Finally.....

  Getting the hang of this home schools tuff has been less than happy some days on my part.. the kids are fine, its just been trying to find a balance between what they need and what I think they need and when I dropped my part of that equation everything sort of fell into place. That's when we became more UNSCHOOLING.  By this I mean, we are mostly child led in this home, for learning related things..

  One thing I have started doing for my littlest boy is Notebook Lapbooks.  they are very easy to do and my boy loves them, he asks me to make them for him often and then when he completes a Notebook Lapbook he  will go back to it and back to it again and again and read through it.

  I've been asked recently by a few people how to make a Notebook Lapbook so I am going to give a quick tutorial here on my blog, its pretty easy, and its not very fancy at all.

  So first things are first gather your supplies!..  this means that you need to gather your work sheets, all of mine are free from Pinterest.. when my boy asks for a book, I ask him what he wants to learn about and we go to Pinterest, and print off lots of different worksheets to put in the book on that particular subject. Please see pic below of  Materials needed.. I buy the Hilroy 32 pg. Notebooks as they are the best size and they come in packs of 4 or 5 with all different colors. (please note the worksheets are not included in this picture.

 



  Now once you have everything ready... you can start cutting out your worksheets to make the book look more interesting!.. Here is what the front cover looks like. make sure you leave everything uncoloured as that is part of the fun for the kids, letting them color how they see fit. Our Newest notebook is the Life Cycle of a Plant

 

  Once you have the cover finished... you can start on the inside.. make sure your cutting around the edges of the worksheets before glueing in the notebook.. the next set of pictures will show you that how that was done.. Also some of the work sheets are cut and paste.. For these I just made a pocket and glued it on to store the little cut pieces that are to be attached by my boy.. he loves this and it makes for interesting stuff in the book.

  The last page that I have shown... is about what a Living Thing needs.. I putt his in here as I think this Notbook Lapbook could be spun off into another one that my son will love about Living and Non-Living things.. Their will be some pages left over, depending on what you want to do with your child, for us we will be doing some hands on experimenting with what the inside of seeds look like and then planting some seeds and watching them germinate and become plants, so those pages left over will be fore our observations and possibly measurements as my boy loves doing measurements.. as our hands on science progresses I will post all about it!..

  Thanks for having interest and I hope this helps.. and remember this is not the only way to make a Notebook Lapbook, there are lots of beautiful illustrations on Pinterest that you can look up..

The hardest part of being a homeschool family

 The hardest part of homeschooling my boys is not finding curriculum or making sure they are getting everything done. Frankly to be honest we are more unschooly than anything else, more child lead learning than any kind of concrete schedule for the boy. The Hardest thing about it all is the strangers that just don't seem to have any kind of idea about manners at all.

  I love being out with my boy when all of a sudden our outing is interrupted by a stranger asking them why they are not in school, and then, then when the boys tell them they are homeschooled out comes the eye rolls!.. and the follow up of  'oh you are one of THOSE kids'.  Then comes the 50 questions and this time is my kids turn to roll their eyes at me and then it is my cue to ask them to no quiz my child. I certainly don't understand why on earth finding out that a child is homeschooled automatically makes people want to start asking my kids what they have learned or if they can spell words for them.

  Then comes the friends, oh they mean well, there are some who are very supportive, but the ones that ask me if I  really don't just want some time to myself and if I am going to put them in school next year. Friend that like to ask me how my curriculum is coming along. There are friends that I just don't bother speaking to about our schooling style. these friends DRIVE ME CRAZY!!.

So let me answer some of your questions for you....

1. yes my kids are socialized, really really socialized!

2. Yes sometimes they wear PJ's all day!. NO we don't care if you like it or not!.

3. NO we do not 'do school' everyday. Child lead learning is just that, my children lead me on most things that they want to learn or accomplish that day and if that means they do nothing but play Minecraft  and read books and attempt to recreate Picasso's art pieces, then that is exactly what they do!.

4. YES unschooling is  a type of education as is Free schooling.. they are very close to Montessori (look it up!)

5. YES my kids can spell

6. YES my kids know how to do proper math, my 7 year old is a grade and a half ahead in math.

7. YES my kids can read, they read at their own pace and take their own time, and are not rushed.

8. NO I don't want them to go to PS just so I can 'get a rest' OR 'time for myself'

  These are just some of the questions I get asked all the time. They are ANNOYING. If you want to be a good friend, don't ask me any of these questions. If you are a close friend you already KNOW the answers and you KNOW my struggles and yes we have normal family struggles.

  My kids are supported by so many great people in their lives just as the majority of homeschooled kids. They have so many great role models and are very loved Just because we decide to do things differently does not mean we are wrong or society is right.  Please think before you speak next time you encounter a homeschool family or friend. maybe instead of trying to find something negative in the situation you focus on something positive.