April 03, 2024

FREE Counting Bird Activity Set

April 03, 2024/ Erin Cox

I was browsing Pinterest the other day, looking for some printable activities to use alongside explore birds with my preschooler. I wanted a fun, bird-themed opportunity to review basic math and counting skills that fit the season. Our yard is freshly filled with birds in the early spring, and there’s really no better time of year to pull our feathered friends into our homeschool time.

March 25, 2018

107 Books to Read Before Age 7 (FREE Printable List!)

March 25, 2018/ Erin Cox

Wow! Have you looked lately for books for your little ones and been completely overwhelmed? There are SO many- and how can we know they are good books that are of high literary quality and don't counter with our beliefs and family culture until we've bought them? My sweet friend Hayley and I wanted to combine forces and share a powerful list of 107 books that we feel like every child should have read to them (or read) before age 7.

Many lists like this include a majority of chapter books or books for children with longer attention span. We have many of those, but rest assured that this collection also includes shorter picture books with gorgeous, engaging illustrations and fewer words per page.

January 30, 2018

The REAL Reason Behind Your Homeschool Slump

January 30, 2018/ Erin Cox

It's January... which means we are all on a downhill slide. The busyness and craziness and fun of Christmas has all been quieted, and we are left to our own devices (often trapped inside from the frigid temps). If you're like me, this anticlimactic time following the depths of winter as we roll past the New Year can usher in boredom, exhaustion, and cabin fever. We oftentimes enter what's now commonly referred to as a "slump" in our homeschool year.

But why? Is it fully triggered by gloomy weather and post-holiday blues? I suspect there's something else lurking beneath this battle almost every homeschool Mama faces each year...

January 21, 2018

How I Taught My Profoundly Dyslexic Daughter to Read {on Grade Level}- FREE Worksheet Available

January 21, 2018/ Erin Cox

here's little that strikes more fear into a homeschool mom's heart than the idea of teaching her child to read. It seems that every aspect of their child's future success is hinged upon this necessary, often ominous, skill. I know some homeschool parents that send their children to school for kindergarten and first grade, just to skip the stress of it! So, for a new homeschool mom to be greeted with a child whom she is doing everything "by the book" for and nothing seems to be sticking... well, it honestly feels like their deepest fears of inadequacy are coming to fruition.

You can feel like you must be the biggest homeschool failure in the world when you've been working diligently to teach your child phonics for over a year, and they still know less than a handful of sounds. You can be certain you've ruined your child's future when they are 7, and despite working to identify letter NAMES since they were 4, they still visibly struggle to name each letter. You can feel like pulling your hair out when your child sounds out CCCCC-AAAAAA-TTTTTT on one page, then sees it again 8 more times in the SAME book (seconds apart) and STILL has to sound it out like she's never seen the word in her life every single time. You can get seriously ready to quit homeschooling altogether (I certainly know this).