Considering Homeschooling in NC?

Here are my top 10 helpful tips and ideas if you're just opening, thinking of, or have already been a homeschooler and are just looking for more information or fun/free ideas!

**Disclaimer - there are external links, I do not accept responsibility for anything you may find when you stray away from my blog.

1. http://ncadmin.nc.gov/citizens/home-school/file-intent-operate-home-school

  *** You will find EVERYTHING you need using this website, this link takes you to the intent to start a homeschool but once you're finished reading that click on home and go throughout the whole website, its catered to NC homeschooling so all of your questions should be answered there.

2. http://www.ncll.org/files/statelaws/2013/NCPacket.pdf

  *** This has the letter of withdrawal I used for taking the kids out of public schools, just the letter layout, and wording... DONT READ MORE INTO THIS BECAUSE ITS FOR A DIFFERENT STATE. This will be done after you have applied for your Homeschool with the first website.

3. http://ncadmin.nc.gov/citizens/home-school/high-school-graduation-unc-entrance-requirements

  *** this tells you what NC thinks your child should be learning by grade level

4. http://www.nwf.org/Kids.aspx

  *** This has games, recipes, activities and all sorts of things that help teach while being fun

5. http://www.tfhsm.com/ultimate-list-homeschool-for-free-resources-printables

  *** This has all kinds of websites and printables you can use to homeschool or supplement the Easy Peasy (EP listed below)

6. http://nchomeschoolinfo.com/testing-requirements/

  *** Testing requirements and all that are accepted by NC

7. http://www.onlineschools.org/homeschooling-guide/

  *** Just a simple laid out guide to all things you can do with homeschool and all kinds of good stuff

8. http://homeschoolerology.com/2015/09/travel-the-world-for-free-with-over-400-virtual-field-trip-virtual-tours-ideas-for-homeschoolers/

  *** Virtual fields trips to places all over the world

9. http://www.freehomeschooldeals.com/free-online-homeschool-curriculum/

  *** All kinds of free curriculums out there that you can use ********* sign up for her newsletter - she sends free things weekly and discounted stuff too and she's bible based as well (if you're a secular school, I however am not!)******

10. www.allinonehomeschool.com

  *** This is Easy Peasy I used this up until Christmas of my first homeschooling year and I loved everything about it other than the religious stuff (but we just skipped it) She has all kinds of answers for you and even a FB group you can get in with other families to talk with about her curriculum. It matches with NC standards even though she's from a different state.

I lost myself for a while...

I lost myself for a while...

I lost what it felt like
to be at peace with myself
to be one with myself
to be in control of my own mind
to be calm
to be loving/loved
to be spiritual
to be me.....


I drifted so far away from what I had taken so long to come in contact with that I'm not sure how I did it or how I even allowed it...

I had grown to meditate daily, to be calm and reserved, to not get caught up in control dramas, to just be and just like a snap of your fingers I lost it all completely.

For almost two years now, I have drifted I think just about as far away from that as I possibly could without getting completely lost. I did this all because I thought if I drifted from me then I could be more helpful for another. I forgot that I needed to look out for myself because I didn't think that I would need to during this time.

I was wrong, theres no need in getting into the details of what happened because it no longer matters. It's in the past and for me to move forward I have had to forgive, almost forget, and let it go..

I. Let. It. Go...

I done what I needed to do to better myself and to be able to move on in my life. I haven't felt this alive and like myself in so long that when I felt it again I was in an awe. It came on so suddenly and I was able to finally breathe, not that I wasn't breathing the entire time but I could focus on my breath I could feel it on my nostrils as I inhaled I could feel it touching every part of my lungs inflating them with the oxygen my body needs to live. I could feel my core, my center and I could feel the prana I was taking in. I felt it when it left my body when it touched the last of my nose before it was gone. I took a breathe for the first time in two years.

It was euphoric, it was amazing, it was beautiful. So beautiful.

I am finally becoming me once again after completely loosing who I was and I needed to share this somewhere to hopefully encourage someone else to find themselves again and to breathe for the first time in only they know when..

Take that breath, go to nature, gather the energy from Mother Earth and The Universe, find yourself <3

It been over a year...

Sorry, to whoever has read or wanted to read more into my life.

2017 was just an all-around bad year, for me at least. I know the rest of the world (from my perspective) didn't enjoy it too well either. But mine was just bad.

There are many things I cannot and will not even talk about on this blog but just know that I was stressed to the max and felt completely like giving up but alas I could not. I had kids to support and love and take care of along with my husband and home.

I have learned that my birth-month could in fact possibly be cursed. Why? Because it's surrounded by death. I did, however, learn this last year that August is, in fact, my most productive month. I have to find some way to keep all of the things out of my mind that I do not want there... Right?

Well anyway, yes I spent around $150 and was able to completely re-do my kitchen. The counters, cabinets and the walls (painting, at least). My kitchen is a multi-colored calm room now. It's got a deep burgundy, pale khaki, mint green, and coffee-colored array. In all its colors it just releases a calming effect... It may sound too much via all these words but in person, its really just perfect, I'll have to remind myself to add in some pictures so you can see how well they all go together.

My living room, on the other hand, is still in the midst of its renewal but then August ran out of days and I could actually slow down, but its what happened closer to the end that made me almost revert to an older version of me at the end of an August before...

Once fall had settled in though, the year had started to actually turn out okay and then by the time it did end we were feeling much better and doing much better.

Now, it's already into the second month of the year and I'm actually just really excited about it continuing the kids and us are just feeling all around a lot better than we had a year ago at this time.

I promise to try and keep updating at least once a month, as we continue to move forward into this new year!

xoxo

Winter break and Homeschool planning

So, I decided to school up until December 21st, not only would that give us a few extra days after all the gifts to enjoy them but it would help us to get extra days in to have a longer summer break (which we all want!) So, with that being said We have had almost 3 weeks "out"  of school. We don't start back until January 9th, which is awesome for everyone, they are enjoying all the games, toys and other gifts received and I'm getting a late (9 a.m.) morning to start/continue planning my, yes MY, curriculum, I am making from scratch for them.

We started off our school year using a secular based list of where to find things for each subject we needed, you can find it here.

Then we moved over to Easy Peasy All-in-One which is AWESOME. Bible-based which isn't our gravy but everything is laid out so perfectly with great free sites and worksheets and just complete AWESOMENESS! Seriously, I hated leaving it.

But, I didn't like them sitting in front of the computer to complete their work using the EP system, yes you can purchase workbooks and complete all work off-line, but I wanted to go almost free for our schooling, of course other than the necessary purchases to keep up with their work in case I need to have them to show, but I wanted everything online to be free and to teach them freely.

So, I have since Thanksgiving PUSHED myself to sever myself from EP and to take on making my own curriculum finding my own freebies and teaching my children MYSELF. This in no way is downing EP because I seriously still check back on her site to make sure I am somewhat following a line of what the kids should be learning by which day. She is awesome and has made an awesome site to help anyone!

With that being said I turned to Pinterest (find me here) and I found this other awesome blog about using Evernote to UNSCHOOL. Ah, I love the idea of unschooling but I am too much of a planner to try complete unschooling myself, but this Evernote helps you keep up with your thoughts and use Notebooks for different subjects and note inside each one to keep up with lesson plans and you can even add in real websites to keep up with what's going on in your mind!

Before I found Evernote I was using three different notebooks to try keeping up with my thoughts on each child and what I like and disliked about our homeschool and even tried keeping up with websites (which isn't that awesome on paper) so then I started bookmarking everything I found that I liked but HOW WAS I TO KEEP UP WITH WHICH ONE WAS FOR WHAT. Other than, of course, adding it into one of my three books and hoping to keep them lined up with one another. It was nice, I felt a bit organized but not as much as I wanted to be, so in comes Evernote.


I write in our Math concept notebook there, find an awesome and free website and I can add it into that note and write out what about it really stands out to me for whenever we get ready to touch base with it in our schooling. It's completely awesome. I am able to keep up with my rambles and thoughts while keeping up with any websites I find that also coincide with them. Even better than that, there are iOS and Android apps which sync with your Evernote on your computer. EVEN better than that, if you use Chrome web browser (I'm not sure about Firefox or Windows) you can add an extension which will allow you to choose a Notebook and add any notes to it when finding a website you want to use or remember.


I have all of our subjects lined up in their proper Notebooks and note inside those notebooks along with websites for printables I plan on using when teaching those, and they don't have to be in front of a screen more than 1 hour during a WHOLE school week. The only times they are in front of the screen is to learn to type and for their Ukulele lessons which in themselves are only 30 minutes 2 days a week.

I feel like an Evernote paid advocate but in only a week of finding and using it, I can say already it has helped me enormously!

Luckily my kids have been able to keep themselves entertained and getting along very well during this break and I've been able to do my planning usually before they wake up, but even when they are awake, Evernote has made it so easy to get things done and keep them organized that I can do this while they're running throughout the house playing Pokemon and roaring like lions.

Bullet Journals, School Journals, Dream Journals...

I've never been one to stay organized or even write down my thoughts as much as I have been lately. But, I feel that its one of the most awesome things I have come to do.

I have three journals in which I write in regularly, one in which I write in almost every day and the other two at least once a week -- depending on my thoughts for our Homeschooling or the dreams I have had the night before.

Dream journal - O.M.G. if you don't have one of these and have weird dreams that you feel have an underlying meaning to you, this is one of the best things to record and decipher your dreams. Dreams are our subconscious' way of telling us things we don't realize or don't want to realize in our waking moments, so recording them and then thinking back on them later could be helpful to figure out any personal problems or any memories in which you don't want to remember. I have realized many things about my own self by recording my dreams and meditating on them later, or even talking with my husband about them. There are plenty of places online to also look up meaning to certain things in your dreams such as animals and things they do, although I don't suggest any one website in which all of their possible meanings are true, I usually just go through and read a few before I decided what exactly was the reason for one thing in my dream and even then I still meditate on it, later on, to see if it's truly the meaning that was represented in my own dream. I also have my children doing this as well, especially if its a dream they feel weird about or remember very well.

School journal - This is something I use to keep up with my thoughts and various resources I may have found online to enhance our school days. I use it to really just keep organized even through keeping up with their work finished and to-do. I write down my thoughts about the kids learning as well and what I feel we could change to help understand different lessons. This helps to me to make sure that the kids are on track with what I have planned and that I know they're keeping up with the things I am trying to teach them. It has helped so much now -- I was using Easy Peasy and I still love it and still refer to it with some things, but I wanted to do homeschool to spend more time with each other and to not stare at a screen all day for "school" and this is only a personal preference. I do very much still love Easy Peasy and do use her resources as well in our "new" schooling but I prefer to have us away from screens more than EP usually does. So, having this journal has helped me keep my head on straight while still keeping up with three children and all their different grades and lessons and work to complete.

Bullet Journal - This thing. This. If you haven't heard of these please, I urge you to either search on google or Pinterest. These things are just... It's a blank book with dots spread on the pages for you to personalize it COMPLETELY to your own liking. This was the biggest reason I started on and I will not go back to a store-bought planner that's already laid out for me. I can keep up with my meals, weight loss, bill paying, and everyday activities while having a space to go in depth if need be or to just keep it simple. and I can change the layout whenever I want, add any pages I want, and add all the colors I want. It's the perfect planner for someone who likes to change things up or to be as personalized as possible. I use Northbooks journals simply because, its simple and made in the U.S. and honestly - cheaper than Moleskin and Leuchtturm1917 books. They have been fantastic so far so I haven't felt any need to try out the more expensive brands. I highly recommend trying one out even if you don't think you would use it enough, I didn't think I would and I'm already on my second one. I used to buy planners and write down various things in which I thought I would need to keep up with, hours I would have worked, anything weird that happened with my children, places we would go to for vacation and now I still write these down but I also go in depth with it as well almost like a planner and diary mixed together and the best part is that I get to personalize it exactly to how I want it to look without worrying about anything already being on the paper. I didn't think I would use it because of the time consumption in making out the weekly/monthly/daily layouts but its one of the best parts I get to be a bit creative and it's soothing to draw the boxes and write elegantly, since that's something I'm lacking lately by being a SAHM. It's one of the things that I just feel I couldn't live without now. 

So, there you go three things you can start doing today (well two if you don't homeschool) to help keep your thoughts separated yet together and to personalize a planner and actually use it.

Anxiety, Depression and fear, oh my!

This is a picture from walk with my children the past week during school

 I've tried keeping my blog posts to be more towards the postive sides and even now I am trying this, even with the caption at the top... Which describes what I will be touching base with today. In the past 2-3 years I've slowly turned into a very anxious and at one point very depressed soul -- though I am not sure as to exactly what my breaking point was to make me be this anxious I know that I have both hated and loved it. I loved the fact of always being home, not feeling rushed to go places and not having to change out of "comfy clothes" but on the other hand I knew, and still know because I am still struggling, I had to make a change, staying home like this and being this scared of everything wasn't healthy, and I needed to show my kids how to be strong adults and be able to go out and do things for themselves. But I was and still am scared to do these things. Sometimes when I have my children with me I am a bit stronger than when I am alone -- I pull myself together to show them that I am able to do things without needing a gaurdian and that its normal to go into the world to shop or pay bills or to simply eat a meal outside of the house every once in a while.

Now, that being said - today was an extraordinary day for me... Not that anything extravagent happened but I was able to get myself ready and go to the store alone... Not even with my children who are sometimes my rock when I need some encouragement. I was there alone and even got all of the things I went into the store to get -- there have been times, even when I had my husband or children with me that I just completely avoided an aisle with many things I needed to purchase simply because there were too many people in it, or too many people in the store period. I can't tell you how many times I've just said nope, we will choose something different and didn't look back, well, until we were home and I realized I should have gotten it because now I would have to change our whole meal plan or now I would have to improvise with another product. 

There was this one stretch where the only times I would get out of my own bed were to use the bathroom and get drink -- though they are dark days and sometimes my memory of them are blurry I know they happened and I know my kids wondered just how well I really was. Depression is a terrible thing... Luckily I realized early on in mine what I needed to do to better myself and I've slowly made my way back up with the help of them and my husband. I didn't involve them to show them how terrible I was or make them feel sorry for me to show them that even though we are down... Really, really down we CAN get back up. We CAN ask for help. We CAN be vulnerable. We CAN mend. It was a complete relationship changer for myself and my children. Before being depressed I can't remember if I every really did let them see me in a raw emotional state and well, I can't really remember every allowing myself to be in a raw emotional state and them seeing that even though you "grow up" you can still have big emotions was eye opening to them. They realized that emotions are with us no matter what age we are and that to feel them is the perfect thing to do with them. Somehow they were under the impression that grown-ups do not cry (though not from me) and seeing me being this open just made them realize feeling emotions was sad at times but what we needed to grow and to be open with ourselves and others.

I'm just really hoping this post can help someone who may be having a difficult time and feel there is no end in sight.... There is, my friend. I, for a long time, did not believe this but after my revelation and positive outcome today, I believe it wholeheartedly.

Mediation is key.. and sometimes a good book.

My last post was about how I cope with stress and ways in which I try to recenter myself when I know I become unbalanced.

It hasn't been easy and it hasn't been short, just now weeks later am I starting to realize the little but huge ways in which I brought myself back from the "beyond."

Meditating!

Meditating is key --- I know, I know, a lot of people feel meditation is too long or too hard to tackle. But you would be amazed at what a mere five minutes can do on an overly stressful day, and even when you don't feel you have an extra five minutes because of work or family or just life thats when you need to take it the most. I've slowly including a short 5-10 minute meditation with homeschool for my kids and even they say they feel a complete turn around from how they're minds and attitudes felt before doing so. I know sometimes trying to teach children how to just sit and be with themselves can seem even more stressful than including them but I have a four-year-old, a seven-year-old and an 11 year-old who all three have their own personalities and hate sitting still but I've used headspace to help them in learning how to let their mind free and it has done a world of difference in helping them see how to quiet their mind and also let their mind run free. We've only done the 10 day free trial and since then I have been showing them how I meditate... Such as, how I use mantra's, mala beads, sage burning and candles, and even tibetan singing bowls or listening to monks chant. When I allowed them a peak into my sacred meditation practices they let me know it was different than headspace but also nice because in a way I taught them that meditating is what they make of it. I did not coach them on what to do, how to sit, or what to make their mind do.

The first thing I showed them was sage and the way the smoke rises and blows and how relaxing the smell can be and of course the benefits of burning it. Then as I told them to watch the smoke I noticed (and they did too) an energy shift in them, they were very moody and hyper then slowly calmed down. Once they were calm I told them they could close their eyes now and think or not think or do whatever their minds wanted and even let them know that my own mind sometimes played storiers for me. I've also taught them about manifesting with an awesome back story to which they could relate. Then I let the music play and I kept up with the minutes and my younger two children getting antsy and slowly brought the music down and the lights up. They all let me know they enjoyed that so, maybe you too can start with headspace and move into your own sacred meditations.



Now, a good book!


I think I have shared this one before but, its too good not to do it again, I am rereading it now, The Untethered Soul is an awesome book in learning about your mind and ways to reprogram it. But sitting down with a good book and escaping the stresses of life can really just make a huge difference. I noticed once I was reading and actually into a good book that I was less stressed out than before and enjoyed that feeling. Even if you're not an avid reader or barely touch books just a short time every day could make a huge difference in your life. Start with shorter books and work your way up, or start with a series -- Harry Potter (my favorite and its rereadable), Percy Jackson, The Hunger Games -- I could go on and on but a good book... Is just perfect for an overactive mind and a stressed out one!