Being an Example ~Even When You Feel Like the Kids Don't See

I am loving my Pocket Size Journals from The Thinking Tree. This is the way I would have loved to been homeschooled. I tell the kiddos that when I'm all done homeschooling them~ I'm going to go back-to-school Thinking Tree style, hehe.

I actually do use them. Right now I'm loving the these two! I can easily fit them in my purse and when waiting in line or sitting at the coffee shop I can work on a coloring page or writing.

 For the Music Time box I put in some lyrics to a song I was listening to and the title went int the audio book box. Sometimes I listen to an audio book but usually it's music. With your kids you can use that for podcast too. I know my older kiddos listen to a lot of podcast on real-estate and investing.

I didn't actually watch a tutorial. I did watch a video of my son who is away at ALERT International, so I wrote about that. Science was funny. On our way to Annette's soccer game Lance had to use a barf bag. Later after the soccer game on the way home, Annette explained how motion sickness happens, so later that day I recorded.

And of course I absolutely love Dyslexia Games. The Creative Journaling page I wrote things that happened that day.

I also filled out the Reading Time page but instead of writing about what I read I took my journal to church and wrote notes. 

I know people want to see kids filling out the pages but I have fun using them too. I can see so many opportunities for kids using Sarah's method of learning. I can see how our kiddos can really dig into the pages of the journals and learn in a whole new way.

My kids listen to so many audio books, the watch many tutorials, and listen to all kinds of podcast with their dad on real-estate, investing, and running a business. They read about entrepreneurs and how they became successful They read about real people and real possibilities. These are things that you DON'T see in our boxed curriculum but it's what our children need to learn.

One of the problems is that there are so many guidelines in the state of subjects the kids need to do in order to graduate. Or we are so conditioned with how 'school' should look like that it's hard to envision Fun-Schooling.

That's where Sarah's book come in and help guide mom and the kids. Many people don't understand the concept or method of it. They want answer keys and teacher manuals. The beauty of The Thinking Tree is to let your child explore, create, and use the journals to write what they are learning.

Now if you have boys like mine who are creative with LEGOS, Minecraft, Stop Motion, and anything without a pencil and don't like to read, well that does complicate things some. Especially for a mom who loves Sarah's journals. 

With my boys although they do a lot of learning on their own via audio books, podcast, and just having fun outside, I do have to lug the boxed curricula. Yes, this mom picks out many of the books.

My kids can watch something like Undercover Boss, learn something from the episode but not write about it, so again, they ARE learning but yeah, I have tell them, "Hey, kids, use this and write something on your Film Study page."

My boys journals are not the awe and ooh kind of pages but when they are done with a journal I still have fun looking through it and seeing what they were reading and learning. Now it's not "picture" perfect and yes sometimes I cringe at their work (not in front of them of course) but it is what it is and I continue to encourage them with my journal pages.