Successful Homeschool Parents Don’t Keep Secrets 🥤

Hi friends! I’m really excited to share some exciting things shaping up this season. Until then, like most of you, we’re aiming to keep our homeschool healthy. Because without our health, we’re limited in our joy and our achievements.

To help boost our immune systems each fall, we consume things like bone broth, raw milk, and a slue of homeopathic, natural remedies.

One of my favorite immunity brands I’ve used for years is FeelGoods. “Like most kids, we'd run to our moms when we had a cold, tummy ache, or just felt crummy. And they always had some remedy for us—an herbal potion whipped up out of nowhere. After years of testing and tasting endless botanicals, meeting with homeopathic experts, and staying true to mama's healing touch, we crafted our first mix. And Feel Goods was born.”

If you love natural remedies like us, use code CRYSTAL87233 for $10 off of any purchase. 🥤

A few more things we’re focused on this year is LESS is MORE. IYKYK

Morning Circle Changes:

The past several years, I’ve packed so many beautiful subjects into our morning circle time together. But when it came down to it, our kids were less likely to enjoy their independent lessons the longer our morning circle time went on. Our oldest, in particular, became grumpy knowing he still had a lot on his plate AFTER we spent an hour together.

So this year, I’ve backed off a tad. We only tackle about 3-4 things each morning circle - and on busy days, we might only tackle two subjects that take us 20-25 minutes max.

Our NEW current morning circle loop schedule:

Monday: No morning circle b/c we have community.
Tuesday: Bible, Artist/Picture Study, Read Aloud 1-2 chapters
Wednesday: Bible, Poetry, American History Mysteries, Read Aloud 1-2 chapters
Thursday: Ancient History, Recitation, Read Aloud 1-2 chapters
Friday: Bible, Poetry or Recitation, Geography, Read Aloud 1-2 chapters

That’s it! We’ll switch to Composer Study in winter in leu of our Artist Study. Subjects like Shakespeare, tales and Folk Songs are done at different intervals each week, depending on our workload and extracurricular classes and activities.

I hope this encourages YOU to take your health and happiness into account as the temps cool down.

Stay tuned for some exciting fall updates I can’t WAIT to share with you soon!

Planning is Personal ✍🏻 4 Homeschool Fall Planning Tips + Ideas

As homeschool parents, we wear SO many hats—teacher, planner, chauffeur, chef and more. And if you also run a small business or are a creator/entrepreneur (like yours truly 🙋🏼‍♀️), it’s A LOT to manage, especially when each child is at a different stage in their learning journey. 

So I’ve put together a few tools and tips below👇🏻 to help you simplify your homeschool planning and stay organized throughout the year based on how my homeschool planning and record-keeping has evolved over the past 10 years. 

Before we dive in, I want to share a little disclaimer: 

I love spontaneity!

When things get too rigid or over-planned, I can start feeling boxed in and tempted to scrap everything. So, while I’m sharing our plans, remember that planning is personal!

Please don’t feel like you need to replicate what you see here—these are tailored to our family's unique rhythm, and no two days ever look exactly the same!

1) Plan at the End of Each Week 
(Instead of the night before):

Each Friday after lessons, I take 10-20 minutes to plan and prep for the upcoming week. This simple habit allows me to head into the weekend with confidence, knowing things are set for Monday—especially with weekends full of activities and sports (just like yours, I’m sure)!

This year, I’ve been using this teacher planner because of all the blank spaces and logbook all in one (In past years, I used this Moleskin and draw out each week myself).

2) Post-Plan, a Birds-Eye View Logbook

My Logbook is my birds-eye view of how we’re doing each term. I break it down into 6 week chunks (12 weeks = 1 term). 

It takes me 2 minutes to fill this portion out for the day while my kids are immersed in their independent lessons, filling in last-minute things we might have covered (but didn’t plan to) the day before.

As you can see, we do try to cover multiple subjects and topics each day and term. But we don’t try to cover them ALL.

Instead, we generally heavily focus on something specific such as specific science or history lessons or curriculum and then switch to something like a new foreign language or music the second term. 

No way we could fit everything in each week!

*Bonus Tip: Even if you didn’t cover a specific topic in your lessons but maybe your kids watched a video, listened to an audiobook in the car or did something creative like writing or painting in their free time, these are are equally important and valuable - so yes, mark it down!

3) Hourly Goals: At-a-Glance Notebook

I’m not super consistent with this yet, but I do find writing down hourly rhythms the night before allows me to wake up, stay focused and be more efficient with my time. 

Since I own a small curriculum business, I have to allot time to work on it or things don’t progress.

But at the end of the day, time with God, our family and my children’s education are my main priority and all else gets shoved aside.

I use this Moleskin Daily/Hourly Breakdown Notebook.

Bonus Tip #1- Just because you have an hourly breakdown in front of you doesn’t mean you should fill in each hour! Stay spontaneous!

Bonus Tip #2: These are “general” hourly breakdown allotments, oftentimes our oldest will have a class or homework during the time I have my “work” scheduled - so again - they’re guides, not absolutes!

4) Let your kids plan WITH you!

Why should mom be doing all the planning? Get your kids involved! Let them sit next to you as you discuss what your (and their) goals are and upcoming activities and weekly plans.

As they get into their middle and high school years, if you’re comfortable with this, let them decide how to spend their time and when/how they complete their lessons.

This helps kids learn time management skills and how to plan their own lives (because they won’t be under our roof forever). 

Our oldest uses this Student Planner to keep track of his daily lessons, homework and activities.

Whether you're a meticulous planner or prefer a more flexible approach, our Simple Studies Curriculum Guides are designed to adapt to your teaching style, are super flexible (simply open and do the next lesson) and give you confidence in your homeschool structure.

I’m here to help you enjoy this homeschool season while making it as smooth and stress-free as possible. Let me know if you have any questions or need some encouragement!