Homeschooling documents to share

I want to share homeschooling documents/resources that I create, to help other homeschooling families (or teachers who are looking for supplemental resources.) To see all the documents I have available, just click the "homeschool downloads" tab at the top of this post. Or you may easily view and print or download all of my documents by clicking this: cbethblog's Scribd documents.

You may use any of these documents for any purpose as long as you are not selling them or otherwise making a profit from them.

Character Trait: Respect
We will be focusing on a different character trait each week. Our first is Respect. To see all the character traits, click the "character traits" label at the bottom of this post.

Character Trait Respect

Labor Day Worksheet
We are doing a unit on Labor Day this week. Today I told the kids about the history of Labor Day in the U.S. (based on this article.) Early labor rights protestors asked for "8 hours of work, 8 hours of rest, 8 hours of recreation." This two-page worksheet is based on that concept.

Labor Day 24 Hours Worksheet

Writing Paper

I've made several types of blank writing paper that can be used for a variety of purposes.

Daily Journaling Paper (Primary-Ruled Writing/Illustration Paper)

Primary Ruled Writing Illustration Paper

Primary-Ruled Writing Paper

Primary Ruled Writing Paper

Small Pictures Plus Wide-Ruled Lines Paper

This is the paper we used for our science project on our first day of school. Chickie taped nature items in the boxes and used the lines to describe her observations about each item.

Small Pictures Plus Wide Ruled Description Page

Wide-Ruled Writing Paper
This is not primary-ruled but is much wider than typical wide-ruled paper.

Wide Ruled Writing Paper

Our first days of homeschooling

Well, we've completed two days of homeschooling, which makes me an expert!

Or, maybe not quite an expert. Truth be told, I'm figuring this out as I go along. But I'm having fun doing it!

The kids were so excited to start their first day of homeschool!

Chickie, 1st grade

Zoodle, Pre-K

We have a daily schedule (that may be tweaked through the year!)

So yesterday morning, we had breakfast and read a Bible story/devotion from this book:

(Click the picture to see the listing on Amazon.)

The Kindle version of this book is currently $3.99, but Amazon Prime members can borrow it for free. My kids have really been responding well to it. It's interactive, with questions at the beginning and the end, and the Bible story is short--appropriate for their ages (six and four.)

We then did the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States flag, using a computer flag image. (We did the same with our state flag and the Christian flag.)

Then it was time to get to work! I'm having Chickie start each day with 15 minutes of free journaling. I instructed her to fill up all the lines on the page with writing, and then to draw a picture to go along with what she wrote. Zoodle wanted to get in on the action too.

Today I took a video of them explaining what they'd written and drawn.



Next I pulled out our calendar so we could review the day and date, and the kids took a quick trip outside to check out the weather, which we briefly discussed. I ordered a wall calendar that will facilitate this calendar/weather time, and I'm looking forward to its arrival.

Each week we'll be focusing on one character trait that I want the kids to incorporate into their lives. This week it's respect. We talked about how to be respectful, and reviewed a pertinent Bible verse.

Then it was time to do the work I'd planned for the day. Both kids did various worksheets. Chickie's covered reading, writing, math, and social studies. Zoodle is currently doing worksheets that help him learn to recognize and write letters, but he also watches some of what his sister does.

Next it was time for science. The kids were very excited to do this project! We went outside, where they collected various small nature items.

Back inside, Chickie taped her items to paper and wrote brief observations about each item. (The ladybug was dead before we picked it up and taped it to the paper....)

Zoodle turned his into a nature art project. (Wow, that kid can use a lot of tape!)

Finally, it was time for Chickie to do 20 minutes of quiet reading, a very important part of our daily schedule! So far she's been happy to read out loud so that Zoodle can share the stories too. I'm so glad my girl has inherited my love for reading! She really has an aptitude for it!

And that completed our first day of homeschooling. Today was similar. Chickie is really enjoying it. Zoodle told me it's boring (except the science part), and I assured him he doesn't have to sit there the whole time. He's just in pre-K, and I don't mind if he's playing during much of our "school day." So we'll try to find a good balance for him. He likes learning, but his attention span is shorter than his sister's, and that's okay.


Now that this happy mommy is a happy, homeschooling mommy, I imagine I'll be writing a lot about our adventures in home education. Whether or not you're a homeschooler, I appreciate you reading!

Maybe it really is more blessed to give than to receive

For Father's Day (yeah, yeah, I know, it was a couple of months ago, and this blog post is super-late...) Chickie made a coupon book for her dad, during her Sunday School class.

I looked at the first coupon.

Um, okay, maybe Daddy would like a walk too.

And, you know, maybe he really does want to watch her at the pool.

Okay, that settles it. She really didn't get the point behind this project at all.

But I'm sure she's very anxious for Daddy to "redeem" his coupons....