Mama's Musings

5 Social Lessons Every Child Must Know

with Nicholeen Peck

In order for children to be successful socially they need good examples to model after. And what better model to use than yourself? In the webinar, 5 Social Lessons Every Child Must Know, avid homeschool and parenting expert Nicholeen Peck will go through the tools children need to interact with peers while learning social conduct from the best examples they have, their parents.

I almost always find useful tips and tools, and of course encouragement in parenting workshops, webinars and books.  I've been parenting for 26 years and I'm still learning!

This FREE WEBINAR with Nicholeen Peck is on TODAY!  So book now!  It may be recorded for later viewing, check back for more info.

When The Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape was published in 2017, I heard about it everywhere and so grabbed myself a copy in paper and audio editions.  I read the book, listened to the audiobook (read by Scott himself), joined a facebook groups where the concepts were discussed, subscribed to the Barefoot emails....  And yes, I opened the ING accounts!  The books are less than $20 each (new), and are also available as ebooks and audiobooks.

We didn't implement all of the ideas in the book - a lot of the Barefoot steps we were already doing, or didn't apply to us.  The way Scott simply and humorously laid out the strategies he suggests made it easy to implement a few easy changes which meant instantly increased savings, decreased expenses, and reaching goals more quickly.  Reassuringly, he reminds readers often to "tread your own path."

I bought this book for some of my younger siblings and adult children, I loved it so much!  I've...

We used various resources for learning. Collectively, our children attained academic knowledge from text books and workbooks, apps and online learning programs like Duolingo, Rosetta Stone and Khan Academy, online courses from free 4 hour short courses through to Certificate IV level qualifications, reading, documentaries, You Tube, tutors and mentors, classes – and probably a dozen other means of which I’m not aware! Their learning programs were extremely flexible and by the time they were teens they were almost entirely self-designed and self-driven. Some of their favourite ways to learn, especially in earlier years, included Unit Studies or Projects, co-operative learning (where we’d do the same Unit Studies as other families, and come together to share regularly), and classes like art, pottery, Italian, and co-op group lessons on science and math topics.

It’s good to remember that you’re always free to change things. If a book or course isn’t...

We love anything to do with DIRT here!  And we love resources collated by others!  So I was pretty excited to see that another homeschool mum (Jeannette) had shared these:

FREE RESOURCES ALL ABOUT SOIL

Do you use printable resources?  Check out Teachers Pay Teachers for free and cheap resources!

Teachers Pay Teachers is an online marketplace where teachers (and homeschoolers) buy and sell original educational materials.

Just search for what sort of resources you need, eg: "Australian Money" then narrow down the results using the approx age level on the left, as well as your maximum price and the resource type. Try to be as specific as you can - I just searched for Australian Money resources for P/K/1 level and there are over 850 items!  Please note that prices are in US dollars.


For US$5 I just bought a 56 page pdf download with 4 games I can print and use right away.  It has lists of what we need (eg: dice, counters), cards, game boards, instructions, and "coins" (but we'll use our plastic ones or real money).  

I played (and made) a few money games with my older children when they were young.  I found it gave them the confidence to go into a real...

For us, home education had a positive influence on our family relationships. Like all families, we’ve had our highs and lows, and several challenges, but I think the amount of time we spent together helped us through these.

Remember that you are family, primarily. Don’t get bogged down in “education” as a priority over your relationships. There’s a lot of parenting left to do! Make the most of the years you have together.

Some good things to consider...

What “family time” does your family value? Do you eat meals together? Have a shared hobby? Go out for coffee or a meal? Commute places regularly? Go to church, yoga, meditation, gym, the pool, sport or other regular outing or activity? Make a commitment to each other to continue these things. If you don’t have specific family time, discuss what you might like to share, and how you’ll all commit to that.

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),...