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How to Plan Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding (BFSU) Curriculum

How to Plan BFSU curriculum

(There may be affiliate links in this post – click here to learn more. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

If you’ve read my review of Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding (BFSU) science curriculum, you’ll know it’s no secret that I love it!  

The content is awesome, it’s organized logically, and it encourages students to observe, question, and think their way through the lessons (rather than just memorizing science jargon that’s thrown at them). 

Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of my BFSU review to learn more about the curriculum and how it works. 

But, even though I love BFSU, there was a steep learning curve for me as I tried to actually implement it. The thing is, I was creating work and frustration for myself that could’ve been avoided! The steep learning curve was my own fault!

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A Tour of Our Homeschool: Art Closet

A Tour of Our Homeschool Art Closet

I’ve hesitated to write this post because our art closet is… well… ugly.

But, I’ve decided to give you this photo tour anyway. It’s a late addition to the Tour of Our Homeschool series.

Picture-perfect art rooms are often more discouraging for me than inspiring. I walk away feeling like I could never make it all so organized and matching and beautiful, and I give up before even trying.

So, because it’s not Pinterest-worthy, I’m hoping the pictures of our homely art closet will show you that working art into your homeschool is totally doable. You don’t need to wait until you’ve built a dedicated She-Shed or made adorable, color-coordinated mason jar labels to get started. 

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How to Plan Your Homeschool Week: A Step-by-Step Guide

How to Plan Your Homeschool Week A Step-by-Step Guide

How you plan out your homeschool week will depend on many factors. The curricula you use, your educational methods, your personality and your kids’ personalities will all affect what your weekly planner looks like (or if you use one at all). 

I’ve always considered myself a planner connoisseur (yes, I’m aware I’m a nerd). But when it comes to our weekly school planner, I’ve found just using a very basic spreadsheet for each of my kids works best for us. 

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A Tour of Our Homeschool: History (& More) Shelves

A Tour of Our Homeschool History (& More) Shelves

The next stop on this Tour of Our Homeschool is the history shelf. 

Early in this shelf’s career here in my home, it had the misfortune of being partly empty. And, since no empty space remains empty for long around here, it’s now become the “History-and-Geography-and-Health-and-Art-and-Bible-and-Character-and-Whatever-Else-I-Can-Cram-In-There” shelf.

We’ve got a lot of ground to cover today so I’ll get right to it. If you missed the beginning posts in this series, click here to catch up.

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A Tour of Our Homeschool: Language Arts Shelves

A Tour of Our Homeschool - Language Arts Shelves

Early in my homeschool mom career, language arts caused a lot of confusion for me. There are so many subcategories within the subject – I just didn’t know where to begin.

Handwriting, reading (including phonics and sight words), spelling, grammar, composition, poetry, literature, public speaking…. What do I teach when? And how? Ahhh!

Over the years, I’ve been able to make better sense of it all. My curriculum shelves, however, still reveal the winding journey of trial and error I’ve gone through in the search for language arts resources for my kids.

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A Tour of Our Homeschool: Science Shelves

A Tour of Our Homeschool Science Shelves

Our tour continues! 

(If you missed the first posts in this series, start here to get caught up. There may be affiliate links in this post – click here to learn more. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

First, though, a quick note…

I’m not sharing the contents of our homeschool room and shelves because I found the BEST or MOST PERFECT stuff that all homeschool families need to own. 

I’m doing this tour because I remember how much it helped me to see how others homeschool. It helped me decide how home education could work for our family. I loved seeing how people organize their spaces, what kinds of school things they had on their shelves, and what worked and didn’t work for them. 

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A Tour of Our Homeschool: School Room

A Tour of Our Homeschool School Room

Asking what a homeschool room should look like is like asking what someone’s backyard should look like. That is, there’s no one right answer. It totally depends on the needs, desires, resources, and situation of each unique family.

So far, in this Tour of Our Homeschool series, I’ve shared about the desks and tables we use for homeschooling all over our house. Now I’d like to focus in on the corner of our lower level that we call our “school room”.

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A Tour of Our Homeschool: Desks and Tables

A Tour of Our Homeschool - Desks & Tables

Over the years, I’ve spoken to many people who are considering homeschooling or just starting out. At some point, almost all of them have asked some variation of the following question:

What does homeschooling actually look like?

And they don’t mean it in some vague, theoretical way. They mean: What does it literally look like? 

They want to know things like… How is my school-room setup? Do I even have a dedicated school space? What shelves do I use? How and where do I store my homeschool curricula? Do my kids have binders or cubbies or how do they keep their work organized? Do they each have their own desk?

So, in this series of posts, I’ll be giving you a detailed look into the physical set-up of our homeschool. 

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Strategies for Buying Homeschool Curriculum: A Grocery Store Analogy

Strategies for Buying Homeschool Curriculum title on grocery aisle background

Is it just me or has our society overcomplicated things that should be fairly straightforward? 

Take food, for example. The overall process seems like it should be pretty simple. Grow or buy food. Cook food. Eat food. Done. 

But when you get to the grocery store and spend the first 15 minutes just trying to pick a breakfast cereal from the 129 choices available, you quickly realize this might be harder than you thought.

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Homeschool Planning with a Master Course of Study

Homeschool Planning with a Master Course of Study title with partial spreadsheet

I’m a list person. I love lists. If there’s a problem for me to solve, the solution will probably involve a list. And, if it’s a list in the form of a spreadsheet, all the better!

Now, even if you’re not on the same page as me about lists being the answer to life’s most pressing problems, please hear me out. 

There’s one list – and, yes, it’s a spreadsheet *giddy squeals* – that has helped me plan out our homeschool years more than any other resource I’ve made or bought. The best part is, it’s *EASY* and *FREE* to make and highly customizable. 

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