Practical Homeschooling
Any homeschooling family knows that the process of learning takes up most of your time. Getting things organized may the key to success for some families. We've compiled tips and ideas to make your homeschooling practical and a good fit into the rest of your life. As a bonus, we take a look at some of the ways you can save money while learning together as a family.
Organizing Tips
An organized home may seem impossible when you have kids around all day long, but it can be done. Here are tips and ideas that will help your household run smoothly.
Avoiding Burnout
Everyone faces it at one time or another. Read through these tips for inspiration and ideas to combat homeschooling burnout, both for parents and children.
Money Savers
It is a fact that homeschooling will cost you some money. But there are ways to keep costs down. In fact, you can homeschool quite inexpensively and how much you spend is really up to you. Browse through these resources, tips, and ideas to help you save some money.
Housekeeping
Doing the household chores can seem like a burden when you have so much else going on. There are some strategies to help make this burden lighter. Read through these ideas and tips on keeping your home clean and how to get the whole family involved.
In The Kitchen
What's for dinner? That is the age-old question every mother has faced, day after day. Browse through these menu planning ideas, recipes, and strategies for getting food on your table without all the hassle.
Chores
With children learning and playing (and, let's face it--making messes) all day long, chores become an inevitable hurdle for the homeschooling family. Here you'll find everything from printable chore charts to chore organizers, along with helpful ideas on how to get kids to do their chores and how to divvy them up to make it fair for all.
Lesson Planning
Don't know what to teach today or how to get everything done? Explore these resources for planning your lessons and get ideas on how to help your homeschool day run smoothly.
Record Keeping
Record keeping can be a great way for you to see how you and your children are progressing, as well as a means to meet state requirements for reporting and administration of your homeschool.
Calendars
You can use calendars to keep track of activites, plan your lessons, keep your records, and organize your life.
What's Popular
The Opportunity Cost of Homeschooling
If someone offered you a million dollars in exchange for not homeschooling your children, would you take them up on it? Whether you’ve been homeschooling for a while, or just started recently, you’ll miss out on a substantial amount of earnings over the time you homeschool. Economists call this an “opportunity cost,” meaning what something costs you in lost opportunities. Each time you make a choice between two or more things, you incur some opportunity costs.
Unclutter Your Home: 7 Simple Steps, 700 Tips & Ideas (Simplicity Series)
Hundreds of practical ideas for sorting, evaluating, and getting rid of all those material items that get in the way of a simplified lifestyle.
How To Keep Records For Your Homeschooled Child
It is important to keep good records of your child's homeschooled years. This article has a list of helpful ideas for anyone who is interested in creating a permanent record for their child's homeschool work and progress.
Get Housekeeping Help By Keeping It Simple
One of the basic housekeeping rules is to keep it simple. Roxanna Ward shares some simple tips for getting housework done without the hassle.
The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook
If you are thinking about homeschooling, or are struggling with a educational homeschooling curriculum that is difficult to use, let Dr. Ray and Dorothy Moore show you how to make homeschooling an easy-to-live-with family adventure in learning. This low-stress, low-cost program shows you how to build a curriculum around your child's needs and interests - and around a realistic family schedule. Instead of a cut-and-dried approach, you'll discover the freedom of a flexible program that encourages ...
Homeschooling on a Budget Email Group
Raising a family on a single income is tough. When you're a homeschooling family, it may seem like another added cost. But that doesn't have to be the case. This list is for homeschoolers to get together and discuss ways to cut the cost of homeschooling without cutting on the educational and learning experience for our children. This is the place to share all kinds of ideas and tips on budgeting homeschooling costs.
Homeschool Mom Recipe Swap
This is a group of Christian homeschooling moms who enjoy sharing recipes, frugal grocery shopping tips, budget-saving ideas, cooking for large and small families, once-a-month-cooking (also known as OAMC), healthy recipes, low-fat, low-carb, vegetarian... anything goes. Do you enjoy cooking with your kids? Tell us about a children's recipe that is a favorite. Do you love to make homemade bread? Educate us on the best equipment and technique! Share a secret family recipe, an heirloom recipe, or ...
Homeschool Planning for a Large Family
Homeschool planning for a large family can seem daunting. From choosing curriculum to setting up a daily schedule, there are seemingly endless decisions to be made. The good news is that you can simplify the homeschool planning process. The key is to prioritize your goals before you begin planning.
Homeschooling Conferences: Learning, Bonding, and Recharging
Dawn Davis talks about her own experience attending homeschooling conferences and how they can recharge you and help prevent burn-out. She also discusses the benefits of teens attending conferences.
Conquering Chronic Disorganization
The real-life stories of chronically disorganized people and the ground breaking, easy-to-learn organizing methods used to end their chronic disorganization in the area of residential clutter, office organizing, paper management, storage, and time management. Conquerings pages includes an extensive index, user-friendly summaries, quick tips, helpful photographs, and a resource section of products and organizations.
Home Management Tips for Homeschool Families
Homeschool is school, but it's home, too--and housework will be with us always. How do you manage to keep up with household chores while homeschooling your children? Cynthia Townley Ewer, editor of OrganizedHome.com, explains how to lowering your standards, planning, and getting your children involved will help you reach your organizational goals. She suggests scheduling housework first, learning new time-saving methods, and getting needed support.
Organizing Your Homeschool Day
If clutter and outside activities are taking over your life, you need a plan and some routine in your life. Get tips on how to plan and prioritize your work, and to respond appropriately with flexibility when life gets hectic.
Miserly Moms: Living on One Income in a Two-Income Economy
Save Thousands of Dollars a Year Jonni McCoy and her family are proof that you live on one income. The McCoys made a successful transition from two incomes to one while living in one of the most expensive parts of America: the San Francisco Bay Area. Her Miserly Guidelines will help you save thousands of dollars a year on everything from groceries to electricity to insurance and household cleaners—as well as reveal the hidden costs of holding a job and common money wasters. Her practical,...
School Room Organization for a Big Family
There are so many benefits to having a large family, too numerous to count. However, one of the very few disadvantages is that a mom has to really stay on top clutter, particularly a homeschooling mom! It can be challenging to find a spot for everything. Organization is key when school six children.
HS-4-LessNewsletter: The Best of Homeschooling On A Budget
This newsletter aims to help you provide your children with a high quality homeschooling education at the lowest possible cost.
Resources
The Organizing Sourcebook : Nine Strategies for Simplifying Your Life

The nine habits of highly organized people

Organizing consultant Kathy Waddill demonstrates how the simple act of being organized can improve your quality of life. In The Organizing Sourcebook, she presents nine organizing principles that can easily be applied to any situation, activity, or environment. The book gives you the tools for managing time; decreasing stress; and dealing with cultural, personal, and emotional change. Case histories illustrate how each strategy solved a specific problem.

Home Schooling from Scratch : Simple Living, Super Learning
Parents learn what they really need, how to find or create materials and opportunities for less money, and how to organize their household for economical, happy learning.
Unclutter Your Home: 7 Simple Steps, 700 Tips & Ideas (Simplicity Series)
Hundreds of practical ideas for sorting, evaluating, and getting rid of all those material items that get in the way of a simplified lifestyle.
Homeschooling on a Shoestring : A Jam-packed Guide
So you want to homeschool but don't think you can afford it. This book is a compendium of ideas for the family that wants to start or continue homeschooling on a tight budget. Includes ideas for making money as a stay-at-home mom, sources for inexpensive curriculum, affordable teaching tools, and ideas for low-cost field trips. Also discusses ways to run your household more efficiently and with less cost.
Conquering Chronic Disorganization
The real-life stories of chronically disorganized people and the ground breaking, easy-to-learn organizing methods used to end their chronic disorganization in the area of residential clutter, office organizing, paper management, storage, and time management. Conquerings pages includes an extensive index, user-friendly summaries, quick tips, helpful photographs, and a resource section of products and organizations.
Help for the Harried Homeschooler : A Practical Guide to Balancing Your Child's Education with the Rest of Your Life
Homeschooling moms and dads can be overwhelmed by the demands on their time. Between their children’s educational needs; their roles as spouse, parent, and more; and their own individual desires and goals, these mothers and fathers struggle to accomplish all that must be done. In Help for the Harried Homeschooler, experienced homeschooler, author, and mother of four Christine Field offers sound advice for parents who want not only to achieve homeschooling success but also to reach a balance in their lives.
One Thing at a Time : 100 Simple Ways to Live Clutter-Free Every Day
Simple, effective ways to put things in their place

Those piles of papers, clothes, and other things you thought you'd successfully de-cluttered have returned, and this time they brought friends. What's the use of trying to fight the clutter? Is there a better way?

This powerful and useful guide delivers solutions that work, no matter how overwhelmed you feel. The answer isn't an elaborate new system, or a solemn vow to start tomorrow. Instead, psychotherapist and organizer Cindy Glovinsky shares 100 simple strategies for tackling the problem the way it grows--one thing at a time. Here's a sampling of the tips explained in the book:

*Declare a fix-it day
*Purge deep storage areas first
*Label it so you can read it
*Get a great letter opener
*Practice toy population planning
*Leave it neater than you found it
Written in short takes and with a supportive tone, this is an essential, refreshing book that helps turn a hopeless struggle into a manageable part of life, one thing at a time.
The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook
If you are thinking about homeschooling, or are struggling with a educational homeschooling curriculum that is difficult to use, let Dr. Ray and Dorothy Moore show you how to make homeschooling an easy-to-live-with family adventure in learning. This low-stress, low-cost program shows you how to build a curriculum around your child's needs and interests - and around a realistic family schedule. Instead of a cut-and-dried approach, you'll discover the freedom of a flexible program that encourages creativity and initiative.
Home Organizing Workbook: Clearing Your Clutter, Step-By-Step
Failing the Mary Poppins' snap-the-fingers approach to cleaning, here's the next best thing: an utterly practical handbook that offers lasting results for anyone looking to banish clutter from every room in the house. Home organizer par excellence Meryl Starr offers up her hardworking organizing solutions in The Home Organizing Workbook, a straightforward guide to getting organized. The room chapters begin with targeted questionnaires that help the reader identify specific organizational problems, followed by hundreds of hardworking solutions and strategic maintenance tips. Those itching to get started can dive right in with step-by-step organizing projects ranging from quick-and-easy weeknight jobs, like overhauling the spice cabinet, to more intensive endeavors such as reorganizing the bedroom closet. Accessory lists at the end of each chapter feature dozens of the best products available, from lazy susans to shelf dividers, and explain exactly how they can be used to optimum effect in each room, while the extensive resource list shows where to get them. It's a package as tidy as its solutions: concealed Wire-O lay-flat binding, tabbed chapters to take readers straight to their problem area du jour, and full-color, solution-oriented photographs sure to inspire action. Ready to clear that clutter and keep it that way? The Home Organizing Workbook is the ultimate guide to preserving open spaces.
The Well-Ordered Home: Organizing Techniques for Inviting Serenity into Your Life
Organizing the home is one of those desirable and beneficial activities that remain elusive for many. This practical guide explains the many benefits - physical, emotional, and spiritual - of an organized home and shows how to attain them. Breaking down the process into 50 steps, the author uses her own experiences as a psychologist and professional home organizer to help readers clear away not only the physical clutter but the psychological blocks that encourage it and hinder organization. She tells where to start, encourages small steps, and explores the psychology of organizing. Next she addresses fundamental principles, including keeping tools where they will be used and making the most of active storage space. Finally, she shows how to get rid of excess stuff, including how to attack those never-ending piles and junk drawers, and stem the inflow of junk into the home. These easy exercises, tips, and stories will truly help readers organize their homes for efficiency, peacefulness, and well-being.
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Featured Resources

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They're Your Kids: An Inspirational Journey from Self-Doubter to Home School Advocate
For many people, their schooling was uncomfortable, tedious, and sometimes a waste of time and energy. This book offers the idea that the public school system is tragically flawed and that we are able to do better for our own children. Sam Sorbo, mom...
A Different Kind of Teacher: Solving the Crisis of American Schooling
In 1991, shortly after receiving both the New York State and New York City Teacher of the Year Awards, John Gatto resigned to begin a new career as an education reform advocate. In this collection of 16 essays, Gatto analyzes the problems of American...
But What About Socialization? Answering the Perpetual Home Schooling Question: A Review of the Literature
This book by Dr. Susan A. McDowell  uses research, statistics, and the experiences of homeschooling families to answer questions and counter myths about homeschooling and socialization. Read through a discussion of the multiple meanings of socia...
Create! Press
Create! Press carries creative approaches to teaching creative writing and composition. Their products include the Create-A-Story game, Writing Adventures, Stepping Stones, and more.
A Child's Story of America
This text reads like a story book more than a history textbook. This book has a decidedly Christian bent. Students are given a comprehensive overview of U.S. history from Columbus to the present. Review questions are included throughout, as well as h...