Mama's Musings

Did you know that there are FREE worksheet generators online?  I don't have a preferred one, I just search and use whatever appeals.  I just tested this one though, to make a handwriting sheet  for Zeah, and it worked fine.  I printed a page, and also saved it as a pdf.

I used to use worksheet generators when my older kids were young too, to make wordsearches and other activities they enjoyed related to their current unit study or topic of interest.  For little learners, I'd often make pages using our names and address words, because they liked things related to our family, and it was useful for them to know these words.  You can make worksheets and other games for learning at any stage.  Flashcards are awesome for adults learning a language, for example.

Worksheets aren't necessarily the boring, futile teaching tool they're often made out to be.  Personalised worksheets, in particular, can be lots of fun!  Happy printing!

I'm SO excited to have feedback from my first participants of my first online mini-course - 7 Days to a More Organised Homeschool!  This course has been tested over the past few weeks by a small group of homeschooling parents and it's NOW READY FOR YOU!

Here are some of their comments:

"I liked the handouts/printables and the way you organise them so people can print what they need/want."

"I thought your structure was great - the way the course went from the big picture down, macro to micro - yearly, monthly, weekly, then daily."

"It was great how you encouraged parents to include their children in planning."

"My favourite printout was the Order in the House tools list."

"Are you sure about the price?  You've included a LOT of content in this course!"

"I like how you made it clear at the start what we'd need to proceed through the sessions.  I decided to create the whole workbook and go through each step.  Thank you."

"I'm glad it didn't need to be done in 7...

For me, my children’s learning styles were really evident from a young age. I have a background in Developmental Psychology and Primary Teaching, so I’m naturally interested in children, their growth and their educational needs.

But I also think most parents would be able to see in their children what makes them thrive – are they very active?, do they love stories?, are they good listeners?, do they need very specific instructions?, can they complete a task independently or do they like to have someone to support them?, are their fine motor skills developed enough to hold a pencil?, are they asking questions or making observations about numbers, letters, colours, shape, size – and/or interacting with you when you speak of these things?

I tried not to push my children to do what they were not ready to do. I sometimes encouraged them to try a bit with something that wasn’t that interesting for them (such as improving handwriting, or swimming lessons),...

I share printable resources I've made to my email subscribers and on my Facebook page and group.  There are three up on the Resources page right now too!

As a Friday Freebie this week, I'd like to share a new one for the littles (or young at heart)... an animal-themed super-simple weekly planner page - ideal to print, laminate and use with a whiteboard marker over and over again!  

Exciting News!

Kelly from Fearless Homeschool is running a rare live session of her Zero to Homeschool course!

Here’s a quick overview -

Full course access – instant & lifetime
July 6 – August 28
Weekly live coaching sessions
Accountability (so you actually do it!)

Over eight weeks you’ll go through one module a week. You’ll meet for a live session once a week where Kelly does some extra teaching, answers questions, and helps troubleshoot your issues. She’ll even record it so you can watch if you can’t make it live.

At the end of the eight weeks you’ll have a personalised homeschool that’s interesting, enjoyable, AND educational (and that you don’t want to run away from).

If that’s EXACTLY what you need right now, you can join Zero to Homeschool here.  Enjoy!

We did Queensland handwriting books at about age 6 for printing, and age 10 for cursive writing. I'm not sure anyone finished their books, though, they really disliked them.

I also bought the dotted thirds lined exercise books and would write words and sentences relevant to the children - names, address and other locations, friends, family, pets, words related to their interests... This was a more popular method than the workbooks.

I used to get them to write on my shopping list, or on the calendar, and they wrote cards and occasional letters to family and friends. The older ones had penpals, but the younger ones used email for communicating with friends far away.

As they got older, if it was evident that their handwriting was still both a chore for them and not very neat, we tried keeping a journal. This of course helped with other aspects of writing such as composition and grammar. Most of them disliked journaling, so it was abandoned fairly soon.

For some we tried Copywork....

We love Twinkl for printables and inspiration.  We took advantage of the full free access during the covid-caused global homeschooling era, and we were rapt to see they're offering discounts for home educators this week so we can continue to access the resources.

Are you creating things with little people?  I often am!  I have a few craft books to inspire, but I don't regularly use them...  I normally search online for a specific theme, eg: "rainbow craft preschool".  Or sometimes I search for activities to use up specific materials, eg: "seedpod crafts".  I have the beginnings of a folder of ideas in Pinterest, but I forget to add to it!

We like to use materials from nature, mixed with materials that can be composted.  We try to avoid plastic, foam, synthetic fibres, over-packaged kits, single-use everything!  I remember about 20 years ago taking my tribe of small children to playgroup and coming home with at least four creations made from plastic and styrofoam, glitter and googly eyes.  And another four the next week.  And over and over until our home was filled with non-recyclable art that inevitably ended up in the bin.  We still have way too many precious creations floating...

Here's a great opportunity...

A free video workshop - 7 Simple Steps to Create Your Own Homeschooling Curriculum

HERE’S WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO LEARN
– How to create a curriculum based on real life
– How to meet the needs of homeschool registration while remaining flexible and family-centred
– How to easily integrate skills for adult life in your curriculum

I only received these recently, but I love them already!  Not sure if this is a resource for the kids, or for me...

These Grow Do It Permaculture Action Cards were written by Charlie Mgee (based on his awesome musical offerings) and illustrated by Brenna Quinlan.  There are 63 different cards and they are large.

So far I've used them with Zeah (4) and we've done matching type activities to identify what goes with what...  eg: choose a principle card such as Catch and Store Energy.  It was interesting to hear her reasons for matching certain cards, and also useful for me to have to explain my reasons.  Because she can't read yet, we mostly used the illustration side of each card.

I love Permaculture.  I love open-ended resources which can be used in multiple ways - from setting challenges to action games to creative prompts.  I think these ones are well worth the investment, and I love how ethically they are produced, packaged and promoted.  Each...