encouraging words from homeschooling parents & educators I CAN HOMESCHOOL "When One teaches, two Learn!" – Robert Heinlein "When one teaches, two learn!" - Robert Heinlein Isn't that right? I often learn new things while teaching our children, or I brush up on the old forgotten dusty math skills I once used to have. Homeschooling can be wonderful but also challenging at times. For those of us that choose to homeschool our children, homeschooling is life; and in life, things happen. We all have good days and bad ones, and our children are certainly not shielded from when we fall short. But that is life and we need to prepare them for life's challenges, not just academic excellence. We have an excellent window of opportunity during which we can instill the values and habits we hold dear to our hearts so that one day, they can independently set sail to life's magnificent adventures! Welcome, friend! I hope this ebook will encourage and guide you on your journey and that the resources from the homeschooling mamas will be helpful all along! With love, Anita WWW.MYMEGABUNDLES.COM C O N T E N T HOW TO ENRICH YOUR CULTURE STUDIES WITHOUT GETTING ON A PLANE 05 PREHISTORIC PARENTS WHAT WE CAN LEARN ABOUT EDUCATION FROM OUR DISTANT ANCESTORS 08 WHAT I'VE LEARNED IN 11 YEARS OF HOMESCHOOLING 1 1 SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING 1 4 HOW LOOP SCHEDULING CAN IMPROVE YOUR HOMESCHOOL 1 7 I HAVE MY PRINTABLES, NOW WHAT? 20 HOW TO PREPARE MONTESSORI-STYLE ACTIVITY TRAYS, USING PRINTABLES 22 MONTESSORI LEARNING AT HOME 25 HOMESCHOOLING SIBLINGS 33 CREATING OUTDOOR SPACES THAT SUPPORT LEANING 35 SIMPLE WAYS TO INTEGRATE ART INTO YOUR HOMESCHOOL 39 CHOOSING, PRESENTING AND ENHANCING MATH PRINTABLES THE MONTESSORI WAY 41 SENSORY PLAY AND LEARNING ACTIVITIES 43 FINDING YOUR HOMESCHOOLING RHYTHM 45 THINKING OUTSIDE OF THE BOX 47 PRACTICAL LIFE IN THE REAL WORLD 49 HOW TO HOMESCHOOL WITH LITTLE ONES IN TOW 52 THREE GO-TO REMINDERS FOR HOMESCHOOLING 54 HOMESCHOOL PORTFOLIOS 56 Jo | 193 LITTLE ADVENTURES CLUB How to Enrich Your Culture Studies Without Getting on a Plane It would be wonderful to be able to jump on a plane to take our children to learn about all the different cultures, animals and historic places that we can experience around the world. Unfortunately this isn't possible for most of us. But that doesn't mean that we can't teach our kids about the world, and get them curious about different people and ways of living. Here are some easy ways that you can add culture studies to your week without breaking the bank or dealing with jetlag. I'm Jo Ebisujima, a best selling Montessori author and multi- passionate entrepreneur. I run The Wonder Mom Success Club - a membership for entrepreneur moms to get support while building their business. And also 193 Little Adventures Club - where families can take a virtual adventure to a different country every month. I built my business around my family, living & homeschooling in Japan. I use “Follow The Child” in every aspect of my parenting journey. I created 193 Little Adventures because I truly believe that if children learn about different cultures and ways of being from an early age, there would be less hatred and more compassion and understanding in the world. ❤ I CAN HOMESCHOOL 5 Where in the world do they eat this? Is it similar to something we eat? What is the taste/texture like? Can you compare it to something we usually eat? How is it prepared/cooked? Do you like it? Why or why not? If it is related to a celebration you can talk about that too. FOOD Food is such an important part of our culture. Whether is be our staple meals or celebration foods. It is a great way to get talking about a different culture and what they eat. You could try a new dinner recipe or just a snack. Getting the kids in the kitchen means that you are working on their practical life skills at te same time. Questions to ask: MUSIC Thanks to services such as YouTube and Spotify we now have access to music from all for corners of the world. If you are a musical family you might want to learn about the different types of instruments and types of music. If you want to keep it low key, hop onto YouTube/Spotify and do a search with a country name + traditional music and see what pops up. YouTube has the advantage of often having a video too. You can build this into your daily routine, say at clean up time at the end of the day, take it in turns to pick a country. Find a track to listen to as you tidy up. I CAN HOMESCHOOL 6 Recipes books Traditional stories from other cultures Focused on a celebration or festival such as Diwali, Tanabata or Day of the dead. Stories that are set in a specific country Specific historical landmarks or events Country-specific animals - kids love learning about animals, whether it’s an obsession with snakes or the love of elephants, there is an animal for everyone. FOOD Apart from the obvious encyclopedias and atlases there are lots of books that can help our kids learn about the world. Make sure when you go to the library to include one or two in your weekly selection. Even if the child doesn’t read it cover to cover, dipping in and out with build their curiosity. +1 POSTCARD SWAP Yes, this one takes a bit more effort but it can be a lot of fun, especially if you don't receive much physical mail these days. Hit up your Facebook/Instagram friends and see who would be interested in doing a postcard swap. I have organised a few, including ones where we swapped easy recipes on the postcard. Also ask your swappers to use a pretty postage stamp rather than the generic ones. Helping kids to be more curious and accepting of other people, their religion, way of life, culture etc is a huge step towards a more loving and peaceful community so any time that a question comes up try and answer it. And if you don’t know the answer... there is always Google! In the jojoebi Resource library you can get a 30 page pack of Animals Around The World 3 Part-cards plus continent cards plus many other printables to keep the kids busy and engaged. New items are added every month. Get your FREE access pass here Jo I CAN HOMESCHOOL 7 Carmen | DESIGN STUDIO TETI Prehistoric Parents What we Can Learn about Education from our Distant Ancestors Education has come a long way since the days of rulers used for discipline and nearly windowless classrooms to promote focus. Nevertheless, more and more parents are looking at ways to get back to more simple times. What if we delve back in time even further? Turns out, prehistoric parents can teach us a bunch about education! Observe, imitate, do Prehistoric infants and toddlers got to observe almost everything there was to learn in their world. From the safety of an auntie’s arms or the back of their mother, they saw and absorbed everything the grown-ups were doing. After observing how to look for berries (and, more importantly, which ones to avoid), how to build shelter, and how to interact peacefully with your fellow humans, once they were physically ready, the little ones were capable to start imitating. Montessori-loving mama of two tiny tots that I try to get outside in the Dutch sunshine as much as possible. Indoors, I love sitting down with a cup of coffee and designing printables that are inspired by them. My shop covers a broad range of items, ranging from teaching materials to resume templates to wedding planners. I CAN HOMESCHOOL 8 And very quickly to start actually doing the tasks for themselves. Our modern-day takeaway: show your child everything you’re doing, even if they can’t participate yet. That could look like wearing your baby when doing laundry and inviting your toddler to sit next to you while answering emails for work. Storytime Sitting around a fire and listening to exciting stories is more than just a fun way to end a productive day. Hunter-gatherers might not have guessed it, but hearing stories about the history of their people does wonders for the mental health of children. Being in touch with their roots helps little ones make sense of their world and feel connected. Try telling your kids stories about what school looked like for their grandparents and about your favorite toys when you were their age. They’ll love it - and it’s great for them. Invisible safety net Toddlers and preschoolers are surprisingly capable. But clearly, anticipating dangerous situations isn’t yet their strong suit! To keep them safe and still provide lots of opportunities for practicing autonomy, prehistoric parents used an invisible safety net. For example, when a two-year-old decided to follow the men hunting on a treacherous trail, mom sent a nine-year-old along to look out for her, but without being seen. To help your own child develop autonomy, try to be as unobtrusive as possible when you need to keep her safe. Perhaps you can issue less warnings or simply talk less in certain situations. Or you can try looking casual beneath the monkey bars, while actually standing on high alert. I CAN HOMESCHOOL 9 Helping out fellow humans Prehistoric kids were very much involved in the care of little ones. Toddlers helped entertain babies. Five-year-olds taught toddlers how to fish. Nine-year-olds taught five-year-olds how to hunt. That’s prime education for not only the younger child but, the older child as well. So if you’ve got a couple of kids, never feel bad for asking them to help take care of a sibling. Speaking of help, little kids are highly motivated to learn, especially if it helps their fellow humans. The great thing about this is not just what they learn from the task or that they take stuff off your plate. Most importantly, it’s like magic for keeping their motivation going and building good character. Children are very sensitive to whether they are actually helping or not, and when they are, they feel like a valued member of the tribe. Letting children help is, of course, completely in line with the Montessori approach. One more hint straight from the Stone Age: Make sure to collaborate as much as possible since little kids love nothing more than doing things together with you. An extra benefit is that this provides a personalized lesson. Carmen I CAN HOMESCHOOL 10 For the Love of Homeschooling was created from my desire to share the beauty that homeschooling can be and to encourage others along the way! Our family has been homeschooling for 11 years now! This year we had a 9th grader, 6th grader, 4th grader, 1st grader, and our rainbow baby who was born in May 2021. Over the years, as our family has grown and walked through different seasons of life our homeschool style has changed a ton. We've done the heavily structured homeschool schedules, completely unschooled & done a mix of the two. But no matter what our days look like I've found that a present and loving teacher or parent is truly all our children need to thrive! Aside from homeschooling and running For the Love of Homeschooling, we are homesteaders at heart who love to raise as much of our own food as possible and always have an array of baby animals to keep us busy and smiling. We are also very new tiny house dwellers (yes, a tiny house with 7 people) and are currently building our off-grid home in northern Canada! It's definitely been a learning curve and I've had to drastically downsize our homeschool supplies but we are loving the peace and restfulness that this simpler lifestyle has brought us. I share about all of those things and more on our family's personal Instagram account over on @thisgrowinglife Samantha | FOR THE LOVE OF HOMESCHOOLING What I've Learned in 11 Years of Homeschooling After over a decade of homeschooling and years of sharing our family's homeschool journey on Instagram, I often get homeschool-related questions from moms and homeschool families from many different walks of life. From new homeschool moms who want to know where to start. From tired homeschool moms who want to know how to press through when things aren't going the way, they had planned. From lonely homeschool moms who don't have a support system in place and often feel completely alone. I hope that these 5 points will help each and every one of you, no matter what stage of this homeschool journey you are on. If you found these helpful, head to the link below to read 5 more tips! Click Here > 10 Things I’ve Learned in 10 Years of Homeschooling I CAN HOMESCHOOL 11 Let go of anything that is not bringing you AND your children joy. It may be a curriculum that you thought you would love. It may be a unit study that you planned for weeks. Whatever it is, if it's taking the joy out of learning set it aside. There have been so many times that I have had to do this very thing. And even though it's been hard at times, my children & I are so much happier when our lessons & days consist of the things that fill us with joy. Know your why. We all have different reasons for homeschooling & I have found that it is so important to write down what those are. Your life's circumstances will change. Your children's needs will change. You as a mother will change. Your why may even change too! But on the hard days, when I have felt overwhelmed and been tempted to ship them off to the closest school (yes, we all feel that way at times) I have found that by going back to my whys I am able to re-center and to focus on the most important things which for me are spending my days learning alongside my children. Never allow someone else's light to dim your own by comparing your homeschool with theirs. Okay. Read that again. Friends, this one is so important. No one's homeschool is as pretty as it looks on social media. There is a lot of encouragement and wisdom online but as soon as you start to look at someone else's homeschool and feel inadequate, it's time to step back and remind yourself that all your child really needs is YOU. 1 2 3 I CAN HOMESCHOOL 12 Don't panic if your child isn't where you think they're "supposed to be" in a subject. They each learn in their own way and at their own speed and our job is to cheer them on along the way. In our home we've had children start reading at 3 and at 10. I have children who excel at history, science and nature study but who may take longer to grasp a new math or phonics concept. No matter what their learning journey looks like all of them are extremely bright and well-rounded but even more importantly they are kind and compassionate human beings. And that, my friends, is my goal. Hard days and even hard seasons will come ... and that's okay. It's okay to not have it all together every day. It's okay to cancel school & have a movie day once in a while. And it's okay to admit that some days are hard. This does not mean you are failing. It doesn't mean that your children would be better off in a regular school. It means that you are human & since you are raising little humans it's probably okay for them to know that hard days happen to us all. And when they do happen they will see firsthand that it is okay to be gentle with yourself, it's okay to redirect & it's okay to take a break. I hope that these tips are helpful! If you would like to follow along with our family’s homeschool journey you can follow us on Instagram @thisgrowinglife or join our For the Love of Homeschooling @fortheloveofhomeschooling We also provide weekly freebies to the homeschool community that you can receive by signing up to our email list or visiting us at https://www.fortheloveofhomeschooling.com/featured-freebie 4 5 ❤ Samantha I CAN HOMESCHOOL 13 Self-directed Learning Does Not Have to be Unpredictable or Organised Gaby | GABITAT EMPORIUM Hi I’m Gaby from Gabitat Emporium. I am a home educator to my little boy who guided us to take this route with self led learning when he was a baby. I am a huge advocate of play and self led learning. I decided on intuitive parenting with my first child and ditched all the parenting books, how to train your child to pee, eat or sleep. Personally I found these books and milestones very stressful and was overwhelmed by it all and decided not to read anymore so I cuddled my child next to me to sleep and did what was right for us instead of trying to keep up with other people’s expectations of what my child should be doing and his milestones. I had no idea Home Education/Schooling existed and to my delight there was an intuitive way to educate my child too; it’s known as Self-directed learning. And that’s when it all came together for us and here we are still happily immersed into how the Earth began or his beautiful fascination with STEM Sisters and inspirational women of the past – he’s just turned 6. Though I tend to use different ways of educating my child, a bit from every style depending on the activities. Structured, semi structured, self led, the list goes on. My favourite method is self directed learning and my child is a natural, self starter so it was easier to go with the flow from the start of our adventures together. He took the lead. And I’m grateful for the day decided to ‘let go‘ of thinking what everyone else was doing around us or asking “how are you going to teach him if you’re not a teacher”. I CAN HOMESCHOOL 14 I drew a blank too and looked inward and found I already had the answers, I too had taught myself on many occasions and enjoyed it much more than being taught by someone with less passion for a subject than myself, so why would a child not benefit from this self-directed learning style? How different would he be if he wasn’t spoon fed everything? brains with irrelevant facts but to let the interests take us somewhere, to pursue our excitement and abilities to follow a path living life to the fullest and be happy. Trusting my child that he will learn what he needs to, and enjoy learning without limitations like a bell in the playground or class to stop an activity just as he’s immersed into something fully. He will learn to love learning and experience so much. First I took out the word ‘teach’ from our vocabulary and mind set and the word ‘work’ or anything that created suggestions of school, milestones and deadlines, I personally need some semi structure as I’m not just a parent and home educator, I also work part time and running a home, so it had to work without stress, so that I can switch into my work without working late in to the evening after cleaning up the house once he was asleep. Or I prioritise what is actually achievable without overwhelm, as life is not that simple. You become the facilitator, not the teacher. Though it's my whole responsibility as a parent to now educate my child, I figured that the whole reason we learn at school or anywhere else is to learn to enjoy learning, not just fill our If you’re new to this concept, it will be hard to let go of the feeling that you need an itinerary for every day. You may even fear it at first because you won’t have prepared anything and you might find yourself feeling overwhelmed with the feelings of trying to control or guide the child to something specific and that’s all OK, just acknowledge it, it’s part of the process of releasing how you’ve been programmed the way you were taught and how to think. Now it’s time to trust the process and follow your child’s interests fully and be taken on an adventure, which in their minds is what they wish to learn and I truly believe you will enjoy it too. I CAN HOMESCHOOL 15 TO HELP INITIATE THE SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING ADVENTURE PLEASE SIGN UP TO DOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATES HERE www.gabitatemporium.com Enjoy, Gabi x I sometimes ask my Son “What do you want to know about?” The list is usually 3 things and they’re really good questions. Like “who controls the weather” or “why are there 26 letters in the alphabet?” I leave the list around so we can check in with where we are going with it and it’s totally OK not to get time to answer any of those questions too and be side tracked by new interests. I leave the questions written on a hand painted piece of upcycled card. Self directed learning is endless and constantly ebbs and flows. Try asking your child what they would like to find out about each week. Add craft suggestions, and books, but always ask them the question first, like how do we find out about this? And let them show you What do you want to know about? - if they don’t, then show them suggestions, and they soon follow this same method the next week and the week after as they learn to become the lead through the process. You’ll look back and sigh relief as they naturally find passion for learning and searching for resources, it will be initiated by them. I CAN HOMESCHOOL 16