While unpacking from our recent move, I found a box of homeschooling booklets we used to sell for $5 each at homeschool conventions. (They later became part of my book The Imperfect Homeschooler’s Guide to Homeschooling.)

I don’t have room to keep these here, so I’m offering them FREE on a first-come, first-served basis. Just send me a self-addressed business (4 1/8″ X 9 1/2″) envelope stamped with TWO first-class stamps, and I’ll send you a booklet. THIS OFFER IS ONLY GOOD WHILE SUPPLIES LAST. You can request a specific title and if we still have copies left, you’ll get it. Otherwise, it’s potluck.

The booklets are:

115 Organizing Tips for Homeschoolers

Need help getting organized? This 34-page booklet is packed full of proven ideas for:

• Getting your homeschool organized
• Establishing a homeschool filing system
• Running your home
• Living (and homeschooling) with small children
• Keeping up your energy

Learn to handle the many responsibilities and challenges that come with being a homeschool mom.

Covering All the Bases

Do you ever ask yourself:

• How do I know if we’re studying the right subjects at the right times?
• Are we covering all the bases?
• What are the bases anyway?
• Are we using the right materials?
• Are my kids doing OK?

This 30-page booklet includes information about curriculum choices, Scope and Sequence, and achievement testing, as well as tips for designing your own curriculum.

Overcoming Obstacles to Homeschooling

Do you struggle when it comes to homeschooling? Are there obstacles in your way? This 30-page booklet covers topics including:

• Defeating the habits that keep you from working with your children
• Dealing with relatives’ disapproval
• Thriving despite personal or financial difficulties
• Boosting your homeschooling confidence

Discover the personal habits and traits that may be holding you back, and learn how to eliminate them. Don’t let obstacles keep you from homeschooling!

HOW TO ORDER

Just send your SASE (remember, you’ll need two 44-cent stamps on your SASE because these booklets are big) to:

Cardamom Publishers

P.O. Box 743

Janesville, WI 53547

(Feel free to share this offer with your homeschooling friends.)

And there wasn’t anything especially bad about that, except that after the initial excitement wore off, my kids started to get bored. Instead of being excited about doing school, they ranked it right down there with making their beds and setting the table—something we have to do, so let’s get it over with.

That was not in my game plan. I didn’t want them to be bored. I was bored in school, and I still recalled how bad that felt. I wanted my kids to enjoy school.

What I soon realized was that while they might have been bored with school, my kids still loved learning. They enjoyed visiting museums. My daughter read through stacks of books without my telling her to do so. And my son drew beautiful, detailed pictures that were not assigned by me.

I even became bored by the assignments I was teaching the kids, and it must have been around that time that I came up with the idea of playing store. I labeled some items in our pantry (using prices written on sticky notes), then dug up all the spare change I could find.

I became the storekeeper, and the kids became the shoppers. They’d choose an item from the pantry and pay me for it. Often I had to make change for them. Soon they were buying more than one item at a time and figuring out how much they owed me. Before long, they started taking turns being the store-keeper. This became a game they enjoyed for a long time, but I think I probably learned the most from that experience, because I saw that homeschooling didn’t have to be boring, like formal school was for me as a child.

This success led me to become more creative with our homeschooling. Since my first two children were only 18 months apart, they studied most subjects together, and that made it easy to come up with math games. Their favorite math game came about by necessity. I was pregnant with our third child, and spending a lot of time on the sofa. While beached there, I’d hold up a flash card, and throw it to whichever child gave the correct answer first. The child who collected the most cards won. Since the kids were very competitive with each other, they soon learned their math facts (which I’d been unsuccessfully trying to force into their heads by using written timed drills, as advised by our curriculum). This way was much easier and a lot more fun.

Making learning fun started to seep into other areas of our homeschooling. I made a little game out of putting the books of the Bible in order. I made small cards with the name of a book on each, and then let the kids put them in order. This way they were using their hands along with their minds, which is always a good way to learn. Soon they could get those cards in order pretty quickly, so they began timing themselves. Naturally, they began comparing their best times, and that led to me making two sets of cards so they could compete directly against each other. Before long, they could quickly find any book of the Bible. And they’d had a lot of fun getting to that point.

Such successes led me to loosen up in our homeschooling, and to be open to using games and other activities. More importantly, I soon came to see those things as at least equal in importance to bookwork. I bought Cuisenaire rods for math, which worked so well that I ended up giving up the formal math curriculum we’d been using, and buying the Miquon Math series instead (you use rods with them). Three of my kids eventually worked through Miquon with the rods, and then went straight into Saxon 54 or 65 with no difficulty.

I also used treasure hunts to teach them, first to follow directions (they were small then so I put pictures on the clues instead of words), and later to read (I switched to clues in short sentences). They begged me to do this all the time. There was no boredom or sighing in this kind of school!

Of course, as they reached their teen years, our use of games decreased, and they had to buckle down to more bookwork. I was concerned that at some point they might have to go to school, and I wanted to keep them at approximate grade level in case that happened. Fortunately, it never did, but by high school, they had regular bookwork and the games had run their course (other than playing educational games like Rummy Roots™ or ElementO®). But while they were younger, we had lots of fun learning through play and games, and I think I learned a lot from seeing that. Maybe that’s what it takes to get a formally schooled mom to let go of that old training and accept that learning doesn’t have to be boring for kids, and shouldn’t be boring, either.

Excerpted from The Imperfect Homeschooler’s Guide to Homeschooling, now available for Amazon Kindle:

Many thanks to everyone who entered for sharing your homeschooling challenges. I sure am glad I didn’t have to choose a winner, because I wanted every one of you to win!

Be sure to enter our final spring giveaway for a copy of our new book, a reprint of an 1890 kindergarten story curriculum called Kindergarten Stories and Morning Talks With Over 125 Illustrations. Learn more here.

I want to thank everyone who entered the drawing. Your responses to the question, “What do you think is the biggest blessing of homeschooling a teen?” just blew me away. Anybody who’s intimidated by the thought of homeschooling through high school should read all of those wonderful comments!

The deadline for this week’s drawing is this Friday, April 16, at midnight. Don’t miss out on your chance to win a free copy of The Imperfect Homeschooler’s Guide to Homeschooling….enter now!

Do you feel like other people homeschool better than you do?

Do they seem more confident, more accomplished, more patient?

Do their houses look like model homes compared to yours?

No matter how it looks to you, there are no perfect homeschoolers. We all have our challenges as we do our best to teach our kids every day.

What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to raising, educating and loving your kids 24/7? Leave your answer as a comment on this post by midnight on Friday, April 16, and you’ll be automatically entered into a drawing for a brand new copy of The Imperfect Homeschooler’s Guide to Homeschooling, a book packed with information and advice gleaned from my 20+ years of homeschooling.

This month’s lead article is the first in the Back to Basics 2010 series; it’s called “Kids and Cooking.” Let me know what you think!

(PS…..Just three days left on the Buy One, Get One Free sale…..don’t miss out!)

Just want to remind you that we’re going Back to Basics in 2010 with seven monthly articles to help you raise your children with the basic skills needed to become self-sufficient adults. (If you’re not already a subscriber to my newsletter, subscribe here  so you don’t miss out on this new series!)

To celebrate Back to Basics in 2010, Cardamom Publishers is offering a special Buy One, Get One Free offer on my book of homeschool basics, The Imperfect Homeschooler’s Guide to Homeschooling:

From January 1-15, 2010, for every copy* of this book you buy direct from Cardamom Publishers, you’ll receive a free copy (reg. $13.95) to:

• bless a friend,
• share with your homeschool group,
• or donate to your local public library so that other homeschoolers can benefit from my experience, gleaned over 20+ years of homeschooling.

PLUS, I’ll personally sign each copy ordered during this special promotion.

This offer is only available directly from Cardamom Publishers via online and mail orders. Online orders must be placed between 1/1/10 and 1/15/10; mail orders must be postmarked no later than 1/15/10.

You don’t need promo codes or special passwords for this offer! Just go to the book’s order page  and place your order. Every order Cardamom Publishers receives for this book during the sale dates will automatically include a free copy for each book purchased. Buy 1, get 1 free…..buy 2, get 2 free…..up to 5 free when you order 5 copies!

Take advantage of this great offer while there’s still time……

Please note: Offer not available outside of the continental U.S. Offer limited to stock on hand. Sorry, no rainchecks. Order now!

* limit five free copies per customer

But the books that look so inviting in August are often less loved by November. The fact is that for both kids and parents, homeschooling can become boring if you just rely on a set curriculum.

It took me a while to figure that out. As I said in The Imperfect Homeschooler’s Guide to Homeschooling,

Like many people, I began homeschooling by imitating the schools of my youth. I bought a boxful of curriculum, divided it into daily assignments, and taught my kids right out of those books.

And there wasn’t anything especially bad about that, except that after the initial excitement wore off, my kids started to get bored. Instead of being excited about doing school, they ranked it right down there with making their beds and setting the table-something we have to do, so let’s get it over with.

That was not in my game plan. I didn’t want them to be bored. I was bored in school, and I still recalled how bad that felt. I wanted my kids to enjoy school.

What I soon realized was that while they might have been bored with school, my kids still loved learning. They enjoyed visiting museums. My daughter read through stacks of books without my telling her to do so. And my son drew beautiful, detailed pictures that were not assigned by me.

I even became bored by the assignments I was teaching the kids, and it must have been around that time that I came up with the idea of playing store. I labeled some items in our pantry (using prices written on sticky notes), then dug up all the spare change I could find.

I became the storekeeper, and the kids became the shoppers. They’d choose an item from the pantry and pay me for it. Often I had to make change for them. Soon they were buying more than one item at a time and figuring out how much they owed me. Before long, they started taking turns being the store-keeper. This became a game they enjoyed for a long time, but I think I probably learned the most from that experience, because I saw that homeschooling didn’t have to be boring, like formal school was for me as a child.

This success led me to become more creative with our homeschooling…..(read the rest of the chapter HERE)

The moral of the story? Enjoy those books, and take advantage of that carefully crafted curriculum. But make sure you don’t spend the whole day with them. Provide your kids with plenty of time for creative learning, independent learning and free play. As the old saying goes, “Variety is the spice of life.” Keep that in mind, and your children will learn more, and have fun at the same time.