My friend Lisa over at Educational Toy Factory asked me to submit a few articles for her site regarding learning about native heritage. I love being able to share my culture and traditions with people. I wrote four articles for her that also have activities you can do with your child. One of them is to make a miniature tipi out of dowels, cardboard or a small board and canvas or heavy cloth. I actually haven’t made this with my kids yet so I need to get that done! Lisa also found great images to go with each article.

Check out her site and activites. She also has other theme based activities such as for Laura Ingalls Wilder, Beatrix Potter, Earth Day, On The Farm and more. Alice has the Laura Ingalls Wilder set of books and we started reading them recently. Kids reading to you will explode their vocabulary and reading skill level. I’ve tested my kids reading level online before, as well as tested my nephews, and I stand by that even if you don’t do some kind of homeschool thing that day - ie you feel like you haven’t really homeschooled - make sure your kids read something.

A few weeks ago via the homeschooling on twittermoms message board I found out about mini offices.

Here is Alice’s - months and days of the week, shapes, weather, money, fractions (I’m going to take the number chart off, she doesn’t really need that), math symbols and place value. It’s fairly basic and I want to add to it and make a harder one. I figure this one can be a review for when she needs a quick reminder.

I also have plans to make her a science folder but I think I’m going to have my Aunt send me details of what to put on it - she’s an elementary school teacher and the kids were in her class for a couple of days this past spring. They loved being there so I figure she can help me with that part of it.

Jake’s has a few of the same things - the weather, months, shapes, money. He said his is up in his bedroom on the shelf though and didn’t want pictures taken of it just yet.

There are a lot of resources out there but I mainly used the following:

• Mini Office on Squidoo
• Mini Office at Teaching Heart
• Lapbook Corner - TONS of links in this post leading to other mini office sites
• Busy Teachers Cafe

We are on our second week of homeschooling! We are having a lot of fun though there have been rough patches here and there. We got off to a late start since my Grandma passed away and we were out of state during that time, I took workbooks with us but of course we didn’t work on any of it.

Blurry bookcase (wow my camera phone isn’t that great!)

Texas doesn’t have a rule of how many days you should teach but I try to follow the typical school year, at least as far as starting and stopping. Somedays I document what we do on the weekends or over the typical school year holiday break, and sometimes we take a break too.

Since we are still unpacking a bit I’m not surprised to find more workbooks or study guides as I open new boxes. Well it’s a good thing I am still unpacking the boxes rather then letting them sit in the garage because we have way more then I thought we did! Jake is set for kindergarten and first grade that’s for sure, and Alice may need some new items in a few months time. But for now, we have more then a three shelf bookcase packed full of books. I’m only talking the workbooks and study guides or curriculum. The regular books we read are in our bookcase. I set up a homeschool area in the dining room just so it would be all in one specific spot. There is a three shelf bookcase and the desk, though most of the time we sit at the table.

I’m keeping a notebook with quick notes about what we are doing and I save everything. I need to figure out a better system because saving everything isn’t the smartest idea since we move a lot! I’m going to end up with tons of paperwork and projects that we bring from place to place!

Do you homeschool? How is your space set up?