few hours or a few days, however much time you need, and get your home organized before you add in the demands of educating your children. Better yet, get the whole family involved. Assign each child an age-appropriate task, and get everyone working on getting your house clean!

Take time to deep clean your bathrooms and the kitchen, because we all know these are the areas that we as Moms notice the most when they’re dirty! Have your children pull everything out from under their beds and sort, purge, and sweep. Help them as much as they needs it. This is an exercise in preparing your home to be an inviting place ~ for you!

If you want some inspiration for cleaning, or tips on how to divide it up into manageable chunks, you can pop on over and read some of the posts on my dear friend Michele’s blog. Most of you will remember Michele’s quest to have us spend 34 weeks to clean and declutter our homes this year. We have accomplished almost all of the 34 tasks… even though I haven’t blogged about all of them! For the ones I have blogged about, I've labelled them "34 Weeks of cleaning w/friends."

Once your bathrooms and kitchen are under control, pick the one room where you and your children spend the most time during the school year and clean that room. I know you are going to be glad you did!

Tomorrow I’m going to talk about… something I want to do better at this school year. 

Not much of a spoiler - but I do hope you’ll be back tomorrow!

Marcy @ Ben and Me

Debra @ Footprints in the Butter

Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses

Amy @ Homeschool Encouragement

Missica @ The Open Window: An Autism Blog

Misty @ Year Round Homeschooling

Jennifer @ A Glimpse of Our Life

Heather @ Only Passionate Curiosity

Clarissa @ Counting Our Blessings

Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool

Monique @ Living Life and Learning

Rebecca @ Raventhreads

Karen @ Tots and Me...Growing Up Together

Rebekah @ There Will Be A $5 Charge For Whining

April @ ElCloud Homeschool

Brenda @ Counting Pinecones

Tara @ This Sweet Life

Tara @ Embark on the Journey

Jennifer @ Chestnut Grove Academy

Annette @ In All You Do

Lisa @ Farm Fresh Adventures

Tauna @ Proverbial Homemaker

Joanie @ Simple Living Mama

Aurie @ Our Good Life

Jennifer @ A Peace of Mind

Jenn @ Treasuring Life's Blessings

Kemi @ Homemaking Organized

Wendy @ Life at Rossmont

Katie @ DailyLife

Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory

Kim @ Homestead Acres

Melissa @ Mom's Plans

Annette @ A Net In Time

Cristi @ Through the Calm and Through the Storm

Meg @ Adventures with Jude

Dawn @ Double O Farms

DaLynn @ For the Display of His Splendor

Monique @ Mountain of Grace Homeschooling

Steph @ Indy Homeschool

Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break

Tawnee @ Adventures in homeschooling

Lisa @ Tales of a Homeschool Family

Jennifer @ Organized Home Organized School

Callie @ Mama's Coffee Shop

Erin @ For Him and My Family

Lori @ At Home: where life happens

Margaret @ Creative Madness Mama

Nicole @ Some Call It Natural

Crystal @ Crystal Starr

Bonnie @ Write Bonnie Rose

Shawna @ Tenacity Divine

Carol @ Home Sweet Life

Kelli @ Adventure Homeschool 

Jacquelin @ A Stable Beginning 

Leah Courtney @ As We Walk Along the Road

Day 3 ~Back to Homeschool Blog Hop ~ Choosing Curriculum

Let me be quite frank with you here. For many, many, many years we did NOT use a curriculum for any subject other than math. So if you’re looking for curriculum advice from a curriculum junkie, you might want to click on one of the many links at the end of the post and see who else is talking about choosing curriculum.

Now, If you’re still here, please allow me to explain. When our girls were in the Elementary grades, we had neither the inclination nor the money to spend on a boxed curriculum, or even on pieces of curriculum. Instead, we went to the library … every single week! I looked thorough many of the books they had about language arts, but ended up just watching Grammar Rock with the girls instead. We are relaxed homeschoolers. We follow Charlotte Mason’s ideas about living books, narration, and short - yet focused - lessons. So much of what I desired to share with our girls was available at our local library for free. Why stress out about what you don’t have when you don't even need it?

As the girls got older (about 5th or 6th grade,) I went to a couple used books sales and purchased a few pieces of quality curriculum to use with the girls. How did I choose? I talked with friends and other homeschoolers, and I looked through Cathy Duffy’s 100 Top picks for Homeschool Curriculum … also borrowed from our library. :) I also looked online at book lists. A great site for book lists is www.amblesideonline.org. If you’re wanting to offer your children a Charlotte Mason style education, I recommend you read Karen Andreola’s A Charlotte Mason Companion.

Regardless of what kind of teaching style you plan to employ, it really helps you to choose appropriate curriculum or resources if you know how your children best learn. My best recommendation for learning about learning styles is my dear friend Diana Waring. You can learn so much from her talks, blog posts, and books. 

In the past we’ve used worksheets, workbooks, textbooks, living books, lap books, notebooking journals, games, and field guides. Because the possibilities are endless - let me  encourage you to start small. For the past few years we’ve been blessed to be a part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew and have had the opportunity to use so many more curriculum choices than we would have been able to afford on our own. These review opportunities give us the chance to tell you more about the curriculum than you would find on the vendor’s websites. If you’re wondering about a specific curriculum, click over to the Schoolhouse Review Crew’s webpage and see if it has been reviewed recently.

My overall guidance is this: don’t spend more money than you have, and don’t buy what you won’t need. Start small. If you have a subject that you personally find difficult to teach (say grammar,) then focus on getting a curriculum to help you with that. There are tons of websites with free worksheets for just about everything you could think of for elementary grades, and several that have worksheets for upper grades. 

Consider being out of the box. Find DVDs at your library, or documentaries on Netflix and watch your way through history or social studies. National Geographic has some fun ones, so does the History Channel. You can offer your home educated children so much more than the standard box of books found in a public school. 

I’ll list a few of our favorite curriculum companies/ resources below. Spend enough time to find something that works and is FUN for your children. One more thing - be willing to sell what doesn’t work well for your family and try again. Have fun exploring all the great options out there for curriculum!

History:

Diana Waring: Exploring History Through Music

Diana Waring: History Revealed

Heirloom Audio Productions

English (Grammar or Literature):

The Logic of English

Analytical Grammar

Sharon Watson

IEW’s  - Fix-It! Grammar

Science:

Answers in Genesis: God’s Design Series

Bridget Ardoin’s: Science for High School

Fascinating Education

Math:

Rod & Staff’s elementary math workbooks

Math-U-See

VideoText Interactive Algebra

Art:

ARTistic Pursuits

See the Light

Marcy @ Ben and Me

Debra @ Footprints in the Butter

Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses

Amy @ Homeschool Encouragement

Missica @ The Open Window: An Autism Blog

Misty @ Year Round Homeschooling

Jennifer @ A Glimpse of Our Life

Heather @ Only Passionate Curiosity

Clarissa @ Counting Our Blessings

Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool

Monique @ Living Life and Learning

Rebecca @ Raventhreads

Karen @ Tots and Me...Growing Up Together

Rebekah @ There Will Be A $5 Charge For Whining

April @ ElCloud Homeschool

Brenda @ Counting Pinecones

Tara @ This Sweet Life

Tara @ Embark on the Journey

Jennifer @ Chestnut Grove Academy

Annette @ In All You Do

Lisa @ Farm Fresh Adventures

Tauna @ Proverbial Homemaker

Joanie @ Simple Living Mama

Aurie @ Our Good Life

Jennifer @ A Peace of Mind

Jenn @ Treasuring Life's Blessings

Kemi @ Homemaking Organized

Wendy @ Life at Rossmont

Katie @ DailyLife

Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory

Kim @ Homestead Acres

Melissa @ Mom's Plans

Annette @ A Net In Time

Cristi @ Through the Calm and Through the Storm

Meg @ Adventures with Jude

Dawn @ Double O Farms

DaLynn @ For the Display of His Splendor

Monique @ Mountain of Grace Homeschooling

Steph @ Indy Homeschool

Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break

Tawnee @ Adventures in homeschooling

Lisa @ Tales of a Homeschool Family

Jennifer @ Organized Home Organized School

Callie @ Mama's Coffee Shop

Erin @ For Him and My Family

Lori @ At Home: where life happens

Margaret @ Creative Madness Mama

Nicole @ Some Call It Natural

Crystal @ Crystal Starr

Bonnie @ Write Bonnie Rose

Shawna @ Tenacity Divine

Carol @ Home Sweet Life

Kelli @ Adventure Homeschool 

Jacquelin @ A Stable Beginning 

Leah Courtney @ As We Walk Along the Road