As homeschool convention season approaches, you can almost feel the tension in the air.  Homeschooling families everywhere are reevaluating everything they have taught the previous year and trying to decide if it was effective, good enough, or a total failure.

And many feel just plain confused.

Today, I want to offer you a few resources to lessen your confusion!

Start Here:  Homeschooling with Purpose Series (this series gives you an eternal perspective!)

Before the Convention:
Curriculum Evaluation from an Eternal Perspective Worksheet

Create a Homeschool Convention Notebook

At the Convention:
Surviving the Vendor’s Hall

Surviving the Speaker Sessions

Other resources:
Peace Creek on the Prairie Convention Forms

Curriculum Fair Survival Tips from Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers

How to Make an Overall Plan for the Year from Curriculum Choice by Barb at Harmony Art Mom

Tips from My Very First Homeschool Convention from Angie at The Homeschool Classroom

Preparing for a Homeschool Convention from Betty at Peace Creek on the Prairie

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Last year, I decided to create a Homeschool Convention Notebook at the prodding of Betty from Peace Creek on the Prairie.  I’m so glad I did!

I found in my stash of notebooks (because every good homeschool mom has a stash of notebooks) a white notebook that had a clear cover where a cover page could be inserted.  Since most homeschool conventions hand out session schedules, that’s where I put my session schedule for each day, so I had it at a glance.  No need to open anything and search.

I also marked every session I was interested in.  I starred it if I was interested, circled it if that was my definite choice, and wrote “Tape” next to any I intended to purchase the recording for (even though technically no one uses tapes anymore!)

Since I was speaking at our local convention, I put my speaking notes at the front of the notebook, followed by notebook paper to take notes on and a folder for loose papers from vendors and speakers sessions.

In the back cover, I put my list of items I was looking for.  Again, it was quick to glance at in the always-crowded vendor hall.  Last year, I didn’t have a lot of curriculum needs since we decided to create our own history/literature program.

The Teach Them Diligently Convention in March will be our first homeschool convention of the year (yes, sometimes we go to more than 1!)  However, I anticipate this notebook being helpful for the 2:1 Blogging Conference in April too!

So, grab a notebook and make this convention season a little more organized!

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I am so grateful for the opportunity to go to what I believe will prove to be the most amazing, most intellectually stimulating, most emotionally encouraging homeschool convention of the year – the Teach Them Diligently Convention!

I have been encouraged and challenged by all three of the keynote speakers, the vendor’s list looks incredible, my husband is looking forward to the men’s breakfasts with Stephen Kendrick & Voddie Baucham, and I’m looking forward to meeting some of my favorite bloggers at the blogger meetup!

I would love to see you there too!  Registration is only $40!  So, if you can at all make the trip, I’d encourage you to do so because every homeschooling family needs encouragement to get them through the year!

But, if you can’t make it, you can follow my blog, my facebook page, and my twitter feed and via the hashtag #HSTTD for convention updates and highlights and find out what I’m doing and be encouraged right along with me!

And a HUGE thank you to all those responsible for getting me to the convention:

Teach Them Diligently Convention

Homeschool Programming, Inc. – They will be at the convention with 15% off their products!  Tell them hello from me!

Six Suitcase Travel – Travel site geared toward large families & how we booked our flight.  See me at the convention to claim your FREE luggage tag! (while supplies last – I can only put so many in my suitcase!)

Six Munchkin Stitching – Etsy shop with handmade goodies from a mother of many.  Get 10% everything when you use coupon code: raisingarrows

Can’t wait to see all of you there!

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I am a first-generation homeschool mother.

I came to this with nothing to offer except the commitment to raise my children in the ways of the Lord.

I started with a little homeschooling catalog and a school-at-home mentality.  I took a leap of faith into something I didn’t really understand.  It hasn’t been easy.

Michael Farris coined the term “transitional” to describe those of us who have transitioned from our own personal public school upbringing into this world of homeschooling.

Anything that is “transitional” typically has kinks that need to be worked out.  I am forever grateful to the truly transitional generation of homeschoolers from the 80′s & 90′s who worked out the legal kinks for my generation (although, we must never stop fighting for these rights!)  Because of this, the kinks that my generation of first generation homeschool moms must work out aren’t legal, but mental.

You see, I don’t have to hide my kids under beds or worry that what I am doing is illegal.

I have to worry that my public school upbringing will undermine my homeschooling.

That fact alone is why I started Raising Arrows.

I needed a daily pep talk and I was fairly certain I wasn’t alone.  I needed to know that I wasn’t doing it wrong if I didn’t do it like the public school.  I needed to know I was being faithful.  I needed to be reminded that what God called me to He would equip me for.

I don’t have all the answers.  I am a work in progress.  I have moments where I don’t have a clue what the next step is.  And sometimes it hurts.  My heart aches for all the missed opportunities, the lessons I couldn’t fit in, the times I chose school-at-home over living a lifestyle of learning.

Growing pains indeed.

But, the beauty of growing pains is the fact that you are growing.

Becoming a homeschooling mother has brought me to a place where I am always growing.  I am always learning.  My God-given talents are constantly in use and my shortcomings are constantly being stretched.

So, keep going, mama!  Keep learning!  Keep growing!  You are paving the way!

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I am so very excited to be teaming up with Lauren from Mama’s Learning Corner today to bring you a FREE Fruit of the Spirit devotional and printables for your little ones!

Little children love memorizing Scripture and the Fruit of the Spirit is a great place to start!

Lauren has created some wonderful printables to go along with each lesson as well as a Fruit Chart where you can track each time your child displays a Fruit of the Spirit!

I also recommend you purchase this CD as a supplement to the devotional:

I have owned this CD for many years and we love it!  The songs are beautiful, simple and catchy without adding to or taking away from Scripture.  A perfect fit with this devotional!  {Click here for more information on the CD.}

I hope you enjoy teaching your children the Fruit of the Spirit!

Click here to download your devotional!

Click here to download your printables!

Feel free to share this post with others!  We’d love to share this with as many families as we can!

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In honor of my toddler turning 3 and graduating to preschooler-hood, I give you 7 posts for the preschool mom:

1. The Toddler Box – because it still works!

2. Do Toddlers & Well-Ordered Days Mix? – because you still wonder even after they turn 3!

3. Striving to Bless with Yes! – because some days all you do is say “no.”

4. A Little’s Corner – because sometimes all you need is something to keep them busy.

5. The Snowy Day Printables – because there is beauty in simple things.

6. Feed My Sheep – because our mission field is wrapped up in tiny packages.

7. Philosophy of Parenting: Pondering Christ – because the greatest of these is love.

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It’s that time of year again! Time to vote for your favorite homeschool bloggers! I have no idea which one of these awesome categories I hope to win, so look them over and you choose where you think Raising Arrows fits best!

And thank you so much for nominating me! I am humbled and thrilled! Hugs to all of you!

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I am a self-proclaimed Lapbooking Dummy.

I’ve stared at them longingly. I’ve thumbed through them jealously. I even have an entire stash of file folders begging to be turned into lapbooks, but alas, I just can’t seem to do it.  Every time we have tried, we have failed…miserably.

Perhaps it was how much time it took to do them because I was the only one doing all the work.  Or perhaps it was the fact that I am a no-nonsense no-busy-work kind of person and I was pretty sure lapbooks fit into the “Busy Work” category.  Whatever my subconscious reasoning was, just the thought of file folders made my knees weak.  It even became a running joke between myself and all my lapbooking friends…

poor Amy with lapbookaphobia.

Then, a couple of months ago, my lapbooking friend Betty at Peace Creek on the Prairie introduced me to A Journey Through Learning.  I noticed this company had a product called a Binder-Builder for a curriculum I was already using – The Prairie Primer. {Read more about how I am using The Prairie Primer with only my younger children.}

A Journey Through Learning graciously let me – yes, poor lapbookaphobic that I am – test out a copy.

It was a large download, covering 3 of the Little House books, so my husband printed it off for me and I put it into a large binder.  Then, I purchased a smaller binder for the children to use as their Prairie Primer Binder.

Instead of a file folder, each piece of the binder-builder is either a sheet you 3-hole punch and put in your binder or a piece you cut out and add to a larger paper with several lapbooking components on it. (and yes, I am making copies – doesn’t every good homeschooling mother of more than one do this?!)

I was thrilled that A Journey Through Learning included directions and a diagram of where to place every single piece…a lapbooking dummy’s dream!

My little ones loved putting the binder together.  They ask every single day about it and they are so proud to show it off to grandparents.  Finally, I understand the WHY behind lapbooking!  While it could be considered “busy work,” it is the kind of busy work that solidifies what they are learning, creates a wonderful memory, and gives the children something they can thumb through for years to come.  This goes way beyond that silly worksheet you are just going to throw away tomorrow!

In fact, doing this binder taught me something else about lapbooking.  You do not have to do every single piece of the lapbook to get the benefit of it!  I thought every lapbook had to be perfect with every single piece in place or you would lose the overall effect, while in reality, you can pick and choose and only do what you want to do and still reap the rewards of a memorable piece of school work!

A Journey Through Learning gives away free lapbooks on their site from time to time, so I have been grabbing those up and using them in the same way as the Prairie Primer Binder-Builder.  This is so much more my style.

They also have lapbooks for some of the best curriculum out there from TruthQuest to Apologia as well as stand alone lapbooks like My State Lapbook and their current Newsletter Freebie Special – Overview of the 17th Century (click over and sign up for their newsletter to get it!)

And on November 8th at 7pm CST, you’ll want to mark your calendars for their ABSOLUTELY HUGE FACEBOOK PARTY!  I am so excited about all the products they will be giving away from their own site and others.  You will not want to miss this!  {more info here!}

But, guess what you can do right this very second?!

You can win an AJTL Lapbook product of your choice!

Right here on Raising Arrows
{aka No More a Lapbooking Dummy Blog}!

Here’s how to enter…

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I am a note-taker.  Always have been.  Always will be.  It’s the only way I can remember anything. (By the way, have you seen OneNote?  It has taken my note-taking to a whole new level!)

A short time ago, I found an old notebook that I used to make notes from audios I had listened to or from homeschooling and homemaking ideas I had as I read books or listened to conference speakers.  The notebook was old and falling apart, so I pulled out the notes and decided I would start looking through them and see if there was anything worth adding to OneNote or blogging about.

One page caught my eye because at the top was written my oldest daughter’s name with a curriculum we never used scrawled next to it.  As I looked down the rest of the page, I realized it was followed by all sorts of notes to myself…

goals I wanted to accomplish…

five years ago.

It was a fascinating blast from the past as I realized some of these goals have become second nature and some of these goals never happened…yet.

So, today I share with you my goals from the past and commentary on those goals because it is just as good to look back and see where you have been as it is to look forward and see where you are going.

1.  No phone calls in the morning – make calls at rest time. I don’t heed this, but truth be told, as I have aged and had more children and my circle of friends have aged and had more children, the phone calls are fewer and further in between.  We are all simply too busy to sit on the phone all morning long and chat.  The occasional days I do take a phone call in the morning don’t end up being a big deal in the overall scheme of things.

2.  Breakfast:  Winter = hot, Summer = cold – Hmmmm….Breakfast has always been a difficult thing for me.  I did not get this one down and I’m not sure I want to.  I did however recently decide to add Green Smoothies {thanks Erica for making it super simple!} to our list of breakfasts.

3.  Write out a few simple goals for each day the night before. Most of the time I do this, if not the night before, then the day of.  I even wrote a post about making simple goals when I have morning sickness.  In fact, I was thrilled to see Sarah Mae talk about this in her ebook 31 Days to Clean.  It really does help to have something to shoot for and something to cross off throughout your day.  Now if I could just remember to make this same kind of list every time I sit down at the computer…can you say rabbit trail?!

4.  Start trying to cook bigger batches and freeze the leftovers. This one made me laugh since bigger batches 5 years ago would have looked like our normal batches now.  This is a goal I would like to work toward and do occasionally accomplish, but not consistently.

5.  Schedule a little bit of housework every day. Let me take you back…I had just had #4.  Remember, my Crossover Baby?  Prior to his birth, I was doing FLYlady with success, but then I hit the wall and could no longer accomplish a full day of cleaning and one day of laundry and manage to keep the house clean for more than a few minutes at a time.  This goal must have been made shortly after finding out about Large Family Logistics (when it was only a website and not a book).  I didn’t end up adopting Kim’s exact days, but I did take her concept of bite-sized pieces and ran with it.  You can see our Weekly Chore List here.

6.  Be in bed by 11 pm and up by 7 am. This has translated to an hour later on both ends.  And for me, that is actually a very good and doable goal.  And yes, you may all now gasp at how late we get up around here.

7.  Have a routine, but not a highly scheduled one. Way to go, Amy!  You’re learning, girl!  And guess what…you end up writing an entire series on this and making it into a homeschool conference session!

8.  Start school with a book. I do start school with a book…the Bible!

9.  Read outside when possible, learn outside when possible! I do this, but not enough in my opinion.  This time of year is absolutely beautiful for learning outside, so note to self…GO OUTSIDE!

10.  Plastic dishes for breakfast and lunch. I actually did do this for a time, but the reason it didn’t stick is because I really do not like plastic dishes.  I use plastic only for my youngest 2, but everyone else uses regular ole plates.  Now, my reasoning behind this was so that my then 5 year old could help with table chores (a newly instituted event back then).  Instead of using plastic, I now have all the plates, glasses (yes, REAL glasses too) and silverware in a cupboard next to the refrigerator where the younger children can easily access them and help out with my supervision.  Typically, it is the 7 and 10 year olds who set the table and put away dishes from the dishwashwer, but back then I didn’t have anyone over 8, so plastic made sense.

11.  Easy lunch, bigger dinner. Five years ago my husband worked from home.  Although I do not remember the circumstances behind this goal, I imagine I was trying to have big meals all the time and was burned out.  This is a goal I hold to even today.  Our lunches are fairly simple most days and our dinners are typically the largest meal of the day because Daddy is home at that time.  Recently we pulled out of the Feast or Famine cycle (thanks Sherry for opening my eyes to this!) and when I made my last Once a Month Shopping meal list, I made sure we had both Feast Meals and Famine Meals intermixed throughout the month, rather than all the Feasts at the beginning and all the Famines at the end.

12.  Take a short walk each day with the kids before lunch and then come home for lunch. I don’t do this, but it sure does sound like a nice idea!

Well, that was fun!  Thanks for sharing in my blast from the past.

How have your goals changed over the years?  I’d love to hear about it!

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It isn’t uncommon to hear a homeschool mom who is having a less-than-studious day say something like, “We are learning life skills today!”  We laugh understandingly, but in the back of our minds we wonder,

“Can you do that?”

As a matter of fact, YOU CAN!

Here’s why…

If you are actively and purposefully teaching your children, it is school.  Life skills count as school if they are being actively taught.

What do I mean by “actively taught?”

If you use the life skill to teach formal school subjects, then you can count those hours as school hours. You must be engaging your children in conversation and education and they must be engaging in the act of learning.  You cannot simply DO a life skill and then call it school, but you certainly can teach along with the life skill and call that school.

Here are some examples of life skills and the school subjects they might encompass:

Grocery shopping

• Math – price comparison, weights, units
• Nutrition – calories, ingredients, additives, preservatives
• Science – digestive tract, food production
• Geography – origin of foods

Doctor’s office

• Science – anatomy, medicine
• Math – weights, measurements, volume

House cleaning

• Home economics
• Science – properties of common cleaners

Vacation

• History – points of interest, historical figures and events of area
• Math – mileage
• Geography – map reading, topography

Hunting & Shooting sports

• Science – animal science
• History – history of hunting and weapons
• Math – trajectory, distances, windage and elevation, reloading and ammunition
• Geography – landscape

Sewing

• Math – measurements, angles
• Science – textiles, gears and machines
• History

Post Office

• Math – weights, money
• History

Dining out

• Math – money
• Nutrition – food groups, menus, content
• Foreign language – based on restaurant
• Cultural studies -  decor, music, food

The possibilities truly are endless, but remember, you have to be actively and purposefully teaching while engaged in these life skills and activities in order to call it school.

So, fear not homeschool mama, you CAN be creative with your school hours!

What are some ways you have taught school using life skills?

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