25 Great Living Books for Sneaky Summer Learning

Ah summer! With its simpler schedules, winsome weather, and daily adventures lurking around every corner, summer has a way of showing me how to slough off the pressures of the homeschool year.

I wish that were it.
I wish I could just pack up the learning, set it all in a back corner somewhere, and then dust it off three months later when I need to get the wheels spinning again.

But that's just simply not possible--at least not if I want to avoid the summer slide, that ghastly phenomenon that occurs when children's brains sit in idle for three months out of the year causing them to forget nearly 75% of what they previously learned.

What We're Reading in June 2019

This week, I joined forces with four other homeschooling moms you might know (Cindy West from Our Journey Westward, Mary Prather from Homegrown Learners and Squilt Music, Alicia Hutchinson of Over at Alicia's and The Learning Well Community, and Rachel Reeves formerly of the At Home Podcast and Rachel R. Reeves) to help you prevent summer slide.

3 Subjects I Don't Make Lesson Plans for and What I Do Instead

For the most part, a solid, well-organized plan is the first step in creating a successful homeschool year. When you can map out your entire homeschool year, schedule each lesson in a homeschool planner, and then use those plans as a home base--an anchor that allows you to wander and return with ease--you can ensure not just forward motion to your learning, but also bravery as you go.

A plan brings confidence. You don't have to succumb to willy-nilly or frayed edges. Your school year can be formalized, but also draped in so much freedom!

The Brave Homeschool Planner: A Planner For a Homeschool Mom By a Homeschool Mom

Extras always seem to weigh me down. They require work, rob me of my energy, and breed unnecessary guilt. As a busy, work-at-home, homeschooling mom, I don't have time for that. I'd rather focus my effort on things that bring me joy and add, not detract, from my day. And so I purge all the extras, guilt-free. I prune away any non-essentials...of my time, of my home, of my school.

Recently, I made the decision to paper purge. For years, I used a popular homeschool planner. And while I was happy with the basic set-up of the planner, I always felt a wee-bit burdened by the pages and pages of extras that I never really used. FOMO sometimes guilt-drove me to fill in the blanks. But all the time spent logging unnecessaries seemed like such a waste.

The Quick-Start Guide to Brave Homeschool Schedules

Do your homeschool days feel like an endless exercise in treading water but you look around and see no one else flailing--as if everyone has learned the secret to successful days but you?

Is there constant animosity between you and Monday morning?

Do you feel like a hamster on a wheel, running at full speed, but getting nowhere fast?

If so, then perhaps you need to re-order your days so that your school schedule works for your home and not against it.